THE MAJOR’S LIFE BLOG

(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.

I was officially off the road and out of my car at precisely 2:51 PM EST this afternoon, and that’s it for 2007. I drove just a little over 7,500 miles this year - 37.5% below the national average of 12,000 miles.

My New Year’s Eve plans for tonight consist of me enjoying a peaceful and quiet night of television and computer in the safety, sanity, and comfort of my living room. I will reflect back at 2007 - a year that was filled with the highest of highs and minimal lows. It was indeed the greatest year of my entire Life - thanks to this fantastic journey following Him.

1.  We were locked out of the movie theatre for about 20 minutes bright and early on this glorious Sunday morning, but then Pastor Travis suddenly disappeared and then reappeared - inside the main lobby. He let us in, and then we went to work to set up everything.

2.  At its peak we had up to 8 guys on the Hospitality staff greeting our church family at the front door. That’s right around our running average over the past few months. One dude arrived and ran through the ‘welcome line’ like a football player on a Sunday afternoon emerging from the tunnel.

3.  Phil J. substituted for the vacationing Jesse as the leader of ‘Praise & Worship’ this morning. He had us rockin’ and clappin’ hard with one of my new favourite worship songs “One Way Jesus”. (He is the only one that I could live for.) We also sang another favourite of mine “You Are My King (Amazing Love)”. CHURCH ROCKS !

4.  Pastor Travis closed out our 11-week likeus.tv message series. It’s not about success in life. It’s not about being great. It’s about our grasp and perseverance in faith. It’s about following Jesus. We are not promised perfect lives. We are saved because we persevere in His grace. It’s His grace that saves us. Persevering in the Kingdom is receiving the grace of Jesus and following Him.

5.  Ela Ortega was up on ‘the big screen’ with her life story. I’ve been anxiously waiting over two months to see her video, and it was so well worth the wait. I sat there in my comfortable theatre seat during the 10:30 AM service so totally amazed, encouraged, and inspired at what I was seeing and hearing from Ela. My eyes were all watery as well, as tears of joy flowed freely from them. She is what it is all about. She is the ‘real deal’. She is persevering in God’s Kingdom !

I saw the funniest commercial on TV earlier tonight. It’s for a portable device that’s on sale that will amplify the sounds all around you if you are hard of hearing - or if you are really nosy and merely wish to eavesdrop on other peoples’ private conversations from across the street.

LAST WEEKEND I went 12-3 (.800) with my picks for the 2ND weekend in a row, and I hit big on both of my ‘Upset Specials’ - for the 2ND weekend in a row.

THIS WEEKEND is a bit trickier to pick as the playoff-bound teams rest their best players, and the teams that are playing their final games of the season are playing for pride.

Here’s how I see it. My picks to win this weekend are in bold green:

• Patriots At Giants
  - Patriots go 16-0 !
• Bills At Eagles
  - Eagles finish a respectable 8-8 - but last in the NFC East.
• Panthers At Buccaneers
  - It’s a 10-win season for the Bucs.
• Bengals At Dolphins
  - I pick the Fish to swim on an up note.
• Lions At Packers
  - The Pack is back !
• Jaguars At Texans
  - The Jags can beat the Pats in the playoffs.
• Seahawks At Falcons
  - The Seahawks can’t win in the east - at 10 AM PST.
• 49ers At Browns
  - This could will be a blowout !
• Saints At Bears
  - This won’t be close either - outside - in Chicago - in late-December.
• Cowboys At Redskins
  - Hail To The Redskins !  Hail Victory !  Hail to the Playoffs !
• Steelers At Ravens
  - The Steelers rest up for next weekend.
• Vikings At Broncos
  - The Vikings won’t win at ‘Mile High’.
• Chargers At Raiders
  - The Chargers rebound from 5-5 to 11-5.
• Rams At Cardinals
  - Old St. Louis team beats New St. Louis team.
• Chiefs At Jets
  - Wake me up when this one is done !
• Titans At Colts
  - The Titans win and the’re in !

