The Next Couple Weeks

Hello friends!

I just wanted to inform you that the next couple weeks are going to be busy for me. My wife is having some surgery this week. I will be home helping her get around and taking care of the kids.

I hope to have all of my weekly features ready to go for the next two weeks. Hopefully, you won’t notice I’m gone. I am going to try to watch comments and interact, but I can’t promise anything.

In the meantime, I ask that you keep Sam in your thoughts as she has her surgery and recovers. Thank you in advance!

Your friend, Keith

So Many Reasons Why I Love Her

Today is National Spouses Day! I don’t need a “holiday” to celebrate my wife. As a matter of fact, yesterday I brought her flowers because I wanted to.

I have been blessed to have been married to my wife for almost 6 years. I love her and am still in love with her. As with most relationships, there are always rough spots. It is during those times that is is important to remember why you fell in love with each other at the start. What I have found is that when I begin to list all the reasons I love her, it only reminds me of what she means to me.

I love her eyes. They still sparkle and I love looking into them.

I love her smile and her laughter. They are contagious.

I love that she still makes me laugh, even if it is at my expense.

I love that she is such an amazing mother to Ella and Andrew. Her love for them is constant. I love seeing just how much they love her!

I love that her hands fit perfectly in mine.

I love that she is “in the know” about everything. She is a walking day planner. She remembers things that I forget! I can always count on her to keep our family on track.

I love that she has always been supportive of me and encouraged me to do things out of my comfort zone.

I love that she has always strived to be her best, whether it be her education, career, or just “mom.”

I love that she will sit and watch football (or things like Columbo or the First 48) with me.

I love that she is not afraid to say what is on her mind.

I love that she shares good books with me.

I love her patience with me and all of the other craziness in our house.

I love her kisses and her hugs. I always feel safe in her arms.

I love that she is the center of our family and keeps us all in balance.

I love those rare occasions when we get a date day/night together.

I love that she doesn’t see just how beautiful she is, even though I am always telling her.

I love her voice.

I love all the wonderful things we have shared together and look forward to the things we will do together in the future.

I love going on walks in the neighborhood with her.

I love that she has made me a better person.

I love that she believes that sometimes cereal or ice cream are ok for dinner.

I love watching her play with our kids.

I love video chats with her and the kids while I am at work.

I love that I get to be her hero when there is a spider that needs to get squashed.

I love her because she loves God and believes in the power of prayer.

I love her compassion for others.

I love her because she took a very broken guy like me and completes me.

I love that any time there is a decision to be made, we do it together.

I love her because I am still amazed that a woman like her would choose a guy like me. She is so much better than me.

I love her because she is everything to me.

I love her because I could continue to list 100+ more things I love about her!

Happy Spouses Day, Sam! I love you mostly because – You are YOU!

Christmas 2023

Christmas has come and gone. I hope that you and your family had a wonderful holiday! We had a lot of fun moments, for sure. Here is my Christmas recap.

I want to start by saying that this had to be the least “Christmassy” Christmas in a very long time. Part of that could be that there was no snow on the ground and it was about 50 degrees. The sounds of the holidays were certainly there (musically), but it was very difficult to get into the Christmas “mood.”

That being said, I had Friday off and I needed to get a few last minute things for my sons. They had asked for a couple video games and I couldn’t find them. I could have ordered them, I suppose, but all the sites were saying that they would not arrive until January. So I improvised. I took Ella and Andrew with me and we went shopping. I found them some things (that I am sure they thought were not fun) that were more … adult.

Dante’ is 21 and Dimitri is 16 now. I got them things I knew that they could use or needed. It’s hard when you ask them what they want for Christmas in the fall and they have no clue. Or better yet, you find out that the thing they told you they wanted, they went out and bought for themselves with the money they made working. I didn’t want to do gift cards. That just seems easy, boring and requires no thought. I couldn’t help but remember when I started getting the more adult gifts….sigh. The Christmas magic fades too soon.

It was nice, however, to have all the kids together on the morning of Christmas Eve. I made a big breakfast and we had some good conversation. Dimitri had to work that day, so they weren’t at my house more than a few hours. It is a rare occurrence to have them all together in one place.

Christmas Eve night, we went to Sam’s folks for dinner. It was quite a spread: turkey, ham, meatballs, mac and cheese, baked bean, potatoes, and just about every dessert you can think of. Sam’s mom set up some cups on a table for the kids to toss cheese balls in to win prizes. Afterward, $200 in play money was handed to each person and gifts were auctioned off. I won the bid on a nice “evening in” bag – popcorn, candle, candy, hot cocoa and slipper socks. We also played a board game called “Something Fishy” or “Sounds Fishy” where you had to lie about a question that was asked. It was a fun night.

