Easter Weekend 2012

Just a quickie today....

Sam and worked a JV double header here in Celina on Saturday...Celina JV vs Sidney, and Celina came out on top 10-0 and 10-1, while the varsity was sweeping a twin bill down in Sidney.  Tonight I am at windy Wayne Trace up in Paulding's Blue Creek Township, where my Great Grandparents settled some 150 or so years ago....the weather says it will be windy, but then again it is always windy on the flatlands of Blue Creek Township.  I will work the bases...still easing into the plate work, have done two so far....and will likely work a couple this week...but still not 100% with the voice or throat.

After the games Saturday, we headed over to sister Marty's and husband the other Pat in the family and their place.   All 3 of my kids were there, along with mom, Mike, grandson "The K-Man". and most of Marty's family, except for Mikki who lives out in So Cal.....

Here are some photos of the day.....

Me and the "K-man",  Kasyn and Luke his second cousin, Great Grandma Houseworth and Kasyn, and Hal, Lisa, and Kasyn....

A New(Slightly Used) Ride...for Patricia/The Rains Just Won't Stop...

One sunny, but cool, day yesterday....the first one in awhile, and it appears to be the last one for the next two weeks...needless to say the havoc these coming rain events will do to baseball schedules and work in the farm fields is going to be impressive.  Missouri is predicting 9 inches in parts of that state over the next 5 days...meanwhile here in Ohio, upwards of four more on top of the already saturated soils.  I've always said, if I had to do it all over again, I would have spent my life, after the Air Force, in a desert climate.  I really do hate rain, and humidity...and Hell, you can still grow flowers in the desert.  Color me disgusted with this spring...it has been a bummer weather wise.

Despite it all, I got another game in yesterday, making it 18 of 23, at Columbus Grove against Ada in a Northwest Conference Game.   Trailing 2-1 going into the top of the 6th, Ada tied it up, then the underdog Bulldogs took a 5-2 lead in the top of the 7th over the homestanding Bulldogs.   Grove, down by three with 2 down in the bottom half of the 7th, down to their last strike, rallied for four runs, the winning one bouncing by my leg behind the plate, as CG scored on a wild pitch, winning 6-5.  No games today on this Good Friday, it would not have mattered...the rains have re-entered the region, and appear to be sticking around for the next five days...I am afraid to even look further out, because I don't think it will be much better.  The last couple weeks of the Regular season will see much shifting of games, and playing the make up games well into the tournament season, which begins May 7th.  Lots of games cancelled, and lots of shifting of contests is in the future, it appears.

2008 Dodge Nitro___

When I shop, I like to do things quick...I see what I want, take a quick look at it, if I like it, I buy it and let the chips fall where they may drop.  Patricia likes to test, take things back, if she isn't satisfied....

So that set the scene for "Car Shopping" yesterday.  We had agreed she needs a newer ride for work, and for our few travels per year.  My Jeep, with 150,000 plus another 80,000 during tows, is getting much wear and tear on it...and is currently sitting idle with a problem...seems to be seizing belts, and needs looked at.  The 1995 Intrepid was wearing out, and the front end has developed a "wobble"... 144,000 miles one the car, and only 90,000 on the engine, it still had become untrustworthy to drive long distances.  Meanwhile Patrica's 99 Montana Mini Van had reached 170,000, but still was driving and handling pretty good.  The 1977 Buick Landau is in the garage, only 62,000 miles, but in need of some revamping and restoration.

So, we decided a few months ago, the Intrepid would go...Patricia would get a new vehicle, and I would take over the Montana...plenty of room for hauling lawn mowers, baseball gear, and whatever.  I'm not a big "mini van fan"...but I like the room in them.  So the Jeep Wrangler will get repaired, the Intrepid is gone, and I'm now looking like a  "soccer mom" driving a mini van.

We got up, decided to look locally first,  for a new vehicle....a couple of dealers we disregarded out of hand.  What we had in mind was a vehicle with 4 wheel drive, 6 cylinders, good room.  So  nothing small, and with somewhere between 25 and 35 thousand miles on it.  We drove around, seeing not much we though to fit our needs, until we decided to head to West Logan Street, and stopped by R&D Motors.  We had been there last month looking...and we quickly saw three vehicles we liked the looks of.

