Category: Travel

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Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

I.  I for one am glad that Jay Leno is returning to the venerable “Tonight Show” on NBC-TV. I watched the long-running show for some 27 years or so from 1982 to 2009. I watched the last decade of Johnny Carson and all 17 years of Jay Leno. I was never a fan of Conan O’Brien’s humor or style, so I never even considered watching the show after Jay’s final night last May. I’ve seen every single episode of “The Jay Leno Show” in primetime since it debuted last September, and unlike most fans of Jay Leno I also enjoy watching David Letterman’s “Late Show” on CBS-TV. I’ve been watching Dave ever since he arrived on the late night scene more than 28 years ago. I learned how to program a Sony Betamax back in the early-1980s for the sole purpose of taping Johnny Carson, David Letterman, and Saturday Night Live. We used to watch those three shows as a family (Mom, Dad, Brother, Cat) back then. Good Times !

II.  I do declare my first cold of 2010 to be done and over with. I picked-up the cold germs exactly one week ago while I was up in the Jacksonville Florida area. It started with an instant itchy and scratchy throat that eventually became sore, and then all of the rest of the typical cold symptoms followed thereafter – peaking on Friday and Saturday. I took the maximum recommended dosage of Zicam (RapidMelts with Vitamin C) on both of those days, and that pretty much did the trick. I felt much better on Sunday, as I retired the Zicam for my next cold whenever that may be. Looking back on this week-long cold it was minor in comparison to the severe cold that I suffered through just two months earlier. If the severe cold was an Arctic blast invasion of germs then this recent minor cold was a mere cooldown of germs. They came. They went. So long wimpy cold !

III.  I’ve always been a big fan of Domino’s Pizza for as long as I can remember. In fact here in the Homestead / Florida City area there is no other place to get a more delicious pizza than Domino’s as far as I’m concerned. You may disagree with me, and that’s fine. We all have our personal tastes in food. Pizza is one of my favourite foods in the entire world, and I’m generally not too picky about it. I usually keep it simple with one popular topping – pepperoni. If I add other toppings then they must all be meat (sausage, ground beef, ham, bacon, etc.). With their recent ‘reinvention’ of their pizza I think that it tastes even better than ever. It really is worth bragging about ! 

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Blogging Career Driving History Holidays Music Sports Travel Weather

Thursday Night Mini Thoughts

– Let’s get spontaneous.
– Can we talk here ?
– I’ve only worked 2 days this week, but it seems like I was there all 4 days.
– It’s been a weird, wild, and wacky week at work, but I’m used to that.
– Tomorrow is Friday, so let the weekend commence at 1530 !
– It’s a 3-day holiday weekend, as we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
– This Saturday night on the ‘Retro’ I’ve got a very special tribute to Dr. King.
– It’s a really cool song from a really cool electronica band of the 1980s.
– And now with the weather here’s our amateur weather forecaster Chris !
– This morning was our 13TH and final morning in a row below 50°F.
– That ends the longest cold spell in South Florida weather history !
– We won’t be back in the 40s again anytime in the near future.
– Our normal early-morning temp. for this time of the year is the low-60s.
– Our normal late-afternoon temperature is the mid-70s.
– We should see a couple of 80°F days during this upcoming weekend.
– Remember last Saturday when we were stuck in the low-40s all day long ?
– That was one of the coldest days since weather records have been recorded.
– It rained all day, and some people claimed that they saw sleet and wet snow.
– Much of the grass was burnt by two mornings of frost.
– It was green and lush, but now it’s mostly brown and lifeless.
– I’ve got NFL playoff action to look forward to this weekend.
– The Cardinals-Saints game should hopefully be exciting and high-scoring.
– New Baltimore plays Old Baltimore on Saturday night.
– On Sunday I want the Vikings to totally blow out the Cowboys.
– After that I’m rooting for the J-E-T-S to upset the Chargers in the P-S-T.
– After my most recent road trip up to the JAX area and back I’ve got stats.
– I’ve driven over 4,300 miles over the past 8 weeks.
– Typically I drive a tad over 1,000 miles every 8 weeks.
– My 2003 Saturn is aging before my very eyes.
– I remember when she was hot, fresh, and new.
– Now she’s cold, stale, and old.
– But she survived the Arctic blast of the North Pole of Florida.
– She’s not all that bad after all.
– Shaun Cassidy Alert ! – Tomorrow night on the ‘Disco Party’.
– Be there as we totally rock the roller disco dude !
– Groovy man !