We left later than we expected and got home to get the kids in bed. Before we could do that, we had to leave out cookies and milk for Santa. One of our neighbors (the one who has the box to mail Santa letters – and answer them), messaged me to say that they had something special for Ella and Andrew. I went over Friday and they handed me a beautiful board for Santa’s milk and cookies.

Once the cookies and Egg Nog were in place (we were out of milk and I told them that Santa liked Egg Nog), the kids were off to bed. It was then that Santa began building toys! Ella asked for a Barbie Princess Castle and Andrew wanted a train table. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, as it only took me about 3 hours to put every thing together.

The dog started barking earlier than normal and I was up to let her out. Andrew was up first and he ran to get Ella because Santa had arrived. For one brief space of about an hour, we felt like it was Christmas. The magic of watching them walk out and seeing their toys ready for play! Wow, do I remember that feeling! It is one of the most powerful memories in my life. That initial walk out to the tree … pure magic!

They were so excited that they didn’t open another present for some time!

Ella got this HUGE Barbie. It is almost as big as her. She loves it!

Andrew loves to take pictures with our phones and his tablet. We found a cool camera that he had a lot of fun with.

Christmas day was nice because we just got to chill out at home. After we played a bit, we watched The Polar Express together. It is such a great movie. We napped because we were all up early, and then got ready for dinner. A Christmas Story was on and I had yet to see it this year, so I watched as we cooked up our ravioli dinner.

Sam’s folks stopped by to see they kids and what they got for Christmas. After they left, we ate and got ready to call it a night. Sam and Ella were in our room relaxing and I was out in the living room with Andrew. I was getting ready to turn off the TV, but he was engrossed in The Wizard of Oz. He couldn’t take his eyes off it. When the commercials came on, I told him we’d have to finish it another day and we went to bed.

I tried to be more in the moment this year. I neglected to take a lot of pictures. Playing with the kids, chasing them around the house, snuggling them in our bed….yeah, those were the moments! It was a Merry Christmas for us!

Oh, and as a Christmas bonus for guys like me who have been waiting a long time … The Detroit Lions clinched the division. Merry Christmas!!

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas with your family. I can’t wait to read about it!

Two Day Trip to Italy

One of the things I love about blogging is “meeting” other bloggers and reading what they are writing about. One of the blogs I follow is written by Beth (a fellow Michigander) who writes at “I didn’t have my glasses on…” In a recent blog, she mentioned a book she was listening to that had her laughing out loud. She went on to mention that it was set in Italy. Her blog can be read here:

https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/11420585/posts/4258084624

The book was “The Patron Saint of Second Chances” by Christine Simon. On Beth’s recommendation, I requested it at the library. I picked it up yesterday and finished it today. I am sure that I easily could have read it in one sitting. It was a delightful read that did have me laughing out loud at times. Here is the Goodreads synopsis:

Vacuum repairman and self-appointed mayor of Prometto, Italy (population 212) Signor Speranza has a problem: unless he can come up with 70,000 euros to fix the town’s pipes, the water commission will shut off the water to the village and all its residents will be forced to disperse. So in a bid to boost tourism—and revenue—he spreads a harmless rumor that movie star Dante Rinaldi will be filming his next project nearby.

Unfortunately, the plan works a little too well, and soon everyone in town wants to be a part of the fictional film—the village butcher will throw in some money if Speranza can find roles for his fifteen enormous sons, Speranza’s wistfully adrift daughter reveals an unexpected interest in stage makeup, and his hapless assistant Smilzo volunteers a screenplay that’s not so secretly based on his undying love for the film’s leading lady. To his surprise—and considerable consternation, Speranza realizes that the only way to keep up the ruse is to make the movie for real.

As the entire town becomes involved (even the village priest invests!) Signor Speranza starts to think he might be able to pull this off. But what happens when Dante Rinaldi doesn’t show up? Or worse, what if he does?

It was a book that did not require a lot of thinking and at times was ridiculous, but I loved every second of it. Perhaps I could see a little bit of my Italian relatives in some of the characters. To me, the book read like a very funny sitcom episode or like an old radio comedy show. At times there was some predictability, but it doesn’t take away from the story at all.

On the back flap of the book it says this about the author, “Christine Simon grew up in a very large and very loud Italian family…” I don’t know any Italian who doesn’t have great stories about their family! In the acknowledgments section of the book, she mentions family members who were the inspiration of some of the characters.

