Categories
Blogging

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

1.  Personal fireworks are banned in only 6 states nationwide. Unfortunately Florida is not one of them. I’ve never understood the fascination of them, or the legality of them. I had to listen to them late last night right here in my own neighbourhood. It’s annoying that 3 or 4 people can shoot off fireworks that disturb the peace of hundreds that can hear them.

2.  It rained for about an hour here in Homestead this afternoon. It was welcome rain, but it also signaled the end of our extended 80°F+ temperatures. In a few hours I’m turning off my A.C. I won’t need it again until perhaps Saturday or Sunday.

3.  An older gent was complaining at Starbucks this morning because it was way too cold inside there. I wholeheartedly agreed with him; however, it’s done intentionally as a marketing strategy. The more expensive coffees sell much better when its frigid outside – or inside. Complaining that it’s too cold inside of Starbucks is like complaining that it’s too hot inside of the sauna at the local gym.

4.  You can’t make a right-hand turn from Starbucks onto Palm Drive without driving over the curb with your rear-right tire. At least I can’t.

5.  I won’t be watching the grande return of “American Gladiators” on NBC, but this dude probably will.

6.  In the continuance of a New Year’s Day tradition for me I re-lived New Year’s Eve over and over again on videotape during the day today. I watched coverage from NBC (Carson Daly), ABC (Dick Clark / Ryan Seacrest), FOX (Cat Deeley), and CNN (Anderson Cooper / Kathy Griffin). Ah the magic of the retro VHS VCR.

7.  Court-TV is now Tru-TV. It’s been one of my favourite cable networks for awhile now. Tonight I’ll be watching “Ocean Force: Huntington Beach, O.C.”. Good Stuff !

8.  If my beloved former hometown Washington Redskins beat the Seahawks in Seattle, the Cowboys in Dallas, and the Packers in Green Bay then they can beat the Patriots in Glendale Arizona in Super Bowl XLII. That’s how I see it.

9.  I think I’ll eat Chinese Food for Lunch tomorrow. That means that we could have our first meeting of 2008 of ‘The Fortune Cookie Message Of The Week Club’ on here tomorrow.

10.  There’s a brand new family-owned ‘all-you-can-eat pizza, pasta, and salad bar’ place right across the street from my neighbourhood. I should go and check them out sometime soon.

Categories
Food Holidays

Starbucks On A New Year’s Day Morning

Starbucks Peppermint White Chocolate Mocha

PEPPERMINT WHITE CHOCOLATE MOCHA 

This beverage is a festive combination of our signature espresso and steamed milk with creamy white chocolate and lively peppermint flavors.

I also enjoyed the oven-toasted Sausage, Egg, & Cheddar Sandwich.

Starbucks – It’s what’s for breakfast !

Categories
Health

The Major’s Walk-A-Thon

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2008 !

Sky: Partly Cloudy & Foggy
Temperature: 67°F
Relative Humidity: 100%
Winds: Calm
Barometric Pressure: 30.11 RISING

My thoughts:

1.  It’s the calm before the storm (or the freeze). Tomorrow morning at this time air temperatures will be up to 20 degrees colder (upper-40s), and the following morning they could be as much as 35 degrees colder (mid-30s). The Walk-A-Thon will resume on Saturday morning when it’s back in the milder low-60s at 7 AM.

2.  You can tell where the party-animals live here in my neighbourhood. Their dumpsters are overflowing with leftover holiday week garbage. The dumpsters that were still able to be closed from the top are where the retired folks live.

3.  Dogs can be party-animals as well. I came within inches of stepping in some of their ‘holiday leftovers’ during my walk this morning. It was a close call !

4.  Near my neighbourhood’s main entrance a frantic lady accompanied by one of our uniformed security guards stopped me and asked me if I had anything to break in to her car. It seems that she locked her keys in it. I had nothing. If that ever happened to me then I would call AAA.

5.  After the above incident I realized that I was falling behind my 25:25 pace for a 1.3-mile walk, so I picked it up a notch for the final 0.8-miles. I picked it up so much that I finished this morning’s walk in less than 24½ minutes ! 

Categories
Weather

Weather Alert: A Possible Frost & Freeze For Homestead !

(This is an update to my weather forecast of 4 days ago.)

New Year’s Day – Temperatures will likely exceed 80°F before beginning the rapid plummet into the 70s, the 60s, and the 50s during the afternoon and evening hours.

Wed. Jan. 02ND – Expect an early-morning low temperature in the upper-40s; however, wind-chills will be in the mid-30s !  Mostly Sunny, Windy, and Cold for the remainder of the day. We may not hit the 60°F mark, and wind-chills will make it feel like it’s in the upper-40s to lower-50s all day long !  It will be our coldest day here in Homestead since February 16TH 2007.

Thu. Jan. 03RD – Patchy frost is possible in Homestead / Florida City with near-freezing temperatures possible north and west of the cities. Expect an early-morning low temperature in the mid-30s with wind chills in the low-20s !  This could be our coldest morning in nearly 5 years – since January 2003 !

Afternoon daytime high temperatures will rebound back into the mid-70s by this upcoming weekend.