Today... Work... then off to Columbia for I-Mans soccer tourney. First match @ 9:10am followed by the second @ Noon. The we will know if he has one or two matches on Sunday... I am guessing that this will be a true wakeup call for the team, which has only won a single match and suffers from a lack of goal scoring ability (which is highly needed if you want to win). But the leap in level of play might have the team shell shocked by Saturday afternoon. Or.. we might see that they are better than their scores have indicated... then we will watch the VaTech game and see how Clemson fares in the hostile road environment....

On a day that I am a tad bit miffed (but over it) I go back to one of the things that always soothes my heart... on go the bluetooth headphones and I start downloading music. Music... "Thriller".."Seniorita".. "Taking Care of Business".. "Rappers Delight".. "All Blues"... "He Got Game"... makes folding clothes go by so much easier..

Now off to work I go...

a few minutes ago the War Chant played on my Thunderbolt... it has played 162 times this year telling me of the final score of the Braves game.  it was for the last time this year... as the Braves went down in a huge crash and burn tonight ending their season on the last day of the year. Oh, I already knew the score, as I often did this year as I watched or listened to parts of or all of almost every game this year. This was a bitter end to a season and I almost would rather they have been 20 games back and out of the race by August. But it was not meant to be. This team was flawed despite the great pitching (that, ironically let them down in the last two weeks of the season) and was doomed by inexplicable lack of hitting at the most inopportune times. Of course, in baseball lack of hitting is NEVER at a good time, so I guess I digress... at least now I can wear whatever hat I want and not be worried about jinxes or karma affecting the Braves...

I think I am somewhat melancholy about it is that i seemingly am the only person pulling for them that I know on a daily basis. I was looking forward to going to a playoff game, even if it meant what seems to be increasingly solo endeavors to things that I like. So as I watched the last out on the Braves season, a little part of me died. I hope it is reborn in April and I will begin that daily routine again... until then I take off the Braves app and remove the Braves alert and War Chant. I look forward to hearing that again with promise and potential that the young Braves players will have learned their bitter lessons...

at least I am not a Cubs fan.. or Pirates... wow.. that must TRULY suck.

so another fun weekend was to be had... went with the twins to the local college football game (heh, heh) and it wasn't too hot, or crowded or all the usual stuff that would make me hesitate to bother with taking them, since they generally don't give a flip about football, etc...

I fear that all I have done is awakened a sleeping giant
and filled him with a terrible resolve. --Admiral Yamamoto after the Pearl Harbor attack, December 7, 1941

I remember as I was watching the Today Show and commenting to someone just how difficult it would be to crash a plane into the World Trade Center.. then I saw live the second plane hit. I remember thinking "THAT... was on purpose"

"Mail your packages early so the post office can lose them in time for Christmas.” - Johnny Carson

With the impending demise of the Post Office, I am pondering if I should take out pen and pad and write a couple of letters. I remember a time when a facebook message or a text didn't exist, and it was so cool to get a letter from a friend in the mail. I can remember often that some summers that was the highlight of my week. It is a lost art... letter writing. I think it takes some commitment to write a letter now. it takes time and with it, a lot of thought about what you are saying, and more importantly, who you are saying it to... I like that. I think I am going to write a letter....

"Friendship... is not something you learn in school. But if you haven't learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven't learned anything". -Muhammad Ali

""A good friend of mine used to say, "This is a very simple game. You throw the ball, you catch the ball, you hit the ball. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains." Think about that for a while." - Ebby Calvin Laloosh

The Braves lost tonight... got swept by the Phillies. I used to absolutely live and die by the Braves. But somewhere along the line I stopped over reacting to the wins and the losses. The same for Clemson. And a handful of other teams I truly root for. I think it was the NCState game a loooooong time ago where when Clemson was ranked 6th in the country they got two punts blocked and lost in Raleigh. I will never forget kicking my shako across the stands and sitting there for 30 minutes after the game while the buses loaded and someone had to come get me out of the stands. I rode the bus to the hotel in uniform and I can remember feeling so upset/angry/sad /ill that i went straight to bed despite it being 6pm in the evening.... Or it might have been the '96 World Series when the Braves had the by far better team and lost to the Yankees. I will never forget Charlie Hayes squeezing the fly ball for the final out and feeling the absolute rage inside... from that time on I still root for my teams and even get a tad annoyed when they lose. but that annoyance usually last about 45 seconds now. Somewhere along the line I realized it is just a game. And while I love rooting and following and getting a little miffed at coaching and the lack of killer instinct of teams i root for, i always feel happy when I realize that I have been blessed with so much. And that matters so much more....

IN PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS :    We convince ourselves that life will be better after we get married, have a baby, then another. Then we are frustrated that the kids aren't old enough and we'll be more content when they are. After that, we're frustrated that we have teenagers to deal with. We will certainly be happy when they are out of that stage. We tell ourselves that our life will be complete when our spouse gets his or her act together, when we get a nicer car, are able to go on a nice vacation,or when we retire. The truth is, there's no better time to be happy than right now. If not now, when? Your life will always be filled with challenges.

It's best to admit this to yourself and decide to be happy anyway.
Happiness is the way. So, treasure every moment that you have
and treasure it more because you shared it with someone special,
special enough to spend your time with...and remember that time
waits for no one.

So, stop waiting

--until your car or home is paid off
--until you get a new car or home
--until your kids leave the house
--until you go back to school
--until you lose ten pounds
--until you gain ten pounds
--until you finish school
--until you get a divorce
--until you get married
--until you have kids
--until you retire
--until summer
--until spring
--until winter
--until fall
--until you die

There is no better time than RIGHT NOW to be happy.
Happiness is a JOURNEY, not a destination.

