Remembering Jim Olson.....part 1

Went out for a walk this morning in the humidity of Grand Lake Country....came back and lifted weights for about a half hour and that was my health regiment for the day....this coming on the heels of my first golf outing in nearly two years yesterday, with son Hal and his father-in-law Tim and Tim's middle son Tyler....I shot a 118 on the Centerville area course, Hal a 111 despite some monster drives with Tim at 96 and Tyler 100 even leading the way.  None of us had good scores for the skill levels each possess, but mine was about what I expected...with a few good strokes here and there....

Jim Olson...I could write a Book with the stories....

Patricia got up sometime during the night with whatever wakes "mature" women have that makes them wake up....it must have been 1 or so in the morning, I got up soon after to head to the bathroom, with whatever it is that makes mature men have to go more than a couple of times per night...enlarged prostate?  Hell all I know is I get up usually one or two times during the night, sometimes more to pee.

About 2am I heard her walking up the stairs...she woke me and declared..."Did you know Jim Olson had died"?  I shook the cobwebs out, and mumbled something like "So that's why he hasn't called on Sunday Night for the past few weeks"...a stupid, if not excusable statement.  I slipped on my pajama's and robe and went downstairs...sure enough, there it was the Obit that Patricia had pulled up on the computer:

http://www.minotdailynews.com/page/content.detail/id/575367/James-W--Olson.html?nav=5011


...she had discovered it when looking at my facebook page and seeing Jim's page.  She didn't know he had one, and frankly Jim didn't use it all that often, she clicked on it, hopeful of maybe seeing a photo of Jim's 96 year old retired Dentist dad, whom I had talked about many times....what she got was something else.  Jim had passed away late night or overnight on Sunday May 6th or more likely early Monday May 7th...Jim had called me about 10:30 our time that night.  Our usual Sunday night conversations surrounded his fantasy baseball team, and my suggestions for ideas to help him in his "Money League"...the talk eventually came around to our upcoming/proposed trip to the Boundary Waters on Northern Minnesota, along with Nick...to the same Island on Wind Lake that Jim and I, along with 5 of his North Dakota friends had taken back in June of 1978...it seems that trip, at least with Jim along, will be save for sometime and somewhere in the next world.

It took well over an hour before I could find some restless sleep until about 6:30 and then we were both up...I figure I will pay for it tonight, then tomorrow and we head to Centerville to entertain and sit with grandson Kasyn. 

As I took my walk this morning I had time to reflect on my friendship with one Jim Olson...and unlikely pair of fellow travelers we might be...but as I thought about it, I could not begin to take in all the crazy things we had done together in a rather short span, back in the middle 1970s through early 80s...then after almost 20 years of not seeing or hearing from each other, we had one more round as the new century dawned...a combination of stupid and crazy is what you can call it.

1974.....

As I best recall, Jim and I met through Patricia, whom I was seeing at the time, we would move in together, Patricia and I that is, late in 1974 when I purchased my first house, on Brandon Avenue...some 200 yards from where we live today.

Jim was a beer drinking, Marlboro Light, smoking DJ out of the northern reaches of North Dakota...he was some 3 years my junior, and working at WCMS Radio, a place I would end up finishing off my radio career some 7 to 8 years later...at the time, I was managing and bouncing at the infamous Red Door...Jim was new to Celina and became not only a regular customer, but one of my weekend DJs, spinning rock and roll records to the pulsing lights and dancing drunks on the downstairs dance floor, while he sat in the cat bird seat.  I paid him a few bucks and let him drink all the 3.2% beer he could down in a 4 or 5 hour shift on Friday and

Saturday nights...I was not yet in radio, and despite working eventually at WCSM, Jim really had nothing to do with my radio days...by the time I got into radio, Jim had gotten out and moved back to North Dakota, and finished up his Masters....but there were plenty of crazy days and events ahead of us before that happened.

Like I said, "I could write a Book".....

