John's soap box

"Strike called on the outside corner, it went by him like a house on the side of the road." Ernie Harwell's voice would crackle over WJR 760. He would talk about the young Tramell, Whitiker, Parrish, Morris, Gibson all of whom came up in the Tigers farm system. My grandma Wini listened or watched every Tiger's game ever since I knew her. My grandpa Herman tried his darndest to get to do anything but read my Star Wars book. I loved Star Wars at that age it was everything and that was it. No way was I going to give up the Saga, and for what? Look at books of birds? Eagles? Its the late 70's and Luke, Leia Han and Chewie is all that mattered to a 7 year old boy. Try as he did I held to my laurels and didn't give in. Star Wars it was. My grumpy curmudgeoned grandfather uttered, "thank god for Star Wars." I was like, "YUP." Both of my grand parents have gone on to bigger and better things. Wini died in 97? maybe 98. I forget. Herm...

I have to tell you the truth. when I come up with an idea for a blog topic it is usually not the time or the spot to write it down or even hang on to the topic for a posting later. This is nothing new. Nor is this a different situation I could go on about Tiger Woods, Mark McGuire, Kwame , health care-again, politics, entertainment blah blah blah. But it is Spring and we need some tulips to pop up in the garden. . I had a nice little story with nice little one liners and drops to pop in it along the way to make it a light hearted delightful story that was enjoyable by all to read and so on without any run on sentences or mispeled words or : incorrect punctuation'?! Okay really. The summer of 1987 was a time that of my life that was heavy with emotion, transition, confusion , decision making, pride, suffering, elation and a bunch of other words that can hardly describe what I was going through. But I will do my best to help you understand and maybe we can figure a few things out t...

A few days or a few years ago-it doesn't matter....Eating a local diner my wife and I witnessed an elderly woman with a cane struggling to assist her husband in standing from a bench at a table that was obviously ergonnomically incorrect. Tilted back and way to close to the floor there was no way this frail woman was helping her even weaker husband to his feet. After seeing several people-even men, but apparently only by definition-watch and wait-I too sat, and waited. But, more as an internal cheer for this older man who was weathered and worn. I was rooting for him to gather the strength and pop up off that bad seat. I noticed that he was wearing a WWII veteran hat. I have seen many people wearing this hat and I am filled with pride to see them as both of my Grandfathers were WWII vets. I feel sort of a connection with others that have served at that time. So, after several seconds it was clear that he was not winning the battle against gravity. I walked over to him, asked polit...

Some of you may know that my puppy, Maddy, is a pretty good dock jumping puppy. At least we like to think so. Having qualified for the Purina Incredible Dog Challange in her first year is what I would call exceptional. Especially, since many others try and try agin to get to go and never get close. We are fortunate. For those of you that are unknowing-the Purina IDC is the World Series and the Super Bowl rolled up into one event-for dogs. The best of the best and for 1 year we get to brag about Maddy finishing 7th (um, yeah, we thought that was pretty good)until next years event and your dog finishes higher. This last weekend she competed in the Novi Family Pet Expo in, you guessed it, Novi, MI. Maddy jumped hard and long and made us proud but when it come down to it she failed to qualify for finals as the competition was stiff. During Catch it Maddy just decided to stop running and eventually she decided to stop jumping into the water-FREEK OUT. Keep in mind last weekend she was in...

Hey, its my first time-a blogger virgin now popped. BFD. I am sure I will have more to say later. When haveI ever been out spoken????????