I hope this week marks the end of the cold and the snow I am so ready for the heat!

I’m still riding high off the US hockey games from the Olympics’  and low and behold my wounded Detroit Red Wings are back in the playoff hunt, could I actually get to enjoy hockey in shorts again this year?

I’m trying to decide whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing that I have 109 episodes of Family Guy on my DVR?

I have found that my day starts much better after changing from watching the news with my morning coffee and instead watching Mike and Mike in the morning.

I miss my daughter’s smile, and I need to go visit her again!

 After screaming for his head and seeing that the Panthers have released Jake Delhomne I kind of feel sorry for him……. No way! He made all that money playing that horrible, hell I could have thrown 5 picks in a playoff game too, so screw that!

        And I just realized over the weekend that I’m approaching my 10^th anniversary with Rock 101 WROQ. 10 years at one radio station, wow!

I couldn’t make either of my marriages hold together that long, not to mention the various relationships I’ve tried over the past few years. I guess radio is my lady, my great love, my one and only! I have so many people to thank for reaching Ten years at one station. I want to Thank my boss Mark Hendrix for putting up with me and supporting me in the good and the bad days, the rest of the rock 101 staff, I mean you can’t make it this far without a great team. Stony, Larry, Annie, Chuck, and our whole promotions and support staff, like Tracy West, make this one of the best jobs in the world. But the biggest reason I could make it 10 years at one station is YOU! You the Rock 101 listeners, who have listened and supported my show all these years. I can’t thank you all enough for giving me the chance to do this thing as long as I have. You welcomed me in, you became my friends and I feel so blessed to be here still. You were there for me as I struggled to adapt to the city, you were there, to celebrate the birth of my daughter and you were there when I battled through the pain of divorce. So thank you all from the bottom of my heart for sticking with me for the past 10 years!

USA USA USA! Wow I don’t know about you but I am so stoked about the strong showing team America has made at this year’s winter games. From the downhill events on the men’s and women’s side, to speed skating, figure skating, short track speed skating, to the Hockey teams, the US has been leaving it’s mark and walking away with medal after medal. Team USA is on pace to shatter the old record for medals at the games! I can’t tell you how wonderful it was to see the American Men’s Hockey team, roll into Vancouver real off 3 straight wins, capped off by beating the home team Canadians last night! And the fact that this team actually has embraced the history of the US hockey program makes it even more fun to watch for us older guys! They wore the same jersey design the 1960 team wore, when they defeated the Canadians 50 years ago, and of course they are also inspired by the 30^th anniversary of the “miracle on ice” 1980 gold medal winning team too. It seems like the athletes in the winter games seem more connected to the history of each sport they are in and seem to have a deeper sense of pride at representing the United States and in the Team sports they seem to be willing to give up personal glory for the good of the team. I think there is no better example of that then Mens Hockey team. So as we enter the second week of the games I highly suggest you tune in and see what happens with Team America! They are inspiring in with the effort they are making and a true source of American pride at a time when our country could sure use a positive vibe!

       Oh and sometimes wishes do come true! If you remember I was just talking about how I wished hockey was coming back to Greenville. WELLLLL Pro Hockey is coming back to Greenville and I couldn’t be more excited. I want to call on all my northern transplant friends those who’ve been here as long as I and those who’ve come to the upstate since we lost our last team to come out and support this team. And for all you homegrown folks who don’t know what icing is and never whacked a biscuit between the pipes, please come out and see the game in person! You marvel at the skills of these young men and you will get the same charge you get going to a high school football game on a Friday night! This is a sport you cannot appreciate on TV, but is still one of the most exciting sports to see in person. So let’s all make plans to meet up next season at the BiLo center and support our new team we got Hockey back lets hang on to it this time, it’s worth every penny!

