WIXY's Gone Bananas

Last night was the final game of the season for the Rittman Fighting Indians, losing 56-14 to the Hillsdale Falcons. Due to tending to an emergency yesterday, I didn't have time to get the WIXYcam. Too bad, as the band was in costumes for their performance. The band opened with Wild Cherry's "Play That Funky Music". The second Song was Abba's "Mama Mia" The band closed with "And All That Jazz" from the musical "Chicago." After I made my final announcement-"The Rittman Indians Maarrrching Band!" The band replied by shouting in unison "Happy birthday Cliff!" And speaking of birthday greetings, I want to thank everybody who wished me a happy birthday, both on this blog and on Facebook. Many of you know that I've been having a very trying week and the greetings helped make it better. I will be playing catch-up in posting band photos from this all too short season.

I was born! Happy birthday to me! And one of my best friends, personal as well blogging, Brenda of Snicker*Snicker*Snort fame , has posted a happy birthday greeting to me as well as a photo of her daughter from the homecomecoming game from a few weeks ago. check it out.

This past Friday night, the Rittman Indians faced the Smithville Smithies at a very waterlogged Rittman Stadium. This is the last home game for the varsity this year and the field has had more than it's share of use this season. Couple that with the very rainy October we've had and it gives the traditionalists high school football at it's finest. This was also the 4th straight halftime of no marching for the marching bands, though both bands brought their share of entertainment. The Smithville Band included in their show a tribute to Michael Jackson and their rendition of "Thriller". Being senior night, the Rittman band featured their seniors in their show, with a trumpet solo on "Espana C ani,". Senior feature twirler, Aimee was next on Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock N Roll." all senior band members stepped out front as the cheerleaders and majorettes performed a dance routine to Fleetwood Mac's "Tusk." The show closed with the ...

If someone is hopelessly optimistic, or a pollyanna type, they are described as looking at the world through "rose colored glasses." Nowadays we don't have an overabundance of these people. Now there are no shortage of another type. They see nothing right with the world and it's always someone else' fault. They can never see much good in most people, and if they do acknowledge any good, "there's always an ulterior motive." These people are the type who brighten up a room by leaving it. These are the type of folks, whom I describe as those "looking at the world through crap colored glasses." I like to think I wear glasses with a small tint of rose coloring, otherwise clear. Realistically, I've been wearing glasses since I was 11 years old, so they are a little dirty most of the time. What color glasses do you view the world through?

I had some running around to do this afternoon and I stopped at Evil Big Box Store(tm)1812 to pick up a few items. After picking up a few items, I went to the register to pay for them. The cashier asked me how I was and I told her that I was fantastic and improving. She rung me up. I paid her and after she gave me my change, I gave her my now customary "thank you for working at Walmart." As I was leaving the store, I realized I was thirsty and went to the pop machine to get a can of Coke Zero. I put a dollar in, made my selection, took my quarter change, and reached down for my product. There were two cans there. On my way to the WIXYmobile, I was thinking about how I was going to blog about getting this deal from, of all places, the Evil Big Box Store(tm). Then in the back of my mind, I was reading the comments that I would potentially get:"Why didn't you return the other can, WIXY?" "Do you think this was the honest thing to do WIXY?" "Cliff, y...

Watching the latest Rittman football game, led me to wonder if the players on the sidline were told it was respectful to be quiet. How come when I was on the Highland football team in the early seventies(I won't say I played, as I spent most of my time on the sidelines) if we weren't supporting our teammates we would be getting our helmets slapped by an upperclassman and the headache my be gone before we caught the bus...on Monday morning. How come the coaches cannot instruct the upperclassmen to be leaders. Okay, the Rittman team is now 1-7 after the 47-6 drubbing from Dalton. The one good thing was that they treat visiting announcers well in the pressbox. They also treated the visiting announcer's grandson well. Ben and I both got pizza. For the third week in a row there wasn't marching, but I would put Rittman's band not marching against other bands marching anyday. Hopefully the Rittman field will be in good enough shape next Saturday for the band show.

On Fridays I work at a different location. The QA lab at that plant doesn't have a radio, so I usually take my MP3 player and have an amplified speaker. I also have my earbuds, as I sometimes listen to things I want to pay extra attention to, or if another radio is playing. Problem is my MP3 player doesn't have an FM tuner. Yesterday I had my Sony Walkman AM-FM cassette player with me. My supervisor walked into the lab and told me that I needed to upgrade. I asked him why, as my Walkman still works fine. I'm also assembling myself a neat collection of cassettes from thrift shops. I also found a new reason as I looked around the Salvation Army thrift shop in Barberton today. I was looking for something else when I came across this 20 cassette set called "The Pros Speak About Success." The collection of tapes was $1.99. I looked at the speakers in the collection and there were a few I recognized. One of note to long time readers of this blog is Mark Sanborn . Mark...