Sports Fans Delight...

Me and the Alabama mascot 2007//Courtesy: Eric Hager

This next month (September) is quite possibly the best Sports month of the year. If not, it runs a close second to March. Why would I say this? Let's take a look.

Football season is starting, at all levels. Really this should seal the argument. But in case it doesn't; baseball is hitting the homestretch on their pennant races. Hockey, is getting ready to start their camp...as are basketball teams.

The weather starts cooling for the year. Okay, maybe not in Florida and to a lesser extent Georgia, but definitely in the rest of the world. I learned this last September, when I moved here to the extreme, southernmost part of the Midwest. It does start cooling here at this point of the year.

I'd be lying if I didn't say I miss being an active part of it in some way. I do. I've rambled on about this several times, including on my own blog site here. It's really hard to get it out of your system. Even in the rare period of time when I wasn't shooting Sports, I was still doing High School Football and the News/Sports guy back when News stations routinely sent a crew to big events involving their teams.

But then again, I am older now and it doesn't bother me as much as it would have 10-years ago. Back then, I'd be chomping at the bit to get going. Now, really I look forward to watching.

Georgia vs. Alabama '07/Courtesy: me

I'd also be lying if I said I don't miss Football in the south. I do. It's different down there. Really different. It's a sort of big deal where I am now. The University of Cincinnati is pretty good, but doesn't get much love. They don't have the history of success to draw from. We are about 2-hours from Columbus and Ohio State. Yeah, those here who do follow them don't get the SEC and they never will. It's completely different.

The baseball here has been pretty good and in some respects the folks here are deeply rooted in their Reds. And for the first time in a very long time, they are a very, very good team. It should be a fun late September/early October, when they get into the playoffs. Really, I'm hoping they'll get to play my Braves. That would make me very, very happy.

I'm adjusting to all of this. Still. TLB, while a good football fan, doesn't care much to watch baseball on TV. She doesn't always want to watch football either and wants nothing to do with basektball...though she does love her hockey.

Really though, if you think about it, this time of year is heartily celebrated just about everywhere. The weather really does cool off. We hit the beginnings of fall and the changing of the leaves. A lot of people argue that March is the best month of the year because of March madness and yeah, it could be an interesting debate. But if you want to purely measure it by universal excitement, I'll take September and even October and perfectly happy.

In honor of Sports Fans Delight, enjoy some rapper's delight. Thanks SugarHillGang/YouTube:

No Football Friday's for me...

Me shooting UT/UGA football

This is going to be weird. I've always, as long as I've worked in TV been a part of high school football coverage. Almost always it meant shooting and a lot of times I was the producer as well. I'm not doing that this year.

Covering High School Football was always fun. From the time I started in 1988 (yeah, I'm old), I always was working games. Sometimes, on my own and sometimes with a reporter but always working.

It's funny, I've covered well over 150 college and pro football games in going on 22 years, but high school games were always special. I don't know why, they just were. Maybe it was because you can go wherever you want to on the field. Maybe its because everyone at the game is always happy to see you I don't know.

Me shooting Falcons/Bears game/Courtesy: eric hager

We always made it fun. In Jacksonville, we did a 15-minute show. I was one of 4 photographers and it was always the same 4 of us. We did some crazy stuff in that time (early 90's). The Sports Director, Dan Hicken, would come up with a theme for the night and we had to get something to do with the theme as a highlight.

I'll never forget those times. We did the obvious, ref night, sideline judge night, cheerleader night etc. But the funniest was probably prom night. The station rented tuxedo's for the 4 of us and we had to introduce our own games with a "prom" date. (You had to be there to laugh) We had a recurring character, brought bands in to walk through the studio, all kinds of crazy stuff. Heck, the show open had video of all of us in it...Craziness!

