I do more before 9 AM on a Saturday morning than many people do all day on Saturday !
I started my Saturday morning bright and early at Homestead’s Oasis Plaza Publix just a couple of minutes after they opened up their doors at 7 AM. Once upon a time I used to be the first person in to the original Towne Square Publix (Useless-One & Campbell Drive) on most Sunday mornings at 7 AM (sometimes on Saturday mornings at the same time). Nowadays a Saturday morning at 7 AM visit to Publix is a rare treat, and a Sunday morning at 7 AM visit is an impossibility (due to my other priorities). I was in and out of Publix with all of my groceries for the next couple of weeks or so in about 45 minutes.
Next on the agenda (after I took all of my groceries home) was Chevron on Homestead’s frantic corner of Useless-One and Campbell Drive. I filled up my car with 10.836 gallons of gas at $4.199 per gallon (an all-new record) for a total cost of $45.50 (another all-new record). It was my first fill-up with gas in 19 days (a few days above my usual running average). I averaged a daily consumption of 0.57 gallons of gas over the past 19 days.
I then went over to Walgreens where I got excellent $ALE DEAL$ on laundry detergent and videotapes (what a combination).
I capped-off my Saturday Morning Shenanigans at Burger King where I picked-up an Enormous Omelet Sandwich, Hash Browns, and Turbo Coffee. Burger King has always been my all-time favourite fast food restaurant for breakfast, and for many years I used to go there at least once or twice per week. This may have been my first or second visit in all of 2008 thus far. I just don’t eat as ‘bad’ as I used to ever since my MASSIVE heart attack and subsequent 9-month coma elevated cholesterol readings and subsequent Lipitor prescription. Eating a Burger King breakfast has now become a once-in-a-long-while occasion. I’ll do it again en Octubre !
And so those - mis amigos - are mis Saturday Morning Shenanigans. I got back home at 9 AM this morning, and now I’m watching television, surfing the web, doing laundry, paying bills, filing paperwork, and other fun stuff like that. This is the day that I’ve been waiting for since … last Saturday !
Have a sensational Saturday everyone ! Make it memorable.
1. Of all of the regular weekly blog entries that are posted on here this is the one that I look forward to compiling and posting more than any other. This is totally unrehearsed, and I am totally unprepared for it. This is raw, and that’s what makes it so cool. I have absolutely no clue what I plan to blog about for the next 9 items of interest, but I’ll just let my fingers do the talking and watch what happens.
2. The 10TH season / 9TH summer edition of “Big Brother” on CBS-TV begins this Sunday night at 8 PM EDT / 7 PM CDT. Please don’t bother me while it’s on (three nights a week as usual).
3. Some days everyone around me is a lousy driver. They either drive too slow in front of me, pull out in front of me, or tailgate me. This was one of those days. I couldn’t wait to get off of the streets.
4. Everytime I sneak a peek at this book I spend more time in it than I intended. I need to find some time this weekend to intentionally spend a couple of hours with it. It’s what I do for Life Pointe Church. It’s how I serve God and His children here in Homestead.
5. This afternoon I ordered a medium roast beef sandwich combo (with curly fries and a Sierra Mist) and an apple turnover via the drive-thru at Arby’s in Florida City (where all the food is). That’s what I paid for, and I’ve got the receipt right here to prove it. I got the curly fries, the Sierra Mist, and the apple turnover, but in lieu of the medium roast beef sandwich that I was truly looking forward to devouring I instead got - get this - a REUBEN ! I can dig mistakes like that when they work out in my favour flavour !
6. Are you tired of all of the rain here in Homestead (nearly 14 inches over the past 22 days) ? GOOD - I’m forecasting very little to no rain at all for the next 5 to 7 days (until perhaps early next week). Let’s see if I’m right.
8. I saw my hot new laptop on sale at a Best Buy in Plano Texas last week. The longer I wait the cheaper it gets with more power. Laptops with 4 GB of RAM are pretty much standard nowadays. So are desktops with 8 GB of RAM.
9. I survived my 5TH cold in 8 months. It lasted 6 days. I kinda knew that I was getting it before I got it, and it was pretty much gone before I realized it. Here’s hoping that I don’t have to be blogging about my 6TH cold in 10 months come Labour Day Weekend !
10. THIS JUST IN - My brother and his wife (my sister-in-law) now have a cold. My 6-DAY cold ‘peaked’ on its 3RD day. That was my last full day at their house. I felt a little bit better on the 4TH Of July - the day that I left them behind and flew back home. A single contact with my nasty cold germs left behind and it was pretty much all over for the both of them. They’ll probably infect each of their coworkers.
Thursday, July 3, 2008 at 10:20 AM
· Filed under Animals, Health
DEJA-VU ? - You may recall that same mysterious blog entry title from a couple of months back, and there’s a good reason for that. I was sick back during the early part of May, and I’m sick again ! I’m still enjoying my vacation (back in the northern suburbs of Dallas Texas again), but I’m currently dealing with what is now my unbelievable 5TH cold in just a little over 8 months (ever since the last few days of October 2007). It’s my 2ND cold in exactly 8 weeks, and that cold from 8 weeks ago arrived just a little over 6 weeks after the previous one (during the Good Friday / Easter Sunday holiday weekend).
