It’s a new year and my plan is to do less blogs. Instead of 15 or 16, I’m only doing between eight to twelve posts a month. I’m hoping less content will benefit me in the long run. While this month has been stagnant so far, I’m planning to take on a new series. This is a topic we need to learn more about, and I’m hoping to make the subject interesting. 

For the second half of January through the month of February, I’d like to jump in and talk about mental health. It’s a topic that is often overlooked, but I feel it is imperative that we educate ourselves on it. I got the inspiration for this upcoming blog series thinking about some of my own personal experiences. I also follow a page on Facebook. A friend of mine is a behavioral health teletherapist based out of Carmichaels in Greene County. She works with adults and teens living with past and present traumas, additions, and difficulties within relationships. 

In this new Mental Health Series (name change may happen but is to be determined), I want to focus on some of the things that I can control. In addition, I also want to write about some of the things out of our control. 

Milestone blogs are coming this year, and very soon I’ll be posting my 900th on this platform. In March, my 911th post will look back on the events of five years ago. That will also tie into this mental health series. Later in the year, I plan on celebrating by releasing my ultimate 1,000th post. That will be slated for the holidays.

I’m weighing in on the events of the past week. The Steelers once again went one and done in their wild card loss to the Houston Texans Monday Night. Unlike most of the weekend games, this one wasn’t close at all.

Then, what happened Tuesday afternoon shocked the city and the NFL.

Unless you’re living under a rock, then you know the events that unfolded after Monday night’s Wild Card. The Pittsburgh Steelers were blown out by the Houston Texans. Two records fell. Pittsburgh lost a home game on Monday night (we don’t count 2020). Should it count since it’s a playoff game? That remains up for debate. In addition, Houston won a road game for the first time in their franchise’s short history. Can they win a divisional playoff game on Sunday when they face New England? We’ll see.

Tuesday, news broke of Mike Tomlin stepping down from the Steelers. This on the heels of the recent firing of John Harbaugh by the Baltimore Ravens. Thus, the true end of an era not only in Pittsburgh and Baltimore but also the NFL.

Yes, we all know about Mike Tomlin never finishing worse than 8-8 in his 19 years coaching the Steelers. Does that matter when the team played down to its competition or couldn’t win a postseason game the last nine years? It’s a shock to learn of his resignation, but it was a long time coming.

Pittsburgh has been known for staying consistent with its coaches. For Bill Cowher, that was a good thing as the Steelers struggled in the late 1990’s. Other teams would get rid of him, saying the game had passed him by. He got his Super Bowl towards the end of his coaching career, and it wasn’t the greatest Super Bowl performance either by his quarterback.

Other teams like the Jets have gone through 20 coaches in the same timeframe. The standard is the standard is a phrase that gets a bad rap because of Tomlin. In a blue collar town like Pittsburgh, it may hit differently because of the city’s industrial history. It’ll be interesting to see who replaces the longtime coach. I’d like to see an offensive mind and someone older, but Mr. Rooney (Art II) will stick with tradition I am sure.

Update: Whomever the new coach will be really plans to clean house. Not sure how true that is, but it may be a sign of major changes in the organization. Even though the regular season just ended, I’m not expecting too much of a miracle.

Mike Tomlin was hired by the Pittsburgh Steelers on January 22, 2007. The day before, the Chicago Bears and Indianapolis Colts won their respective conference championship games. They would both advance to Super Bowl XLI in two weeks on February 4. In the Winter of 2007, I was a little bit over a year removed from college. I was still trying to find my way, hoping a little bit of work experience would help. That Spring, I was unsuccessful at trying to find work in my field. I also spoke in front of a group at the Hiram G. Andrews Center about my time there.

Wednesday night was our first Greensburg Toastmasters meeting of 2026. Our meeting was remote and we had a good turnout. The meeting had two speakers on the agenda, with an ice breaker speech being one of the projects.

The Table topics theme was This or That. Our Topicsmaster had a wheel of topics ready for us to spin. The questions were rather entertaining as were the answers. My topic was do I prefer the sun or the moon?

During this time of the year, when the weather is cold, wet, and most of the time overcast, the sun is a welcome sight. On my endeavors yesterday, it was most certainly appreciated. For January, it was also mild as it felt more like April. Don’t get used to it though as the second half of the weekend trends colder. It is winter after all.

On summer nights when the sun sets at 9 p.m. and it’s clear, the moon is beautiful to look at. It goes well with the stars that may be filling up the night sky. At least the days are longer with every passing day. Before you know it, we’ll be turning the clocks ahead.

Eight of us were in attendance. Not much business to discuss afterwards. District 13’s days are coming to an end as they merge with District 10 to form the new District 219. We’ll have contests to look forward to this Spring. We planning our upcoming meeting and then adjourned around 7:40pm.

Our next three meetings are January 21, February 4, and February 18.

It’s a new year (that we’re about a week into now) and that means new hobbies that I can take on. Now, I want to continue writing in 2026, and the blog isn’t going away. I’ll just be doing less content. I posted an astounding 200 blogs in 2024, and just a little bit less in 2025 with a grand total of 166. But enough numbers for now.

