Looking Back/Looking Forward

I got to thinking(always a dangerous proposition) this morning as I made my morning sojourn around town and by the shores of Grand Lake..."Just what the Hell am I going to do with my remaining years and months, or whatever God as left me with, on this planet"?  Not that I am unhappy with retirement, let's face it, I stay plenty busy, with some 250 sporting events to officiate and umpire throughout the year.  A yearly trip to Wisconsin, one to Michigan with Nick in the fall, and usually, although I've missed it the past 2 years, a weekend Mushroom hunt in that same state around Memorial Day weekend.  I am still lucky enough to get selected to umpire the OHSAA Tournaments during the Spring, including 4 District and a Regional final this past year...and next weekend, I will travel to Toledo to fill in on a football crew for a Toledo City League rival game...Yes at 61 years old I cannot complain, but of course I still do.

This year ahead my plate is pretty full as well....once again late October I will head to the Au Sable River in Michigan with Nick, and on the plate a chance to meet with a couple of Houseworth cousins, Moe and Don.  Don is a retired Air Force guy who splits his time between Michigan and Arizona, his Grandfather Alonzo was my Grandfather Sam's older brother.  Moe also lives in northern lower Michigan, but like me, has never met Don in person...Moe is a cousin from my great Grandmother, Mary Ann Houseworth's side..that side which had a cousin marriage and thus Houseworths coming in from a couple of different directions.  In November Patricia and I will head to Wisconsin and spend a few days with her folks, and family.  On to February, when Hal and his fiancee Lisa plan on getting married at a winter resort in the mountains of West Virginia...then, if all goes well, and Obummer and Company don't completely bankrupt us and the country, the first week of  August 2011, Patricia and I will make our way across the northern states towards the west...then down from Idaho to Vegas, the Grand Canyon, and back towards home.  2 weeks next year traveling the west, then 2 south and east the following year.

Yep, big plans.  Time, money, health, and circumstances will tell if all those "BIG" plans work out.

Looking back_____

The old Negro Leagues Baseball Pitcher, Satchel Paige, who was always good for a quote, uttered one of my favorites...."Don't Look Back, Something Might Be Gaining On You".  Those are indeed good words to live by....unfortunately they are easier to read and agree with, than actually follow.  "Satch" pitched in the Negro Leagues, before final getting his shot in the bigs in 1948, and he was still pitching in the MLB until he was 59, and well into his 60s in the minor leagues.  But as easy as the words are to say...you cannot always heed them.  Especially for me, a history and genealogy buff...it's what I do, look back.

---------

DAMN BLOGGER!!!!!

Now I am sitting here pretty pissed off....I had added another paragraph or two,  of what I have been doing and changes both for me and some of the original fellow bloggers have went though over those 3+ years since I began this "blog"...and WHAM!  I try to post a photo or two, and Blogger fails...not sure if it was Firefox or Blogger, but it wiped out the last couple of thoughts....and I'm not going to drift back and try to think what I had written...give me a night to sleep on it, then maybe tomorrow I'll finish my thoughts on looking back/looking forward.

In the meantime, I will enjoy the final hot day in the forecast...near 90 by the time I hit the football field at Wayne Trace High School up in Blue Creek Township, Paulding County...the land that my Great-Grandparents moved to just after the Civil War(how's that for looking back?).  Tomorrow they say will be cooler, and the rest of the extended forecast looks more like the final days of summer, a few rain showers, and temperatures in the 70s and 80s for highs...that I can deal with.

back later>>>>

Photos-The Sun bouncing off Grand Lake and the shoreline on my morning walk early today...and Sachel Paige...who was still pitching in professional baseball when he was my age(61) and older.  "Don't Look Back" Indeed!

Is it Blogger or the Computer Store?

We got the computer cleaned and added some new power....so I check out the blog and see half the photos are gone....was it them or Blogger....

back after repairs to the site....

It was Blogger...what else is new? 

Baseball all weekend at the Dale Harter Tournament in Celina, my one Little League gig of the year....1 game last night, 3 today, and 3 or 4 tomorrow....sooooooooooooo, I'll be back on Monday, enjoy the weekend!

back later>>>>

Oconomowoc, Wisconsin/Blog Changes

Back from Oconomowoc_____

We rolled back into Celina yesterday afternoon about 4:30pm from Patricia's hometown of Oconomowoc, Wisconsin....I first visited Oconomowoc in 1975, a full year and a half before we were married....I tagged along to meet her father Bill and step-mother Bev, and attend her younger sister Sue's wedding, which Patricia was a bridesmaid. I have been back at least once{usually twice, at least back in the early days} for the past 35 years.