These disgusting common cold germs officially made their presence known inside my body en San Antonio on Tuesday July 01ST 2008, so if you’re keeping track at home this would be DAY 3 of the cold. I expect it to last through the 4TH Of July holiday weekend, but I also expect conditions to improve as time goes on. Airborne and Zicam are doing all that they can do to assist me in getting over my cold faster !
Once upon a time in an era not too long ago I used to get a cold about every 18 months to 2 or even 3 years. Now I’m working on my 5TH cold in just 8 months. Back then my rare colds lasted up to two weeks. Nowadays these colds come and go within a matter of several days.
Oh yeah - As far as that cricket is concerned - NO - I didn’t really eat one. That’s an inside-joke between me and my brother regarding one of our childhood cats. We used to have a big black cat by the name of Barney. One time Barney ate a crunchy LIVE cricket (so we think). He didn’t feel very well for a day or two after that ! Barney is long gone, but his memory shall forever live on. That catch phrase ‘I’M SICK ! I ATE A CRICKET !‘ is in loving memory to the legend of Barney the cat - the cat that never liked me but totally adored my brother.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008 at 10:25 PM
· Filed under Food, Health, Travel
1. In addition to all of the walking that I did on the River Walk en San Antonio on Monday morning (by myself) and on Monday night (with my brother) I walked the mother of all walks long and short on Tuesday morning. It was longer than any previous walk (around my neighbourhood) in ‘The Major’s Walk-A-Thon’ history ! The River Walk may just be the greatest place ever to do a ‘Walk-A-Thon’.
2. Me and my brother ate dinner at Casa Rio on the River Walk on Monday afternoon. It was quite tasty Mexican food Jesse. I enjoyed the ‘Casa Rio Deluxe Dinner’. It’s apparently their #1 seller. It consists of a Cheese Enchilada, a Tamale, a Crispy Beef Taco, Chili Con Carne, Guacamole Salad, Chili Con Queso, Mexican Rice, y Refried Beans. ¡ Era delicioso !
3. On Tuesday afternoon we ate dinner at Joe’s Crab Shack on the River Walk. I also ate there for dinner during my last visit to the River Walk in October 2003. I enjoyed the Shrimp Pasta Alfredo. It was an abundance of tasty pasta and succulent alfredo sauce with mucho bits of shrimp. That’s What I’m Talkin’ About !
4. After all of that walking and eating we took a 30-minute tour of the river by water. It was a lot of fun, and our tour guide was the king of corny one-liners on the river. I think that he may have been a reject from one of the local comedy clubs. Nevertheless he made everyone giggle throughout the cruise. The cruise was sort of like a final wrap-up or summary of all of the walking that had been previously done by me / us (moreso me) on Monday and Tuesday.
5. After the fun cruise we bid a fond farewell to the Paseo Del Rio, and we walked on up to the street level of the city. We took a few pictures over at the Alamo Plaza. (The Alamo itself was long closed by the time that we got there at 7 PM.) We spent about an hour over at Ripley’s Believe It Or Not ! right across the street from The Alamo. There was a lot of loco stuff to look at inside that place !
If it’s Tuesday night then look no further than here for a glimpse into what’s happenin’ in my world:
1. Earlier this afternoon we surpassed the 13,000 mark in total (cumulative) views since this blog’s inception late last November. We keep shattering brand new daily, weekly, and monthly view records on here. I say ‘We’ because without you (reading this) there would be no exciting statistics to write about. Thank You for blogging with me, and for being a part of my Life !
2. It’s currently raining just a little bit over the Homestead / Florida City area, but there’s a whole bunch of rain (torrential downpours) just to the west of us in the Everglades. We could use several feet of rain - not all at once, but spread out over the next three months or so. The more rain that we receive here in South Florida the less likely hurricanes are to come our way.
3. Last week I surpassed the 50,000-mile mark in my car, and I was on Homestead’s Speedway Boulevard southbound approaching Campbell Drive when it all went down. It’s the first time in 15 years that I’ve owned a car for its first 50,000 miles. I previously did so in a 1989 Geo Spectrum (my first car here in Homestead).
4. I enjoyed a MASSIVE Lunch at the White Lion Café this afternoon. It’s the closest that you’ll ever get to fine dining here in Homestead. Last time I ate there I admired Pastor Paul’s fried chicken and mashed potatoes from across the table. This time around I got my own ENORMOUS fried chicken breast - no bones about it. I KNOW THAT’S RIGHT !
5. I ate Lunch at the White Lion with Marge R. I’ve known her for over 20 years - longer than anyone else (who isn’t related to me) in my entire life / Life. She was telling me all about God back in the late-1980s and throughout the entire 1990s when I wasn’t really interested in Him. She never gave up on me though. She kept on bragging on Him. My Christmas 2006 gift to her ? - It’s when I revealed to her (at Applebee’s of all places) that I’ve been saved by Jesus Christ and reborn. A month later I walked through the front doors of Life Pointe Church for the first time ever. It was my first entrance into any church since the late-1970s when I was in grade school.
