Road To Nowhere/June 1975 Florida Trip

Some lightning and showers overnight...it will clear and cool off for the weekend. Dartball Tournament will continue Sunday at Schumm, with the Semi Finals followed by the finals...we play at 1pm and if we play like we did last week{a rarity} we will compete in the championship games at 3:30...if not we go home, and Sam and I get ready for the All Star Game on March 9th and League Banquet on March 23rd.....

The Summer of 1975____

By the time June of 75 rolled around I was getting bored with my Red Door life...I had bought a house, Patricia and I had decided to get married, we had not set a date, well maybe she had but I hadn't as of yet....I knew bar tending and running a rock and roll tavern was not going to be my lot in life....at least not forever, so I decided to prepare for the future, and planned on winding my days at the Red Door down.

First thing I wanted to do was take a little vacation to my old home town of Venice, Florida. Mom still owned a house there, so I offered to check the house out and see how the renters were taking care of it....at least I told her I would check on it when I reached Venice. Not wanting to vacation all by myself, and wanting to sow some oats before settling down to married life, I asked a few of my buddies if they were up to a 10 day road trip....I found two that could make the trip...my DJ Buddy Jim Olson, and Mike Schilling who I had known since high school...him being from Coldwater, me from Celina....I was senior to both of them by a year...I was 26 in June 1975.

I had purchased a 1962 Ford Econline Van in the spring...I had the Kawasaki 250 and a 1973 AMC Hornet Hatchback, but wanted something to haul the bike around in, so I purchased this hideous green van complete with 2 bucket seats and a drop down bed attached to the inside....a perfect ride for hauling around Coon Dogs, Motor X Bikes, and cases of beer...basically it was a ride that if somebody stole it, I wouldn't be out much, except a whole lot of fun.

So on a hot, sunny, day in June 1975, when Bachman-Turner Overdrive were topping the charts with "Taking Care of Business" I turned the house over to Patricia and she would take care of the Coon Dogs and Rags the Airedale, while Jim, Mike, and I, headed to sunny Florida in the Van. Schilling plugged in his CB and down I-75 we headed south...we made it to Middletown when the first tire blew...a small set back, it was repaired and the trip continued through Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and into north Florida...to be perfectly honest, I can't remember if we stopped overnight or not, but given our financial status or lack of it, I think we drove straight through, with me and Schilling taking turns at the wheel...we both thought Olson sucked as a driver, plus we considering him a "stoney" so we refused to let him drive, thinking he might take the unstable van over the side of one of the hills in the Great Smokey Mountains...we did have fun doing back and forths on the CB with the truckers as we traveled south.

Before leaving Celina, we procured 25 cases of beer through my contacts with distributors at the Red Door...being 20 something gentleman of meager means we got the cheapest rot gut we could find....so we loaded the van down with fifty, 12 packs of Red, White, and Blue, and Pabst...RWB was brewed by Pabst and it was at best a cheap stench of a beer than only one who enjoyed smelling their own flatulence could enjoy..but it was beer...albeit 3.2 beer. Hey I said it was cheap. We also carried enough little white pills to keep us awake for the trip. Mike and I also loaded our Bikes into the van, My 250 KAW legal for both on and off road, and his 125 which was no way legal for street, or as it turns out for the beach at Daytona either.

I-75 was not completely done in 1975, but for the most part we had 4 lanes with construction present for our trip....we arrived in Venice, and I gave the boys a tour of my old hometown, which I had not seen in almost 13 years. I stopped by mom's house and talked with the renters who looked at us 3 long haired northerners like we came from outer space, either that or they were worried I would evict them....looking back I probably should have and moved back for awhile. We then went a few miles back north to the twin city of Nokomis where my cousin Gary lived...Gary(who passed away this past December) had been my roommate in Celina the previous year and both Schilling and Olson knew him...Gary had remarried and was doing his usual car projects, something he was quite good at.....Where to stay?

Being of modest, at best, means, we decided to camp(I think we stayed in one motel for the entire 10 day trip)...so we took the trip north 5 miles to rural Osprey and pulled in at the Oscar Sheer State Campgrounds...this would be our home for the first 3 or 4 days of our Florida Vacation. We spent the next 3 days dodging afternoon thunderstorms, fishing for Snook at the North Jetties at Nokomis, and drinking beer....if I recall, the 25 cases didn't last the first week of the trip. I also jumped on the Kawasaki and rode to Englewood to see my best friend from my Venice days, Mike Graff....it had been over 12 years since I saw Mike...those dozen years had changed us both....I talked with him and his wife for an hour or so...said our good byes and rode off. I never saw or talked with him again, Mike Graff passed away in 2003 at the age of 54. Sometimes the old adage, "You can't go home again" rings true..this was one of those times.

After a few days we again were bored, we had fished, hit all the bars worth hitting, caught some sun and plenty of rain in the first handful of days...it was time to move on to other places in Florida...Busch Gardens, Disney World, and Daytona Beach were on the Horizon, so we packed up, left Oscar Sheer State Park and headed north to Tampa.

The Florida 1975 Trip Part #2 is next!

back later>>>>

photos--My old Ford Van...a clunker for sure, but the times we had in that thing....Red, White, and Blue Beer by Pabst Blue Ribbon...a bad beer, but beer it was for a trio of almost broke guys back in the 'Summer of 75'...postcard of the {South} Venice Jetties as it looked in the 1950s, it looks pretty much the same these days, Venice doesn't....our camp site at Oscar Sheer State Park in June 1975...and my brood of Blue and Red tick Coon Hounds I raised in town...they didn't tree that many Raccoons, but they did drive my Brandon Street neighbors nuts, as did I...which of course was much more fun.

Road To Nowhere/Beer Run!

Sam and I got our state meeting in for baseball at Dublin-Jerome High School last night, making the 180 mile round trip, and arriving home about 8:30pm. Today a hint of Spring...50 with rain moving in, and 54 tomorrow with more rain...winter back for the weekend. Speaking of last night...DAMN! I missed Emperor Obama's NON State of the Union Speech. I did catch a flash of it, and saw that rubber faced hag Nancy Pelosi sitting behind him along with VP Joe "The Plagiarist" Biden...What a Collection of Criminals....Hang Em' All!

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Continuing my look the middle of nowhere travels that I started yesterday.

After my stint in the Air Force, then living in upstate New York for awhile...I returned to Celina in the fall of 1973. This began what is without a doubt the wild portion of my life. I had left my factory job at the Huffy Bike factory, and was working as a janitor at the local school district...I planned on going back to college on the GI Bill, but wasn't ready just yet...sure I was 24 years old, but the Air Force had stunted my party time...so I was working mid day shift and hanging around my favorite watering hole, The Red Door{see April 2008 posts}...one night my buddy Mike Schilling and I broke up a fight between some punk from Chicago and the Door's owner Wayne Holleman...Wayne had taken over daily management from his son, and really did not like "running" a bar, especially one like the Red Door, which catered to the 18 to 25 crowd, and anybody under drinking age(which was 18 in Ohio at that time for beer), that could sneak through the front door. Wayne liked the way I handled myself kicking this guy's ass out of the place...and sat down and offered me the chance to Manage the Door....being bored with cleaning up after Junior High and Elementary kids, and knowing my future was not there...I says..."When do you want me to start? and How Much are you gonna pay me?" The next 2 years were the stuff that could result in many stories and probably some jail time if the Statute of Limitations had not run out...nothing violent, no known felonies, but just a good old Hell Raising Time...not all of it legal.