A 2009 Jeep Cherokee, {we had bought a new one back in 1976, and it was our vehicle of choice for the late 1970s}, but his one had 54,000 miles and was only two wheel drive, without a 4WD option...too many miles and no 4WD option, we crossed this one off our check list.  The next one was a 2011 Ford Edge, we loved the Edge we had rented to take to Hal and Lisa's wedding in West Virginia.  This one had only 1400 miles, 4WD yes, but at $30,000...not in our price range.  We used to buy new, but have not done so since I leased a 1994 Toyota Pick-up back in that year....I learned long ago that "new" vehicles are usually bad investments.  So even with 1400 miles, this one was too new for our price range.  That's more than we owe on our mortgage...so no way we are paying that much money for a car.

The last of the three vehicles....was a 2008 Dodge Nitro.  4WD and 30,100 miles on it...and the price range was what we were looking at....Patricia drove it, we liked the room, we liked the way it drove, the way it set up off the road, and the viewing space out all the windows.  Since she will be driving it most of the time, she had to make the final decision...but I gently pushed her that way.  I like the car, and frankly, as I stated, I hate shopping...I don't care if it's clothes, houses, TVs, or cars.  I hate wheeling and dealing...so we got an offer for the outgoing Intrepid, the lower end price, sans taxes, for the Nitro, and I have to believe we made our best offer....2 hours later, we were driving the Dodge Nitro home.  I mowed the back yard, and headed for Columbus Grove, in "my" 1999 Pontiac Montana.

This morning I took my first drive in the new ride...turned the simple button for the 4WD on the wet roads, and turned up the volume on the radio/cd player...yep, I think we did all right....but like anything else, time will tell.


back later>>>>
Have a Blessed Easter Weekend...


Photos-Several Views of the "New" Dodge Nitro...a 2008, equipped to tow, hopefully gas won't be $6 a gallon, so at least we will be able to travel in it. 

Easter Weekend

Today is Good Friday....please remember what this weekend is about.

Spent yesterday bending the back, hauling out the trash/junk to the curb for the annual Celina Pick Up...now that I've got it out there, hopefully Saturday's now predicted rain will not materialize....for the trash haulers, sake, and my triple header baseball up in Antwerp. A long day, but a pretty good paycheck if we get those games in.

Taking out the Trash____

There are good advantages and bad for having a 25 wide by 30 foot deep detached garage...the good is they hold a lot of things...the bad is, the hold a lot of things. After my Aunt Eva went into the nursing home back in 1996, I was in charge of cleaning out the Scott, Ohio, home that had been in the family since 1933...when she passed away in 1998, there was 65 years of memories, collectibles, and "junk". Eva, her sister Cecil, and my Grandmother Wilda Houseworth, had lived in that house, either or 3 or at least 1 at a time for 65 years...and as I have mentioned before, they threw out nothing...they were the ultimate "pack rats". My cousins, Linda and Marty, worked our way though that house in 1996....and much of it ended up in my basement and the garage. My 750 floor space of garage and much of the basement didn't look so big any longer.

The past 14 years I have sold some, gave some to family, tossed some out, and stored away the rest. On the days of Spring Cleanups, I have selected some items to toss....this year I decided to take back the garage and the basement, and anything I deemed not worthy of being classified a antique or collectible, was going to get the heave-ho. Over this past week, with good and rare March weather upon us...I made a dent in the unwanted stuff, but still didn't get all taken care of. However, I did get much done, and can actually fit 2 large cars in the garage, and can walk about the basement without dodging the stuff sitting around....next year should be easier, especially with the boys and their collections moved out. Well at least moved out, they still have plenty here, but at least I have much of that packed away...and after we're gone, they can go through it and keep and toss what they wish.

Amazing what a couple collects over the years...and how quickly that collection builds.

That's it for the day....praise the Lord today and remember the real reason we celebrate the Easter Season.

back later>>>>

Photos-Easter Weekend is here. The Garage looks much larger, now that the excess junk has been dispatched to the curb...where the local scavengers have already sorter through what they deem valuable. Patricia had time in between school sessions to create and bake the Easter Bunny Cake for her friend Dawn and her Grandkids.