6. Anne J. - I just finished eating yet another MASSIVE slice of birthday cake. I figure that if I eat three more MASSIVE slices between now and Friday then it will be all gone. The cake surprisingly tastes as good now as it did last Wednesday night when you and the crew surprised me with it.
7. I currently weigh 165.5 pounds. That’s my ideal weight. Can you believe that I actually weighed in the mid-180s back when I was in my early-20s ? I took all of that excess weight off a few years after that, and I’ve been holding steady ever since. Thank You Jenny Craig ! (Just kidding.)
8. If I had to give up one of the following 5 devices for an entire year - TV(s), VCR(s), Computer, iPod Shuffle(s), or Cell Phone - then the answer couldn’t be more simple and easy - the cell phone. I typically don’t use my cell phone to make or receive calls (even though it works just fine). I pretty much only use it to send and receive the occasional text message. Other than that it gets little to no use at all. The telephone (standard or cell) is my least-favourite electronic device.
9. I’m experimenting with homeopathic Murine Ear Drops for Ear Wax Relief. I have a recurring ear wax buildup problem inside my right ear. Sometimes it can get real bad. The worst that it’s ever been in my entire Life was last May in the worst place at the worse time - during the week that I was with my family in The Bahamas to attend my little brother’s wedding. I pretty much could not hear out of my right ear during the entire week. It made for a miserable week.
10. Forget about the little kid in the candy store - check me out anytime I’m inside an Office Depot or an Office Max ! Let me run loose and buy things !
CHEVRON - I filled up my car with regular 87 octane gasoline this morning at my favourite Chevron on the congested Homestead corner of Useless-One y Campbell Drive (SW 312TH St. / NE 8TH St.). It’s my first fill-up in exactly 14 days, and that’s a few days below my overall average. Typically I can go up to 17 to 19 days before I need to fill-up with gas. I spent $4.069 per gallon of gas (nipping the previous all-time record by a mere penny), and I spent a total of $45.00 for the fill-up (nipping the previous all-time record by a single dollar). KA-CHING !
WALGREENS - The highlight here is that I now have enough Omega-3 Fish Oil (1200 milligrams per softgel) to take me into January 2009 providing that I take one of them per day every day until then. (They had a ‘Buy 1 Get 1 Free’ sale on them this week.) I adore the bargain$. THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKIN’ ‘BOUT, WILLIS !
STARBUCKS - I visited our Homestead Starbucks for the first time ever, and what a quaint little place it is with such a quaint little parking lot and a bustling drive-thru. Recently my friend Phil teased me for only going to Starbucks for the ‘frou-frou designer’ espresso coffees that cost over $4. He told me that I should try out their regular coffees that cost under $2. As is always the case for me at Starbucks I get lost, dazed, confused, and sometimes even dizzy looking at their all-encompassing menu board. (Travis I am not.) In my entire life I can still count on two hands the number of times I have been to Starbucks. Have no fear my dear, for I received excellent customer service from my personal barista behind the counter. She helped me to make a decision on what I really wanted. I got the grande Pike Place Roast ($1.89) with caramel flavour added ($0.30), and also a pastry item. My barista also told me all about the benefits of purchasing a Starbucks card. As it turns out I could have gotten the caramel flavour added free-of-charge if I already had the card. I may get it. The coolest part of this particular Starbucks is that they open for bid-ness at 5:30 AM during the week. I totally dig that since that is a half-hour before I need to be at work. BOO-YAH !
… And those - my friends - are my ‘Saturday Morning Shenanigans’ …
This ‘Summertime Special’ edition of ‘The Major’s Walk-A-Thon’ comes to you from The Falls Shopping Center in South Miami-Dade County Florida:
1. Yesterday was my birthday, so that only means one thing today - it was time for my regularly-scheduled annual eye exam. (My eye doctor has his office adjacent to LensCrafters at The Falls.)
2. If you’re not getting an annual eye exam then you must be mad crazy like that. It doesn’t matter if you’ve had 20/20 eyesight for your entire life (which is extremely rare). What you don’t know about your eyes could hurt you in the future. It doesn’t take very long for a thorough eye exam, and it’s very painless. Don’t be a wimp. Go and get your eyes checked for Goodness sake !
3. My least favourite part of the eye exam is also painless, and it brings back hazy memories of the 1980s and 1990s. It’s when my eye doctor dillates my pupils so that they are MASSIVE ! He puts these drops into my eyes, and then within 30 minutes everything gets very blurry and my eyes become extremely sensitive to sunlight (or simple daylight for that matter). Once the pupils are GIGANTIC he checks them for various diseases. As I type this exactly 4 hours after he initially put those drops into my eyes to begin the dillation process my pupils are still much larger than normal, but my eyesight and sensitivity to light has slowly returned back to normal again.
