On The Fly...

Hola, It's been a bit since I've written. I have been one busy nutcase. Iowa was... well, Iowa. Saturday night was cowbell night. It wasn't so much a giveaway as much as it was for Iowans to accessorize in a fashion sense. Only kidding. I have been on a whirlwind schedule and will continue to be so through the weekend till monday morning. I'm putting in 18-20 hour days every day. I'm doing lots of broadcasting so that's okay by me. Been watching tv on the fly and haven't been yakking too much in my friends' blogs/journals... but know that I'm visiting when I can... Hope that you all are well... I'll chat with y'all later...

Another Day In Paradise

Hmmm... the hospital had a fire in the psych unit??? Now THAT is crazy... and that was just the beginning. One of the ICU's which is located beneath said psych area had a pipe burst and flooded the whole ICU... Nice... The patients had to be moved out to other departments. The irony of this was unbelieveable... This all happened with JCAHO in to visit and determine the level of accreditation for us... YEEEE-HAWWW! I don't know how that panned out... but everything else seems to have settled down. At least for now... I've got a long weekend ahead. I have to go to Iowa this weekend with the Cherokee. We go to Davenport to take on the Quad City Express. I'm not an Iowa fan... we used to have an on-going joke about Iowans...
Q: Why are all Iowa football fields made of artificial turf???
A: So the cheerleaders won't graze after the game....
Not my joke. Honest. But I've never been a Iowa fan. It's not much to write home about. So I don't mind a little wise-crack about the state. It seems only right. Anyway, I talked this week with our old coach who was fired the day before tryouts. Vargs and I are still pretty close and he was talking with me for over an hour. I think I got about 3 minutes of talking in with the other 82 going to Vargs. He's still hurting and has gotten bitter. But I think once this season has passed. he'll get back into hockey and I think he'll be okay. We'll see what happens. I suppose I should go get some shuteye and pray that I don't meet any Iowa cheerleaders...

Recap...

Hmmm... random thoughts as I look at some old things and am tossing them away... the Cherokee won on Saturday night vs Cleveland and then got shut down on Sunday vs Dubuque... Such is life. No real memorable moments from the weekend except after the game on Sunday. I left the rink and went to go get some dinner with someone and as I'm sitting there, some guy comes up to me and says: "y'know, you kinda look like that guy up there on tv" It was me on tape. "naw, I don't look like him... he looks younger than I do..." The slightly drunken response: "yeah, I think (hic-up) you're right..." What could I do but smile and go back to my dinner... I always tell people that my epitath will read: Loved by few, Hated by many, Ignored by NONE!

Reasons to Smile

Hey,
The last few days have seen me do little things that added up to some big things. I'm praying hard for my sister Lou. She has a tumor on her ovary and is having to go through daily chemo. The bad news is that it's daily... the good news is that the mass has shrunk 2cm and hasn't spread. We'll see how it goes. That's two sisters who have gone through this crap called ovarian cancer. Both are in good spirits. Very positive attitudes so why should mine be any less. Lou is keeping up a positive front. When she's not vomiting... but even that is beginning to get a little bit better... Hockey is back in full swing... the team is going to go through a big test this weekend. We open the home part of our season schedule against Cleveland this Saturday night and Dubuque on Sunday. I have to broadcast both games on the net like always, but Sunday's game is going to be broadcast on BCSN-TV here locally and I have to broadcast that too. It'll be strange to simulcast like that, but hey, it should be a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to it...

Five Years Ago...

It still hurts to think about and look back at such a terrible day... It doesn't seem like it's been only 5 years. I think a lot of us would rather forget... because of the pain involved. But I was glad that I forced myself to watch this morning. Especially when the 2nd plane hit the other tower. How often do you see that video footage anymore? They don't show it. I think if they did show it more frequently, we as a country wouldn't be so divided... that everything else wouldn't be so politicized... we wouldn't be democrat, republican, liberal, conservative... black, white, christian, or jew... we'd just be what everyone wants to be... AMERICANS! Or is that too much to ask...

