Hanging with Rich

My Niagara Falls Zipline Adventure..... I've always been fascinated by Niagara Falls. It's just so damn cool to look at up close. It's an unbelievable amount of water. Every drop of the Great Lakes goes over the falls. And it runs 24/7. Our take off point. I loved visiting it as a kid, as an adult, and even showing it to my kids when they were younger. When my daughter Kristina was doing the college search thing, I determined Niagara University would be worth a look. She liked it too, and wound up getting a degree there. She now lives and works in Buffalo, so we visit her, and the area regularly. Last summer, we even rode our bikes around Goat Island between the Canadian and American Falls. I guess what I'm trying to say is I don't need a big excuse to visit the Falls. A couple of weeks ago I'm reading the Buffalo News online and come across this tidbit: Zipline Ride at the Falls Readies to Open. A Zipline? At the Falls? Hell, yeah! I had never been ...

Vietnam Replica Memorial Stirs Emotions..... This past week there were plenty of visitors to my town. Most of them made a lot of noise. They made speeches and either supported or protested one thing or another. But there was one visitor to town that did bring a quiet dignity. A half size replica of the Vietnam Memorial Wall was erected and on display last week in Middleburg Heights, where I grew up. The replica Vietnam Memorial Wall. This is known as The Moving Wall exhibit. It was made by veterans, and travels the country. It stays on display for about a week wherever it goes. I have never seen the real thing in Washington, D.C., so I was anxious to visit. I am not a Vietnam Veteran. It's one of the few things in life that I was actually too young for. When I started college in Bowling Green, Ohio I was still seventeen. On my eighteenth birthday I remember taking a lonely walk down Wooster St. to register for the Selective Service system. During those years, there was a...

Thurmond's Passing Seems On Cue..... Yesterday I got home from work a little tired. My work doesn't get me tired everyday, but I was happy to get home yesterday and change into some comfortable clothes. I flopped on to my couch and grabbed my trusty tablet to check in with any news happenings. Then I saw it; Former Cavalier Nate Thurmond passes away at 74. Unless you're my age, you never saw him play. Hell, even I never saw him play live very much. He played most of his career in the 70's on the west coast. Following the NBA in the 70's was part story telling and part detective research. There was no cable TV, and no internet. This was the era of the magazine. Names like Sports Illustrated and Sport Magazine ran features. My favorite was a newspaper style weekly called The Sporting News. It would have the statistics from every game.  Big men, like Chamberlain, were common in Thurmond's era. Nate Thurmond grew up in Akron. (Sound familiar?) He gradu...

A Bad Day for America..... I was making plans to go to Put in Bay today. If you're not familiar with the area, Put in Bay is a resort town on a nearby Lake Erie island. Put in Bay is a great place to relax, have fun, and enjoy summer. But then one thing popped up, then another, and my plans got postponed. Then I saw the headlines, and I wasn't even in the mood to have fun. This is a troubling day. One where the aftershocks will reverberate for a long time. The background, briefly, is this. Yesterday, in Minnesota, an African American was pulled over by police for a broken tail light, One bad decision led to another bad decision and he was shot and killed. Later yesterday in Louisiana, an African American was killed by police, in an apparent overreaction because he was carrying a gun. Shooting was posted on Facebook. African American communities across the country were outraged as the killings were broadcast on social media. There was a peaceful protest in Dallas, Texas...

Is the Mojo Spreading?..... The good feelings in this town haven't stopped since the Cavalier's won the NBA Championship. An estimated 1.3 million  people showed up for the Championship parade celebration downtown. That's about 3 times the total population of the City of Cleveland. It is thought that was the largest celebration of basketball anywhere, and at any time. Cleveland, Ohio 6/22/2016: The world's largest celebration of basketball- ever. On most any street corner pop up tents sprang up selling Cavs Championship gear. People are still in a good mood. They are a little more proud. Personally, I've got some souvenirs. But I find myself looking at pictures and videos from the Finals . It's almost like I'm expecting to wake up from a dream. But so far, it seems like we actually did win this thing. The good feelings in this town not only are strong, they seem to be making people greedy about winning. Now, when people talk about the Indians, we...