4. During the peak of the MASSIVE pupils I continued a longtime annual tradition by running - not walking from LensCrafters over to T.G.I. Friday’s to consume a MASSIVE Lunch to complement my MASSIVE pupils. I received excellent customer service from my waiter, and the food was absolutely scrumptious. I adored the ‘Parmesan-Crusted Chicken’. It’s ‘a sautéed chicken breast basted with Caesar dressing - then finished with a Parmesan-crust topping.’ It’s ’served with three-cheese tortellini tossed in spinach alfredo sauce and a side of our fresh tomato salad.’ Oh yeah for dessert I dug an ENORMOUS chunk of the legendary ‘Vanilla Bean Cheesecake’. I didn’t regret it pal !
5. In addition to the eye exam and the Lunch I also did a fair amount of walking all around The Falls Shopping Center (a few times around). That makes it a valid ‘Walk-A-Thon’. I’ve been visiting The Falls longer than any other shopping mall here in South Florida - over 20 years. When it all comes down to it The Falls provides the most pleasant (and most natural) shopping environment of any shopping mall that I know of. They don’t have very many stores that I’m a fan of, and their longtime movie theatre which was once state-of-the-art (back in 1990) is now totally obsolete. But it just feels right to walk around that shopping mall at a nice slow pace and glance into the stores to see what I’m not buying. If I lived within the surrounding neighbourhoods then I’d probably be mall-walking around The Falls every week - even in the heart of the summertime. That place is so cool !
Wednesday, June 4, 2008 at 4:15 PM
· Filed under Food, Health
TODAY at 11 AM if you were looking for me then you had to look no further than the Homestead area (just outside of the city limits) Beef O’ Brady’s location. I ADORE that place ! I eat there about once or twice a month, but I should eat there much more often than that because the food is hot and delicious, they have a large menu selection of food available, you get big portions of everything, and customer service is excellent and fast. You pay a wee bit more than other places, but it’s all worth it. The ambience is near-perfect as far as I’m concerned. It’s neither too big and noisy of a joint nor is it too small and uneventful. It’s the perfect size, and I always feel welcome and comfortable there - even when I eat there solo.
I enjoyed a half-pound cheeseburger and curly fries today - two foods that I rarely eat nowadays ever since my MASSIVE heart attack several years ago (just kidding). Where’s my Lipitor ? Oh yeah - I already took it for today. I’m obedient like that.
Catch me at Beef O’ Brady’s again next week my friends !
1. I’m starting this week’s ‘Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts’ at 6:21 PM. That’s the latest that I think I’ve ever started it. I just got home from a long 12-hour day of work here and here.
2. Jesse says that there’s one Mexican restaurant in particular that serves their food above all of the rest, and that’s really saying something for a place like Homestead where there’s a Mexican restaurant on practically every other block. Maybe one day Jesse will take his closest friends (including me) over to this place to experience the real deal.
3. Jesse also says that Hooters makes some of the best wings in the free nation. Since I don’t go to Hooters I encouraged Jesse to go out and get us a whole bunch of those amazing wings and then bring them back home to Homestead to share with his closest friends (including me).
4. Google may be the runaway # 1 smash Internet search engine in the universe, but I hardly ever use it. I prefer Yahoo. I’ve always been a fan of Yahoo - even before it became a household name.
5. Lysol disinfectant kills viruses, bacteria, mold, and mildew. It kills 99.9% of germs in 30 seconds. I know a whole bunch of public places in and around Homestead that could use a good soaking of Lysol daily ! I wonder what’s the deal with the remaining 0.1% of germs. Does Lysol kill them as well, but it just takes longer than 30 seconds ?
6. A lot of great pop music came out during the Summer of 1998. I just took a look at my # 1 hits from my once successful music web site during June, July, August, and September of exactly a decade ago, and it brought back a lot of good times and memories from that era. I think I hung out with my little brother a lot during that fun Summer.
7. I’ll be hanging out with my little brother in just about a month at the River Walk en San Antonio. I’m looking forward to it. It’ll never be as good as ‘the good old days’, but it’ll still be good enough. Any time with my little brother is precious time.
8. I hope that John McCain selects Mike Huckabee as his running mate, but the fact of the matter is that I will vote for John McCain no matter who he selects as his Vice Presidential running mate.
9. I prefer paper clips over staples. That reminds me. I need to get on over to Office Depot to buy some more paper clips of assorted shapes and sizes.
10. I’m ending this week’s ‘Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts’ at 7:12 PM. It took me less than an hour to come up with everything that you just read within this blog entry. That’s how spontaneous this is. I had nothing before I started, and now I have this creation. I created this masterpiece, and I used the skills that were provided to be by my Creator - the Creator of all things that exist - God. He’s good like that. He’s amazing like that. There is no one and no thing that is greater than Him !
1. NO - Your eyes are not deceiving you. This is really an edition of ‘The Major’s Walk-A-Thon’. I just had to take advantage of this extremely unusual cool and dry air over Homestead this late in the winter season (which incidentally I forecasted with precision accuracy nearly a week ago). When dewpoints reach the lower-60s in late-May in Homestead you just know that you are living through a strange weather phenomenon. Of course if you have no clue what a dewpoint is then you probably just think that it’s really sunny outside !