It was another 25:25 (25-minute and 25-second) walk for me this morning around the entire perimeter of my wonderful neighbourhood, so that means another 1.3 miles gets recorded in the book. Actually there is no book, and I’m not even tracking these walks on an EXCEL spreadsheet. I’m doing it all for fun !

Sky: Partly Cloudy
Temperature: 74°F
Relative Humidity: 87%
Winds: Calm
Barometric Pressure: 30.14 RISING

My thoughts:

1.  I walked clockwise this morning - as opposed to counter-clockwise on Christmas Day Morning. I think I’ll alternate between the two as I do these walks.

2.  Me and another walker gave each other ‘the acknowledgement’. We saw each other from afar. We repositioned ourselves slightly, and then as we passed each other we gave each other a nice nod and a pleasant smile as if to telepathically state to each other ‘Howdy Fellow Walker !’

3.  The construction workers high atop the brand new ‘Key West Style’ townhouse development that’s going up just across my neighbourhood’s south perimeter fence were hard at work making a lot of racket on the roofs.

4.  At around the 21-minute mark of my 25:25 walk a little dog was barking loudly and tapping violently on the front window of his / her home as I walked by. Apparently he / she didn’t like me. It’s just further proof that most dogs don’t like me. Cats like me. Cats are cool.

5.  After the 25:25 walk I got in my car and drove the southern arc of my walk. It measured out as 0.8 miles. I then drove off into Florida City to do some errands. When I returned I drove the northern arc of my walk. That was 0.5 miles. The 1.3 miles that Google Earth measured has been successfully confirmed by my car.

Read all about the demise of Netscape Navigator (1994-200 . (Courtesy Of The Associated Press)

Way back during the early-to-middle-1990s (it seems so long ago) when surfers of the World Wide Web (then in its infancy) could be counted in the thousands (rather than the couple billion that we have today) there was essentially only one web browser to use. That would be Netscape Navigator. It is often credited with kicking-off the worldwide phenomenon of the Internet, as well as the entire ‘dot-com-boom’ (that would eventually go bust at the end of the decade).

Microsoft came along about a year after Netscape (in 1995) with their Internet Explorer web browser, and the rest (as they say) is Internet history. Internet Explorer (5.0) eventually surpassed Netscape Navigator as the most popular web browser in the world in 1999, and nowadays it is utilized by an estimated 90% of the world’s web surfers.

Thanks for those early Internet memories Netscape. You started it all back when the World Wide Web was a barren landscape. Those were the good old days !

• Pastor Travis awarded the 2007 Life Pointe Award for ‘Most Prolific Life Pointe Blogger’ to me. Upon hearing of the news I gave an impromptu acceptance speech.
• Jesse is ready for 2008.
• Casey is engaged to be married, and it only took him 70 months to get there.
• Stephen loves the Starbucks Peppermint Mocha.
• Nathan is getting ready for the grand opening of his church in Weston Florida, and he may advertise it on Y-100 - a TOP 40 station that I listened to for nearly 19 years.
• Phil will not be voting for Ron Paul.

Another long holiday weekend is upon us (although I actually have to work on Friday and Monday - New Year’s Eve), and as we say ‘Adios’ to 2007 and ‘Hola’ to 2008 this blog right here will be busier than ever.

Look for fresh new blog entries all holiday weekend long including (but certainly not limited to) the following:

• Friday Night Blogroll Review
  Update your blogs so that I can link to you !
• The Major’s Walk-A-Thon
  What will I encounter on my next 1.3 mile walk ?
• My NFL Weekend Game Picks
  Who am I picking to win this weekend ?
• Life Pointe Church Sunday Morning Tossed Salad
  What will be the highlights of my 50TH Sunday morning ?
• Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts
  What will I think about on a Tuesday night ?

It now appears that weather systems across North America are getting ready to align that will throw Florida (and virtually all of the United States east of the Mississippi River) into an Arctic airmass to start off the new year.

