Happy Birthday, My Year In Review

Well another year in the books. Some quick hits on how it turned out for me and some resolutions for next year.

Ding Dong: The biggest event of the year was my bout with Bell's Palsy. Lucky for me it was short lived (several weeks) as I know of several cases of 8 months+ and one family friend who has had it for 32 years. My Grandmother just got it a few months ago and is still dealing with it. It woke me up to some stress issues and helped me clear some things out!!!

Travelling Band: Three big trips this 'year'. We did a nice weekender to Louisville and Cincinnati over the 4th of July weekend. Saw the boys first major league game, hit the Slugger Museum and spent a day at the horse races. Visited upstate New York and the family-in-law and then a few months later went back for a surprise visit. Then hit NYC for the first time in several years. Saw lots of family and went to Yankee Stadium. Put 2,500 miles on the car. I think that is enough travel for 2 years.

TGIF: Looking over the blog have had LOTS of work drama. From new sets and graphics recently to more responsibility on a daily basis. Got a nice raise out of it, now I need an extra vacation week (currently at 2)

Home Sweet Home: I am definitely a home body. I love my family and love my home. I would rather spend a day in the back yard then travel to a lake or park. I can play ball and grill just as well on my deck then at a state park. I would like to go to bigger cities (Chicago, St. Louis, Cleveland) for a weekend or two but I really enjoy the home life.

Sweating To The Oldies: I was hit and miss on exercise this year. Something I need to rectify! I was on a good roll back there for awhile and need to get back on that horse!

New Passion: Picked up a new hobby (well reintroduced ourselves), baseball cards. It is something the boy and I can do together. We are also doing Autographs Thru The Mail. We have gotten a great response to sending cards to players and getting them to sign and return them. We have current stars Mike Mussina and Jim Thome and two guys who played with Jackie Robinson, Carl Erskine and Duke Snider. Pretty Cool.

And Wrap...all in all it was a great year for me. Any year still on this good earth is a good one. Now I have to make sure there are many more!!!

Contune Yesterday's Rant and Good Bye to Trash

I will start with this, Rosie O'Donnell is leaving The View...I supported her in her stand up career (yes I saw her), I supported her in her TV show. I was still with her when she came out of the closet and changed the focus of her original show. Now she is a bitter, mean, ugly hag, and I am happy she is finally off the television. I have never watched an episode of The View but several co-workers have it on while we work and I get to hear her often. She is ALL that is wrong with TV commentaries. Uninformed, unintelligent and unbearable. In Italian she would be a "faccia brutte". Good bye to bad trash...

I want to follow up yesterday's post with this. One man stood up to save the lives of others. This man survived the Holucost. THis man knew the meaning of sacrafice. This man stood up when called and faced sure death like a hero I am sure he would not want to be called. This man was from a different generation. A generation that is slowing disappearing from our great country. From the Greatest Generation to the Me Generation in 40 short years. No wonder Islamic Extremists and the rest of the world feel they can mess with us. We are losing our balls. Like the bully who points his finger at the little kid standing near his big brother. That bully knows that at some point big brother will be gone and then the little kid, who has depended on the big brother all his life will be on his own. Will he remember the lessons his big brother tried to teach him or will he fall like a house of cards...

Wake Up Call...

I was reading Matt's Opaque Lucidity and it got me to thinking. I'll give you a minute to read it.....

Back, good. He brings up a great point that had been over looked by every media outlet, politician, and commentator. Were the hell was everyone?!?!?!?!? These are our best and brightest, and no one thought of giving him the bums rush? No one thought of ambushing him? I can understand Columbine but these are men and women we are talking about here. These are people older than those fighting for freedom overseas, these are those "adults" you see on YouTube and 'other' sites performing for the camera, these are those people making a difference in the community. These are not children, these are not helpless babes, yet they stood around and did nothing.

