Category: Weather

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Travel Weather

Monday Night Countdown

Here are today’s TOP 5 travel events as experienced by me:

1.  Shortly After 9:30 AM CDT – I arrived at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. It’s chilly and rainy outside. It’s unusually quiet inside. There’s no lines at the self-service kiosks, the ticket / check-in counters, or even the security checkpoints. I’m amazed.

2.  11:20 AM CDT – That’s when my American Airlines flight was supposed to depart for Miami International Airport. That didn’t happen. The flight (apparently originating from Kansas City) couldn’t land at DFW due to the heavy rains and the low ceilings. It flew right past us to Austin.

3.  1:45 PM CDT – Two gate changes later – including a trip on the Skylink (monorail) to a completely different terminal on the other side of the airport – and my flight was ready to take-off. Apparently this was the same flight that was diverted to Austin. It replaced a previous Austin to Dallas flight (that was cancelled), and it became the new DFW to MIA flight. Who’s confused ?

4.  1:57 PM CDT – We actually pulled away from the gate at DFW some 2 hours and 37 minutes late. Our co-pilot was a laugh riot over the intercom system. I think that he would make a great radio deejay – or a cruise director. He sounded like a loud Chicagoan – not that there’s anything wrong with that.

5.  Shortly Before 6:00 PM EDT – I’m back home at MIA – nearly 3 hours later than originally scheduled. That puts me al aeropuerto at the heart and soul of the evening rush hour. My suitcase was one of the first dozen to show up on the baggage carousel (a miracle), so I did a grab and go. On to the shuttle that showed up rather quickly (another miracle). It picked me up and delivered me to my car at the off-site parking. Through the Dolphin Expressway / Palmetto Expressway / Don Shula Expressway / Florida’s Turnpike rush hour I went and long story short here I am at home.

My long weekend vacation is now history. Home Sweet Homestead.

Categories
Animals Bugs Travel Weather

The Major’s Walk-A-Thon: Special On-Location Edition – Dallas Zoo

Dallas Zoo

Yesterday me and my brother visited the Dallas Zoo for the first time ever.

Here are my takeaways – ‘Mini Thoughts’ style:

– It’s an old zoo – established way back in 1888 !
– It’s the largest zoo in Texas – covering 95 acres alongside I-35.
– We were there for about 3 hours.
– It was a hot and humid day in Dallas with heat indices in the mid-90s.
– The zoo is expanding !
– A whole new area of ‘Wilds Of Africa’ called ‘The Savanna’ is under construction.
– The penguins were soaking wet – and hot.
– We got up close to a Western Lowland Gorilla.
– Only a strong window separated him from us.
– He just laid against the window as all of us humanoids watched his every move.
– He would look at us sometimes in a curious yet friendly manner.
– He was most interested in scratching his itches.
– He’s just like you and me !
– Much of the ‘Wilds Of Africa’ exhibit is seeable via the monorail alone.
– So we took the monorail around the continent.
– It was a cool 25 minute tour through the wilds from up above.
– The chimps were not out to play.
– They were in seclusion due to the birth of a new member of their family.
– We walked through an entire exhibit on BUGS !
– Bugs are constantly working at creating a new habitat for themselves.
– The’re never satisfied with what they have.
– Bugs – The’re just like you and me.
– We saw ENORMOUS tortoises crawling around.
– The’re the biggest of their species in the entire world.
– They were just taking their time to get from Point A to Point Z.
– The’re OLD !
– MASSIVE ALBINO ALLIGATOR !
– Check out this recent newspaper article on it.
– I don’t think that I’ve ever seen one like this before.
– It’s 9-feet in length, 200 pounds, and totally white.
– It doesn’t appreciate the Sun, and it’s blind.
– As we watched from a boardwalk above it was feeding time.
– But the albino alligator wasn’t very hungry.
– The other standard alligators around him were hungry though.
– A lot of the animals outside were hidden away.
– They were probably too hot.
– I wondered how those African animals cope with the snow in the winter.
– The zoo is open year-round, and it can get totally freezing here in Dallas.
– Only the soaking wet penguins would appreciate that !
– We had a fun time at the zoo.
– We both agreed that it was bigger and nicer than we originally thought.
– We’ll hopefully visit it again in a couple of years.
– Maybe on my next visit to Texas we can visit the Fort Worth Zoo.
– That would be cool, as I so dig hangin’ out with the animals.
– The’re just like you and me !

