Be Careful of What You Wish For!

It's still February and I may have to break out the lawn mower and cut my grass!  One of the last things I wrote in my last blog entry was that I was "about ready for spring!"  Since then we've had a couple of colder days but for the most part it has been an unseasonably warm February and we've had just enough rain that nature thinks it's time to start blooming.  We have a trip coming up so I went out yesterday to get some yard work done and tidy things up a bit and the grass looked like it was on the edge of raggedy.  It was a completely weird yard work day.  I had to rake up some leaves from an uncooperative tree that didn't shed until after the fall when I was done raking.  After that tree finally did shed it's old dead leaves it snowed almost immediately.  I couldn't see the leaves so I was good (until today of course).  Then I went about picking up limbs and branches that came off the trees on our property during the snow and freezing rains.  And now it looks as if I'll have to mow the lawn before our trip.  That's chores from three seasons in one day.  Add to that I have to clean the gutter covers which is typically a summer job and I'm doing a full year's worth of chores in less than a week!  What's that all about?

I mentioned we have a trip in our near future.  Maureen, Liam and one of his buddies from school on spring break, and I are headed off to Rome for a week.  Maureen is in full planning mode.  She has reservations for us to get into the Vatican and has pre-purchased tickets for us to get into a couple other attractions, museums, etc...  Because we are "practicing" packing minimally in preparation for our next big hike, the Camino de Santiago trip where you have to carry everything you need on your back for about 500 miles if you do the whole thing, Maureen has packed and repacked, and recorded lists of things to pack several times.  Me, I just need a days notice so I can do some laundry and put a bag together.  Ever since a spent a month planning a trip to Italy and Greece and then on about two days notice ended up backpacking England, Ireland, and Germany instead, I have not put much stock into excessive planning.

After the boys head back to school at the end of the first week (the end of spring break) Maureen and I had "planned" to take a week and just kick around Italy and make our way in the general direction to Ireland, which of course means that Maureen has book lodgings for us in Florence and Venice and then a flight to Ireland at the end of that week.  A day or so after we arrive in Dublin, Saint Patrick's Day as a matter of fact, my mother and youngest sister will be arriving in Dublin.  The four of us will then spend the next week buzzing through and then down the west coast of Ireland.  After my mom and sister fly out of Shannon Maureen has teased that she just might take me up to Mayo so I can finally have a Guinness in the pub where they filmed the scenes from The Quiet Man.  Maureen is not a big fan of that cinematic classic, but if she's willing I'm not passing up the opportunity.

Buddy gets to stay home.  Buddy has never been a good candidate for kenneling.  Maureen has found a website, Trusted House Sitters, where you can get people to volunteer at no cost to you to come sit your house and pets while you are on vacation.  What's in it for them.  The couple that will be watching Buddy are coming down from Canada and will have the opportunity to vacation in the Asheville area of Western North Carolina and not spend a dime on lodging.  Like most on-line services you have an opportunity to review bios, references and reviews, prior to making your decision.  When Maureen posted our vacation plans and request we received responses from Europe, Canada, and all over the US.  Asheville is apparently a desirable vacation spot.  When you consider kennel boarding and hotel costs this is a deal for both of us.

Sitting Buddy presents very few challenges. Buddy's sycophantic (word of the day: behaving or done in an obsequious way in order to gain advantage) nature allows him to shift gears and adjust to whomever happens to be here watching him at any given time. What our sitters need to understand is that while Maureen and I are still here it will take a couple of days for Buddy to get used to them being in the house but he will still be suspicious. After we leave, within a couple of days Buddy will be curling up in their laps soaking up all the attention they are willing to give him. However, once Maureen and I return, Buddy will not realize our sitters even exist. And when Liam walks in the house I will magically cease to exist. That's just life with Buddy, Liam's dog.

Of all the dogs I've been responsible for (remember Buddy is not my dog), Buddy is the least trained of the group. It's not that he can't be trained or is unwilling, I've just not made the time or effort to make any real progress. Although Buddy is coming around. I've always run my pets through the local Parks and Rec obedience program and then followed up with at home training resulting in reasonably well behaved pets. Hunter, my Labrador, even won the "Best in Class" trophy. Here in WNC, there are no Parks obedience classes available. There are many opportunities for "pay by the hour" training if you are willing to spend the money. But even then there are few or no group training opportunities. Even though I've been the weak link Buddy is slowly figuring out what I'm looking for when I address him. Buddy has never run from me when he is loose, but recently I've even been able to walk Buddy off leash and not have to go get him when it's time to move on. I wouldn't go so far as to profess that he always comes right away when I call him but we are getting there. If you know anything about training dogs, if you can't get a dog to do something for food, you're doing it wrong. And Buddy is no exception. 