When Jim moved to Celina he lived in a trailer on the east side of town, but eventually got a place right on West Bank Road and the shores of Grand Lake....it was a party cabin to say the least...crazy things happened at that place, including one night me kicking the side of Nick's car in, mistaking it for a neighbor who had given us some grief, alcohol and stupidity can do that to a 25 year old.  On the day we watched Super Bowl VI where the Steelers defeated Jim's beloved Minnesota Vikings 16-6, Olson and I dined on Moose Stroganoft...his dad had been hunting in Canada and sent Jim the Moose, we added the rest and it made one Hell of a fine meal...I remember I was riding my Kawasaki 250 on/off road bike that day, in January with temperatures well below freezing and ice and sleet on the roads...and I'm sure I had more that a few drinks before the game was over.  This I considered a "minor" event in our nearly 40 year friendship...there we others, I will detail in the next couple of writings that were just plain "insane"

One of those I like to call...."The Coors Beer Run"

Back in the Red Door days, Coors Beer had a cult following....looking back, who knows why, Coors Banquet Beer is nothing more than a run of the mill America Lager.  But back then, it was sold no farther east than Kansas City, Kansas....and one Friday night, we had this brain

fart of an idea...we would drive to Kansas, fill up Nick's trunk and back seat with Coors and bring it back to Celina.  What we didn't drink, I would sell to the suckers, er customers at the Red Door, for a buck a can...regular beer, Pabst and Strohs, the biggest sellers, was going for about 60 cents back in 1974 and 75.

So when I closed the bar that night at 2:30 in the Saturday AM, we piled into Nick's Land Yacht....Nick, Jim, me, and young Slorp..off we went the 625 miles west on I-70 to Kansas City, Kansas....

A stop for breakfast, a stop in St. Louis to see if by some chance they had began selling Coors Banquet Beer, no luck, and off we went, crossing the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers into Kansas....it was already the afternoon, when we packed up 25 cases of bottles, cans, and a couple of Styrofoam coolers into the car and headed back east with our treasures.  Poor Nick had to drive, and we were not going to let him off the hook...the rest of us fools cracked into a couple of Long Necks and relaxed as we headed east back the way we came...finally arriving in Celina about 3 in the morning, some 24 hours after we had left, but with a couple dozen or so cases of Coors.

Most of it we drank ourselves or shared it with our fellow Red Door Travelers....a few cases we sold, illegal as Hell of course, for a buck a can at the bar....the was the first of at least a dozen or more "Road Trips" that Jim Olson and I participated together in....I  have written about the 1975 Florida trip with Mike Schilling as our co-pilot on a number of occasions on this blog...here is one of them:

http://patsdailyrant.blogspot.com/2011/01/summer-of-75road-trip-for-ages.html

But there are more....and it is going to take a few trips back to jot them down and jog my memory....I will be back with those, probably after the Kokomo Mini Vietnam Reunion...in the meantime:

RIP Old Buddy....Jim Olson:  born Mohall North Dakota April 12, 1952   Died Minot ND, May 6, 2013

 

Photos-Me on the left and Jim Olson at Disney World in June 1975...Jim Olson 2011, Mike Schilling and Jim in June of 75...The Result of the Coors Beer Run in the Spring of 1975, and our Camping in Florida set up in June 1975...My old Ford Van and a Ten, here set up just north of my old home of Venice, Florida, at a State Park near Osprey, Florida....2 weeks of this will make anybody long for a hot shower and a warm clean bed.

 

 

The Trip to the VA/District Re-Match there will be no three~peat

I got up fairly early yesterday, reason being, I had a long 100+ mile 2 hour trip to the capital city in Columbus for my first visit to the VA Clinic.  Time to begin the switch from regular insurance to the Veterans Administration, before that f**king joke known as Obama Care is forced on us....

I have used the VA for my 6 years of College and Broadcasting School, and for my first home loan, both of those back in the 1970s....I have pretty much avoided the VA since then, and was not really looking forward to putting my health care in their hands....so with that on my mind I headed to C~Bus and the Chalmers P. Wylie Care Center out near the Columbus Airport.

