We Interrupt This Program To Bring You....

From the "Who says prayers aren't answered?" department:
When last I wrote, as my kid sister Angela was having a double mastectomy, she was told that they found more cancer in her lymphnodes. She was about as sunk as the Titanic with an anvil tied to it. Me, I simply felt numb. She's my kid sister for cryin' out loud! But then it started. I started getting emails and text messages etc. from people who were offering to pray for her. My gal pal got her entire church to lift my sister in prayer. I got some help from some pretty special people online. I know that there a lot of people that have prayed for my family and me... For that I am humbled and grateful. People like Helen down in 'Bama who is a Godly woman that prayed for us from the get-go. That meant a lot. From folks like Bucko over in Hoosier-land who offered kind words of support throughout this whole ride. My favorite Jersey girl Mary who has always been not only a friend but always gives me a little food for thought (as long as it's not chicken... Briege might get upset!). And a very awesome Canuck transplant (guess who Carolyn?) who got her entire group of prayer warriors to lift Angela up in prayer. I don't know most, if any of them, but Carolyn went to bat for me and my family. I know that it's always easy for people to say they'll pray for folks and then go on with the rest of their lives. But this time around, I really felt it. People were really praying for Angela. And when you wonder how your prayers will be answered, you really don't know. But then there's this: I get a note from Angela tonight that says "I got my labs back. The tests show that there's only one lymphnode that is cancerous (and very treatable). The rest of the lymphnodes have come back NEGATIVE!!!" I sat in stunned silence here at my place, all by myself, and smiled. I couldn't do anything else. How she went from her lymphatic system being cancerous to just ONE lymphnode? I know there are some that read my blog that aren't believers and that's okay, because you are very welcomed here too. I am no better than you and I never will be. But I am as sure as I am sitting here typing this, that the reason for Angela's change in her test results is because of GOD and your prayers. No one... wait, let me repeat, NO ONE can ever change my mind about that! I am a simple person who has been humbled by the concern and care of so many people for me and my family that they don't even know. But your thoughts and prayers have done something great here and I am beyond grateful. THANK YOU!!

Catchin' Up

Hey folks... sorry it's been so long. Lots going on around these parts as we try to deal with all these setbacks. First of all, my kid sister Angela is recovering from all day surgery, the double mastectomy. Well as if that wasn't bad enough, there always seems to be a curve ball thrown when it comes to my family. Sure enough, it turns out that they found more cancer in her lymphnodes. So radiation and chemo are the order of the day. I am just dumbfounded and numb right now. I'm so sick of this crap! You ever just wonder when enough is enough? I am sooooooo tempted to fall into that pity party. It is very tempting. But I'm not going to give in... I can't. It's not going to be that easy, but I'm determined to keep my faith. I'm not about to abandon ship now. As for the kid sister, she's still in la-la land so I'm not sure about her emotions right now. But she's got my other sister Terri to help her deal with the chemo and radiation issues that will need to be dealt with. There's not much to say right now as far as what's happening. I will get back on here in about another 10 days to two weeks to touch base and update what's going on in my completely warped and topsy turvy world...

Reconstruction Period

Thanks again for prayers and good wishes. My kid sister got the final confirmation that she'll need to lose both breasts but she's going to have reconstructive surgery done afterwards. She seems to be alright. She knows that she doesn't have much say in the matter. She's putting her energy into the Susan Komen "Race for the Cure". Something she had never done before. But now she's throwing herself head first into it and it seems to be helping her deal with things emotionally. I can only hope she keeps it up and keeps going. Having Terri there to help her navigate through everything can only be a help and a blessing. I went back over to her place cause her son was selling Entertainment 2011 books for his school fundraiser and she figured she strike while the guilt factor was hot. (did I mention that my family is very wacky?) While I was there, I overheard her talking with her friend on the phone about putting money together to get team t-shirts for the Race for the Cure event in our area. I just walked over and tossed some money to her and said "buy some shirts" and left. She yelled "thank you" and that was as deeply emotional as we got. I reckon neither of us wanted to sit there and cry or something. Why cry when you can laugh?

An Attitude Adjustment...

Here I sit and I gotta tell ya, it's more than a little humbling. It's funny, every time a bitter pill needs to be swallowed by someone in my family, God puts people in my path that without even trying, flip my world upside down. Got a beautiful email from a very sweet person. Carolyn, thanks so much for lifting my family in prayer. Your continued endeavors as a prayer warrior have been such a blessing. I couldn't be more grateful. Thank you so much my friend. And thank you to all my wonderful friends online who have been keeping me and my family in their thoughts and prayers. They're being answered.
Did two major things to get my mind back on straight and feel a whole lot better. First, I went and spent the weekend with the gal pal. That woman is so far out of my league, that it's just plain silly. She has absolutely no clue as to how beautiful she really is... She was there for me and listened to me on Saturday night while I fretted, expressed fear, and felt helpless. She was so incredible in that she didn't judge. She didn't say that it was all going to be okay. She just held me close, let me vent, and comforted me and gave me some advice and absolutely alleviated my fears and frustrations. She'll deny it and I'm glad she does, but I am so unworthy of that woman. She is simply amazing...
The second big thing I did was to go to my youngest sister's house yesterday and I got a chance to talk to her and see how she was really doing. She is a wacky one that kid sister of mine. She was very talkative and we sat and talked for over an hour. She asked some questions of me and I of her. She never cried once and even considering the subject matter, we spent a majority of the time laughing. Then her oldest son who is starting high school this week, brings over a neighbor friend and fellow freshman to the house. Now I'm not one to judge, but my nephew tells me that he is not a fan of this kid and confides to me that the only reason the kid is over is because he feels sorry for him. That the kid is really annoying and aggravating is a mild overstatement. The younger nephew is in 7th grade and is quite the witty one. He was telling that he was working on his Mathematics homework. Now this dear freshman (I think his name was Scott), who is in that delicate stage of reaching puberty (as in his voice is changing), decides to demonstrate his superiority over my younger nephew Bren. It went something like this:

Dyl: what are you doing?
Bren: Mathematics homework
Scott: You call it mathematics? At my school, we call it 'math'. (at this point, captain obvious begins to aspirate from a piece of pizza going down the wrong pipe).
Bren: At my school, we call that 'choking'...

My week has turned for the better.

The 'C' Word

From the "Here we go again" department:
Please say a prayer for my kid sister Angie. She was just diagnosed with breast cancer. I was in total shock when Terri told me. Lou and Terri are both doing sort of okay at the moment. Both are trying to deal with their own health issues as best as they know how. But to have this bomb dropped was very devastating to the family. Don't know how extensive or how far along the tumors are, but from what I can tell, there is hope for her. So, just another crap nugget for my family to deal with... But deal we will. Ang was a mess when she found out but seems to be grasping things a little more sternly than she did earlier in the week. It does put some wacky thoughts in your head though... hmmmmm.... My ol' man lost his battle to this disease, Lou has had it, Terri has it, now Ang.... how much longer till...

Way To Go, Eh?

Ahhhhhhh... Canada! (well, okay Windsor, which really doesn't count!)

When last your caped crusader inked an entry on this blog, I was concerned about getting in order:

- my birth certificate
- photos for my passport
- a letter or ticket of some sort to explain my reason for going to Windsor
- my application to get my passport and get it sent back in time for the trip to Canada.
- money to exchange for Canadian currency.

