A Little Snow, A Lotta Cold!

Don't look now, but it appears as if the winter of 2010-11 ain't done yet!  Things have been pretty quiet around these parts, and pretty mild, since back in the days just after the New Year's hangover wore off.  We haven't had snow on the ground, except for the slow melting glaciers in the parking lots, since the middle of January.  All that is about to change.  It is going to be getting colder...a lot colder...and we are going to be seeing snow cover the ground again in the next day or two.  The snow won't be that much, a couple-three inches in total it looks like, but that should be enough to get most folk's undies in a bundle.  The big news is that by about Thursday and Friday the daytime temperatures will probably be no better than about 15 degrees, and the overnights will see us down near zero, or below.  That depends on how much snow comes down...more snow...colder temperatures.  We should probably look at the bright side, as in a week it will be March and so the winter is now officially on the run.  Not gone, but on the run!

It's Official!

Well...here I am again.  Where have you been?  I honestly don't have a clue.  A couple of hours ago it was Monday and here it is Sunday night again.  Why is it that when you are 6 years old every day seems like a month, and every year a decade, but when you reach the downhill side of 50 you are already going on 80?

Anyway, I have big news tonight.  You are right now reading the thoughts of the "2nd Year basketball Official of the Year."  Okay...I'll take a moment to let you pick yourself off of the floor and return to your seat before I go on.  Yes, you heard it right, I received an award today.  The basketball season is officially winding down, and earlier today the Spokane Basketball Officials, an affiliate of the Washington Officials Association, held their final meeting of this season.  On the agenda was electing new members to the Board of Directors, amending the by-laws of the organization so as to comply with the IRS rules for 501-c3 tax exempt organizations, and to present awards for individuals who were deemed by their peers to be deserving of recognition.  Here is where I fail to understand what actually took place.  For some reason, totally unknown to me, my name was announced as the recipient of the "2nd Year Official of the Year."  It does make some sense in that this is my second year of being an official official, but I have to ask...WHAT ARE THESE PEOPLE THINKING?  There are so many times that I go out there on that basketball floor knowing that I don't have a clue as to what I am doing out here, and the coaches are continually reminding me of that very question!  I mean, what must the other 2nd year guys and gals be going through?  The award came with a certificate suitable for framing...which will probably never happen...and a gift certificate in the amount of $25 at the Sports Authority.  Now for many of you that might mean a new pair of shoes, but with my size feet...size 15...I might be able to get a pair of shoe laces and perhaps a new Fox 40 whistle.  I am truly humbled by the honor, but I still have to ask; WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?

Obviously, that was the highlight of the week.  Up until this afternoon things turned out to be a little unsettling, and that is an understatement!  We have some issues that we are going to have to work through at the church and with our pre-school and kindergarten.  I have no doubt that the Lord will carry us through them, and we will grow stronger in the process, but it is not going to be a whole lot of fun dealing with them.  In light of that, I will once again say that I am truly blessed to be doing the work that I am doing for the people that I serve.  They are a loving and caring family that has blessed me immensely.  As we all know though with any family there are going to be some issues, but that will never stop us from loving each other.

I have just one more week of class for the current quarter, and after it's finished I might actually take a day off...or two.  I finally finished the research paper that was due this past Thursday, and sent it in.  If you would like to read it I will be happy to send you a copy!

Tomorrow is President's Day, which means that the church office and the school will be closed.  It also means that I will be in the office pretty much all alone, which bodes well for possibly getting something done.  In the evening I am looking forward to driving over to the neighbor's house...or former neighbors...to get a "Brady fix".  I'll let you know how that works out and hopefully have pictures.

Super Bowl Hangover?

Yeah, its been awhile!  I guess I could attribute my absence to an extended case of the "bottle flu" following the events of Super Sunday, but that would be a lie.  We went to a Super Bowl party at a friends house where I consumed all of one beer...an incredible amount of food, mind you...but only one beer.  So that excuse is out the window.  How about this one?  Since a week ago Sunday I have been up to my armpits in alligators!  That's no excuse, it's the honest truth.  I have barely had enough time to breath over the past week, and Kay has been even busier.

