Wednesday Potpourri

Wednesday Potpourri with a lot of different directions. The bounty of the garden is prolific at this time of year. The tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and squash are performing beyond belief. It looks like we might go into Indian Summer and keep on producing. My nephews son is such a cutie and is digging into that ice cream cone.

I caught a big Channel cat this past week - 5# 26" long on a crappie rig. It had the pole doubled in half as I fought it in. This fish was released to grow larger.

The Black Crappie are starting to bite and as the Fall approaches the bite should improve. They run from 11" to 9" and are good fighters on ultralight outfits. This is part of the catch. I call them footballs because of their shape.

I hope you enjoyed the variety in this post.

My World # 47

This is my posting for the My World Meme. It is hosted by Klaus, Ivar, Sandy, Wren, Louise and myself. Won't you join in, I want to see where you live and thrive.

I have spent some time with my youngest grandson, Soccer Boy, this last week. We went to the driving range and hit some golf balls. He has a good swing for an 8 year old.
We went to the Potage County Fair and he got to pet the animals.

I went to his soccer game, he is their goalie in green and they beat the other team 1-0. He had just made a stop.

We had a picnic for my wifes 2013 Excel class and he helped out with the games.

I hope you visit some other great sites around the world.

My World # 42

This is my posting for the My World Meme. It is hosted by Klaus, Ivar, Sandy, Wren, Louise and myself. Won't you join in, I want to see where you live and thrive.

My wife saw that President Obama was coming to Shaker Heights, Ohio and you could request tickets. She put a request in and waited for a call. She was chosen from all those who asked and 1,000 random people were allowed to see the program. We went early and were among the first 100 people to get in line.
We made some new friends in line. Don was a retired Chemistry Professor and Fran is a counselor at Tri-C Community College. My wife and her had many things in common.

Ohio's Governor Strickland was at the event along with a lot of other dignitaries.
President Obama arrived amongst much fanfare.

I asked him to pose for me when he got to the podium and he did (just kidding) but it does look like I asked. The Presidential seal is put on the podium shortly before he arrived. He spoke on health reform. You can see the Secrete Service in the area.

He took of his jacket to take the questions. Someone thought it was a good idea to turn off the air conditioner while he spoke. They were wrong, there were 2,000 people sweating in the gym. He chose Norma, who ran a health home service company, for the first question.

She was sitting in the row in front of us. She asked a tough question on how this reform would affect her company. We had very close seats on the bleachers near the stage.

This is the look the President had as she asked her hard question. I thought the look said "How did I pick her first?"

It was an interesting day and a great time. Regardless of your political feelings, President Obama is a charismatic speaker. This was a once in a lifetime happening for us and I'm glad I got to attend the event. My wife is the greatest.

My World # 37

This is my posting for the My World Meme. It is hosted by Klaus, Ivar, Sandy, Wren, Louise and myself. Last week there were 100 people showing their world to us. Won't you join in, I want to see where you live and thrive. Here is part of 'My World'.

My youngest daughter took me on a Father's Day trip to Her boyfriend's brother and sister-in-laws cabin on Lake Tappan. The lake is known for Sauger but that wasn't what the trip was about. They have a nice two story cabin with a great view of a side bay from the main lake. Nice people, great food, plenty of excitement on and off the lake. What a great start to the fun weekend my daughter had planned.
They have a great view of the lake from their front porch.

We went down on Saturday and I got up early the next morning and sat on the edge of the dock during the complete sunrise. My mind wandered and my camera clicked.

It was a great sunrise with a lot of neat views.

They have a white Labradoodle and when I saw this cloud I had to shoot it. This was the only pink in the sky at that time. Can you see it?

We did so much more but I will save that for a later time.

My World # 24

This is my posting for the My World meme . It is hosted by Klaus, Ivar, Sandy, Wren, Louise and myself. Last week there were over 120 people showing their worlds to us. Won't you join in, I want to see where you live and thrive. Here is part of 'My World'.

This is an important part of my recovery at Robinson Memorial Hospital in Ravenna, Ohio. This is the main entrance to the hospital. It has a fairly large campus.
They were honored as one of the 99 best places to work in NE Ohio. People often rush just to visit the place. I was going to say that people were dying to get in but thought it might not fit right.
This is the new heart wing, it is right next to Emergency where I started this experience. The windows to the left under the portico is where I go to exercise.

