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Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

I.  As other blogs arrive on the scene, gain in popularity, prosper, peak, diminish in relevance, suffer through neglect, and then disappear into thin air one durable and dependable blog just keeps on churning time and time again. That would be this one – thanks to your continued loyalty and support through the years. You can always count on this blog to deliver fresh new content on a daily basis throughout much of the new year. Every Tuesday night you know how we do it with the flagship weekly series of this blog – a garden variety assortment or ‘Grab Bag’ of my personal thoughts since October of 2007.

II.  Our longest cold spell in a couple of decades continues all across America’s Riviera. (Thank You El Niño !) This morning was the 4TH morning in a row where the low temperature bottomed out in the 40s. That won’t happen tomorrow morning – because we’re dropping down to the 30s instead !  There are a few local TV station weather forecasters that are forecasting temperatures in and around Homestead to drop to the freezing mark or even a few degrees below that with wind chills in the 20s !  My forecast is not quite that extreme. I’m looking at an early-morning minimum temperature of 36°F / 2°C between 6 AM and 8 AM. We’ll see what happens, but one thing is certain. It will definitely be bonechilling COLD !  Bundle up my friends and neighbours. Stay warm.

III.  I finally surrendered to the cold air inside my home late last night as temperatures continued to plummet further towards the lower-60s (at least a dozen degrees below normal for my normally air conditioned home). I turned on my ‘fake’ (reverse-A.C.) heater for the first time since last winter. Of course once the lukewarm air hit the dust on the coils it emitted a rather pungent aroma all throughout my home sweet home. It sort of smelled like burnt low-quality microwave popcorn. I proceeded to saturate much of my home with Oust Air Sanitizer spray, and that eventually made the smell of my home a bit more pleasant – like that of hot blueberry pie cooking in the oven. When I awoke this morning I was not shivering. It felt really nice with that lukewarm air floating all around. It felt so nice that I’m cranking it back on again for an encore tonight.

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

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Food God Health Weather

The Major’s Walk-A-Thon

Time: 7:38 AM – 8:22 AM
Sky: Partly Cloudy
Temperature: 49°F
Dewpoint: 42°F
Relative Humidity: 79%
Winds: N 12 MPH
Barometric Pressure: 30.12 Rising

Here are my walking thoughts in 15 words or less:

– This morning I walked around my neighbourhood in the cold.
– It’s a frigidly cold morning, as Homestead is shivering !
– Wind chills are deep down into the mid-40s !
– That may not be much for you up north, but down here it’s ‘severe weather’.
– Our weather will be ‘severe’ – clear and cold – for the next 2 weeks !
– I’ve been forecasting this extended cold snap since the hurricane season.
– Tomorrow morning we may have wind chills approaching the mid-30s !
– This morning I ate a GINORMOUS Breakfast at Denny’s.
– It was the ‘All-American Slam’.
– It consisted of 3 scrambled eggs with melted cheddar cheese.
– Let’s not forget the hash browns, sausage, bacon, and English Muffins.
– Denny’s is a great place to enjoy a real Man’s Breakfast !
– After I got home from that early-morning feast I knew what I had to do.
– I had to work it all off, and so I did – out in the cold.
– I walked for 44 minutes – the same exact time as last Saturday morning.
– It was another fun 2.4-mile walk.
– I’m in the best physical condition of my entire Life.
– I’ve come a long way over the past 40 months.
– It’s never too late to start all over again.
– You’ve just got to believe !

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Blogging Driving God History Holidays Life Music Travel Weather

