o-fer no more

coach shelton always had good advice. i'm talking about little shelton, not big shelton. big shelton was always cool with me ; but, little shelton was a much more genial guy and more free with his personality. since he was my track coach as well as my football coach, i spent more than twice as much time getting to know him and letting him get to know me.

he often gave pep talks that involved some version of the following: when you win, you have all week to think about how great you played...your food tastes better, the air smells cleaner, you'll sleep better, and...the fourth superlative he frequently used had to do with one's girlfriend being more enjoyable...so to speak. as it turned out, coach shelton was a prognosticator of formidable skills. the week following a win was always a whole lot more fun than those other weeks. even practice was agreeable.

in contrast, EVERYTHING about losing sucks. sportsmanship and "doing my best" are nice sentiments, but nothing replaces going home with a "w."

i have been fortunate to have usually been on teams that won alot. often enough my contribution was not the main cause of our success, but i have always been able to feel like a vital part of the fun of winning. unfortunately, this year's church basketball team is one of the worst teams (in any sport) with which i've ever been associated.

most of the players are new to playing with each other. there is almost no chemistry. adding to the lack of chemistry is the fact that we have a rotating group of players, with no two consecutive games constructed of like personnel. all of these guys know how to shoot and dribble (more or less) but there is alot more to basketball than these basic abilities. we have more talent than alot of the other teams but this fact has not prevented us from losing every game...until tonight.

the fact that we beat the worst team in the league only matters because it confirms that we are not the worst team in austin. this is a better feeling than it should be. whereas we usually leave the gym seperately, and quickly following a loss; tonight, we stood around chatting with each other for a few minutes. there were even a few smiles present. i know what you're thinking... it IS sad what i've become in my old age.

i only wish i still had a girlfriend.

do you remember the SAT?

valentine's day is to love, as new year's day is to drinking alcohol...

AMATEUR NIGHT!

happy valentine's day, nonetheless.

marathon kids

i believe satchel paige was on to something when he said, "avoid running at all times." not everyone is willing to follow with exactness. obviously, playing any sport will require running, as does being the parent of a 5 year-old. jackson has always got me running somewhere.

judging by the abundance of over-weight and obese americans, satchel paige's mantra must be the most revered in the country.

what i don't care for is the endless pursuit of minutes and miles that dominates the running world. not only do i not have the feet for this kind of activity, i never have been able to abide the monotony. jackson, on the other hand, has recently completed a marathon.

in 1996, a friend of mine named kay morris started a children's running program. over the course of 6 months, or so, k - 5th grade-age children will run 26 miles during their p.e. class or during recess. at the end of the program, all of the kids get together to run the final 1/4 mile as a group and receive recognition. the first year, kay went to runtex for sponsorship. when asked, she said she expected to have 300 to 400 children participate in the program. it was only available in the austin isd. 3000 participated. this year is the tenth year of marathon kids, and in the austin area alone, 40,000 elementary students participated. marathon kids is now all over the state and country...all because kay thought kids needed to get a reinforced message that it is not hard to get off of their butts and do something..

jackson and his friends love running. they talk about their laps all the time, and they wear the bracelets they receive as progress markers. it is an amazing thing to watch as these kids see themselves accomplish something so enormous, and realize that nothing is beyond the reach of a person with enough patience and determination. thanks, kay.

after we finished jackson's final lap, i sought out my friend kay. this was no minor task, as the football field and track were swarming with people. i found her in the middle of a television interview. she was being interviewed by a reporter from cnn. after her time was up, i caught her attention so i could quickly tell her that jackson absolutely loves this program, and thank her for keeping it alive. she asked me if i wanted to say that on camera. ummm, no thanks. i gotta run.

and the cradle will rock

one day, as mrs. armbruster was teaching our 8th grade english class; mr. brooks emerged from his history class in order to confer with her. i couldn't hear what was being said, but as she was listening; she was looking down at the desk of the student closest to her. our school desks in those days were made completely of wood. one could read all kinds of messages which had been left gouged into the surface by previous students. you might find out who loved whom, why someone sucked, or which team ruled. all of a sudden, mrs. armbruster's countenance darkened and she prepared to explode. she looked up, and with the threat of retribution in her voice, demanded to know which grade "van hallen" was in as someone had scratched into the desk surface the proposal that "van halen rules." we truthfully explained that none of us knew where "van hallen" could be found, and she vowed to "get to the bottom of this" matter.

20 years later, i got another dose of similar confusion.

jackson is experiencing some symptoms of asthma. i have had this disease for most of my life, and have unwittingly passed on the defective gene to my son. over night, he was having such difficulty, that we decided to have him use my albuterol inhaler. we took him to doctor duong yesterday and she promptly prescribed some medication for him. jackson informed us that she preferred him to use the nebulizer to get his medication, because it would be hard for him to effectively use a "van haler." i said "somebody get me a doctor."

as we left blockbuster today, j-man and i stopped at the curb, and checked the traffic. after looking both ways, jackson declared that we could go because the "ghost is clear." he was right...i couldn't see one either.

rockin' in the usa

a couple of recent events have gotten me thinking about music from my teen years. alas, the actual music wasn't good enough to elicit anything more than the most superficial of thoughts.

the fields previously known as southpark meadows are forever gone. for reasons unknown to me, southpark has gone from popular to closed to resurrected and then into oblivion. when i was a kid, i went to a few concerts here...the cars, ub40, the police, wang chung. after the initial closing of the park; it reopened years later to host lollapalooza and similar music festivals. like most things, this space will now be the site of a strip mall. how trite and unimaginative. austin needs a new concert venue like southpark. the erwin center is nice, but it is too antiseptic. the back yard is supposed to be really cool, but i have never been in love with it. the places on campus are o.k., if not small. on the other hand, i may be getting too old for an outdoor concert. i need a place where i have a seat specifically for myself, and no one stands up for very long. sad, huh?

on the way home from work on saturday, klbj played a "miniset" from 1983. this is when i was a freshman in high school and it's amazing how i still remembered every word. here are the three songs:

1) "lick it up" by kiss - i actually saw this concert. the song, album and tour all shared the same name. it was pretty cool because the opening band was a little known band named motley crue.

2) "pride and joy" by stevie ray vaughn - i saw him a couple of times at aquafest. now, there's a music festival that was awesome. acl is cool, but aquafest always had better talent and felt less contrived.

3) "metal health" by quiet riot - hey, even i had more taste than to waste money on that concert. though, i did turn it way up and do my best ren mccormick impression.