The Crack of the Bat

Spring training is now in full swing. My favorite time of year for t.v. I can finally watch baseball after 6 months of crap on television. I'm not a fan of reality t.v. Then there are programs that you become interested in. There are some that I follow each week. I like a program that has a story which starts and ends in one show. You get caught up with the shows that have a continuous story and then have to watch every week or you miss something in the story line and don't know what is happening. Sometimes the show you are following each week is cancelled. Love when that happens. ABC is the worst. They cancel more shows than the other networks. Or you watch a program for several years, just to have it end in the dumbest way possible. The Sopranos comes to mind.
Susan likes the reality shows. They drive me nuts. I won't name them all, but whats with the guy on The Bachelor. Is he the biggest moron on the planet. I don't know the whole story, but it seems he was one of the bachelors last season on The Bachelorette. He doesn't get picked then comes back this season as the bachelor. After several weeks he finally picks the girl he wants to marry, just to change his mind and then pick the last girl he just sent home. To every ones astonishment she takes him back. I think they're all idiots. Who wants to marry anyone that some t.v. producer picked to be on the show. Anyway I don't want to ramble on about this subject, it's just doesn't interest me.
There was a show called Jericho which I didn't start watching until the second season. It was a continuous show that seemed interesting, only the second season was the last season. It was cancelled so now I rented the first season just to see what happened. I know that sounds dumb because there won't be any ending, but if you watched the show you need to know what happened in the first season. I can't believe I'm doing it, but I am. Talk shows is another type of programming I not fond of. It's not so much the content, because there is a lot of good subjects, I just can't listen to all the screaming people in the audience. They must give them some kind of drug to make them scream that loud, or pass some kind of screaming audition to be in the audience. Grown women and men screaming just because Oprah or Ellen are on the stage. I wouldn't scream half that loud if I won lotto. The morning news programs where you can see people outside the studio. Do they have to wave for hours on end? Then again, you have the same dopes at baseball games who know they're on t.v. waving for the whole game. Maybe I'll just listen to the games on radio this year.
There are some shows I am committed to, like Lost. It gets stranger each week, but is scheduled to end next season. If by the end of the show they don't answer all the questions I have about the show, I might just have to go to the producers and let them hear the crack of the bat.

Sunshine, Birdies and Alligators

It's been more than a week since Susan and I returned from our trip to Orlando. It was nice to get away for a few days, but the time went quickly. We arrived on Wed., the 11Th about 5 p.m. The flight was uneventful, except for the fact I was able to sleep for the first time ever, while flying. It's not because I have a fear of flying, I just can never seem to sleep in an airplane, which is strange considering how much I love to sleep, which I have been told by everyone I love and adore many, many times. Susan just happened to have an extra IPod and set of BOSE headphones in her bag of electronics. No surprise there. I tried them and have to admit they worked great. I sat back and listened to Dean Martin all the way. After gathering all of our luggage, which included 2 suitcases, 2 sets of golf clubs and 2 carry on bags we found our car rental. Good thing we were only staying 4 nights or we would of needed a small truck for any more luggage. Susan entered the hotels address in her handy GPS, or as Noreen would say GSP, and off we went into the warm Florida night.