Rest of the Q's...

6) What's one thing you HAVE to do before you die?
I don't really know. In the past, I used to say 'marry my true love' but since that no longer is a possibility, (thank God), I have to re-think this one. It's not the most important, but I'd like to visit all 50 states and 11 provinces before I go to Heaven. I've been to 24. The hard one is going to be Alaska. Been to Hawaii. Been to most states on the eastern side of the country. I guess that's the only thing I can currently think of... a lot of words to say I DON'T KNOW...

7) What's the best vacation you ever took?
It was great... I took almost 3 weeks off... Went to Toronto, then Hawaii, and then San Antonio... Had a blast in all three places.

8) What's the best advice your mom ever gave you?
My mom died when I was a kid. But I have one lasting memory. We had a neighbor who we didn't get along with and had an argument with... long story short, the neighbor had a nervous breakdown and was taken to the hospital, which meant that some of her kids were at home alone. My mom went over there and made them food and made sure that they had everything that they needed. They asked her why was she doing all this and she told them that arguments didn't matter anymore. Priorities are what's most important. That's why I put a high value on forgiveness.

9) What is your biggest phobia?
fear of deep water. I guess that's why I live on the lake... HA!

10) Who is the hottest (as in sexy) actor in Hollywood?
Um, I don't have one... honest! So help me Sandra Bullock!

11) For $100 would you pull the wings off of a butterfly?
Nah, I'd do it for five bucks... I'm cheap... :)

12) Do you have a living will or would you sign one?
In the will, I'd probably owe some money... :) ~

Five Q's

Never one to pass up a good quiz (thanks to JXN, M1999, and Riccie)...

1) If you could change your name, would you? If so, to what?
Little story about Moi' ... when I was born (during the height of the Beatles popularity) the nurses all wanted my parents to name me after one of the fab four. Okay, I am eternally grateful that the 'rents didn't tab me with something like that. There's no doubt in my mind that I would have come back to haunt them for naming me something like RINGO!!! So to make a long story short... I would not change my name...

2) What is one thing you'd change about yourself if you could?
I couldn't do just one. But I'd probably say to be a better Christian. Somedays I feel good and try to do the right things. Other days, I don't always make the right choices. But I know deep down, my heart is in the right place. And I take comfort in knowing that HE knows my heart. I just hope that I can do a better job of being a good person.

3) What's one thing you wouldn't change about yourself?
I have to say that I wouldn't change the passion I have... My passion for life, for sports, for all that I love. The cast of characters have changed, thankfully so, but the passion that I have for all that is good, still endures...

4) What's the best decision you ever made in your life?
To say good-bye to my past and focus on the future... Giving my heart to God and not being ashamed about that. To forgive those whom I've deemed enemies in my past and to forgive myself for my imperfections because I know I'm probably considered an enemy to others... just ask my past girlfriends... :)

5) If you could have dinner with 5 people (living or dead) who would they be?
My first thought would be the last five girlfriends I've had but that would be worse than an episode of Jerry Springer... and with the exception of my second girlfriend from about 15 years ago, I have no desire to see or talk to any one of them. Oh yeah, I guess I'd better pick five:

1- Steve Yzerman (recently retired from the Detroit Red Wings)
2- Joe Montana (former NFL and Notre Dame QB)
3- John Candy (my only deceased pick)
4- Don Cherry (Hockey Night In Canada Broadcaster)
5- Sandra Bullock (a little cheesecake never hurt anyone)

