Category: Travel

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The Major’s Walk-A-Thon

Time: 7:35 AM – 8:11 AM
Sky: Sunny & Clear
Temperature: 64°F
Dewpoint: 62°F
Relative Humidity: 92%
Winds: W 6 MPH
Barometric Pressure: 29.84 Rising

Here are my walking thoughts in 15 words or less:

– This morning I ‘slept in’ a bit – until nearly 7 AM !  OMG !
– I took a nice long hot shower, and then I went out for a walk.
– I walked for 36.3 minutes, or about 1.9 miles around my neighbourhood.
– It was a sparkling crystal clear and delightfully cool early Saturday morning.
– We don’t get very many mornings like this one.
– In fact they don’t occur at all for about 6 months out of the year.
– But during this time of the year they are more common.
– While I was walking in the 64°F ‘chill’ I was thinking about the D.C. area.
– The’re being smothered by their biggest blizzard in a century !
– When all is said and done there could be 2½-FEET of snow on the ground !
– We had some big snows up there when I was growing up, but not that big !
– I’m glad that I live down here in America’s Riviera.
– Next Saturday morning I’ll be on my way to Port Everglades.
– The Carnival Freedom will be my home for 8 days and 8 nights.
– I will surely be doing a lot of walking on that MAMMOTH vessel.
– I will also complement that walk-a-thon with an eat-a-thon !
– I figure that if I burn 5,000 calories per day then I can eat that much.
– I won’t regret it pal – at least I hope not.
– On my walk this morning there were a lot of white flying bugs around.
– I don’t know what they are, but the’re annoying if not harmless.
– I keep seeing a large grayish cat on one of the streets during my walks.
– The cat looks at me, I look at the cat, and we agree to be passing friends.
– Most cats understand that I am a friend of the feline species.
– Most dogs don’t like me, as they probably know that I favor cats.
– I am in the best physical condition of my entire lifetime.
– Before this journey began 41½ months I did not take care of my body.
– I did not exercise at all, I ate junk food, I binge drank, and I smoked.
– All of that changed in 2007 and 2008.
– If you don’t believe that God performs miracles then look at me.
– Of course you had to have known me during my teens, 20s, and 30s.
– Compare that lost soul with the man that I am today.
– I once was lost, but now am found – was blind, but now I see.

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Thursday Night Mini Thoughts

– Let’s get spontaneous.
– Can we talk here ?
– My work weekend has arrived – 24 hours early.
– That’s because I’m taking the day off tomorrow.
– But it will be a super busy day off.
– First up on the agenda – Starbucks.
– Then after that I’m gettin’ a haircut at the legendary Woody’s Barber Shop.
– I’m starting to look like this mad crazy nerd again:

Albert Einstein

– I can’t have that on my upcoming Carnival cruise.
– My hair is gonna be blowin’ in the sea wind, so it needs to be real short.
– After I get my ‘hair done’ it’s off to to see my Doctor for a follow-up.
– Then it’s off to the upper-middle-class Miami suburb of Doral.
– I’ve got an appointment with a mortgage loan specialist up there.
– It’s time to sign my name at least a dozen times for my 2ND home.
– Hopefully everything goes just fine with that.
– I think that I’m bringing more than enough paperwork with me.
– Memo To Self: Bring my checkbook with me.
– After all of that I plan to eat Lu-Dinner at Fuddruckers in Doral.
– I was a regular at Fuddruckers in Kendall for nearly 20 years.
– I was shocked when they went out of business a couple of years ago.
– But now there’s a Fuddies on SW 107TH Ave. near the Dolphin Mall.
– I’ve never been there before, so I can’t wait to check out the joint.
– After a long and busy day out and about I’ll be heading back home.
– It’s another ‘Moldie-Oldie Music Weekend’ here on the groovy blog.
– Tomorrow’s Disco smash is “Fly, Robin, Fly” from Silver Convention.
– On the ‘Retro’ this Sat. night it’s a 1997 Techno smash from Fatboy Slim.
– This weekend I start major league packing for my upcoming vacation.
– It’ll take me the next 8 days to pack up for it.
– Get ready for two cold mornings in a row on Sunday and Monday.
– We’ll have wind chills deep down into the 40s on both mornings.
– For the Super Bowl it’ll be chilly with temps. dropping fast into the 50s.
– One thing is certain – there will be absolutely no rain in sight for the game.
– Enjoy your weekend my friends, and make it a very special one.
– I’ll see you back here on Friday and Saturday for ‘Disco’ and ‘Retro’.

