Category: Sports

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Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

The 101ST weekly edition – and the kickoff of a brand new year of the weekly ‘Grab Bag’ begins … NOW !  Get ready for this !

1.  I missed the entire ordeal as the news was breaking LIVE to a riveted International television audience last Thursday. That’s right. I was actually working – at my job – as the ‘balloon boy’ saga was playing out over the skies of Colorado. I found out about it after the fact later that afternoon. We eventually realized that it was an elabourate hoax orchestrated well in advance. Should the ‘balloon boy dad’ go to jail for his hijinks ?  No. Should he perhaps be fined or be ordered by a Judge to reimburse the count(ies) and state for all expenses incurred ?  Sure. The guy made some bad decisions, and he lied to the authorities. But he doesn’t belong in jail. He also doesn’t deserve to lose his kids over the matter.

2.  My Washington Redskins are NOT a very good team this year. You can blame it on the special teams – the defense – the offense – the quarterback – the coaching staff – the front office – George W. Bush – El Niño – whatever. The blame game is not going to make them any better than they are now. The bottom line is that they have a lot of talent on that team, but they are simply not scoring points and winning games. The best teams in the NFL eventually became the worst teams – and vice versa. Are you a fan of your favourite sports team(s) only when they win, or are you a fan through the thick and the thin – through the blood, the sweat, and the tears ?

3.  Exactly one month from today I embark on the longest continuous road trip of my lifetime. On the 20TH of November of 2009 I’ll be driving approximately 825 miles from Homestead Florida to Gulfport Mississippi over the course of 14 hours. The next day I’ll be driving the remaining 590 miles to north of Dallas Texas as I begin a week-long holiday stay with my Mom, Dad, their cat, Brother, Sister-In-Law, Nephew-To-Be, and their dog.

4.  We climbed back up to the 80s this morning at around 11:30 AM – exactly as I forecasted last Saturday night when we last dropped out of the 80s at the start of our recent cold snap. Officially at the air base we dropped down to 59°F on Sunday morning, 56°F on Monday morning, and 63°F this morning. (Minimum temperatures were several degrees cooler in some of the farming areas around town.) I don’t expect another cold front over the next 7 to 10 days, so get used to a lot of sunshine, warmth, and higher humidity – perhaps even some more record high temperatures.

5.  This will be our last full weekend of Daylight Saving Time. On the following Sunday morning – the first of November – at 2 AM local time we fall back to Standard Time, and I am so truly looking forward to being back on ‘real’ time. I’ll have the daylight when I want it – at 6:30 AM rather than 6:30 PM. BRING IT ON !

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Astronomy Blogging Career Commerce Driving Food Holidays Sports Travel

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

1.  Let’s kick-off this week’s edition of the ‘Grab Bag’ with some ‘Breaking News’. This just in to ‘The Major’s Life Blog’ satellite news desk. It appears that I’ll be going on a business trip in about 4 weeks from now. It’ll be my first business trip since the start of March of 2007 when I drove nearly 1,600 miles to and from north of Atlanta Georgia. This time around I’ll be visiting New England for the very first time in my entire life – specifically the Springfield Massachusetts area. It should be nice up there during the middle week of October !

2.  I’m not driving to and from Massachusetts, but I will be driving to and from the Dallas Texas area in just about 8 weeks for the Thanksgiving holiday week. That’s a little over 1,400 miles one way, or 2,800 miles round trip. That’s a lot of driving for me considering the fact that I’m averaging a little over 7,500 miles of driving per year over the past couple of years. Over the course of 6 years and 3 months I’ve put just a little over 60,300 miles on my car.

3.  Can you believe it ?  The Autumnal Equinox is just minutes away. The southward Sun crosses over the Equator at 5:18 PM EDT this afternoon. It continues its southward trek until the 21ST of December as our days continue to get shorter and our nights continue to get longer. Tomorrow – Wednesday September 23RD – is the first full day of Autumn here in the Northern Hemisphere, and the first full day of Spring down under. Incidentally I’ve got new regular blog readers checking in from South America, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. Welcome aboard !