Oconomowoc, when I first visited, was a town of about 9000, about the size of Celina, and like Celina, surrounded by water....the big difference was the Wisconsin town was close to large Milwaukee(about 30 miles west on I-94), and instead of one large mud hole, like Grand Lake, Oconomowoc was surrounded by several deep clear lakes, including Lac LaBelle, Lake Fowler, and Silver Lake. Patricia's parents lived between Delafield and Oconomowoc on Lake Nashoda.

In the years since my first visit, I have noted changes, and most not for the better. The suburban low lifes from Milwaukee and Chicago have infiltrated the Lakes and town...while leaving their crime ridden suburbs, they have brought their own brand of strip malls and yuppie shops to the revamped downtown and outlying areas next to I-94....In the name of progress, Oconomowoc and nearby Delafield have become sometime else other than what they were, thus eroding the quite and charm of the villages.

Of course this is my own personal opinion, I hate this type of progress. I have seen what happened to my childhood home of Venice, Florida, in the name of progress...not good, and Celina would like to join the Oconomowocs and Venices, by making Grand Lake something it's not. This is what happens when real estate speculators and politicians have egos and ask the citizens to pay for those egos, with taxpayer funds.

Fish Frys on Friday___

One thing I have always loved about Wisconsin is there Friday Night Fish Frys....now we are talking all you can eat, and more of the best seafoods. When Patricia and I lived near Wausau, Wisconsin, back in the late 70s{before the kids came along} we frequented a place north of Wausau called Bullocks...all you could care to consume in seafood and side dishes for $4.95 a person...we would usually drop $15 or $20 at the bar then head for the dining room each Friday. It was a treat....we also tried other eateries around the area, but Bullocks stood out head above the rest, at least in our minds.

So on Friday, a few hours after arriving at Bill and Bev's Condo{they moved out of the country setting a few years ago}, we headed uptown to Tony's, a place we had not eaten at yet, and had our Friday Fish Fry. Starting out the weekend when I left Celina, I had dropped a full 18 pound in 2 months and my weight had settled in at 190.5 pounds on my basement scale...I knew the weekend, with the fish, beer, the early Thanksgiving Turkey Dinner, and Sunday meal, would be a challenge...I survived, weighing in this morning at 192, I gained only about a pound and a half/the bloop pressure was also in pretty good range, standing at 135/75 with a 65 resting pulse rate.

After a weekend of Football and Food, we said our goodbyes yesterday morning early, and make out way down the Interstate past Milwaukee and towards Chicago. We stopped at the Mars Cheese Outlet to check into some Cheese Curds and other specialities that my buddy Bill Clem asked for. I am hooking up with Bill this Thursday in Waldo, and he asked for some "real" curds....having lived in Wisconsin a couple of decades ago, he knows the fake stuff from the real. We picked out a selection of cheese products and other items, and Anissa, Patricia, and I, headed down the Illinois Tollway towards home.

We arrived in Celina at 4pm, and before we stopped home, we headed out to the Celina Pet Center to pick up Reagan, she had been lodged at the Kennel for the weekend{with the boys no longer living at home, not much option there}...she had a trim, nobody seems to know how to trim Airedales correctly, so I should call it a butcher job, but at least she is ready for the winter without the excess baggage of hair. We headed home and were promptly ignored by a seemingly pissed off cat, who fended for herself for the 4 days....such is the life of the cat, able to survive on their own, if you leave a clean litter box in the basement and plenty of food and water.

Blogger Bummer___

Seems Blogger has changed the way it let's you write and publish these daily posts, and I can say, it sucks....not sure how it's going to look when I hit the publish button, but I'm not at all please with this. I seldom like big change anyway, but guess I'll learn to live with this, if I have to....the editing seems to have gone back to the 1998 version.

I was planning on making changes and the layout of the blog and content anyway...and you regular visitors may see them as the week progresses...if I can figure out what the Hell is going on.

back later>>>>

With the current set up I can't figure out how to drop photos where I want them...so I'll add a photo of the Oconomowoc City Hall and the sign at Lac LaBelle for now, until I can figure out just what the Hell is going on.... :(

Blogger Blues test!