NEXT WEDNESDAY (January 02ND) appears to be the coldest day with maximum afternoon high temperatures only in the low-to-mid-60s here in South Florida / mid-50s in Central Florida / low-50s in North Florida. Minimum early-morning low temperatures (next Thursday morning) could drop down to the mid-40s in South Florida / mid-30s in Central Florida / mid-20s in North Florida.

The frigid air is expected to last about 2 to 3 days before the next warming trend commences.

Hello everyone this is Major Hitwaves, but you can call me ‘The Major’.

Let me talk to you for a minute about Wendy’s Custom Bean. You know that it starts with a blend of slow-roasted 100% Arabica beans made exclusively for our restaurants by Folgers Gourmet Selections. Then our patented brewing process ensures every cup is consistently fresh and delicious. From start to finish, that’s Wendy’s Custom Bean. An exceptional cup of coffee every time.

It’s HOT. It’s Fresh. It’s Premium. It’s Delicious.

Delicious coffee starts at the bean. 100% Arabica beans. Slow roasted. Custom brewed. Wendy’s. That’s right.

Find out for yourself.

Tuesday night just would not be the same without my weekly ‘Grab Bag O’ Thoughts’, so here we go with this week’s ‘brain dump’:

1.  I have a new toy here on my computer - Google Earth. With it I measured my 18-minute ‘High Noon Walk’ of yesterday at 0.9 miles as well as my 25-minute ’Walk-A-Thon’ of this morning at 1.3 miles. That’s an overall average of a mile every 19 to 20 minutes, or an average walking speed of 3 MPH.

2.  7 hours after walking that 1.3 miles this morning and I can still feel it in my legs. No pain. No gain.

3.  This past Sunday morning at Life Pointe Church we sang “Do You Hear What I Hear ?” and “Silent Night” back-to-back during Praise & Worship. I just can’t get enough of traditional Christmas carols. They mean so much more to me now than they ever used to. I’ll be missing them for the next 11 months.

4.  I currently weigh in at nearly 172 pounds (78 kilograms for the rest of the world). That’s at the top tier of my general weight range over the past 15 years. I’d rather weigh closer to 165 pounds (75 kilograms).

5.  The nicest picture that’s hanging on the wall directly above my computer workstation here at home is that of Air Force One over Mount Rushmore. With the picture are two patches of the 89TH Airlift Wing, and a nice engraving with my name on it as well as the dates that I worked at Andrews AFB Maryland. It’s also signed by 35 of my co-workers at the time. Those final 6 months of my Active Duty Air Force career were the best out of 8 years.

6.  I only saw 9 movies at the Box Office in 2007. That’s the lowest total for me since 1996. Out of those 9 movies I only saw 4 of them at the movie theatre here in Homestead that I go to every Sunday morning for Life Pointe Church services.

7.  I like to shave every 3 to 4 days. Sunday nights and Wednesday nights are typical shaving nights for me.

8.  When I was a kid I used to love eating peanut butter & banana sandwiches for lunch. I think it’s been about 25 years since my last one.

9.  One of my unique hobbies is watching the International Space Station pass over the skies of Homestead on selected evenings and mornings (when it is in view). I’ve seen 41 such passes since February of 2004.

10.  If I walked from home to work (over 7 miles away) then it would take me about 2½ hours to get there. I’d have to leave here at 3:30 AM to get to work by 6 AM. Yeah that’s not gonna happen ! 

The Gift Of Jesus

It’s a gift wrapped in love,
the love of a King.

It’s a gift wrapped in grace -
what a wonderful thing !

It’s a gift wrapped in joy,
the joy of creation,

A gift wrapped in song,
the song of salvation.

It’s the gift of a Man who died on the cross.

It’s the gift of new life so not one would be lost.

It’s a gift just for us,
not too big, not too small.

It’s the gift of Christ Jesus -
the best gift of all !

The spirit of the Lord bless you and yours with the present of peace this holiday season.

Luke 8:50 (NLT 2ND Ed.):
But when Jesus heard what had happened, he said to Jairus, ‘Don’t be afraid. Just have faith, and she will be healed.’

