Category: Travel

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Animals Blogging Driving God Health Travel

Bedtime Stories

This Friday night edition of the ‘Bedtime Stories’ is brought to you by the letter ‘C’, and tonight I’ll be addressing these notable items of interest that all begin with the letter ‘C’ – ‘Cars’, ‘Cats’, and ‘Cholesterol’.

Cars – My 5-year-old car is suddenly a dream to drive in again. Earlier this week I went to Firestone and I bought 4 brand new tires for my car – nice ones too with 70,000-mile warranties. It feels like I’m just gliding along now on a thin strip of air just above the road surface. An oil and filter change, a new air filter, and new wiper blades completed the mini-tune-up. It’s my little birthday present to myself now that I’ve decided to keep this nearly fully-paid-off car for at least several more years.

Cats – 5 cats were part of my life scattered over a 23½-year period ending one year ago tomorrow morning. For many years leading up to Boots’ passing on I pretty much declared that I would go from the animal hospital to the animal shelter in a single morning to get a new cat. That didn’t happen, and it won’t happen at this time or anytime soon. Timing is everything, and in his own way Boots led me to God during his final year with me. Everything happens for a reason, and with God always by my side I will never be lonely again. Alone – Yes. Lonely – Never.

Cholesterol – Lipitor is clinically proven to lower bad cholesterol by 39% to 60% – and that’s exactly what it did to me. After 12 weeks of taking my 10 milligrams dose per day it has effectively plummetted my total cholesterol about 40% from the 220s down to the 130s !  The LDLs, HDLs, and Triglycerides were all in the desirable / optimal ranges. I’m good like that. I’m healthy like that !

And that’s how we roll with tonight’s ‘Bedtime Stories’. Be sure to check out the blog again tomorrow for more fun and surprises, and then on Sunday I’ll be taking the ‘Tossed Salad’ on the road again with a special edition coming to you from InDependence Church in Weston Florida. It’s time to check up on my 3RD-favourite Pastor again (after Travis and Paul), and see how Nathan is progressing up there with his new and developing church.

Have a safe, peaceful, and blessed Friday night everyone, and until we hang out again on the blog or in person remember this:

Chris & Buddy Watching TV In 2005

Categories
Animals Health Home Travel Weather

The Major’s Walk-A-Thon

Sky: Mostly Cloudy
Temperature: 73°F
Relative Humidity: 77%
Winds: E 5 MPH
Barometric Pressure: 30.02 Rising

My thoughts:

1.  It’s the first Saturday morning of May, and the walk continues. We’re enjoying an unusually cool Spring here in South Florida. Later this month the rainy season should be kicking-off, and that will pretty much bring an end to these weekly walks for the season.

2.  It was another 2.2-mile walk for me this morning, and I did it in 40 minutes flat. That’s an average of 3.3 MPH. I always feel refreshed and alive during and after the walk. I think that’s the whole point of exercising.

3.  U.S. 1 is known as the ’18-Mile Stretch’ from Florida City to Key Largo. I’ve got the ’18-Minute Stretch’. That’s the middle portion of my walk that takes me from the main gate of my neighbourhood, completely around its southern hemisphere, down the spine, and back to the main gate again.

4.  2 little dogs were out for some early-morning shenanigans without their owner. I think they escaped from their patio. They were having a good ole time running all around in the street and on the grass – until they saw me !  That’s when they ran behind me and straight outta sight – probably back to where they belong. I wonder which one of those little dogs was the trouble-maker ?  Which one said to the other one, ‘Hey, follow me. We’re gonna go out and paint this town. We’re gonna go and get us into some monkey business this morning. Let’s go dog !’

5.  Most neighbourhoods have a lack of parking. My neighbourhood has an over-abundance of parking. I think we may even have one parking space for every man, woman, and child that lives here. At least it seems that way.

Categories
Hoaxes Internet Television Travel

Thursday Night Internet Hoax Hall-Of-Shame

Brazil-Mid-Air-1

Brazil-Mid-Air-2

Last month a B737 had a mid air collision with a Embraer Legacy while cruising at 35,000 feet over South America. The Embraer Legacy, though seriously damaged, with the winglet ripped off, managed to make a landing at a nearby airstrip in the midst of the Amazon jungle. The crew and passengers of the Embraer Legacy had no idea what they had hit. The B737, however, crashed killing all crew and passengers on board.