Well, it was an adventure to say the least. I called the bureau of vital statistics to find out info on getting my birth certificate. I go on my day off and head downtown to get it. I pay the fee and fill out the info and turn the form in to the lady behind the counter. She goes to pull my certificate up and tells me that my certificate is not legible enough for it to be acceptable for my passport application. I'm thinking 'oh wonderful'. Then she tells me that she has to call Columbus (state capital) to get a new done up copy of it and have it sent up... I tried to keep my sense of humor and let it go. I wanted to get this done all in a matter of about a week. So the new certificate comes in and I go to the passport place up in Detroit, three days before I needed my passport. I get there and I go to the wrong building. Then I go across the street to the proper place and go and register and go to the window where the kid was who was going to administer my oath. I take the oath and he fills out the information and then tells me that even though I plunked down the extra 60 bucks for expediting, my passport wouldn't be ready until the day that I NEEDED it to go over the border. So I took an extra half day off from work and drove back up to Detroit to pick up my passport, and then drive a few blocks further to the Tunnel to Canada. It has been almost a decade since the last time I went north of the 49th... The home of Poutine, Tim Horton's donuts, Canadian Tire (a department store with a very tiny tire section) and of course HOCKEY. Well, that night was for food and basketball. I ate gluten free pizza and boy was it good. I go to the game and my gal pal was watching the game from home because she wanted to see if she could see me on tv. I love that woman I tell ya... she is way more than I deserve. She texts me to tell me that she saw me in a close up shot (I was sitting behind the Western Ontario bench) and what was I doing? Texting her of course... I'm such a dork!

ID Please...

I'm about to do something I've never done before in all my years of nuttiness. I'm going to go get my passport. Well, actually, I'm getting my passport card which is for Canada and Mexico land travel. I'm going to go over the border to Canada to watch an exhibition basketball game between the University of Windsor and the University of Kentucky. These days you need passport or passport card to travel between the U.S. and Canada so I'm going to blow over a hundred bucks for an ID card to travel 40 minutes from my house to go watch a basketball between two schools that doesn't actually count towards anything. Makes sense, don't ya think? I guess that will encourage me to go over the border more often like I used to when I was younger. But most of my free time, what little I have, is spent going to see the gal pal. But I'm looking forward to seeing how this process of obtaining this ID is going to play out. How long will it take? How much paper work is involved? It should be humorous, I hope!

The Art of Breaking (the alarm) and Entering...

From the files of "Police Squad" (not)... Lt. Frank Drebin would be proud...

So, I go to see my gal pal cause I needed to and the fact that she never fails to amaze me, not only with her beauty, but with her gentleness, kindness, and (when dealing with me) PATIENCE! (ha-ha). I just flat out love that girl. And she loves me too! Always a huge bonus. Well, we go to church on Sunday morning because that is what we do. We also, like always, go down the street to get something to eat afterwards. So we go and eat and her parents are there in the back private room, eating with a large group of folks from Georgia who came up to teach Vacation Bible School for the week. So her parents were going to give them the two dollar tour of where they'd be teaching at. It was a hot, very hot, day and I was dripping with sweat already. So her dad tosses me the key to his house and says "here ya go". The wonderful thought of kicking back in the air conditioned comfort with my best girl made me smile. So the gal pal and I pull up and I help her into her wheelchair. I go to unlock the door, and hear the alarm go off. I stay calm and ask the gal pal if she knows the code to shut it off. She gives me the numbers and they turn out to be wrong. I hear the phone ring in the backround but don't know where it is. So I call her father on his cell and explain to him the noise he hears in the backround is me apparently breaking and entering because there is an alarm going off here!!! He calmly gives me the code to enter and sure enough, the alarm shuts off. Then he asks me "did the phone ring yet?" My heart begins to sink as I reply "uh, yes." He comes back with "oh, that was the security company, they're going to send the law out after you. It was nice knowing you Mik." Everyone loves a smartalec... So I figure I'll explain everything when they get there and hope they have a sense of humor. I get the gal pal out of her wheelchair and onto the sofa so she can get comfortable. I go to the bathroom and change out of my church clothes because they are soaked with sweat (gee I wonder why?) and I change into a t-shirt and shorts. Then the phone rings again. My heart starts to pound as I race towards it from the bathroom. I see the phone in the kitchen, setting in it's recharging station. I pick it up and hit the 'talk' button to answer it. It's only a split second later that I realized that once you lift the phone from the charger when it's ringing, that it will automatically answer. So when I hit the 'talk' button, I actually disconnected the call. I look on the caller ID and sure enough, I had just hung up on the boys in blue!!! I let out a curse word (sh**) and in the other room, the gal pal yells out "what did you just say?" and starts laughing at me. I called the number back on the phone and they answer and I just flowed like a volcano when lava spews out, explaining the situation and even the police person on the other end of the phone laughed at me. So FINALLY we got everything resolved and I was able to sit on the couch with the gal pal and I think I put her to sleep (also known as putting one of my all-time favorite movies on: "Rudy"... the movie about the Notre Dame football player). A little while later, her dad comes home and walks in and looks at me and as he's walking by, he chirps at me "Mik, are you still here?" and starts laughing at me. I told him if he ever thought I might consider a life of crime, this experience should put any such thought to rest. My gal pal had the biggest grin on her face. Probably because it involved something other than watch a movie that was putting her to sleep. Her inept, would be burglar just laid his head on her lap and knew it was all going to be fine when she just ran her fingers through his hair. Man, I really do love that girl!

Doesn't Seem Like Five...

Hmmmmm... had a nice birthday yesterday. Moving into official middle-age didn't seem like to big a deal until I tried to mess around with my sister's dog Lucy. I went over there yesterday cause they wanted to make a nice meal for me for the birthday. I enjoyed it and started getting playful with Lucy. I was in the backyard and thought about running around the yard with her. That's when it hit me... wholly crap I can't run like this dog can. I just smiled at her, left her in the back yard and walked back in to the air conditioning and just said the heck with it.
Well, it was five years ago today that my dad went to heaven. I miss him. He was a good guy and he loved his family. Part of me wishes he was still here. But the overall feeling I have is that I don't wish him back. I know he's in paradise and with my mom whom he loved like crazy. Why would I be so selfish and wish him back to here? It wouldn't be right. I know he's not suffering from the ravages of cancer anymore and he is enjoying life in eternity. That's a pretty cool thing and I won't want him back when he is free from pain and misery. But it's been five years and I know that he's at peace... I still miss him though... Still, thanks dad! I appreciate all that you did for me to show me how to live and to love. Thank you ol' man... you're the best! I love you a ton!

What's In A Name?.... If You're Seven!

From the 'captain kangaroo meets bart simpson' dept:

Okay, time for your inner, immature, seven year-old to stand out and shine... The following is excerpted from from the children's book "the adventures of captain underpants" and "perilous plot of professor poopy pants" by Dave Pilkey. In this story, the professor (a bad guy) forces everyone to assume a new name. So, with that little nugget in mind, here's a little excercise in useless stupidity. Find your capt. underpants/prof. poopy pants new name... it's easy, and cheesy and downright silly. But hey, I have been busier than all getout and I needed to put out a new entry for my blog. I was hard up for ideas...lol... here's the directions: from the following list of silly names, choose yours based on three letters of your entire name. Here's how you come up with your silly name...

Step one: Use the third letter of your first name to determine your new silly first name...

A= Snickle B= Doombah C= Goober D= Cheesy E= Crusty

F= Greasy G= Dumbo H= Farcus I= Dorky J= Doofus K= Funky

L= Boobie M= Sleezy N= Sloopy O= Fluffy P= Slinky Q= Slimy

R= Dorfus S= Snooty T= Tootsie U= Dipsy V= Sneezy

W= Liver X= Skippy Y= Dinky Z= Zippy

Now, Step Two: Use the second letter of your last name to determine the first part of your new last name...

A= Dippin' B= Feather C= Batty D= Burger E= Chicken

F= Barffy G= Lizard H= Waffle I= Farkle J= Monkey K= Flippin'

L= Frickin' M= Bubble N= Rhino O= Cat P= Hamster Q= Buckle

R= Gizzard S= Lickin' T= Snickle U= Chuckle V= Pickle

W= Hubble X= Dingle Y= Gorilla Z= Girdle

Finally, the last part... Use the third letter of your last name to create the second part of your new silly last name.

A= Butt B= Boob C= Face D= Nose E= Hump F= Breath

G= Pants H= Shorts I= Lips J= Honker K= Head L= Tush

M= Chunks N= Dunkin' O= Brains P= Bisquits Q= Toes

R= Doodle S= Fanny T= Sniffer U= Sprinkles V= Frack

W= Squirt X= Humperdinck Y= Chicken Z= Juice

And presto! you have a new silly name... And I have updated my blog. I hope to hear what your silly names are... For the record, my silly new name is Funky Catdunkin'...