Well it's stopped raining so I better go out and take care of those gutters while I can.

Until next time, take care!

Rick

Who Says "Real Men Don't Eat Quiche"?

That's a not-so-subtle reference to Bruce Feirstein's 1982 best seller; "Real Men Don't Eat Quiche", which I actually owned and read once upon a time.  What brings it to mind at this late date?  An interesting looking Broccoli/Bacon (who doesn't love bacon) quiche recipe (click here for the recipe) popped up on my Facebook page the other day so I decided to make it.  For guys who think they can't cook, that might only be true if you absolutely, steadfastly, refuse to follow any directions, ever!  However, if you can put together Walmart kit furniture, assemble a bicycle, or even manage to complete some of the more complex Legos, you can cook.  It is as simple a getting a recipe and following directions.

Since Maureen was out to brunch with her friends, I set out to make breakfast for Liam and I.  Ever try to assemble something only to discover the box didn't include all the parts?  When I went to our freezer we didn't have any bacon and we didn't have any broccoli.  We did have ham in the refrigerator which was an acceptable substitute for the bacon.  And we had some turkey sausage in the freezer.  The turkey sausage was as close to a vegetable as I needed to be so I started cracking eggs.  My next obstacle came when I realized there was no seasoned salt in the house.  What do "Real Men" do in the absence of seasoned salt?  We go for the Tabasco sauce!  We did happen to have Parmesan and cheddar cheese so I finally was able to throw together an acceptable facsimile of the original recipe.  It actually ended up pretty tasty.  You see, "Real Men" can follow directions and put stuff together even when they don't have all the parts, even quiche!  On a side note, I couldn't help myself so I went out the next morning and bought some bacon, broccoli and seasoned salt and made the original recipe for Maureen.  Although it was not as "Manly", it was good too.  Since then I've also used the original recipe foundation and substituted tomato and mushroom.  Who knew I as a "creative cook"?

I had my first oil painting class.  We spent most of the time with orientation and prepping a canvas for a main project but then the instructor passed out an 8x10 basic single line sketch with the instruction, "it doesn't have to be good, it just has to be fast."  And "to just put paint to paper!" 

So this is my first dabble with oil paints in over 40 years.  Since then we've been working on a main project.  Each week my idea of the final product changes a little.  That's the nice thing about oils.  Once the paint drys you can just paint over the offending areas and it's a brand new painting.  I even built myself a folding table top easel to use in class.  I think it came out considerably better than my paintings.  Maybe I should stick to woodworking!

It also appears that I've found a couple of guys to play racquetball with.  I've only had the opportunity to play once and although I was obviously rusty from my decade of not playing I didn't do that bad.  I was a little surprised at how sore my shoulder was the next couple of days after my match.  I've been exercising consistently going on two years now, including strength training.  I guess wielding that racket used muscles that weren't getting worked regularly.  I wasn't sure if my old racket strings had deteriorated and would hold up through an entire hour of play so I went to Walmart and purchased the only racquetball racket they had, a cheap $19.95 Head brand racket.  I took both to the court a little early to get a little practice and try them both out.  My old racket was the "Cadillac" of racquetball rackets  back in the day, an Ektelon that I paid $150 for 20 years ago when I was playing competitively.  And it truly was a great racket that served me well.  However, the technology apparently has changed so much, compared to my $19.95 Walmart racket, my Ektelon (Cadillac of rackets) is only good for sifting gravel or mashing potatoes.  I'm going to have to come up with an appropriate retirement for my old faithful Ektelon.    

So I'm slowly divesting myself of the hobbies I picked up during the era of Liam; soccer coach and referee, air soft combat, track spectator, etc... and am getting back to doing some things I did for recreation for myself in the past.  I'm even looking into getting back into competitive shooting.  The gun range in the south of Asheville has a recreational shooting league on Monday evenings that I hope to participate in around my Lions club and poker club meetings.  I've even joined the GSSF (Glock Sport Shooting Foundation) with the goal of competing in some of their events, maybe when I'm back in practice.  Of course for me the limiting factor in my ability to compete may be my eyes.  At my age that can be a substantial disadvantage.  Good thing there is a senior division.  Something of a level playing field I hope.  Maybe I'll get into practical pistol competitions.  I'm bound to be in better physical shape than most guys my age that shoot as a hobby and I understand there is some running involved in those events.

Now if I can just find someone to play golf with.  I met a guy who was going to get a foursome, including me, out on the Grove Park Inn course (normally $150 a round) at a discount today.  I didn't hear from him this week but I don't mind at all.  Today's high was 28 degrees Fahrenheit and with the wind chill feels like 17 degrees.  So instead of freezing my [see cartoon below for the appropriate body part reference] off out on the golf course today I'm sitting by the fire watching Ancient Aliens and typing my blog entry.  In my book, not a bad trade off.

