Count your blessings

We are in the homestretch on many fronts.

My best friend has only a few more days in town. Looking at the glass full, at least he has been in town. I may not have seen him as much as I'd liked but I'm blessed to have spent a few days in his company.

No one knows where life takes us...more than likely I will not see him again for 9 or 10 months. Again, really, I have no idea what I am doing tomorrow so I can't even make that ridiculous blanket statement and look into the future.

We hit an Indians' game but first, I gave him the downtown tour.

Now he is from Cleveland but has lived out of state for a few years.

I really wanted to show him the groovy East 4th experience....and then we just let the spirit move us and walked all over downtown. Heck, we had the time, so we walked and talked and enjoyed my wonderful city.

Another tradition we kept alive --going to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo! We hit it every summer and could not let this summer pass without a visit.

We actually lucked out. What a beautiful day --upper 80's to 90's just like I like it and he is used to, without the crazy humidity of FLA....a great 30-40mph wind....and our own private tour through the Giraffe house unveiling a few other surprises which I am not privy to share until my friend Sue says it is ok!

I felt like a kid again, especially slurping down my Icee!

What a wonderful couple of days.....which ended with yet another trip to the Indians' Game, Beatles' fireworks, and a Tribe win!

We are also in the final countdown of my Cleveland Indians' season.

People think I am crazy because we did not have a winning season. But watching this team day in and day out, we've made progress and every game was exciting.

I can't stand people who look at the Sports Page headline and just see the score without knowing how hard the players worked, if new ground was broken, if records were achieved, or if firsts were accomplished.

I adore this team. I always have and the last few years have been really fun. We have a good team. I'm not really sure what upper management will do to help or hurt it in the off season but if we continue with the following line-up, we will be making great strides:

Matt LaPorta at 1st

Jason Donald at 2nd w/Jordan Brown backup utility infielder

Asdrubal Cabrera at ss (or Omar Vizquel)

Jayson Nix at 3rd base (or Omar Vizquel)

Trevor Crowe/Michael Brantley/Shelley Duncan in left

Grady Sizemore in center

Shin Soo Choo in right

Travis Hafner OR Jim Thome as DH

Carlos Santana/Lou Marson /Luke Carlin catching

Carmona /Talbot/Masterson/Carrasco/Tomlin/Gomez pitching

Perez closing with various set up men (sipp/smith/perez/germano/lewis)

I love this team! And with Mom's divine intervention over the next few years, so will everyone else!!!!