Gone Fishing without a pole...

I needed to get away for a few days and lo and behold my gal pal and her family were vacationing in Tennessee near the Smoky Mountains. I really needed to get away and just relax. So I cruised down there and proceeded to have a blast with her and got to relax and take in the beautiful scenery. I stayed at a nearby motel about 15 minutes from the lake they were staying at and hung out during the day and evening. My goodness, the view was breath-taking. In fact, the gal pal and family are talking about going back next year. Hey, I'm up for it....

Meanwhile, Lou is having a birthday and in a couple of days, my great-nephew is also having a birthday. He's chalking up his first one. Guess who'll get more spoiled and get more gifts? hahaha...

Stormin' Round Two...

Wow... more fun and frivolity weather wise. Last night we had funnel clouds pass over our community and more high wind damage to the west of us. But I'm grateful that we didn't get a direct hit here. It was weird though because the line of storms that were supposed to pass over us, stalled and waited like they were taking a number to hit our area. It had the weather guys on tv a bit perplexed. A town out west of us called Edgerton got nailed this time. Edgerton is right on the Ohio-Indiana border and they had some significant damage to their fire station and their townhall was destroyed. There was some areas that got hit with high winds, lightning, and heavy rain. But fortunately, most of the damage was in rual areas and not near heavy populated areas. As per usual, there were trees knocked down and a few powerlines with electricity knocked out for a while, but the folks will rebuild and bounce back like they always seem to do...

And When They Rock.... THEY ROCK!!

Boy, what a night it was...
I get out of work at five to head over to where the "Game for Giving" charity basketball game was to be played, at Genoa high school. In my head I keep thinking "don't freak out Mik, you're used to getting rosters right before start time and still manage to pull it off. Well, I get there and walk in to find that the ABC affiliate is doing their newscast from there. Cool. But it doesn't help with the fact that I have no rosters to familiarize myself with. And on top of that, I don't know if I'm going to get roster of the faculty and staff that are playing the tv station folks in this basketball game. Well, the Good Lord was with me and I decided to stop being to anal about the whole thing. We had two computers up and running to do the video broadcast online and the other to record it for broadcast on tv later. About 40 minutes before tipoff, the newer computer gives us the BSOD (the Blue Screen Of Death)... Which meant it was fried. Oh perfect! could this not get any better? Ugh. So we decide to take our chances (translated to "pray that it works") and ran everything off of ONE computer. Well, for the most part it worked and we were up and running. Then, I knew it was going to be a good night for us when our polo shirts with the TSR logo came in before the game. Changed into those and as they were announcing the starting line-ups (which we finally got at 8 minutes before tipoff), and when they announced the faculty team, the crowd gave it up for all three schools that were represented on the team. Genoa (the host) got a big response. Delta (who saw some nasty damage to some homes in their area) got some loud cheers. But the biggest response was for the Lake high school staff on the roster. People there not only lost their homes and their high school, but 6 lives were lost there. The Lake contingent got a huge standing ovation that lasted almost 2 minutes. It was very moving. And as the news anchor from the station introduced everyone, they even introduced us at TSR and we got a big ovation from the appreciative (not to mention overflow) crowd there. There were so many people that came out that they had to open the auditorium next door to show our broadcast on closed circuit to accomadate the over flow crowd. The game wasn't too bad. The news anchors were pretty darn good if I do say so myself. They were kicking butt however the teachers kept coming back. At halftime it was very emotional and moving. They had a bunch of little contests and stuff. But then they had the fire fighters and rescue people from Lake Township and Millbury come out to center court to take pictures to commemorate the event. The whole crowd rose as one to give them a 4 minute standing ovation. Tears were flowing from so many people. Some of the people who had lost their homes were in attendance, just to get away from everything for a couple of hours and have some fun. My co-host for the event Steve Taylor put it best when he said "with this, now some of the healing can begin." To top off the night, a lady won the 50-50 raffle and her share of it was one thousand and seven hundred dollars. After the game, she brought it back and asked that it be given to a family that was at the game that had lost everything. The place went beserk and tears were flowing freely from the family that received that money, and the person who gave it, and just about everyone else in the place. It really re-affirmed my belief in the human spirit. That despite all the negatives, that people at their core, are generally good. It was an event such as this that proved that these communities will rally around each other when things get tough and no matter how difficult, they will endure. I walked out of the gym into the hallway and walked over to the bake sale table and bought a big plate of chocolate and vanilla gooey cookies and purposely paid nearly double what they were selling for and took them back to the TSR crew to enjoy. I even had a bite of one despite my diabetes. It was an incredible evening this area of tiny hick towns pulled together and raised over forty thousand dollars to help these families with some of the things they need to start over. God gets the credit in this one. Ain't no doubt about it.

For Those About To Rock... We Salute You...

Thanks to all who sent their best wishes over what was a pretty crappy week last week in north west Ohio. People have been coming in droves to help out those who lost everything. Well I guess everything but their lives. And another person lost his life over the weekend. He couldn't hold on anymore and succumbed to his injuries. The real sad part is that he was the third from his family to perish from the tornado. He was 37 years old. His wife and 3 year old son were killed that night in the storm. The lone survivor is the 7 year old daughter. Of course at church on Sunday, the question was asked "why?"... and of course there are no answers. But my belief is that God has His reasons and I'm not privy to them. Not much I can do about that. But I can do something in the way I respond to those who need help. So of course that also makes me a little nervous. Our local ABC-TV affiliate is putting together a charity basketball game at a local area high school just down the road from where Lake High School was destroyed. The money raised from this game will go towards tornado victims relief. The scary part that makes me nervous? I am (along with a buddy of mine) are going to be the broadcasters doing the game for the station. Now normally, I'd be so geeked because I'm doing something to help out with the relief effort and would consider this a high honor to be a part of something so special. But the problem is that I won't know the lineups or the rosters till about an hour before tip-off. If that early. And to appear on tv on the our local ABC affiliate... and not know the names of everyone involved? Wholly smokes! My biggest concern (read: worry) is that I won't get a handle on all of the names of the people that are participating in this thing. So if you're totally bored and want to watch me go down in flames and have a laugh, you can watch the game online beginning at 7 pm US eastern time tonight (Tuesday June 15th) as our little goofy station Toledo Sports Radio will be providing live tv online coverage. If you have a high speed connection, feel free to stop by and see some mediocre to average basketball for a very good cause. And listen to me stutter and babble my way through it all... ugh... lol...

Strange Daze...

Over the last few days, I've seen a couple of small towns where I live get leveled from tornadoes. I've seen lives devastated, homes and businesses ruined. And to top it off today at work, our former county auditor decides to take a flying leap from the fifth level of the parking garage and end it all. Why did he have to pick my place of employment?? To quote the profound theologian Slim Pickens (he of "Blazing Saddles" fame)... "What in the wide, wide world of sports is going on around here???" I'm sitting here typing this out, still in a bit of shock over everything that's transpired over the last 72 hours. Its just been insane. Just freaking nuts! I'm trying to find the words to convey what I'm feeling right now, but I just can't seem to find them. You can go on different news websites to see the destruction from the tornadoes that came through my neck of the woods. Some only a couple of miles from me. But until you see it first hand, video doesn't begin to do it justice. It looked like a dang bomb went off and now resembles a war zone. In Lake Township, it leveled the police station and destroyed the high school only 14 hours before graduation commencement was to take place there. They ended up holding the graduation tonight at a local junior college. The bad part of that was that of the folks killed, one of them happened to be the father of the valedictorian. I'm very blessed that my small town was spared. Only very minor damage to some fencing. A small silver lining is that I am not surprised at the response of the people to those horrible storms. Trying to pick up the pieces... these people just sprang into action. That is what is so good about small town folks in middle America. People who had just seen their lives forever changed in a matter of seconds, were out there in the blinding rain, and wind... not to mention darkness (this happened at about 11pm on Saturday night and again at 3am Sunday morning) looking for their neighbors to see if they were still alive or if they needed to be rescued. People helping people. They will persevere... That's what it's all about.