In the hours following the Packer's thrilling victory I discovered that it was time for me to catch my yearly two day cold.  It always hits pretty hard the first day, and then vanishes by the end of the second.  So Sunday night into Monday was not very good.  I still managed to get out there on the tennis court Monday morning, and somehow found that fuzzy little yellow ball and hit it.  I went to the church for about an hour to reply to a few e-mails and get my computer and other needed items so that I could come home and work from bed.  Last week was the week that I wanted to get all my school work done on Monday so that I could devote a good portion of the rest of the week to the research project that we have to do for the course, which is going to be due at the end of this week.  I did get most of the weekly homework done Monday afternoon, before heading off to Ferris High School to referee a basketball game.  By that time I was over the hump on my case of the bubonic plague and was beginning to feel better.  The game went well and I survived the night.  The rest of the week was devoted to my regular work, the research project on Genesis 18:16-33...look it up...and countless meetings at church.  Oh, I almost forgot, Kay's birthday was last Thursday.  The days leading up to Kay's birthday, and then Valentine's Day, are my most stressful of the year.

Things crescendo-ed into the weekend.  You see this past weekend we had the school auction scheduled at the church on Saturday evening, and that was followed by our monthly second Sunday Brunch on Sunday morning.  Kay is in charge of the food at church, so that brunch on Sunday was a BIG deal.  The auction turned into a BIG deal too as the chair-person had to work double shifts at the pre-school all week and nobody else stepped up to help her...except Kay.  That means it is kind of like guilt by association.  If Kay is involved I am involved.  We set up the room for the auction on Thursday afternoon, cooked things for the auction and the brunch on Friday afternoon, and then cooked 40 pounds of spaghetti on Saturday afternoon.  In the meantime I was the Emcee for the Central Valley High School Band Boosters Silent Auction and Dessert Social on Friday night.  I was also the Emcee for our school auction Saturday night and for the Valentine's Wedding Picture Presentation during the Sunday brunch.  I think that by now must get the picture...I was up to my armpits in alligators.

I just got back from today's trip to Newport for a couple of middle school basketball games.  That is about an hour trip north of the Spokane metro area, and it was a rainy one both ways.  The weather has been quite mild for the past week, and I hear tell that it is going to be getting a little chillier this week.  That means that the local weather guessers will probably be going wild soon with cries of "snow...snow!"  We'll see about that.

Super Sunday!

Well, once again the weather forecast, that which was coming via the National Weather Service through all of the local media outlets, was for snow overnight into this morning...and, once again there was nary a sniff of it.  When was the last decent weather forecast that we have had around here?  I have to admit that the Spokane area weather people really had no chance as they were up against a much higher power, God himself, as once again our church's prayers for favorable weather for Sunday morning were heard and answered in the affirmative.

At least in part due to the favorable weather, and very likely a large number of other factors, we once again had a bumper crop of people in attendance in the worship service at St. John's Lutheran today.  The count was 141 which is more than we have had in a regular (non-special event) service since moving into our new church building, and probably more than we had seen in the 5 or 6 years previous to moving out of the downtown location.  In honor of the occasion, Super Sunday, I took the opportunity to break out my foam rubber cheesehead wedge in the message, revealing where my football allegiance lies (as if anyone really had any doubt!)  To the few folks in the congregation that I know grew up in western Pennsylvania, and are die hard Steeler fans I offered my somewhat sincere apologies, but that didn't stop me from donning the cheesehead.

It was a busy weekend in and around the church as yesterday we started with Men's Breakfast at 8:00am. This month we decided to include the ladies thinking that it would be a good way to get more high quality food brought in.  It worked like a charm!  After the breakfast and Bible study we transitioned into a strategic planning meeting that would last into the early afternoon.  We had nearly 50 people that showed up to participate, probably because lunch was provided.  I don't know if we accomplished all that much but we sure did eat a lot!  Actually, it was a very productive time and the time went very fast.

