February 2010: Sickness, Snow, Junk Food…and Oh Yeah, Mom’s Birthday
Saturday, March 6th, 2010
Consensus from friends and family is pretty much becoming unanimous: February is the lamest month of the year. Although I did enjoy a nice California vacation in 2007 during February, both 2008 and 2009 – and now this year – have contributed to giving the month this unique distinction. So why is it so lame you ask? Well, for starters the weather in Ohio is the biggest contributor. We see our biggest snowfalls, do the most shoveling, and traditionally develop the greatest number of sicknesses. Read the rest of this entry »
Both before and after Christmas, my Dad’s family kept busy with not one, but two birthday celebrations in the month of December. My cousin Lora’s birthday is on December 9, so she was celebrating her 9th special day. My guess would be that the little party took place after church on the 8th at her parents’ – Bill and Dottie’s – house. I only have one photo from this gathering and as you can see below, I once again was at the ready with my assistance in blowing out the birthday candles. 
As a kid, entering into Summer was akin to entering into the Christmas season. So I came upon the Summer of 1981 with crashing excitement for the warm days ahead. Mom was still only working three days a week, so I spent most Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at Discovery House daycare center on Woodman Drive in Kettering. I’m fairly certain that this was the last time I went here regularly, although Mom seems to think I stayed here until I was 12 years old. This would have been the Summer of 1984 – which I know wasn’t the case, but perhaps I would still attend on occasion during Spring Break or weeks when my other babysitters were unavailable. 
All through the Summer of 1974, my parents had been working on a couple of projects in our back yard. The first was a barn to store our lawnmowers, garden tools, and other items that wouldn’t fit in our (then) single-car garage. He enlisted the aid of his cousin Irene’s husband Virgil Davidson to assist in the construction, with my Uncle Ed helping to put in the flooring. Dad an Virgil worked on this during the day before heading off to work at Brown and Kroger in the evening. No telling how much assistance I lent to the project. When it was done, we had a nice looking white barn that still sits on the property today. 
January wasn’t too bad of a month. A little excitement here, a little fun there. The weather was mostly tolerable and there were no major disasters. And as per usual, there was the usual dosage of sadness. For the most part I did a lot of hanging out with friends, with just a couple major event sprinkled into the month. The TV kept warm as I transitioned from Third Rock From the Sun to The Abbott and Costello Show. Facebook poker became a new addiction, the NFL season wrapped up, and I also saw some light at the end of the winter tunnel as I began the early stages of planning out my trips for the year.