It snowed a couple of times this past week.  Just a couple of dustings, not enough to stick on the roads.  I've already mentioned how cold it is today.  And for a good part of the day we've had light snow flurries.  Maureen and I ususally go out to socialize with our friends on Friday evenings but I think we've both decided it's just too dang cold.  And I'm warm here by the fire.  I don't know about the rest of you but I'm about ready for spring!  How about it?

Until next time, try to stay warm.  At least that's my primary goal!

Take care,

Rick

   

A Stark Realization! (Revised)

Being up in the mountains and out in the country a bit, not on city water or sewer, Maureen has been concerned about our ability to manage in a disaster. She had me get a portable generator when we first bought the house and now she's working on a hand pump for our well for when the generator runs out of gas. Facebook occasionally has a reoccurring story about a prepper who buys and buries a large steel shipping container and turns it into a fallout shelter/bunker. I occasionally kid that my prepper efforts consisted of getting one of those large shipping containers, packing all of my stuff in it, loading it on a truck, and then moving out of earthquake country. I then had the driver drive through tornado alley and stop before he hit the hurricane coast. I understand the national head quarters for the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) are in Asheville, NC because this area has the fewest natural disaster events in the nation. That was good enough for me and that was the extent of my prepping.

And then came "A Stark Realization!" We don't live anywhere near a Trump Resort property. Should the unthinkable happen there is nothing within hundreds of miles to attract enough attention to ensure that we would get federal aid. When Erma hit Florida, the home of Mar-a-Lago, FEMA was all over it. However when Maria hit Puerto Rico, over 1000 miles from Mar-a-Lago, all they got was Trump touting how great a job he was doing, but no real aid.  It's been months and 75% of Puerto Rico is still without power, water and just basic needs for survival.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking the guy. And whether you are in the Secretary of State Tillerson's "Trump is a f***ing moron" camp or not, you have to admit, Trump has a talent for taking care of his own! 

Trump has openly professed that "Global Warming" is a hoax. He recognizes the climate change effects of man made carbon in our atmosphere has only affected one location in the entire world, Doonbeg, Ireland. What is unique about Doonbeg, Ireland? It is the home of Trump's luxury golf resort, the Trump International Golf Links and Hotel. On his application to construct a sea wall to stem the erosion, Trump cited the effect of rising sea levels due to man made climate change as the primary reason the sea wall was needed. (Read about Trump's "other" wall here.)

After the tragedy of 9/11, it was reported that Trump successfully filed a "small business" claim for $150,000 even though his business netted several times the revenue ceiling that defined a small business. (Politifact small business claim article.) In 2005, Trump was also able to collect on a $17 million dollar insurance claim for hurricane damage to Mar-a-Lago, damage that few actually remember happening, with some of the excess money he admittedly transferred to his own accounts. (AP article about questionable hurricane damage claim.) Throw in the reports about Trump using RNC and Republican Donor money (Vanity Fair article) to fund his legal team for his Russia Gate scandal defense and his self proclaimed business acumen that allows him to pay little or no taxes and it becomes very apparent that Donald Trump has a talent for taking care of his properties and his wallet. 

And what about this new tax bill? I know that Trump professes that he and his pals will be losing money but by the most conservative estimates Trump is set to make millions! And if you include everyone in the top 1% the number is in the Billions!

Then there is his latest Trump proclamation eliminating offshore drilling restrictions for the entire eastern and western seaboards of the United States.  Of course afterwards he did exempt the Florida coast where the restrictions will remain in place.  Trump does not want to have to look out from Mar-A-Lago and see oil drilling rigs ruining the view from his personal resort.

Everyone seems to be concerned about Trump's proximity to the nuclear button.  I don't know why his advisers haven't considered this yet but if someone would just point out to "The Donald" that "Nuclear Winter" would be horribly bad for his resort properties Trump would likely become the biggest proponent for nuclear disarmament!

After considering all the evidence above I just want to be under that "Trump Umbrella" should an unlikely but unfortunate disaster strike in the Western North Carolina mountains.

I don't think I could afford the fee that Trump gets for naming rights and I really don't think our apartment downstairs that we promote through Air B-N-B is grandiose enough to attract Trump's attention. Maybe if his deal with Putin to build a Trump Tower in Moscow falls through and he is not too in debt to the Chinese I could sell Trump on the idea of building "Trump Tower Asheville." Or, for expediency I could try to sell him on an existing property, something like "The Trumpmore Estate." Or if the Biltmore owners don't want to give up the estate proper, they might be willing to part with the real estate and shops outside of the estate. We could have "The Trumpmore Village."

