Up In Smoke...

This week saw my favorite restaurant just down the street go up in flames. I was stunned when my wacky friend, who works there, called me at work to tell me about it. I couldn't believe it. About 5am one of the other girls who was coming in to work there arrived to see flames inside the dining room. She called 911 and it has been determined that it was a case of arson. That really whizzes. The family that owns the restaurant lives 40 minutes away. They arrived and were in a complete daze. No one could believe it... All of a sudden, the girls were temporarily out of a job. No insurance... nothing. I'm going to help my friend by putting together a care package for her. To make sure that she and her kids have a Christmas. She said her family is going to help her out too. So that's cool. But still, to see your livelyhood disappear without warning, even if only temporarily... No chance to prepare, no chance to find something else before your job is yanked... I don't know about you, but I'm counting my blessings... no matter how wacked out my life can get...

Post Turkey Turds...

Ohhhhhhhh Burp!
Hope everyone had a wonderful turkey day. Me, it was pretty neat. I woke up early and on my way to work on Thursday when I got the sudden brainstorm to stop at the Meijer's store which was open and packed on Thanksgiving morning at 6:30am. Nice to know that I wasn't alone when it came to last minute shopping. My purpose was to pick up a veggie tray and some soda to take into work for me and my co-workers. Well, as I walk right past the veggie trays and head for the soda pop aisle, I end up at the frozen food section. In that aisle, I noticed a number of boxes stacked up that didn't look like frozen food products of any sort. Instead, they were surround sound home theatre systems for $59... They were part of a two hour, Thanksgiving day only event. Thank the Good Lord that I had some money in my wallet. I snatched up that up in a hurry and grabbed some 2 liters of soda and got in line with the throng of other brainiacs that got up on a holiday morning to get things cheap... and of course after I pull into the hospital, it dawned on me that I forgot to get the veggie tray. Oops!
Anyway, after work, I went to spend time with the family. We had a pretty nice time together. Ate healthier than I normally would on turkey day. We played $100,000 Pyramid. Me and my nephew dominated on that one. Although as much as I love him, he is not the most worldly and knowledgeable person on the planet. Neither am I, for that matter. But we made it work. After leaving there and going home, I had every intention of going to bed early and going to the early sales for 'black friday'. The problem was that I remembered that I had bought the little home theatre system and I was so excited about it that I tore down my other one which was comprised of old speakers that were more accustomed to blaring out old Kiss and Led Zeppelin LPs than digital audio of dvd's, mp3's, or satellite radio. So in all my excitement and desire to install the little speakers etc, and fire up everything to make sure that it all worked, I forgot to look at the time. It was 3 o'clock in the bloody a.m!!! So trying to be the "I can do it... no problem" brainiac, I figured about 90 minutes of sleep and I could be up and at 'em and to the stores by five... That's the last thing I remembered.I woke up friday morning at 9:45 and got up for good at 10:30... ahhh such is life!

Faith, Hope, and... the 1st day of Christmas shopping

I'm currently reading a book called 'Second Guessing God'... Here's a condensed quote that got my attention and hit me like a ton o'bricks... "My faith in God is like a walk on the beach and I've taken off my shoes and am standing at the water's edge, the tide is rolling across my feet... in the last six months, doubt has begun to paralyze me. It's like when the water goes back out to the ocean. It is washing away the sand underneath me and my feet are sinking lower and lower. If this keeps up, there'll be nothing left for me to stand on... My friend's response was immediate: I have stood where you are standing. I've felt the water cascade across my feet. I know how wonderful that feels. I have also felt the water go back to sea. I've felt the water wash the sand away from my feet... listen to me when I say this: When the last grain of sand is finally gone, you're going to discover that you're standing on a ROCK..."
Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours... I hope you have a safe and happy holiday... Me, I'll be working at my job at the hospital all day. I'm okay with that though, someone has to work it... Looking forward to waking up and going shopping on Friday with the throng of other cheapskates who will be out trying to pick up good deals in the stores... Let me know if you've got any good shopping stories... I'll let y'all know how it goes... God Bless...

AHHHHHHHH...