The Kansas City Coors Run_______

After I started at the Red Door, we collected a pretty good band of brothers working and hanging around there....some of the guys like Rick Pearson and Clint Thompson had went off to Ohio University where Nick Hromish and I would join them later...but a close nit bunch that included Nick, Jim Olson, Rick Tester, Randy Winkeljohn, Bob Jones, and some others hung around Celina, and made "The Door" our home away from...or in me and Tester's case, it became our home...Hell I would be known to fall asleep/pass out in the upstairs office on many nights that first year I worked there and wake up ready to go the next afternoon.

Tester was my main bartender, Jim Olson, a radio DJ from North Dakota, was our weekend record spinner, and Hromish was my part time bartender and full time pain in the ass drinking buddy....as a group and with a few other regulars we would make dozens of runs just for the Hell of it...they included weekends in Cincinnati to take in the Reds double headers on Sunday{yes they played 2 on Sunday back then}... going to Illinois to buy a Blue Tick Coon Hound on a whim, or just head off fishing or Hell Raising....

Coors Beer______

Coors Banquet Beer was/is a legend out west, and back in the mid 1970s you had to travel west of the Missouri to drink it on tap or purchase it by bottle and can. Our big sellers at the Red Door were Pabst{PBR} and Strohs....Miller Lite was just coming in to it's own...but the Coors legend was still in our minds...so one week we got a burr in our asses and decided to make a run west to collect a few cases, bring it back and sell it for a buck a can. Now of course this was illegal as Hell..we were selling our regular brands for about 60 cents a can{no bottles allowed in the Red Door, much too dangerous a prospect}...we would run to Kansas City, grab 40 or 50 cases, bring it back, keep what we wanted and sell the rest at the RD for a buck each...gas and beer paid for with some to spare, what could be more simple?

So on a Friday night in the Spring of 1975 we closed down the Door at 2:30pm...and 5 of us, me, Tester, Olson, Hromish, and a young bartender named Dave Slorpe, hopped in Nick's Buick Land Yacht and headed west on I-70 towards Indy, St. Louis, and Kansas City....a trip it was. 12 hours later we crossed into Kansas City, Kansas, from Missouri and stopped at the first Carry Out....a cooler full of 8 ounce bottles, and 40 cases of cans in Nick's trunk, we turned it around and headed back east on I-70....we arrived home at 3AM Sunday morning...24 hours, 40+ cases of beer, no sleep and a few beers under our belts later{Nick stayed sober for once, since we let him drive the entire trip, going and coming}. I have done a few things more crazy in my life, but to tell the truth, most were not half the fun.

We sold, illegally of course, a few cases, can by can, at the Red Door, but to tell the truth, we split most of the beer up and hauled it off to our various refrigerators....40 cases divided by 5, 20 something guys like us didn't last long....and the Coors? Never did think it was really anything special, but it was the trip, not the beer, that remains embedded in my brain....

The old gang is spread out...me and Nick and Tester still live around the lake, in my case, after being away for several years, Olson is back in North Dakota...Nick and I still get with Olson once a year, usually for a Viking or Twins weekend in Minnesota, on occasion he comes back here and we head to Cincinnati...I don't see Tester, Winkeljohn Jones, or the other guys as much as I would like to, but the memories, the crazy memories, from that 1973-1976 period will last a life time. And more important, we all have survived well into our 50s...which is amazing in itself.

A local baseball meeting in Van Wert tonight, and more "Nowhere" stories later in the week....

back later

photos described-Coors Banquet Beer, the desire of our Trip to Nowhere...from May 2000 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati left to right Houseworth, Olson, and Hromish...feeling no pain, but we weren't driving, so who cared?...Years before me and Olson at one of our Road Trips, this one in June 1975 to Florida, Daytona and Disney World...Nick and me from the Bar Stool Open in August 2008...and me and Rick Tester and his classy Tee at the 40th Red Door Reunion last April.

In the Middle of Nowhere

Sunshine today and maybe reaching 30 for a high...could be worse, could be better, for the last week in February. Will drive to Wapakoneta(home of Neil Armstrong) this afternoon, pick up Sam at their local TA Truck Stop on I-75, and we will head south to Dublin-Jerome High School to attend the State Baseball Rules Meeting....time is growing short to get this done, and if you don't attend one State Meeting you get suspended from the Umpire World for the season...better late than never, so let's get it done...should be home about 8:30 or 9 tonight.

My calf muscle is getting better by the day. My main concern is not jumping up and putting stress on it too soon....so will take it easy on the workout front until a week before the scrimmages start on March 21st...of course that is an "iffy" proposition anyway, with March weather being what it is, I'll be satisfied to get a game or 2 in before the regular season begins on March 30th.

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Travels to Nowhere...

I've been lucky my nearly 60 years on this planet to have not had to live in the cities or suburbs of the country, at least for the most part. Born and lived the first 5 years of my life in the small town of Scott, Ohio,(population 250) surrounded by a small close nit family...then for the next decade to southwest Florida, on the Gulf of Mexico, many years before it became a overcrowded death trap for senior citizens...Growing up in Venice and South Venice, Florida, when the population was less than a thousand when we arrived, and still less than 3000 when we left in 1963.

It was then back to Ohio, where dad and mom bought a home near Montezuma, population about 200 in town, and a few hundered more along the back roads...by the time they moved from Montezuma the 5 miles to Celina in 1970, I had moved on to the Air Force. After that hitch, which included only 1 large city, that being Saigon, RVN, I was challenged with the wanderlust and lived in small cities like Rome, New York, where I stayed after my Air Force days...back to Celina, then rural Wausau, Wisconsin, Kokomo, Indiana, and Dodge City, Kansas, before moving back home to Ohio and to the farm on Coldwater Creek between Celina, and Coldwater...Finally in 1995 we purchased our current home on the western edge of Celina....I guess throughout my life, the most urban setting I ever lived in as a resident, was the 7 months in Kokomo.

In addition to living in small towns and rural areas, I have had the luck and privledge, to travel to rural and outback type settings. Give me the solitude of the Canoe Bountry Waters of Northern Minnesota anyday over a trip to the crude populace and stench of dumps like Washington DC or Chicago....if I have to travel to a medium or large sized city, my only thought is, "How soon can I get the Hell out of here?"