Here I am hooked up to a heart monitor and walking on the treadmill. You do 4 exercises for 10 minutes each and are monitored the whole time. My heart is on the bottom right and was bouncing around today. I think I must have had a bad connection. I wore my Ohio State Buckeyes shirt for today's exercise. You can see I was going really fast, only walking of course. My daughter is friends with one of the nurses. She had been on vacation so I met Mavis for the first time today.

Have fun visiting the places around the world.

Texas Trip Part I

I just got back from a trip to Austin, Texas to visit my Brother-in-Law Gene and his family. Gene is fighting lung problems and has COPD and asthma. He is always on Oxygen at age 54.

Note the Steelers shirt even before the record breaking championship. You can make out the swelled and stitched lip in this shot. This is Gene's wife Edie and his Daughter Stephanie.

This is his daughter Annie who goes to Texas State and her boyfriend Andrew who attends Texas A&M.
Gene used to bow hunt and this is a nice Texas 8 point buck he shot.
His son Chris is the one who won the World Championship (you can see the winning photos here) in the 10 and under group from Round Rock, Texas called Mojo. He pitches, plays shortstop and hits really well.
We went to a practice one night, it was 40F and really cold with the wind. Note the size of my nephew as it relates to his teammates. The little guy in the purple won the MVP in the final championship game.

I stayed in Chris's room and this is just a taste of the trophies he has won. He is a three sport athlete.

I do hope you enjoyed meeting the Texas part of the family.

A Cloud of Blackbirds

This is my wife's special day when she turns 65. I offer one of my spring tulips to a special lady. She is still improving after the eyelid surgery. Today I was treated to a cloud of Blackbirds in the trees as I came out of work. I got my camera out and shot part of the trees.

I went in closer and you can start to get the feel for the numbers.

I went in a little closer with the zoom and then it happened.

The whole group decided to take off at the same time.

This is the reason they are referred to as a cloud of birds, this was only a 1/4 of the group. I estimate the total cloud at about 1 to 2,000.

This was a fun capture.

Quick Update

Josh Turner is singing a great song about 'Soulmates' and here is mine. I just wanted to share with my friends who I have missed today that I was away most of the day. My beautiful wife was having some problems with her eyes which was effecting her vision. She had surgery on her eyelids during the day so I was at the surgery unit all day. She is resting now and should be improving by tomorrow. She will probably have a lot of swelling and will be sore for several days. I hope to be back at it tomorrow with the blog but may be limited in how much visiting I can do. I do want to see what you are doing and will be back to speed ASAP.

This is my wife's photo from the 65TH Birthday celebration taken by my 11 year old grand daughter.

Flight from Dallas to Cleveland

My daughter flew in for a visit on Thanksgiving day. I went to the airport to get her. She flew in on American Airlines which was to land at 3:15. At 3:08 I was on the exit ramp a mile from the airport and what do I see but an AA plane coming to land. Since it was Thanksgiving Day and the traffic was light I was sure it was my daughters plane. She said they got quit the show as this approach takes you out over Lake Erie to land. We have had gray skies all week but the sun had come out and the weather had improved. It was her flight and the only AA flight that landed at that time

She had asked me for no snow and I explained I had no control over the weather. She told me she went over my head and asked the man upstairs for a change. We have had two great days so far but what they are predicting now she may need more intersession.

It has been a great visit so far and the ladies are out Black Friday shopping all day. I was out first and picked up a couple of things and was home by 7AM.

Golfing In The Appalachian Mountains

I headed up after work to stay at my nephews cabin in the Pennsylvania part of the Appalachian Mountains. Here I am crossing the Allegheny River at the Emlenton high level bridge. I stayed at my Nephew's Jeff cabin here with his son Abram. He is really a cutey.
We hit the links the next day and the weather looked threatening.
There were a couple of Bluebirds in the area but the clouds didn't allow much light.
The morning changed quickly and it turned beautiful. It was a little windy as shown by the American Flag.
Here is our foursome, we shot 11 under after a slow start. We birded the last 5 holes. This is my brother and his two sons. We won one skin on a long putt I made on the final hole. No-one else had been able to handle the sloping green. I have played with my brother a lot this year and the scramble was a fun time.
The clouds were showing off in the mountains of Pennsylvania.