A View From The Booth... er... Table

Here's a bizarre day off for you...
I haven't been out and about for a while because of my voice deciding to take a vacation without me. A touch of strep throat is never good from any standpoint. For a guy who broadcasts sports, it's a pain in the bu....er, throat. So I've been on the shelf for a few days and have had to rest my vocal chords with no talking to ANYONE... I've stayed cooped up in my house and have been trying not to go stir crazy. So I decided that today I was going to go out and eat somewhere. I didn't know where, but I was determined to enjoy going outside and eating like a moose.
So I hit the road and driving up and down the road with multiple choices but nothing hit me as really good. Finally, I settled on eating at a Chinese buffet... all you can eat..... mmmmmmmm... Mik likes that! Mik likes that a lot!! mmmmmmmmmm... So I go inside the Chinese restaurant and everything seemed to be normal when I first walked in. But after that, everything I was expecting went out the window but I was going to enjoy my meal. So I am seated by a pretty little girl who didn't speak english well. She was mexican and when she asked me if I wanted to be seated in a booth and I said "sure" and she promptly seats me at a table instead. No big deal. Then my waitress asks me what I'd like to drink and I say a diet soda please. She brings it to me while I'm helping myself to the peanut chicken and other high fat delicacies that looked soooooo good. I never see her again. Now they had chicken wings (a personal weakness) and pizza... I know I have a couple slices when I'm doing my online radio show. For some strange reason, I have an aversion to chicken wings and pizza from chinese buffets... I don't know why. I just never touch them. I tried some korean chicken, and sweet n sour, plus my personal favorites, general tsao and pepper steak. Oh was it good. Handling the refills for me was a late teen or early 20-something mexican kid whose english wasn't the best but he was wearing his Jimi Hendrix t-shirt and was grooving it in his own "Purple Haze"...lol... Now you might think I find it odd that a mexican family is running a chinese restaurant. I don't find it odd at all actually. I'm just painting the picture here... to give you the idea of how out of sorts I was at the time. The only odd time I had in this buffet place was watching an elderly couple who were a couple of tables away from me in a booth. They went up to load up on food and they appeared to be flirting with each other. I couldn't be sure because it was all done in sign language. I know just enough sign language to understand that I really don't know that much sign language. But they had such loving looks on their faces. When I watched them for a brief moment as they dined, I realized that you're never too old to love and be happy. The oriental music playing overhead seemed harmless enough. Until I realized that although it was an oriental instument playing, the song was a familiar hard rock tune from many years ago. My first thought: "alright man, where is that kid in the Jimi Hendrix t-shirt?"

Dollars to Donuts...

how's this for a situation?...
I go into work at the wee hours to do my job and at about 7:30 in the morning, I opt to head to our cafeteria for some breakfast and to get some treats for my co-workers. Now being a diabetic, I know I can't eat what I buy for the folks I work with. I never let that bother me. It's no big deal for me to scoop up some big coffee rolls or donuts or lemon bars... whatever the treat may be. I usually grab for myself some crap like eggs, fruit or something of that ilk. Not as good as what they eat, but then again, I have this thing about wanting to live. I don't want to check out anytime soon so I best not go near the donuts, bagels, or any sweets. Bummer I know, but hey, I got over my passion for italian food and now have learned to live without spaghetti or a rigatoni or the other delectable pastas that end in "I"... sigh... But I do miss them all... it sucks to be a diabetic. Anyway, so I get myself some runny eggs and a terribly bruised Fiji apple and a bottled water. The eggs were mixed with some chopped sausage. It whizzed big time. Meanwhile my co-workers were treated to Cinnamon rolls gobs of frosting. Lemon Bars, Macademia Nut cookies and Banana Nutbread Muffins. And gormet coffee to boot. So I got all of this food on a tray piled high and drawing the most bizarre looks from people as I walk by. I could only imagine the thought that prevailed most was "geez you moose, no wonder you're a freakin' diabetic!"... So to the masses outside of my department, I'm probably a moose for eating cakes, rolls, donuts and cookies. And I sit down to eat my runny eggs and bruised up apple and shake my head and yell at the top of my voice.... CAFETERIA FOOD SUCKS....

In the Tall Grass

I am such a dork!
I finally BORROWED a lawn mower and cut my grass. I guess I should give a little backround. I've gone through and still have THREE lawn mowers (and none of them work). They are now all worthless. It's been raining for the last three weeks in near biblical proportions and I'm not saying I should build an ark or anything, but I have been looking at animals and thinking of them in pairs...lol... but I digress. Anyway, back to the lawn. I went through three, YES, THREE of those stinking things since I put them away late last fall/early winter. I broke them out hoping to get the lawn (uh, okay, actually more weeds than grass) cut. But none of them had oil in them and I didn't know that till it was too late. It's not like I have a gigantic yard or anything. Add to that all of the rain we've gotten so far this spring, and it has the makings of some ridiculously high grass. As I looked out over the lawn, I started to have strange visions of my childhood when I watched "Hee Haw" on television. I remember the people in the corn fields that would tell real corn ball jokes. A much more innocent time to be sure. But then they would dip back into the field and you couldn't see them. Looking out over my lawn, I felt something similar to those "Hee Haw" moments. I was actually feeling more like Clark W. Griswold in the "Vacation" movies but after going through THREE (yes, three) lawn mowers, I humbly borrowed one and mowed the lawn and felt such relief. Until I looked back out at the lawn and it looked like it could use a trim. THAT is how long the grass got. So I ran the lawn mower over it again, returned the lawn mower, and of course, it started to rain. And it rained for two days. At least it wasn't forty... I looked out at the grass this morning and of course, it needs to be cut.... AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!

Thanks Ernie...

As I move on everyday in this journey of mine, I find the highs and lows and try to manage as I go... No big surprise as most all of you try to do the same thing. And when you reach a certain age, you tend to spend just a wee bit of time looking back and reminiscing about happy times in the past. Usually, that involves childhood. At least that is what I do. A huge part of my childhood involved a transistor radio and hockey and baseball games. That was my ticket out from my house of blah that I painted for myself. We didn't have cable tv in my neighborhood until I was an adult. So all we had was about four or five channels on tv and whatever was on radio. Being a big sports fan, I loved listening to sports on the radio. It helped passed the time and it was such an important part of me back then. So it was with such sadness when I saw on tv that one of the most important voices of my childhood had passed away. Ernie Harwell was 92 years old but a VERY spry 92... The cancer in his bile duct took him from here but the memories of him calling Detroit Tigers baseball for 42 of his 55 year broadcast career will always be permanently etched in my head and my heart. The Georgia born but MADE in Detroit icon started his career in a weird way. Back in 1948, the Brooklyn Dodgers announcer fell ill, so their owner traded a minor league catcher to the minor league Atlanta Crackers for their announcer... Ernie Harwell! Ernie did short stints for Brooklyn, the old NY Giants, and then Baltimore, but finally found a home in the Motor City. Detroit and Ernie Harwell was a perfect match. My childhood was surviveable because I got to listen to Ernie Harwell and Paul Carey (a vastly underappreciated announcer in his own right) every day and it made sports such a hoot. I remember sitting on the porch with my ol' man and we'd have 760 WJR radio tuned in and Ernie and Paul would paint such a glorious picture of what was good about the world. It gave a hopeless kid from a rust-belt neighborhood a reason to look forward. It was a very important part of my childhood and now that such a vibrant part of it is gone, the world seems a little darker. But at least I'm glad that I was privelaged to have grown up (no matter how rough) and able to listen to a guy who helped shaped my view not only of sports, but a little bit of life too. Thanks Ern, you've done so much for so many. Now Heaven has their announcer... and he has a Southern accent!

For Everything Else, There's Mastercard...

