Category: Television

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Bedtime Stories

As I begin writing this blog entry tonight there are just about 115 minutes remaining in 2008. I’ll probably be in bed asleep as 2009 officially arrives, but I’ll catch it fairly new – about 6 or 7 hours – once I awake in the morning.

2008 was the greatest year of my entire Life, and I expect 2009 to surpass it – just as 2008 surpassed 2007 – and 2007 surpassed 2006. It just keeps on getting brighter and more glorious on God’s fantastic journey for me. He constantly amazes me with His miracles.

If you wish to see why 2008 was so glorious for me then simply read any of the 613 blog entries that I posted – at least one per day – every single day from January 01ST through December 31ST.

Thank You Everyone for spending just a small portion of your Life with me via this blog and-or LIVE and in-person. Let’s keep on doing it into 2009. I’m ready. You ?

Until we hang out again in 2009 I wish you a very Happy New Year, and REMEMBER THIS !  It’s a Chevrolet commercial in living technicolor from nearly 60 years ago that plays more like a Chamber Of Commerce promo for the Miami Florida area – the way that it was back in 1950 !

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Driving Food History Movies Television Travel Weather

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

Every Tuesday night the world listens to me. Hear me now:

1.  Aside from the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida the entire rest of the free nation from coast-to-coast and from border-to-border is shivering in a deep icy freeze. Even much of California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas is socked-in to a deep freeze. Here in Homestead we’ve got fast-moving tropical showers moving in from the Caribbean. It’s December in Paradise !

2.  The 17TH season of “Survivor” held in Gabon Africa is now done and over with, and it was quite the entertaining season finale this past Sunday night on CBS-TV. I’ve seen every single episode ever made since it became an overnight sensation back during the Summer of 2000. The 18TH season has already wrapped-up its filming up in the Brazilian Highlands. It premieres in February 2009.

3.  Yesterday I was on a portion of Campbell Drive that is off-limits to most vehicular traffic. It’s located on a secluded portion of Homestead Air Reserve Base east of the South Dade Labor Camp neighbourhood. The original road surface of Campbell Drive still exists. It’s not in very good shape though. Once upon a time the main gate to the base was right there at the intersection of Campbell Drive and Tallahassee Road (now Speedway Boulevard). Today’s Labor Camp was once part of Base Housing.

4.  Gas prices just keep on dropping. It’s in the $1.40s and $1.50s across much of the free nation. There are actually some analysts out there who state that gas prices could actually drop below $1 per gallon in 2009. These are the same analysts that forecasted gas to reach $10 per gallon earlier this year.

5.  I’m eating at the Outback Steak House this Friday night for the first time in recent memory (many years). I’m totally looking forward to that. Afterwards I’m heading off to see a movie – “Yes Man“. It sounds like someone is dating again !

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Advertising History Television Travel

Saturday Night Retro

TODAY I flew on an airplane from Fort-Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. It was the umpteenth time that I flew anywhere. (I actually don’t keep track of all of my airline flights via an EXCEL spreadsheet.) I’ve lost track of my flying over the past 23½ years. I’ve flown first class once or twice (wasn’t too impressed), and I’ve flown most of the major airlines that are still in business today. Flying is not as fun as it used to be (prior to September 11TH 2001). This morning I left my home at precisely 6:30 AM to get to the off-site parking area at the airport by 7:30 AM to get to the terminal by 7:45 AM to check-in, get through security, and get to my gate prior to boarding at 9 AM and departure from the gate at 9:30 AM. And then there’s the 3-hour flight. It basically took longer to get from my home in Homestead to the aircraft at the airport than it did to actually fly that aircraft more than halfway across the country !

Check out this classic 60-second television commercial for the legendary Eastern Airlines of the way things used to be. Compare our baggage handlers of today with those depicted from the 1970s.

Before I turned 18-years-old and moved away from home to join the circus USAF I recall flying only twice in my life – twice to and from Bermuda on summertime vacations as a little kid during the mid-1970s. I recall Bermuda to be a fun little place out in the middle of the Atlantic – sort of a hybrid between a Caribbean nation further south and the United Kingdom further east. I wish to go back there one of these years to check it out all over again for the first time in over 30 years.

And now Ladies And Gentlemen – IT’S GO-GO TIME !  Let’s kick it old school !

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Animals Driving Food Health Holidays Home Shopping Television

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

1.  It’s Veterans Day all across the great United States Of America, and it’s the Federal Holiday each year that means the most to me personally. I stopped everything that I was doing at exactly 11:11 AM this morning. I checked out the big three cable news networks – Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC – and not a single one of them had LIVE coverage of any Veterans Day ceremony anywhere. What a shame.

2.  On both Saturday and Sunday I drove more than 80 miles each day. That’s about 4 times my daily average. It was an exhausting first-half of my long holiday weekend, and a more peaceful and quiet second-half (yesterday and today). I actually felt a real subtle hint of a possible 8TH cold in 12 months coming on this morning. I took an extra 500 MG Vitamin C tablet to fight this fight because I don’t have time for another cold this week – or next week.

3.  This morning I went to Publix – where shopping is a pleasure – about 10 minutes after they opened for business shortly after 7 AM. I did my grocery shopping for the next couple of weeks. After that I went to McDonald’s to pick-up breakfast. You get faster service when you actually get out of your car, walk in to the joint, and order the food face-to-face to an actual human being (rather than a drive-thru speaker).

4.  I did a little mini ‘The Major’s Walk-A-Thon’ this morning. I walked to and from the clubhouse near the main entrance of my neighbourhood. That’s a little more than a half-a-mile round-trip. I had to do my annual vehicle registration there. Prior to last year a lazy me would have driven it. Nowadays I see a mile or two and think ‘Walk-A-Thon’. I saw a new cat during this mini walk. The feline looked at me from afar and sighed to himself or herself, ‘Friend – Not Foe’.

5.  Ford Championship Weekend is just two days away at our Homestead-Miami Speedway, so you just know what that means – tens of thousands of out-of-town tourists and NASCAR fans galore descending on our home turf spending their hard-earned money in our stores and restaurants. Show them respect. Be nice to them. Welcome them to our fine city. Invite them back for more fun.