I arrived some 50 minutes early and I have to say, the staff could not have been better or more friendly....they got me in for my "photo shoot" to set up my badge/ID card, then I went upstairs to the 3rd floor and my appointment with Yellow Team #12  ...  Busy at the facility, but I was in by 11:25 for my 11 o'clock appointment...no complaints.  

After talking with nurse, Doctor Hanna and staff, I was sent on my way with a bag of goodies, some home tests to do and send back to the VA, and I was out of there by 12:30 or so....schedule to head back in August, where I will complete the transition to VA from Private Coverage....despite my distrust of bureaucrats(remember I was one for 20 some years} and Government in general, I have no complaints, the service and people were first rate, especially on a day where it seemed every veteran in Central Ohio was there....no complaints at all.

On to Waldo.....

My GGG-Grandfather and his sons and their families moved to Waldo, Ohio, in the early 1850s, two of those sons would end up being my GG~Grandfathers, Solomon and Frederick Houseworth, due to cousins getting hitched....I have spent many hours in Waldo, especially a decade or more ago, when I first was discovering my genealogical roots....the past few years however, I head to Waldo for a different reason....The world famous Bologna Sandwiches at G&R Tavern!

So, heading north out of Columbus, I made my way up US 23 north towards Delaware and then the small berg of Waldo, still with a population of 1000 or so....my Great-Great Grandmother, Ursula Houseworth, was a owner of two large tracts of land in Waldo some 150 or more years ago.  One of those is currently the town park, the other has US 23 running through it....

I stopped at G&R about 1:45 grabbed a cold Miller Lite, and a Baloney Sandwich with sweet pickle and Pepper Jack topping it....add a order of deep fried mushrooms, and another Sandwich to go...I was on my way the back roads to Celina...this trip though the small towns of my ancestors and

surrounding farmlands is always relaxing, I should do it more often.

There will be no 3~peat....

Last year I worked the District at Coldwater, that D4 tournament might have been the best in the state last season...this season, left out of Districts for only the second time in the past 7 season, Garry and I decided to at least take in the first game of the Coldwater District.  The first game of the Semi-Finals would see a rematch of last years championship game...Two time defending D4 State Champions, Minster Wildcats vs the Crestview Knights from Convoy.

3-2 was the final in last years game, with me making the deciding call on a ground ball to shortstop a "bang~bang" force out with the bases loaded....this year Crestview drew into a first round match with the defending champs, it appears to force their hand.  Would Minster toss their staff ACE, who is headed for Ohio State on a Baseball Scholarship, or would they try to save him for a re-match with St Henry{if they won their game} in the championship game?  A week ago St Henry had upset Minster in league play, 8-6, without Minster's ace on the mound....the Minster coach opted to toss his #2 last night, and it bit the Wildcats.  Crestview pounded out 7 first inning runs, Minster was force to use their ace, but it was too

late....Crestview moves on to the finals against St Henry{6-2 winners over Ottoville in the second game}.  Last year, I worked the plate when those teams met in the nightcap of the semi~finals...which ended on a dropped infield fly, lost in the night lights, Crestview won 3-2...tomorrow's game should be a good one.

A busy day ended with us dropping by McSober's Saloon at the Mall, and downing some Blue Moons on Tap and a few wings....all in all, a pretty good day of baseball and some good eating, along with a better than anticipated trip to the VA Clinic in Columbus.

back later>>>>

Photos-The Classic Bologna Sandwich at G&R in Downtown Waldo I like mine with Pepper Jack and Sweet Pickle and a dab of spicy mustard.....home of many of my Ancestors, including "Maish" Houseworth, a cousin, who was the longest living Civil War Veteran from Waldo...living to the ripe old age of 98...the story goes Maish joined the Union in 1861 at 15 years old...he was found out and booted out, but rejoined 2 years later at the legal age of 17...he was the toast of the town in the later year celebrations, and lived until the end days of World War II....Maish, his wife, and a dozen other Houseworth's including one of my GG-Grandmothers, Ursula Houseworth are buried in the Waldo Cemetery.....and finally my view of the District, a bit different from last year when I worked first base in the first semi-final at Coldwater, the plate in game #2, and third base in the championship.....

