Peter's Christmas Pageant

Happy New Year folks!

I don't have anything to write about the the New Year, but I would like to share some Christmas songs from Peter and his classmates ( Peter is in the grey sweater and plaid tie ).

Note: The video below is actually too wide to fit on my blog page, so just double-click on the video if you want to see it full-sized on he YouTube page.



Rich

These Boots Are Made for Walkin' ( for more than 22 years )

A few days ago a major blizzard hit the east coast of the USA.  We got at least two feet of snow ( The town right next to us got 30 inches of snow, so we were probably within a few inches of that ), so it was time to get out my old boots and get to work with my snowblower and shovel ( I needed to use the shovel a lot more than I would have liked .  There were still very strong winds the day after the storm.  A lot of the snow you would try to blow away would just blow right back at you. ).  The snow was quite impressive, but I'm not going to include pictures of the snow-scape in this blog post.  I've already posted enough snow pictures in his blog over the last few years.

Instead, I posted a picture of my boots.  My late mother took me to a shoe store to buy these books back in August of 1988.  I was about to head off to Cornell University, and my Mom wanted to make sure my feet were properly protected against the harsh Ithaca winters.

Well, more than 22 years later these books are still protecting my feet.  They're still 100% waterproof and my feet have never felt the least bit cold in these boots ( BTW, in case you are wondering were you can get such great boots, I just discovered that this brand of boots ( Northland ) was discontinued in 1998 ).  Now, I certainly don't wear these boot every day ( I only put them on when the weather is really bad ), but regardless of how often I've worn them, it's still rather impressive that these boots have lasted for more than 22 years.

So, their durability makes these boots rather special, but what makes them even more special is that they were a gift from my Mom.  Whenever I put these boots on, it kinda feels like my Mom is still looking out for me all these years later.  I hope these boots can last at least another 22 years, cause it will kind of be a sad day when I finally need to replace them.

Rich

My Excuse

I'm going to try to keep this post relatively short, because at this point I don't think too many people are actually reading this blog regularly.  I wouldn't really blame anyone if they stopped reading my blog, because to be completely honest, I really haven't been bringing a lot to the table lately.  There was a time when I was regularly writing about 10 blog posts a month.  There was a time when I making several YouTube videos a week.  There was even a time when I used to post photos to facebook every once in a while.  Times have certainly changed since back then.

Why is that?

Well, there are a whole bunch of reason, but for now I'll just off one excuse.

As some of you know, I'm a HUGE sports fan.  Prior to September of 2007, the only real "hobbies" I had ever had were watching sports, reading about sports, talking about sports, thinking about sports, playing sports, and listening to sports talk radio.

Starting around mid-September 2007, my favorite baseball team ( The Mets ) began a collapse of historic proportions that cost them 1st place and made them the laughing-stock of the baseball world.  My favorite football team ( The Jets ) was in the midst of a 4-12 season, and my favorite basketball team ( The Knicks ) had completely sucked for about 7 years.

Around that same time, I started making YouTube videos, and I really don't think the timing was a coincidence.  My traditional "hobby" was becoming far too depressing, so I was open to finding a new one.

Well my online hobby has been a lot of fun, and I expect it will bring me a lot of joy in the future, but over the last year, I'm found myself focusing back on sports.  Last January, the Jets made a surprise run to the AFC championship game.  There were playing well enough this year, that I found myself going on a desperate quest to buy an antenna.  They were playing so well, that less than a week ago, they were tied for the best record in football, and they had me dreaming about finally getting to see my football team win the championship.

Well, in the last week, I've watched the Jets lose 45-3 ( !!!!!!! ) and 10-6, and all my dreams of a Jets championship have been dashed for another year ( I've been rooting for my 3 favorite teams for more than 100 combined seasons, and only in one of those seasons did my team win the championship ( and that happened way back in 1986 ). ).

So, I guess it's not surprising that less than 3 hours after the Jets last loss, I found myself writing this blog post.  Does the Jets recent ineptitude mean that I'll be online a lot more in the near future?

Who knows?  After all, after 10 years of sucking to high heaven, the Knicks are now on an 8-game winning streak.

Rich

P.S. So much for making this post short.  I'm not sure if anyone is going to read this, but it was fun to to write again.