Got the Post Football season blues again! I’m just not a big fan of anything else these days and it’s killing me. Yes I’m a big Hockey fan but my budget didn’t allow for the NHL network this year and besides my Detroit Red Wings are having a terrible year and in danger of not making the playoffs for the first time in like 20 years! Golf has no Tiger in it. And don’t get me started about the NBA the league has gone back to the star system and I just can’t watch that game anymore. College Basketball means nothing till March, and NASCAR I can watch but seems to not really catch my eye except for the big races and I’m sure I’ll give Daytona a chance to get my interest going this season, and well the winter Olympics’ do start this weekend and I can get into some bobsledding, downhill skiing, hockey, and believe it or not, I love curling, the regular guys sport!

     I just wish we had a local minor league hockey team again that would fill this big sports hole for me. I still miss the Grrrowl, doing the games as the announcer and just watching as our players would develop and move on and even grow into a powerhouse and win a championship. I would love to see those days return to the upstate some day! I just hope that if the chance does come our way again, to have pro hockey in Greenville, that we have a great owner who cares about the community, knows how to run a team and that all of us hockey fans, of which there many in the upstate, jump at the chance to support a new team! Pipe dream? Maybe, but I just can’t seem to give up the idea that hockey could come back and we’d all support it again!

Well the week started off with the world finding out who were the two teams who will take the field for the “big game” (we are not allowed to refer to the game at the S***r B**l for legal reasons from the NFL) coming up. So it’s that team from Louisiana VS the team from Indiana (not sure if I can refer to either team by name either this week so just trying to keep from getting fined here). It’s the first time since 1994 that the two number one seeds in that certain league ( you know.. that pro football league?) so it looks as though we are in for a great match up. Two great gentlemen leading both these teams, one a who resembles  a robot (we’ll call him Forrest Gump here cause I don’t know if I can say his real name) and the other more like a Texas Gunslinger (cause he grew up in Texas!) And the two will lead their teams onto the field at that Stadium in South Florida (again they just changed the name of the stadium and I don’t want to say the wrong name here). It will be a great game and don’t forget to catch the half time show featuring the Who (you know, that band that sings… who are you… who the f**K are you!)

Then we found out here at Rock 101 WROQ that my afternoon show was #1 in the latest ratings. Now that was some wonderful news indeed. Was thrilled to get the news and thank all of you out there for continuing to support my show and the station as I approach my tenth anniversary!

Then as the week rolled on we heard of a great storm coming our way, The Obama state of the union speech that is, oh and yes it did snow and sleet a little around here too I believe?

The weekend capped off with the announcement that my good friends Yonrico Scott and the Derek Trucks band won a Grammy for the best contemporary Blues album last night. It was a huge win for this wonderful band that cut their teeth playing all the little places around the upstate years ago like Al’s pump house, and the Handlebar. And whose members have played a huge role in the wonderful growth and recognition our area is getting these days in the music world! Congratulations to all of them. And as we start another week, I’m excited to see if it turns out to be anything like last week! Well it will at least end with the “BIG GAME” ( you know what I’m saying …wink,wink)

You know family history is a very interesting thing. You never know everything about your past, you think you do but there are always more buried through time and once in a while something pops up that just might surprise you. This just happened for me this past week.

       You see I knew my Great Grandfather was a medical missionary in Korea way back in the early 1900’s I was aware he had spent like 40 years in the country doing a lot of good things for the people he cared so much about, and I was also pretty sure he was very close to the Methodist church as well. But I didn’t know how important a figure he was in the establishment of the church in the country of Korea. He was a major part of the great Revival movement of 1907 that lead to the way the church would become and has continued to be to this day. The People of South Korea see his work as so important that they have recently decided to Honor my great Grandfather Robert A. Hardie with a monument and a special ceremony coming up later this spring!

       As you can imagine this was a big surprise and honor for my whole family. It’s seems that this is such a major event that my family has been invited to attend this event in Korea as well! We are being flown over to attend the event by the people of South Korea and will be given a grand tour of all that my great grandfather was a part of. But this is not the only connection my family has to this amazing country, we have much more that I was more aware of than this recent revelation, some of it good and some of it tragic.