Sam's club sells a bulk "Emergency Food Supply." You can buy different packages that will feed 1-4 people from 1-12 months. And the food is advertised to last in storage up to 25 years. I think my next project might be to build shelves to house our new emergence food supply just in case "The Donald" is too distracted playing golf in Florida to send help our way. And just to hedge my bet, while Maureen is researching and arranging for our new hand pump to be installed on our well, I think I'm going to circulate a petition to try to get our local Planning and Zoning agencies to consider a new resort project somewhere between Asheville and Weaverville. You can never be too prepared for an emergency!

Ever Throw A Party Where No One Came?

It's not as bad as it sounds.  We had absolutely "FREAKISH" weather for New Year's Eve.  Not only was it cold, about 10 degrees F (at least not single digits), but just after about noon it started to sleet.  Now I took credit in my family's "who saw snow first" competition, but sleet is not snow.  Think BBs, like you would use in a Red Rider BB gun (for you Christmas Story fans) only about 1/8th to 1/16th the size, and little round frozen balls of ice.  Now think about how difficult it would be to walk on a thin sheet of little balls of ice.  Maureen put together what promised to be a great New Year's Eve party.  A fare number of people that we've met here in the Asheville/Weaverville area and a good number of neighbors had RSVP'd that they would attend.  The party was scheduled to start at 8 PM.  About 2 PM Maureen sent me out to pick up something at the grocery store that we'd forgotten.  At that time the sleet was coming down but you couldn't even see sleet sticking to the roads.  However, it was so cold that the sleet was sticking to the windshield of my truck.  I had to crank my defrost until my truck cab was a sauna before the sleet would melt on my windshield and I could use the wipers.  During that trip to the store, even though the sleet was not really visible on the roads, I lost traction with the rear wheels of my truck at least a half dozen times only driving about 20-30 mph.  I lost some traction with my front wheels almost every time I had to make a turn.  It was scary slippery out there.  The only responsible thing to do was to let all our guests know, that although we still intended to have our party, if they had to drive we would understand if they chose not to come.  Sometime around 6 PM the Highway Patrol had closed at least portions of I26 & I40 (the main north/south and east/west freeways), either due to accidents or because the sleet had made them un-navigable.  Of course by that time all our commuting guests had cancelled.  By 8 PM the sleet was so thick on the ground you could hardly walk down my driveway which is flat.  However the incline of the street leading to my driveway is steep and so by 9 PM it became apparent that our neighbors had the good since not to attempt to navigate that hill to our house.  

So there you go.  I threw a party and no one came!  The upside is that we have all those hors d'oeuvres that you love to have at parties but that you never make for yourself during the year otherwise.  The downside is that we'll be eating chili (enough for 30 guests) for days.  And I have a "drinking problem"! OMG, I have so much beer in the house.  I need some of you to come over and help me with that.  If I try to drink it all I'll end up weighing 300 lbs before Valentines.  I still had a great new year.  I stayed up to toast the New Year with my beautiful bride and my son (who can now drink legally (and hopefully responsibly)).  What else do I need?

Yes, Liam has turned 21!  Can you believe it?  We spent his birthday and Christmas in Cleveland with Maureen's family.  Liam has cousins in Cleveland closer to his age which must be infinitely more fun than partying with your mom and dad when you turn 21.  A couple quick anecdotes about Liam's 21st:

His cousins and their friends took Liam out at midnight on December 22nd.  They arrived at the bar a little early.  Apparently, for some reason, a half dozen police officers were congregated outside the bar they chose.  Liam is standing outside the bar and the bouncer had to negotiate his entrance to the bar 6 minutes before his birthday.  The cops were cool and let him in early.  By all accounts he had a great birthday, except;

The next day Liam and I are running around trying to take care of a minor issue with one of his birthday presents when he asked if I could take him to the grocery store.  Which was fine but when I asked what he needed, Liam indicated he wanted to buy a beer.  At a grocery store?  Apparently when you turn 21 everyone goes out of their way to buy your drinks.  Liam was 21 and all he wanted to do was show his ID and pay for his own beer, just once.  It's funny what might be important to a person.  I assured Liam he had his whole life to by his own beer and to enjoy the attention.  If it was really important, I told him we'd stop at a bar and he could buy me a drink.

As cold as it is here it did get down to single digits in Cleveland.  I've been fairly disciplined with my running and exercising since we landed in NC.  But it does get cold in the winter.  I've built up a fair amount of cold weather running gear.  All of that may be on its way to the Good Will.  For Christmas, Maureen got me a nice recumbent bike.  I have it out in my shop which only has a portable heater but no more running the hills and blind corners on the narrow mountain roads in 13 degree weather (remember, 12 degrees is too damn cold).  I have it set so I can just open the door and see the downstairs TV and pedal away for an hour.  Much better than pounding the pavement with frozen fingers (I can never seem to get my hands warm when it's that cold out).