The weather was nice, temps. in the low 80's. Thursday we made the trip to Bushnell National Cemetery, about an hour and half away. Susan drove both ways, I slept both ways, it's great to be me. I wanted to drive but no, I wasn't a listed driver on the rental agreement. Can't break the rules when your married to Dave's daughter. NO PROBLEM, suits me fine. Life is good. The people at Bushnell were very nice. Everything went smooth. Fay Mary and Al are finally together again.
Friday morning after a late breakfast we decided to play golf, the main reason we took this trip to begin with. Or at least the main reason we decided to travel with our own clubs, instead of renting them. It was a warm sunny day, maybe the nicest day of the whole trip. We decided on a local nine hole course, since neither of us had played since Oct. We didn't want to overdue it the first time playing this year. After paying our green fees, getting some cold drinks and a sun visor for Susan we headed for the practice range. We had about 20 minutes before our 12:30 tee time. We don't agree on how much we should warm up before playing, especially after 4 cold months. I would like to do some stretching, hit maybe 50 practice balls, and chip and putt for 10 minutes or so. Susan doesn't need to stretch, after all she still goes to the gym everyday and works out with Wendy 3-4 days a week. She now wants to take a rowing class. I'm impressed everyday by her work ethic. She only needs to hit 8-10 balls. Putting isn't necessary she says because she's good at that. To my surprise and her overwhelming delight she pars the second whole. A short par 3, on in one and a two putt. Amazing! With all my practice, I don't manage a par, the whole round. Unfortunately there weren't any birdies, but definitely an alligator. No kidding. Susan saw it first, on the seventh fairway. She said there were signs saying there were alligators, but I didn't see the signs. Anyway, there it was baking in the sun, on the side of a water hazard on the right side of the fairway. After taking a picture with her blackberry, yes she had it at the ready, right there in the golf cart, she has her best drive of the day. She hits it right down the middle of the fairway on a par 4. There is another swampy hazard between her ball and the green, about 100 yards away. Without hesitation, a quick look at the gator, 50 feet from where her ball is she manages another great shot, over the hazard, just to the fringe of the green. Susan jumps up and down, with a grin on her face like she is playing wheel of fortune, already knows the answer to the puzzle and is next to spin. That is why I enjoy playing golf with her. When she makes shots like that it's nice to see how excited she gets. She just misses her second putt for a par, makes a tap in for bogey. A good hole never the less. I'm looking forward to playing golf this year. Maybe we can continue our Friday foursome, like we did last fall. It was Andrea's idea. The group included Susan, Wendy, Andrea and myself. Andrea never showed up, Susan and Wendy gave up after 2 weeks, and I played another 3 weeks by myself. And they say men can't commit.

To Be or Knot Two Bee?

I know the title to this post is a quote from a Shakespeare play, but this post isn't about Shakespeare or plays. Suzanne called to tell me how much she enjoyed my last post, especially the part about Mr. Barnes and his quote about unmitigated audacity. She says it all the time, because she has herd me tell the story at least a thousand times. Which brings me to the topic of this post. Thank goodness our founding fathers revolted against Britain, where I believe the English language began, I could be wrong. The only thing they forgot to do when they declared independence was start a new language, or at least make some new spelling rules. I never did, don't now or never even hope to understand the way we spell words in INGLISH.
Bye the way if you are having this red to you, like Suzanne reads it allowed to Lauren and Dana, or Stephanie does to her coworkers in the office, your going to have to read it yourself to get the reel effect.
I no I'm knot the first won to talk about this, the late George Carlin comes to mind. Bye the way how late do you have to be before they start calling you dead, instead of late because good old George is definitely dead. Susan bye the way is more than won our late. She asked if we could start some chores around the house by 10:30 this morning. She left for the gym around 8 a.m. and hasn't bin herd from since. I no she is okay because she carries any wear from 3 two 6 electronics with her at all times. I'm sure NASA could track her if she was orbiting Jupiter. She probably met Wendy and went to Starbucks after the gym. We all no how much Wendy can talk. Maybe I should call and rescue her, nah. Hear she is now, and I'm sure she'll be hungry because she can't stop any wear for lunch because she is sweaty from the gym and wouldn't want any won to sea her. I guess the people at Starbucks all go the gym, and don't care if everyone is sweaty. Anyway I'm once again rambling and off the subject.
Back to the spelling of our onederfull English language. Bye now you no wear, I'm going with this. And is it England, Britain or Ingland. Anything that ends in I N G is pronounced ing, but the dum Brits spell their, there or they're country with an E N G. See what I mean. Whoever wrote this language must have bin hi on something. N O W is now, put a K in front of it and it becomes no. Then is it raining, rain eng, reining or reigning. I before E except after C, what kind of crap is that, if your already having a problem spelling. Lets just throw a G in between the first I and E in reigning and then not pronounce it. That makes cents. I could go on and on butt I can sea Susan wants lunch and can't weight to tell me about this morning, no pun intended.

Who would have known?