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Saturday Night Retro

37 years ago at the end of 1972 I was a 5-year-old Kindergarten student at Magnolia Elementary School in Lanham Maryland.

Magnolia Elementary School, Lanham Maryland

The school was located about a mile away from my grandparents’ house. On most school half-days my Granddad would drop me off at school just after 12 noon and then pick me back up again 3 hours later. That was back in the days when you could attend any school that you wanted to no matter where you lived. I actually lived about 20 to 30 minutes away in Bowie Maryland. Later in the afternoon after getting off of work in NW Washington D.C. my Dad would pick me up from his parents’ house in this car:

Late in the afternoon as we drove southeastward from Lanham to Bowie along U.S. Route 50 (John Hanson Highway) we’d listen to WWDC AM-1260 as the TOP 40 hits were cranked out one after another. This was one of the top hits at the time at the end of 1972. It’s legendary British singer-songwriter Albert Hammond. He’s currently celebrating his 50TH anniversary in music, but back then he was enjoying a successful career as an International performance artist. Here’s “It Never Rains In Southern California” – his biggest hit as a singer ever – and one of the greatest pop radio tunes of my early childhood !

That’s ‘Saturday Night Retro’ for this week, and we’ll go back in time again – from the late-1990s – next Saturday night.

This concludes an awesome week of blogging. I’m taking Sundays and Mondays off from now on, so be sure to check back here on Tuesday night as we kick-off an all-new week of all of your favourite blog series. See ya then !

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Sports Television Travel Weather

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

I.  So we’ve got the Indianapolis Colts versus the New Orleans Saints in Super Bowl XLIV in just XII days on the VII day of February. Have you ever wondered why the Super Bowl is identified in Roman numerals ?  Has anyone noticed that – new for 2010 – all of the ‘Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts’ are Roman numeral numbered ?  Anyway back to the big game. It’s at Sun Life Stadium up near the Miami-Dade / Broward County line. You may remember Sun Life Stadium from one of these former names since 1987 – Land Shark Stadium, Dolphin Stadium, Dolphins Stadium, Pro Player Stadium, Pro Player Park, and the original name – Joe Robbie Stadium. Oh by the way – Let’s Go Saints !

II.  Crystal clear deep blue skies, cooler temperatures, lower humidity, and a nice subtle breeze out of the north – what more could you possibly ask for on the final week of January here in America’s Riviera ?  I forecasted a minimum early-morning low temperature of 52°F with wind chills in the upper-40s. We actually dropped down to 49°F (officially at the air base) at 7 AM with wind chills in the mid-40s. So I was a little bit off there. It appears as if it could be a couple of degrees colder tomorrow morning, so I’m going with 47°F at 7 AM with wind chills in the mid-40s. Wear layers.

III.  I am now less than 18 days away from embarking on my next big Carnival cruise vacation. It’s an 8-day cruise that I booked last September just a little more than a week following the conclusion of my last big Carnival cruise vacation. I imagine that I’ll probably plan yet another Carnival cruise vacation for later this year once I return back to reality following this upcoming cruise. Nothing beats that overwhelming feeling that I get when I’m out at sea – free from radio, television, computers, the Internet, telephones (especially so), and all of the other daily routines of life. It’s really cool to be able to look in every single direction and see nothing but water all the way to the horizon and know that there are no crimes being committed out there. It’s surely a different world, and I like to visit it a couple of times per year. I couldn’t live out there all year long, as that would get old real fast. It’s just fun to be able to go out and experience it and know that it will always be there – even when I’m not.

Have a great Tuesday night my friends. Make it a memorable one !