A Dim Light in the East

Even though winter is still gripping the area and I'm getting tired of the cold and snow, there is a sign of better times ahead. I start work at 6:30 every morning, and for the past several days I've noticed a general lightening in the eastern sky which means the nights are getting shorter which means there will be more sunlight which means it should start warming up which means I will be in a better mood.

Our store is remodeling and expanding, which has been a slow process so far but hopefully when the temperatures rise things will speed up. Right now they are working on constructing the new entranceway and things are a mess in front of the store. It will be nice when everything is done, but all I can see is more work for me in the future. At least I have a job, so I shouldn't complain..... plus Spring is on the way.

February 28, 1994

Another anniversary is here. It was fourteen years ago today that dad died. It doesn't seem that long, even though so much has happened in the world since then. Thinking about him brings back the pain I felt fourteen years ago. So many things I should have told him, so many things I wanted to tell him, the time that I planned to spend with him but never got around to it... I should have made the time back then.

When your family is gathered together in a funeral home for calling hours it's hard to put aside your grief for any other emotion. At the calling hours for dad, with all my brothers and sisters and relatives sniffling and crying as we comforted each, an organist played music in the background. At one point when I was talking to my sister the theme from "The Godfather" rang out from the organ. Apparently he thought from all the Italian sounding names there, that we were Sicilian mobsters or something. My sister and I looked at each other and started laughing. The organist had unintentionally added humor to the somber affair, giving us a much needed emotional relief. Dad would have had a good laugh too.

This and That

Well I sort of got the iPod situation figured out and got some tunes to put on it. I also looked at some games and thought I might as well try one and see how it worked, so after spending $4.99 and downloading the game I couldn't get it to load onto the iPod. After many failed attempts I saw that the game only played on certain models. After scrolling through a list with oodles of different models I determined that mine couldn't play the game after all.

I don't mind the winter weather for the first part of the season, but when it just keeps coming I start to get tired of being cold all the time and scraping ice off my windshield each morning. I'm ready for a heat wave.

The Cavaliers made a huge trade last week and got four new players, the most prominent being Ben Wallace, who was always putting it to the Cavs when he was in Detroit. All four new guys played in Sunday's game, which Cleveland won with apparent ease, so hopefully it will turn out to be a good trade.

Baseball spring training will start soon. That thought makes the weather easier to handle, although thinking back to my high school days it seemed like it was always cold when baseball came around. I remember my teeth chattering through most of the season, and how muddy and sloppy the field was at the start of the season.

Asea in the Technical Age

About three weeks ago I got an iPod as a result of a promotional program on chocolate milk that I did at work. It's an amazing toy, so I'm told. Being the techno-clod that I am, I haven't been able to put on it any songs, games, pictures or whatever else can be put on it. I finally got the screen changed to where I can register it and get it set up, but so far I'm still not able to get songs on it. Do they make iPod for Dummies manuals? I really could use one.

I Believe

The title is a link to a song that used to play back when I was a wee bit younger. I frequented a skating rink called the Skate Corral to ogle the girls, play games, listen to music and hang out. I have a lot of great memories from then. I think back and find myself wanting to go out right now and step into my top-of-the-line skates that I bought from Sears for the outrageous price of $84. Then I stop myself when I realize that I lost my health insurance card and I'm sure I'd need it if I attempted to get on an unforgivably hard skating floor and try to blend in with the teenagers who are darting and dashing around the way I used to. Getting old can be such a cruel journey.

Yes, It's Still Winter

I decided to get an early start on tapping the maple trees this year, so last week- when it started to get nice out - I went out and put taps in a few trees. Naturally the weather changed, so my unusual promptness didn't matter - I'll still have to wait til it warms up before I get anything. You can't beat Ohio weather. Even though we're far enough south to miss the lake effect snows we still get our share of nasty stuff and today it's doing the nasty. Snow, then sleet, now rain and supposedly more snow tonight... I'm sure glad I don't live in a tropical location where I'd miss all this fun.

Made It Through

January seems to me to be the longest, most depressing month of the year. A time when faces show post-holiday fatigue and everyday life is at a much slower pace than the mad rush of the previous few weeks. This year January wasn't so bad, and now it's over already. Maybe it's because I kept busy or maybe because time goes faster as you get older, but that long month didn't affect me as much as it sometimes does.
With February started that means that Lent is close at hand. I always try to make an earnest attempt to examine my life's direction during Lent, and usually I see myself so far off the course I need to be on that it depresses me. I know, however, that looking at my life is something that I should be doing, so in a way I look forward to the Lenten season, as scary as it is sometimes.