So, with this being the inbetween time of my year....a month or more layoff from Basketball season to my Baseball schedule, and the lousy weather destined to stick around for the duration{and frankly without a Hell of a lot else to write about, unless I want to continue to endless drone of Obama and his Marxist politics and the crashing economy}. I will talk about some of the "out of the way" places my travels have taken me, and add a few photographs that I have snapped along the way.....

Today's Photos- Top Left...The Old Pear Tree at the Farm on Coldwater Creek...this one is the Kids, Anissa, Sam, and Hal, from top to bottom...we lived on that farm from the fall of 1980 until the late summer of 1990...I can't imagine a better place to raise a young family, especially during the summer and fall months...winter? Not so much, but it was interesting all seasons. We had a chance to buy the place, but decided with the old brick house in need of some serious upgrades, to move into town...do I or Patricia regret it? Probably at times, but things work themselves out....

#2 My buddy Nick and I spent many weekends of the 1980s fishing at Lake Erie...we would put his 22 footer in at Port Clinton, and usually head out to the Bass Island area, where we would fish for Walleye...most times we would "park" the boat at South Bass, and hit the bars and clubs on Saturday nights...we would usually resume fishing complete with hangovers Sunday mornings, before heading back to west Ohio in the afternoon. One one occasion in June of 1984...we drifted away from the crowd of boats within a couple of miles of the Islands, and an hour or so later we looked up and the "Richard K. Reese" was upon us...we knew then we had drifed too far(about 25 miles off Port Clinton)...and into Canada...not something you want to do...The Canucks don't take kindly to fisherman with no Canadian License taking their catch...."Richard", and and we parted company, the vessel heading east towards Cleveland and Buffalo, when we hauled ass south back to US waters.

#3 In my days at the Van Wert County Health Department, I would usually take my camera...it was part of my job when investigating Enviornmental Violations....it also gave me a chance to take unusual shots of things that interested me. One foggy morning I was driving to a septic system inspection in northeastern Van Wert County, when I came across a long abandoned church that I had seen many times before...this day in 2000, it just seemed was a good day to photograph it....I thought it came out well.

#4 Bottom-In 1978 while living in northern Wisconsin, my North Dakota buddy, Jim Olson, and some friends of his planned a camping/canoing trip to the Boundry Waters of Northern Minnesota, near the Canadian Border...his handful of friends were already there when Jim and I hooked up in Duluth....Our trip to get our canoe and supplies at Tom and Woods Livery was a story in itself....the trip via Canoe with portages by 2 greenhorns, Jim and Me, was something ledgends are made of...and I will tell that story later on in these "Trips to Nowhere" writings. When we finally made it to our camp/fishing site, we ended up on this small Island that was a perfect spot...I doubt if I could find it today if I tried....it was in retrospect one of my all time favorite "guy thing" vacations...the memories are still clear as a bell over 30 years later. The Island we set up on is the highlight of this photo.

More photos and some stories in the next writing...

back later>>>>

Dartball Upset/Weekend Rehash

Temperature stood at 10 above this morning...it's been a long-long winter with just a few breaks....mid 40s by Wednesday, but back to cold for the first weekend of March, so it looks like "in like a lion" it will be.

Yesterday afternoon our Dartball team headed for Schumm, Ohio, a little berg of 50 people and a Lutheran Missouri Synod Church, where the Wabash Valley League Tournament is being held this year. Schumm is the northern most team in our league. Anyhow, we "drew" Mount Carmel our South Division Rivals in the first round...Carmel and our St.John's team have been the top 2 teams in the south for many years....and frankly they have had the better of us in the past 15 years since I started playing..we have won a couple of tournament championships, but by far they have won more league and travel trophies than we have. With our influx of new players, including a 8 and 10 year old, and the retirement and deaths of other star players, we have been a shell of our old team. We finished both half's 11 wins and 10 loses, we still managed 2nd place in the south, but Carmel easily won both half's.

Our odds going into yesterday's 2 of 3 first round were not good....our top run game of the season was 12, on 2 occasions, and our best 3 game night run total had been just 21...far and away below our totals from years gone by...in fact we averaged below 4 runs a game, and about 9 hits....anybody that plays serious underhand dartball knows these stats are pretty below average to say the least. We started the day out with Sam{our Captain} losing the coin toss...but things for some reason got better after that...a notorious slow starting team, we dropped a 3 spot on them in the top of the first inning, and things just kept getting better in game one.....we ended up scoring 14 runs, a season high, on 20 hits{second most} and went on to trounce Carmel 14-7 in game #1. The 8 year old went 3 for 4 with 3 RBIs and his 10 year old brother went 2 for 4....both well above their seasons average....I went 3 for 5 with 2 triples and a couple RBIs in game #1.

In game #2 things cooled off for us, while Carmel matched their game one total with 7 runs on 10 hits and topped us 7-5...I went just 1 for 4 with a RBI.....that brought us down to the rubber game in the best 2 of 3...as the visiting team, much like the first game, we jumped out 3-0 in the first inning....and after 2 innings we were up 4-0 on the favorites....that couldn't last against these guys, and it didn't...Mt Carmel tied it at 4 in the 7th and with the rest of the teams watching our game(it was the final contest to finish for the day)...it looked like the Cinderella Story would come to and end....In the top of the 8th with the 10 year old Jake on first(with his 4th hit of the day) and 2 out, our top of the order came up....Ed our leadoff hitter singled to put 2 on and 2 out....our RBI leader Gene brought them home with a 2 run triple, I singled and John tripled me home, before Sam ended the inning, and lo and behold, we were up 8-4...that proved to be enough, and we ended up pulling off the upset...and will move on next Sunday to the Semi Finals against Mount Tabor, a team with a better record, but a team we matched 3 games each during the regular season. I ended the day with 6 for 13 and a team high of 5 RBIs....

On the regular season, I finished in 4th place in the league with a .362 batting average, a sign how far our league is down....10 years ago, I batted .493 and still finished second in the BA Title. Sam and Gene joined me for the annual All-Star game which will be held on March 9th.

This morning I will be at a meeting with MRS, to discuss personal policies. That is about it for the day's schedule....The first week of my "Weight Watchers" modified diet and lost 5 pounds...5 down 25 to go by May First....will I do it? Probably, the problem is not losing it, but keeping it off come next "Cookie Season"{the Thanksgiving and Christmas Holiday}.

Tomorrow night Sam and I will drive the 180 mile round trip to Dublin{northwest berg of Columbus} for our State Baseball Rules Meeting...basketball prevented us from making it to the area meetings in Lima and Piqua, so we will have to make the longer trip.

That's about it for my "hectic" weekend and life.....sarcasm alert!

back later>>>>>

photos-Dartball Darts and our score sheet from Yesterday...Click to ENLARGE

Winter Set to Return/Cabin Fever

WINTER STORM WATCH FRIDAY NIGHT INTO SATURDAY AFTERNOON FOR MERCER COUTNY:

Things tend to slow down in late February...you{at least in western Ohio} tend to get caught up between seasons, winter is still here, but you get a taste of a spring tease on occasion as well. Last week we neared 70, this week we were in the 50s, but the high yesterday was only 17 with winds from the northwest at 30MPH...the chill factors hovered around zero. Now I see the National Weather Service is calling on a Winter Storm Watch for late tonight and tomorrow...2 to 4 inches of snow, and winds picking back up by Saturday afternoon...this could cause a break out of the snow blower, I guess it was to much to think I would be done with that.

