Who Will Stop the Rain?

I've always said, "When you have nothing to talk about except the Weather, you don't have much to say"...that has been the story of the past few weeks, as Spring moves into Summer. Not much going on, except the Heat, Humidity, and continued rains in the Heartland. After a 60 hour respite, with Thursday being the only completely rain free day in, the storms were brewing across the Midwest again last night.

Reminds me of an old Creedence Clearwater tune from the early 70s:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIPan-rEQJA

The Radar turned an ugly Red as the initial storm passed through Chicago into northern Indiana and lower Michigan...it arrived dark and ugly into West Central Ohio about 9pm. We got the winds, some brief heavy rains, and lightning...no major damage that I have heard of...unlike Chicago, where the Sears Tower lost a number of windows.

A second band of storms moved through early this morning, and now the sun is back out with accompanying heat and humidity, which comes at us with a vengeance....and Summer doesn't officially begin until Monday.

The Weather, along with team cancellations, is putting a crimp in my Cigar and Beer fund for the season...counting 3 double headers I have had a total of 9 games cancelled in the past week...a tidy sum of cash in the $500 neighborhood. You expect rain outs in the Spring season of High School Baseball, usually not so much during June...this year is the exception, and it's keeping me home and frankly bored. As the song goes "too hot to fish".....double header cancelled today, nothing tomorrow, and back to rain when the first day of Summer arrives on Monday...just in time to put a damper on another round of baseball...Damn!

Patricia is in Dayton at a school related meeting this morning, and Sam is playing Softball in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he said the friends he was staying with when they arrived last night were without power...seems they got hit worse than us....Anissa, Me, the Airedale, and Cat, are "Home Alone"...enjoying the A/C and watching the boring assed World Cup. The USA doesn't play again until Wednesday in a must win situation agains Algeria...win you move on, lose you are done, and a tie...you leave your fate in other teams hands.

Like I said...not a lot going on, as you can tell, but I will return...

back later>>>>>

Photos-NOT from last night storms..the Sears Tower gets hit by Lightning...and a funnel cloud forms along the Ohio-Indiana Border(photos from Ohiostorms.com and windlightning.com)

Turning 61/My Musical "Roots"

The sun rises like a big orange ball this morning, the morning of March 16, 2001. I turn 61 today, and to tell the truth, despite the aches and pains of growing older, I'm glad I was born back in 1949 and that era. I would not want to be 20 or 30 today in this world of Obama and his Marxist hordes running the show in Washington. Being older just brings out that "I don't give a crap what you think" attitude. I've always been of that mind set, and the grayer I get, the more outspoken(if that's possible) and more set in my ways. I took this short stupid test the other day and sent it out to most of the folks and family on my e-mail list:

http://www.nolanchart.com/survey.php

Needless to say I came out on the right side of the Libertarian Chart....not sure I qualify as a libertarian, the right side? Not much doubt about that. The one thing I am libertarian about is, I really don't give a rat's ass what people that I don't agree with, think about me or my political or social views. But take the test for yourself, it's a fun look at what lurks in your memory banks.

The Accordion____

Last night saw the curtain close on another season in the Wabash Valley Dartball League. As I have mentioned before, our Church, St. Johns Lutheran of Celina, was the host Church for this season, and with Sam off to college at Ohio State, it was basically left to me and JD, to see that the year went off without a hitch....we succeeded more or less. Our year as a team pretty much stunk, but we survived well enough to host the post season tourneys and all star games...last night topped it off, as we finished up with a 2 hour get together with Banquet, Entertainment, and Awards.

A lady name Rita Schroeder along with her sister Pat came to entertain the attendees with music on the Accordion. She also brought along a collection of Accordions that her family had for the past century or so, including one that was about 50 or 60 years old....one that looked much like the one I had tried to learn over 50 years ago, while growing up back in Venice, Florida.

I made the mistake of telling Rita and Pat(who went to school with me back some 40 plus years ago at Celina High), that I had taken Accordion lessons back in the late 1950s, but forgot all I knew about the musical instrument....I also had saw the workings of that instrument when I hosted a lady named Annie Koski on a live weekend Polka Show on WJMT Radio in Merrill, Wisconsin, back in the late 1970s.

Well it came down about 20 minutes into the show...they called me up to do a duo with Rita...needless to say I wasn't ready to touch an Antique musical instrument, that I had forgotten how to use long ago.

After a few short pointers from Rita, I lifted the 25 pound piece that is as old as I....and faked my way through the "duo" with Rita....finally remembering some of what I learned in my youth from that long forgotten teacher of the Accordion back in south Florida. At the same time I was scared that I would drop or mess up the scared piece...so I bumbled my way carefully, very carefully through the 5 minute session.

When it was over, I was relieved, but satisfied, that even though I sucked, I gave it a go.