Pickin' and Grinnin' (my apologies to Hee Haw

Sometimes it’s a bit weird around here and sometimes it just downright whizzes. But every once in a while, just every once in a while, things straighten themselves out and work to a tee. This week has been one of those times. I can’t go into details, but safe to say that I am looking forward to the future more than I ever have. Let’s see… I almost forgot to mention that hockey has started. The Cherokee started their regular season with a pair of wins over Columbus. This weekend, the team travels to Lakeland MI, and then Detroit. So I’ll be on the road continually. Looking forward to that too. So for the most part, I am a pretty happy camper. Hey, life could be worse… I remember last year at this time. It wasn’t too good. I’m glad (and relieved) to have moved on in my life. I am a much better person for it… Yak at y’all later…

Live and Dangerous

Howdy to all... hope everything is well... Had a moment of near panic on the air yesterday as we prepared to do a soccer game on TV... LIVE! Now more often than not, the events we cover during the week are tape delayed. No problem for me... that way if I screw up the beginning or end, I can re-do them and then ride the middle of the broadcast for all it's worth. But every so often, I have to do Live events. I did some back to back on consecutive nights this week. Simply put, no room to screw up... again, no big deal for me... I've been at this long enough to know that anything can and usually does happen. For me, that was this past wednesday night. I had to broadcast a girl's high school soccer match Live at 6pm... not a big deal... EXCEPT that the JV game was running way behind and didn't end until 5:57pm... the varsity girls had to do their 20 minute warm-up. So the game wasn't starting until about 6:25 or 6:30... and we're LIVE on the air... with nothing to fill it with! Soooooo... me and my color analyst were able to talk for that whole time and my director was very cool cause he ran more commercials during that half hour than he was supposed to... but how we managed to talk about these two teams for that half hour with no previous knowledge of the two teams was nothing short of miraculous. Or I'm just naturally full of crap and some kind of BSer... Thank the Good Lord that He was with me and gave me the gift of gab to blab coherently... I had Thursday off from everything and boy was it much needed! I slept in till about 7am... lounged around till 9:30am. I went and had breakfast down the road from my house. The waitress who knows me, sat and shot the breeze with me for a bit. She met a new guy and things are going swimmingly for them. I was happy for her. I went home and did some work on my computer and then got a phone call. It was from my groupie. I was hesitant to take the call but I took it anyway. She and I haven't talked in quite a long time. She got a new job at another hospital in town and we hadn't talked in forever. The groupie was talking in generalities for quite some time. So I could tell something was on her mind. I wasn't sure... we had talked before... and knew that we couldn't be around each other much because she knew that there were some emotions there and she has a boyfriend. I told her that I wasn't going to interfere with that and that even if she were available, it wouldn't work because of the age difference (she's 22). Well, I didn't duck it and asked her how things were going in that department. She said they were going incredibly awesome. She's now wearing a rock on her finger. The guy proposed. I was happy (and very relieved)... I told her it was so great and that things are really going well for her. I hung up with her and went and took a nap. I got up and mowed the lawn and then my nephew called me. He had to go shopping for some clothes to start college and didn't have much money. So I took him over to Steve and Barry's and he got a crapload of clothes for cheap. He had never heard of the store and when I took him there, it was like a little kid on Christmas. He was just going nuts shopping for all the college wear... I told him he was shopping like a girl... he started laughing. We talked about football, girls, a little bit of everything. I felt like for the first time in a while, we connected. It was a lot of fun and he wants to drive up to see me next week (and go back to that store I'm sure). I'm looking forward to it... I came home, and sat down for a while and had a smile on my face. Relationships can be a funny thing. I watched my groupie talk about starting a new life with her boyfriend and make the commitment to be his and his alone... the waitress at the restaurant was cooing with her new beau. I sit here alone and am doing okay. I still think about the ex-girlfriend who destroyed my heart into 23.3 million pieces... now that I have the perspective of time, it's been really difficult but a worthwhile experience. I now see her for who she is... and looking back, I'm glad that we parted (as ugly and painful as it was) when we did. And to be honest, I'm glad she's gone now. There are times where I almost miss her. But I now realize that it's best that I fly solo from now on... I trust in God and let chips fall where they may. Life is definitely much better now...