I just heard something that’s reflective of this weird winter: we’ve had 17 straight days of above-normal temperatures.

That’s made it rough for the good folks from the Toledo-Area Metroparks, who tried to give families a couple of outdoor venues for wintertime fun.

They installed sled riding hills and offer ice skating at Sidecut Metropark in Maumee and at Pearson Metropark in Oregon. The Maumee facility also has outdoor fireplaces for folks to keep warm.

Unfortunately for them, there’s been little snow and temperatures to warm to freeze ponds or an earthen ice rink.

But the deep freeze will hit just in time for the Whitehouse Winterfest this weekend. An Arctic blast is on the way, which will provide below-zero wind chills for the annual event.

Whitehouse Winterfest runs 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the downtown area of that Lucas County community.

Organizers had planned cardboard box sled races, a snowman building contest, a snow angel contest, and ice carvings. It’s hard to tell at this point whether those can be done.

However, there will be horse-and-carriage rides, music, food, and a Snowy Night Light Parade at 6:30 p.m.

Don’t know how “snowy” the parade will be, but the event will go on as planned—with or without snow and ice.

I’m not a wintertime fan, but here’s hoping there’s at least a little of the weekend white stuff so folks can enjoy both the outdoor Metropark facilities and a winterfest.

February is kind of a weird month for a sports-aholic like me. I’m not a big winter sports nut, so pro basketball and hockey don’t get me excited.

But there is the Super Bowl, signaling the end of the football season, National Signing Day, which signals yet another season of college football to look forward to when it comes to your favorite school, and the start of spring training for baseball.

While I will be sad to see another NFL season come and go, the major-league baseball fan in me hopes my beloved Cleveland Indians will solve their first baseman problems long-term or find another nugget of talent in the farm system to round out their roster.

I’m also hoping the Ohio State football team can put their scandal-ridden past behind them once and for all and that new coach Urban Meyer restores a sense of responsibility and pride in the squad. It’s been exciting to follow the large number of verbal commitments he has secured so far, but nothing is guaranteed until recruits sign a national letter of intent.

Of course, on both fronts, “potential” will be the watch-word until the teams actually take the field. But it will be fun to follow the off-season action, as it always leads to an actual season which could prove to be an exciting one—much like last year, when the Tribe hit the ground running with a great record, then lost steam as injuries took their toll.

It’s just fun to be a fan, period.

While the mild winter thus far has proved to be an economic bust for snow plowing companies, it sure is saving taxpayers and local governments some big bucks in salt and employee overtime. Those are just a couple of the benefits I can see from having a warmer-than-usual January.

Sorry, I’m not a fan of snow. I grew up in Northeast Ohio and saw my fair share, especially the blizzard of 1977 as a kid. My family lived on a hill. I’ve shoveled tons of the white stuff in my lifetime. I’m tired of it. Done. Finished. So I’m very delighted to only see an inch or two at a time that quickly melts.

Move to Florida or some other warmer climate, you say? Nah, I like Ohio and its people.

Our seasons may be a whole lot shorter compared to other regions, but, like many others, I want to stay close to family and friends. I’m a creature of routine, if you will. My early career took me out-of-state and if I can help it, I’m not going to leave again.

That’s not to say I won’t be the typical Ohioan and complain about the weather. Yes, we always know snow is going to happen, yet we whine and moan about it anyway. I guess it’s in our DNA.

But you won’t hear me complain about this winter to date. In fact, I’ve been able to get out and do some stuff on the weekends I probably wouldn’t do if I was shoveling instead. But I am worried about a possible repeat of what happened a few winters back, when we had a mild January. Old Man Winter buried us in late February and well into March. Spring seemed to take forever to finally arrive. Here’s hoping there’s no reprise this time.

This is a big weekend for Toledo-area churches.

Many of them are inviting families from outside their membership circle to watch a showing of the movie “Courageous.”

The film is about fatherhood and the struggles dads face to balance their work and home life, as well as being a parent. The movie centers on several police officers forced to make life-changing decisions as they come to grips with struggles within their own families.

“Courageous” follows in the vein of another successful film that caught a lot of people by surprise with its message. Fireproof starred Kirk Cameron, who you may recall from his days as a teen heartthrob on the TV series “Growing Pains.”