A Touch of Summer....and the baseball break, not so fast....

When I finished off writing Friday's Blog, I headed to the Nitro and began to unload the gear and clothes so I could clean out the back of the vehicle and get the gear in order for the coming Summer baseball season...."Not So Fast"...

Within an hour of clearing things out, I got a call from Crestview and a e-mail from Leipsic, both schools wanting me to work another game.   So this afternoon I will join Garry for the 15th time and work a game between Crestview and Ottawa-Glandorf, two teams who will participate in various districts later this week.  O-G takes on LCC in D3 and Crestview, in a return to the D4 District at Coldwater will take on two time defending State Champion Minster, where they lost 3-2 in the District Finals last year..that was the game I was umpire 3rd base, and with the bases loaded, the Knight batter his a slow ground ball, and I called the final out of the District on a "Bang~Bang" play at 2nd base.,,,this year they will take on each other in the Semi-Finals...

On Saturday after receiving a request to umpire the BVC Championship Game at Leipsic, I headed north about 70 miles and worked the plate in a 6-2 win by the host Vikings over McComb, which secured the outright crown for the home squad....McComb however is still alive at Findlay in the D4 District up that way.

The remainder of the weekend saw me drink too much beer, mow mom's lawn with the majority of work done by Patricia, and BBQ in my self made pit twice, putting out some great steaks and pork

chops, if I don't say so myself....I just tossed some cement blocks together, build around a back yard stone, then I added the old grill plates from the retired Gas Grill, and made a serviceable, if ugly, outdoor grill, without a lot of work.

The Rest of the Week....

After the game tonight, taking Patricia's Nissan up for an Oil Change tomorrow, on Wednesday, I will head to the Capital City of Columbus, and the VA Outpatient Clinic.  Here I will begin my transition from the regular insurance plan to VA Care....way?

Pretty simple really, with the likelihood that my wife will retire after this school year, although that has not been decided for sure yet, and the implementation of the disaster and cost killing beast called Obama Care{how sweet that the Kenyan Bastard will have forever this monstrosity named after him} ... So even though I have avoided many of the benefits from my service, exceptions being my college being paid for and my first house through the VA Loan, it is time to see how VA Care works.

I could have chosen Lima or Dayton, both closer, but settled on the 100 mile drive to Columbus and the Chalmers P. Wylie Center...a place where brother Mike has had reasonably good service, including his cure from throat cancer.

After then, I can begin my two weeks of "rest" between baseball's spring and summer seasons....will be interrupted by a couple of days over at Kokomo, for the Vietnam "Mini Reunion"...the prequel of the much larger main reunion on September....this will be my first time for the Indiana Mini, less crowds, but still the same faces at the Boar's Next...just less of us.

Today, for the last Spring game it promises to be a Hot one....Garry gets the plate, it's his rotation,

which is good news for me....I won't have to don the heavy plate equipment in the heat and humidity, until at least June 3rd.....and some of the early games are up in the air, depending on how far Crestview and LCC go in the tournament.

Photos-I got up early this morning, after heading to bed early last night, and just after the 6:25am Sunrise got these hazy shots of the morning sun and waterfowl over Grand Lake on Celina's West Bank....

The Baseball Break before the next Go Round....

At least for the time being we are getting an early hint of Summer....a month away on the calender, we are now hitting June~like conditions in West Central Ohio, and that is good....fog this morning, cancelling school for Patricia and many schools in the area and south towards Dayton...nasty wreck down that way on I-70 east bound due to the fog...20 car/semi pile up and they are still counting the damage and injuries.