Okay... When in doubt, I needed to get some time with the boss...

Time spent on the road driving in one day: 14 hours

Sleep I got over two days during that time: less than 6

The look on her face when I showed up after not much sleep: PRICELESS!!!

P.S. I haven't spent much time with her... so I pulled a marathon road trip so we could spend all of a whopping four hours together. Four... Why you ask? BECAUSE SHE IS WORTH IT...

An Occasional Setback...

Terri's in the hospital again as the chemo she had been on before this latest one (that she is allergic to) had done damage to her body and she was feeling like crap. Well, she discovered also that this chemo treatment every three weeks is dehydrating her so bad that it's hurting her kidneys. So when she gets out of the hospital, she's going to have IV therapy at home and see if that works. She's got chemo again on monday. I don't know how she does it. I really don't. She still has her days that she just wants to quit, but overcomes those times a whole lot stronger than I ever could.

When I Need A Reminder...

It goes without saying that behind a semi-decent guy, there's usually a great and awesome woman... For me, I have a great one who doesn't see me much. I'm usually tired and winding down from a busy day when I see her or spend any time with her. She has endured my crankiness, all the pressure i've been under as of late. And she has to put up with my sports schedule and broadcasting games when I could be spending more time with her. But she endures it all and is always encouraging me to do what I love and go for my dreams. I can honestly thank the Good Lord for her because as sure as you're reading this, I can tell you that I absolutely shutter to think what my life would be like without her in it. My life would be an absolute disaster...Sometimes, I need to remind myself that no matter how crappy life can get, I've got a lot that I have to be thankful for. She is a real reminder of just what is right with this world. If for no other reason, for putting up with a dork like me...

I'll Be Home For Easter....

Well, first things first. Happy Easter everyone. He has risen!
The last few weeks have been like Good Friday... Tough, painful, overall pretty lousy. But we endure. And we keep our faith... and before you know it, Sunday comes and He rose. And for me, things are improving, and I feel joy, gratitude, and somewhere in all the chaos, I feel a little bit of peace. Don't know why. But I know that things will work themselves out. He heard my prayers. He heard the prayers of the folks here that read this goofy little part of the world that is me. I can never thank Him enough. I can't thank you folks enough for you prayers. Both of the sisters are back home. Terri is weak, but wants to cook for Easter Sunday. Typical Terri. Lou just got home on Good Friday. Still a little confused, but nowhere near what she experienced while in the hospital. She is so happy to be home. Me, I'm ready to collapse, but i'm glad that we're here to celebrate some wonderful things. He has Risen. My eyes are heavy as I type this, but I wanted to update and express some gratitude because even when things are tough like on Good Friday, we gotta remember that Sunday is coming... Oh and by the way, did I mention: HE HAS RISEN!!

Stress? Never Heard Of It...

I am soooooooo tired.
Lou is starting to get back to her old self... FINALLY! She was moved to the rehabilitation unit which basically is an extended care facility. But for her, it's not permanent. Thank the Lord. In fact, she has been getting real antsy cause she wants to go home. I went and visited her and all she could talk about was that she wanted to get out of there. The problem is that she needs care right now 24/7 and the home visiting nurse is only for part of the daytime. So she needs to strengthen up in physical rehab and that will give Terri a break too as she has to have chemo that she's allergic to and she'll be down for a while. It's been a pretty heavy duty stressful time for our family but life goes on. I have to get my poop in a group cause my car is acting up a bit and needs work and it's just a bunch of little things right now that are making life challenging. But I'm not giving in to the desire to have a pity party. Life can whiz sometimes but I knew that there would be times like this. But like the Good Book says... "Be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world..."

No Luck Of The Irish...

Appreciate the kind prayers for Lou and Terri. Terri is hanging in there like always. Lou has had a rough road to travel. She was in the ICU and even though she had head trauma, she was doing decent. Then she was transferred out of ICU and when she got nauseous, the doctor ordered a med that we told them NOT to give her as it makes her confused and disoriented. They gave her the med and sure enough, she got all disoriented and didn't know who we were. I was not happy and Terri, even in her condition, about blew a head gasket. We got the med stopped and Lou is very slowly starting to remember things but is still quite out of it. She is miserable and can't focus on anything and is getting very frustrated. So that is where things stand with that situation. But in a moment that told me that maybe she's doing a little bit better, she had a vintage Lou "moment".
She is in a semi-private room (which means NO privacy) and her roommate is a little 96 year old woman who is all of 4 foot 8. Lou (who is a bilateral amputee- just below her knees) is watching as the woman (who is extremely hard of hearing) is helped to the bathroom. She comes back out, and Lou looks at me and says "y'know what? I bet if I could stand on my stumps, I'd still be taller than her..." I buried my head and nearly convulsed with laughter. My big ol' body was shaking like Jello. That's when I knew I had hope for my sister...

Stress? What's Stress?

Sometimes I wonder....

I know that there is a reason for everything. But my family has had better weeks. Terri had to go get chemo (the chemo that she's allergic to. But it's the only one that works on her) and they gave it to her at half strength. She got sick and they wanted to stop but she told them to keep administering it to her. It took them NINE HOURS to get the full dose into her. Her doctor told her "you know what Terri? I wouldn't blame you if you said you wanted stop doing this anymore." Apparently this doctor doesn't know her very well. I got to feeling under the weather with a fever and general state of dizziness. Thought it might be my sugar, but it was fever and after I hit the Tylenol, I felt better once it popped. But it came back twice and it's gone for now but I don't know what the heck is going on. Then to top it off, Lou had an accident. The ambulette came to pick her up and take her to dialysis. Well, they have to put her wheelchair on a metal riser that lifts her up from the ground into the ambulette. I don't know how, but her safety belt that was supposed to be fastened came loose and she and her chair rolled off from the riser and she ended up falling back, hitting her head something fierce, and ending up in the neuro intensive care unit. Her CT came back negative so they think she'll be okay but there's a little blood at the base of her skull so she's going to be out for a while. It really hit me like a sucker punch because of all the things that I figure that could happen to her, this was the LAST thing I would've figured. It's times like this I still wish I drank because boy I could use a stiff belt right about now...

Pickin' and Grinnin' (my apologies to Hee Haw)

Okay, so when last I wrote on these pages... I was whinning about the Olympics and who to root for... I didn't mind Canada winning the hockey gold medal even though I wanted the States to win. Now looking back, it was an odd Olympics marred by tragedy, perseverance, inspiration, and hope. The poor Georgian national who bought it on the luge track before the games officially opened. That really could've brought things to a screeching halt. But they kept going. One of the two biggest stories to touch my heart was watching the story unfold of JoAnnie Rochette. How she endured the loss of her mom and had the skate of her life two days later. That was unbelievable. That, to me, exemplified the Olympic spirit. I just felt so sorry for her and her father. But the way she gutted through that pain with such a great performance, she won everyone's hearts over. That and the gold medal hockey game between the US and Canada... People who weren't hockey fans watched that and marveled how great that game was. I have to agree. They really put on a show that will also leave a huge mark on the games.
Okay so we got the Oscars coming up tomorrow night. Normally, I'm not one to be the least bit concerned about another self-congratulatory awards show. I don't know... I guess I like making picks and since the football season is over, I'm stuck with the Oscars... I'm usually wrong with the picks I make and who the actual winners are, so I'm picking who my personal favorites were and then who I think will actually win... Just the top five awards...

Best Supporting Actor

My Pick: Stanley Tucci (The Lovely Bones)
Oscar Pick: Matt Damon (Invictus)

Best Supporting Actress

My Pick: Mo'Nique (Precious)
Oscar Pick: Mo'Nique

Best Actor

My Pick: Morgan Freeman (Invictus)
Oscar Pick: Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heat)

Best Actress

My Pick: Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side)
Oscar Pick: Meryl Streep (Julie & Julia)

Best Picture

My Pick: The Blind Side
Oscar Pick: Avatar

Gold Silver and Bronze

Ahhhh the road to the Olympics...