I am sure we will hear in the future of the woman who stayed with her friend to help her after being shot, or the men who blocked the door and saved 10 fellow students. But Matt's post got me a little angry. I remember 9/11 and watching a camera shot from the Pentagon as dozens of people ran from the building to this little rise and then as one they turned and ran back towards the flame and ruin to help, I remember hearing of the men and women on United 93 and at the same time as my heart broke it swelled with pride and admiration for those brave souls, I remember those Firefighters and Police Officers charging into the Twin Towers. Before that, I recall the men and women who stepped up to fight Hitler, those who stormed the beaches of Normandy or froze in the forests around Bastogne, those who rallied around Pearl Harbor and landed on numerous islands in the Pacific. Where are those people? Where are those Americans? What would our Grandparents think of us now? They gave of themselves to create a nation of 'me-firsts'?

I wrote some time ago of the "pussification" of America, it was not until reading Matt's post that I realized that not only was I the only one who noticed, mainstream American does not seem to care. I would like to think I am man enough that I would stand up when my time came but I do know that if that kid walked into Virginia Tech 50 years ago and started shooting up the place he would have been lucky to get off a 2nd shot...

My thoughts and prayers do go out to those victims and their families and I by no way blame them for what happened. But I can not help but think if someone stood up the death toll would be in the single digits instead of the 30's.

Update....

All is well in the back yard. I bought some fence building material yesterday and will be putting it up this week for the neighbors. They were very cool about it. The dog is fine and the tractor will live. I got a good story out of it. The wife has already told several of her clients (2 that I know) and the guys at work are already riding me (ha ha, riding, get it).

I blew some steam right at the top but now I laugh. Coulda won the 10K but nobody was around, oh well!!!!!!!

PS

Watching Spin City this morning getting ready for work with the wife. I noticed MJ Fox was keeping that left hand always out of view. Upon further thought I remember him doing that in Family Ties too. The man was dealing with/hiding his MS and acting. WOW, he deserves much more credit then I gave him. I always liked him (not his politics) and was sad to see him disappear from TV and film. But know I see what he had to deal with for all those years, WOW!

Slight Accident...

Had a little accident over the weekend. I was out in the backyard mowing when the dog jumped in front of the mower. She was in the house but managed to open the screen door (she has done this on several occasions). She jumped out and ran right at me. I have a riding mower and the dog was never in any danger but I freaked out nonetheless and turned sharply right. Which is were the neighbors fence was. I say was as I drove right through it. and ended up in their backyard. I am on my way to Home Depot tonight after work to replace it.

Looking back it was quite comical and if the cameras were rolling we would have made Top three on AFV!!!!!

What Weekend...

Saturday morning at it is 8:30am, I have been up for several hours already. I have a graduation for my nephew to attend today, then Baseball pictures with the boy, a practice after that and then I am giving an inspirational speech in our Life to Eagle Scout program this afternoon. After that I get to mow the lawn. Yipee!!!!

It has been a terrible week for family time. We are all running in different directions all the time. Not to mention the fact that the wife has had several big meetings all week and my job has dropped the mother of all projects on my desk and wanted them yesterday. It is not good when the General Manager comes to see how things are going and then when he looks at you say, You looked very worried! Not Good!!!

Me thinks we need some family time, maybe a movie tonight with everyone. Brent says that Super Fuzz is very good and even though it is R he brought his boys and had a great time.

We shall see.....

Holu Smokes....

What a quick week. I have had tons of sh*t tossed at my feet since I have returned from vacation. We are unveiling a ton of stuff at work (I will get into more details at a later date) and after I have done all this work on one project they turn around and say oh by the way we forgot to tell you we changed this and this and this...3 days of work down the shitter. You know it is bad when I wake up first thing in the morning and I am trying to figure out a way to make something work for work.

LOST: oh my Gawd! Finally they hit their stride! These past few episodes saved it from death I think. The story is moving along and we ARE BACK ON THE BEACH!!! Thank you LOST people. I was tired of the Others week after week. There is only so much of 2 people in a cage on can watch. I like Desmond, and his story is very interesting. I did catch the picture on the monk's desk but it took a moment for it to register. Nice forward of the story while adding another mystery...

PS: Dear Beach Livers, there is a perfectly good village a few hours away. Last I checked it was empty. I has a roof, running water and indoor toilets. That plus a nice piano Jack used. Why the heck are you still on the beach?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? Get moving!

Tired Today.