       See because of my great grandfather long association with the people of Korea, well my Aunt Dorothy spent many years teaching in the country and once made a very personal tour to the country side and wrote an article for parade magazine about her journey. You see her and my fahter’s big brother was in the Korean War, and he was killed in that war. And my aunt went back into those mountains where the horror of that war is still in the air ( being so close to the 38^th parallel )where north and south stand at the ready even to this day. She stood in the very place her and my dad’s brother lost his life and wrote about the whole experience. My Aunt passed away a few years ago, and I think she had found some peace in taking that journey. And now after all these years one member of my father’s family and his contributions to mankind has provided the chance for my father to take that same journey as his sister did, to make peace with the loss of a brother so many years ago.

     You can see now why this trip is so wonderful for our family in so many ways. I’m so fortunate to be able to travel to this country that has been a part of my family it’s seems like forever and to be able to be there to support my Father on this once in a life time Journey! So I say thank you to the People of South Korea, the Korean Church and to my Great Grandfather for what you’ve made happen. A chance for my father to complete a journey he’s wanted to take for so long and I thank you all for allowing me to be there with him!

Ok so Mark McGwire came clean. He admitted using Steroids during the big home run years of his career. I’d like to meet the one person in America who was surprised by that announcement yesterday! What I think was most surprising was that he has actually convinced himself that the Roid’s weren’t the reason he was hitting so many homeruns!

Come on Mark, please. Yes you were a bash brother and yes you were a home run hitter, but to shoot from totals like 40 to 70? There are only 3 of you who did that and the other two are Sammy Sosa, and Barry Bonds. And the cloud of suspicion around them is so thick I don’t even need to go into detail about the alleged use of steroids by those two.

       I will give credit to Mac for calling and apologizing to the Maris family. They took him into that family and as he passed by Rogers mark of 61 homeruns they were there to be a part of it all and Mac did show great respect to them all along the way so that was one good thing.

        But where does baseball go from this point do these tainted homerun marks stay in the record books? How can they not count when the act of taking steroids then was not banded by the league yet and therefore even though we hate these fake records they technically still belong on the books. But isn’t this an insult to the Hank Aarons, and other great home run hitters throughout history who played through pain, played for little or no money, and for gentlemen like Aaron who played through the racism he endured ever day.

       I’ve become so detached from the game from baseball. It was a game I loved as a kid and followed obsessively throughout my youth. And here’s yet another reason I just still can’t find my way back to the ball park or the TV to watch what was once America’s past time!

I do love the NFL  and this week is one of the reasons. It’s the start of the second season. The Playoffs and it so fun when you have a dog in the hunt. I am a huge San Diego Chargers fan. Even as a kid  i was just a fan of the uniforms and the style of play. Then as fate would have it I got to move to “American’s finest city” as San Diego is known. And of course after finding a place to live just minutes away from Qualcom stadium, I was so excited to be able to go to see them play in person. Well let me tell you folks, they were one horrible team then they were just a few years removed from making it to the super bowl only to have Steve Young, Jerry Rice and the 49′rs humiliate them. And standing there with the number one draft pick my first year there they drafted…. RYAN LEAF! And so my time in San Diego was spent watching the worst team in football. So to see them climb from those ashes and grow the team into a contender again has been special for me. So you can understand why I’m excited for the playoffs to begin. My Bolt’s are the one team that the Colts don’t want to play they are the one team that no one want to face right now and I can’t wait for them to get past the bye week and play.

        So to all my friends out there who’s teams are still in it well lets enjoy the week of anticipation, cause half of us will be out of it in a week! One and done is the name of the game. and just remember it’s just a game….. aww hell no its not! it’s what will carry you through the rest of a dark winter, your team winning the super bowl. GO CHARGERS!

