Sunday, September 4, 2011

Home Sweet Home

Not long ago I wrote a post describing what had happened to our home in Livingston while we were away for the winter in Goodyear, Arizona. Five months later I am happy to report that we are now back in our home with repairs now 100% complete. It's been a long haul waiting for this project to reach completion but now at long last it's a done deal and we couldn't be happier. You never realize how important somebody or something is until you are without them or it for a long period of time. Here's a quick video tour of our 'new' home.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

The Rare Double Rainbow

With the right combination of rain and sunshine we're rewarded with the rainbow, white light refracted into it's various color components. This was taken two evenings ago on the deck of my neighbor and good friend Paul Bradley and we were gifted with not only one rainbow but two.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

227 Clark St. Berea, Ohio

This little white house has housed three generations of my family from my paternal grandparents to my mother and father, and lastly my brother Jim. It was where I grew up and became the person I am now. The house and the property it sits on are a treasure trove of cherished memories from the day we moved in 1949 until the day I left for war in 1968 and not to return again except periodic visits with my own family. The house is empty now and probably at some point in the future will be sold to finance my brother's care in assisted living and then some other family will begin their traditions at 227 Clark St. Berea, Ohio.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Long Time No Post

Yes chief that's true, it has been a long time. Well the reason is that this long delay has everything to do with what has been going on in my life of late. First of all the good part and that was the birth of my granddaughter on the 8th of April in Atlanta, Georgia. My daughter Sarah and her husband Matt took delivery of a 9 pound baby girl named Lily, but that's only half the the story. Here's a link to a featured article that appeared in a suburban Atlanta magazine just a short time ago , http://fayettewoman.com/lily-love-story.html . The article explains in detail what happened on this incredible journey to new life.
Now to the less happy affairs that have intersected my life. I have an older brother Jim, four years my senior, whom I had to place in an assisted living situation due to his numerous falls at his home in Ohio where he has lived alone for the past twenty years. It's never an easy thing to remove a person from the surroundings they so cherish not to mention the fact that he's the third generation of my family to have lived there. At this time Jim seems to be adjusting but right now he's on trial run stay at this facility to see if it's going to work out for the long term. So far so good.
The last episode concerns our Montana home which sustained an uncontained water leak due to a frozen pipe on an interior wall even though the heat was on. This happened in late March just we were preparing to come back to Montana from Arizona. We were alerted to this disaster by a neighbor who was doing his weekly check on home while we were away. Three months later we are still putting the pieces back together and it


looks like it will be at least another month before we're back in the house. All this time we've been living in our RV with two cats and two dogs and I now understand the term 'bunker mentality'

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

What Is It?

During one my visits the Cleveland Indians' Player Development Complex in Goodyear, Arizona I came across this little guy guarding a section of drain culvert across from the main practice field. It looks like an owl but I'm not certain so if anyone happens to be able to identify her let me know. I am without any of my bird watching field guides so I'm clueless...............as usual. She seems to be protecting this particular area possibly a nest.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Spring Training From Goodyear, Arizona

Today marks the beginning of another baseball season as the boys of summer return to to Florida and Arizona for a month and a half of spring training. The weather here in Goodyear couldn't be better with today's high forecast to be 80! In an hour or so the air will be filled with the sound of leather on leather as balls crack into waiting mits along with the unmistakable sound of wooden bats against Rawlings Major League baseballs. For a baseball fan and former player the atmosphere is absolutely electric, this why we're able to endure the long winter. PLAY BALL !!!!!

Monday, January 31, 2011

It's Been a Awhile

In fact it's been more than a while somewhere in the neighbor hood of 2 1/2 months. Between driving back from Texas to Montana for Christmas, visiting my brother in Ohio, doing a incomplete rush job for Christmas shopping, then driving from Montana to Goodyear Arizona right after Christmas a blog post was the last thing on my mind. But now that we're settled in our RV in sunny and warm Arizona it's time to relate what the hell has been going on.
First of all I attended the Cleveland Indians Fantasy Camp at their player development complex in Goodyear Arizona. It was a week filled with all things baseball with former Indians' players, major league uniforms and club house facilities, and lots of playing baseball which was something I hadn't done in over forty years. And don't think my body didn't notice, after a few days the once empty trainers room now had a line of aging ball players serpentining out their door and down the hallway while the air hung heavy with the smell of analgesic rubs. Men hobbled around after our games with ice bags taped to arms, legs, knees, and shoulders. But despite all the physical discomfort most of the seventy some attendees endured we all had a wonderful time trying to recapture our youth in our attemtp to play a young man's game. My week came to an abrupt end during a Wednesday morning game when I swung at a low breaking pitch reaching out with left arm I felt the pop of something. That something was the tendon that connects the lower end of my


left bicep to my left elbow. I was assessed by the Indian's lead trainer and he confirmed my fears of a snapped tendon, I was quickly put in touch with Indian's local orthopedic surgeon and the surgical repairs were completed several days later. I guess that puts me on the DL for two months, but no mind, I'll be basking in the Arizona sun watching every Indians home spring training game until they break camp in April, not a bad way to rehab.