Up early to do bills and get ready for the doctors before work. Have you ever just looked at your life from a step back. Man I am in a rut sometimes. At work I do the same thing day in and day out which explains why I am always busy after work. I need to do something else. My tastes are varied but all require one thing I feel I am always short of TIME.

Tomorrow starts the new new routine, my trainer made some changes and we shall see how this goes, wish me luck.

I've been having some weird dreams lately. Involving people from my past I have not seen or heard from in YEARS. What does it all mean?

Does anyone listen to podcasts? I find I have turned my ipod into a machine of information instead of "my complete music collection in my hand". While mostly history or baseball podcasts they are still 15-60 minutes long and take up most if not all of my commute. I have gotten several book suggestions from them as well.

I just started reading Boys Of Summer. I thought it appropriate as this weekend was the 60th anniversary for Jackie Robinson joining the Majors. I'll let you know how it turns out. ;-)

What The?

Yesterday was a long day at work. We broke with the VTech story during the noon show and had to sit through coverage till after the 6pm. As the day went on it got worse and worse. I was glad to be home and able to flip the channel and get away from it.

It is hard sometimes to remain objective in my business. You get hammered by images sometimes all day long that they lose meaning. Maybe objective is the wrong word, maybe compassionate? We laugh and joke a lot during the day because I think it is an easy way to deal with hours of negativity shoved in your face. The people at home have a choice of what to watch we do not.

Two things have stayed with me for some time now. First and foremost is 9/11. I worked that day and called in the next. I lived there in NYC and I have yet to be back to the city. We went to New York last week. The boy wanted to see Ground Zero. We did not go as we had several other things going on. But deep down I am glad we did not. I am not sure how I will take it. I get upset (read pissed) when I see footage used of that day as if it was just any other b-roll. I think too many people have forgotten it already!

The other picture that has stayed with me for years is the Oklahoma bombing. The photo of the fireman carrying that little girl. I had to make several graphics of that during that week. It came to a point where I could not look at it anymore. Someone will have it on a show or package occasionally and I am shocked at my reaction when it catches me off guard. I thought of posting a link to it so you know which one I am talking about but I do not even want to Google it.

I feel for those people at Virginia Tech and will say a little prayer for them. I would hate to see them become the new poster children for school violence. The last thing one of them wants is to see themselves being carried with blood all over to an ambulance while they are still trying to recover.......

Hit and Run

• Worked last night until Midnight then drove home and wife stayed up to watch Sopranos. SO WORTH IT
• That means me tired and sleepy and I just woke up with several errands to run before work
• Yesterday was Jackie Robinson Day in ballparks across America. I agree with certain players in that wearing 42 is an honor. MLB watered it down by letting WHOLE TEAMS wear the number. Tone it down.
• The boy did a good deed yesterday while I was at work. We had some clumping issues on Friday when I mowed. HE went out yesterday while I was at work and raked and bagged them all up. They are now waiting at the curb for trash day. AWESOME!!!!!

Holy Smokes, Friday...

Quick week. I took it off from exercise as I was tired all week. I have been getting up earlier all week so that I will be able to hit it hard next week.

Busy weekend. Have to mow the lawn and according to our weather people I will also shovel the driveway. The boy has 2 baseball practices and 1 hike. He also has plans for a date on Saturday. He worked his butt off and finished his project ON TIME and very well. Is it an A+, I don't think so, but it is definiately B+ and up material!!

Is there anything better than Half Price Books? I dropped by really quick the other day and left with a Stonewall Jackson bio, The Boys of Summer and a trilogy omnibus from Britian that I have been wanting to get.

And for no other reason then I can, here are some more vacation pics.....

View from our seats

It was VERY cold (it snowed in the 7th)

Tradition, YMCA by Groundskeepers during 7th inning stretch

Rainy Wednesday

It is raining and dark and I am up way too early today. I cleaned and did dishes, payed bills and got all my morning internet out of the way. I am now going to leave early and pick up some water for work.

The boy did us proud last night as he worked his butt off on a project he waited a little too long to start. It is due on Friday, he had about 2-3 weeks to work on it but he just finished the book on Sunday. He knocked it out yesterday, and did it very well. It looks very good and he took the time to do it on the computer and put a lot of thought into it.