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Blogging Driving Food Home Travel Weather

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

I.  This afternoon during the 1 PM hour I returned home safe and sound from my short road trip up to ‘The North Pole’ / ‘The Great White North’ of Florida. I’m talking of course about the Jacksonville area – AKA ‘The First Coast’. I got everything done that I needed to get done (and then some), and I brought back home a lot of great takeaways from all of my various meetings and taskings regarding the legal acquisition of my home up there. I was skeptical / pessimistic before the trip as well as during the drive up, but everything worked out as perfectly as can be. I have a lot less stress to deal with now.

II.  Our long historic cold spell continues here in Florida. This is Day 11, and it’s coming to an end real soon. On Thursday we return back to normal with the long-awaited return of our easterly ocean breezes, maximum late-afternoon temperatures in the mid-70s, and minimum early-morning temperatures right around 60°F (starting on Friday morning). This morning up on Fleming Island in Clay County my car was covered smothered in thick frost. Luckily it started right up, but I pretty much had to sit in it with the heater and the defroster on full blast before I could actually see out of the front windshield to drive it away. It was in the mid-20s early this morning (right at sunrise) as I departed, and parts of the landscape west of St. Augustine looked like a vast winter wonderland with a thick layer of frost whitening the otherwise brown and dead ground.

III.  Is it just me, or do the various service plazas along Florida’s Turnpike look like the’re going out of business and declaring bankruptcy ?  Of course the’re not, but to me they appear to be just a mere shell or skeleton of what they used to look like. The’re still rather busy with people, but it just seems like everyone is wandering around in circles in a long-neglected mall that’s seen its better days. I actually ate a really nice cheeseburger and fries Lunch at Cheeburger Cheeburger Express at the West Palm Beach service plaza. It’s located in the former location of Burger King. I guess BK pulled out (or was pulled out) – along with Starbucks and various other former favourites at the various bustling stops along the Turnpike.

Be sure not to miss my ‘Thursday Night Mini Thoughts’ in just 2 days !

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Career Driving History Home Life Music Radio Travel

Saturday Night Retro

Where were you in ’94 ?  16 years ago at the start of a fresh new year we all knew as 1994 I was living and partying in the heart of Melbourne Florida from Friday nights to Sunday afternoons – and living and working on the other side of the state in Tampa Florida from Sunday nights to Friday afternoons. It was about a 2½ to 3-hour drive in each direction, but it was my cool life at the time. I did it for about 7 months from August of 1993 through March of 1994. That was after Hurricane Andrew had destroyed Homestead Air Force Base and it was being partially rebuilt.

I had gotten out of the USAF (Active Duty), and rejoined on the Active Reserves side over at MacDill Air Force Base. They were the first to offer me a job back then while I was unemployed and looking for a job over in the Melbourne area. I served over there as an aircraft maintenance statistician – a fun job during a fun time of my fun life. A couple of months later in March of 1994 my Air Force Wing and myself moved back down to Homestead Air Reserve Base – where I remain today as a number cruncher.

Here’s a quirky song that built its momentum ever so slowly – one radio station at a time – over the course of an entire year. From college radio to modern rock radio to mainstream TOP 40 radio it eventually became a U.S. TOP 10 gold pop smash as well as a huge hit all around the world. As far as I’m concerned it’s one of the greatest songs of the entire crazy decade that was the 1990s.

From the first few months of 1994 here’s Beck with “Loser” !