With the calf muscle tear effectively ending my basketball season, I can now rehab and rest it until the baseball season, or at least the scrimmage season, is set to begin March 21st...the regular baseball season for High School is scheduled to start March 30th. Usually March and the first week of April is "iffy"...rain, cold, and snow, they make an appearance, and cancel about half the games, before real Spring sets in and we start getting some warm weather...but in Ohio each year is different, so you never know what you are going to get. Sam finishes up his basketball season tonight with a JV boys game at Crestview...and then tomorrow(weather permitting) at Lincolnview for a girls Junior High tournament double header. Tuesday we head south to Dublin for our State Baseball Rules Meeting...basketball has kept us from getting that one done, and there has been no sense in attending the required meeting solo.

So between late February and baseball season I've got plenty of time to get my warm weather plans in order...unless Barack Diabolos Obama brings on Armageddon, then all plans are off.

Things on my personal agenda{the great thing about being semi retired is, if you break em', who cares?}...losing the 25 pounds I have been planing on doing for the past 2 years....last time I dropped that much was the 30 I lost back in 2005, I kept that off for awhile, but have gained about 20 of it back. I would like to get down to 185, which considering my body build, would be about as much as I could do without health issues....I've lost 5lbs in the first 4 days of my "diet"{which really is not that hard, as long as I stay away from the breads and sweets}...so by the end of spring I hope to be there...and will keep you informed.

I plan on getting my fishing equipment in order, and will do more fishing this spring and summer, I may have to travel a little to do so{our local Grand Lake has pathetic fishing these days), but plan on doing just that. Also, target practice with the various pistols is in order, I have neglected that since my Air Force days, but I think the need to be proficient with weapons is more important now than ever....if you have to ask why, you have not been watching the news or see what is happening under the new Administration.

Patricia and I plan on starting a garden of sorts, I need to paint portions of the house and trim, and do some other yard work. Between the sports officiating, yard yard and house trimming, I plan on enjoying some good cigars{will be ordering a new stock here shortly}, and drinking a few cold ones between games and yard work. That sounds like my plans for the warm weather...now I just have to wait out the next few weeks of winter.....

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In the meantime, I will continue to watch the disaster called Obama, take control like Stalin or Hitler, of these United States. He is El Diablo...the Chicken with Claws. Obama is the most dangerous man in the world, and is the enemy of the Amendments of the Constitution. Laugh it off all you want....time will tell{and prove me and others right}.

Dartball Tournament this Sunday Afternoon.....

back later>>>>>>>>

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photos-El Diablo, who has a striking look much like El Barack...the Devil with a smile and an empty suit. Indian Tabac Smokes, my favorite cigars, good price, nice taste. And target practice and fishing are on my agenda for the coming warm weather.

Obama's Folly/Ranking the Presidents

44 with rain slated for today. The last weeks of winter are always the worst. You have cabin fever, that itch to sit on the back steps or the front porch, and pop a top on a cold one and fire up an Indian Tabac....but Mother Nature says, "Not so fast, there is plenty of cold, wet, windy, weather still ahead"....and so we wait, and wait, and wait......

I tried to stay out of the news cycle yesterday, knowing our asshole-in-chief, one Barack Barry Soetoro Obama, was jetting off to Denver to sign the Porkulus Package that nears $1 Trillion....meanwhile the national debt approaches $12 Trillion...sweet isn't it? The Ebony Messiah flies Air Farce 1 to Denver to the tune of 20,000 gallons of Jet Fuel, while urging Americans to shut up, because he won. Screw you Barack, you sorry Marxist SOB....you, within 30 days of being crowned "King of Amerika" in your own warped mind, have become the biggest hipocrite in recent memory.

King Obama in one afternoon, jetting across the fruited plain, used more fuel and caused more damage to our environment, than the Average Joe does in a lifetime. So excuse me Mr President, if I say to you..."Kiss My Ass Barry".

Obama, Pelosi, Reid, and the rest, have taken the rheins from Bush and Company, and has taken charge of those flood gates that "Dubya" opened and tore them off. We as a Republic are in deep, and no amount of Government spending is going to rescue the economy or the country...Obama will fail, hopefully the USA will rebound. But I don't have a Hell of a lot of confidence that will happen.

Ranking The Presidents
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C-Span hired a gagle of "Historians" to rank the US Presidents...pretty funny stuff.

Old Abe Lincoln was ranked #1....lol, my guess is these so called Historians lean just a little to the left.....now Old Abe may have saved the Republic, but #1....I don't think so. In my personal rankings, Abe wasn't even close....nothing to do with Slavery{before anyone accuses me of being a bigot}. Truth is, Lincoln really didn't have much use for the Slave issue....he did however try to destory the issue of States Rights. Abe was probaly in the middle somewhere, but history will never, ever, show that.

Other amusing rankings....Jimmy Freaking Carter was ranked #25..now really, who could be lower than this peanut brained SOB? Not even Bush2 can come close, at least GW, for all his faults, figured out how to kill Islamic Terrorists....Carter is #44 by any view, or at least anyone with a brain, is dead last. Bill Clinton at #15? Yep, if you ranked them by the ability to lie and sell out the Red China. LBJ at #11...lol, you gotta be kidding? And probably the 2 most pathetic rankings.....DRUM ROLL PLEASE>>>>>>>

Woodrow Wilson at #9 and FDR at #3...Wilson was a fascist and FDR caused the Great Depression to go on for more than a decade, until our entry into WWII.


Now, don't get me wrong... I know opinion are like assholes, and some of us are ones...including me. So for what it's worth from this asshole to you other ones....here are my top 5 and bottom 5. Being a student of History, I will admit the findings are biased and personal, don't like it? Tough Luck...make your own.


The Bottom 5 Presidents of All Time according to PRH........(Obama not included, because he has plenty of time to screw himself into the last spot, so we are only ranking the first 43 Prezies}.



#39 FDR---reason, as stated above
#40 LBJ---reason, much like FDR, Lyndon Johnson got us into war based on lies, and foisted the Great Society on the US, a disaster much like the Great Depression...we still have not recovered from it.
#41--Clinton...an impeached liar. Clinton now is seen as a coke abusing big nosed clown, but the damage he did while in office will be felt for years to come. Having said that, I could probably have a beer with Hillbilly Bill, but his taste in women...? Talk about bad! Hillary is another reason to vote Bubba low on the list.
#42 Wilson...this assclown tore the First Amendment apart, jailed his detractors, and was our first Fascist President....read deep into real history to find his faults, because the main stream media worships this guy...he was pure evil..
#43 Jimmy "Peanut Brain" Carter...the guy's "Misery Index" numbers speak for themselves...his treason towards the US since he left office is the stuff the founding fathers would have hanged him for.


