It’s been a while since I’ve posted. I started this blog to share fun stuff with folks. I also wanted to be able to speak my peace on stuff. One of my goals was to have an intelligent commentary and discussion of things that impact our lives.

But… speaking my peace never happened. I have friends across the spectrum of opinions. Opinions are like noses (and other things), everybody has one. I was afraid that I might offend some of my friends, so I just left out at least half of what I wanted this blog to be.

What bothers me most these days is people I consider dear friends “sharing” posts without checking out the validity of the post. There is so much “fake” stuff on the internet. People blindly re-post the fake stuff because it’s on their side of the fence. Of course, it’s all false or misleading… or misdirection, but that doesn’t stop the re-post.

But I’ve had #ENOUGH of the political correctness.

So I say to my friends, “Please, please, don’t take my posts on political stuff personally. I want to express an opinion for you to consider. I hope I communicate with thought and maybe a little insight for you to think about. I also want to debunk some of those bogus posts that are re-posted a lot.

You don’t have to agree with me. In fact, I hope you take the time to thoughtfully express differences if you have them. Although this is a “monitored” blog, differing opinions will always be posted if they are not just blasting people for having an opinion. Excessive profanity or personal attacks will not clear the filter.

With all that said, I’m going to start posting again. I will continue to post fun stuff as often as I can. In fact, I’m going to be posting about a “road trip” to Key West. But… I can no longer ignore all the crapola that’s flying around and will be posting about that too.

Next post… “I Support the Second Amendment”

I know your first name is really Vincent, and most often you go by just Vin. But I hope it’s OK for me to call you Vinny because I’ve known you since I was a little boy. “Vinny” just seems right for those boyhood memories. And what memories they are. It was you who introduced me to Sandy, Don, Ron, Junior, Johnny, Wally, Maury, and the rest of those 25 boys of summer that became my lifelong heroes.

You provided me with my boyhood dreams. I need to tell you… because of you, the game became a passion for me way back when. I guess it is still a passion. Every summer in those boyhood days, I lived for baseball. I played in the sandlots near home and into formalized Little League. Like a lot of boys, I dreamed of someday making the Dodgers and having you call out my name. I was pretty good, but not that good. Just the same, many of the fondest memories of my youth are of those days playing ball. Thank you for giving me that.

Any time I could, I would listen to your broadcasts. I’ll never forget you describing Sandy’s devastating curve ball… or his fastball on the “lower outside corner”. Even though I couldn’t be at the game and little was televised, I could still see Sandy’s pitch in my “mind’s eye”. And for Dodger home runs, I can still hear your voice saying, “It’s a long hit ball… it’s way out there… it’s gone”. Of course, I only remember those calls for Dodger home runs, because I’m still sure the other guys never hit a single home run while you were announcing. And of course no Dodger fan can ever forget when you called the greatest “walk off home run” ever in 1988… when the impossible happened… “Gibby” (Kirk Gibson) hit it over the fence. As the ball cleared the fence you called, “She – is… gone”. Thank you for bringing that to life for me.

I’ve been around the world, lived in many different places but in all of these years since my boyhood I have remained a Dodger fan. No matter what city I lived in, I could never join with the local fans in rooting for anyone else. In more recent years Cable TV, internet radio and the like has enabled me to keep up with “Dem Bums”. (Though I never knew them as the Brooklyn Dodgers, I think I’m still allowed to use that term.) So it is with both sadness and joy for me that you have ended your career as the Dodgers announcer.

I say sadness for obvious reasons… you have been the voice of Dodger Baseball for my entire lifetime. Without your voice it won’t be quite the same.

But I’m also happy to have had you in my ear for all the years… more than anyone could have ever expected. What a career it was… 67 years with the Dodgers. You’ve had so many accolades that all I can add is WOW. I’m happy that you can now enjoy time doing whatever you wish. But mostly I’m happy for you having made Dodger Baseball my pastime. Without you it would have never been the same… I might have even become a Yankee fan. Well… maybe not those Damned Yankees.