The catered meal was great, the entertainment one of the best programs that the league has seen in years, and we topped it off with the Trophy and Awards presentation....home by 9, it was good to see the season end on a high note.

Today____

As I mentioned, the sun is back out after a 4 day hiatus....and the rest of the work week looks to be sunny and dry, before things change back to cooler and wet sometime during the upcoming weekend, such is the month of March, such is the month of my birth.

A few years ago, I checked out the Van Wert Times-Bulletin for my birth announcement, and checked out the weather for March 16, 1949. "Rain mixed with Snow and a high of 36" was the conditions, weather wise that day, 61 years ago...today calls for Sunny and 56, looking a little better.

Have a good one!

back later

Photos-top left, me, trying to look like I know what I was doing, I didn't!(2) Rita and her collection of classic Accordions(3) Me and Rita and our "duo", which consisted of her playing and me fumbling my way through the set(4) The Banquet Tables were set in a St Patricks' Day theme.(5) and finally the collection of Hardware that was passed out during the awards portion of The Wabash Valley Dartball Banquet.

Triple Overtime, Passings/Buddy Holly and Jim Wishner

After officiating about 50 basketball games so far this season, from youth through High School, both boys and girls, I had not had an overtime game that I can recall...last night, I traveled to my wife's school at St. Henry, and managed to make up for the lack of OTs. In the first game of a Junior High Girls double header between Mercer County rivals Fort Recovery and the home standing Redskins, my officiating partner Bob Post and I managed to get a 3 overtime game in, and it was almost a quadruple...a shot by St Henry rimmed out as the final horn sounded, with a Fort win. The Redskins won the 8th grade game, and I survived the extended evening, even with the bronchitis still hanging on.

After a much needed night off tonight, I finish the week with a flurry, double headers on Thursday and Saturday, wrapped around a single JV game at Allen East on Friday Night....hopefully the rest will knock out the final stages of the bronchitis....hopefully!

Passings_____Buddy Holly 51 years ago

On a frigid February 3rd in 1959, rockers Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper(JP Richardson), and Richie Valens, took off from Mason City, Iowa, after playing at nearby Clear Lake...the plane crashed shortly after, and all 3 up and coming artists were dead...by the luck of the draw, country singer Waylan Jennings, had given up his seat to Richardson, and he survived...Jennings went on to a long career in Country Music. Writer/singer Don McClean in 1972 wrote a song about Buddy Holly and "The Day the Music Died" which became a monster hit on it's own:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tr-BYVeCv6U

Buddy Holly, while only 22 when he died, left behind a string of hits and an eternal legend, and is probably best remembered for his Peggy Sue:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ku5UeUT7yIQ&feature=related

February 3, 1959, The Day the Music Died.

Jim Wishner_____

Doubtless few, if any of you, have heard of Jim Wishner. But he was instrumental in my early career in Radio New some 30 years ago. I first heard of Jim when he called me one spring day in 1979, when I was an afternoon DJ at Radio Station WJMT in the small Northwoods berg of Merrill, Wisconsin. I had graduated from Broadcasting School the previous year, and had worked at both WJMT and WRIG in Wausau, Wisconsin.....I had always thought that my voice and personality were suited for News, rather than entertainment, so I sent out a tape on occasion to various stations that were looking for a News Reporter or Anchor...one of those stations was WIOU in Kokomo, Indiana. The station News Director was Wishner, and it's Program Director was a veteran Jock named T. J. Byers. A few weeks after sending out a tape of me reading the news and some writing samples, Jim Wishner called me and asked if I would be willing to come to Central Indiana and work as the Morning Anchor on WIOU and the sister FM Station WZWZ. WIOU was a Top 40 station with a solid commitment to local news, WZWZ was a Rocker that used news as a conversation piece for it's Jocks. The pay was about double what I was receiving in Wisconsin, so I jumped at the chance.

Booth Broadcasting would pay for my move, and put me up in a motel, until Patricia, Anissa, and I could find housing....it was a step up in the "Business", to say the least.

After settling in Kokomo, and getting to know Wisher, it soon became apparent that he was a good guy, a misguided Liberal to be sure, but a good guy....Jim was a Vegetarian, and a chain smoker, strange combination it seemed to me, but what the Hell did I care? Our relationship was pretty good, Jim helped me along{always sticking me on the Democratic political candidates, because he knew I was a right winger, and would give them the business, if needed, no soft ball questions}, and it was sad indeed for me, when he got a call from a major station in Omaha, WOW Radio, to come out and join that staff...a move up on his part, but left me with a bitter old coot, named McKeller, and a conniving female, who went by Melony, and who would step on anybody to move up, as "partners" in the WIOU newsroom...I wasn't going to stick around long, and didn't....it was off to Kansas shortly thereafter.

