The Holiday Season Ends....

Here it is January 3, 2011...and the Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Year Holiday Season has ended...it came to me with a nice 11 hour nap last night and early this morning.  Just enough to recover from the food and football bowl fest at Rick's acres over in Noble County in northern Indiana.  Clint, Rick, and I, got together for our annual beginning of the new year.  Rick and his wife, Toni, set out the spread, and we 3 with some help from Rick's sons, dug into the wide variety of food...Chili, wings, shredded beef, veggies, cakes, chips, dips, and more varieties than we really needed.  We washed that done with a half dozen different brands of beer.  I started and stuck with Coors...the first time I had downed that in years.  We retreated to the garage for a half hour or more to partake in some Indian Tabac cigars that I had brought along.

As far as the Bowls...football bowls that is.  Well suffice to say, being in Big Ten country, they were a disappointment...the Big Ten contingent got it handed to them...Michigan, Penn State, and Michigan State got clobbered by SEC teams, while Wisconsin was a loser in the Rose Bowl, and Texas Tech squeezed by Northwestern.  This leaves the Big Ten at two wins and five loses, with just Ohio State against Arkansas tomorrow night in the Sugar Bowl to repair some much wounded pride.  We finished off the day by watching some old westerns...and after crashing in the basement den, Clint and I headed out yesterday morning about 9:30.  Once home, I sat watching some NFL yesterday recovering from the day before, and I decided about 7pm it was time to catch up on some much needed sleep...and that is just what I did....11 1/2 hours and a shower later...here I sit.

With the long holiday(about 7 1/2 weeks for me if you consider it starts 2 weekends before Thanksgiving on our trip to Wisconsin)...it was time to tabulate the damage done to my weight loss progress over the past 116 months.  When I stepped on the scales this morning I discovered I was only up about 2 1/2 pounds over the entire 7 weeks...and only up 2/tenths of a pound since New Years morning...considering what I downed on Saturday, I am pleasantly surprised to say the least.  The slight gain over the period still leaves me down 23 pounds or so over the 16 months...I have yet to check the Blood Pressure this morning, and given all the salt laced goodies I had on Saturday, I may hold off on that a day or so....my next checkup is January 19th, with a blood draw on the 18th, so I have a couple of weeks to "purge" myself.   All in all, I am less than disappointed with the "Holiday Results".

Basketball resumes tomorrow night at Elida...tonight we begin the 2nd half of the Dartball season with a 3 game series at St. Johns against defending champions Hopewell.  I batted .339 for the first half, about a 100 points below what I finished at last year....as a team we had the 7th best record in the 8 team league, finishing at 6 up 15 down for the half...I cannot imagine doing worse on a personal or team basis this half...at least I hope not.  So here it is...time to lose a few pounds(still a handful away from my goal of 180), finish off the basketball season, get ready for Hal and Lisa's wedding...and prepare the body for baseball come late March.  I have at least 3 Vietnam Reunions to attend this year, and Patricia and I plan on taking a long vacation in the late summer(providing gas isn't $5 per gallon)...so here we go with the New Year, hopefully it will be good for all, well for all except our Marxist Prez and his progressive lemming followers and the lame stream media...the can all go straight to Hell.  That is one thing I will not waver on in 2012...my dislike for those that would destroy this Republic and turn us into a nation of servants...we are looking more and more like Europe and you gotta wonder if their plans are even more sinister than that.  Stay Tuned!

back later>>>>

Photos-Clint, Rick, and Me, enjoying a Indian Tabac Robusto in the garage between halves of football and handfuls of food and beer...Rick's youngest Guy, along with Clint...the view of the pond on the 17 acres from the basement/den picture windows in their new house...last year at this time it was just getting under roof....now it's complete except for the basement/den waiting for it's cosmetic work.  And finally Rick, doing what we did most of the New Year's Day...sitting, watching football with beer and snacks in hand.