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Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

I.  It’s approaching 4:30 PM EST on this Tuesday night as I begin compiling these ‘Grab Bag O’ Thoughts’, so that means that in roughly 71 hours my vacation from work begins – and in roughly 92 hours my Carnival cruise vacation begins (the precise moment that I step foot on that gorgeous and spacious luxury cruise ship). Besides sailing away from Port Everglades I’m also looking forward to losing my cell phone signal for more than a week out at sea and out of the country. No cell phones. No telephones at all. No computers. No Internet. No blogging. No radio. Limited television. Now THAT’S what I call paradise !

II.  I’ll also be escaping more chilly El Niño weather aqui a America’s Riviera. Get ready for 2 rather cool days and 2 real cold nights on Wednesday and Thursday with maximum temperatures in the afternoon struggling to reach the mid-60s, and minimum temperatures early in the morning (Thu. and Fri.) dropping all the way down into the lower-40s with wind chills as low as the mid-30s !  Below normal temperatures (day and night) will probably stick around here for at least the next 7 to 10 days. I’ll be venturing out of continental wintertime and straight into the tropical mid-to-upper-80s of Central America next week. DIG !

III.  Super Bowl XLIV is now history (as is the 2009 NFL season), and the New Orleans Saints SHOCKED the Indianapolis Colts in a surprisingly close (and low-scoring) defensive game. There were a lot of offensive yards (as expected), but I was looking for at least 80 points combined. That didn’t happen, but it was still a good game. I think that the NFC has turned the tide and will soon dominate the AFC just like they did during much of the 1980s and 1990s when an NFC team won 15 out of 16 Super Bowls. As for all of the expensive commercials not too many of them stood out as brilliant or even memorable. The most talked-about, most shocking, and certainly most memorable was actually absolutely free. It was the stunning 15-second CBS promo of “The Late Show With David Letterman” featuring Dave, Oprah, and Jay Leno. I couldn’t believe my own four eyes when I saw that one, and I even watched it a few times over and over again via my DVR to see if I could detect any camera trickery involved. It was all for real. That simple 15-second promo made all three talk show titans look great, and it may have just ended a highly-visible and personal 18-year feud.

Be sure to check out my ‘Thursday Night Mini Thoughts’ in less than 48 hours !

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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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Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

I.  It’s Tuesday night in my world, so you just KNOW what THAT means. It means that it’s the start of a fresh new week of blogging here at ‘The Major’s Life Blog’. See I couldn’t really say that when I was blogging 7 days a week, as there was no real start or end to any given week of blogging. Now that I’ve got Sundays and Mondays off there’s a clear start (Tuesdays) and a definite end (Saturdays). I can’t think of a better way to kickstart a fresh new week of blogging than with the flagship weekly series of this blog – one of the true originals from 2007 – my ‘Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts’. It’s a miscellaneous assortment or ‘Grab Bag’ of three of the most relevent aspects of my Life today. It’s what’s happenin’ dude !

II.  Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are my ‘nights off’ during the work week nowadays. Those are the nights that I can stay at home and watch the television, do the laundry, pay the bills, surf the web, and blog my Life. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I’m making public appearances. Tuesday nights are Toastmasters nights, and tonight is no exception. My role for tonight is the host of ‘Table Topics’. That’s where I get up in front of everyone, go to the podium, and lead our group into a lively question and answer session based on a script that I’ve written. I’ll be asking 5 to 7 questions to 5 to 7 of my unsuspecting labmates, and they will instantly have to stand up one at a time and give a spontaneous 1 to 2 minute response to my question. It’s actually harder than it sounds, but it’s a lot of fun because when you speak spontaneously you tend to speak more truthfully than you would when you have ample time to think about your response. I’m counting on more than just a smattering of giggles tonight. I’m looking for some outright chuckles and crack-ups tonight !

III.  Happy Groundhog Day my friends. I saw my shadow this morning, so that can mean only one thing. Light was shining in my general direction and my body was blocking that light from continuing on in a straight line. I know that there are lots of people in this country who actually believe that a groundhog up in the Amish country of Pennsylvania can forecast the weather for the entire free nation for the next 6 weeks. It’s a cute little tradition. You can even buy greeting cards to celebrate the groundhog on his very special day. While Groundhog Day is cute – global warming / climate change is not. I stand by my own humble opinion that it is the single greatest hoax created and distributed by mankind in modern world history. There are a lot of people in this world that are making a hefty sum of money based on this greatest hoax ever. There are so many different ways that one can change the world to make it a better place for all. Falling for the entire global warming / climate change hoax is taking the easy way out. It’s being lazy. Make a real change. Save a Life !

Be sure to check out my ‘Thursday Night Mini Thoughts’ in less than 48 hours !