Now on to the top 5(IMO)

#5--Harry S. Truman....not a great President, but bombing Japan with atomic bombs ended the war and saved at least thousands of American lives and probably more....for that reason alone "Give em' Hell Harry" deserves a top 5 spot.
#4--Teddy Roosevelt...a little to left on some issues, but Teddy was an environmentalist with a brain, and he knew the dangers of unchecked immigration...
#3--Ronald Reagan...without a doubt the greatest President in my lifetime, and probably the 20th Century...if you have an argument with me on this...don't bother. Reagan brought the Soviet Union to it's knees, and built America back to his proper place in History.
#2--George Washington...a Hero for any era...Obama could take lessons from Washington. "I don't want to be King"....instead he wants to be like the good Socialist FDR. #1--Thomas Jefferson...despite the left trying to claim Jefferson as their own, Jefferson was a hard core Conservative of his day....he would have had hanged or shot the current members of both parties who sit in DC. Jefferson was the true father of the Republic.



Photos-Fuel Guzzling Air Force 1, Obama's own private Pimp Ride(Obama's whores being the Main Stream Press instead of loose women)./Jimmy Peanut Head Carter, America's Very Worst President/Ronald Reagan, my personal favorite and the best in my lifetime/and my #1 Thomas Jefferson.

Back Later>>>>>>

A Birthday and Dartball Finals

Looks to be 44 or so for the next couple of days....before the bottom starts to fall out come Thursday, and we get another few days of winter. My torn right calf muscle is still in the healing stage, and hopefully it will heal before baseball season starts. Speaking of which, local meetings start tomorrow night, and Sam and I still have to get our State Rules Meetings in....usually we go to Lima or Piqua but due to basketball committments, we have missed those...we had planned on driving to Springfield on Sunday to catch a meeting there, but the Dartball Tournament draw has put those plans on hold. So, we will try to make the 90 mile drive to Dublin(northwest corner of Columbus) next Tuesday...hopefully the weather will cooperate, otherwise we will have to pay out $50 each for a make-up meeting in Columbus on March 2nd.

Speaking of Dartball...we finished off our regular season last night on the road at Hopewell Lutheran Church....dropping the first game, before coming back to win the final 2. We finish the second half of the season with 11 wins and 10 loses, the same record as the first half...so 22-20 overall, considering the youth we have on the team, combined with some really old guys{even older than me :0 } I can't complain...finishing 2nd(tied in the first half) in both halves. The tournament begins Sunday{thus the change in plans on the state baseball rules meeting}, with us against our division rivals, Mount Carmel....even though they won both south division titles this season, we did manage to split the season series with them 3 games a piece.

Despite having two bad{for me} seasons in a row, I did finish well the past 2 weeks...ending a season where I missed many at bats due to basketball officiating, with a .362 batting average, and 20 RBIs....thus giving me a .402 all-star average, good for first on the team{ended up with top average and 3rd in RBIs}....Sam finished up in second with a .339 average and 15 RBIs for a .369 total, and along with me and our RBI leader "Cowboy" Gene make the all-star team....the league All-Star game is slated at Schumm in early March. In 15 season this is the 4th and second straight that I have failed to bat over .400.....but when your body starts to shutdown on certain nights, things become more uncertain, in life and Dartball.

Today is February 17th....Happy Birthday to our oldest child Anissa. As I have written before, Anissa is our special needs adult, who was born in Wausau, Wisconsin, 30 years ago today, February 17, 1979. I remember that day well, typical northern Wisconsin winter day...snow flurries and cold as it gets...windy to boot. Patricia refusing to admit she was going into labor, until early afternoon. Then we jumped into the Jeep Cherokee hauled the 17 miles to Wausau from the farm we lived on...and then having to wait for the doctor. Anissa arrived at 6:59PM. Despite her handicaps, Anissa has been a large part of our lives these past 30 years...and kept us focused on what is really important. She splits her time between us, her and our lifelong friends, the Schillings, who provide her with an alternative setting....plus she works at the local MRDD Workshops...she is by all accounts a happy person, who loves Allen Jackson and Jimmy Buffett Music, and has several movies on DVD that she can name each line before it comes up....HAPPY 30TH BIRTHDAY ANISSA!!!!

My brother-in-law, Pat{yes another Pat in the family} is in Dayton today, after having issues with congestive heart problems yesterday. Our prayers are with him and my sister Marty and their daughters...Pat and Marty are scheduled to become grandparents next month, and hopefully he will be back to full strength for that event...at 57 he is way to young for this stuff.

So errands to run today...tomorrow we will look at Barack The Messiah wasting 20,000 gallons of jet fuel so he can sign his stinking stimu-less package in front of a Solar Panel factory in Denver....if the sonabitch wanted to go green he should be keeping his sorry Marxist ass near Washington DC, and not wasting Jet Fuel. More on this BS tomorrow.

back later>>>>>>>>>>

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photos-Me and Anissa on February 18, 1979, at Wausau South Hospital....dartball board and darts...and finally Anissa and her "little" brothers Sam and Hal.

Guitar Hero and other ramblings

Spent the weekend resting up my leg and calf muscle, watching the Duke Blue Devils fall from grace{losing last night to a mediocre Boston College team}, after a rain shortened Daytona 500, which I didn't watch much of...just long enough to see that idiot Dale Earnhart Jr, crash out a dozen other drivers, then get a pass from NASCAR, only because he's the organizations "Golden Child". I've got news for you Budweiser soaked Jr fans...this guy is not his old man....he's not that good. Having said that, I really could care less about NASCAR since Rusty Wallace and Richard Petty left the sport.

I also tried to ignore the Stimulus "Bail Out" on TV...something hard to do. What I can't ignore is the fact that 40% of the population support this bullshit, and 65% still think "The Messiah" is doing a great job.....what a collection of freaking tools. The Republic is heading towards the shitter in a hand basket....a collection of socialist/Marxist programs are on the table, and Obama, Reid, and Nanny State Pelosi are serving the populace a large amount of 'Pork"...will the country choke on it?

Last night youngest son, Hal, came up from Fairborn with tax forms in hand....using the same CPA as we do, he had to drop his paperwork off this morning. He, as usual, dragged his laundry home, and also his XBOX360...with the game "Guitar Hero".... Hal is 25, teaching at Fairborn High School, while finishing up his Masters at Wright State. Well I'm pretty clueless on some video games....while back in my day I was a pin ball wizard....the last couple of times Hal tried to show me how to maneuver "War Games" I sucked....Guitar Hero? Pretty much the same....this game you try to follow guitar or bass licks of your favorites songs. It took me 10 tries to get the easy level of some done...I finally "mastered" a couple of songs, well not really mastered, but completed the easy level...Purple Haze by Hendrix, Living on a Prayer by Bon Jovi, and Rambling Man by the Allman Brothers, I got through and considered my learning process a success....in reality I stunk. But had a good time trying to figure it out.