Categories
Animals History Holidays Travel Weather

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

Here are today’s top stories:

1.  Hola mis amigos. Hoy es el Cinco de Mayo. Go forth and enjoy some delicious Mexican food tonight to celebrate this muy especial day that marks the grande victory of the Mexican army over the French army in the Battle Of Puebla in 1862.  ¡ VIVA MEXICO !

2.  In just about 50 hours I’ll be arriving at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport to begin a long weekend vacation con mi familia. I’m planning to continue the ‘2009 Economic Stimulus Tour’ (of tourist attractions) this weekend with a visit to the Dallas Zoo. It’s the largest zoological experience in Texas !

3.  I never got to go to the zoo when I was a little kid, and I actually had an Uncle that worked at one (as Security). That’s right – I was totally deprived of the zoo experience as a kid. Since I’ve pretty much outgrown the traditional amusement parks (and wild rides make me dizzy) I’ve gone back to basics by visiting the animals as much as I can. I love the animals !  The’re just like you and me !

4.  Speaking of amusement parks with wild rides – and animals – me and a buddy may visit Sea World up in Orlando during the upcoming  Memorial Day holiday weekend. It’s been a long time since I’ve been there. We may also visit nearby Gatorland. I haven’t been there since they rebuilt the place following the devastating fire of November 06TH 2006.

5.  Are you ready for the upcoming rainy season aqui en America’s Riviera ?  It starts within the next couple of weeks, and based on my analysis and research I’m forecasting an extra wet rainy season this year with southerly, southwesterly, and westerly wind flow the norm. That means that all of those strong thunderstorms that develop over the Everglades should drift eastward over us rather than westward towards Naples. I’m also forecasting a below normal hurricane season with most storms staying away from us due to our westerly wind flow and the long-awaited reemergence of our good friend ‘El Niño’. We’ll see how this forecast works out for all of us.

Take good care of yourselves my friends. THANKS for reading what’s on my mind.

Categories
Driving Humor Weather

Monday Night Countdown

This week on the ‘Countdown’ I’ve got the TOP 5 South Florida ‘Traffic & Weather Together’ lessons learned over the past 21½ years:

5.  ‘Partly Sunny’, ‘Partly Cloudy’, ‘Mostly Sunny’, ‘Mostly Cloudy’, and ‘Fair’ are all distinctly different, and if you have perhaps an hour of spare time over Dinner I can explain all of this to you. Just promise that you won’t fall asleep on me.

4.  Roughly 8 out of every 10 drivers on the road will blow through stop signs and red lights, and just sit there for at least 5 seconds after the light turns green. The protected green arrow light means absolutely nothing to the same 8 motorists.

3.  Just because there’s a flash flood with streets under a foot of water at home does not mean that a single drop of rain has fallen at work. Also if it’s pouring down rain but the sky nearby is sunny and clear then that’s pretty much normal.

2.  ALL traffic laws do not apply to Miami-Dade County school buses. They are allowed to drive as fast as they wish, and they may tailgate you at their discretion. They also have the right-of-way no matter what, so if they turn right in front of you then simply slam your brakes on to avoid dying in a firey collision and inferno.

1.  Every new hurricane season is going to be the worst one ever seen and recorded since the existence of mankind, but you should never ever panic. Just be warned that South Florida may be completely destroyed by every single tropical wave that forms off the west coast of Africa.

This Street Sign Would Not Work Here In America's Riviera
This Street Sign Would Not Work Here In America's Riviera

I hope that you enjoyed that. Be sure to check out my ‘Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts’ tomorrow night – same blog time – same blog station. Until then – keep it real homies.