Having become pretty good friends, I helped him pack up and load the UHaul Trailer he rented for the trip west....that was December 1979, that was the last time I saw Wisher, although I talked with Jim on several occasions after I moved on to KGNO in Dodge City as News Director. Always upbeat and professional is how I remember Jim Wishner.

Fast forward some 30 years, I come across a web page about a show on KTNF Radio in Minnesota:

http://www.am950ktnf.com/node/1306

There he was, the little man with the big voice and big heart, Jim Wishner, my old boss. I typed in the contact information, and sent out a e-mail....(this was in December of last year). I never got a response, and really didn't think much of it. Times and people change, who knows maybe Jim had moved on?...after all, that is the way of Radio.

Having pretty much forgot about the e-mail and what had become of Jim, I was doing some research, and I see in front of me..."Minnesota Farm Bureau Awards Jim Wishner". Humm I thought, Jim doing Farm Reporting? Only in a far left socialist state like Minnesota would they award a Public Broadcasting lib their Reporter of the Year award.....then I open the link and see the words....Posthumously:

http://www.mfu.org/node/409

My old friend and boss Jim Wishner appears to have succumbed to those damn cigarettes...

Jim Wishner the man who got me started in Broadcast News, dead at 61....sometimes, especially in the world of the Internet, it takes death to find those folks you are looking up....Rest in Peace friend.

Will do some research work today, tinker with the look and side content of the blog, and continue to rest up...I think Patricia is taking the afternoon off as well, needless to say she has not had the opportunity to rest from her flu and bronchitis battle...

back later

Photos-The Late Buddy Holly and the late Jim Wishner

Lower Poll Numbers,Tom Russell, and the Winds of December

Walked outside to feed the birds and squirrels...the winds are whipping, and after a dropping of snow, sleet, and then rain, last night, the temperatures climbed to around 45 by daybreak...now they are on the way back down....a high of maybe 20 with 40-50 mph winds by tomorrow....beautiful, just freaking beautiful!

I did a boys Junior High double header at Lincolnview yesterday, when we walked out of the school at 7:30, the wind had picked up, and the skies were dumping a combination of snow, sleet, and rain....but by the time I reached Celina{25 miles south} it was all rain with slippery conditions due to the 30 degree temps....the roads were just wet by the time daylight was with us.

No games today....

A quick look at some news:

Obama's First Year Poll Numbers Worst since Harry Truman____

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/12/08/obamas-percent-approval-lowest-president-point/

His numbers are even worse in the most accurate of pollsters..Rasmussen:

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll

It appears that the shine is off the Kenyan, despite the best efforts of the lap dog media, and groveling clowns like Jon Stewart and Keith Oldblowaman....as for me, everytime I mistakenly catch one of his speeches or parts thereof...I get a sudden rapid case of nausea. It appears that much of the country is finally getting it, but it may be too late to stop the flood of rules, laws, and spending, this SOB and his lemmings, Reid and Pelosi, are tossing out at us. War has been declared, it's the Obama Administration versus the American People.

Tom Russell-American Cowboy Poet____

A couple of weeks ago when I met up with my old friend Bill Clem at G&R in Waldo, for a beer and super Baloney Sandwich, he handed me a half dozen or more CDs of 2 of his favorite artists...one was Chris Knight, and the other Tom Russell.

I listened to Russell's 1991 CD "Cowboy Real" on the 2 hour or so drive from Waldo back to Celina....and have to admit I enjoyed every song on it....since that drive I have been alternating listening to Russell and Knight on the car CD when traveling to games...I especially like Russell's older stuff, but have to admit I find some of it a little "left wing" for my political taste....but disregarding some of the lyrics that bemoan the plight of illegals, criminal murderers and draft dodgers, like Claude Dallas, and American Indians, I find this type of music enjoyable...it reminds me of Woody Guthrie and the genre from the Great Depression era.

Here are a couple of selections on you tube:

First off from October on the Letterman Show, with one of his new ones that strikes a cord with folks my age: East of Woodstock/West of Vietnam

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIDCYjvj5XU

And here is a favorite Cowboy song of mine:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cwh-h6pHN1Y&feature=related

That was "Tonight We Ride".....and finally Bill's favorite "Gallo Del Cielo" a live version:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wgom-IWpKdM

That about does the musical version for today...enjoy!

back later>>>>

Photos-Tom Russell's outstanding album from the early 90s.."Cowboy Real", and our resident Dope of a Prez!

Long Haired Country Boy

12:05PM

Standing(rather than sitting much) around waiting for football Saturday to get started....OSU Buckeyes are on at 3:30 vs a dangerous Michigan State...being at home, I do expect Ohio State to prevail.

