* January started off with me taking a trip to St Louis for my 2018 certification for RTI so I can work in the field for the coming year. It is something I have to do every year, and this year Michelle did not go with me.
* Moke and Ang held a birthday party for Ryleigh out in Blacksville, it was a well attended event.
* I was named the new Fire Warden for our area at work for my floor. I was supposed to be the backup, but I turned out to be the primary as the previous Fire Warden moved to another building.
* WVU Men's basketball team achieved the #2 ranking for a week in January.
* An idiot driver hit the telephone pole across the street knocking out my electric for a number of ours and my cable for an extended period of time.
* Big snowstorm caused traffic in Morgantown (at least where I live), to come to an absolute standstill.
* In ended up with a touch of the influenza, knocking me out of both of my jobs for a shirt time period.
* I made my first drone flight in late January after the weather cleared up a little bit.
* Phil started my month out horribly by seeing his shadow. Damn rat.
* I finally reached a magic number, I reached and surpassed the number of days that my Dad was alive. His life ended too short.
* Jimmy Buffett had announced that he was returning to Pittsburgh in 2018, tickets went on sale and I grabbed ours.
* Michelle, Chris and Jim all got called to Ohio to clean out her Grandmothers trailer as it was being sold.
* I made my second drone flight, I was still learning how to fly it.
* West Virginia teachers walked out and went on a state wide teachers strike that went on for a while. They ended up getting their demands.
* March kicked off with a visit to the Hovatters Zoo, we bought season passes for 2017 but never used them enough to make up for the cost of them. It went to a good cause though.
* Jim and Chris had a big estate auction of Michelle's Grandmothers (Dad's mother) place, they did it at the Woodland Church and had a great Auction.
* MEPCO stopped production at their coal mine, this would eventually mean an end to Michelle's employment at MEPCO.
* I won an EBAY Auction for one of my favorite childhood toys, a Cox Airplane.
* We went shopping at First Defense and upgraded Michelle's carry pistol, something she was much more comfortable with. We traded in one I had bought from my niece a couple years earlier.
* Uncle Junior, aka Rev. George Koon, had been called him to be with Lottie.
* My Cousin Heather also died in a car wreck, she was in transit to see her first Grandchild when the fatal crash happened.
* Jim and Chris had a big estate auction of Michelle's Grandmothers (Dad's mother) place, they did it at the Woodland Church and had a great Auction.
* MEPCO stopped production at their coal mine, this would eventually mean an end to Michelle's employment at MEPCO.
* I won an EBAY Auction for one of my favorite childhood toys, a Cox Airplane.
* We went shopping at First Defense and upgraded Michelle's carry pistol, something she was much more comfortable with. We traded in one I had bought from my niece a couple years earlier.
* Uncle Junior, aka Rev. George Koon, had been called him to be with Lottie.
* My Cousin Heather also died in a car wreck, she was in transit to see her first Grandchild when the fatal crash happened.
* April started out with a drone flight, I took the drone out to Mylan Park and put it up for a little while.
* The annual Johnny Koon Bowl-A-Thon was held at Suburban Lanes, we did not make it over this year.
* We subscribed to the Dominion Posts electronic edition. It had been a number of years since I was a daily DP reader, and this was an attempt to get back into that habit.
* Hayley ended up crashing her car. Michelle and I bought her a Volkswagon Jetta so she wasn't without a car.
* I made a drone flight out at Mason Dixon Park.
* Mylan Pharmaceuticals announced that is was going to lay off 500 employees, this was after laying off 300 the previous fall.
* April ended with us smoking a pork butt and having Hayley over for dinner.
* I crashed my drone screwing around in the yard and had to order a couple more sets of propellers.
* Sadly, Michelle's employment at MEPCO had come to an end, they had shut down all the mines a few months earlier, and she was one of the last people to leave the company as it shut down. It was a job she loved.
* Softball season once again started and the boys from Whitetail Crossing re-assembled to compete in the over the hill league as it is referred to. I think it is the funnest league to play in.
* I put the drone up yet once again, this time I took it to where my Grandparents raised their children at the end of Van Voorhis and made a couple of flights over my childhood home.
* Michelle wasn't too bored, she was offered a job as the Office Manager for X-Treme Labor Solutions, a job that she absolutely loves. She gets to change peoples lives and hire people at career jobs.
* We took a trip to Blackwater Falls during the Holiday weekend.
* I did my yearly duties of going to the local graveyards where family members are buried and placed flags on the graves of those who served our nation.
* The Old Fart softball league in which I play in (Over 50) started in June.
* Michelle started her new and current job, she only had a few weeks off before they called her and offered her the office manager position. They were starting a Norther WV Office to address Oil and Gas, and they are booming.
* We attended Smitty and Steffy's 15th Wedding Anniversary at Coopers Rock.
* I had a brother that none of us knew who he was or anything about him, a few years earlier we started a search to find him. In June of 2018 the search officially ended as we found Jonathan, my big Brother. I spoke to him a number of times throughout the month trying to answer questions and give him information about his past that he didn't know.
* Michelle and I started to talk about a cruise for 2018 now that she had secured steady employment.