I've always preferred the winter Olympics to the summer games. Mainly because I live in the north and love winter sports. Obviously, ice hockey is my biggest passion as far as sports go. And right now I am enjoying the heck out of the games in Vancouver. Now granted lots of things have gone wrong there for the folks putting on the events. Someone dying on opening day is not what the officials had in mind and on a lighter note, we won't even mention the weather. But there's just something about this thing that we watch every four years that just gets me feeling like a kid again. Okay, maybe not to the point of picking my nose and wetting my pants again. I was regressing to my preteen youth, not as a toddler...lol... But I will never forget as long as I live, the Miracle on Ice at Lake Placid in '80... I had never cried watching a sporting event until then. When we beat the Soviets in the semis and turned the world upside down in winning the gold two days later. Yeah that was amazing. It's still burned in my memory banks and all these years later, I still get jazzed up thinking or talking about it. I say that because it presents a dilemma for me with this Olympic games. My very favorite hockey players from the NHL that are playing in this tournament are mostly playing for either Canada or Sweden. Most of the guys from my country's team are guys I have spent most of my time rooting against whilst they played in the NHL regular season. How can I shut down my lack of enthusiasm for them and become their biggest fan for what amounts to a less than two week tournament, only to go back to rooting against them afterwards? I feel like I'm not really cheering for them... I'm only cheering for some laundry. I want to cheer for my country... I really do... But none of the players I admire, respect or like play for Team USA... what's a hockey guy to do? I guess I'll just watch curling.

It's Beginning To Look Alot Like Christmas...

I tunneled my way out of my door and looked at my car and turned around and went back inside and just sat there and watched the snow keep coming down and down... I think the only way I could make it to work right now is to go by sled dog... Ididarod training anyone?

Only In Michigan

I'm NOT trying to sound morbid here. But I got a true story told to me by one of my best friends who lives over in Pittsburgh and I haven't seen him in about 4 or 5 years. The hockey team had a game over there so I made a side trip to go see him and his wife. In the midst of his and my catching up, he tells that his father (whom he hadn't had a relationship with for years), passed away late last year. He didn't seem too down about it at all. So I didn't really press the issue. But he did go to the funeral back in northern Michigan. He then proceeded to tell me a story that was nothing short of BIZARRE. I don't have enough space here to list all the oddities that happened at this service. But it involved everything from motorcycle gangs (he didn't like or own motorcycles), to during the service, someone actually... I kid you not... actually going up (as part of the service) and channeling the spirit (and voice) of the deceased's dog. I'm NOT KIDDING! It took every ounce of energy within my being to look at my buddy with something resembling empathy (he still had a look of bewilderment on his face)... He looked at me and laughed at the thought of a girl going up and reading letter in the voice of a dog. I dang near wet my pants and did everything I could to not shake like jello. I'm not one to be judgemental, but when they take the coffin out to the hearse after the service was over and leave it in the hearse (unlocked) and go downstairs to the church basement to eat BEFORE they go out to the cemetery for burial... yes, it was that, uh, um, odd. So my head started thinking in the wrong direction. I didn't want to think about it, but I gave into temptation and had to ask: What is the strangest funeral story you've ever heard? On second thought, maybe I'll just say have a nice week and I'll try to figure out a more interesting subject to write about next week... I'm such a dork!

Rambling Thoughts on a Wednesday Night...

Hey folks
Just updating on what's been going on here in my world. Here's the update: (in no particular order)

-Lucas is fine. He has feeling in his arm again.
-Terri is hanging on. She is still gutting it out with the chemo that she's allergic to. She's gutsy.
-Lou is doing better now. She had a cardiac cath done and her circulation appears to be good.
-My gal pal loves me more than ever.
-I still love her MORE...
-I'm stressed to the hilt, but I'm happy and I know that I'll survive.
-I've been thinking about my love walk and I know that I need to work on that.
-It's 10:30pm as I type this and I'm sleepy as all heck... when did I get old?

Tis the Season???

Boy, talk about being tested...
In the last month I've seen three friends pass away, one a very dear family friend and two that I knew from working with them. It sucks, but I'm doing alright with it. Terri is still battling with her stuff and she texted me last night when I asked how she was doing: "I'm good but please pray for my friend who had to be induced into a coma because she was having seizures non-stop. She was in remission but the cancer returned and spread to her brain." Oh boy... but that's Terri for you... even though she's got her own stuff to deal with, she's always thinking of others. So I told her that I would definetely be praying for her and her friend.
Just got back from a lousy weekend in Iowa. We lost both games we played out there but that wasn't even on my radar. One of the players, Lucas, was injured in the hockey game on Saturday and was laid out on the ice and wasn't moving. The trainer asked him if he was alright but he couldn't feel anything in his extremeties. The trainer pinched his hand hard and Lucas didn't feel a thing. So they called 911 and immobilized him, the EMT's came and put him on a stretcher. My heart sank with worry as I knew his family down in Florida was listening to the game. But the father of one of the other players had made the trip to Iowa with us and he stayed with Lucas the whole time. He stayed on his cell the whole time with Lucas' dad. One of the players who didn't dress for the game due to injury went over to Lucas as he was being carted off the ice to offer words of encouragement. Willy later came over to me during the broadcast and said that Lucas was cracking jokes to try and calm everyone down. After the game, we sent the players back to the hotel and our team bus driver carted the coaching staff and yours truly over the hospital not knowing what to expect. I feared the worst, but I prayed. Boy did I pray. And my prayer was answered, thank the Good Lord. All feeling returned for Lucas in his extremeties with the exception of his left arm feeling very sore, he was alright. I exchanged emails with his dad the next day and he told me that he was grateful for being kept in the loop via cell phone during the whole ordeal and that talking to Lucas really calmed him down. Lucas was released from the ER a couple of hours after the game and we ordered a pizza for him and everyone went back to the hotel with a big sigh of relief. I got back to my room, grabbed a bite of pizza, and gave thanks to God for Lucas' health, and then went to sleep. I interviewed Lucas on the air the next day during the game and I got hit with a ton of email from listeners thanking me for that because they were worried. He cracked a couple of jokes to try and keep things loose and I told him how good it was to see him. He smiled and said "yeah, I'm really glad I'm here to see you too." Now that I think about it, that about sums up what I'm feeling overall these days. I'm glad I'm here and I'm going to continue to pray for family and loved ones and that I endure...Because I know that this stuff too shall pass...

A Weird Day (out) of Sorts...

Just wanted to update on Terri... she underwent her first chemo treatment for her lungs and even though she is allergic to it, she gutted it out and went through it. She sent me a note afterwards to describe it: "It wasn't as bad as we thought. I only had one episode where I had a tight chest and trouble breathing. but I told them I wanted to keep going. The nurse told me that with each cycle, the chances for a reaction increases... But I wouldn't quit."
If you really want to know about Terri... that last sentence pretty much says it all... "I have faith Mickey" she continued. "I'm in a lot of pain and I'm weak and tired and got sick only once, but I know I can do this."

What more do I need to say? I think she said it all... She is an inspiration.

It seems only weird that today was the anniversary of my mom's passing. I was just a kid when she passed. I feel like I know less about her as I get older, but I know she had a hard and rough life. I'm glad she's in paradise. I know her and my dad are together up there. I believe that with all that I am. I know they are happy. I know they are complete up there. I don't know... right now with everything going on, I don't feel worry. I'm stressed out but I'm not wigging out on anyone or anything. But even though this is a tough time right now, I feel a sense of peace. More accurately, I'm choosing peace over pain. And I feel like God has calmed me down and is giving me the courage to stand on faith. To believe when to others, there might not seem like a reason to believe. I'm good with that...

Resolution...

Since we've now barely tipped our toes into the sea of 2010, I was wondering what do you have as your resolution for the new year? Me, I'm a creature of habit so in addition to trying to try and do something, I'm going to admit to trying to do something different. My sugar has been off because of my constant travelling and staying in hotel rooms and eating lousy food at all hours... I got a juicer for Christmas and my new year's resolution is to try and use it at least once a day to replace pigging out at a meal. It won't be easy but I want to try something to get back to healthier choices. As much as I may hate eating healthy...lol... That's my new year's resolution... What about yours?