One of the things that I must give kudos for is the fact that this book is very “family friendly.” I don’t recall an overabundance of profanity. As a matter of fact, I think the word “ass” is mentioned once or twice and that’s it. There are no long and detailed paragraphs describing sexual acts. There is a kiss or two. Violence is kept to a minimum as well. It’s just a really fun book.

The book was written by the author while in quarantine, and it is her first novel. This is the second “first novel” from someone that I have read and really enjoyed. The other was The Measure by Nikki Erlick. Maybe I need to check out more unknown authors?

I know today is the first day of fall, but it won’t be long before we’re all shut in because of the cold and snow. This book is an easy read that provides lots of laughs and is the perfect book to enjoy over a cup of coffee or a glass of wine.

Thanks, Beth!

100

Sometimes I feel like I repeat myself in my blogs. If I do, I apologize. In all honesty, sometimes I forget if I have mentioned something in a previous blog. I have been meaning to hook up with my friend and fellow blogger, Max, to learn how to index the content that I have already published. I guess I should do that sooner than later. So pardon me if I have said this before.

When I started this blog, I did it primarily for me. It was a place for me to (1) write about the things I was dealing with in my life (2) write down memories for my children to look back on and read in the future (3) occasionally rant about things that bothered me and (4) share memories of things that interest me (movies, music, TV, etc…). I first began blogging in the days of My Space. This would have been around 2005-2007. To my knowledge, my My Space page is still in existence in cyber space, but with the dawn of Facebook, I haven’t done anything on it in years! I used to blog on there all the time, the blogs used to pop up on your front page.

Some time ago, My Space removed the blogs from everyone’s page. I contacted them because many of those blogs had personal things I wanted to remember. I blogged often in the months and weeks proceeding my mother’s death. I blogged about the birth of my second son. All of those were gone. They provided me a link to go in and download all of my blogs. All of the comments were gone, but the original content was there. For that, I am glad. Re-reading some of them is emotional – they capture a moment in my past and give me a sense of what I was feeling at that time. Some of those old blogs have been updated and additional thoughts have been added here.

At any rate, during the time I was blogging, I was told by someone I was once close to that “nobody cares about the things you write about”. For whatever reason, I was constantly being told by this person to stop writing. Occasionally, I would write a “note” on Facebook, which was similar to the My Space blogs. These were also met with negative responses and the request was again made to stop, which I eventually did.

Fast forward to almost two years ago, when I started to blog. I had been in therapy trying to sort out things in my life and it was suggested that I keep a journal. I mentioned that I used to blog and my therapist asked why I had stopped. She encouraged me to begin blogging or keeping a journal – and this is it. Blogs have ranged from fun stuff to serious stuff. I began to share links to my blog on Facebook, and many of my friends began following it, and sometimes, even sharing it on their page. Through Word Press, I began to follow other blogs written by people who share my love for music, old movies, and classic TV. Often times, my blogs will inspire someone to write one and vice versa.

All of this brings me to why I am writing this blog. Today, I was informed that this blog now has 100 followers! I am humbled that 100 people would find the topics that I write about worth reading, let alone wanting to be informed every time I write something new! I thank you for reading and I thank you for interacting. If there is every anything you’d like to see this blog explore, I would love to hear it. Writing is often met with what some call “writer’s block” and I often face the “What should I write about today?” dilemma. Feel free to offer suggestions.

There are those who say that bloggers/writers/authors should write everyday, no matter what – even if you are just scribbling a sentence or two. For me, time is an issue. Finding the time is always the challenge. I try to write as often as I can. Sometimes, the stuff I write never makes it here and ends up as a Facebook status. For example, this week marked the anniversary of my grandma’s passing, today is the 117th birthday of the great Larry Fine of the Three Stooges, Sam is starting to feel our baby move, and it’s Homecoming week – all things that I could probably blog about (and probably should). I just have to find the time!

Thanks for following! Thanks for reading!

Reflections on “Blog Year One”

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One of my Facebook friends noted on his page that this weeks marks the 100th birthday of comedian Red Buttons. Red was known for his “never got a dinner” and “I was there” bits which he did frequently at celebrity roasts. I remembered that last year, on his birthday, I blogged about Red and included many of my favorite “never got a dinner” lines. It was one of the first blogs I wrote when I started this Word Press Blog. It’s hard to believe that this blog is over a year old!

The beginnings

When I began this blog, I really didn’t have any idea of what it would be. In my head, I thought that I might blog about some things I liked. I also knew I would probably write about some favorite memories. I might also write tributes to important people in my life or just random thoughts to help me deal with emotions or life situations.

