Randomness

Its 10:26 am

   Still enjoying my Gretchen Peters binge....one of my very favorite singer-songwriters of all time. And pretty happy to see her new album "Hello Cruel World" will be released a week from Tuesday.
The video for the first single "The Matador" is now out and I'll be posting it at the end of this entry.
  Looking outside at our first real snow of the season....and knowing that I'll be heading out to shovel the sidewalk and driveway. Like mowing our grass,I don't mind shoveling at all...I rather do it by hand then a snow blower,there is something relaxing about doing this task. And like the Pay It Forward commercial that shows a lady helping a neighbor rake up his leaves,shoveling snow does that same thing. During heavy snows,our neighbor breaks out a heavy duty blower and does our sidewalk. We thank him by baking fresh cookies and a bag of coffee. I,in turn,shovel our friend Marlene's house and get rewarded by getting to see Crash,her very nature orange kitty. Its a good trade-off if you ask me.
    My baseball buddy and fellow writer Brad dropped a little PR note in the Inner Circle Group I have on FB. I started that group as a way to let people how my wife is doing while she is fighting a stage 3 uterine cancer. I soon realized that maybe people didn't want to read just about that so I expanded it and encouraged folks to post on other topics,be it a political comment,a fellow blogger,a band with a new gig/CD to drop...anything. Well my buddy comes by and drops a plug for his first professional blog entry on a sports site  and I thought I would share that here as well. Some of you (boy,its hard to get folks to follow you here so far) may have seen this link in the other site but to the outsiders,this is my friend Brad's take on why All-Star Prince Fielder has yet to find a new team
http://www.brushbackpitch.com/2012/01/19/prince-or-toad-has-fielder-overplayed-his-hand/#more-482

  And of course,tell him who sent you! Its hard to believe that its almost spring training already.
And that brings up something my pops and I were talking about. It used to be there was a thing called a "off season". This happened when the sport that was playing ended and went away for a few months while a new sport rolled in. You sort of pushed it away and then the closer the time came for a new season,you got excited for it. That isn't the case these days...with so much sports TV,ESPN being the worst by far,there is no time to recharge your battery. I mean,baseball might have ended in October,but the coverage never ends. I flicked on the MLB Network and they were showing (and I'm not kidding) the General Managers Winter Meetings! I mean,really? That is crazy...a bunch of GMs get together,shoot the shit and maybe swap a couple of minor league players and that is considered news?
  Same thing goes for college players signing,instead of a local blurb in the papers,ESPN will hold a press conference to show where a 17 year will play college football/basketball. The same idol worship that we have for a talentless hack like a Kim Kardashian or wondering if Jennifer Anniston is pregnant for the 150th time in People Magazine is now overtaking sports. When is enough actually enough? You have heard that many chefs don't eat what they cook as to not destroy the dish they like the best? Apply it to sports as well....let us fans have our off seasons!
  But don't let that stop you from reading Brad's column!

A bright ray of sunshine...I blogged about the City of Detroit and the death of cultural centers in the city. This included the closing of 4 library branches because of a 9.2 million dollar budget shortfall. But a hardy group of dedicated volunteers rallied and fought very hard for their branch and now the Keith Monteith  branch has been saved and will be reopening next month. A small victory but in Detroit,you take what you can when you can. Libraries are no longer just places where you check out books and DVDs. Many of computers and computer classes   where folks can apply for jobs or pick up basic skills to operate a computer. Our library has all sorts of different activities throughout the year,book groups,kids activities,open chess days,gaming days and free passes to different galleries and museums. Seeing a library close is a awful thing...

   Well that is it for now....but before I go.....another round of Gretchen Peters. Enjoy!