Just A Humble Word Of Thanks

Howdy folks... Merry Christmas!
I just wanted to take a moment (I'm in Iowa as I write this) and say thanks to all who have sent kind words and prayers up for my sister Terri and our family. I gave her a call to check up on her and she still is a little down (duh Mik, what did you expect?), but is still putting her energy into getting ready for Christmas. She sent me a pic of my baby nephew and I love the little guy but he has HUGE pointy ears. I know he'll grow out of them and it's really no big deal, but I made some elf reference about him and I caught all kinds of flak from Terri. She was saying things like "Oh you didn't just go there did you?" and she was ready for a scrap I could tell. That made me feel better because I knew she wanted to go back to some minor sense of normalcy. Unfortunately, chemo therapy has been part of her new "normal" for quite sometime. But she's dealing with it as best she can... By the way, here's how that little conversation we had ended:

Me: Nice picture, I'm glad they could find some elf, er... ear covers for the little guy
Terri (in a bit of a huff): Oh you just didn't go there did you?
Me: No, I often refer to a 6 month-old baby as 'Yoda' because he reminds me of a 3 thousand year old dwarf simply because he is 'wise' beyond his years... just chock full of wisdom he is...
Terri: (click)

I got a couple of text messages from her later giving me crap like only siblings can... So she is trying to kick it up a notch and keep it going. Who am I to stand in the way? Three thousand year old dwarfs not withstanding...

Bah Humbug

Hey guys,
Just a heads up that I would sure appreciate if you kept my sister Terri in your prayers. She gave me a phone call and was sobbing. It seems that her cancer, which appeared to be held in check for quite some time, has spread to her lungs now. She is just crushed. She was questioning God and why would He let this happen? I wanted to be able to give her an answer. But to be truthful, I didn't have one. Only He knows and has the answers. But that is not a very comforting answer for her right now. She's hurting right now. The type of chemo that they treat the lungs with, well, she's allergic to it. Last time they tried it, she ended up in the hospital because it dang near killed her. I can tell you one thing: it makes you treasure and appreciate Christmas a whole lot more...

Mik- Miktoria?

I've got to tell you... sometimes you gotta laugh at yourself. I spent Friday down with the gal pal. I went down for a church dedication. I gotta tell ya, it was a-m-a-z-i-n-g... I couldn't believe how incredible those people were who helped build a church for people that don't know Christ. I sat there in complete awe of these people. They had a great time of fellowship and wished I could've stayed there forever with my gal pal... I love that girl, I tell ya... But duty called and I had to hit the road to drive back up north because I had to be in Grand Rapids, Michigan the next afternoon to broadcast a hockey game. So right after the dedication that night, being a little sleep deprived, I headed up I-75 and stopped for a little shuteye (and in Cincinnati, for the only food that matters... SKYLINE CHILI). So anyway, I get to Grand Rapids on Saturday afternoon and check into the hotel. I expect my hotel key to be like it always is when I'm on the road. My name is usually written on the envelope and the key is inside of it. Well, apparently, someone got the message all screwed up. I ended up getting an envelope from the lady behind the service desk with MISS G... written on it. WHOA BOY... er girl... Uh, I think maybe the moustache and beard were the giveaways.... I didn't think that she was optometry deficient but I'm guessing if she couldn't figure out that I was a guy, then if she's not married, then she could date just about anyone! She wasn't wearing glasses. Geez, I don't know if I should feel bad for her, or insulted that she thought that I was a woman. The guys on the hockey team had a field day with that little nugget of misinformation. It didn't bother me in the least and by the time we headed to the arena for the game, I was making fun of myself over it. It felt like a bizarre "Bosom Buddies" episode... only without Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari...

For The Birds...

Okay... to my U.S. brethren... Happy Thanksgiving. To my Canadian and European friends: happy Thursday...lol

I'm putting together a top ten list of things to be thankful for... Just my brain (in)activity:

I AM THANKFUL:

10) That inspite of the fact that I spend more time in arenas, stadiums and behind microphones than with her, my gal pal still loves me. She deserves better, but still thinks I'm great. She looks through rose colored glasses, but I'm not going to change her... not one bit.

9) Despite the prognosis... my sisters STILL are kickin' butt and trying to enjoy and live life. They really do define what it means to beat the odds and are good people on top of that.

8) Even though I lead a somewhat hard lifestyle with all the miles that I log, I am still in relatively decent health. Some days I feel more like 93 than 45, but I still enjoy living everyday life.

7) While I'm a working stiff and could complain about my job, that I have an ounce of brain matter to realize that I'm pretty darn lucky to have a job. Let alone three. Perspective Mik, it's always perspective...

6) Despite the odds, we are slowly making Toledo Sports Radio a small success.

5) While I have a nice round figure (read: belly), I can't cook. I eat at work and I nuke meals or eat out but when I need some real home cooking, I can call any member of my family and go visit and they let me stay for dinner...lol

4) While I have a nice round figure (read: BELLY), my gal pal still loves me insanely. There is no one on this planet that I could ever ask to love me more completely than her.

3) When I have screwed up (all the time) and had a pity party or two, that God had enough of a sense of humor not to listen to me whine and still loved his brat inspite of that brat's stupidity...

2) That I'm painfully aware that while I have tried to do good for others, that I could do so much more. What's the old saying: The size of your funeral will be determined by the weather?...

1) to the Good Lord, that inspite of my best efforts... HEY! I'm still ALIVE!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone... Hope you can find things to be thankful for... infact, if you care to share, leave me a comment about what you might be thankful for this year...

When Life Throws a Curve Ball...

I'm just kicking back and taking it easy right now... Weird crap can sneak up on you when you aren't looking. One of our supervisors at work is finding that out firsthand. It isn't weird crap... It's life and death. She went into the emergency room yesterday cause she wasn't feeling good. She got a diagnosis today... pancreatic cancer. Wholly crap! Talk about a slap to the face or a sucker punch to the guts... I sat there stunned. The diagnosis they gave her: it's terminal. I feel so horrible. The people at work all just kind of sat numb. I don't know her that well, but it hit close to home. I think about my sister and how she is hanging on with her cancer battle and I have really come to appreciate what she's going through. Life can be such a precious and delicate thing. Many times it's unappreciated or more likely than not, taken for granted. I just know that I'm approaching middle age and feel like I'm 90 sometimes, but when I see people who are suffering and dancing with their mortality, I stop complaining about what aches me and I feel so grateful to be alive. You pray and you hope for the best. And for pete's sake, LIVE and enjoy life... even if it's just deciding to be in a good mood when you don't feel like it. LIVE and LOVE...

Eleven - Eleven...

It's November 11th... My sister Terri's birthday. Glad she's holding on to keep celebrating another year of life. Truly a gift from God. I think about her situation and her prognosis. She's defied the odds and continues to live life as best she can. I'm grateful that she has done as well as she has... The other reason I'm looking at things with a bit more perspective is because I always get sentimental about Veteran's Day or Rememberance Day... I guess because I see how much people really sacrificed for a guy like me to be a full time goof ball. I just feel like "Thank you" is so weak... especially after what happened in Fort Hood last week. It really drives home how important it is to appreciate and support our men and women in uniform. I was sitting in my hotel room last sunday morning, flipping channels and watching TV when I came across a preacher show (Charles Stanley) called "In Touch"... I was expecting just the typical sunday morning fare. But this program was a re-run of a guy in church talking about our founding fathers and the early days of our history and how they would rely on their faith to govern. It was a real eye opener for me and it got me thinking about history and it snowballed from there... and it got me thinking about our troops and those who made the ultimate sacrifice. Thank you seems inadequate, but it's all I've got. I do say thanks not only those who gave their all, but those who have served or are currently serving...We are forever in your debt...

Deja Vu... all over again!

