New and Improved

How can something be "New" AND "Improved"? If it's new, it's not improved. If it's improved.....it's not new.

Well, if you haven't realized it, I haven't posted anything here since August. Reasons? A new company took over the company I worked for and things got a bit, "hectic" you could say. Then, in the beginning of November, I lost my job. Yep....."restructuring" was the reason. C'mon, we all know the real reason. A new company buys an existing company, they buy their debt as well. The new company wants to get rid of the debt so they can make their money, and the fastest way to remove that debt is to cut salaries. Hundreds of salaries. Four people in the building I worked got the axe....but many many more people across the country got the axe too.
So, you may say I'm "unemployed". I say I'm on a Winter Sabbatical. :)
Too bad the weather hasn't been cold enough for me to ice fishing!

Oh, here's a positive about losing my gig. This blog you're reading, I don't have to watch what I say about restaurants, auto mechanics, or any other 'business'. I can mention names now. I can curse! It's not affiliated with any radio station anymore. I can actually write down exactly what I feel! What I think! And not censor myself. That's so cool! Shit. Ah, that felt good.

So here I sit, on 12/20 at 8 in the morning, drinking coffee, and not having much of a plan at all today. Again. No big deal. I've got a friend who's also not working, and we've been doing a lot of stuff together. A LOT of GeoCaching, we wandered by the river yesterday for a little fishing (it started raining and it was COLD), just hanging out. Most of the time though, I do stuff around the house. I don't mind playing Mr. Mom.
Simon is still at daycare, because we figured if we pulled him out to save the cash, when/if I get another full-time gig, we may lose his place and we love that daycare.

OK, so those are the big things that have happened since August. Well, there is one more thing that I'm not going to talk about just yet. Maybe soon. Depends.

My motorcycle is winterized and in storage for the winter. So is the boat. My ice fishing gear is all ready for WHEN WE GET FREAKIN' ICE!!!! And all our Christmas shopping is done. Big holiday weekend this weekend. Saturday, Xmas Eve we spend at Mindy's Grandmother's house. I think there are 18 of us going. And it's a SMALL apartment for all those people. When THAT evening is over, I'll be closer to all of them. Literally! LOL.
Christmas Day is at our house and it's not that many people. Mindy and her Mom like to cook the dinner. I think we're having ham, potatos, brocolli and cheese, and of course my Mother-In-Law's famous Xmas cookies. I've already eaten 743 of them.

The winter cold is setting in in my chest and intestines. I'm NOT looking forward to getting sick. Simon had it last week, so did Mindy, so I knew it was only a matter of time. Cool thing is, I don't have to worry about missing work.

OK, that's enough for now. Believe me, now that I can get back into this blog, I'll be posting a lot more. For now, look how big the little man is getting. He's got 4.2 teeth, and had his first haircut the other day.


Merry Christmas!!!

Rock-N-Roll and Rock You Like a Hurricane

So this weekend was CHOCK full of interesting goings-on. First, I started it by seeing one of my favorite bands live at Penn's Peak in Jim Thorpe.......STYX!!!



This is the third time I've seen them live, and I'll tell, in my opinion, they keep getting better and better. The show was.......AWESOME!!!!! They STILL know how to rock and roll!!
Also, I was never at Penn's Peak before....wow....what a fantastic venue. Every seat in the place is great and the atmosphere is like an old cabin in the woods. And the views are amazing.
Oh yeah, Styx rocked btw. Ha.

Then Saturday was a day that involved Hurricane Irene information on Magic 93. Those 4 hours flew by while I was on the air. Followed by going home and making sure we had enough flashlights/batteries/candles/water/etc.
Sunday....THAR SHE BLOWS!!! Hurricane Irene came through our area with attitude! She knocked down trees, took out power, flooded roadways, and basically got everything.....well....wet.
It's now Monday morning after the storm, and my house still has no power. According to the electric company, it could be up to 4 days before power is restored.





The wind was so bad, our perfectly straight basketball hoop (cemented into the ground btw) isn't so straight anymore.

Oh well. Looks like we're going to have to take it down anyway. How do I even begin to do that?
So, yeah, no power in the house. No big deal. As my wife and I say, "it's an adventure". The only thing we were worried about, was the fact we couldn't flush the toliet. So we needed to get buckets of water somehow...somewhere to be able to flush. Well, for the first time in a long time, my laziness has paid off. I neglected to remove the drain plug from my boat.

THAT has worked to our advantage. It's full of water, so I just placed the bucket under the back of the boat, and turned on the bilge pump. Filled up the bucket in less than a minute and we're golden!
I still haven't looked in my basement. I'm afraid.
I'm on vacation this Wednesday through Monday, and I know what I'll be doing. Cleaning up branches, leaves, sticks, black walnuts that were projectiles during the storm and what-not. But not until after I see my FAVORITE band Wednesday night....