This blog was meant for me. It was to be a “sort of” therapy for me. I envisioned it as a way to keep track of thoughts, write down stories I didn’t want to forget, and occasionally just vent. I had often joked about writing an autobiography, and in a way, this blog has become “chapters”.

I never thought that anyone would actually want to read these blogs (unless, of course, the blog mentioned them)! Yet, here I am over a year later and I have “followers” – people who actually make it a point to read this no matter what the topic. It humbles me.

Looking Back

The last few years of my life have been full of many changes: job changes, deaths, divorce, depression, stress, remarriage, happiness, bliss, and the rekindling of old friendships. It is interesting to go back and see the variety of topics this blog has covered through it all. It really is a hodge-podge of randomness.

There is no shortage of posts about music here! My iPod selections and the various connections that I make with songs, events, and people in my life are well documented. There are so many great songs! Musical blogs are among my favorite to write. I recently started following another blog (PowerPop) which shares many of my musical tastes and I have enjoyed some great conversations with the owner of that blog.

My love for movies is also represented by blogs I wrote about movies I watched for the first time and movies I have watched over and over. Television is also represented by a salute to the Dukes, childhood memories of School House Rock, TV Catchphrases, and my favorite cartoons. My hatred of movie and TV remakes was one of my very first blogs.

My radio career is also reflected in this blog. You’ll find blogs that include some of my favorite radio stories, about listeners who became friends, my first morning show partner, radio mentors, radio bosses and co-workers, and encounters with famous people I met during my career all make up a good chunk of this blog. One of my favorite blogs about radio is the World Radio Day blog, which thanks many of those people.

My family and friends, who are very special to me, are also well represented in this blog. Tributes to my mom, my dad, my grandparents, my children, and my uncle/Godfather often were very emotional to write. A blog about those teachers who were so influential and helpful to me was one of the easiest to write. As my first wedding anniversary approaches, a long overdue blog about my wonderful wife will appear here. One of my favorite blogs was about the trip to Florida that my wife and I took, which also doubled as our honeymoon. Re-reading that one brings back many happy memories! It still amazes me how we were able to keep it a secret.

The Christmas holiday spawned many blogs. Blogs about Christmas memories, Christmas specials, Christmas characters, Christmas songs that drove me nuts, Christmas coffee, and yes – even a letter to Santa! Christmas remains one of my favorite times of the year. One thing I was unable to really blog about was the Christmas songs I love. My friend, Chris, asked me to do that and I started it … just never finished it. Consider it a head start for next year!

It was always fun for me to write about famous people. As you look over the list of those who I wrote about, it is easy to learn a lot about me and what I like. Comedians Red Buttons, Jackie Gleason, Shemp Howard, Curly Howard, Soupy Sales, and Rich Little give you a glimpse and who and what I find funny. Musicians Elvis Presley, Willie Nelson, Roy Orbison, Weird Al Yankovic, Frank Sinatra, and, of course, Dean Martin give you a picture of my musical tastes. Other blogs about Mr. Rogers, Jack Webb, Christopher Lloyd, and Wolfman Jack expose you to other aspects of who I am.

At times, my blog can tackle serious topics, too. Breast cancer is a big one. Cancer, in general, is a big topic. It took many people from me. I foresee a blog about St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in the future. I’ve been there and they do amazing work. The importance of Music Education in schools is another great cause I will always fight for! I have yet to write about Autism, but that is definitely on my list of future topics.

One of my favorite blogs summed up a lot about the past and the changes that occurred in me and my life over the past two years. The subject was “Negativity, Judgement, and Happiness”. Moving from sadness to happiness and moving from away from negativity and finding positives made a lot of difference! Living with a positive attitude was such a game changer – and life is good.

The Future

Not so long ago, I was told my someone once close to me to stop writing. “Nobody wants to read about that crap! It is a waste of time. Stop trying to be creative. Nobody cares about what you like and don’t like!” If I have learned anything from Facebook and this blog, it is that people do care! People do like to read what I write! In the end, I don’t really write for others, I write for myself. The fact that other people read this blog and get some enjoyment out if it is a little bonus.

In future blogs, I will continue to write about things I love. I will write about things that people want to know about. I will continue to participate in Blogathons (I have a few coming up that I am excited to write for) on various topics like movies and music. I will continue to write about things in my personal life. I will continue to write – because I enjoy it. The minute this is no longer satisfying and I feel that I have written all I can write … I will stop. Until then, thank YOU for reading my “various ramblings”. I appreciate you!

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