What else?  I've moved into fourth place in points with my on-line poker group.  And I've played fewer tournaments than the three above me, 20-25 less than a couple of them.  I've signed up for an oil painting class.  I did a little painting in high school.  It will be interesting to see if I've retained any of the old talent.  And last, if you've noticed the gap between now and my last posting, I did write a blog entry during that period but I was forbidden from posting it.  You see it had a slight political bent.  I won't say who forbade me but her initials are M(aureen) B(rooks).  With the political winds, the way they are blowing, I may just revise (update) and post it after all.  It was just a little passive/aggressive but I thought it was pretty humorous.  I'll have to think about it!

Maureen, Liam and I hope everyone had a great holiday season and we wish the best to all of you!  Or as the Irish might say; May the best of your past be the worst of your future!

Take care and have a great New Year!

Rick

           

I Saved So Much Money It Put Me In The Poor House (Erma Bombeck I think?)

(At least I believe I read that line in one of her books.)  

Anyway, another year has come and gone. Yes, I just had another birthday and I'm another year older. I'm still working out, running or some type of strength training most days of the week. I had my annual follow up with my doctor Thursday and it's all thumbs up. I have gained about 10 pounds in the last year but I'm not too worried. When I hit 150 lbs I had gotten down to a 32" waist. Now I'm floating around 160 lbs but I have roughly a 30/31" waist.

One of the positives or negatives, depending on your point of view, of going from a 38"+ waist to a 31"+ waist is the need to purchase almost an entire new wardrobe. However, I'm learning to embrace my "Senior" status. Seniors get an additional 10% off at (C)Ross Dress for Less on Tuesdays (that was for you Dave). Maureen and I are planning a trip to Europe next March and we both need travel clothes for cooler weather in addition to my general need for an "S" or "M" on my clothing labels instead of the "XL" on most of the stuff I brought with me from California. What I love about Ross is that I can walk out of the store with Nike, Under Armor, 32 Degree Cool/Heat, North Face, and other name brand apparel that I would never spring for normally and for just a fraction of the cost. I bought something from each of those sporting brands at Ross this past Tuesday. I added up the original retail price tag amounts (not the Ross tags) and it came up to an insane amount for just six items. With Ross' discount prices and my added senior discount I actually paid less than 40% of the previous total and I'm stylin'! TJ Maxx is almost as good. I don't have the same luck at TJ Maxx finding the sporting brands like Nike and Under Armor, but I still find name brand stylish clothes at a fraction of the normal retail costs.

North Carolina has a number of opportunities to identify yourself as a military veteran including veteran license plates on your vehicle and having your veteran status shown on your drivers license. And a number of businesses extend discounts to military veterans. It cost me $13 to have "Veteran" put on my drivers license and I've saved that and more just buying dinner salads at Zaxbys with their veteran discount. Lowes also gives discounts to veterans every day of the year. Home Depot only chooses to honor veterans on Veteran's Day. I'll drive further and pay 10% more at Lowes just to get their 10% discount for no other reason than they choose recognize my service to this country. I recently was able to get an Air Force Veteran license for my truck and it has already saved me money. Right after I received my new plate I had to put new all weather tires on the truck. The owner of the tire store, when looking at my truck saw my plate, pointed at it, looked at me and said; "the tires will be less than what I quoted you", and then went on about his business. Yes, he's getting all my business as well. 

I'm not clipping coupons yet but I'm sure that's coming. After all I am retired and on a fixed income! 

My actual birthday was Saturday, October 7th. Liam came home from school to spend the day with Maureen and I. We hung out for a couple of hours at the semi-annual gun show down by the airport at the Ag Center/Fair Grounds. And yes, Maureen did buy me something at the show. I was going to make it an extreme "foody" day and eat all of the stuff that I normally forgo during most of the year but that didn't really materialize. The minimum goal was to get my slice of birthday carrot cake. I always have carrot cake on my birthday. By the end of the day Liam had to head back to school and Maureen and I were just kicking around downtown Asheville. The one place that actually had carrot cake had a line to get in just to order a slice to-go so we didn't wait. And the other restaurants and pastry shops that might normally have carrot cake were out. Just my luck.

Sunday the plan was to pick up my birthday slice, hang out for an hour at our favorite Irish pub, Jack's, catch the Celtic jam session and then catch the Packers game at the "Packers Bar" in town. In the "it can only happen to me" realm, Maureen goes into Well Bread to get my birthday carrot cake and we head downtown. We get to Jack of the Woods and I open the to-go box and start to enjoy.....something that was not carrot cake. I still don't know what exactly it was but it was so disappointing that I asked Bernadette, our barmaid, to throw it away. Then we were late getting to the Packer Bar and it was standing room only. I'm guessing Sunday knew it was not my birthday anymore and had no sympathy. I had no interest in standing for three hours so we just went home to watch the game there. 

