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.

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.

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.

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.

Over time, I came to realize this was the biggest honor in my life.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wanted to spread the message of unity. This encompasses not just the black community. It goes beyond that. It means a tremendous deal to me that the city chose me to help represent and spread this message. I mean, seriously, they could’ve gone several different routes on this. They didn’t necessarily need to choose some TV guy.

I already knew this was a serious deal because the city flew in the Curator of the African-American Civil War Museum in Washington, DC, Mr. Hari Jones, to be the keynote speaker. So I knew this was going to be amazing.

But last night’s dress rehearsal was the first time I saw some of the performances firsthand. They simply blew me away. The power of the performances was off the charts. The singing from an adult choir, then later from the Toledo Youth Choir, and the performances by some of the fine young talent this city has to offer were just so uplifting.

I found myself smiling from cheek to cheek with my eyes WIIIIDE open as the performances seriously lifted my soul.

And then today? With Hari Jones speaking? Please put the POW in POWerful!!!

Yes, today was fun. It was fulfilling.

It was something I will never forget.

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.

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

Definitely not a tough transition at all, but in thinking back, there are plenty of memories.

First off, this happened when I was in the 6th grade, the last year for elementary school in Calgary, but in Houston, it was the first year in middle school. The difference? Making the instant adjustment from having one home classroom to having seven classrooms to go to, to having lockers, to having gym locker rooms, separate clothes for PE… it was kind of weird.

I remember the Dulles Middle School counselor asking me what level of classes I thought I should take. There were three options: Advanced (the top), Academic (in between), or Foundation. I wasn’t sure if Advanced would be too advanced for me, so I settled for Academic, just in case. Found out quickly that Advanced was probably better suited for me (they didn’t have honors classes until high school), but it was a cool year in those Academic classes. Met a lot of good people.

Outside of school, it was kind of a culture shock. I was coming from a country where hockey was a religion, where street hockey was played by every kid. Hockey was covered in the sports pages about four pages a day. In Houston, hockey had a small portion on one page where it was just a few NHL recaps and that was it. I remember on my first day in our new house, before I went to the bus stop, I got out the hockey stick and was shooting the tennis ball against the garage door. I also remember a kid walking by staring at me like I was from Mars or something because of it. Most kids in Houston are more accustomed to seeing basketball being played in the driveway, not hockey. So it was kind of funny.

Moving to Houston was a great move for a sports fan like myself. I moved there when the Houston Oilers were magnificent and the Run ‘n Shoot was in full glory. Jeff Bagwell had just finished his rookie season with the Astros. Hakeem Olajuwon was still wearing goggles. The Rockets were a few years away from winning two straight NBA titles. It was a good time to move there as a sports fan.

And oh yeah, the weather. Coming from Canadian winters to Houston winters? BLISS!!!!

20 years later, as I’m now in Toledo, it’s crazy to realize that all that time has flown by, but it has. And it means I’ve had a crazy good time in those 20 years for them to go by as quickly as they have.

Here’s to continuing those good times in 2012!!!

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.

That’s right, our main anchor is bidding farewell, as she shares in her most recent blog:

http://blogs.foxtoledo.com/2011/12/21/preparing-to-say-farewell-to-toledo-and-hello-to-paducah/

For those who only knew her for her on-air work, Laura was the woman who never freaked out. She was the voice of reason, the voice of peace if there ever needed to be one.

She was someone who stayed out of drama.

There’s that saying that you won’t appreciate something until you no longer have it.

Laura hasn’t even left yet and I already know it’ll be hard without her.

That’s how much she’ll be missed.