Such was my weekend....basketball is done, due to my calf muscle tear, and baseball is 5 weeks away from scrimmages....so I'm looking for some entertainment for the last few weeks of winter. Or at least for some worthwhile things to get done. Dartball's last regular season games are tonight, and the tournament starts Sunday at Schumm.

Hopefully, I'll motivate myself as the days towards spring go by.....

back later>>>>>>>

photos---Guitar Hero and "Nipit"...the Nipit Aligator Pin Ball game from the early 1970s....now this was the game I became "expert" at during my bar tending days....the newer Video games? Not so much.

Update....guess at least one of the Kids reads this...Hal has informed me via the comment section that he is only 24....I guess that comes from me being only 59 but nearing 60 in 27 days....Hal turns 25 on his grandma's 85th birthday{April 13th}. There things are back to right and the world is orbiting correctly.

Blogger Bloopers!

You gotta wonder about Blogger....I see all my old threads are no longer on the front page....maybe it's King Obama doing his dirty work. I know Goober Google is in the tank for the Ebony Messiah, maybe they are throwing a monkey wrench into anybody that doesn't bow or cow down to the Emperor....or maybe it's just a blogger screw up, which is always a good possibility.

Anyway, not much going on....calf muscle is still tight, but improving, a good 5 weeks more rest hopefully will handle the problem and I'll be ready for baseball. The Daytona 500 is on, but really I have little interest in NASCAR....used to follow Richard Petty and then Rusty Wallace, but much like the NFL and other pro sports, it has become a politically correct over hyped, over exposed "sport".

I do remember 30 years ago, the 1979 Daytona was held the day after Anissa was born, that was the first race televised on national TV live....Petty got the win in a classic, when Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison wrecked on the final lap.....I was watching that from Patricia and Anissa's hospital room in frigid Wausau, Wisconsin....30 years? Hardly seems that long ago.

Enough rambling.....back tomorrow>>>>>>

update---I see the posts are back, go figure!

The Stimulus(PORK) Package is Here!

The Emperor will sign the package this coming Monday or sooner...funny(not so) part is...the document is over 1000 pages long, for the members of Congress to read the package before voting on it this morning, they would have to be able to read 650 words or more per minute. Most of these assclowns can't read a sentence, let alone 650 words every 60 seconds.

This piece of garbage with it's 1 Trillion dollar price tag is being set upon us, and nobody knows the damage it's gonna do.

God Save the Republic, and take care of those bastards bent on destroying it......because the liberals in Congress are selling us out for a bill of bad law. If you are not "Mad as Hell", you are clueless.

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Will spend the weekend resting my torn calf muscle, and hoping my rehab works...have a good one.

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back later>>>>>>>>

Pop Goes the Basketball Season/more Glenn Beck

Sometimes things just hit with no warning, right out of the blue. Last night it was my turn to get zapped.

I had taken Sam's spot at a Freshman Girls game at Delphos St. Johns last night, he had some stuff to do, so I said "sure"....only one game, they usually last less than an hour, so this would not be a problem....especially since my season was winding down...games for the next 10 days, including some Junior High Tournament games, then I could rest up for baseball, workout a little, and prepare for the March 21st scrimmage openers. It appears that I will have more time to rest and get ready than I wanted.

In the first 1 minute of the game, I turn to make a retreat after a Lima Senior steal of a DSJ pass...and "POP" I feel the pain and heat in my upper calf, just below the knee. I was not sure exactly what it was, but I knew I had a problem. I called time out and talked it over with my partner...I could walk, but not run...so for the next 50 minutes I hobbled up and down the floor, got a wrap treatment from the school trainer at the half....drove the 40 minutes home after the game. I iced and elevated the right leg for the evening...this morning I e-mailed the ADs from the various schools I was scheduled to do...Sam can take my place on the nights/days he doesn't have games, the couple of others, they would need to find a replacement....I am done for the season!

Last year it was my back, late in football season, this time it's my almost 60 year old leg muscles at the end of basketball season...mother nature trying to tell me something? Probably, but I will see what shakes out the next couple of days....if it doesn't get worse, I will rehab it and hopefully be ready for spring baseball...if it gets worse or stays the same, I will call Doc Bergman and see what my other options may be. It has pretty well reduced my walking to a limp, but I don't see the bruising or pain that a Class 3 tear would be( muscle off the ligaments etc)....but it will take a few weeks to heal, thus ending my basketball for the year.....Stay Tuned!

Glenn Beck has become my favorite Radio/TV personality....probably because his life is in someway like mine....I don't agree with all of his policies or opinions, but do see eye-to-eye on most. Beck a couple of years ago, predicted the economic collapse we are about to enter....but not a doom and gloom guy is he....he has faith in the American people, but not the American Government. Rush Limbaugh is good, but he, until the bitter end, said the economy was strong....Rush was wrong, Beck was right, at least in this case.

You owe it to yourself to give Beck a listen from 9AM to Noon (Eastern) or watch his TV show on Fox News Channel at 5Pm Eastern....both are worth the watch or listen...I have not have the chance to see his TV show but a few times, what I have seen is worth the view. Beck's TV show, on Fox since January 19th, already has over a million more viewers than that MSNBC hack Keith Olberman...the hero of the left. Plus Beck is on at 5PM while Olblowaman is in prime time.....now that is sweet...left wing hacks like Keith and Jon Stewart are looking up at Beck's ratings.

His web site, if you don't have the time or persuasion to listen or watch, gives you his thoughts:

http://www.glennbeck.com/

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In other items....my favorite basketball team, Duke, took a 8 point lead over hated rival North Carolina into the half....they went cold in the second half, and with no inside game, they lost 101-87....sitting there with a cold beer and wrapped painful leg, did not make my evening.

Our brief fling with spring came to and end...strong winds, and plenty of rain have given way to sunshine and colder temperatures...yesterday 62, today 40 and colder by the weekend.

back later...........

A Blow is Coming

After getting done at Delphos Jefferson(boys Junior High doubleheader), I drove home the back roads...making it bad luck for one raccoon...the critter ran right out in front of me, and I had no chance to miss him. Probably on the run because the water is rising...the problems of snow melt, 60 degree temperatures, and now an inch or two of rain. This is not conclusive of anything nice in the forecast....as the folks down in Oklahoma found out last night. Oklahoma City has been the receiver of bad luck the past few springs, when it comes to tornado activity, last night was no exception. Hopefully my blogging buddy Ron Simpson escaped OK...I know he lives somewhere in the area.

http://clutteredeclecticmind.blogspot.com/

The wind is supposed to hit in the 60MPH range with thunderstorms here in west central Ohio today....the temps will also hit 60, before dropping like a rock, back into the upper 30s tomorrow.

I'm back at Delphos both tonight and tomorrow....Freshman tonight, girls JH tomorrow. Then I move on to Junior High tournament games at Marion Local over the weekend.

