THE MAJOR’S LIFE BLOG

A satellite photo of North America on the night of Thursday August 14TH 2003 - the night of the largest blackout in North American history that affected an estimated 50 million people and caused an estimated 6 billion dollars in financial losses:

IT’S NOT REAL !

Can you identify at least 5 things that are obviously wrong with the photo above ?

Try to figure it all out, and then read more about it.

And so we have right here right now the Tuesday night edition of ‘Bedtime Stories’ - brought to you by Zicam.

My unexpectedly long Good Friday / Easter Sunday holiday weekend will soon come to a close as I pray to God and lay myself to sleep in about 2½-hours. I’ll get about 6 hours of sleep tonight, and then I’ll wake up at 5 AM tomorrow morning and be at work by 6 AM. I’m looking forward to getting back to my desk at work and catching up with everything there. Once upon a time I dreaded going to work, but now I adore it.

I saw the International Space Station and the Space Shuttle Endeavour over the eastern skies of Homestead tonight just after 8 PM. It was so cool watching the Space Shuttle play tag team with the ISS up in Earth’s orbit from practically sea level.

I bought my very first atomic radio-controlled clock today. It picks-up its signal from the NIST signal out of Fort Collins Colorado. I now know exactly what time it is, and I can set my watch and VCR clocks to its precise time.

FedEx delivered my fresh new 2GB iPod Shuffle from Apple late this afternoon. Now I can get to work and fill that thing up with today’s hottest Christian rock, pop, and hip hop hits !

And that’s how I roll tonight with my ‘Bedtime Stories’. Be sure to catch this blog in action again tomorrow for some more cool stuff, and don’t forget that Thursday night is ‘Internet Hoax Hall-Of-Shame’ night. Until then remember this:

Zicam - Get over your cold faster.

Good Night Everyone !  Good Night Nancy !

So I’m laying in bed this morning (off from work and dealing with a cold) when Kelly-Kel - the morning show host on 91.9-CALL-FM - proceeds to announce to her audience that (based on what a listener had told her) we would not have another Easter Sunday in March for another 192 years - until 2200 !

Of course that is absolutely nonsense, but I was still in bed - with a cold. I eventually managed to get out of bed at around 7:45 AM - a good 2½ hours later than normal for a typical Monday morning. After taking a shower, feeling a little bit better (and certainly refreshed) to begin a brand new day Kelly-Kel proceeded to make the stunning announcement again - no more Easter Sundays in March for another 192 years !

That was the final straw that broke the Easter Bunny’s back !

I called Kelly-Kel over the telephone, and I told her the real facts about Easter Sunday. It will always be the first Sunday after the first full moon that occurs on or after the 21ST of March. This year the full moon occurred on the 21ST of March (Good Friday), so this Easter Sunday was the 2ND earliest Easter Sunday on record. The earliest calendar date that it can possibly occur on is the 22ND of March, and the latest that it can possibly occur on is the 25TH of April. There will be plenty of Easter Sundays to come in March !  Easter Sunday occurs in March generally every 3 to 5 years. Our next Easter Sunday in March will occur in just 5 years - on March 31ST 2013. One more fact. Easter Sunday will occur on April 24TH 2011 - the 2ND-latest calendar date that it can possibly occur on.

Due to audio difficulties at the time Kelly-Kel couldn’t put our actual recorded telephone conversation on-the-air, but she did reiterate the information for all of her morning show listeners.

THANK YOU Kelly-Kel for clearing all of that up for everyone else !

This morning as I drove eastbound to work shortly before 6 AM I watched a nice little show in the southeastern sky featuring an old fading (waning crescent) Moon, the bright and sparkling Venus, and the brilliant Jupiter all right next to each other forming a nice little triangle.

Venus and Jupiter continue to put on a close show for a few more mornings during the hour before dawn. As the month of February progresses Jupiter eases higher in the morning sky while Venus fades away into the Sun’s early-morning glare. (The Moon shows up as a New Moon shortly after Sunset at the end of this week.)

This is one of my favourite web sites to check out what’s goin’ on in the skies up above from dusk to dawn. It’s updated daily.

The Sun finally reaches its southernmost point in the sky at precisely 1:08 AM EST early tomorrow morning (Saturday December 22ND) when it shines directly over the Tropic Of Capricorn. At that precise moment it will then begin its 6-month journey northward again.

It’s the First Day Of Winter tomorrow all across the Northern Hemisphere - and the First Day Of Summer south of the Equator.

From this past Tuesday December 18TH through next Tuesday December 25TH the Sun is at its lowest point in the sky for the year at its peak altitude above the horizon - 41.1° due south - at around 12:20 EST each day here in Homestead Florida.

We’re down to 10 hours and 33 minutes of daylight (from sunrise to sunset) here in Homestead. That makes it our shortest day / longest night of the year.

Our earliest sunset of the year (5:30 PM) actually occurred back on November 29TH and 30TH. Since then the Sun has been setting just a tiny bit later each day (5:36 PM tonight). Our latest sunrise of the season (7:09 AM) is still nearly a month away. It won’t start to get lighter earlier in the morning until January 21ST 2008 !

So enjoy the longer days starting tomorrow - just a tiny bit each day at the end of each day.