So why are churches doing this? Opening their doors right now at a crucial time in people’s lives is one way of reaching out to the community and performing the mission of ministry at home. Many churches focus on hunger and poverty around the world, but many pastors have realized there is a lot of hurt here at home—and have refocused their church efforts accordingly.

My church is one that is showing the film and I extend an invitation to Maumee United Methodist Church at 6:30 p.m., Sat., Jan. 21. For the little ones, my church is showing Dolphin Tale.

One of the things I enjoy most about my job is to hop in the station’s Jeep Liberty and head off to the far reaches of Northwest Ohio to tell a good story.

Don’t get me wrong—I’m a big fan of Toledo, my adopted hometown the last 15 years. I live in the Glass City, cover stories in the city on a regular basis.

But we don’t get the opportunity very often to head to Port Clinton, Tiffin, Fremont, or some of the other nice communities in our viewing area. Lately, I’ve had that chance with the Seneca County Courthouse demolition, a local sailor lost at sea, the Walleye drop and other assignments.

Meeting new people and telling stories in their communities is one of the big reasons I re-entered TV news 18 months ago here at Fox Toledo. Everyone I run across is friendly and helpful—even overly accommodating at times. But the ease with which small-town people show trust and respect in this day and age is refreshing.

I don’t know if I could ever do a desk job. There’s too much of the bigger, broader world to see and experience. Northwest Ohio is one of those places that calls out to explore and discover—and there’s nothing I enjoy more than telling someone a story about a part of their world they’ve never known before now.

So if folks in Defiance, Napoleon, Fostoria, Findlay and other communities see a Fox Toledo Jeep rolling by, honk and wave—and let me know if you’ve got a story to tell in your hometown.

Sometimes in the TV news business, you get to cover some pretty cool stories.

That was the case New Year’s Eve, when Nature’s Nursery celebrated the onset of 2012 by releasing a rescued and rehabbed eagle back into the wild.

The raptor rehabilitation center does not name its rescued wildlife, just the birds of prey it uses in its education programs.

So we’ll just call the juvenile female eagle Freedom for a number of reasons. First, the bald eagle is the symbol of American freedom. Second, and more important, volunteers nursed the eagle back to health over a four-month period and set it free.

Volunteers admitted there was no better feeling than to watch the eagle soar freely from its launching pad on top of the sledding hill at Maumee Bay State Park. The eagle seemingly gave back to its caretakers, soaring out over the bay, then back across the state park grounds before unsuccessfully attempting to land in a small tree. The flight and wobbly landing were entertaining to more than 60 people armed with camcorders, digital cameras, and binoculars.

The eagle was first found at Cullen Park in Point Place last August after a hailstorm. It could not fly, so volunteers could only guess it had been knocked out of a tree during the storm. It injured the equivalent of a human collarbone, forcing volunteers to put the bird of prey in a body wrap.

After a few weeks of treatment, the eagle was able to fly back and forth in an 80-foot long flight cage at Nature’s Nursery. On launch day, volunteers brought the bird of prey to the sledding hill in a big dog kennel, its top clamped to its bottom. Three people opened the kennel, two lifting off the top while the third removed the door.

The key to the eagle release was choosing the western Lake Erie basin, an area where it is familiar—so the bird can find a mate, make a nest, and keep the comeback of the bald eagle going. It was certainly an honor to watch, a great story to tell, and a pleasant experience.

You can see the story that aired here:

http://www.foxtoledo.com/dpp/news/wupw-injured-eagle-rehabbed-released-km?ref=scroller&categoryId=20000&status=true

This is the week we all seem to reflect on the past year and vow to make changes to our work and personal lives in the New Year.

Advertisers surely know this, because you see weight loss and diet commercials, ads for smoking cessation drugs and programs, as well as all kinds of other resolution-related gadgets, gizmos, and gimmicks.

Personally, I don’t make resolutions. I simply make a top ten list, in no particular order, of the things I would like to work on personally and professionally. What’s the difference you may ask?

None of them are life-changing notions. Just a process I have found works for me. It’s what you could call an annual to-do list to make life a little better. No great pronouncements like “exercise more” or “work smarter, not harder.” Those are generic, esoteric statements with no real road map to success.

Mine are more of an action plan, if you will. Attainable, step-by-step action items that I can cross off toward meeting a goal. I have found that works a lot better than making a resolution that is easy to give up on two weeks into a new year.

The list stays in an available place and I try to review it monthly. I try to set reasonable timelines for each action item. That allows for adjustment and revision as “life happens.”