So -- work like you don't need money,
Love like you've never been hurt,
And dance like no one's watching.

~author unknown~

and we're off....

First Day of school.... Ryles was asked to be on SafetyPatrol which means she has to be first at school in mornings...she also joins I-Man in Gifted/Talented classes this year... Baritone and Clarinet classes start again tomorrow...soccer practice every other day... matches on Sundays in Greenville. Oh.. and I forgot about homework... Snapped a quick photo before hopping in the car and the twins seemed a little jaded with having to do this again. alays kinda sobering dropping them off as I barely get a goodbye and they are off hugging friends and showing off the newest Pokemon cards....

so we turn the corner and leave leave putrid August behind... and now head into Fall. FINALLY the kids start school tomorrow, Football has started, soccer is in full swing and the weather is slowly... ever so slowly... turning better. The Braves are contending and just need to figure out how to hold on for 3 more weeks (fingers crossed)....

... the weekend saw us hangout at Twin Lakes with Uncle Wes, Aunt Ashley, Cousin Madison and new cousin Meridith(i hope i spelled her name right). We went out on the boat and tooled around Lake Harwell near campus for a couple of ours, revisiting the levees, the trestle of pain and the old Issaqueena Dam. Weird that they have access to the actual dam blocked off now, with an iron gate keeping you from actually walking out on it now.... tis sad. Spent a lot of time picnicing out there...

Hard to believe this was 1954....

WHAT IT WAS, WAS FOOTBALL Andy Griffith - 1954

It was back last October, I believe it was.We was going to hold a tent service off at this college town,and we got there about dinner time on Saturday.Different ones of us thought that we ought to get us a mouthful to eat before we set up the tent.So we got off the truck and followed this little bunch of peoplethrough this small little bitty patch of woods there,and we came up on a big sign that says, "Get something to Eat Here." I went up and got me two hot dogs and a big orange drink,and before I could take a mouthful of that food,this whole raft of people come up around me and got me to where I couldn't eat nothing, up like,and I dropped my big orange drink.Well, friends, they commenced to move, and there wasn't so much that I could do but move with them. Well, we commenced to go through all kinds of doors and gates and I don't know what- all,and I looked up over one of 'em and it says, "North Gate."We kept on a-going through there, and pretty soon we come up on a young boy and he says,"Ticket, please."And I says, "Friend, I don't have a ticket;I don't even know where it is that I'm a-going!"Well, he says, "Come on out as quick as you can."And I says, "I'll do 'er; I'll turn right around the first chance I get." Well, we kept on a-moving through there,and pretty soon everybody got where it was that they was a-going,because they parted and I could see pretty good.And what I seen was this whole raft of people a-sittin' on these two banks and a-lookin at one another across this pretty little green cow pasture. Somebody had took and drawed white lines all over it and drove posts in it,and I don't know what all,and I looked down there and I seen five or six convicts a running up and down and a-blowing whistles .And then I looked down there and I seen these pretty girls wearin' these little bitty short dresses and a-dancing around, and so I thought I'd sit down and see what it was that was a-going to happen. About the time I got set down good I looked down there and I seen thirty or forty men come a-runnin' out of one end of a great big outhouse down there and everybody where I was a-settin' got up and hollered!And I asked this fella that was a sittin' beside of me,"Friend, what is it that they're a-hollerin' for?Well, he whopped me on the back and he says,"Buddy, have a drink!" I says,"Well, I believe I will have another big orange.I got it and set back down. When I got there again I seen that the men had got in two little bitty bunches down therereal close together, and they voted.They elected one man apiece,and them two men come out in the middle of that cow pasture and shook hands like they hadn't seen one another in a long time.Then a convict came over to where they was a-standin',and he took out a quarter and they commenced to odd man right there!After a while I seen what it was they was odd-manning for.It was that both bunches full of them wanted this funny lookin little pumpkin to play with.And I know, friends, that they couldn't eat it because they kicked it the whole evenin' and it never busted. Both bunchesful wanted that thing.One bunch got it and it made the other bunch just as mad as they could be!Friends, I seen that evenin' the awfulest fight that I ever have seen in all my life !!They would run at one -another and kick one- another and throw one another down and stomp on one another and grind their feet in one another and I don't know what-all and just as fast as one of 'em would get hurt,they'd take him off and run another one on !! Well, they done that as long as I set there, but pretty soon this boy that had said "Ticket, please." He come up to me and said,"Friend, you're gonna have to leave because it is that you don't have a ticket."And I says, "Well, all right." And I got up and left. I don't know friends, to this day, what it was that they was a doin' down there,but I have studied about it.I think it was that it's some kindly of a contest where they see which bunchful of them men can take that pumpkin and run from one end of that cow pasture to the other without gettin' knocked down or steppin' in somethin'.

I am not sure if this is the entire thing or not... but reading this brings back memories of listening to this on the Tiget Tailgate show virtually every Saturday in the Fall growing up...

Meet the teachers..

we all want our kids to be successful and to be happy. And we all know how important friendships are in our lives. So I am always curious to see how these things play out with the kids. Tonight finds Ryles already at a sleep-over party with several classmates despite school not even started yet... I think it was telling when Ryles walked into the building and was met by a steady procession of girls running up to hug Ryles screaming "who did you get? ME TOO!!!!...EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!" followed by big hugs. She has also seemed to become a favorite of the teachers, having been chosen for Safety Patrol in the mornings and also asked to assist the K-5 and 1st graders specifically because they have a hard time on the first few days... And I-Man had a lot of people specifically coming up to him too, especially teachers seeking him out and saying hey.... and to think people tried to tell us that our kids would have problems adjusted and be at a disadvantage... (yeah.. I know... I bring it up often.. but I just laugh at how wrong and short sighted and archaic that thinking was and is)