Hanging with Rich

Should I Buy an Indians Ticket Plan?..... As I write this it's about 57° on the last day of January. That can only get me thinking about Spring. The other day I was thinking that I can't wait to get out riding my bike again. A year ago at this time a bike was the last thing on my mind. Sorta' like buying Indians tickets are now. But Spring definitely gets me thinking about Baseball. Maybe it's just me. Maybe it's just people my age. But Spring and Baseball goes together like peanut butter and jelly. In one of my older blogs, I revealed that down deep, baseball was my favorite sport. It's what I grew up with. It was a different time, but I can't remember a summer day that I wasn't playing ball with neighbors or friends. (Watch the movie Sandlot.) My baseball glove, and baseball cards, were my most prized possessions. I also loved going to a few Indians games a year. Even though they were usually crappy. As my regular readers will know, I became a

All You Gotta' Do Is Win,,,and Birthday Greetings..... I was able to go to the game last Monday when the Cleveland Cavaliers took on the champion Golden State Warriors. There was a playoff vibe in the air walking through Quicken Loans Arena before the game. The game started about 8:00. But it was over about 8:10 as Golden State got out to a 12-2 lead. The Cavs body language and play told me this game was over. A few days later the Cavs fired their coach David Blatt. This was the same Blatt that had this team only 2 games from a championship last Me & Blatt season with a depleted roster. The same Blatt that had them with the best record in the Eastern Conference so far this season. Yet, you could see something was not quite right. The Cavs seemed to be a fragile team, not playing their best in important games. They also seem to rely on individual talent as opposed to good team play. Remember, when David Blatt was hired, Lebron had not decided to come back yet. Blatt,

We're Goin' to Vegas, Baby!..... The hardest part about writing this blog is deciding what to write about. Sometimes something happens in the news that I feel like commenting on. Sometimes I do something interesting that week. Or sometimes it's just seasonal, like Christmas songs. But usually I'm clueless until I start writing. So here's the story about how this happened this week. Grab a cup of coffee. It started as a regular Saturday evening. Our son Kenny was playing at a restaurant, keeping patrons entertained. I was enjoying fried calamari and beer. Earlier in the day, I had been talking with my wife about her birthday coming up later this month. (It's a big one that ends in a zero.) We had a great time traveling last year, and I suggested we look into a quick trip. The discount airlines in town now make it quite affordable. I plugged in one location after another reaching no real conclusion. Although Las Vegas seemed to be interesting. I have bee

Who's Addicted To Their Smartphone?..... The new crack? Scene 1: A woman enters a suburban grocery store while talking on her phone. She proceeds up and down the aisles carrying on her conversation, oblivious to her surroundings or other people. She even checks out and leaves the store, still on the phone, barely acknowledging the cashier. Scene 2: A family of four enters a restaurant for dinner. After placing their order with the waitress, they all retreat to their own respective smartphones until dinner arrives. Then they place the phones on the table, but leave them open. Great family time. While Scene 1 may just be a case of a rude human being, the second may be a case of cell phone addiction. We have all seen examples of this, but how close are we to becoming part of this afflicted group? This problem is quite obvious to me because I remember when cell phones didn't even exist. I might have even been an "early adopter." While I didn't walk around

A Look Back at 2015, And a Look Ahead..... The new year is always a good time to review what happened last year. It's also good for setting resolutions for your future. I won't really be making resolutions. More like hopes, and maybe a dream. First, let's look back. It started with a cold winter, but ended with me doing a hot version of the whip and nae nae. But there were three major items I'd like to talk about that were a big part of 2015 to me. Biking at Marblehead. My Bike: After taking a break for several decades, I decided to get a bike and start riding again. Nobody believes me, but I actually started looking into it as an activity I could do with my wife. She was big into power walks. Not me. But she hurt her knee pretty bad, and I wound up the only one riding. Now Cleveland is not Paris, but I bet Cleveland has the better Metropark system. It is a bike riders paradise. I remember at the start I was nervous about even a short ride of a few miles. But