Ok, I know I havn't been here in almost two weeks. Who would have known anyone wanted to hear what I have to say. Like I stated in a past blog, I don't know if I'm going to post everyday, even though it seems some people would like me to. I've had somewhat of a writers cramp, and my typing is so slow it puts me to sleep. Mr. Barnes would be pissed. I can still hear him, forty three years ago saying, " You have thee unmitigated ordasity to bring this garbage up to my desk." You can all make of that qoute what you want, and I don't know or care if the spelling is right. He did say thee instead of the, all thee time.
Anyway it seems I have somewhat of a following. Chris and Wendy seem to enjoy what I'm saying. Thankyou ladies. Suzanne wants to know where all the happy news is. Stephanie says its more like a journal and was quick to mention a few of my typos. Steven even mentioned the other day he keeps checking to see if I've posted anything new and even knew when the last post was. Who would have known?
The good new is, it's been over nine weeks since my last cigarette, and even though the urge is still very strong, it is getting a bit easier. More good news which made Susan very happy was the ct-scan I had done, came back negative. All that concern for naught. They were looking for vein endings and nodules, whatever that means. After all was said and done, Susan let out such a sigh of relief, I thought a jet just took off from the driveway. It's good to know she cares even though I make fun. She says I was concerned, I suppose a little.

Track and Confirm

Steven forgot a few items when he was home from Rider for the holidays. He asked me if I could ship them to him. I said sure, and after procrastinating for a week or so, I finally decided to ship them and found a box int the garage because once again I didn't put out the cardboard or newspapers to recycle, but that's another blog for some other time. After packing everything, and addressing the box, I finally went to the post office at 6:30pm. The man behind the counter said it would cost more to overnight than priority mail. Priority would be 2-3 days, probably two since it was only going to New Jersey. I said fine, priority it is, he has waited this long what's another couple of days. Then he says for only 65 cents more I can purchase a track and confirm receipt and track the package online and see when it is delivered. As long as the package doesn't have to be signed for because Steve and his housemates are in class and I don't know if anyone will be home to sign. He says no signature required. I'm rambling a little bit here. Seeing that the post office is losing money and thinking of cutting back mail delivery to 5 days, I figure I would give them a little more business and purchase the "TRACK AND CONFIRMATION RECEIPT". After I get home, I log on to the post office website and enter the number on the receipt. It tells me my package has been excepted in Selden at 6:30. Future information will be updated every evening. Ok, that's cool, I wasn't expecting an hour by hour summary. Then on Tues. Feb.3rd I log on again and it says your package has been excepted in Selden at 6:3o Mon. Feb. 2nd. future information will be updated each evening. I figure it's a little early and they haven't updated yet. In the meantime we speak to Steve on the phone and tell him the package has been shipped and to look for it with the mail. Wed. evening I once again log on, it's now been 24 hrs. and I get the same message, your package has been excepted in Selden at 6:30, Mon. Feb 2nd. Duh!! Once again we call Steve and he hasn't received any package. It is now Thurs. evening and after I log on and enter the confirmation number the website tells me "oops we can't find the page you are looking for." Are you kidding me? I look a little further on the website and it says all information not available in all areas. The clerk didn't bother to tell me that when he sold me the track and confirm. Don't get me wrong, it's not the 65 cts. it's the principle. I no longer care how much money the post office is losing and couldn't care less if they went out of business altogether. I'm about to call Steve now and see if the package has arrived yet.

The itch is a bitch!!!!!!

On my way to the allergist. Hope she has some answers for me. I now scratch as much as I breathe. I've come to the conclusion that doctors and many of the people who work in the medical profession don't know any more than the average person. I won't go into detail what the allergist said, but here is the bottom line. She wants me to lather myself with petroleum jelly, neck to feet twice a day. Oh yea! That should stop the itch. I'm thinking of draining the hot tub and filling it with 300 gals. of Vaseline so I can just soak in it all day long.

After the allergist my next stop was to another medical fiasco, the radiology dept. at Mather Hospital. It seems the chest x-ray I had taken last week needed to be compared to my last one which was Jan. 2001, only a mere 8 yrs. Because it was so long ago, I was told it needed to be retrieved from storage. Ok so that was last friday and it's ready today. The very nice lady says I have to sign the x-ray out because they need to be returned. She then proceeds to tell me they usually destroy them after seven yrs. I say you want me to return them so you can destroy them? She says yeah. It's been 8 yrs. and there not destroyed yet. She wants me to return them. Hope she doesn't hold her breath. Go figure!

Susan then calls me during my travels to tell me now they want me to get a CT Scan because the x-ray didn't show them enough. I have to go to another doctors office to pick up the prescription, boy I'm having fun now. I manage to accomplish that task without any problems. I then call for an appointment for the CT Scan and am told I now need an authorization number. No problem for someone like me who has so much experience going to different medical institutions, been to three already today and it's still light out. I can't make the appt. without the number. I call for the number and am asked, "Did you make your appt. yet?" Are you beginning to see what I mean about them not knowing more than you or me? The girl who gets the number has gone home and I leave her a voicemail, sure love those. Susan is a bit concerned and would like to get this all resovled before we leave for Fla. next week. Boy she lives in a fantasy world.