Seriously though, I had a great birthday spending the day with my son and my best girl. I got a great birthday present at the gun show. And I eventually did get that slice of carrot cake. And the Packers won in an exciting come from behind Aaron Rogers master piece orchestrated with only a minute eighteen (1:18) left on the clock! It was a great weekend.

Fall is upon us again.  And as beautiful as the autumn colors can be, I hate raking leaves, almost as much as I hate painting.  And you know how much I hate painting.  I'm looking out across my deck into the yard and I see the leaves just waiting for me.  And I know if I head out to tackle them there will just be a fresh batch waiting for me tomorrow.  Oh well, I guess you take the bad with the good.

I have to go out and rake now, so until next time.....

Here, Hold My Beer And Watch This!

The high school where I help out with the soccer team has an Alumni match against the high school varsity team at the beginning of each season.  The coach from the last three seasons amended the definition of "alumni" to include past coaches so that he could play (he has passed on the torch to one of the JV coaches from last year).  Since I qualify as an "Alumni Coach" I decided to take my newly fit person out and take a shot as a player.  Here, hold my beer and watch this! (What was I thinking?)

The alumni team was comprised of some recent graduates, as well as at least a couple players from each decade back as far as the 80's.  Of course I was by far the oldest on the field but I fared well enough that I was able to stay on the field for at least 35 of the 80 minute match.  I'm generally not that fast on my daily five mile jaunt in the mornings.  However, as it turns out I've still got a sprint or two left in me.  

Knowing that the skills required for any competitive sport are "perishable" and that I've not done any real practicing of my soccer skills other than the occasional filling in a gap on the field during a practice scrimmage over the past two seasons, I tucked myself away as the back left defender in our 4-4-2 and waited for the kickoff.  It took me a while to get comfortable but my coaching knowledge paid off with my positioning and I was able to hold my own for the most part.  Until....

About the middle of the first half the alumni defensive line was up trying to catch the varsity attackers offside when a through pass and forward beat the right center of our defense clean just past the midfield line.  I know I said I was  slow but that's on my morning jaunt!  I took off at a full sprint angled to cut off the attacker and intercepted him about thirty yards out from the goal.  I ran with him through the far corner of the penalty area forcing him wide.  His shot went wide of the near post harmlessly into the side of the net (outside the goal).  Now I coach defenders all the time that attackers attempting to keep control of a soccer ball can not maintain the full speed that they are capable of when running without the ball.  And that any defender taking the proper angle should be able to run down almost any attacker that is trying to maintain control of a soccer ball no matter how fast that attacker might be.  But in this instance, the attacker was 16 and I'm 56 so I'm going to brag about it anyway!

I also found myself one-on-one with arguably the best player on varsity.  He was on a break away with our defense out of position.  Realistically I had a chance to win the ball outright but when I looked up to see who would be challenging me I hesitated.  Go or no go?  I went, late.  Because I hesitated we arrived at the ball at the same time and as luck would have it I managed to play the ball over his foot out of bounds giving my team a chance to regroup.  Everyone was happy with the result...yeah, I meant to do that.  

And then there was the time that I received the ball at the back left with space and time and saw one of our alumni attackers making a run to get free forward right.  I wound up to deliver the fatal cross only to pop the ball up with back spin landing about twenty yards away at the feet of one of my teammates, who had room to go!  Everyone was happy with the result...yeah, I meant to do that.

My best pass came when I saw an opening and went to lead my fellow alumni midfielder into space.  The varsity defender read my intention perfectly and moved forward to intercept.  However, I again mishit my pass and the ball went behind the defender, who's momentum carried him forward out of position, the ball traveling through the space the defender vacated arriving right at the feet of my alumni teammate.  I looked like a tactical genius and the comments from my teammates indicated that they thought so as well....yeah, I meant to do that.

Looking back, the only play that started and finished as I intended was a ball crossed to my side that I set up to chest trap but noticed a teammate about ten yards away in space.  So instead of trapping the ball I met the ball with some force and used my chest  to pass the ball and it actually did what I wanted.  That I did mean to do!

At the end of the day, everyone's perception was that I acquitted myself well enough that I'll probably be invited back next year.  At least I can hope!

On a side note, Maureen was working the snack bar and was not able to see me in action.  I didn't give her any details, I just told her I was brilliant.  So don't let on any of that other stuff.  That's just between us, OK!

