Happy Birthday Sam!/Fallen Bengal/Obama Blackmail

Sam and I headed the 60 mile trek to Bellefontaine to the southeast...He needed to get one more basketball rules meeting in to stay eligible for next season, I went along for the ride and to help the Top of Ohio Association out by signing us both up for it's association. We are already members in Van Wert, but these guys are a good group and being in the Southwest District{Van Wert is in the Northwest}, it gives us more contacts for seasons to come.

We returned around 9pm....and I watched a couple of Bogart movies on TMC. Wednesday in December is Humphrey Bogart month on Turner, and last night featured The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, and Treasure of the Sierra Madre...3 Classics, and 3 of my favorites.

Sam turns 28 today....more on that after a look at news:

Obama The Blackmailer_____

Yep, it appears that our Kenyan-in-Chief is a low down dirty blackmailer....and it has nothing to do with his race, like all things Obama it's about power and politics:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5NZ0bEfu80

And Glenn Beck isn't the only one talking about this....it appears these sons a bitches will do anything to get his Marxist/Socialist Agenda rammed down our throats.

Chris Henry Dead_____

Troubled Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry did not make it this time:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=4749165

What a waste of talent and a tragic figure....Henry had been given multiple chances by the NFL and the Bengals...26 years old, with 3 young children, the man had it all on his fingers, but like a floating Carson Palmer pass, it appears that he finally dropped the ball for good.

And the update...it is confirmed Chris Henry dead at 26:

http://www.chicagobreakingsports.com/2009/12/bengals-chris-henry-dies-after-falling-from-truck.html

Sad indeed!

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Sam Houseworth turns 28______

Samuel William Houseworth was born on this date in 1981...1 day before Patricia and my 5th wedding anniversary.
Sam was the first boy on our side of the Houseworth family since I was born in 1949, some 32 years earlier...mom had 2 daughters and 5 granddaughters before Sam came along. Since that time, only Hal has broken the string of girls in the family...mom has a total of 6 granddaughters, 3 great-granddaughters, plus her youngest children, Marty and Kelly are both girls, then there are Sam and Hal. Men in the Houseworth and extended family are few and far between these days.

I remember that night in December when Patricia went into labor...and heavy snowed was blowing in when I made the 15 mile trek from Coldwater Creek Road south of Celina to the Hospital in St. Marys. Patricia worked at that hospital at the time, and thus her doctor worked there, so we made the long trek rather than the 2 mile route of Coldwater. When Sam came down the chute, with me in the delivery room, I thought to myself..."the drought is over...finally a boy in this clan". Not that there is anything wrong with women...but in this family, the string of females born was bordering on bizarre.

Sam could read and write by the time he was 2...he would spend hours in front of the TV watching game shows and writing down the answers on his small chalk board. The kid was amazing to say the least.

In school Sam was a decent student, but had his share of battles, and his grades suffered due to them. He however did excel in Math, winning many awards in 5th and 6th grade, and taking home state honors in Junior High and the early days of High School. He however never warmed to the High School settings, and once he graduated in 2000, he was fed up with school.

That winter after graduation Sam headed to Daytona Beach where his grandma Houseworth wintered, and took the 6 week $3000 Harry Wendelstadt School of Umpiring course. Sam had been umpiring since his junior high days and umpired youth ball when he didn't have games himself...he seemed to enjoy that more that playing the game. Although not getting a professional assignment upon graduation, he did return home to begin his work on the High School Diamonds....he has been at it ever since, and has added football and basketball as well...I credit him for getting me back into the swing of things, and I re-fired my officiating career in conjunction with Sam back in 2000.

After a year at Wright State Lake Campus, Sam still was not ready for college dropped out...and went to Truck Driving School in Van Wert, where he got his Class A CDL. He joined me in driving RVs back and forth around the US and Canada....over the next 5 years he logged hundreds of thousands of miles. When the bottom dropped out of the RV World Sam decided he was mature enough and ready to head back to college....his major of choice was Actuarial Science, something I had no idea what the Hell it was? Heavy in Math it is, and Sam breezed through the pre-testing at Ohio State University/Lima Campus. He was eligible for grants because of his math skills, and that eased the burden of any paybacks he would have to do....after a successful year at OSU-Lima, where he made the Dean's List each Quarter and play on the OSU Lima Baseball team, Sam headed off to the main Campus at Columbus this fall...getting his Fall Quarter grades yesterday with As in Physics, Accounting, and another small elective, to offset the C in Calculus #3...he finished with a 3.1 dropping his cumulative to 3.6 before entering his Junior Year....

Not Bad at all....plus he continues to officiate all 3 sports and works part time as a cameraman for the Big Ten Network and OSUAthletics.com.....

Happy Birthday Sam, Keep up the Good Work!

Back Later>>>>>

Photos-top left/Sam Houseworth behind the plate in the summer of 2009. The Tragic Chris Henry, Bengals wide receiver, dead at 26. Sam with younger brother Hal at Hal's Wright State Graduation in 2008. And on his collection of cans he collected walking along Coldwater Creek in the mid 80s. At 15 with his Trophies from the Ohio Math Competition...some 1st place and 3rd place hardware in the Statewide Challenge. And finally Sam the entrepreneur in 1993...a successful Lemonade, pop, and candy stand that summer.