Like every Dodger fan out there, I hope you do come back and visit us once in a while… maybe for the first game of the season at “Chavez Ravine” between the Dodgers and those dastardly Giants. Or maybe just for the first game of the season we can just hear you say, “It’s time for Dodger Baseball”.

I wish you all the best and like every Dodger fan… I’m happy to have “known” you.

Dear Friends and Family,

As you know this coming Monday is a very important day to all of us. This time each year we all pay homage to something very special. We thank god for that peculiar, large bluish, spiky broad pointed leaved plant and its magnificent underground heart. It is a time to say thank you to our friends to the south that harvest that underground heart. We rejoice and praise those artisans that use those hearts to produce the nectar we all love and enjoy.

So for Monday, come help me celebrate this most important day. I invite all my friends and family to come to my house for this special day. I have the glasses all lined up for our toasts. I have the frozen concoction maker all warmed up. Let’s celebrate National Margarita Day.

I know you were probably expecting another post about the “quickie” today, but a far more important event in my life has happened today. Punxsutawney Phil has prognosticated the coming of spring.

For most of this long, cold winter, I’ve been hunkered down avoiding the frigid sub-80 temperatures here in the Southwestern Frozen Tundra. Last night it was even below freezing… around 31 degrees. Burrrrrr. Really… it was 31 degrees when I went out this morning and I had to scrape ice off the windshield. Double burrrrrrr!

Just the same, Punxsutawney Phil put a smile on my face this morning. It’s reported that he did not see his shadow and as everyone knows, that means an early spring. It wasn’t only Punxsutawney Phil that made this prediction… similar rodents all over North America have made the same prediction. According to sources, Wiarton Willie (Canada), General Beau Lee (Atlanta), Jimmy the Groundhog (Wisconsin) and Staten Island Chuck (New York) have all made the same prediction.

I hear you… you are scoffing at any predictions groundhogs, woodchucks, and whistlepigs make. But not so fast. According to the Washington Post and wikepedia (my bible), the furry fellows have been quite accurate in their forecasts. One source reports that they have been 75% – 90% accurate. Ok… that source was the Groundhog Day Organizers, but they wouldn’t lie… would they?

If the organizers might seam biased to you, the Washington Post adds that AccuWeather reports the rodents have an 80% accuracy rate. Even though official sources may vary… I’m going with the furry fellows… an early spring YEA!!!!!

NEWS FLASH – Al Roker, NBC’s legendary meteorologist (only surpassed by KNBC’s Fritz Coleman), has “called out” Punxsutawney Phil. According to Roker on this morning’s Today Show, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky over Gobblers Knob. An investigation into a rodent conspiracy has begun. Is it possible that woodchucks from all over can be in cahoots together to give us false hope?

Investigators into this are quick to point out that a law suit was brought against Punxsutawney Phil by an Ohio attorney a couple of years ago. The attorney claimed Punxsutawney Phil misrepresented an early spring, and was seeking the death penalty for the rodent. The case was thrown out of court as Ohio has no jurisdiction over Pennsylvania groundhogs. (Source: Washington Post)

Another source reports it was the Groundhog Committee that decided to report an early spring without consulting the intrepid Punxsutawney Phil. Was it a conspiracy… or was it just that the committee in the moments before sunrise was too rushed to check the forecast. Had they already made their decision to deceive the American people… or was it caused by all the commotion and noise of all the hoopla as Punxsutawney Phil emerged.

Or… did they simply misunderstand the utterances of the woodchuck. After all, there was a new woodchuck translator for this year’s festivities. Also, it is reoprted that the translator may have been distracted because he was trying to find out how much wood Punxsutawney Phil had chucked in the past 12 months.

Follow the on-going investigation on your local news channel at 10.

As for me, I’m truly hoping for an early spring. This year my plan is to make my trek to the Northernmost Caribbean (AKA Fort Walton Beach, Fl.) in time for all the Spring Break festivities. Those of you following me for the last few years know that my journey to the Emerald Coast has been later and later in the year. This year I’m trying to return there at the beginning of the rolling Spring Break weeks. I just can’t wait for those luscious white mounds.

Mounds of sand of course… what were you thinking about.