4.  This past Sunday afternoon I indulged in the mother of all MASSIVE meals over at Downtown Homestead‘s very own Mamma Mia Pizza. I enjoyed an ENORMOUS plate of traditional spaghetti and meatballs. The meatballs were GINORMOUS and plentiful. Just because there’s new competition in the city (The Olive Garden / The Big Cheese) it does not mean that Mamma Mia has disappeared or is inferior in any way. Mamma Mia is still there. It needs your business to stay alive. The food is still scrumptious. Check them out again !

5.  My pathetic Washington Redskins barely scraped up a squeaker of a win against the lowly St. Louis Rams this past Sunday afternoon in their home opener. I’m glad that I didn’t see it. This upcoming Sunday afternoon my Redskins take on the lowly Detroit Lions, and La$ Vega$ has them as a 6 to 6.5 point favourite in a low-scoring game. I’ve been calling for the promotion of veteran Todd Collins from backup to starting quarterback since last season, and I’m still calling for the move. Offensive yards does not win games. Points wins games. Let’s do something !

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Blogging Sports Television Travel Weather

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

1.  After a rare one-week hiatus the legendary ‘Grab Bag’ is back with an all-new edition. Last Tuesday night at this time I was at sea in the Florida Straits a few hours southwest of Key West on my way to Cozumel Mexico aboard the Fun Ship Carnival Imagination. In case you missed it I blogged my ‘Carnival Imagination Grab Bag O’ Thoughts‘ last Friday night.

2.  I enjoyed a 231-hour vacation from the mid-afternoon of Friday September 04TH through the early-morning of Monday September 14TH. That’s about 69 hours before the cruise, 92 hours on the cruise, and 70 hours after the cruise. My cruise was virtually smack in the middle of my extended vacation bookended by dual three-day weekends. It’s crazy how those numbers worked out that way !

3.  I watched and enjoyed the series premiere of ‘The Jay Leno Show‘ last night, and so did a lot of you. It was a runaway smash in the ratings. I’ll be DVRing it tonight because I’ll be watching the LIVE season finale of ‘Big Brother 11‘ tonight. This was the most successful season ever as far as viewership is concerned. I will definitely miss it during the off-season.

4.  My beloved Washington Redskins are in familiar territory – dead last in the rough and tough NFC East division. They lost their season opener to the Giants of New Jersey 23-17, but the game really wasn’t as close as the final score. I’m thinking that my ‘Skins should have an easier time this Sunday afternoon in their home opener against the lowly Rams. They are favoured by 10 points with an over / under of 36.5, so that equates to (roughly) a 23-13 win. I’d rather see a blowout such as 42-3.

5.  We’re about a month away from seeing cold fronts reach and sweep through America’s Riviera on a regular basis. Those frontal systems from the north and west will drop our humidity and temperature ever so slowly. It’ll be an El Niño winter, so don’t look for the unusually frigid and bone dry winter season that we went through late last year / early this year. Look for a wetter and milder than normal ‘dry’ season. Last season we had between 15 and 20 mornings that started in the 30s and 40s. I’m forecasting less than 10 of those such mornings for the upcoming winter season.

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The Major’s Tweets

This blog is going on a short hiatus after this post. It shall return this Friday night with my weekly ‘Disco Party’ followed by an all-new ‘Retro’ on Saturday night.

I’ll be tweeting today (Monday) and tomorrow (Tuesday) via ‘Junkyard Dog’ (my antique cell phone), and then you won’t here from me again until Friday morning.

But first before I leave you I’ve got my TOP 5 most amusing (and interesting) tweets of this past week – in case you missed any of them:

5.  I’m watching “I Love You, Man” for the first time on DVD courtesy of my good friends over there at Netflix. HILARIOUS !  [Sep 05th from web]

4.  Now hear this ! 22 Sundays in a row of NFL action begins next Sunday. TOUCHDOWN !  [Sep 06th from web]

3.  Rated # 1 for Breakfast in my mind – It’s the Dunkin’ Donuts that straddles the Homestead / Florida City city line. That places ROCKS !  [Sep 05th from web]

2.  Memo To Self: Get Lipitor refilled tomorrow at Publix. I’ll need it next wk in conjunction with my 6,000 calorie per day diet. I heard that. [Sep 02nd from web]

1.  I can smell the long holiday weekend from here, and it smells hot and delicious !  [Sep 04th from Junkyard Dog]

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