WIXY's Gone Bananas

Cliff Note: I originally wrote this last year at Christmas time. Since I post links to Facebook whenever I post, I thought I would repost as the message remains the same. As many of you know, my younger brother, Richard, passed away in March, 2008. He had been wheelchair bound for the last 20 years of his life and I thought it was somewhat poetic justice that the day he went home to be with the Lord was March 4th, or march forth. I was thinking about Ricky today as it's a week before Christmas. He was always one of the easiest people to shop for as he was happy with just about anything you get for him. A true personification of "it's the thought that counts." One of Ricky's life long passions was sports. The reason he became a sports fan was because I became a sports fan. You see, when we were growing up, Ricky was my shadow and my best friend. As he spent the last years of his life in a nursing home, people were amazed with his knowledge of all things spo...

Today, the world lost one of it's greatest motivators ever. I read in an email that Zig Ziglar passed away at the age of 86. He leaves a great legacy. I'm grateful that I have some of his recordings in my mp3 player. They are gold. I first heard of Zig in the early 80's. He was the host of a radio feature called "Daily Christian Motivation." It was a five minute program, designed to make you feel better about yourself. A couple of years later, I picked up a copy of his book, See You at the Top . After much note taking and reading it through a few times,I became a fan of his. I also bought, and read..and read...and read, his book, Confessions of a Happy Christian . My wife loved the attitude adjustment the books gave me. Although I never met Zig in person, I look forward to the day we will meet in glory. I say this because we are both born again Christians. Zig spent a year in the early 80's as the first vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention. ...

This morning, Kathy and I were heading into Wooster to participate in early voting. We thought we would stop at the golden arches to have breakfast. Problem was that there was renovation going on at Mickey D's and half of the parking spaces were not available. So it was off to another place to eat. We went to The Parlor, a restaurant on w. Liberty St. We have eaten there before, and the meals are very reasonably priced. And while I'm there, I always grab a copy of  The Vendor, a free magazine that gets most of it's revenue from advertising. And the magazine had some good articles. Most of the articles are faith based. I would guess the Amish community would be readers of this publication. There are also recipes, factoids, and clean one liners throughout the magazine. But best of all, it's free. And like most folks, I like free. The restaurant has some pretty good food as well. I had biscuits, gravy, home fries, and sausage. Kathy had corned beef hash and toast. ...

Over the years, the main things I have had to deal with have been health problems, They are nagging, but chronic issues, such as diabetes, hypertension, and arthritis. I can probably attribute most of this to either heredity or obesity. It depends on how much I want to factor personal responsibility. Being fat gave me a convenient excuse when I was losing my shirt as a retail salesman over 20 years ago. I would come home after not making any money on commissions and tell Kathy, "Nobody would buy from me because I was fat and ugly." Met a new friend back then too. His name was Prozac. In the past year, I have lost over 30 pounds. I feel better and clothes fit better as well. I'm still overweight, and I need to get off my fat posterior and do some more about it. Truth is, I have been fighting a battle with my weight since I was 11 years old. As an adult, I have seen a high of 305 pounds and a low of 186. So I know what to do to lose. Just isn't as easy as some like ...

This morning, I woke up to the news that former Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Ravens owner, Art Modell, had passed away. He was a villain to the city of Cleveland for moving the franchise. Cliff Note: I know he was probably considered a hero to Baltimore for bringing football back and for getting them a Super Bowl ring before the Indianapolis (formerly Baltimore) Colts won one, but this post is about forgiveness. Cleveland, like many other cities, lives and dies with it's sports franchises. Since the Browns left, northeast Ohio has also seen several top athletes leave and "take their talents" elsewhere. These folks go from being number one, as a show of the index finger will indicate, to not being number one with the next finger over also indicates. Most decisions are made as financial decisions. We have seen this many times in business. People are either let go from their jobs, or jobs get outsourced. This gets plenty of ink, but people forget and move on. It's...

Okay, in the 6 years that I've been blogging, I have been somewhat harsh on the largest retailer in the world, Walmart. Most of it has been directed at the one I frequent the most, #2966, Wadsworth, Ohio. I have used the term Evil Big Box Store(tm) pretty much tongue in cheek. I do go there because I can save money and get what I need in one stop over the Giant Eagle one exit over. Out of fairness to a good friend and distant relative, I have toned down the snarky posts. Cliff Feightner of Homassa, Fl. fame, works for Walmart in a management capacity and I don't want that Cliff Feightner to get into trouble because of what this Cliff Feightner writes. Anyway, when I stop at Walmart on my way home from work, I like to go through a checkout of a cashier named Bonnie. The reason being is, no matter what, she always has a smile on her face and a good word for the customer. First time I went through her line, she asked me how I was doing. I responded with "Better than I d...

This past Friday evening, the Rittman Indians football team played host to a group of home schooled high school athletes called the Cleveland Knights. The game was originally scheduled to be played at Case Western Reserve University, but due to a scheduling conflict, the venue was changed to Rittman. Two touchdowns along with two point conversions by Rittman, and a touchdown with a failed conversion attempt by the Knights made the halftime score 16-6 in favor of the Indians. The Knights had no marching band, so my favorite group of student musicians had the entire halftime show to themselves. After the best entrance and band intro in Northeast Ohio, the Rittman Marching Band performed tan original tune by Jim Swearingen, called Fired Up . The majorette feature was the Roy Orbison hit, Oh Pretty Woman . During the next selection, The Pennsylvania Polka, I was recording the performance with my iPhone. I was also looking at my script to ensure I had the right intro lined up for t...