Not sure if this will even post on the main page....seems Blogger has frozen my front page{while my other blogs are fine, go figure}....

And of course, once I add a new post{this one} it goes back to "normal", whatever the Hell that is for this system?

Back Later>>>>

Well things appear to be back to "normal"...at least as normal as can be expected in the Blogger Universe.

Barry Obummer is still Prez and still a moron, the left wing press is still the left wing press...It's raining again in West Central Ohio, and I'm thankful that I have no games tonight, as the wind and cold appear to be in for the evening hours, even while the rain abates for awhile.

Saturday brings cooler temperatures, and I'm guessing a muddy field for our JV game at Spencerville...and the extended forecast for the northeastern areas of Michigan along the Au Sable River look cool and cloudy for late next week...let's hope that will be great for Steelhead and Salmon.

Enjoy the Weekend...Back Later>>>>{tomorrow or Monday}

Blogger /Google is a Mess! Shutting it Down!

Blogger and Google(including my G-Mail) have become a mess....not sure if it is local or more widespred, but either way....I will not be back on until these clowns get their act in order. I have neither the time, will, or patience to slosh through this maneusha in it's current state.

Back Later>>>>>

{at some point in time}

What's with Blogger?/Hal's New York Trip

Another sunny day yesterday before the rains moved into Western Ohio this morning....this looks like an all-day event, off and on, which will wash out games and move Sectional Finals back...the regular season games lost today will push the end of the spring season back even farther. Some games will not get made up at all. Looking ahead really no dry periods in store for us...including the District openers next Thursday, this is really starting to suck for all. Hopefully the Weather Channel folks are wrong(Again!), it won't be the first time.

Last night Sam and I headed for Convoy and did a regular season game with Crestview and visiting Antwerp...the home team Knights came out on top by a 10-1 score. Tonight I am scheduled to be at Lima Perry for a Sectional Final...but right now that is looking pretty "iffy" with the weather moving in, and probably sticking around. The Coach/AD just called and said he would keep me informed of the weather situation at Perry High School.

Blogger Sux!_______sometimes.

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate Google's Blogger...but at times it can be frustrating. Take yesterday for example, I was writing a blastful, semi lunatic, rant about Florida politics, queer warriors, and the treatment of Miss California, by the NBC rump ranger Keith Oldblowaman and others, but found out I could not add photos from my files or document sections...well Hell, I put it in the save box, got to reading it last night and dumped the whole damn thing...some of the comments were even to radical for me.

So blogger sucks...but this time it ended up by me not posting something I would have probably dumped anyway...chalk up one for the Blogger Nerds.

Hal in New York_____

Last Thursday Hal and his girl friend flew out of Columbus(after their Dayton flight was cancelled) to New York City...I'm not sure if it was Lisa's first trip there, but it was our youngest ones for sure.

The took in the game at the new Mets Stadium on Friday...and as luck would have it, another area product from Defiance was the starter for the Mets...Jon Niese from the Bulldog class of 2004 pitched well...he joins former teammate Chad Billingsley in the Majors. Chad tosses for the LA Dodgers and is now the ace of that staff. This gives me 2 pitchers that I have umpired High School games for in MLB. Hal never faced Niese, but they were opponents when Hal was a Senior at Celina and JN was a Sophomore at Defiance.

They took in Times Square, The Statue of Liberty, and other sights while there. As I told Hal, they need to enjoy this time...I've been around the city, but never downtown or is it uptown? The got there sight seeing in and flew back on Sunday afternoon. I would do some photos of the trip, but not sure really how to get them from somebodies "facebook" to this blog. Maybe later down the road.

The Obama Economy____

Finally...Is anybody really paying attention to what the Hell is going on in Washington? I think not!

99 Trillion Dollars is the shortfall that faces our country regarding Social Security and Medicare...$99 Trillion, you gotta be freaking kidding me? 99 Trillion Dollars in promises that cannot be paid for...the population is growing old, freeloaders are invading our shores, and we have an Non-American Kenyan sitting in the White House playing President.

The country has gone mad...and 60% still love Obama.

You people are idiots, morons, halfwits, etc...America as a Republic is toast...deal with it, I have, and you soon will too.

back later>>>

photos-America's Illegal Kenyan born President burning through the cash...and the founding father of our country might be weeping or he might be trying to climb out of his grave so he can arrest and execute the son of a bitches that are destroying the republic.