Friday, December 26, 2008

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!




























5 comments:

Sarge Charlie said...

I am not looking forward to the new year, holy crap, we can lean on each other and hope for a one term wonder like Jimmy Carter

PRH said...

You gotta believe Sarge....with the economy in the tank, and Barry thinking he's the "Halfrican" version of FDR, the luster will be off the shine quick enough.

Buck said...

I'm glad your Christmas was good, Pat. Here's hoping your back stays in shape, too!

Deborah Wilson said...

Looking back on 2008, what I see, is that this was the year that a fraction of the people in America woke up and took a second look at what's going on with the 1 major political partie(s) (posing as 2) and the deeds in DC.

Many are beginning to understand exactly how 'bought' MSM is and that many of our top journalists have been a big help in steering the socialist/marxist machine. We the People can no longer trust the MSM to be our gov watch dog or represent the voice of the people.

Obama - I want to see his real birth certificate AND his college records. The US Constitution requires that a presidential candidate be natural born. At this point, I don't believe Obama is natural born - therefore not qualified.

As many Americans are beginning to understand, the MSM has almost completely ignored We the People on concerns of the above issue. DC and the Democratic party act as if it's none of our business.

Oh, but it is...

Because, you see, whenever one section of the constitution is ignored and trampled upon, it won't be long until more sections are treated the same.

The Bills of Rights will also be slowly ignored and trampled until there is none left, save what the gov thinks you should have. Your voice and your opinion will no longer matter - and you will be silenced.

It may take 5 or 10 more years to get to that point, but nonetheless, we will get there - via a changed Constitution, intimidation, and possibly aggression - for that is the true face of socialism/Marxism. Commies.

History proves me right.



------------

I hope that I don't sound too negative - but the truth is the truth. Yet half of Americans don't see....It remains to be seen what actually will happen in 2009, or in the years to follow. I think it's best to prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

Considering the obvious economic problems that are experiencing, plus, job loss, home foreclosures,
rising food costs, it's probably best that Americans, no matter where they live on the North American continent, concentrate on and/or go into personal/community survival mode.

Because socialism isn't the only thing we have to worry about...

I'll be touching on these issues (and others, as need be) on my blog, after the 1st.

PRH said...

Strong and true words Deb....Like you, I don't want to sound Negative, but when it comes to the future of the US, I cannot see it any other way, unless real Change(and not the kind the "Halfrican" is pushing) is seen. For that to happen the majority who are oblivous to politics, need to wake up, and do it soon.

Before February Ends...

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