THIS MORNING I did the unpredictable - I walked the entire perimeter of my neighbourhood - approximately a mile-and-a-half - close to 2½ kilometers for the rest of the world. (I’ll have to drive my car the entire trek to determine the actual distance.)

Sky: Mostly Cloudy
Temperature: 69°F
Relative Humidity: 95%
Winds: NW 8 MPH
Barometric Pressure: 30.04 RISING

My thoughts:

1.  My iPod Shuffle came along for the walk this morning. All of my smash hits on it provided a great beat to walk to.

2.  One of those smash hits that played as I walked alone was the Christian speed-metal-romp “Writing On The Walls” courtesy of Underoath. Its lyrics include the prominent (screaming) verse ‘We walk alone !’

3.  There were a bunch of other walkers out and about on this most glorious Christmas Day morning. Some of them were walking alone, and some of them were walking their dog(s). There was even a nice older yellowish cat walking alone. He / She looked at me with love rather than fear. This cat somehow knew that I was a lifelong friend to the feline populace.

4.  There’s a new ‘Key West style’ townhouse development going up just over the southern perimeter fence of my neighbourhood. I hadn’t seen it before.

5.  This was a 25-minute walk for me. There was only one thing that I wanted as soon as I walked back in to my home, and that my friends was a MASSIVE gulp of Zephyrhills Natural Spring Water.

Inspired by fellow WordPress blogger Stephen Hollifield I decided to take my own leisurely walk around my neighbourhood today at High Noon - just a few minutes after I commented on his ‘Morning Walk’ for this Christmas Eve morning.

This is quite remarkable for me in that this is the very first time that I have ever done such a thing - and I’ve been living here in my neighbourhood for over 12½-years !

I walked around the northern circumference of my neighbourhood in just a little over 18 minutes. It was close to 0.75 miles in length.

Sky: Mostly Sunny
Temperature: 79°F
Relative Humidity: 57%
Winds: NE 13 MPH
Barometric Pressure: 30.09 FALLING

Here are a few thoughts as I walked the walk:

1.  There should never be a parking problem here in my neighbourhood. We have far more parking spaces than we actually need.

2.  I am blessed to live in a relatively litter-free neighbourhood. The City Of Homestead actually emptied out all of the dumpsters early this morning - on Christmas Eve !

3.  My neighbourhood smells good. There’s good cookin’ in the neighbourhood !

4.  My neighbourhood has sidewalks that I never knew existed. I’ll have to discover some more of them in my future walks.

5.  If this were May, June, July, August, September, or October then I would have probably been eaten alive by every bug known to mankind, but this is December and it is just so refreshingly delightful outside !

I’m doing another walk tomorrow !

As of press time on this glorious Christmas Eve Morning I have received 19 Christmas cards in the mail and in-person. Each and every one of them is very special to me; however, two of them in particular stand out with important messages that symbolize the true meaning of Christmas. I’ll post one of them below, and the other one tomorrow morning on Christmas Day:

Because Jesus Came We Can …

… have peace with God,
be filled with all joy,
abound in hope,
be justified freely,
be alive toward God,
have the spirit of wisdom,
be under grace,
know the hope of His calling,
be conformed to His image,
be a child of God,
be His heir,
have victory,
know the riches of the glory of His inheritance.

Because of Jesus, we have so many reasons to rejoice !

Luke 1:49 (NLT 2ND Ed.):
For the Mighty One is holy, and he has done great things for me.

It started out as a morning like any other, but just a few hours later it would become a morning that forever changed the lives of me, my little brother, our Mom, and our Dad.

Exactly 24 years ago this morning on December 23RD 1983 me (16½-years-old) and my little brother (8½-years-old) looked out our living room window at the snow and the ice on the ground of our backyard. It was a freezing-cold Friday morning - 2 days before Christmas - in McLean Virginia, and we were happy to be warm and comfortable inside.