Hey y'all,
Today is a much better day than what I was feeling the other night in my last entry. I've put that little tete' a tete' behind me and I've been rejuvenated. I have more energy back in my soul and I am looking forward to a VERY MUCH needed weekend off from EVERYTHING... and I mean EVERYTHING... no hospital, no hockey, no BCSN... NOTHING! I hope and pray to have a fun and enjoyable weekend. There's a little show here locally called the sports rap on BCSN. They had a couple of guys from the Cherokee on a segment. I was the go between to make sure the guys made it there and were ready to do four minutes... I sat there and watched my associate coach and a couple of the players chat it up with the host who's a friend of mine... oh, btw, the head coach passed on being there because his son had a game. I had no problem with that. I put a high value on being a good parent and the head coach is definitely that and I am proud to say that he is... Okay, enough about him... I look forward to getting things improved on that end and look forward to the Cherokee getting the ship righted... I guess it's the optimist in me... Anyway, I'm feeling a lot better today and am looking forward to that silly little football game between Michigan and Ohio State. What's a Notre Dame fan to do??? Hey it should be a good one. Also, this weekend, is Grey Cup Sunday... What is Grey Cup Sunday you ask? Well, it is the championship game of the Canadian Football League. Or more appropriately, the Canadian national drunk... I will make a point of tipping one or two Canadian brews with my dinner and then settle in to watch the British Columbia (Vancouver) Lions battle the Montreal Alouettes at CanadInns Stadium in the fridgid cold of Winnipeg, Manitoba... brrrr... should be a beauty, eh?

Peaks and Valleys

Y'know, sometimes I wonder why I go through this self examination of concsience. I want more than anything to think about all of the positive things that happen in my life. Trust me, there are a lot... The bumper sticker that says 'God Bless America' can be a day late and a dollar short. We've been truly blessed in this nation and even though I'm poor, lumpy, annoying and too sarcastic for my own good, I have to admit that I have been very truly blessed. Even when bad things happen and I'm at a loss to try and figure out why, I know when all is said and done, The Big Man upstairs has really been good to me. I'm saying this because I've been soul searching in regards to some things that are happening in my life right now. Nothing really bad or anything, I'm just thinking that I am feeling a little quirky. No one specific reason. I guess I am feeling a little melancholy right now. I'm frustrated in my role with the Cherokee. I love my job, no question about it. The things that I do and the joy that I bring to people that listen to me online and I am so tickled when I meet families of the players from out of town who come up to me and express their gratitude for me broadcasting games online so they can keep in touch and follow their loved ones on the net. I know that they appreciate it and I feel very touched and honored to be able to do it. Working with the Toledo Cherokee, I have been so blessed to be a part of that organization... no, more like 'family' comes to mind. Until this year. Our record is up and down like last year. That stuff doesn't bother me. But right now, there is such disarray with coaches not really connecting with the players, and players who tune out the coaches because they can't stand them. I don't get along very well with my head coach. He and I are like oil and water... we don't mix. I talked to him for about 3 minutes today. That's way longer than I've talked to him in the last month. He's the head coach, I'm the broadcaster. We're supposed to work together and try to make each broadcast sound reasonably decent with each other's co-operation. But snide comments have been made in each direction and the end result is mud. We don't really do much to reach out to each other in any way, shape or form. We don't seek each other out to do anything together for a broadcast. I talk to his assistant coaches and I get along with those two just fine. Normally, I wouldn't let that stop me and I would try to be a nice guy and make peace. Not this time. This coach has already got the reputation of whining nonstop at the refs. He is constantly complaining and is even making the owners less than thrilled at the moment. The funny part is that he was originally brought on board as an assistant. But after the original coach was canned, he was made head coach. The owners were happy because the coach had name recognition, having played a couple of seasons in the National Hockey League. He also played in the minors and won a couple of championships with the Toledo Storm in the East Coast Hockey League back in the early 90's. But he tries to treat these young players as if they were in the pros. That's not what we're here for... These guys are still developing and learning. He spends more time yelling at the refs than he does getting on the players in his locker room. But he has alienated so many people in the last few months, that he may lose what little control he has over the team right now. You know its bad when the players are complaining about a lack of intensity and discipline from the coach. We lost in OT this weekend to Motor City last night and Flint spanked us today. One of our players got into a fight with a Flint player and cleaned his clock. That was the only brightspot of the game today... If we were winning, then it might not be so bad. But we're not winning much these days and the frustration is really starting to grow. Normally, you'd say that the players need to suck it up and do this and that... but right now it's the players that are frustrated with their coach, and if he's not careful, he might lose his players' respect. Even though there was a different coach last season, there were a number of returnees this season and the players that were here last year are not in tune with their new coach... at all. And you can see the results on the ice. And there are a lot of frustrated people on the Cherokee reservation. Including me...