I want to focus more on Toastmasters and my speaking projects. I don’t put as much time into preparing them as I should, and while note cards help, I’d like to eliminate that crutch 🩼. I also want to work on my physical fitness as well. I’m trying to make it to the gym 3-4 times a week, and not trying to limit myself to cardio. So far so good. When the weather gets warmer, I’d like to devote more time to being outside. I’d also like to pursue some new hobbies, out of my usual comfort zone. I’ll cover those momentarily.

As for my blog, I’m looking at 8-12 posts a month. For the year, I’m shooting for just over 100 posts. I’d like to end the year having achieved a major milestone for the platform. I’ll go from there. While it seems like it won’t be much content, it reminds the reader of thing.

Less is more.

My sister loves to crochet and make things with yarn 🧶. While knitting isn’t one of my strengths, I’d like to try my hand at some new crafts. I’d also like to try working on a few others. Over the last year, I’ve watched my sister make some cute creations, such as this octopus 🐙 that graces my desk. In addition to yarn, she also makes things with her Cricut (pronounced “cricket”)

Crafting runs in my family, as my Gram used to love making quilts. She also made t-shirts and sweatshirts using little paints, in addition to putting together other crafts. I had an NFL quilt on my bed that she gave me for Christmas my first year of college.

Looking back, I wish I’d have spent more time in the recreation area during my HGA years.

I’d like to work on my photography and culinary/baking skills, and learn to draw ✍️ and paint 🎨.

Tonight is a recap of some of my best moments from the year that was 2025. It was a year that I was scared to enter because of what may happen. But for the most part, it turned out just fine. This countdown is different from previous ones, as I leave it unranked. 

First Fall Speech Contests in Eight Years!

The universe worked in my favor this year when it came to attending Toastmasters functions. I had the opportunity to attend speech contests in the Spring as the schedule gods worked in my favor. I was even able to help out at a few of them. The Spring Conference was in my plans, as well as the Fall Symposium in October. We had our first Fall speech contests since 2017 when the District held Table Topics and Humorous Speech Contests. At the Fall Symposium, I served as a Sergeant at Arms for Table Topics. 

Rite Aid, Joann Fabrics Close their Doors!

Rite Aid filed for bankruptcy in 2023 and closed some of their stores in the Pittsburgh area. One of those was the Greensburg location across from Walmart that will soon be a Sheetz. This year, the company closed all of its remaining stores. For rural areas where a pharmacy is nowhere near to be found, this poses a problem. Giant Eagle has stepped in and picked up a lot of the prescriptions. They’ve also opened a few standalone pharmacy locations in the Pittsburgh area.

Other chains like JoAnn Fabrics and Party City have also done the same. For craft enthusiasts, they’ll have to go to Michaels or Hobby Lobby. Why does this affect me? It really doesn’t, however these stores are a link to my past as I counted a volume of them when I worked for WIS.

New Contract Approved by Labor Union

In June, we voted on a new contract at work as our current one was set to expire at the end of the month. Coming from a job that didn’t have a union, this was my first time in a situation like this. Being a member of a union runs in my family. The contract was approved and it was in our favor. Vacations can’t be taken over the holidays, however. But that’s no issue for me.

Toastmasters Clubs Achieve Success!

I was proud to part of a Toastmasters club that was successful during the 2024-25 Toastmasters year. Laurel Highlands Toastmasters, started in 2021, was the first club to be founded as a hybrid club. Hybrid means that the club is in person and virtual. They achieved President’s Distinguished. Also getting high honors was Western Maryland Toastmasters, and they did it in their first year. In June, Country Roads Toastmasters was launched and they too have done well. All three clubs are part of the same area.

This is from last week’s blog, but I figured I’ll share it again. In the new year, my resolutions for Toastmasters are to:

• Understanding the new Pathways enhancements. These additions bring me back to the manual days. We were required to give canned speeches for advanced leader and speaker awards. We’ll have to present those again to complete a level in our path.
• Giving myself more time to prepare my speeches. This is a bad habit I’m guilty of. I commit to speaking and then I don’t put effort into preparing my speeches. Do I resort to note cards or cancel. I want my clubs to have a great agenda. Part of that success begins with me. 
• Third, investing in equipment to aid in my online experience. I want to be more involved in doing more videos and become more confident behind the camera. A tripod would aid in that and it would help me take better pictures. That’s been lacking on the socials and I’d like to change that in 2026.

Time to close off the blog.

Cutie’s was my Go-to for Coffee in 2025!

Cutie’s Coffee Company made my top ten in 2024. It did so again in 2025. Even though I didn’t rank anything this year, Cutie’s is my unofficial number one. Greensburg has many great coffee shops (that I plan to visit in 2026). Great coffee (with amazing seasonal drinks), wonderful staff, and Bible study. The outdoor Bible Study went through its share of obstacles and, unfortunately, met a premature end for the season. However, they’re not giving up. Improving my walk with God is another New Year’s goal I have for the coming year.