Last night I umpired my last High School Varsity game of the season...and did it fly by!.  Made all the quicker due to the cold and early season rain outs, which numbered over a dozen, probably the most I have had, or most I can remember in any one Spring.   Also, with just two Sectional Tournament games, and no District, Regional, or State games....the season ended early...Hell this year I could have went Michigan Mushroom hunting, but Rick has some health issues, a son getting married next month, and a cold spell in May in the state up north, so this year...no

baseball, no mushrooms for my mid~May.  That leaves the next two weeks with some interesting "duties".

First off I will haul out the ladders and paint, left over from the house painting I did three Summers ago, and get ready to paint the garage...I skipped it back in 2010, and it needs some serious paint and wood repair...when it was built back in the 1980s they used some cheap ass boards on the front above the doors....and it needs work.

Still need to get the Kitchen Floor done, that's been nearly a year in the making....Nick and I may have a go at it...thus saving me $3000 or so....not sure I have the skill, but I do have the time...June will be busy with Summer baseball, but those games are in the late afternoon during the week, so I will have the early hours of the day to get things done...if I can talk myself into it.

Meanwhile on today's agenda, I will pull my baseball umpire gear out of the Nitro, hang the dark blue shirts away in the basement, and get out the summer~wear of lite blue, cream, breathable black and red shirts....and get ready for Summer Ball which is slated to begin June 3rd....

That will do it for today....just stepped outside to take a couple of garage photos...and damn the humidity is in full force now that the Sun has burned off the fog....might be some sweating doing that lawn work....back later>>>>

Photos-My Dark Blue OHSAA Jackets and cooler weather umpire gear will give way to the stuff I put on for Summer Baseball, ACME and American Legion style....a frest coat of paint, and some wood repairs are in order for the garage, and I plan on getting up earlier in the cool of the mornings to head down to Grand Lake and snape more sunrise photos as the weather heats up.

The Summer of Obama Scandals...let it be Long and Hot!

Umpiring on Monday at Ottoville, it was in the mid 50s and windy on the flatland of Putnam County...today at Convoy, I will put the gear on again, step behind the plate as that same Ottoville Big Green team will face Lincolnview for a Sectional Title and a chance to play at Coldwater in the D4 District.  The wind will be blowing again, but today the temperatures will be in the low to mid 80s....then tomorrow, weather permitting, I will finish my Spring season at Spencerville.  The end of the season that began in the cold and rain, with more than a dozen rain~outs, is ending with a couple of dozen games in a row in a mixed bag of conditions.   My Summer ACME and American Legion games begin when I return from a Vietnam "Mini-Reunion" at Kokomo the weekend that sees May end and June begin.

The Summer of Obammy.....

I have to admit that a smile has been on my mug the past week or 10 days...most of that is because of the "scandals" going on in DC...Benghazi, IRS/Tea Party, Associated Press, and I'm sure more to come....

The Teflon Kenyan is starting to see a few scratches in his cover, and the Lap Dog Press that has dutifully followed his every word like well trained French Poodles....this guy is more corrupt than Nixon, LBJ, and The Killintons {yes spelled wrong to piss off the stray Liberal that might stop by}, combined.

I'm not sure how it all will all end....I am sure Obammy will survive, way too many hard core Leftists in the halls of Congress and Courts....but somebody will take the fall...will it be Holder, Hillary, Big Sis the Iron Dyke of DHS?  All, some, none, more?  Either way, it is going to be fun watch the Kenyan Squirm, and his underlings run for cover...let's hope my former Congressman, Speaker John Boehner, and his underlings grow a set and fight this bastard named Barry Soetoro to the bitter end.

Either way, we can at least hope for these scandals to keep the Tea Party alive, and the GOP in firm control of the House, and maybe even the Senate....and if that happens and Hillzilla Klinton's Presidential hopes crash and burn, it will be indeed a good Summer, even if long and hot!

Out for a walk in the sun and wind.....back later>>>>

The Spring Baseball Season Winds Down

Somehow Friday we managed to play at Rockford....plenty of rain from Celina south, but about 2 or 3 miles from Parkway High School the rains never came, and we finished up our MAC Game between the host Panthers and New Breman....7-0 final in one hour and 25 minutes, with the home team coming out on top.....