Feeling Red and Seeing Blue

ARRRRGH!
That seems to be the only word that can come out of my mouth right now. I'm just trying to recover from a night that saw my red world turn blue... I guess I should backtrack: I took half a day off from work because I was asked last week by the TV station to do a regional playoff soccer game. There were several teams from the area that were in the playoffs and at least two of them were supposed to advance in the playoffs and could possibly win at states in their respective divisions. Only one problem: THEY ALL LOST!!! Every last one of them. So that meant my election day afternoon and evening were free... I had planned on an evening of junk food and my TV to watch the returns, but a couple of doctors at work who are good friends of mine called and invited me over to their favorite hangout to watch the results. Hey, 'why not?' I rationalized. I forgot to mention that the 'hangout' in question was a cigar bar. Yep, every asthmatic's dream.... BUT just like the guy who has a fear of heights but takes a job working as window washer on a high-rise building, or a guy who is terrified of flying but works as an air marshall, I am an asthmatic who LOVES a good cigar!!! I seldom smoke them anymore, but I love the aroma... Besides (I thought), I am in the company of a couple of doctors. If anything happens, they can treat me... until I remembered we were in a cigar bar and the only things they were equipped with were Arturo Fuente cigars and single-malt scotch... geez, what are the odds? Oh, nevermind... Anyway, we proceeded (with our humor) to make the entire bar crack up with laughter... We had to laugh because the results of the election made us want to cry... But we're big boys so we'll take our lumps as such and congratulate the Dems on a big victory. Their victory does not change who I am or what I value or believe. I remain true to my convictions and hope that the next two years go by with success and peace for our nation. I guess the only difference is going to be that I spend more money on taxes and less at cigar bars...

Weekend Roundup

Hola y'all,
survived another weekend. I'm feeling a lot better these days. I'm feeling pretty good. The Cherokee lost on Saturday night to Peoria. I got done with the game and instead of going somewhere to have a ginger ale and lament a 2-1 loss, I just went home. I got online and was looking for information about some hockey stuff and got absorbed by some stuff. I had a warped thought about something and before I knew it, I'm looking up crap on 70's and early 80's movies. As in cheeky B-movies. Yikes! that's like reeeeeally scary. I was looking up a movie that Lynda 'Wonder Woman' Carter was in... I think it was called 'Bobby Jo and The Outlaw'... just crap like that. Don't ask me why I was doing this... weird thoughts come to me when I'm eating ice cream at midnight. I think I might have been better off if I went and tipped a few as opposed to really awful movies... How the Academy could've missed these.... Anyway, I got to bed and slept like a brick. Too well. I ended up oversleeping and had to really get a move on it to get to Church on Sunday morning. Once there, my morning improved dramatically. I enjoyed watching the band play. They rock a lot harder than the bar bands I used to go watch every weekend in my younger days. And in a touch of irony, a couple of the guys in the Church band used to play in the regionally popular metal scene where I live, back then. So in the past, I payed a $5 cover charge, would drink about 50 bucks worth of booze, and sit there and yell at these guys. Now here we are all these years later, and I look up at the stage, and see the same couple of guys and shell out money in the collection basket, and go have a hot chocolate in the lobby afterwards. How lame have I become? Well, at least I don't have hangovers every weekend anymore so that's a plus. If that makes me lame, then I gladly plead guilty to that charge. I can still have blast without having to consume large quanities of 'liquid encouragement'. I don't try to 'drink someone pretty' either... I prefer a Gino's pizza over getting tanked... any day! Peace...

I was po'd when I heard John Kerry's comments (regardless of what he may have 'meant' by them) They were hurtful to those of us who have family in the military. Doesn't matter about party affiliation... it was wrong of him. But when I saw this, I laughed and realized that our best and brightest have a great sense of humor... I live in the land of the free... BECAUSE of the BRAVE!!!
God Bless Our Troops!