I'm leaving for Orlando next Wed. with or without the authorization number, the CT Scan being performed, returning the x-ray or waiting for the Vaseline guy to come fill the hot tub!

Snow Snow Go Away

I wore my pajamas inside out last night as Suzanne requested. It was to make it snow enough so she would have a snow day and her classes would be cancelled. I guess thats the pajama version of the rally cap in baseball. Well it certainly did snow but I doubt early enough for her classes to be cancelled. Maybe her evening class, I hope so for her sake. Anyway I won't be participating in anymore rally pajamas and that's because I really can't stand SNOW, in any amount. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed snow as much as any kid 41 years ago. That's because that's when I got my drivers license, you do the math. When it snows people forget how to drive. They either go to fast or to slow. The people who usually drive fast, drive even faster and the ones who drive slow come to a crawl, as if going in reverse. I could walk faster and sometimes do. Also they seem to forget where the lanes in the road are. They make a two lane road either one lane or three. But here is the good news. This time next week Susan and I will be packing for Orlando for five days. I can't wait to get away from the cold and snow. We will be enjoying the warm weather and playing some golf. I hope it doesn't snow here while we're gone but who really cares.

Super Bowl Weekend

Ok, Super Bowl weekend has come and gone. It was a very good weekend, starting with Susan getting the results of her bloodwork on Friday. If your not sitting I'll give you a couple of seconds. Are you ready, total cholesterol 139, yeah I said one thirty nine. Outstanding!! I am so proud of her, mine was 164, good but not 139. She mentioned getting it tatooed on her butt, which by the way is looking better everyday, since she has been going to the gym 7 days a week for over a month and a half. Now comes the unhuman part, her tryglycerides were 101. For those who don't know, cholesterol should be under 200 and tryglycerides under 150.

Stephanie went to the Poconos for the weekend with the girls from AOII. She had a good time. When she got home Sunday she said some of the girls wanted to read this blog. I apoligize for not posting sooner. I'm not sure if this is going to be everyday or several times a week. I'll see how it goes. I'm glad her friends are showing interest!

When Susan told Steven I made a blog he started laughing. That was Friday and I think he just came up for air on Monday. We got to see him on tv because the basketball game between Rider and Loyola was televised on ESPN U. It was great to see him. Susan kept yelling for the cameramen to focus on her son, her son, her handsome son. He is a scorekeeper for Rider Universitys sports. Not a bad gig, gets to see all the games and get paid.

If that wasn't enough to make the weekend good, Suzanne came home for the weekend to make it perfect. I love when she comes home. She went out Saturday night with Katies family for dinner to celebrate Katies birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATIE!! Suzanne worked on her application for grad school and was able to complete it with a little help from Susan. She went back to Iona on Monday. She just called and said her friends want to read my blog. Thankyou Dana and Lauren. I didn't know people cared what I have to say. When Suzanne read my first post she wanted to know how long it took me to type. Longer than I would have liked it to.

So when I hear the words Super Bowl, I don't think about football but instead a super bowl of ice cream. That's because I haven't had any ice cream for 7 weeks. I went to the allergist and found out I have a slight intolerance to milk products. She asked me to refrain from any milk products for a couple of months to see if I stop breaking out with hives. So no cigarettes or ice cream for the last 7 weeks. I'm ready to put pins in my eyes, it might be less painful.

Fridays Thoughts

Good morning. I finally created the blog that I've been talking about for the last several months. I'm not sure what I'll be posting, I have so many thoughts I want to share. My wife Susan came up with the name Ramblin Rick because she says when I start talking, I just ramble and ramble and ramble some more. I have been told I talk and talk, so I figured I would just put it all here for anyone who wants to listen. Anyway, that's the main reason for this blog. Another reason is I would like to post some good news, happy stories and thoughts that will make people smile and laugh. I would also like to hear good news from whoever is reading this blog. I'm so tired of all the bad news on televison, newspapers, internet, etc. Here is some good news I have to report. After smoking cigarettes for 45 years, I finally stopped 6 weeks ago. Can you believe it, because I barely can. I had tried to quit so many times, with so many different things. Susan bought me Nicorette gum on Dec 15th and I haven't smoked since. I am really excited!!