Category: Travel

My Flickr Albums

Regular readers of my blog know that I don’t Instagram. I Flickr. I know that over a billion people worldwide are registered users on Instagram, and that it’s probably the 2ND most popular app / web site known to mankind (2ND to Facebook which owns Instagram). I never got into Instagram. I’ve never created an account. I don’t even know what it looks like. I ignore all Instagram links. I’m probably missing some fun stuff, but oh well. I’m a Flickr(er).

Flickr was created long before Instagram – way back in 2004. Yahoo ran it for about a dozen years. I’ve been a registered user since April 2011, and I’ve been a paying (“PRO”) member for many years now. I like Flickr. I like it a lot. It’s my favorite social media app / web site (after WordPress of course). It’s where I store all of my photos online – most of them (88%) for public viewing.

I generally average about 250 to 300 uploaded photos per year. But I don’t just upload photos. I do research on my photos and write captions for each of them. I often learn more about what I took a picture of weeks and months later. It’s like electronic photo-booking. Each photo is individually enhanced (brightened, straightened, etc.), uploaded, and captioned into one of my albums on Flickr based on location or subject matter.

This past week I finally finished uploading and captioning all of my photos from my recent Spring Break road-trip this past February. You may have seen some of them by glancing down near the bottom of this page where the last 6 added to my Flickr Photostream are displayed.

Many of my Spring Break road-trip photos can be viewed on my Tampa Bay Region album. There are 136 photos and 1 video (of a sunset) within that album from 2014 on, and it showcases my best vacation photos from the Tampa Bay region of Hillsborough, Manatee, Sarasota, and Hardee Counties. I spent a day in Hardee County on my recent road-trip, so the final 12 photos of that album are from that day.

In the future I may showcase a different Flickr album about once a month here on my blog – maybe on the last Thursday of every month.

I’ve also got another road-trip vacation planned, so one of my Flickr albums will soon be updated with all-new photos.

Tags Flickr

Blogging Career Driving Life Nature Photography Travel

I Want To See America After I Retire

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date April 22, 2021

If all goes right I plan to retire from U.S. Federal Civil Service in less than 3 years from now. By that time I will have served for over 38½ years (military and civilian time combined). I’m ready to retire.

I have multiple plans on staying busy on a day-to-day basis in the next part of my life. They include full-time ministry with a local church, working indoors or outdoors at a Florida State Park, working as a docent at a local museum, and if that’s not enough then perhaps working at Publix – where shopping is a pleasure. #LOL

I also want to travel more. For many years I’ve talked about (and even blogged about) taking a 100-day / 10,000-mile road-trip completely around the circumference of the continental United States (clockwise) averaging about 100 miles per day, and mostly driving along the roads less traveled – our old U.S. highways. I don’t really talk about doing that anymore. I don’t mind driving around and exploring the backroads of Florida (and maybe even nearby states like Alabama and Georgia), but I can’t really see myself driving all around the country. Driving is less fun now than it used to be. As I get older the aches and pains while driving increase. I also experience anxiety attacks while driving. Also – most other drivers annoy me substantially.

I’ve recently been eyeing (and doing research on) a new way to see America after I retire – by rail and coach. A couple of years before my Dad passed away from Lou Gehrig’s Disease in 2010 he was planning one final family trip for the 5 of us (Himself, Mom, Brother, Sister-In-Law, & I). In fact he planned it all and even booked the nearly 2-week trip. It was a combination train and bus tour of several of our great National Parks out west (in the Rocky Mountains). I think the tour commenced in Bozeman Montana and concluded on the Las Vegas Strip. I was really excited about the trip. Unfortunately my Dad soon canceled the trip when his conditions deteriorated further from the disease.

(Side Note: Tomorrow – the 23RD of April – would have been my Mom and Dad’s 55TH wedding anniversary.)

In memory of my Dad I really want to take that trip that he wanted to go on with his family – perhaps not necessarily that same exact trip via that same exact travel agency, but a similar one to it. I know that they are quite expensive. I saw one for $4,320 per person for 14 days, and that includes all hotel accommodations, and a meal a day. $4,320 probably means well over $5,000 (possibly even closer to $6,000) with taxes, fees, and other charges included. I have at least a couple of years to do extensive research and price comparisons for this trip of a lifetime.

For the past 30 years I’ve seen and experienced the Caribbean, Mediterranean, Atlantic, and Pacific via 22 cruises (138 nights at sea). I actually have my 23RD cruise booked. As I retire from my career on land I may very well retire from my vacations at sea. As the title of this blog post states – I want to see America after I retire.

Tags America

1990s Blogging Career Home Military Music Radio Travel

My Top 5 Hits RETRO – 1991

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date April 16, 2021

Every Friday I post the Top 5 of one of my classic hit music charts based on personal preference and influenced by radio airplay from either 15, 25, 30, or 35 years ago this weekend (rotating each week).

It’s the 3RD Friday of the month, so I go back 30 years ago. Here it is – for the week ending Sunday April 21ST 1991:

“Here We Go (Let’s Rock & Roll)” – C + C Music Factory Presents Freedom Williams & Zelma Davis
“Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)” – C + C Music Factory Ft. Freedom Williams
“I Touch Myself” – The Divinyls
“Voices That Care” – Voices That Care
“Joyride” – Roxette

Written by David Foster, David’s future (and now ex) wife Linda Thompson, and Peter Cetera – this charity single for Operation Desert Storm warriors was released a few days after I left Al Kharj AB Saudi Arabia and returned home stateside. It was a hit at Top 40 and Hot Adult Contemporary radio during the Spring of 1991. I bought the cassette single during my rest and recuperation leave up in Northern Virginia (my home-of-record before I joined the United States Air Force). I wore out that cassette by playing it over and over again over the next several years. I still have it today. I’d love to buy the original version digitally, but it’s not commercially available today. The song always made me feel good, and it reminds me of a totally different U.S.A. that existed 30 years ago that we really haven’t experienced since.

Next Friday on RETRO I’ll go back 35 years ago to April 1986.

It’s halftime my friends. I’ll be back on Sunday and Monday with 2 more blog posts for this weekend. Enjoy your Saturday. Thanks for going RETRO with me !

Tags 1991, Music, Radio

Blogging Career Computers Driving Home Life Military Money Music Travel

Fun With Numbers

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date April 15, 2021

A few days ago (this past Monday) I did not get in my car and drive it for the first time in over 5 weeks. I ended a 37-day streak of driving that started on Saturday March 06TH and ended on Sunday April 11TH. During those 37 days I drove 609 miles – an average of about 16½ miles per day. The 37 days surpassed a 28-day streak this past November and December. It’s the longest streak since a 41-day streak in January and February 2020 just before the start of the global pandemic.

How do I know all of this ? I record my odometer’s starting and ending mileage each day on an Excel spreadsheet. I do it for fun. I’ve been doing it for over 6 years. I work with Excel spreadsheets all day long in my professional career, and I play with them and learn from them off-work at home on my computer. What I learn at home I apply at work. There’s very little time available at work to learn how to do something new on a spreadsheet, so I get smart at home. I have a bunch of unique spreadsheets that I use at home that keep track of the day-to-day operations of my life. I collect the data, and I analyze the data. I perfect the analysis expertise as well – because – that’s also part of my professional career. I analyze historical data in order to make wise and efficient financial decisions to successfully support the mission. I’ve been an Analyst for the USAF for the past 36 years.

Oh – one last thing – you know that music chart that I present every Monday here on my blog ? It’s been fueled by an Excel spreadsheet for the past 25½ years !

Tags Excel, Spreadsheet