The Obama Apology/Treason Tour Wrap-Up

We received plenty of sunshine, albeit still cool weather, for Wednesday/Thursday...Garry and I went to New Haven, Indiana, a Fort Wayne east berg Wednesday afternoon for a game that had been moved due to a wet outfield from Wayne Trace. The purple Bulldogs have a great facility and the field was in excellent condition. Yesterday I headed to the Ohio/Indiana line city of Fort Recovery to umpire the plate for the home standing Indians against Union City, Indiana. A quick contest which saw the Fort's ace shut down UC...16 batters faced, no walks, 2 hits, and 13 strike outs. The Fort jumped out 7-0 in the first inning, and finished the 10-0 win in 5 innings by scoring 2 to end it in the bottom of the 5th.


No games today due to Good Friday, there would not have been any locally anyway, another hard rain hit overnight, and the steady cold drizzle continues at this hour. Tomorrow oldest son Sam and I are at Wayne Trace again, this for a double header, but wet fields could shut that down, if the weather cancels that, Sam will head to Zanesville to be with his OSU-Lima Barons teammates to take on OU-Zanesville....balancing work(umpiring), classes, and baseball(playing) for the Barons, has become juggle work for Sam...but he still is riding along with a 3.9 GPA in his Actuarial Science major.

Sunday is our turn to host the family for Easter....sister Marty with her husband Pat, and 2 of their daughters with husbands, and Molly and Aaron's first child will be here, our first chance to see Lilly, who was born a few hours before my 60th Birthday on March 15th. Mike has left for Florida, where he will bring home mom for the summer, but not before they hit the Sanibel condo until the first of May.

Speaking of Florida...my old buddy Tom left his horse training job in Florida and returned home to train them up north until November or December....he stopped by and we grabbed a bite to eat. After my game last night we along with Nick, hooked up at Smedley's Irish pub for a couple of rounds, where we were joined by Garry and Paul for a couple more. Tom stayed at Nick's last night and stopped by the house this morning before heading north to Angola to stay with his sister, until the spring training for horses begins May 1st near Dreshler, Ohio.
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The Obama Non-Reality Tour
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Our asshole of a fearful leader and his lovely wife Queen Michelle Antoinette Obama returned to the states a couple of days ago...and the reverberations are still flowing across the non-left wing news media, the lap dog left continues to ignore the rookie-in-chief's faults..."What Faults?" they say.


In addition to bowing down to the King of Saudi Arabia, Barry managed to insult his country(well we all know he really isn't American, but let's pretend, he was born here, and not in Africa), and make apology for winning WW2, digging Europe out of that same war, saying Islam is not our enemy{of course maybe it was white Christians who flew those planes into the Twin Towers, right Barry?}, and insulting the American troops and laws for everything from GITMO to really not winning the War on Terror.

As one of the Radio Talkers said this morning...."This Obama Administration has all the looks of a 2nd Jimmy Carter Administration" I had my "Worst Presidents of my life time" post back when The Messiah was installed as the potente'


http://patsdailyrant.blogspot.com/2009/01/one-get-crownedworst-presidents-ever.html


I may have to upgrade that from Carter being the worst President of my life to Barry Soetoro being the worst....even Jimmy the Weasel may not be able to hold the crown of this imbecile.

A couple of hints for our Arsehole-in-Chief:


Dear Barry: American Presidents don't bow to anybody, especially the ruling ragheaded sons a bitches, that torture women and slaughter 3000 citzens of the world by flying planes into buildings.

You don't go on foreign soil and trash your country in front of spineless bastards unable to fend for themselves without our Military.

You don't trash the men who served as Presidents before you, even if you disagree with their policies. Especially you don't trash dead Presidents like Harry Truman, for bombing the shit out of the Japs(yes that's what we called them back then) thus saving thousands of American GI's lives, and probably hundreds of thousands of citizens.

So, you sorry big eared dufus son of a Kansas _____, what most thinking Americans want you to do, is shut the Hell up, quit bashing this country and it's people, and serve out the remainder of your illegal Presidency, and do so without destroying the Republic...do you and your worshippers have a clue? I think not!

With no due respect

PRH....

I had to get that off my chest, and hate to do so in the religious holiday season....I wish you all a Happy Easter, and I ask God to forgive me for my angry rants towards this treasonous criminal that is infecting the White House.

back later>>>>

Photos-The King of America bows down to his Islamic Lords....and Jesus on the Cross, the real thing we all should be concentrating on this Easter season.