I'm a guy who's a creature of habit. Ask my gal pal, she'll tell you. I know what I like and I usually like it alot. Whether it's sports, food, or people, I like familiarity... for the most part. A case in point... last spring I wrote about a kid I met when I was in Dubuque, Iowa for playoffs last season. I enjoyed the heck out of the kid. He's a special needs kid who took to a couple of our players. The team really went out of their way to make him feel special during the playoffs. He was/is a really neat kid. I'll never forget when we were getting on the bus to head for home, he stopped outside and went up and hugged a couple of the players who he'd really liked. I was genuinely touched.
Fast forward to last Friday night. We were in Dubuque again to play them in a pair of regular season games. I was getting my gear set up to broadcast the games online. Well, I look down near the area where the two teams will go onto the ice and there is the familiar smile and the familiar glasses. I finish setting my stuff up and head down to say hello, not even sure if the kid would remember me. He does and his mom also remembers me and so we chat about the team and I tell them how most of the players from last year have moved on with their careers. I give them info about a couple of the kid's favorite players from our team. So they were really happy to hear about what happened to the guys they became fans of. Now we get beat while we're there so that stunk to high heavens. But as we got back home on Sunday morning at 6am with no sleep, I get off of the team bus and walk over to my car. I get in and stop to get some gasoline. I fill the tank up and decide that since I have Sunday off from everything, I can drive home five minutes and sleep till the afternoon and putz around all day and watch football. It would've been great. But of course, the term 'normal' and me have never been on the same page. So I decide to do something crazy. I pour myself into my car, and drive six hours to go see the gal pal. She had no idea. I freaked people out. I show up in church, and afterwards, I go up to her and she about freaked out. She just grabbed me and pulled me into her arms, hugging me so tight that my air supply started to go out. But she let me come up for air and the look on her face was just perfect. She was shocked and when folks came up to me to say hello, they found out that I was in Iowa the night before and had been up all night coming back to Ohio and then another six hours to there. They were all stunned, but as I simply stated the obvious: "hey, my gal pal is WORTH IT"... I spent about five hours with her and then headed for home, six hours back. I got home to Michigan a little after midnight and slept for what felt like five minutes and went into work dragging my knuckles. But I'll never forget the look on my gal pal's face and when she said how much it meant to her what i did. I am not one to pat myself on the back, and I'm not looking for that here now. I only mention it because I think about how much she does to motivate me to be a better human being. And how most of my friends at home would be laughing at me for being so freaking crazy to go almost two and a half days without much sleep and drive six hours each way to spend a few hours with my girl. Now if you care to share, I have a question for you: what is the craziest thing you've ever done to be able to spend time with someone you are/were/ used to be crazy about? I hope you all are okay and have a great week...

Pigskin Flu...

Only in my world....
Okay, so I've been feeling kind of under the weather this week. For the most part I've ducked the flu. No flu-like symptoms but still problems with the inner workings and as such, I didn't feel much like carrying out the broadcast duties I had. My radio partner was flat out down with the flu. So I stayed away from him all week and we decided not to do any sports this week. I tried to go into work on Friday and lasted only 90 minutes. My boss and my co-workers sent me home and told me to go directly to bed. Do not pass go, do not collect $200 dollars. I vegged a bit, snoozed some and tried to eat. Unfortunately for my waistline, eating doesn't seem to be a problem. But my gal pal wanted to attach a rocket to her wheelchair to come take care of me. That girl is something else. She never fails to amaze me. So while I was home, I get a phone call. It was my radio partner. He decides that he feels good enough to go do a high school football game. In particular, HIS alma mater. Now my radio partner loves his old high school. Maybe a little too much. He graduated from there over 25 years ago. But he is still a freak about that place. I just don't get that. Some people are strongly identified by their college alma mater. They love the teams and cheer for them endlessly. But my radio partner's school is a very small school. And the way he talks about them you'd think they were division one in the whole state. I think they're down in division six. There are only six divisions in the state for football. I simply shake my head and roll my eyes. He calls me at half time and it goes something like this:

Him: So, it's not that bad. It's a pretty good football game!

ME: Uh, what's the score?

Him: They're doing alright for playing in the rain...

ME: Hey Elvis Presley, what's the score??

Him: Um, uh, 28-0

ME: (hang the phone up and go back to bed)

My Hometown... I Must Be So Proud... Maybe Not

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This bar is about five minutes from where I work during the day. I'm so glad I don't go out to bars anymore... sheesh...

It Says It All...

I appreciate signs like this because I'm the type of guy that will see the sign, but miss the cop. When you travel as much as I do... Hope you all have a great one!

Another Typical Mik Weekend... zzzzzz....

From the "I'm not as good as I once was but I'm as good once as I ever was" department....

I seem to be fully recovered (I think) from last weekend. I went on a long long venture without much sleep to speak of (read: NONE) but I guess I still got it when it comes to pulling an all nighter... I suppose an explanation is in order here. Friday, I was supposed to travel with the hockey team to Chicago for a pair of games on Friday and Saturday night. Well, I couldn't make it to the bus on time Friday morning so I drove from my house out to the Windy City. No big deal. I figured four and a half hours and I'd be sitting in my hotel room with my feet up. OOPS! I get to the South side of Chi-town, and make the tragic mistake of going through town to get to the northwest suburbs. OUCH. The actual distance is something like 40 miles. It took me nearly THREE HOURS to get through there. And on top of it, there was a driving rainstorm going through! I know those of you who live in or near big cities are chortling at this point. But I live in a small town with the nearest big city being Detroit. And while Motown is a decent sized city, it sure ain't Chicago. Anyway, I get into town, and we win each night. Life is good. I decide to take the same expressway back out of town because the Chicago folks told me (after they stopped laughing at the thought of me driving through downtown on a Friday afternoon and in a rainstorm) that late on Saturday night there wouldn't be bumper to bumper traffic and I should be able to get right through. Well, I decided to go for it and they were right. I got out of Chicago in a decent amount of time and five hours later, in the middle of the night, I make it home. But only to change clothes and gas up the car. I took a quick nap and got up cause I had to hit the road down I-75, six hours to rural Kentucky. My gal pal was in a wedding (one of her best friends got married but it was on very short notice so I couldn't change my schedule) and I had to miss it cause I was in Chicago. While everyone understood and said "we understand", I knew that I had to go down there and somehow try and make it up to her. My gal pal is the most amazing human being i've ever known. But I knew she was kind of bummed at the prospect of me not being there. I got there late Sunday morning, and knew that she and everyone else would be in Church like any other normal Sunday. So I drove to the Church and I was late (big surprise) and so I snuck in and sat in the last row with one of my gal pals good friends. Lindsay looks at me and whispers "I heard you were coming here from Chicago... oh my gosh, you are like the most awesome boyfriend to come down like this." I smiled and thought, "yeah, but that's only because I disappointed everyone by not making it down for the wedding." I had told my gal pal that I probably wouldn't get to Church on time and that I'd meet her at a restaurant afterwards. She was sitting up front in Church so she didn't see me. After the service, I walked up to her and the look on her face was priceless. She lit up like a Christmas tree and was so genuinely thrilled to see me. After that, I didn't feel like a dirtbag for missing the wedding. We went to eat after we left the Church and had a wonderful afternoon together. She told me about the wedding and was a little surprised that I didn't tell her that I missed the bus going to Chicago. "If I had known you were driving to Chicago AND THEN here afterwards, I would've told you not to and to just stay home"... to which I replied "yeah, I know... that's why I didn't tell you." Well, we spent about four hours together and I had to jump in the car (okay 'jump' might be too strong a word, maybe 'pour myself into my car' might be more accurate) and then make the six hour trek back home to start another wonderful week on monday. Tired? abso-freakin-lutely. But after seeing her so happy to see me, it was an easy drive back home.

Mik's World Tour Around The Midwest Logistics:
Each way between Chicago and Home- 350 miles (700 total)
Each way between Home and Rual Kentucky- 400 miles (800 total)

The look on my gal pal's face when she saw me- PRICELESS!!!