Yeah, I'm old. So what? :)

If you have issue because of Irene, I hope you're doing OK. I hope clean-up for you goes well.

Quick funny......this was on our vending machine here at the station over the weekend. Sometimes it's real fun to work here. :)

August 2011 Update

Yeah yeah yeah....I know it's been awhile since I've updated. There's a LOT going on in my life, and when I have five minutes to myself...I want it that way....for myself! :)

So what's been going on? Good question.

I haven't done much fishing at all this season. Not enough time I guess. Having a 14 month old will do that to you. But I wouldn't trade it for the world. Speaking of Simon:

He's getting so big.


He has 2 teeth (bottom, front). And I think some top ones are cutting now too. He's crawling all over the place, and he's pulling himself up on his feet whenever he feels like it. Granted, he's using tables, chairs, cupboards, my legs, whatever he can find. He's going to be walking any day now. I can feel it.



Both Mindy and I know it won't be long now, so we decided he needed REAL shoes for when he does get 100% mobile. And this past weekend, we went to Gino's in Dallas for his first pair of shoes. I guess it's a sort of 'right-of-passage' in Mindy's family, that you have to get your first pair of shoes from Gino. I'll tell you , it takes a LOT to impress me if you're a business owner, but boy oh boy, Gino really impressed me. For the record, I have NOT been compensated for my praise of Gino's. This is all from my personal experience.


I haven't even been riding my motorcycle that much this year. First because it's been raining too much, second because it took the darn garage over a month to get my new tires in. I put crash bars on it this year, and for my birthday, Simon got me new Honda riding pegs to put on the crashbars.


The fish tanks are doing well (although I really need to clean them). And I've been doing some more GeoCaching. Although none yet this year have been THAT interesting. I still can't find the one labeled Molino that's down near Hamburg. If you're a cacher, and you found that one, please give me a hint. :)

Still doing the overnights on Magic 93. Still hosting Saturday morning 6-10a and the Best of Frankie on Magic 93. Still doing what I have to do.

Oh, and I'm working on a new pattern/design for a new tattoo that I want. Maybe I'll post some pictures soon if/when I get them. It involves Simon's handprint at birth and his Zodiac symbol (maybe). I'm still not sure.

Other than that, everything else is pretty much the same. Find some gratitude today. For some reason, it seems to be harder to find some.
Thanks for reading, and thanks for listening to Magic 93.


That was taken at Salt Springs State Park. I strongly suggest you take a day trip there. It's BEAUTIFUL!!!

Today's Music

Why I don't like it. It's funny because it's true.




That is all. :)

Hike and a half

It's 8AM on Saturday, July 2nd, and I'm on the air on Magic 93. And I hurt. Not because I'm on the air, but because of the hike and a half I did yesterday...all for 3 finds in GeoCaching.
The hike was not planned to take so long. I knew it was going to be around 3-4 miles on some goat paths inside the 7 tubs park. What I did NOT know, was that we were going to get lost after we found the third one. And when I say lost, I mean LOST. No paths. No roads. Pure bushwhacking through the thick woods.
The fine folks in charge here at the radio station allowed us to leave work at 2pm, and my intern and I had nothing planned for the remainder of the afternoon. I suggested we go and find some QUICK caches. She wanted to do a trek through the woods to find some. OK. No prob. I found three inside the tubs last week, let's go find the other 3. So, off we went.
The first cache was really cool. There was a cave (actually, an old mine entrance that caved in), and the temperature in there was beautiful. It was cold! We were sweating our brains out, and when we got there, the ice cold air was welcome. It was neat.



Then off to the next one. We found that one pretty quick, but the log was soaked, so we couldn't sign it.
Then we got to the third one. Wow, it only took us about an hour and a half to find these. We shouldn't have much trouble getting back to the truck. BOY WAS I WRONG.

We decided to just follow the old mining trail back. We hoped it would take us out at one of the main paths. Nope. It ended. Just stopped. So off we went into the woods. For what seemed like forever. Up hills, down huge hills, through thick brush, NOT FUN. Poor Rose (intern) wore shorts and her legs got all scratched up. Luckily she didn't bleed too much.

Finally, after about what seemed like 92 hours and 74 miles, we heard the water flowing, so we treked down a huge hill and followed the stream back. And made it to the parking area. Thank God. I was getting nervous. We figured it was around 7-9 miles we hiked, and let me tell you, an out-of-shape 40 year old's body doesn't do too well for those kind of hikes. So I really ache today. I wonder how Rose feels.


On a different note, Simon now gets his baths in the BIG TUB!! And he LOVES it!



Oh well, going to try and cut my grass today, do some weed whacking, and maybe take a bike ride. Or maybe just pass out on the couch. Who knows.

Gratitude for the day: Was lost, but found our way out. Not dehydrated too much. Got tons of exercise (for a month).

Happy Birthday Simon

He's one year old today. And he still refuses to get a job. What a slacker!!!

We had a big gathering for him this past Saturday. He ate lots of food...and cake! He was afraid of the balloons for a day or two, but now they don't bother him.

For his big birthday present today, we're taking him to the Doctor's for his check-up and shots. Happy Birthday kid!!! Here are some needles.

I haven't been posting much due to the fact I'm swamped at work...and swamped after work with stuff.
I need new tires on my bike. I need brakes on my bike. I need a day to do absolutley nothing!! Ha. That ain't happening. Not soon at least. Oh well.

Here are some shots from this past weekend, and yesterday. For his birthday, we got matching hats. :) Thanks Aunt Lee.




Oh, and he's finally crawling. Time for Dad to start exercising to be able to keep up.

Tried....and Big Bass!

I tried to update the blog here on Friday (Friday the 13th) with another "Random thoughts for Friday the 13th, but blogger was down for whatever reason.

So here are some new random thoughts NOT on Friday the 13th.

1) At least it's raining while I'm in work.

2) Got new shoes over the weekend. LOVE THEM!!!

3) Caught a really big largemouth on Saturday. FUN TIMES!!


4) 2 more weeks and I'm on vacation! YAY.

5) I hope when Simon gets older, he enjoys fishing as much as I do. PERMANANENT FISHIN' BUDDY!


OK, that's it. Since it's not the 13th, you don't get 13 random thoughts. Plus I'm lazy today.

Here are the Calicos my friend Darren caught on Saturday as well. Hope he enjoyed his fish fry.

Finally Went Fishing

Well, Saturday was planning to be the perfect day to go fishing for the season. Perfect weather, almost perfect water temps. And the one man who was begging to get out and go, decided he'd rather do yard work. I then could not find a single soul to go, so I did some chores instead.

BUT.....

Sunday, a friend from work agreed to go, and boy oh boy, the bass were fightin' great!!!! I actually caught the biggest largemouth of my life!!!! I'm still glowing over these fish. Here they are. Beauts!!!

Happy Easter

Sy's first Easter. He's so photogenic, isn't he?

Doctor's Make a Difference

Of course they do....but the title of this post is for a different reason. I should say, their "opinion" makes a difference, along with their attitude, and ability to understand the patient.

In a nutshell, I was going to a doctor in Scranton for many many years. It had gotten to the point where when I would leave his office, I felt like I had about 6 months to live. "You are NOT healthy"! "You are overweight"! "You need to excercise more because you don't have a healthy heart"! "What's wrong with you? Why do you do these things to your body?" "You need activities to lower your stress"! etc. etc. I would leave more stressed than when I arrived.
So after years of my wife telling me to switch doctor's, I figured it was time. First because we live in Luzurne County, and all the health stuff was up in Lackawanna County. I really don't feel like driving that far. Second, if I really was THAT sick, I'd prefer to be sick close to home and not worry about HAVING to go a hospital up that way. So, a new doctor it is. And it's my wife's doctor as well.
I had my first appointment with him a few weeks ago, and it went OK. Yes, just OK because of fear I guess (white coat syndrome) and because I thought all doctors were the same. He wanted me to have some blood work done, and he started me on a script for Hypertension. Follow up appointment was today (Wed).
They checked my blood pressure when I got there (118/80), weighed me (lost 6 pounds since last time I was there), heart rate (98...nerves lol), and the nurse chatted with me for awhile until the doctor came in. Quick side-note, he's YOUNGER than me. THAT is weird. I'm so used to doctors being OLDER. Anyway.....
He looked at my pressure reading..."GREAT!! We did what we attempted to do". Looked at all my blood work "These numbers are fantastic!!! I'll go over them all with you if you want." "Sure", I said. I never had a doctor do this before. He showed me EVERYTHING was in range of target, and then told me...........ready for this............."Let's do one more quick blood test in three months to see if your liver and kidneys are flushing the blood pressure meds properly, and if all stays the same, I won't need to see you again for six months. You're one healthy guy!" I almost cried. Happy tears that is. I asked him about exercising with my busy schedule and what can I do? His response, "simple, take four, rapid, twenty minute walks a week to get your heart rate up over 120 and you'll be perfect!" Really? That's it? I do that when the weather is nice anyway. It takes exactly 20 minutes for me to walk up the hill and back down here at work. And I usually do more than 4 a week anyway. "Yep, that will bring the bad cholesteral down even more and you're good to go."
I have one question....what the hell was that other doctor smoking? I really want to know where he got all his info from. Was he looking at a different Tom Jenkins file (they have 4 on file up there)? Was he looking at my dead Dad's file?
My suggestion to anyone who doesn't like to visit the doctor.....FIND A NEW ONE!

There's my gratitude for the day today. And if the specific doctor I visited today is reading this......THANK YOU!!!!!


And for those who just like to look at pictures.....

Nice Spring Weekend

Finally. Finally after all the waiting, I was able to get out over the weekend and do 4 out of the 5 things I really like to do to relieve stress.

Saturday was the one a month Saturday I didn't have to work, so I slept in. Well, if 8am is sleeping in...it is for me. :) And yes, I went fishing with a friend. I know the water is still real cold, the fish are still real lethargic, but I still got out there. And I didn't get skunked. One small pick and one small perchy. It just felt great to get out on a boat and float around for awhile. I then got home to a text message on my phone, "going to Nicole's....call me when you are done fishing, maybe you can come down for something to eat." That was from my wife, and Nicole is my sister-in-law. I thought about it for a bit, and decided, yes, I was hungry. What a GREAT opportunity to ride my motorcycle for the first time this season. Whooo Hoooo!!!! Granted, it's not too too far away, but it was still a nice ride.


I got there, to find out they didn't start cooking yet.....or shall I say GRILLING yet!!! YES! If you remember this post, it was now MY turn. "Out of my way, I'm grilling on that new grill of yours". And of course, we HAD to get a picture.



Nice bike ride home after dinner, and a great night sleeping, knowing I didn't have to get up too early the next day. Ahhhhhh, so THIS is what stress release feels like huh?

On Sunday, my friend Darren and I went Geocaching. Inside Francis Slocum State Park. We had 5 to find on our list, and we hiked, and walked, and searched, and found them all. It felt like we hiked 73.6 miles, when in all actuality, it was more like 4.5 miles, but it felt good. And I saw some pretty cool stuff in the woods.




I never knew half this stuff was there, and I didn't realize Slocum was THAT big.
Returned home around 3:30-4PM, and proceded to strip off my clothes VERY quickly because there were MANY ticks on me. They are out already, and they are bad. Clothes in the washer, tick check, cooked some dinner on my itty bitty grill, watched Bob's Burgers and Family Guy, took a shower then went to bed pooped. What a GREAT weekend. And here we are, Monday morning, the weather is still beautiful, and I'm SOOOOOOOOOO not wanting to be here at work. Oh well, it should make THIS weekend more enjoyable.

Thanks for reading, thanks for listening to Magic 93, and if you couldn't see the gratitude in the above post.........

Nothing too Special except Sunglasses

Nothing spectacular happened over the weekend. I'm just in the mood to write down some stuff. And share some pictures.

Saturday: Worked on Magic 93 6a-10a. Went home. Michelle Taylor (ex morning show host on 97.9X, now works for Metro Traffic in Philly) came up for a visit. It was GREAT seeing her again. Michelle, Mindy, Simon and my Sister-In-Law and Neice all went out galavanting Saturday. I stayed home and got a nap that I so needed. When I arose from the nap, my phone was beeping, and this picture was on it.



Coolest baby in the world right there.

Speaking of Simon, he's still not 100% after this past week's terrible cold. His belly is still not all that great. Thank God his fever is no longer, but he's still on and off with the crankyness.
I took this picture yesterday.

Still cool!

Yesterday, my friend Darren asked me if I'd give him a hand trimming a maple tree in his yard. This maple tree is HUGE. I'm thinking maybe 75 feet high. All I really had to do was look at it from a distance, tell him which branches to cut, and then help him clean up. I haven't done THAT much manual labor since Fall. It was good though...I needed the exercise.
Look carefully, you'll see Darren in the tree.

That took all day. But I really enjoyed being outside even though it was cold.
Speaking of cold....than darn groundhog was not only wrong...he was VERY WRONG!!! Usually it's 6 more weeks of winter...it's been 8 since they ripped him out of that hole. I guess we need this crappy weather though so we can be grateful and appreciate the nice weather more. Think about it, if it were warm all the time, we'd totally not enjoy it as much. So I guess I'm grateful for the cold.....I'm just sick of it. LOL.

That's it for now....very busy week ahead. Hopefully you can be grateful for something today.

WELCOME BACK SPRING!!!

Yeah right.
It's officially Spring (according to the calendar), yet this is what I woke up to this morning.



That groundhog is a LIAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Now, will someone please go and shovel/plow my driveway and clean off my deck?