Thursday, I took Liam back to school.  He has moved into a new (actually old but different) house that is practially right on campus.  When Liam crosses the street in front of his house he is right in the middle of campus.  Althought the house is old, poorly altered to accommodate as many student/tenants as possible, and moderatly run down, it's still 4x better than the house he moved out of and you just can't beat the location without living in a dorm.  And, Liam still has the illusion of being "independant"!

Like a crowded dorm room, Liam's one room in the house has very limited space for furniture and personal belongings.  Maureen had purchased 8-fabric cubes that fit under Liam's bed to act as a quasi dresser in his old house where he had even less room.  However, Liam indicated after a year of use that it was impractical to keep his bed far enough from the wall to access the cubes on both sides of the bed and would prefer something akin to a dresser.  And me with my workshop (man cave) downstairs and no projects in progress.  Here, hold my beer and watch this!

I measured the space on Liam's only free wall between a closet and entry door.  Then I did some rough calculations on how many shelves sized for the cubes that I could get out of a single sheet of 3/4" BC sanded plywood.  With an idea in my head and nothing on paper except my math Liam and I went to work.

Except for some brad nails and glue to hold on some 3/4 round trim around the shelves and a few dowels glued into one end of select posts, the entire project  is held together with 3/4" dowels hammered into 3/4" holes with a rubber mallet (all friction fit) so it can be disassembled for transport if necessary.  I also attached a power strip to the bottom of the very top shelf so he could plug in the TV, alarm clock, etc...  I can't say it came out perfect but the end result was pretty darn good except.....

You'll notice two white dowels poking up just under the center of the TV in the space designed for a PS4 or cable box or whatever.  Those should have been cut flush with the shelf and the tips painted.  I was back in Cullowhee Saturday with my sawzall, hand sander, and some black paint.  Ten minutes is all I needed.  I couldn't get Liam to take two minutes to clear off that shelf so it didn't get fixed.  I won't see it all year but it's going to drive me nuts.  I think Liam knows that and is not allowing me to fix it on purpose.  I'm going to keep my tools in my truck and the next time I'm in his house and he goes to the bathroom?  That'll teach him!

On a side note, instead of fixing the shelf, Liam and I went to see "The Assassin's Body Guard."  OMG!  That movie is hilarious!  Forget whatever you read from the critics and see that movie if you can (warning, language, violence).  I think I could even pass it off as a "Guy Approved Romantic Comedy" so take your wife/girlfriend. 

Unless you've been holed up in your house with no contact whatsoever you can't have missed that we have a solar eclipse coming up on Monday.  I for one was surprised to learn how limited the viewing area is to be able to see the Total Solar Eclipse.  If the earth were a basketball the area for optimal viewing of the eclipse would be considerably smaller than a ping pong ball.  The total eclipse will only be visible along a path from about the Washington/Oregon border to South Carolina.  

Click this link for the path.

That path just happens to cross over Western North Carolina and one of the optimal viewing areas will be Cullowhee where Liam's school is located.  Maureen was able to secure viewing glasses several weeks ago.  If you're just looking for them now you're probably out of luck.  Be careful about counterfeit (ineffective) viewing glasses!

For me; here, hold my beer, want to see this!

Take care!

Rick

'It's deja vu all over again' - The late, great, Yogi Berra

Has it really been two years?  It seems just like last month I was asking, "has it really been a year?"  Actually it won't be two years in our house until September be we officially landed in Asheville in the middle of June, 2015.  Still, time is just flying by.  Liam will be starting his Junior year at Western Carolina University.  I'll be starting my third season as an assistant soccer coach at North Buncombe High School.  And Maureen is contemplating continuing with a third (yearly) session teaching ESL.

I just made my annual trek to the gun show at the WNC Agricultural Center south of Asheville.  That was a big "deja vu" moment.  In an ever changing world I'm fairly confident that this group will never evolve or change.  I don't think anyone has told them the presidential election is over because there were anti-Hillary t-shirts and banners everywhere.  And of course the "stars and bars" were displayed prominently at every other vendor's table.  I've updated my camouflage.  I have a new camo Lions International cap that I'm using to try and blend in.  My attempt to mosey through invisible, or at least inconspicuous, was somewhat unsuccessful this trip.  I was accosted by a man hawking concealed carry permits who wanted to know if I had mine.  Having answered in the negative I answered his next query, "why?", with; "I never really felt the need," to which he had further, and I'm sure endless, rebuttals.  What I really wanted to say was something like; "I'm not so insecure in my manhood that I feel the need to pack a firearm every time I have to leave the security of my home!"  But I'm sure that would have made me less inconspicuous.  If I really wanted to raise a ruckus I could have pointed out publicly that the many flags with stars and bars prominently on display in almost any form you can think of was in fact not the official flag of the Confederate States of America (CSA).  The flag most commonly associated with the CSA was actually the battle flag for the Northern Virginia Army led by Robert E. Lee.  And although later versions of the CSA's official flag incorporated the "stars and bars" image in an upper corner of the flag, that battle flag was never an official symbol of the CSA.  Of course in order to make that particular proclamation in that company I would have to be "carrying" in order to make it out alive!