2. Before I even ventured on this ‘Walk-A-Thon’ I went over to Florida City (where all of the food is), and I ate the mother of all MASSIVE breakfasts to end all MASSIVE breakfasts big and small - at Denny’s ! I walked in, I was treated with love, care, and respect, and I ate one of the biggest meals that I can remember in recent short-term memory. Everything was just oh-so-perfect with this breakfast experience - including the environment, the surrounding clientele, and the rockin’ music that was playing in the background. I think I found my new favourite breakfast hang-out joint on future Saturday (or holiday) mornings.
3. I ate so much food that I just had to walk it all off, and so I did via a basic ‘old-school’ standard-issue 1.3-mile walk around the circumference of my beautiful neighbourhood. I did the walk in a little more than 23½-minutes, and I walked to the fantastic beat of my glorious Christian rock, pop, and hip hop music on my green 2GB iPod Shuffle. Editorial Comment Alert - If I were the Music Director of the main lobby of Life Pointe Church on Sunday mornings then I would play my iPod Shuffle in lieu of the current music selection on the iPod that has been played endlessly for about a year now. But that’s just me.
4. One side of Lakeshore’s dumpsters were clean and empty. The other side were dirty, full, and overflowing onto the ground. Gee I wonder which side the City Of Homestead hasn’t gotten to yet ? ! The north side is anxiously awaiting with baited breath the emptying of our dumpsters.
5. I guarantee at least one more edition of ‘The Major’s Walk-A-Thon’ this Summer - on location from the River Walk in San Antonio Texas. Look for it during the week of the 4TH Of July.
Hello Friends. It’s the Monday night edition of ‘Bedtime Stories’. Thanks for joining me here.
Everyone needs to run - don’t walk - RUN ! - over to Harmony’s blog right this very minute to check out this masterpiece. I laughed hysterically when I first read it, and I think that you will too. I just couldn’t wait until this Friday night to share it with you on the ‘Blogroll Review’. Harmony’s been on a blogging roll lately, so she may top herself with something even more crazy and hilarious later this week. Catch it now and thank me later.
Paul is sick at home again. He caught the bug that everyone around him had over the past couple of weeks. Feel better and get well soon ! Sunday is going to be Fun Day at Homestead Bayfront Park ! You’re not gonna wanna miss any potential shenanigans.
I may never tweet, but I actually enjoy reading Phil’s Twitter messages - no matter how mundane some of them are. I think that The P.J. will outgrow this passing fad before the end of the Summer. Incidentally when are we going to hang out for Lunch at El Nachito ? I’m free on most weekdays between now and the end of June.
Well that’s all I’ve got for this Monday night. This is the night that I stay up late (past 11 PM), watch “Monday Night Raw“, and serve The Lord on behalf of Life Pointe Church here at home. I consider this to be the Lakeshore Campus of the LPC.
Have a great evening everyone, and until we hang out again here on the blog or LIVE and in-person remember this:
This Friday night edition of the ‘Bedtime Stories’ is brought to you by the letter ‘C’, and tonight I’ll be addressing these notable items of interest that all begin with the letter ‘C’ - ‘Cars’, ‘Cats’, and ‘Cholesterol’.
Cars - My 5-year-old car is suddenly a dream to drive in again. Earlier this week I went to Firestone and I bought 4 brand new tires for my car - nice ones too with 70,000-mile warranties. It feels like I’m just gliding along now on a thin strip of air just above the road surface. An oil and filter change, a new air filter, and new wiper blades completed the mini-tune-up. It’s my little birthday present to myself now that I’ve decided to keep this nearly fully-paid-off car for at least several more years.
Cats - 5 cats were part of my life scattered over a 23½-year period ending one year ago tomorrow morning. For many years leading up to Boots’ passing on I pretty much declared that I would go from the animal hospital to the animal shelter in a single morning to get a new cat. That didn’t happen, and it won’t happen at this time or anytime soon. Timing is everything, and in his own way Boots led me to God during his final year with me. Everything happens for a reason, and with God always by my side I will never be lonely again. Alone - Yes. Lonely - Never.
Cholesterol - Lipitor is clinically proven to lower bad cholesterol by 39% to 60% - and that’s exactly what it did to me. After 12 weeks of taking my 10 milligrams dose per day it has effectively plummetted my total cholesterol about 40% from the 220s down to the 130s ! The LDLs, HDLs, and Triglycerides were all in the desirable / optimal ranges. I’m good like that. I’m healthy like that !
And that’s how we roll with tonight’s ‘Bedtime Stories’. Be sure to check out the blog again tomorrow for more fun and surprises, and then on Sunday I’ll be taking the ‘Tossed Salad’ on the road again with a special edition coming to you from InDependence Church in Weston Florida. It’s time to check up on my 3RD-favourite Pastor again (after Travis and Paul), and see how Nathan is progressing up there with his new and developing church.
Have a safe, peaceful, and blessed Friday night everyone, and until we hang out again on the blog or in person remember this:
You’ve been waiting about 168 hours for this to come around again, and so here it is. LIVE IT UP !
