Four years ago, I was living in the Extended Stay Hotel in Merrillville, Ind., waiting to close on the house I was buying in Crown Point and working at The Times of Northwest Indiana — my second tour of duty there. And I was watching the Olympics in Athens on TV and listening to Barack Obama speak at the Democratic National Convention in Boston.
The towns are different, the job is different, the homes are different, but the Olympics started today and the DNC starts Aug. 25.
Call me idealistic, but there’s hope in the air — again.