I took Liam and two of his friends white water rafting Saturday at French Broad Adventures (FBA), which was my next deja vu moment.  If you recall, French Broad Adventures is the outfit I took my guide class with.  You might also recall that I was unable to complete the course because one Saturday it was cold and rained all day resulting in my being sick for about two weeks.  So I made a point of checking the weather forecast prior to booking the trip.  Not only was the forecast favorable but on the day it looked to be gorgeous, a perfect day for rafting.  When we arrived I was greeted by two former classmates that completed the course and were hired on by FBA.  After checking in I worked my way down to the back and met Ed.  Ed manages the raft guides and is every bit as crusty as you might image someone my age who has been associating with raft guides his entire adult life.  I wanted to make sure he had an opportunity to rag on me a bit about dropping out of the class.  It was going to happen eventually and I wanted to get it over with.  I also saw Richard who was one of the guide instructors in our class and who would be our raft for our outing that day.  All the while the sun is shining and the weather is still gorgeous, until...  As we got on the bus it was the start of just the lightest drizzle.  When we arrived at the put-in a steady rain began in earnest.  It cooled down and the rain came followed by thunder and even a little lighting.  The rain wasn't so intense that we couldn't have fun.  Richard (our guide) was great and Liam and his friends were joking and smiling throughout the whole trip.  With three twenty-somethings and me, we were a powerhouse of propulsion.  With all that energy we were able to tackle some of the more technical routes through the rapids.  And Richard took advantage and gave us the E-Ticket ride.  As we got to the take-out the rain slackened.  By the time we arrived back at FBA home base the rain had stopped completely.  After, as if to mock me, when we stopped for dinner the sun came out just as bright and warm as the forecast had promised.

Off my deja vu subject line (or maybe not),
I really miss our Corona Host Lions Texas Holdem' Tournaments.  I had some moderate success making the money a couple of times including a third place finish and a first place win.  So it should come as no surprise that one of the things I've been doing to fill up my time is I joined a "Special Interest Group" (SIG) at the Osher Life Long Learning Institute on the UNC Asheville campus.  This particular SIG is all about Texas Holdem' Poker.  The group made entirely of retirees meets Monday afternoons for mini-Holdem' tournaments.  Bruce, the orgainizer, also sponsors an on-line "Home Game" through PokerStars.net.  The Monday games typically have between 20 and 30 participants.  Early on I made a lot of final tables in the Monday afternoon games and even managed to win one of them.  The prizes are donated by the players and can be almost anything.  I've won movie tickets, a book written by Vince Van Patton, and fish salad.  Since I've won a couple of prizes I donated a couple things back myself, baked goods or wine.

In January I joined the on-line group and won first place my first time out.  That group usually has about 18-25 players registered for each tournament, a couple even from different states and one from Canada.  After that initial win I had some varying degrees of success.  I had a couple second place and a third place finish.  Shortly after I had a bit of a dry spell.  It didn't seem like I was playing any different but I just couldn't seem to win a race.  Time after time I'd get my chips in with the best hand only to get out drawn by the time the river card came.  It was completely discouraging especially considering some of the weak hands that went in against me.  

Well it appears that the statistical probabilities have caught up with me.  Over the past three weeks I've managed to finish third in a live tournament at Bruce's house, second twice (one Wednesday main event and one smaller Friday tournament), and first place three times (two smaller Friday tournaments and one Wednesday main event).  

Last week I related to Maureen my struggles and my recent turn around specifically describing the eight day run I won, finished third, second and then won again.  When I told her about my latest main event win last Wednesday Maureen's response was; "great, is that your first win?"

What?  Really!

After our discussion just a few days before?  I'm not sure if she forgot or was just not listening but I'm sure Maureen is not going to appreciate this written declaration.  However, she did it to herself!

Our on-line group plays for points and bragging rights.  Of the 49 players currently registered as members of the Blue Ridge Bluffers (our PokerStars.net home game group) I'm currently ranked number 7 in points total even though I've played fewer games than most of the members who have been part of the group far longer than I.  I'm in the top 10 for average points per game (1.25 points per game).  And I'm in the top 5 for knocking opponents out of tournaments (at 48 and counting).  And even with my little dry spell I've been in the money 32% of the time.  

Maureen always says I'm just too competitive.  I don't see it.  However, I am aiming for No. 1 (in all categories)!

Until next time, take care!

Rick