Sweet Home Ohio

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeee Back! Like the great Monarch butterfly returning from Mexico the MJ Hawkeye's are home from Florida. The past two months were completely uneventful. This is good. It means neither of us died.

Our Destin, Florida condo was excellent. The complex was featured on HGTV. It is populated mostly by Canadians. I like these people. They are, unlike many Americans, not as rude and they still say "eh".

One evening my wife and I were attending the annual Monday night potluck. The lady next to us mentioned she was from a town in Missouri; Ferguson. True story. I started asking myself, "Now, where have I heard that name before"? Anyway, I felt at ease because she was Caucasian and ancient in age so I knew I wouldn't be ducking bullets.

We fell in love with the junior college basketball team from our area. They were ranked #1 in the nation. Attending their games was cheap entertainment at $5 a pop. The facilities were fabulous, the 45 piece band was as good as anything heard at a major school and the players were all heading for major college programs. As an example, Our squad was made up of 14 players and only one was White and he came from France. My wife fell in love with their best player. The reason? They both share the same birthday. Figures.

The most difficult aspect of coming home from holiday is forgetting. I forgot how to work my TV remote control. I couldn't even remember how to turn on the television then when the channels came on I didn't know ESPN from the Fox network. I couldn't remember how to work my coffee make. What year is it, anyway?

I've known my next door neighbor for five years. She's lovely. We chitchat over this and that. I couldn't recall her name until after I'd left and walked into my own home. This is gotten to be such an overall bad habit it doesn't bother me anymore.

I'm now planning my spring and summer travels and it isn't pretty. Some of these are duties and others taken for the pure joy of it. All will require a depletion of my checking and savings account. In two weeks we're off to Arizona for ten days. Then it's on to Punta Gorda, Florida for my ex-boss's 80th birthday blowout. In late May we'll open up the Minnesota lake place. I'll sprinkle in trips to Iowa, Wisconsin, and Nebraska and, finally, an excursion to Washington D.C. and surrounding states with dear friends in October.

Crappola, in my mind it's already winter again.

Finally, a big happy 69th birthday to my good buddy , Hiball Toby.