Thursday Night Mini Thoughts

– It’s New Year’s Eve y’all !
– At 6 AM here on the U.S. East Coast New Zealanders were ushering in 2010.
– As I type this ‘Mini Thought’ at 4 PM Saudi Arabians are celebrating 2010.
– I arrived in Saudi Arabia 19 years ago this week for the first Gulf War.
– I was over there for 9 weeks through the conclusion of Desert Storm.
– That was my most memorable New Year’s Eve / Day.
– 2009 was a success story for me both personally and professionally.
– Every year since 2006 has been an overwhelming success story for me.
– That’s because I have been reborn.
– I totally expect 2010 to be the brightest year yet for me.
– I’ve decided that I will always pronounce the new year as ‘twenty ten’.
– It just sounds so right to say ‘twenty ten’.
– Last Feb. 28TH I thought that I had seen the last of the Jacksonville area.
– That’s when I drove from there for the very last time (as I thought).
– I had just finished moving my parents over to the Dallas Texas area.
– I no longer have any family members living up there.
– Next weekend I’m driving back up there to my parent’s old neighbourhood.
– I’ll be up there for one full day and two nights.
– I now own their former home.
– It’s all mine – debt and all !
– I’ll be talking face to face with the management company that’s renting it out.
– I’ll be getting a lot of answers for a lot of questions.
– The answers will assist me in making decisions and taking actions.
– Get ready for a cold month of January South Floridians.
– It’s the extended period of colder weather I’ve been shouting about.
– It all starts on New Year’s Day when temperatures drop like a rock.
– We’ll go from heat indices in the lower-80s to wind chills in the mid-40s !
– We’ll be stuck in the 60s for daytime highs for at least 5 days in a row.
– We’ll have nighttime wind chills in the 30s for at least 4 nights in a row.
– This extended cold snap is the first of several during the month of January.
– Our chances of experiencing a hard freeze later in January are quite high.
– If you dig cold weather then you’ll dig January here in America’s Riviera.
– After three weeks of Christmas music on the ‘Retro’ we’re goin’ back to basics.
– We’re gonna spin up the ‘Wheel Of Cheese’ this Saturday night.
– It’s a cheesy gold-certified # 1 smash from over 35 years ago.
– It comes complete with an antique music video you’ve gotta see to believe.
– But before that it’s another Disco smash tomorrow night on the ‘Disco Party’.
– And the hits don’t stop ’til we reach the top !
– Have a safe and festive New Year my friends !
– Peace be with you.
– And also with you.

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Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

It’s time to kick it with the final ‘Grab Bag’ of 2009. Let’s rock and roll:

1.  Technology-wise I made GINORMOUS strides in 2009. I ditched analog cable television after nearly 25 years and switched over to AT&T U-verse. That switch included my first experience with a modern DVR; thus, upgrading me from VHS (gasp !) and DVD recording of television shows. It also included my first exposure (believe it or not) with wireless technology. I now have two working computers – a fixed desktop and a roaming wireless laptop. I’ve also got a real nice digital (DECT 6.0) telephone system in place with three handsets scattered around my home. Just last week I bought my very first LCD HDTV set, and I upgraded my AT&T U-verse to enable all of the HD channels. Everything looks sparkling bright and amazingly clear in HD !  That’s a lot of technological change I can believe in for a single year !  What shall 2010 bring me that’s modern, new, and exciting ?  BRING IT ON !

2.  As far as sleek new personal hygiene products are concerned I haven’t been very successful with them in the past. I lost count of how many nose and ear hair trimmers I’ve bought that I used just a few times until I realized that they hardly worked efficiently. So you can imagine my skepticism when I saw ‘The Essential Do-It-Yourself Electric Back Hair Shaver’ from Mangroomer on sale at Bed Bath & Beyond. I bought it this past Sunday morning, and I used it that same afternoon. Let’s just say that for the first time in several years I now have a non-hairy and somewhat smoothly shaved back. It actually feels weird like that – and cool like that at the same time. Thank You Mangroomer for such a spectacular personal hygiene product that I can believe in !

3.  Why is it that the Christmas spirit (the decorations, the cards, the shopping, the gift giving, etc.) seems to begin earlier and earlier each year (right after Halloween it seems), but then it all comes crashing down on the first day after Christmas. I actually know people who took down all of their decorations and threw their Christmas tree out with the garbage on the 26TH of December !  What’s THAT all about ?  Aside from the whole true meaning of Christmas being lost in the first place whatever happened to the “12 Days Of Christmas” ?  They start on Christmas Day (the 1ST day of Christmas) and then continue on through January 05TH (the 12TH day of Christmas). That’s followed by Epiphany on January 06TH. Don’t be a Scrooge. Keep the Christmas spirit alive !

4.  It appears that I’ll be taking a nice long drive up to the Jacksonville Florida area sometime within the next couple of weeks to discuss local real estate conditions with the management company that’s currently managing my newly acquired home up there. I have a lot of critical decisions and corresponding actions to make soon that have a lot of legal and financial ramifications. Hopefully this situation will work out beneficially for me, my parents, and the management company.

5.  It was a cold morning this morning in and around Homestead with 47°F officially at the air base with wind chills deep down into the lower-40s !  Tomorrow morning I’m forecasting a low temperature at 7 AM of perhaps 8°F milder – right around 55°F (still a bit nippy). Our next cold front arrives with a vengeance from the northwest during the day on New Year’s Day – and it’ll be a doozy !  It’ll be the start of an extended cold snap for us that could last for 5 to 7 days with daytime highs stuck in the 60s and nighttime lows deep down into the 40s with even some 30s possible out in the Everglades. Cold weather fans (hello there Ela O.) – you’re gonna love it !

Be sure to check out my ‘Thursday Night Mini Thoughts’ LIVE this New Year’s Eve here on the blog that’s cool like that. You won’t regret it pal !