Paid for by the committee to.....

Getting caught up on a few things here....

It's been a busy couple of days here, what with life in general and our trip to Florida. I didn't have a chance to blog about the new developments in the Mayor's race in New Bedford.

I was surprised to hear about John Saunders pulling out of the race for Mayor. I really thought that this was the year he was going to go for it. It was looking like he would be one of the front runners in this year's race. John decided to pull out because of family considerations. He has a 13 year old son and he wants to spend time watching him play baseball.

I was very surprised to hear that Matt Morrissey is also pulling out of the Mayor's race. I felt like Matt had been waiting to run for Mayor since the last time he had run for mayor. He also pointed to his family as the reason for not running. Matt has 4 young children and wants to see them grow up.

I salute both of these men. It must have been a very difficult decision but I'm sure it is the right one for their families. I have had the pleasure of being there to see most, if not all, of my children's games and special events and while it has meant some professional sacrifice, those are the things you can't get bck.

I Can't Imagine

I can't imagine having so much free time on my hands.

I was working on tomorrow's show. (Yes, we do actually sit and plan some of this stuff) Tomorrow is Clancy Brown's birthday. He is the voice of MR. Krabs on "Spongebob" on Nickolodean. I thought it would be nice to have a sound clip of Mr. Krab's to add a little "flava" to the segment. So, I went on youtube and did a search for Mr. Krabs. WOW! There are more than 5,000 videos and these are not episodes from the show. They are various clips, many of which are set to music. Some.....VERY ODD.

That leads me to today's title..."I Can't Imagine." Imagine having all that free time?? Would you spend it putting Mr. Krabs cartoon clips to music? Imagine if we did something helpful and productive with that time?

In second thought, I guess it did help me to be productive and come up with something else to talk about and scratch my head about.

No Such Thing As A Snow Day

"Over the river and through the snow to the radio show we go!" That's not how it goes?

We got lucky here on the Southcoast. The Blizzard turned to rain overnight and kept our snow accumulations down. It was still a little slick. I want to thank my son Doug who went out and shovelled before he went to bed last night. I just had to brush off some snow and head on out. Then it's a matter of avoiding the plows and finding a place to park where you won't get plowed in. We report to work before the plow gets to the parking lot so you have to be careful or when they show up they bury you. It was a busy morning with a lot of cancellations but could have been worse if we had had more snow and if there had been school in session.

I sat in Church on Christmas eve thinking of my mom. For years she sat in the pew next to me and sang the familiar carols. She left us in the summer of 2009.

I thought of my Uncle Ron. He was a UCC minister for many years in Maine. He led many a Christmas eve service He left us in the fall of this year.

Cancer claimed them both. It amazes me how life changes. I'm sure I'm not the first to ever realize this or comment on it. Strange how things carry on for years, traditions develop and then.....poof!

I know this isn't a very cheerful Christmas message, but I was thinking last night how it's just not fair. Year after year after year you observe the holidays in a certain way, only to have it end.

To leave you on a lighter note, it was fun to sit in my house as midnight approached. My wife read "Polar Express" to the kids and then I read "Twas the Night Before Christmas." I imagined them continuing this tradition with their kids.

I also wondered if my mom and my Uncle were together in Heaven celebrating the holiday and looking down on us. At least they were finally pain-free and hopefully had fun looking down on out chaos and clutter.

I Change My Mind

Ok. I was wrong. When the Celtics announced that they were signing Shaquille O'Neal, I remember saying, "Why?!" I couldn't figure out why we needed him. He was old, He used to play for the Lakers!

Ok. I was wrong. He's been great on the court and better off the court. Visiting with kids, having fun with the fans. Watching him conduct the Boston Pops the other night made me realize it must be great to be Shaq. I've been told he loves Boston and has never been in a city that was so nice and had fans that were this great.

Welcome Shaq!

Sorry chap, don't care!

I'm getting sick of all the Royal Wedding Coverage and they're not even getting married until next May!

William and Kate are getting married across the pond and the media is just going CRAZZZYYYY! I saw a tweet today that said NBC News is setting up a blog just for the Royal coverage. The Huffington Post had a piece today called the "10 Most Overrated Things of 2010" and there it is! William and Kate's engagement makes the list.

Why are people so attracted to this story? Are they or does the media just THINK they are? I don't know a single person that is ga-ga over this story. My friends and colleagues are happy for them, think they make a nice couple, but that's about it. I guess it's only going to get worse as the countdown continues. Now 6 months away!

Can I flip a coin?

Week 10 of the NFL and some tough ones this week.

I'm getting off to a bad start after picking Baltimore to beat Atlanta on Thursday and that turned out wrong.

On Sunday I'm picking:

Indy over Cincinnati
Houston over Jacksonville
I'll take my Dolphins over Tennessee even though everyone thinks I'm crazy.
Minnesota to beat Chicago
Detroit to keep Buffalo winless.
I think Cleveland might surprise the Jets the way they beat New England.
Tampa Bay to win at home against Carolina.
KC over Denver.
St. Louis over San Fran. I like that Sam Bradford.
Seattle over Arizona.
Dallas has a new coach, but it won't matter. I'll take the Giants.

Sunday night I'm going with Pittsburgh. I think the Pats have problems.

Monday night I'll take the eagles over Washington.