The rest of the weekend would be either cool, wet, or both, for this year editon of Mother's Day.  Sam made it home from Chicagoland about 11 Friday Night, stayed for the weekend until about 3pm yesterday and headed back to Illinois, arriving early last night.

Today, after getting the Oil changed and new wiper blades put on the Nitro, I headed for the MRSI Board Meeting....now I will post this and get ready to head for Ottoville, as the Big Green will taken on Delphos St. Johns in a tune up game for both squads....both will play for Sectional Championships later in the week....DSJ in the Lima Perry Sectional, while Ottovilee takes on Lincolnview at Convoy in D4 there...that game takes place on Wednesday and Ron Golemon and I have that one...with me working the plate to see which of those teams move on to the Coldwater District.....

That's it for now....back later>>>>

Photos-From Friday at Parkway High School....top, me contimplating the meaning of what the Hell am I doing here?  and in the other photo, former college player, and Trent Boeckman,older brother of former Ohio State Quarterback Todd Boeckman smirking at the camera for Pat Agler, of  pantherzden.com    who I thank for the use of these photos.....

Thank You to those that Stood at Allan "Keith" Workman's Funeral

After predicting mostly sunny and pleasant conditions for the week and next week, the Weather Channel  aka: "Global Warming is not a Hoax Channel" are as bad as predicting the future as they are about the fake Science Global Warming....rains have been around most afternoon's, some of getting hit hard, while others are just getting nicked.  I was in Delphos last night, and much like the night before in Spencerville, we had rains, although not enough to cancel the games.  Last night however, we did shut the JV game down for a 45 minute delay due to lightning and thunder.  Finally getting the 10-9 Crestview over DSJ game in at around 8pm...making it a long three hours.

While by OSHAA and Federation rules we kept our teams off the fields and into the dugouts for the allotted time{30 minutes after the last lightning/thunder event} the idiots on the Pony League and Little League Diamonds had the kids out, with lighting flashes hitting within a short distance away...as a parent I would have been pissed!  Some of these guys coaching at these levels are morons....and that is a fact!

Tonight back at Delphos for a Varsity contest between St. Johns and visiting Wayne Trace, but that contest and tomorrow's MAC game at Parkway both are facing 60% chance of showers and storms...so we will see.  Next week ends if for me on the Spring schedule...with no District or Regional assignments this year, for the first time in awhile, I will finish up with a couple of Sectional games and some league make-up contests...frankly this has been one of the most dissatisfying springs in a few years...weather partly responsible, and other factors putting it in the crapper.

Having turned 64 in March, I am frankly thinking about how much longer I will do my hobby and beer money officiating...I thought I would do baseball until I died, and perhaps give up football and round ball in the next couple of years...now, I am looking at chucking them all before the next couple of years are past.  The political BS and power brokers are beginning to bore me.

But who knows?  This may just be a mid season rant...time will tell.

Salute and Good Bye....

Although I didn't make it to Al Workman's funeral in Louisville yesterday, just no time to dump games and find replacements this time of the season...at least 8 of our VSPA life members and wives, along with a handful of our Dayton Group were on had for the funeral of our Vietnam/Thailand
Brother...some driving from as far as Columbus and Chicago....

I will coordinate the efforts to find a suitable memorial honor, such as a brick at the Defender Statue, in both Allan and John Galinac's honor...John another of our Dayton Group passed away after a long battle with brain cancer...

Our numbers are growing smaller it seems, but the days and weeks....never to be replenished.


back later>>>

Photos-From the Dayton Mini in March 2010...left to right Allan "Keith" Workman, Rick Holstein, "Cowboy" Jack Smith, PRH, and Denny Evans....and the badge of the Air Force Air/Security Police from the late 1960s....

Passings.....

I finished up a blow out double header Saturday afternoon at St. Henry, with the home team, using many of it's younger players torched their over matched opponent in two run ruled games...scores were 24-0 and 26-4...we took about four hours to complete them both and have a meal for the teams and umpires in between.