We did games in Nashville, but it wasn't nearly as much fun. In Atlanta, we tried to make it fun. I came up with a tamer version of what we did in Jacksonville, it lasted a couple of years...2003-2006. They actually let us use the helicopter for a couple of games each week. Nothing says cool like landing on a back field at a game in a helicopter and getting an escort into the stadium. It was a blast. Of course the genius' that ran the TV station decided we didn't want to compete and nobody cared about High School football, so the show got cancelled.

Nowadays, I'm still in TV, but I'm not shooting anymore. I'm not Sports producing either. This particular Friday and 2 of the next 3, I'm on the News Assignment desk. Sure, I'll watch. I'll look in and see what we do, but I'm not participating.

I know that I have gone on record saying that I don't miss shooting and for the most part, I really don't. I was unemployed last football season so it didn't really count, I no longer am. It's this time of year that I'm going to have to get past. 20-plus years of being either the main or one of the main Sports shooters and/or producers is hard to put out of my mind. I will. I'll get past it. Right now it just seems weird. I guess after a few weeks and having the feeling in my shoulder will remind me that it is all good, I just have to get through this first week before I can get there.

To wrap things up...enjoy this clip from an old HBO Show...Not Necessarily the News...Thanks YouTube:

Yes, I am a Beer Snob....

Beach Brown Tale Ale//Courtesy: Me

Those who have known me a long time know that I enjoy my beer. At a point in my life, it was in mass quantities and I wasn't picky about it. But as I've gotten older....that has changed.

I couldn't really tell you when that changed. But it did. Somewhere along the line, I realized that while immensely popular, really, Budweiser, Miller Lite and Coors all pretty much taste the same...like carbonated, lightly flavored water.

Maybe it was in Nashville. There was a brewpub there that I became enamored with, the Blackstone brewery. It's still there. They had large tanks where they made their own beer. And it had flavor. It tasted good. Really good.

In a way, I guess that my beer tastes have developed like people who are into wine. It took me awhile to realize that I wanted quality with what I'm drinking. Even after leaving Nashville, I still didn't stray much outside an occasion Pete's or Canadian beer. Sometime in the past 5 years, that changed. I don't drink for quantity anymore, haven't for a long, long time. Sure, I'll have a couple of beers at a sitting, but if you are drinking the good stuff, 2 or 3 are plenty.

You see, TLB (The Lovely Bride) and I are big craft beer fans. The good stuff. The stuff made mostly by individuals...or smaller companies. They have names like Great Lakes, Dogfish Head, New Belgium and Bells. And the stuff is good. If you drink it, no, taste it while you drink. The beers are really, really good.

Dunedin Brewery tanks/Courtesy: Me

Smooth, flavored with texture. There are multiple types. Me, I'm a dark beer fan, I drink a lot of Porters, Brown Ale's and stouts. TLB loves her wheat beers and IPA's (India Pale Ales). But we are both fans, big fans. We'll go out of our way to visit a restaurant or pub that either makes their own or has a big beer selection.

Today, we went to a place called the Dunedin Brewery. We had lunch...and beer. For me it was a slightly malty, chocolaty brown ale with the name Beach Brown Tale Ale, TLB had a wheat, flavored beer. It was good, really good. You know it was fresh, heck, the tanks were in the restaurant. The burrito that I had with it, wasn't bad either.

Back in October of 2009, we ventured up to Cleveland. We ended up at the Great Lakes Brewpub. Not only did we go eat and have a beer there, we took a tour of the brewery. What a wonderful experience. Very, very cool...and samples afterwords.

Dunedin Brewery/Courtesy: Me

In Atlanta, one of our favorite places to go: Taco Mac. We loved the food, great wings and even greater nachos. But the draw was the beer selection. 200-plus, at least 60 of them on tap, fantastic stuff. Bet you didn't know that the perfect compliment to wings and nachos...Rogue Chocolate Stout beer. Try it, you understand what I'm saying.

I have a couple of friends who have made their own beer. I envy them. I've read up on it, to see if it was something I would be interested in. I'll admit, doing that is a bit over my head. I'll stick to tasting.