1. We were treated with a rare mid-May cold front here in South Florida late last night. After sizzing hot temperatures approaching the mid-90s over the past several days we plummeted down to the refreshing low-60s (!) this morning, and this afternoon we’re struggling to reach the mid-80s ! I dig that !
2. Call me crazy, but “Cotton Eye Joe” by Rednex may just be the greatest hillbilly techno smash ever made. You can watch the original 1994 music video of it via my ‘Bedtime Stories’ from last night.
3. Last week’s ‘Thursday Night Internet Hoax Hall-Of-Shame’ became our most-read blog entry ever within about 48 hours of its posting. Many of the top search engine terms that have brought all of this big-city rush hour traffic over to my blog include the stores Bed Bath & Beyond and Circuit City - and the words ‘bankruptcy’ and ‘hoax’. Thank You fans of both of those stores for discovering my blog and realizing that it is indeed an Internet hoax. Your stores are open for business. We’re actually getting a brand new Circuit City right here in Homestead !
4. I ate more popcorn in one sitting at Travis and Kelly’s house this past Sunday night during the “Survivor Micronesia” finale than in any other previous sitting in quite possibly my entire life and Life. I actually don’t like to eat popcorn, but once I get started with it I become addicted to it. 250 kernels of popcorn later …
5. The grass is always greener where the sprinklers are - and where the dogs go to play.
6. I gave blood this morning at a local medical facility in Downtown Homestead. The lady that drew the blood knew what she was doing. She had that needle in and out of my arm cleanly in no time flat. She got what she needed, and I was on my way with no pain or jaundice this time around.
7. I wasn’t at work from 6 to 10 AM this morning, and during that time I was a wanted man. It seems that everyone needed me and nothing was working right during my absence. Lines began to form around me upon my arrival at work. I nearly had to issue out numbers on little paper tabs.
8. I enjoyed Breakfast with my blogging brothers Travis and Phil this morning at the Cracker Barrel in Florida City (where all the food is). We mainly discussed blogging and bloggers. Travis and I agreed that LL Phil J’s blog is being subsidized by both of our blogs. It’s all good.
9. Incidentally I totally adore eating MASSIVE meals with buddies who also adore eating MASSIVE meals. If you’re gonna sit at my table at the restuarant then you best be eatin’ good in the neighbourhood. That’s what I’m talkin’ ’bout !
10. I’m grabbing at straws for this week’s 10TH ‘Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thought’, and that begs me to wonder why would you grab a bunch of straws in the first place ? If you’re indecisive and don’t know what to do or where to go next then just do something. Put the straws down, and seize that moment. It could be the moment that defines your future and determines how everything else will evolve from that moment forward. Know what I mean, Gene ?
Greetings Friends ! We’ve made it - to the 44TH edition of the continuing late-night saga that is the ‘Bedtime Stories’ here on ‘The Major’s Life Blog’. Incidentally when I revitalized this blog and gave it a new look a couple of weeks ago the subtitle of this blog mysteriously dropped off. You may recall that it read ‘The Life & Times Of Major Hitwaves (AKA Chris M. Day)’. I didn’t remove that subtitle. This new blog design theme simply doesn’t display it. So now you know what happened there - for the few of you that actually noticed it missing.
I get to stay up late tonight (sort of). There will be no 5:15 AM wake-up call for me tomorrow morning. I’m gonna be a daredevil on-the-edge and set my alarm clock for a mad crazy 6:00 AM ! I don’t have to be at work at 6 AM, but I do have to be at a local medical facility later on in the morning to give blood as part of ‘Operation Reduce Bad Cholesterol By 40% In 2008′. This will be the first blood work that will be done since I’ve been on the Lipitor, so we’ll see how that goes. Right after I dump the blood I’m speeding over to the Cracker Barrel to eat my MASSIVE meal of the day (Breakfast in lieu of Lunch). There’s a tall stack of French Toast that’s waiting for me over there with my name on it written in pure butter !
Be sure to hang out with me on the blog tomorrow afternoon for your weekly ‘Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts’. You just never know what could be on my mind on a Tuesday night. It’s the most spontaneous blog entry of the week. It should go LIVE shortly after 5 PM EDT.
Until we meet again have yourself a safe, peaceful, and blessed Monday night with your loved ones, and - oh yeah - remember this:
There was no walk around my neighbourhood on this Saturday morning. It was about 73°F and the relative humidity was very near 100% with lower visibility due to light fog. The South Florida summertime weather pattern has taken hold, and it will have a firm grip on us for the next 5+ months.
Last Saturday morning was the season finale of ‘The Major’s Walk-A-Thon’, and so I present to you a recap of the season that started on Christmas Eve with my TOP 10 thoughts (in chronological order):
1. Monday December 24TH 2007 - 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 !
2. Tuesday January 01ST 2008 - 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 … 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 !
3. Saturday January 05TH 2008 - Walking is a great time for praying. I prayed for the residents of Homestead, Florida City, Redland, Leisure City, Naranja Lakes, and Princeton to be blessed by the Glory of God. I prayed that the believers stay strong and unwavering with their personal relationship with Jesus. I prayed that the non-believers be guided onto the on-ramp of the fantastic journey by the believers. There’s plenty of room for everyone who truly believes in Him !