But there was a creature stirring outside that was not warm and comfortable. It was a lonely young cat with no tail that was wandering around aimlessly outside on our elevated patio deck, and it was shivering. Me and my brother decided rather quickly that it did not belong in the harsh elements of outside at that moment, so we brought it in to our more sheltered screened-in ‘Florida Room’. We gave her some milk to drink. She loved us for it. We gave her some love. We heard a strange sound coming from her that we hadn’t heard before. It was the sound of her purring. We let her in to our warm and comfortable home. She never looked back. We pretty much named her ‘Fluffy’ that day, and she instantly became an important part of our family - the missing link if you will. She stayed with us for the next 17+ years until her (expected) death in April 2001.

There have been other cats and dogs within our family over the years since then. Fluffy eventually gained a feline roommate with Barney (also known as the cat that never liked me). After Fluffy’s death Barney eventually gained his own feline roommate with Pumpkin (our parents’ current cat that me and my brother picked out for them several years ago). Boots was my own loving cat and housemate for 12½ years here in Homestead until his (expected) death on May 17TH 2007. He was the coolest cat that ever lived.

But it all started with Fluffy The Manx Cat. She was the Queen of her castle. She was the stability of our family. She was our family’s common denominator. She was the center of attention. She was the most lovable cat that ever lived.

Fluffy never met Boots, but I believe that the two loving cats in my Life for nearly 23½-years are hanging out together up in Heaven comparing notes about me. Barney is probably up there too - ignoring Fluffy and Boots.  

This blog is a spinoff of the (now on extended hiatus) massivesmash.com web site that I created in 1995. That web site grew out of a previous web site known as ‘MANx On The Net’. That first web site was a spinoff of ‘MANx Cat BBS’ (1993-1997) that was inspired by and named after Fluffy.

1.  The Information Booth was up and looking nice (as usual), but the ’small screen’ was dark due to a glitch with Pastor Paul’s laptop. We couldn’t get the image of the laptop screen to appear on the monitor. Next week the Information Booth itself will take a one-week hiatus, but have no fear for it shall return triumphantly for our first Sunday morning services of 2008.

2.  The hot new Life Pointe Church tee-shirts are in, and they look fantastic !  Look for me to appear LIVE and in living colour in my new ‘CHURCH ROCKS !‘ tee-shirt next Sunday morning !

3.  I read the Advent message on stage at both services this morning. It’s the 4TH Sunday of Advent, and today we lit the candle for Love. God’s Love has gotten Him into a lot of trouble. His passion for Israel has led Him to make promises to them that will cost Him dearly. They are about to get a sign from Him that they weren’t even asking for - the birth of God Himself among them. Jesus’ nickname is Immanuel - a Hebrew way of saying ‘God is with us’. Even in a manger. Even in a ministry marked by rejection. Even on a cross. His Love has brought Him down. Down to us. We have found that this act of God in Love for Israel was also a sign of His love for the whole world. He came down to raise up all of us.

4.  Pastor Paul did this week’s teaching. It was all about ‘Leaving The Good For The Best’. Getting to the best requires obedience. It also requires leaving what is comfortable. If you are comfortable then you are simply not living the Life that God wants you to live. The Holy Spirit gives us the best chance of making it in Life. Jesus had to leave in order to give us the best. Jesus died for us. He made us, and then He paid for us on that bloody cross. He died so that we can live.

5.  Los Santoyos - Jesse, Reina, y Diego - were the subjects of this week’s likeus.tv message series video on the ‘big screen’. Jesse led his family from their comfortable Life in Chicagoland, and he brought them to us here in Homestead Florida. We are so glad that Los Santoyos are part of our loving Life Pointe Church family !

LAST WEEKEND I went 12-3 (.800) with my picks - including hitting big on both of my ‘Upset Specials’. 

My picks to win this weekend are in bold green:

Cowboys At Panthers
Browns At Bengals - UPSET SPECIAL !
Packers At Bears
Texans At Colts
Chiefs At Lions
Giants At Bills
Raiders At Jaguars
Eagles At Saints
Falcons At Cardinals
Bucaneers At 49ers
Dolphins At Patriots
Ravens At Seahawks
Jets At Titans
Redskins At Vikings - UPSET SPECIAL !
Broncos At Chargers