I need to hit Target before work to get a new case for my Ipod. I broke the belt clip on the old one last week and need a new one if I am to work out tomorrow....gotta have the tunes!!!!!

Some Vacation Pics

The boy meets Yankee Stadium!Three generations, the boy, me and my grandmother (the boy's Great Grandma!)Monument Park, Thurman Munson, no other caption needed.

Tuesday's With Bryan

Lazy bones, that's me. I tried to get to sleep early last night but I could fall asleep. Then the dog woke me up at 3:13am AGAIN. Same time, I took her out and then went back to sleep. I am wondering if something is going off and making her upset. I am not going to stay up until 3am so it is a working unprovable theory.

The boy is working hard on his project. He did a good job last night and even got his baseball practice in. He is doing well. I had a talk with the wife last weekend. She is tough on him, I think because her mother was VERY tough on her (anything less than an A was means for punishment and yes an A- is less than an A). So she is finding a happy medium and easing up and he seems to be reacting to it. He is in that moody I am 14 act now and I think the constant back and forth with his mother was taking the toll on the both of them. We shall see.

Monday Morning

I am beat down and ready for vacation!!!!! Oh, I just got back? Well Sh*t!

Happy Easter to those who celebrate. We got to mass later than usual yesterday and got forced into the overflow mass. My parents and family were in the one church but the traffic was killer and we ended up in the gym which had a mass that started 15 minutes later so everyone could park and get in. It was actually a fantastic service with a children's choir, very nice.

The rest of the day was spent at the folks with the family and a good time. We chatted about our NY trip and met my sister's new beau, seems nice.

The boy finished his book for his English project. He had a choice of books and the wife and I had some suggestions. He narrowed it down to Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy or Lord of the Flies. We suggested Lord of the Flies, but I also liked Hitchhikers (and own them all) and the boy has been wanting to read them for some time. He picked Hitchhikers and half way through last week decided he wanted to change books. Now instead of being done with the book and having several of the 14 pages done (each page is a mini project, you have 30 to choose from and must do 13 plus a title page) he JUST finished the book and has to do several pages a day to get it in on Friday. Let us not mention he has baseball practice tonight, Scouts tomorrow, Band on Wednesday. He is up the creek............

I know I promised pics, and I will have them up soon.

Till Next time

2,500 miles (roughly)

That is how many miles we put on the family vehicle this week. A break down:

1. The boy and I had a nice 5 hour ride to pick up mom in Cleveland (she was there on business). A great time. We talked and sang and he danced during certain songs. Most of all we laughed.

2. Rochester: my annual fantasy baseball draft. Picked up my trophy for last year's win (pics to follow) and met with guys I have know for years. Had a blast talking baseball and shooting the breeze. Had a horrible draft but this year the boy stayed and helped out. The guys liked that. Another good time.

3. Upstate NY: surprised the FIL with a visit on Sunday. He surprised us by hosting (the MIL) a baby shower for a co-worker of the MIL. They jumped and screamed then put us to work. So family we haven't in a while and then ate very well.

4. Upstate NY II: The next day we went to the Sister-In-Laws (2) with our nephew (just turned 2) and new Brother In Law to be. Ate, drank, played with the boy, ate again, shopped and played some games. Oh, and TALKED. Worked out very well.

5. NYC: Ate a nice dinner with my Grandmother who went ALL OUT for us in her little apartment. Spent the afternoon 'visiting', then went to my Aunt's were we stayed.

6. Yankee Stadium: drove to the stadium for a day game on Wednesday, Rained Out. Stood in line for tickets to the next game, SOAKING WET for 2 hours. Drove back to aunt's to dry off and visit.

7. Yankee Stadium II: The boy hung with my youngest cousin (25), they drove in his new car and played hoops at the park. Showed the boy my old NYC haunts, then went to Yankee Stadium AGAIN for the 7:05 game. AWESOME (separate post at later date)

8. The Car: left NYC at 1pmish after saying goodbye to ALL. Drove past city (saw Statue of Liberty from Bridge) and headed home. 12 hours later pulled into Garage in Indy and feel asleep.

That in a nut shell is 2500 miles on a car.....more details and pics to follow.............