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.

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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!