Here’s hoping you have a Happy New Year. Try this method and see if there’s a difference. Obviously, you have to do what works for you. But if you’re like me, you’re ready to kiss 2011 goodbye and ring in a better 2012.

The mantel has been passed from my aging parents to a rotating sibling host, but the traditional family Christmas is something every one of us in my large family treasure.

Busy nuclear family lives and a greater distance means that family Christmas actually will happen New Year’s Day this year, but the sentiments expressed are the traditions every family should hold sacred and keep as long as possible.

Grandchildren used to be dressed in their Sunday best, but over time that evolved into casual clothes following an annual picture-taking extravaganza. A formal meal prepared by the host and a potluck of snacks, sandwiches, and desserts leaves us all feeling way too sleepy to drive back to our own households. But the day is definitely about the eight little ones—my children, nieces, and nephews who are growing up way too fast.

The youngest just started kindergarten. The oldest will graduate high school in the spring.

We each as individuals say it every year: as the kids grow older and their needs change from toys to clothes and gadgets, it’s time to cut back on the giving and preserve the family budget. But those are empty words. It never changes. We’re all caught up in hours of paper tearing, shredding, and unwrapping—as each child receives enough presents to feel like the luckiest kid in the world.

But the biggest tradition is togetherness. I am one of seven siblings and my Dad is now past the age of 80. We all received a scare Thanksgiving weekend a few years ago when he needed quadruple-bypass surgery. My mom’s medication has evened out her dementia to the point where large gatherings no longer bother her.

We all know we have a limited time left with Nana and Pop-Pop, so we’re going to treasure every holiday we can from here.

Here’s hoping you get to enjoy the company of close friends and family this holiday season. Enjoy Merry Christmas and a safe, Happy New Year.

Ten years ago, Toledo families were enamored with a popular public art project that placed frog sculptures all over the downtown area. More than 100 frog sculptures were created and commissioned to be painted by local and regional artists.

“It’s Reigning Frogs.” brought thousands of people downtown, many snapping photos next to their favorite frog friends. The amphibian artwork later was auctioned off and raised more than $150,000 for local charities.

The popularity of the public art spread to other cities. I can recall Cincinnati doing a similar project with pigs.

True to their creative nature, those artists came up with colorful characters out of those frogs—many with a regional flavor. Some were transformed into a judge, a police officer, a college graduate, a queen, a TARTA bus driver, and even a Toledo Mud Hen, er, frog.

Former president George Bush and ex-Mexico president Vicente Fox even autographed one frog while the pair visited Toledo several years ago. But there’s a legend behind an Ebay auction for that particular frog. Organizers accidentally set the auction to expire at noon that day, instead of midnight. Someone won the autographed amphibian on the cheap, when it was expected to draw a lot more attention later in the day.

Many of those world-famous frogs are still hopping around somewhere. I did a little research and caught up with a few web-footed friends for a My Town segment set to air Monday night at 10 p.m. I hope you enjoy the “where are they now?” segment as much as I had fun putting it together.

I just read where Albert Pujols just signed a mega-lucrative contract that shocked the baseball world: 10 years, $250 million.

All that cash to play a game. And the Occupy movement is torqued off about the salaries of business executives?!?

The Miami Marlins and Los Angeles Angels apparently got into a bidding war for the services of Pujols, a free-agent first baseman. The contract is the second-largest in major-league baseball history, just behind behind Alex Rodriguez’s 10-year, $275 million deal.

That contract raised eyebrows, too, and led to nearly a decade of somewhat-more-normal economic considerations in professional sports. Until now.

I’m a big sports fan, but no one player deserves that much cash. In fact, it reduces the competitiveness of smaller-market teams such as my beloved Cleveland Indians. There’s no way the Tribe could even consider a contract that size.

In fact, one year’s salary for Pujols is equal to the paychecks of half the Indians entire roster last season. The team’s entire 2010 payroll was about $49 million.

The Indians as a team shocked baseball last year with the best record in the major leagues, that is, until injuries and misfortune wrecked one of those magical seasons that fans live to see.

For that kind of cash, Pujols better be projected to hit 100 home runs, 500 runs batted in, and steal 150 bases. Of course, those are ridiculous figures. But so is his contract.

Maybe the Occupy folks should be camping out at home plate at a big-city baseball stadium.