2008 in Review/January-February

First off, I hope all that read these words had a Merry Christmas, and you took time out to remember the real reason we celebrate the Holiday....and it sure the Hell isn't because of Winter Solstice or the coming resident of the White House, who(and his worshippers) thinks he is the New Messiah.


Our Christmas Eve went well....we celebrated at my sister Marty and her husband Pat's(yep, another Pat in the family....seems Pat and Mike were the names we got or migrated towards). Cards, food, drinks, and Wii games, Patricia, Anissa, and I stayed until about 11pm, the boys hung around till about 1 in the morning. The only one missing was youngest sister Kelly...down in Naples, and mom and brother Mike will be heading that way tomorrow...mom will stay for a few months, and Mike will return after the New Year. We had a quite time Christmas morning, Anissa as usual was ready to open her stash....Hal stayed until 10AM, but had to leave for Dayton....he choose to make some good money by working the noon to 8PM shift at his part time gig at the Carry-Out. I spent most of the day cleaning out my desk, and watching the endless Christmas showing of "A Christmas Story" on TBS, a annual tradition.

TIME FOR A LOOK BACK!

With "King Obama" and the new year looming, I will for the next 6 days take a personal look back at 2008...2 months at a time.

2008__________

January-February


The new year began with my annual trip to the Pearson's north of Fort Wayne...Rick was my best man in 1976, and I returned the favor some 5 years later....we have gotten together at least once a year since that time, usually on New Years Day to eat plenty of food, watch football, and catch up. The past few years we have been seeing more of each other as time becomes more available, both of us "retiring" in our 50s. We usually get together in May for the Michigan Mushroom hunt near Mesick, and see each other a few more times a year, usually, when he is visiting his mom in Celina.


Youngest son Hal usually goes with me, but this year he was working, so I picked up Rick and my college buddy from our days at Athens...Clint Thompson, and we headed over. We ended up drinking more than a few beers, smoked a few cigars, watched too much football, and ate more than our share...Clint and I stayed the night, and drove home through the snow, in Jeep, the next morning. We plan on making our annual trip this coming Thursday.


January also saw me recuperating from my Spinal Stenosis Injection at Fort Wayne Ortho. I was slow to recover, and was still in a "tender" state while at Rick's...I improved slowly as the month went by...before February ended I was about 75-80% better, and was believing I could start the baseball season on time(which I did).


January was the first appearance of our back yard Hawk...a young male Marsh Hawk, who took to feeding on the sparrows and pigeons when he got the chance....he made for entertainment and photo opportunities. January and February also saw the continued demise of the old Mersman Table Factory....built in 1905, the factory across the street, closed in the mid 90s, and the destruction took about 6 months....January and February saw the progress on the project pick up full steam.


The middle winter months saw quite a few small snow and Ice storms, but nothing overly large despite predictions to the contrary....Global Warming(which doesn't exist) was not present in western Ohio. More than the snow February saw on major rain event which cause Grand Lake to leave it's banks and cause havoc to the south and west parts of Celina. I used to opportunity to get some flood photos.


In sports, Ohio State embarrassed themselves in a 2nd straight BCS Bowl Championship Game, losing to LSU. In the Pro Super Bowl, the underdog NY Giants upset the previously undefeated and heavily favorite Patriots. Personally in Church League Dartball, I suffered through my worst season since my first one 13 years ago. The back, and tossing large feathered darts did not match up well....I did improve well enough towards the end of the season to make my 12th straight All-Star Game....but personally and as a team, we pretty much sucked.


I was not doing a lot of RV delivery in January and February, the back issues and the slow down of the industry keep me off the road most of the time....Sam would keep at it into the late summer, before giving the hard hit industry up, and returning to school at Ohio State.

Tomorrow I will look at March and April.....2008

back later>>>>>>

photos-Me standing at the Meyer Road intersection during the height of the February 2008 floods/Ice Jams.-OSU loses in the National Championship...AGAIN!- The Marsh Hawk guards our back yard-the Mersman Smoke Stack comes down at 103 years old.-Dartball Darts!