I am sick of typing about my "back"...but right now it is a major part of my day. Went in early this morning before dawn to get another treatment, and a look at my X-Rays...no surprise there, my lower two disks are rubbing bone against bone, but a crown is starting to form to ease the pain....starting the key word. Still hurts for sure, but more movement and things appear to be improving, the CP says by the end of this coming week he expects much improvement...but no sitting for more than 10 minutes at a time, hard to do on Monday and Tuesdays, plus my trips to his office, since they are anywhere from 25 to 40 minute trips....but will do the best I can...keep on walking, and keep on icing the back.

Still bound and determined to do the Rec League playoff double header tomorrow....won't be mobile, but I think I can make it up and down the field in a fast walk for 3 hours...and why not? He does want me to walk as much as possible......

The weather continues to be Global Warming like....after a cool, but seasonable, day yesterday, today sunny and 70 and tomorrow slated for near 80 and plenty of sunshine...gotta love that "Global Warming" and screw you Al Gore.....I'd rather die in tropical weather than in the freaking "Ice Age"

Blueticks

___________ After posts about Airedales and a passing mention of other dogs, I can say I've had my share of dogs, most good, some evil, and some just a pain in the ass....back when I got out of the Air Force and bought the first house(just a block from where I live now, but after another half dozen or more moves around the country), I decided I needed a dog or dogs....I already had a couple of mutts...Jenny and her daughter Dixie, a couple of small "Heinz" dogs...but being the macho wannabee, I figured a Coon Hound or 3 would be the right mix.

Me and a couple of buddies Nick Hromish, and Rick Tester, headed out I-70 to Effingham, Illinois, we headed to a kind of "redneck" looking little town called Cowden, Illinois. A man named Dewey O. Sarver, lived outside of Cowden and was a wholesaler of genuine "Coon Hounds"...Ol' Dewey looked like Santa who lived in a trailer...he had a large selection of hounds who were "Guaranteed" to tree Coons. We stopped in Cowden and rubbed elbows with the locals at a little coffee shop. The town and people, now that I look back, reminds me of the movie "Hoosiers" starring Gene Hackman. After a quick breakfast, we got directions to Dewey's dog farm and headed out.....'Santa' was there to meet us three youngsters(we were all 23 to 25 years)...we talked hunting and dogs...what Dewey didn't know was none of us knew squat about Coon Hunting, we just wanted to give it a try. Nick had a half breed cur dog, and we needed a solid nose hound to hunt with him...after an hour or so of looking, I decided on a nice looking male Bluetick named "Drum"....the dog was about 7 years old, and Dewey promised he would tree Coon..."Guaranteed!"....$75 was the price.

We took off in the top covered pick-up of Nick's and made our way back the 275 miles to Celina....I'm sure we were drinking beer and not following the speed limit...not something to be proud of, but, why lie, we were not bad guys, but we were not angles, or even close.

Drum was the first of my many hounds, and my future wife's favorite, because she had to take care of him, after I decided to head off to college a year later....We took Drum and the other dogs on many a night's hunting...the dogs hunted, we watched and bullshitted, drank a few beers as the dogs ran the woods and fields around Mercer County....they treed a few coons, very few, killed a few Opossum...but for the most part, they ran, and we partied....as I had said on an earlier post...I own guns, support the 2nd Amendment, and the right to hunt...but as for me.....well, I just don't have the heart in it....I did years ago, but no more. The fun was being out in the woods at night with some friends away from it all....the actual hunting and killing was never something I enjoyed, the times I did.

Drum was with us a few years before passing away at the age of 10...he did produce a batch of 13 pups with my friend Jim Olson's bitch "Belle"....those were the days....no money, plenty of beer and smoke, and not a care in the world....of course living that lifestyle for too long a time, will kill you sooner or later, so a few years of it, is more than enough for anybody.

Charlie Daniels song "Long Haired Country Boy" kind of fit our little group's lifestyle, right up to the "Kind of like my old Bluetick Hound":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs4y5si8DGs

{photos: Me, the long haired one...1974 with our old Bluetick Drum, and again with his and "Belle's" baker's dozen Bluetick Pups in 75}

Blast from the Past

9:30pm

To tell the truth, I'm too damn tired to even think...did my double header today at the Rec Football League....and downed a couple of Miller Lites after....Greenville tomorrow and Tuesday..then games tomorrow at Delphos, and then again Tuesday(Celina) and Thursday(Wayne Trace Haviland)....Bengals lost late at Seattle....and I'm ready for bed.

Will sign off with two songs that I remember for their time in my life....

CCR with Looking out my Back Door....came out right when I returned from Vietnam in the summer of 1970...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqZhM75aGMg

....and Rod Stewart with Maggie May when I was planning for my post Air Force life in late 1971.....

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoID=1737293305

later

prh