4. Saturday February 16TH 2008 - A friend from afar recently asked me why I started this weekly walk. Besides the obvious health and fitness reasons this walk - inspired and encouraged by this fellow WordPress blogger - is symbolic of my walk with Jesus Christ. I’ve been walking with Him on His fantastic journey for about 18 months now. I was once a mannequin - plastic and rotting. Now I am alive. Since I am alive I am living Life (always capitalized) the way that I should have lived it during my previous 39 years on His great Earth. That includes throwing everything up in the air like ‘Tossed Salad’ (catch the symbolism there) and only catching the good stuff - the right stuff. A physical walk is now on my agenda to complement my spiritual walk with my Creator. No longer am I sitting still in neutral. I am now moving forward and going places with my Life. The Lord Almighty is driving me. I am merely His passenger.
5. Saturday February 23RD 2008 - I received some disappointing news at my Doctor’s office yesterday afternoon. After numerous analyses of my blood work over the past several years he has finally made the determination that diet and exercise alone is not bringing down my bad cholesterol (LDL). It’s still in the ‘elevated’ range, and it doesn’t appear to be coming down on its own. He has prescribed Lipitor for me - 10 milligrams per day to start off with. He gave me a free 14-day sample of it to ensure that it doesn’t cause any bad side effects with me. If I feel fine after the first 14 days then it’s on to Walgreens to get my prescription filled. I take my first dosage this afternoon. This will probably be the start of daily medication for the rest of my Life. I am no longer a young buck. Apparently I am now a middle-aged dude with high cholesterol. I am facing the music.
6. Saturday March 08TH 2008 - My semi-basic 1.4-mile walk on a rare full stomach was done so during treacherous weather conditions - with thick dark clouds hanging low overhead, strong gusty northwesterly winds of up to 25 MPH, cold air pouring in, and even a little bit of leftover drizzle on this fresh side of the powerful cold front. I will dream of mornings like this from April through October when it’s hot and sticky outside with no wind … The ducks were out and about this morning, and they appeared to be lost, dazed, confused, and perhaps even drunk. They were stumbling about, wandering around with no sense of direction, and I saw one of them nearly tumble over in a state of mass chaos. They were wondering why the weather had suddenly changed on them. Some of them probably drank too much (rain).
7. Saturday March 29TH 2008 - Whenever I walk the walk I feel like I’ve taken back my neighbourhood. I’ve lived here for nearly 13 years, but I’ve only really lived here for the past 3 months. Before Christmas Eve 2007 the only walking I did was to and from the mailboxes and the dumpsters. From 1995 to 2007 I merely existed in this neighbourhood. Now I am fully alive. Taking back my neighbourhood from obscurity has been just like taking back my Life from the darkness. I’ve wrapped my arms around my entire neighbourhood just like I’ve embraced this new Life that God has given me.
8. Saturday April 19TH 2008 - I may not have big muscles to show for it, but I am the most physically fit today than I have ever been in my entire life and Life. I am in far better shape today than I was during my late-teens and early-to-middle-20s when I had to run a mile-and-a-half every year in the Air Force.
9. Saturday April 26TH 2008 - ‘The cat by the dumpster’ was there again. He looked at me with his sad yellow eyes with no fear. I think if I dropped a few morsels of tasty food by his side then he would have gobbled it all up in a split second and then followed me for the remaining mile-plus of my walk. 10 years later …
10. Saturday May 03RD 2008 - 2 little dogs were out for some early-morning shenanigans without their owner. I think they escaped from their patio. They were having a good ole time running all around in the street and on the grass - until they saw me ! That’s when they ran behind me and straight outta sight - probably back to where they belong. I wonder which one of those little dogs was the trouble-maker ? Which one said to the other one, ‘Hey, follow me. We’re gonna go out and paint this town. We’re gonna go and get us into some monkey business this morning. Let’s go dog !’
Greetings my friends, and welcome aboard to the Friday night edition of ‘Bedtime Stories’.
Here’s a few ‘quick hits’ for you:
+ Friday May 09TH has become the ‘best day ever’ here on this blog, as we’ve shattered every record in the book for a single day in our history. We shattered the previous Friday record for unique hits by well over 40%, and we beat the previous ‘best day ever’ record by over 10% !
+ This comes hot on the heels following the best Thursday ever !
+ Yesterday’s edition of the ‘Thursday Night Internet Hoax Hall-Of-Shame’ has totally blown up on the Internet. It is expected to become the most-read blog entry ever in our history in just a few more days !
+ It’s Day 4 of my 4TH cold over the past 6 months, and I am now on the road to recovery. I can actually breathe out of both of my nostrils. My voice is still weak, but I expect it to come around to normal by Sunday morning.
+ I worked a long day today - over 9 hours without a lunch break. When I got off of work at 3 PM all I wanted to do was to eat food, so I hopped on Florida’s Turnpike and headed southbound because all of the food is in Florida City. I found it at the Cracker Barrel. While I was waiting for my food I passed the time away by texting a message to LL Phil J’s cell phone. It was an ‘UnTwitter’ message.