Right now I am catching the Glenn Beck radio show, where the highlights thus far, have centered on King Barack's pity party down in Fort Myers, Florida.....seems they collected a few dozen citizens to cry and whine to the "Commander and Thief" about how they had to have government help....in the form of taxpayers monies of course. But what the Hell? If the banks, Wall Street, and GM, can screw the country and tax payers over, why not the poor stiffs that can't afford their flat screens or cable bills? Glenn says Barack is a genius...he(BHO) is blowing smoke at the public, and is succeeding in confusing most and pissing off some(like me). Divide and conquer....Barry has his sights set on a dictatorship.

I gotta tell you folks, this is just going to get better and better....Obama talked during the campaign about folks like me clinging to "God and Guns"....the sonofabitch doesn't realize just how deep the roots of revolution are in the country...a trip around the blogesphere will set him free. The right and left are both on fire...."Come Together for the betterment of the Country"? No freaking chance! Not with this guy in charge...he makes Bill Clinton look like a choirboy....Obama and his henchman are trying to overwhelm the public, and many are not going to be able to focus on the train wreck this guy his driving our way.

Ok, time to batten down the hatches....the Hawk is gonna blow.

back later>>>>>>>>

A Taste of Spring

Well most of the snow has melted, for now. There are still piles along side the roadways, ditches and driveways....but the bare ground is starting to show in areas. Today they are calling for winds near 30 MPH and 62 for a high, then tomorrow back to 58 with a 90% chance of rain, storms, and some of those could be severe(i.e. tornado outbreak possible). Usually this stuff comes around Ohio in March or April, but on occasion we will get blasted in February. I see the weekend is slated to he back below freezing however....late winter in the Midwest, you just never know what Mother Nature will bring.

I missed The Ebony Messiah and his "Doom and Gloom are upon us" speech last night, I was at Dartball where we took 2 of 3 from the division leaders(should have took all 3). I probably had my best night of the year, going 8 for 11 with 4 RBIs which effectively ended my month long slump...and put me back on top of the team all-star standings. Still below my usual stuff, but it was good to hit well...the only fly in the ointment was in game 3 with us trailing 4-2, a man on 3rd and nobody out in the bottom of the 9th...I hit(threw) into a double play, thus pretty well ending our chances for a sweep....I think it's only the 2nd time in 14 years that I have hit that little red spot when it mattered....We finish off the regular season next week, we need a sweep and some help to win the south division, and that help is probably not gonna happen. We also drew the same team, our arch division rivals, Mount Carmel, in the first round of the upcoming Tournament.

As I mentioned, I missed The Messiah and his "speech" on his "Porkulus" package...however, I did catch much of it on Fox News later in the evening. The purveyor of "Hope" sounded just like FDR with his doom and gloom. "The worst economic times since the Great Depression" he lamented...well he may be right, but only because Washington has talked the people running the economy(the working taxpayers) into believing it. I was in Radio News when our idiot 39th President, Jimmy Carter, ran the economic ship into the ground in the 1970s....so far this one isn't that bad...but it will be, and the BureaRATS in DC and Obama, and his henchman will be the reason(and don't give GW Bush a pass, he started it with the TARP Funds Bail Out)....I think that's his plan anyway. Destroy the country and it's infrastructure, and build up a Socialist Utopia.

I'm not sure if Barry wants to be King or a Dictator, but either way, he wants to rule, and anything less than loyalty to his majesty will not be tolerated. The sonofabitch better get used to not getting 100% support....some of us are not going quietly. I'm too damn old to give a crap what this out of his league, out of his mind, neophyte has to say.

Basketball at Delphos the next 3 nights as luck would have it...Jr High Boys tonight, Girls Freshman, tomorrow, and Girls Jr High Thursday. Tonight and Thursday at Delphos Jefferson, Wednesday at Delphos St. John. But first things first....today I tackle the back yard...the snow has melted, and I will clean up the mess that Reagan the Airedale has deposited....tough to keep up with when the snow is on the ground. I do not have that excuse now, so it's time to break out the shovel and rake, and go forth.....what fun!

back later>>>>>>>>>

AROD, Steroids, Baseball and Political Suicide

The weather turned early spring like over the weekend....50 on Saturday, low 40s yesterday, and back to the 50s and maybe 60s for the early part of the week, with rain and storm a good possibility. Then back to winter for the upcoming weekend.

The 2 stories I followed in semi interest over the weekend happened to be baseball and the stim-u-less package from Emperor Obama and his court jesters, Nanny State Pelosi and Harry Reid.

First off the National Pastime...Baseball. New York Yankees icon and bad taste in women(see Madonna the snaggle tooth old hag) Alex Rodriquez has been found to have injected his sorry ass with steroids a few years back....along with 100 or more of his best friends. Baseball has become a joke! My favorite sport growing up, playing, then coaching, and now umpiring...the professional brand of the sport is a sorry excuse of what it once was.

I grew up a Yankee fan in south Florida back in the 1950s...Mantle, Maris, Ford, Berra, etc...these guys were my childhood heroes. Sure it came out they had warts...Mantle was a drunk, a womanizer, this stuff tarnished The Mick, but it wasn't stuff that made him a better player, the fact that Mantle, and Babe Ruth were hard drinking kind of guys, made their accomplishments all that more amazing, and probably shortened their careers, especially Mantle. These guys were flawed individuals...then there was Hank Aaron, "Henry" was by all accounts a, clean of scandal, certified hero...he was not a steroid abuser, or abuser of anything else as far as we can tell. So here you have Aaron, Mantle, Ruth, DiMaggio, Ted Williams, and others who were either clean or used or abused alcohol...guys like Williams served in 2 wars(ww2 and Korea) giving up the best years of his life for service for his country....can you imagine Rodriquez actually giving something back...this sorry son of a bitch is too busy dating talentless hags like Madonna and abusing steroids to do anything worth worthwhile...the guy is a joke.

So here you have baseball today...clowns like A-Roid, Clemens, Bonds, and hundreds of others, making millions and abusing performance enhancing drugs to stay on top....while real men like Ruth and Mantle were abusing their bodies with booze, but in no way did that rise to the level of cheating like today's asshats in profession sports...baseball is not alone...it just happens to be the ugly step child of steroid abuse. I will never spend another dime walking into a major league baseball park to watch these jokers{it's been years anyway}.

Speaking of Jokers: B. Hussain Obama, our out of his league Rookie President will "face the nation" tonight at 8PM EST....pardon me, I won't be watching this leftist shill try to sell his stim-u-less package. Big Eared Barry will try to convince all America that "He Won" and the GOP and the rest of the country should "get over it". The road to Socialism began last fall with the Bush Bail-Out...it is being paved now with the Trillion Dollar joke of a spending package....

The clowns in the GOP House actually showed some balls by voting against this behemoth...where the Hell were they last fall? Meanwhile the gang of 3...the two Maine women Senators(is there a man in Maine with a set of nuts, or do they all just cave and vote for these female Elton Johns?), along with Pennsylvania's Arlen Spector have caved and donned knee pads in service to the Ebony Messiah to pass the Socialist Package of Pork. No surprise here, I'm actually shocked our Ohio RINO George Voinovich didn't support it as well.