The moral of my post I guess is this. For anyone who has never experimented, never had anything more than Bud or Miller, try something new. They are corporate behemoths who are trying to squash the Craft Beer movement. Really, it is true, they are. Their sales are dropping, Craft Beer sales, are growing...through the roof.

If you have the chance, try something different. Break out of the circle. You'd be surprised at the variety of beers out there. You'd be even more surprised, just how good they actually taste.

Check out the trailer to a really cool and somewhat revealing movie, Beer Wars: (We've seen it, very good)

Mother, mother ocean....

Does it get any better?//Courtesy: me

It's good to be back at the beach. Really, I miss it. Probably more than anything about where I grew up, I miss being close to the beach. Granted, we lived about 40 minutes away in Longwood, Florida, but it was a straight shot up I-4, exit at Hwy 44 and make a right...keep going until you hit the beach, New Smyrna Beach.

Water...has always been a part of my life. Heck, I was born in a beach town; Long Beach, New York. My mother has told me stories of how much I enjoyed sloshing along the beaches of Long Island. Loved it. Took to it immediately.

It's never left my life. We lived in Florida throughout my childhood and I was always near the water. Swimming pool, Intercoastal Waterway, the Beach...it didn't matter, I always wanted a part of it.

During my high school years, we always were at New Smyrna Beach. Always. Most of the summer, skip days from school...it didn't matter. The last couple of years in high school, we were there on Memorial and Labor Day weekends too. Stayed at the Islander for the weekend and had a blast.

Scuba Phil/Courtesy: bob mcnamara

The fascination continued. I was always a strong swimmer. Good at it and built for it. Never did it competitively, mostly because I wasn't interested in the hours. I went away to school...it still continued. On a lark, I got my Lifeguard certification for a Phys. Ed. credit at Georgia Southern.

That certification got me one of my favorite, non-TV jobs of all time. Lifeguard at Wet and Wild in Orlando. Loved it. Had a blast. Was in the water every day for 7 hours. Lost 25lbs and ate and drank like a fish. Loved it.

Once I graduated, I didn't get to play as much in the water. I would swim from time to time, when I could find a pool that I didn't have to pay for to be in. But I always came back.

In Jacksonville, I got to live on the beach. Briefly. About a year. But I lived there. I could walk out the door whenever I wanted and run or walk or jump in for a swim. All I had to do...was walk across the street. I miss that.

In 2003 I did something that I had always wanted to try. I got my scuba diving certification. Sure, swimming on top of the water was great, but it paled in comparison to swimming underneath it. My gosh. The quiet. The only noise, the noise of your regulator while you breathe. Everything moves slower. Not slow motion, no...just slower. The fish. They are aware of you, some care...some don't.

Sunset at Indian Rocks Beach/Courtesy: me

In the next two years, I completed over 50 dives. Dove in Panama City. Dove in the Keys. Two trips to Nassau in the Bahamas. Loved it. Heck, I even did the Shark Pool dive in Nassau, watched while the sharks were fed. 25 Reef and nurse sharks, swimming around me, heading towards the food. It was awesome.

I don't get to go to the beach much anymore. I'm stuck living in the Eastern part of the Midwest now. I miss it. We've made a couple of trips to the beach and in fact, I'm sitting a mere 500 feet away from it right now. It's really hard to describe the feeling when I waded out into the Gulf this afternoon. I felt happy. It just kind of felt right. It felt like I was in the right place...where I should be.

I'll enjoy this week in Indian Rocks Beach with the knowledge that at some point, I'll be back. Maybe not here, but somewhere. TLB and I have already talked about this...at length. We both can think of nothing better than spending a chunk of our lives...watching the sun rise...or sun set over the water.

I cannot think of a more appropriate song than this. Enjoy some Jimmy Buffett.

Move it or Lose it!

As creepy and scary as the show "Hoarder's" is...in a lot of ways, we all are something like that. No, I know most aren't compulsive-obsessive about it, but we all accumulate stuff. We just don't always realize it.