+ I watched 3 excellent episodes of “Survivor Micronesia” back-to-back-to-back this afternoon, and now I only have one more remaining (last night’s episode) before I am all caught up. I’ll be able to watch the three-hour season finale extravaganza LIVE this Sunday night starting at 8 PM on CBS-TV ! I’M SAYIN’ !
OK that’s ‘Bedtime Stories’ for you. Be sure to hang out on the blog tomorrow (Saturday) for more fun and surprises !
Have a safe, peaceful, and blessed evening with your loved ones.
Thursday, May 8, 2008 at 1:13 PM
· Filed under Health
NO - I didn’t really eat a cricket. That’s actually an inside-joke between me and my brother regarding one of our childhood cats.
I ate no such cricket, but I am sick - AGAIN. I am now dealing with my unprecedented 4TH cold in just a little over 6 months (since the last few days of October 2007). It’s also my 2ND cold in just a little over 6 weeks (since Good Friday / Easter Sunday weekend).
I felt the arrival of the cold via the typical first-stage sore throat this past Tuesday afternoon. The sore throat actually dissipated a bit the next day on Wednesday, but my voice was still a bit on the weak side. I had actually planned to stay in last night in lieu of attending Life Group, but I decided at the last minute to go ahead and get some food inside of me and join my friends (since we were doing it at the Atlanta Bread Company anyway). It was the very first time that we did Life Group in a public gathering place. It was a very unique setting, but I definitely prefer having it in a more private intimate setting.
My cold got worse last night and into this morning, and I had a restless and sleepless night as a result of it. If it weren’t for an urgent weekly meeting that I not only attend but also facilitate I probably would have used 8 out of my 1,300+ hours of sick leave accumulated and called in sick. I managed to stay at work for 6 hours this morning, and then I came home at 12 noon.
And so here I am - at home - sick. Once upon a time I used to get a cold about every 18 months to 2 or even 3 years. Now I’m working on my 4TH cold in just 6 months. Back then my rare colds lasted in excess of two weeks. Nowadays these colds come and go within a matter of several days. That’s thanks to my good buddies Mr. Vitamin C, Dr. Airborne, y Señor Zicam. (I refuse to take any cold medications.)
1. It’s the first Saturday morning of May, and the walk continues. We’re enjoying an unusually cool Spring here in South Florida. Later this month the rainy season should be kicking-off, and that will pretty much bring an end to these weekly walks for the season.
2. It was another 2.2-mile walk for me this morning, and I did it in 40 minutes flat. That’s an average of 3.3 MPH. I always feel refreshed and alive during and after the walk. I think that’s the whole point of exercising.
3. U.S. 1 is known as the ‘18-Mile Stretch’ from Florida City to Key Largo. I’ve got the ‘18-Minute Stretch’. That’s the middle portion of my walk that takes me from the main gate of my neighbourhood, completely around its southern hemisphere, down the spine, and back to the main gate again.
4. 2 little dogs were out for some early-morning shenanigans without their owner. I think they escaped from their patio. They were having a good ole time running all around in the street and on the grass - until they saw me ! That’s when they ran behind me and straight outta sight - probably back to where they belong. I wonder which one of those little dogs was the trouble-maker ? Which one said to the other one, ‘Hey, follow me. We’re gonna go out and paint this town. We’re gonna go and get us into some monkey business this morning. Let’s go dog !’
5. Most neighbourhoods have a lack of parking. My neighbourhood has an over-abundance of parking. I think we may even have one parking space for every man, woman, and child that lives here. At least it seems that way.
1. God woke me up at around 6:40 this morning, tapped me on the shoulder, told me to get up and take a shower, and then insisted that I get a-steppin’ with my physical walk around my neighbourhood. He wouldn’t let me sleep in this morning and waste away the daylight. I obey Him.
2. I walked 2.2 miles again this morning - the same as the past two Saturday mornings. I also shaved another minute off of the time that it took me to walk it - just a tad bit more than 40 minutes.
3. It was quite comfortable outside this morning. It wasn’t really cool (72°F), but it was rather dry (68% relative humidity), so it felt cooler than it really was. In the middle of the Summer South Floridians typically wake up to temperatures right around 80°F with relative humidity readings above 80%. I won’t be walking in that hot and steamy mess !
4. ‘The cat by the dumpster’ was there again. He looked at me with his sad yellow eyes with no fear. I think if I dropped a few morsels of tasty food by his side then he would have gobbled it all up in a split second and then followed me for the remaining mile-plus of my walk. 10 years later …
5. Following the walk I eventually ended up at the Dunkin’ Donuts at the northern edge of Florida City for blueberry coffee, a sausage, egg, and cheese croissant breakfast sandwich, and crispier, juicier, tastier oven-toasted hash browns. You just can’t go wrong with that combo. I think that the blueberry coffee (with cream and sugar) is one of the best hot beverages that you can possibly buy for less than two bucks.