We as a Republic, run by Christian-Judeo and Capitalist rules, are pretty much done....some of us have been projecting this for sometime, now it is upon us.....

Yes, you can keep denying it, you can hide your head in the sand....but it's coming like a freight train...The Pork Stimulus Package is gonna pass, little tax relief, much useless spending, and all I can say is.."you asked for it, you voted for it, now you've got it" The 52.7% that voted for Change, take your change, and choke on it!

Enough ranting for today.....board meeting and dartball coming up, my last couple of weeks of basketball are here, with games Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and tournaments starting Saturday.

back later>>>>>>>>>

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photo gallery---A Roid/The Mick/Babe Ruth/and GOP RINO Traitors from Maine, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe.

February 6, 1977/Obama as Mussolini

Do you have one of those dates that sticks in your mind...forever? I have several, and we are not talking about the usual, Christmas, a certain birthday, etc. One of those days was February 6, 1977...32 years ago today. It was nothing special...just a day I jotted down for no reason.

We were in the middle of a winter, much like this one, a cold, long winter that had finally reached it's halfway point. I piled the Airedales, Rag and Max, into the new Jeep Cherokee, which we had just purchased, and decided to drive around and look at the frozen Grand Lake. Those first two Airedales of ours loved to ride, more than any we have had since....I could take them to the market or anywhere, and they would sit in the bucket seats as soon as I wold exit the car....the 100 pound Max in the driver's seat, and his partner, Rag, would sit in the passenger side until I(or we if Patricia was with me) returned....then they would hop in the back. Those two dogs just loved to travel, and until the kids came along, midway through their lives, they went everywhere with us.

On this day in 1977, the weather dawned clear and cold, and the lake, much like today, was completely frozen over...I had just finished going to school in southeast Ohio, and had transferred back to Wright State Lake Campus...I had time on my hands, at least during the morning hours...I worked at Fat's Stag Bar as a bartender in Celina during the afternoon, and went to classes at WSU-Lake during the evenings....the morning hours were mine and the dogs. Patricia was working at Celina Insurance during the day hours, so I had time to kill.

I yelled at the dogs to jump in the Jeep and off we headed, just to look at the lake, ice, and dream that winter would soon be done....I did the same thing this morning, Reagan our old Airedale didn't go along...she is not a big fan of long drives...so alone I went. Driving from West Bank Road to Windy Point....today(with the exception of the growing population around the lake) felt much like it did 32 years ago..except Rag and Max, our first "kids" are long gone.

A bittersweet memory to be sure, but it's one of those days, the exact date, that I will remember for the rest of my life....Nothing special as days go, just one that is etched in the recesses of my mind.

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Winter is about half way done...6 weeks, 42 days, until March 20th...47 days by the boards...it cannot come soon enough for me....I look forward to baseball as opposed to basketball, a chance to sit on the steps or porch to fire up a Cigar and down a few cold ones..OUTSIDE...don't smoke cigars inside, and beer drinking is not as enjoyable unless you've got some sunshine and 70+ degree temps.

In other musings...I was watching Bill O'Reilly last night, and all of a sudden, they break for "breaking news"...the breaking news was our asshole-in-chief, Barack Barry Obama, talking to his fellow Socialists(Democrats) at tax payer expense, about his so called stimulus package....a $Trillion$ dollar boondoggle which will not only help to bankrupt the country, it will lead us to Socialism or worse yet, Marxism...call me paranoid, call me crazy...but this sonofabitch is killing the country. In only 2 weeks, with the help of Harry Reid and Rubber Face Nancy Pelosi, Obama has put us on the verge of economic collapse. Bank on it happening, on second thought don't "bank" on it...they will soon be owned by our corrupt Government.

Glenn Beck says, this guy is another Benito Mussolini...I say somewhere between Mussolini and Woodrow Wilson...2 popular men who became dictators in their respective countries, Italy and the USA.....

The downfall is happening much sooner than even I could imagine, and I despised this clown before he even became the Presidential front runner...he is evil in a suit.

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back later>>>>>

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Photos-Grand Lake, it's 13,000 acres, still frozen solid this morning. Max(left) and Rag romping in the snow during the March 1979 blizzard in northern Wisconsin. Rag and me at our Brandon Avenue home in 1975...just a block from where the family resides today, and Max as a pup in 1976.

The Kirby Sales Pitch

I remember 50 years or so ago in Venice, Florida, a Kirby Sweeper salesman came to our house on School Street, and tried to sell mom a "Cadillac"of sweepers, The Kirby. I remember mom buying then not buying the machine....we were a family of semi means, and if I was correct that thing costs about $400...I know mom can probably correct me. But long story short, she ended up giving the thing back, and we went Kirbyless for the duration of our lives in Venice. A few years ago, Patricia bought a nice sweeper for around $700...it wasn't a Kirby, but it was a good sweeper, but still had it's problems. So yesterday I get a knock on the door...here it is snowing, and this kid(23 years old) standing there with a package of Orange Smelling cleaning cloths in hand, trying to get his foot in the door.....OK, no game, so I let the guy in, not knowing what the Hell he was peddling, but between me and the dog, I could kick his ass out with little problem....so here comes the "Kirby" sales pitch.

Patricia wasn't home yet, so I let the guy give me a demonstration....and the sales pitch. I was impressed with the sweeper, the sales pitch? Not so much, Kirby is owned by Amway, I wasn't born yesterday, so I took it all in stride. Patricia arrived home over half way through the performance....she is even less likely than me to be talked into something she doesn't want....

Now we have hardwood floors with area rugs...so maybe we don't need a Cadillac of sweepers/cleaners/shampooers....the starting top price for the Kirby is about $2000, if you pay over 1/2 the price you are paying way too much, not that it may not be worth it, but because you can get it for much less.

Anyway, after some wrangling, my wife and I decided to purchase it....I think she thought I wanted it(since I do most of the vacuum work these days), and actually I did, so we got a good deal( I checked out some reviews on the new Kirby's and we did pretty well compared to some as far as price, a few other hard bargain types got theirs for less, but not by much)...so here we are with a Kirby for the hardwood floors and area rugs.....I feel guilty, and I know Patricia wanted an extension for our TV area/Computer....so if this turns out to be a raw deal, I'll have to kick myself in the ass. But for now, I'm ready to start using it and all it's attachments...with 6 weeks of winter, and only a few weeks of basketball left, I should have plenty of opportunities to see if this was a good deal, by the time baseball season begins in late March.....Sucker or Not? Time will tell, but I'm ready to go at it.

So we have done our small part to keep the economy moving....we may be broke, but Hell, the house and floors will be clean.....

I'm off to watch the Kirby DVD and see how all the bells and whistles work.

Back Later>>>>>>>

photo-The Kirby and all the goodies that come with it