If you are like me and TLB (The Lovely Bride), you probably have no idea just how much stuff you have...until you are getting ready to move.

Really, if you look around your house right now. No, not at the stuff that's out and you can see. No, look in your basement or attic if you have one. Look in your closets. And then try boxing it up.

On the surface it looks easy. I know when I looked around our house I thought "We've got stuff, but not a ton, this won't be a problem". And its true. We do have a lot of stuff. I'm pretty sure we are like everyone else and have a decent amount of clothes....a lot of which never get worn.

But we also have stuff. 3-plus boxes full of Christmas decorations, 3-plus boxes of video tapes that have 21-years of my work. Paperwork and more importantly dishes. Two sets of them.

Yes, we are borderline foodies, so we have a ton of stuff in the kitchen. All kinds of pots and pans and utensils and stuff that might get used once or twice a year.

We've condensed a lot of stuff. We moved last year (2009) out of a 2600 square foot house and have spent the past year in one half that size. We had to condense. But we have to condense even more. We're moving again. From a 1300 square foot house to a 1100 square foot apartment.

On the good side...the apartment has a lot of storage space. The house doesn't. The bad, we still have to get a storage room.

I'm not really making a nasty rant here or going off on a subject. No. I'm just kind of making an observation. I can say it because I started moving stuff into storage today. Just 2 trips, but I'm guessing there are at least another 10 or 15 in my future.

We all know that we aren't really "Hoarder's" but I really just wanted to make the 10 or so of you who will read this think. Think about it when you say..."Oh, I want to hang on to that.". "I don't know what I want to do with it yet, I just don't want to get rid of it".

On that note, enjoy today's clip....just because it's legendary...The Jefferson's Opening Theme! Thanks YouTube:

The Fine Art of Procrastination

Daisy says "Get on with it already"

For someone who has accomplished a lot of things in their life, it's sometimes amazing that I get anything done.

It seems like...and I've been told this too, that I am decent at a lot of things but really good at one: Procrastinating.

Yeah, sure, I always get things done and I am obsessively organized, but everyone...including me, wonders how it gets done. To look at my desk, heck at TLB (The Lovely Bride) says, look at my living area, you'd never think anything gets done. But it does. Despite my lack of tidiness, I know exactly where everything is. Despite my forgetfulness about writing down what I need to do and when I need to do it, things always do get done.

Oliver says "Just get it done and stop bothering me"

Today is a prime example of my procrastination skills. I got up around 7, which is normal for me on a day off. I really didn't have anywhere that I had to be. No appointments, no go get at the store moments...nothing. And guess what I got done today? I can't say nothing, because I did do a little, I got our first moving estimate and I posted a couple of stories to the OSG Sports website...but that was about it.

I'm staring at a pretty lengthy list of stuff that needs to be done before we move, really I can't do much until I secure a mover, which I hope to on Tuesday. Once I do that, I can start working down the list. And I will.   I keep threatening to start boxing stuff up. Nope. Haven't done much of that yet. TLB wants me to go through the office closet and try and condense. I need to do that, but haven't yet. Although a lot of it is old file tapes and things like that from my TV life. That stuff may go to storage, but ain't getting thrown away.

Oh...and I keep telling myself I need to post some stuff here too, I really haven't been good about keeping up the blog. Sorry.

Sure, I know that I sound like just about everyone else. Yeah...I'm pretty frighteningly normal. I know that. I'm okay with that. Tomorrow is another day. I don't, again have much to do. I do have to take the Wonder Dog to the Vet's office for a shot, but that is about it. Hopefully I'll get some packing in. And the other moving estimate that I want. I can start the rest of the process from there. I do have to get things moving. We go out of town for a week starting the 13th. When we get back. 3 weeks to get packed and moved and while we no longer have an inordinate amount of stuff. We have a decent amount. If it doesn't get started now, those last three weeks may not be so much fun.

In the meantime, enjoy some classic Cars...Moving in Stereo. Thanks You Tube: