Ramblin'

This is going to be just a rambling collection of random thoughts. Here is your chance to exit and no one will think the lesser of you.

-Maureen and I have been married 25 years. It is the longest choice driven, continuous event in my life. Where we are now is nowhere near where I thought we'd be. It is better and one can't help but see God's hand in it.

-After many years of coaching baseball, this year stands out and we haven't even played a game yet. How many times have you seen a 30,000 pound asphalt roller on an outfield? In four weeks of practice we have been on parts of the field 5 times and used the entire field once. Thankfully the batting tunnels and bullpens can be used.

-I am excited about the gardens that will be planted this year the the potential as an urban/suburban/hicktown farmer.

-Sebastian, the new dog, is an interesting addition to our zoo. Way too much energy.

-Annie scored her first high school soccer goal. Not bad for a goalie who played a total of one half of one game in the field.

-Maureen is baking bread each day. Experimenting constantly and my taste buds are reveling. A little bread, a bit of fresh broccoli soup and bottle of wine, what else does man need?

-Man needs love, and that I have abundantly from Maureen.

-Our children have grown, two are legal adults, and it still amazes me how much they are a blessing.

-Some of the baseball players and I worked on the field today. Not the field so much as the arrangements. We dug holes and added fenceposts in front of the third base dugout. Trying to somewhat replicate PacBell Park and protect the players in the dougout. We started the process of moving the left field bullpens. This will enable us to add batting tunnels.

-Speaking of work on the field. I used our new Kawasaki quad on the field. I still like the old Yamaha that you don't worry if it gets muddy or wet, but this new quad will make maintainence so much easier. Thank you to the semi-anonymous local that allows us to use the quad during the season. We had planned to buy it, but repairs to the field took the money we were going to spend on the quad.

-How many other high school athletic programs have to pay for the tools and maintainence of their playing field? And we don't even own the field.

-Roses sure are pretty, but some of them sure do have too many thorns. Especially when transplanting them.

-Tomorrow I'm going to help with the making of a boat. Actually I've been told we will make wedges that connect the ribs that sit above the keel. I'll try to get pictures.

Proud as a Pea

Annie, Maureen and I participated in True Love Waits this weekend. We had been through it earlier with Brad, but his time Annie and three of her friends, and a friends brother, decided they wanted to go through the program. It is Friday night, all day Saturday and a ring ceremony Sunday morning. During this time the parents have classes with other parents and the teens meet with other teens. The teens get a detailed overview of sex, STD's, abortions, media influences, Building Healthy Relationships and the Biblical view vs. the World's view of sex and marriage.

The parents get a dose of the Seven Deadly Sins of Parenting, Media Influences, and Strategies to Help Fight against the World's Influences. In reality the information was a great reminder of what really is out in the world and what is invading our homes through the TV, Movies, Music and the Internet. Did you realize Pornography in the US makes more money each year than ABC, NBC and CBS combined? Do you wonder why cute Katie Couric doesn't ask some obvious questions? NBC is owned by the same parent company that produces porn. Money is really ruling the US.

After the information the teens make a public commitment to remain chaste until their wedding. Their were 83 teens that went through the weekend. Nine went through the ring ceremony today in our church in Exeter. It is important and significant that Annie and her friends did this together. They will be the ones helping each other.

For me it wasn't a weekend of learning how to protect Annie. That is always on my mind. What I really want for her is to experience the love and joy of a marriage done right as a human can. I want her to experience the joy I have.

Wasted Days and Wasted Nights

Can you name the singer of that ode?

I was reading essays last night after the Super Bowl and came across a gem. The students in my classes are not the honors/Advanced Placement type of students. They are the down-to-earth people that make this town and world work. Standard English is not always their first language, and that especially includes the Anglo-Saxon bred kids with eight generations of ancestors having lived on this side of the pond.

So as I was wading through a district mandated essay about whether security fences make the students feel safer or not, I stumbled upon the reason for my existence. "Yet another reason why fences are malignant to the school is because they are inconvenient. Sometimes students are a couple minutes late and the gates are closed so they have to go through the office. All of that just wastes time that you could of been wasting in class learning."

I feel wonderful that a student has finally figured out what my job entails.




Trivia answer--Freddie Fender