After the second game, which I did the plate, I climbed out of my gear and into the Nitro.  Checking my Cell Phone, I noted a Voice Mail, and clicked the button as I pulled for the lot...it was a message from one of our VSPA and Dayton Vietnam/Thailand Sky Cop women, asking me to give her a call...I hit redial and Sheila answered the phone...giving me the sad news that one of our group, the youngest member as far as I know...Allen K. Workman had passed away that morning.  Needless to say I was shocked and saddened, I had just "spoken" with Al on Friday night on Facebook...making his passing in Louisville all the more hard to believe.

Allen was just 59, and served in Thailand at NKP in 1974-75...I had first me him and wife Martha at our Frozen Mini Reunion in January 2009 at Dayton, they had attended three of those, and I saw them at the Dayton VSPA Reunion back in October 2011 as well.  His funeral, which will be attended by about a dozen of our guys and wives will be Wednesday, viewing will be in Louisville tomorrow, and the burial will be some 30 minutes west of Louisville, Kentucky, at the VA Cemetery near there.

This sadly makes three members of the VSPA and more particularly our "Vietnam/Thailand Sky Cop" Dayton Group that have passed in the last couple of months...Don Howard passed just before we were to meet in Dayton this past March, John Galinac lost his long battle with cancer in April, and now our youngest member Al Workman dies suddenly from a heart attack this weekend.  Our

numbers continue to dwindle...and they{at least those living Veterans of that war/conflict} will not grow.

We are looking for ways to honor those that have just passed...but for now, those able to attend will take our prayers with them to Louisville....

Garry and I head north this afternoon, and in between some light rain will try to get our NWC game in....it's an hour or so drive up I-75 to Bluffton...it will be a late night.

back later>>>

Photos-Allen Workman, a larger than life man....standing some 6'6" or so...on the two photos from the Statue at the Air Force Museum...in the top outdoor photo Al is in the back row, 5th from right to left as you view it...in the bottom photo from that bitter cold day in January 2009, he is the sixth standing as you go left to right.

Strange Weather Patterns ..... and Rosenberg's 12th Imam

Hard to figure out the weather this early to mid Spring....after a miserable March and April, things appear to be gaining "near normal" status, in fact the weather for western Ohio these days is a bit, more than a bit, above normal, temperature wise.  We reached 83 on Tuesday and the upper 70s yesterday.  Today we will be in the 70s again, and near 70s for tomorrow and Sunday....

Meanwhile....

The Southern Plains from the Texas Panhandle to the northwest corner of Wisconsin are still receiving snow...!  Yep May, albeit early May, it is snowing...we are not talking Mountain Snow in Colorado, although for sure they are getting that out west, we are speaking of Midwestern Snow, up to a foot and more in some places, including Minnesota....

To make it all the more strange, the cold and snow, and it even appears now, the rain, will not make it this far...and if it does, the rain that is, the temps will still remain seasonable for the time being....after the lengthy Winter, that is a welcome forecast....

Last night Garry and I headed for Delphos, my second straight game at Jefferson...the home team, after defeating Fort Jennings 17-1 in a run rule game on Wednesday, played a league game with Columbus Grove last night, and Grove's Bulldogs turned the tables on Jefferson, defeating them 14-3 in a 6 inning run rule..Grove's bats were on fire, and the game not as close, between two pretty good teams.  Grove remains undefeated in league play.

Tonight I head for Van Wert, where the home team Cougars take on Defiance...the northern Bulldogs of Defiance have not lost a WBL game in about 7 years...something like 65 or so wins in a row.  They have lost to fellow WBL teams, but those have been in the tournaments, not in league play.  Tomorrow I finish up the week with a varsity double header at St. Henry.....

America and the World....

I will finish up listening to the third installment of Joel C. Rosenberg's 12th Imam series this morning...these days I prefer to listen to books, especially when driving to some far off game where I have a half hour or more drive....

The Rosenberg 3rd book in the series "Damascus Countdown" is reaching it's conclusion, and that city has just been wiped off the map by a sabotaged nuke that the goat fornicators head Imam was sending towards Israel....gotta admit, it was with guilty pleasure that I smiled on that one...no wonder the Liberal press ignores these books...well written and possibly telling of future events, or at least close to them.  If you sympathise with the child and women abusers of Islam, you may want to stay away from these....you won't like the slant...as for me, great stuff!

As for Rosenberg's view on America and it's President "Jackson"?  Let's just say, the President in his series is a dead ringer for the flaccid asshole currently in the White House, a sympathiser with radical Islam and gutless and nutless as they come....Rosenberg hits a Home Run.  Rosenberg 1 Obama and Company 0....

This series, in many ways, rings true with events in the Bible, and it's final chapter "Revelation"...with plenty of blood, guts, gore, and murder, mayhem, and finding one's own beliefs.  "12 Imam" is worth your time.

If you are interested in seeing what the future may, or may not, hold...the series, starting with the

Speaking of Time....

I mowed our yard Tuesday and mom's Wednesday....I look out yesterday and less than 48 hours later, the damn stuff needs mowed big time...so over to mom's and get the mower, the next few weeks, if the weather holds.....lots of mowing is going to be happening.

"Let's Roll"...BACK LATER>>>>

A final look at growing up in Venice, Florida{from 2008}....Spring Perfect Weather

Living in the flat lands of Western Ohio, I've always noted, that out of 365 days a year, you can usually figure to maybe, maybe, get 25 or 30 that are "perfect" as far as weather goes....those being days that are not too wet, cold, humid, hot, snowy, windy, etc....yesterday was one of those, today may be another...most however, are relegated to the early Fall months of late September and Early October, but May has a few most years....it appears that this "May Day" will be one of those...80 with sunshine and light breezes.

Yesterday, as Athletic Directors, scrambled to pick up umpires for make up league games, I had one non~league contest cancelled at Paulding, but quickly picked up another at the tiny berg of Continental.  I have an old Air Force friend, Bob Kohli, who lives near there, and it was the home of my Uncle Furl's wife Marvel and her family back in the day...nice little town of a few hundred, with a beautiful ball diamond...small, simple, but well maintained.  I had not done a game up that way for a few years, and was glad to visit the place again.  The game went 8 innings, as the home team tied Miller City late, but MC scored two in the top of the first extra inning to pull out a 6-4 win over the host Pirates.

Tonight I head for Delphos Jefferson, tomorrow I will be working at the same diamond.  Tonight with Mark Stechschulte, who worked the State Tournament last year, tomorrow back with my usual partner, Garry, for a NWC game with Columbus Grove...next week the season, at least the Regular season, winds down...but plenty of make up games remain, and they will be sprinkled in with the Sectional Tournaments, which begin May 13th...my first Tournament game is at Crestview on May 15th.  Looking forward to a few days off before the ACME and American Legion seasons begin,

Hopefully the Summer will not be as brutally hot as last year.

Off to mow mom's place...I got our lawn done yesterday, and it already looks like it needs it again...once the growing starts, it's here for the duration, unless we have a mid summer drought, once again like last year.

Venice, Florida, "Growing up, the Final Look Back"

One last look back at the 2008 blog series of my life as a kid in Venice, Florida, on the Gulf of Mexico....Click Below for the Story:

http://patsdailyrant.blogspot.com/2008/05/growing-in-venice-florida-epilogue.html

Just picked up another double header for this Saturday at wife's school, St. Henry, hopefully the weather will not be what they are calling for...rain and cooler, but that has been the norm so far this season....gotta enjoy the good days while you get them, so I'm heading out to get some grass cut...

back later>>>>

photos-1955, one of the few photos of me all slicked up, with a bath and combed hair...I loved south Florida in the wilds of the Gulf and open spaces of the 1950s...Sadly, there are few of those left these days...even the Everglades is getting crowded....and the Tulips have arrived in the back yard and along the fence...3 weeks late, but they have bloomed as they always do.