The two photos attached above were apparently taken by one of the passengers in the B737, after the collision and before the aircraft crashed. The photos were retrieved from the camera’s memory stick. You will never get to see photos like this. In the first photo there is a gaping hole in the fuselage through which you can see the tailplane and vertical fin of the aircraft. In the second photo one of the passengers is being sucked out of the gaping hole.

THIS IS A HOAX !

You may have seen these pictures before. In fact you may have seen them a full two years before the air disaster even occurred in September 2006. You see these pictures are actually video captures from the September 2004 pilot episode of “Lost” on ABC-TV !

Read more about it, and don’t believe everything that you receive within your E-Mail’s Inbox – even if it was sent to you by a trusted co-worker, friend, or relative. Internet hoaxes dupe very intelligent people all the time. If it sounds (or looks) too unbelievable to be true then it probably isn’t true.

Categories
Advertising Annoyances Blogging Driving Food God Home People Politics Television Travel

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

You know why you’re here:

1.  Some of the best television programming on-the-air is in the form of 30 and 60 second commercials. You know that it’s a great commercial when you pretty much stop what you’re doing whenever it comes on the tube – no matter how many times you’ve already seen it. I’m thinking about the AT&T GoPhone commercial right now that stars Meat Loaf and Tiffany. (NO – The’re not really married in real-life. That’s not really their son either.)

2.  The sight of a large gathering of people applauding President George W. Bush after a speech is a beautiful sight. The concept of everyone respecting The President Of The United States Of America (whoever it is), and treating him or her like you would want to be treated by any other human being is just plain humane. Unfortunately it’s a concept that millions of Americans just don’t understand.

3.  I think that I totally adore eating Kellogg’s Pop Tarts today just as much as I did as a kid back in the 1970s into the 1980s. I think that if you ask me about them again in another 30 years then the answer will probably be the same.

4.  On the other hand back in the 1970s I did not appreciate Chinese food. In fact I didn’t really enjoy eating it on a regular basis until the mid-1990s. Homestead has no shortage of family-owned Chinese restaurants. Everywhere you look – ‘There’s one !’

5.  Homestead also specializes in family-owned Mexican restaurants, and that’s a delicacy that’s even newer to my personal tastes than Chinese food. One day soon I’m going to have Lunch with this cat at a fine Mexican restaurant near my workplace.

6.  If there are just 3 motorists driving along a somewhat secluded portion of highway in Homestead then those 3 motorists would just have to be myself, the slow-poke directly in front of me that’s driving 33 MPH in a 40 MPH zone, and the tail-gater directly behind me that is so close that I can no longer see his or her vehicle anymore via my rear-view mirror. Throw in an extra-special 4TH vehicle that’s rapidly approaching all 3 of us with its high-beams on, and you’ve got a typical Tuesday morning on North Canal Drive in Homestead !

7.  Incidentally Miami-Dade County’s SW 328TH Street is known as ‘North Canal Drive’ for 7½-miles from Homestead Bayfront Park westward to the city limits of Florida City at SW 172ND Avenue. At that exact point SW 328TH Street is renamed ‘Lucy Street’, and it is the dividing line between Homestead (on the north) and Florida City (on the south). It has been that way since the 1940s. If you’re coming out of the Villages Of Homestead then you are making a turn onto ‘North Canal Drive’ – not ‘Lucy Street’.

8.  I had planned to go to Publix this afternoon after work to buy some much-needed groceries, but then I decided against it on the way home because I have way too many things to do – such as compiling and publishing these ‘Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts’. It’s all about the sacrifices that I make for you – my loyal and faithful friend of this blog.

9.  I was referred to as ‘Pastor Chris’ a couple of times last week at the Exponential Conference in Orlando. I think it was because in some of the breakout sessions that I attended it was mostly all Pastors (and me). Unlike the Catholic Church Pastors tend to look and dress rather normal – just like you and me.

10.  My fingernails grow so fast. It seems like I just clipped them a few days ago, and now they need clipping again. That’s another 5 minutes out of my busy schedule !