* Chad turned the big 3-0.
* July started off with a scare, Peanut had some health issues and we had to run her to the emergency clinic. We feared and prepared for the worst, but she pulled through and everything is OK and she is still my baby.
* After a years absence, Jimmy Buffet returned to Pittsburgh and Michelle and I were there. We rode in a Limo up with some friends and had a good time.
* Michelle, Layla and I all took a road trip. We treated our former flower girl from our wedding to a nice little surprise. We took her to Idlewild Park for the day, and it was a hot one.
* The 19th Anniversary of my Dad passing occurred during this month, but unlike any before all six offspring know who each other are or contacted each other.
* We attended a benefit Spaghetti dinner for our friend Vanessa.
* In late July, we announced that we were going to do it again. We booked and paid for another cruise and the timing was perfect. I was going to settle to book in the aft when one opened up 6th floor mid ship where we like to book our rooms and we jumped on it.
* WV Mountainfest started, Michelle and I went one day, earlier in the day and never returned to the venue for any of the concerts.
* Michelle traveled up north for her nephew Jonny's birthday party. She traveled and I stayed home and worked.
* My blog's feed was no longer picked up by Facebook. I had used Feedburner to push my blog to twitter, then Facebook would pick up the twitter feed, but they stopped picking up outside feeds. Hence no more automatic posts to Facebook.
* Michelle and I celebrated seven wonderful years of marriage with an Anniversary Dinner at Fusion Restaurant.
* The students at WVU returned to Morgantown, making traffic once again a pain in the butt.
* The Johnny Koon Light up night was held, they had to move it down over the hill from where it was usually held, but it seemed to work out fine. My niece Amy continued her streak of winning all the door prizes once again. The event raised $4,925 for pediatric brain cancer research for WVU Children's Hospital.
* Softball season came to an end for us, we were in first place most of the season and lost two straight games during the playoffs ending our season.
* The Mountaineers started the season out right with a 40-17 win against Tennessee in Football.
* I got a new GPS at work, I was granted the Cadillac of Cadillacs in the GPS World. This toy (I mean tool) is amazing.
* My Nephew Ralphie won a new truck in a raffle.
* After a year off from cruising, Michelle and I set out on our 6th Cruise to the Caribbean. It is always the highlight of our year and it killed me the year before to have to cancel it.
* Michelle's Grandmother Ruth (Gigi as she is referred to), sold her home and they closed on it in the month of September.
* I celebrated my 10 year anniversary (with 3 companies) at NETL. Sad but this is the first and only location I ever worked 10 years at.
* I headed out west to do a presentation, my destination was Las Vegas. This was the first time that I had ever been there and the presentation was the largest I have ever had to give on my own. Went great.
* The WVU Basketball team got a verbal commitment from 5 star recruit Oscar Tshiebwe, he has since signed his Letter of Intent.
* I had a trainer come in for two days to train me and a couple of co-workers on the new GPS system we had purchased. I was lost until the trainer came in, now I feel I could train the class.
* I put in for 2019 Training at work, I'll be in Washington DC in January and San Diego in July. Yeah me.
* The month started out with a trip to Amish Country for Michelle and me, a place that we love to visit and is always worth a good days trip if not a couple of days.
* We held the mid term elections (non Presidential year) where we re-elected a Senator and had to elect all of our House Members.
* Jim and Chris held their 2018 Christmas Auction in Cassville, arguably one of their best auctions to date.
* NETL named a new Director, one who is local and is a WVU Grad.
* We set up our 2018 Christmas Tree. We bought this one from Lowes and Michelle has kind of indicated that maybe she would like to start doing artificial trees instead of a real one next year.
* Michelle lost a family member when Ginny had passed away. Ginny was there when Michelle was born and she was always someone very close to Michelle.
* December saw the passing of former President George H W Bush.
* We traveled to Ohio for the Ohio Family Christmas. This was the first one that was not held at Gigi's house or Julies house (Michelle's Cousin) and was instead held at the Elks club.
* I attended not one, not two but three Christmas Parties at work. One was NETL wide, one was for my contract and one was my departments. All three went very well.
* Kim Brittany and I went shopping in Pittsburgh while Michelle went to her Sisters and baked Christmas Cookies.
* We attended Amanda and Joey's Christmas Pig roast at their home.
* We went to Terri and Nick's for Christmas Eve and did a live stream with Jonathan.
* I have written 392 blogs in 2018, two more than last year.
* Have a safe and Happy New Year, we will see you on the other side.
* We traveled to Ohio for the Ohio Family Christmas. This was the first one that was not held at Gigi's house or Julies house (Michelle's Cousin) and was instead held at the Elks club.
* I attended not one, not two but three Christmas Parties at work. One was NETL wide, one was for my contract and one was my departments. All three went very well.
* Kim Brittany and I went shopping in Pittsburgh while Michelle went to her Sisters and baked Christmas Cookies.
* We attended Amanda and Joey's Christmas Pig roast at their home.
* We went to Terri and Nick's for Christmas Eve and did a live stream with Jonathan.
* I have written 392 blogs in 2018, two more than last year.
* Have a safe and Happy New Year, we will see you on the other side.
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