Well there were some real highs and real lows for me in the year 2009. and after checking the balance between the to I have come to the conclusion that I’m taking a muligan for 2009. I have already quickly turned the corner and have decided when i moved into my new apartment in the middle of this month that I was starting 2010 then. So the past 15 days have been so wonderful, cause I’m not in 2009 anymore. I am glad that I, my daughter, my family and friends have all made it through in good shape as well. So hey lets all take a deep breath, and make 2010 the one to remember!

Wow can you believe how fast this Holiday season has gone so far? I mean it’s just been a blur these past few weeks.

      I’m really getting tired of the Tiger Woods thing. I wish he’d just man up and speak out and let it be done with.

     I sure hope someone beats the Colts I just can’t stand that team or the Quarterback of that team either. I don’t care if the Saints go all the way, I think it would be a great story.

      I really have never gotten over the idea of not having my daughter close to me and it really hits me hard during the Holidays, man I miss that part of being a Dad.

I’m so sick of the traffic around the Radio station these days. I know we are right next to a big shopping area, but damn it shouldn’t take as long as it does to get to work. Heck we here at the station can barely get out of the driveway in the evenings right now.

     I wonder if I will ever get this relationship thing down. I just can’t seem to get it right and it’s getting a little annoying.  Sometimes I think I should just stop trying to connect with anyone and just become a full time hermit, or the crabby old man in the neighborhood. I seem to do both of those things pretty well.(hey Donna look I wrote “pretty well instead of “pretty good” hope you’re proud of me) Sorry folks just a little inside humor there.

     I hate moving and will never get used to it.

I sure am looking forward to having a much better year in 2010. I’ve been just waiting for 09 to get over with and to be able to feel that wonderful sensation of starting over when I’m so ready for that! I’m taking a mulligan for 09

Well I hope everyone out there has a very Merry Christmas and a happy and safe New Year. Catch you on the airwaves!

Well the holiday season is here again and so far it’s not going to be ho, ho, ho, merry Christmas so far. I’ve been working way too much, not sleeping, I broke up with my girl friend, I’m moving the week of Christmas, I can’t make it to Michigan to see my family or Texas to see my daughter. But somehow I’m going to keep a positive outlook on the Holiday season. I do have some things to look forward to and be thankful for.

Hey I’m going to finally have a new place to call home. That’s been something I’ve been working towards for quite awhile. I get to go shopping for presents for my daughter, which is always fun to do. I’ll be able to go shopping for new things for my apartment which will also be fun, kind of my own Christmas to myself! And I’ve also got the Works 8^th annual Christmas jam coming up on Dec. 19^th at the Handlebar. It’s not only a wonderful gathering of local and national musicians coming together for a great night of music, but it’s for a very important cause, the Ronald McDonald house of the Carolina’s right here in Greenville. I very excited and proud to be a part of that! And to top it all off it’s been another great year where some many great friends have been there for me and supported me both on the air and in my personal life. I want to thank a few very special friends, Kristi, Annie, Wes, and Roger, who all had major positive impacts on my life this past year. I love all you guys very much and your friendships are the greatest gifts I could get this year! I’ve been enjoying being a semi regular on scene of 7 with Kimberly. Thanks Kimberly for letting me be a part of your show and help me get over my fear of the TV Camera! Also thanks to all you listeners who make it possible for me to have the greatest job in the world. Without your support of my show I could never have had yet another successful year in my radio career. And as I head into my 10^th year at rock 101 I couldn’t be happier to be at one of the best radio stations in the country and in a wonderful city to live in.

        So I guess it will be a little bit better Christmas season than I first thought as I started writing this blog today.  So hope you all have a wonderful holiday season and if you want to get me anything, I’d love a couple extra hands to help me move! Wait…. Where did you all go? What the …. Ho, Ho, Ho, Merry Christmas, somebody wake up the fat man he’s got work to do!