Now it's just about time to take in all the spectacle and pageantry of the Super Bowl.  As I sit here the cheesehead still sits atop my head, and probably will remain there for most of the rest of the day.  In college basketball the old Alma mater, Wisconsin, demolished their main rival, Michigan State today, which bodes well for clean sweep of the days major sporting events for the State of Wisconsin in beating the Steelers in the "Big Game."  Go Pack GO!

You Called That Out?

As was reported last night, I was out on the tennis court again this morning.  All was going along pretty much according to the usual routine through the first set...in which I got my butt kicked...but there came a big change at the beginning of the second.  Through the luck of the draw it fell to me to begin the set on the serve, and right off the bat I blasted one that clearly hit the line on the outside of the service box and was missed by at least a mile by my opponent.  As I walked over to the other side of the court to prepare for my next serve that member of the posse (who will go un-named) called the initial serve out.  My partner immediately turned to me with a look of total disbelief, and the partner of my un-named opponent looked across the net in a completely puzzled fashion.  Based on these reactions I felt the need to ask the offending member of the group; "You called that out?"  To which the response was a rather feeble, "Yes."  What followed was an extremely focused effort on my part that resulted in my partner and I winning that game, and then going on to win the set 6-0 against the offending party and his unfortunate teammate.  As I am known as a very forgiving and humble man, I shrugged off this terrible injustice and played on, but alas, I did have to once again raise the question at the end of the set as to why in the world that this person could call an obviously superior effort on the serve to be out when it clearly hit squarely on the white line.  I never did get a satisfactory explanation.  From there we continued on and all went well through the end of our session.

After tennis it was time to head off to the church to try to figure out just what it is that I do for a living, and try to accomplish it.  Late this afternoon I headed back out onto the court...this time a basketball court...to officiate a couple of middle school games.  These games went quite well, and I didn't have to throw any coaches out of the gym, and none of them made any horrible line calls (unlike what happened this morning).  The evening was highlighted by sushi and pan-seared scallops so the day ended well.  We'll see what tomorrow brings.

One final note:  For all who read this and are dealing with the blizzard in the middle of the country please keep in mind that we are experiencing global warming and this snowstorm is just a figment of your imagination...do get over it!  (that's what my buddy Al Gore told me to say.)

Coaches Gone Wild

I do believe that I have written a time or two about my exploits on the hardwood...the basketball floor wearing a black and white striped shirt.  Well, sometimes its gray with pinstripes, but I do prefer the black and white.  Anyway, yesterday I was assigned a couple of JV games; first the boys game, and then the girls.  Going into these games things were looking pretty good.  In the boys game both teams were pretty talented, and I was paired with a good partner.  That was before the game.  Those things didn't change, but from the instant of the opening tap we ended up with a nightmare on our hands.  It seems that both coaches were more interested in trying to do our jobs than their own.  Two seconds into the game the visiting coach yelled "TRAVEL!", and probably uttered that same word a good 20 times in the first 5 minutes.  Both coaches felt the need to very vocally question each and every foul call, whether that call was made or not.  By halftime both my partner and I had had enough, so the first time one of these knuckleheads hollered in the 2nd half my partner fired his weapon and hit the visiting coach with a "T".  He couldn't believe it, and claimed that we were obligated to give him warning, but nowhere in the rulebook is there any mention of the need to warn a coach who is totally out of control before "T-ing him up."  By rule in the high school game that coach now has what we call a seat belt, meaning he has to stay seated on the bench for the rest of the game and keep his mouth shut with the exception of instructing his players.  It seems like the other coach must have gotten the message, and figured he was next, as he also took the opportunity to sit down and shut up.  The rest of the game went a little better.  The kids kept pounding on each other and the foul calls followed, but we didn't have to put up with near as much obnoxious behavior.  In the girls game that followed on of the coaches chose to follow a similar path as in the first game, but I think he saw the light just before we had to turn the light on for us.  Today we had a meeting of the basketball officials here in the Spokane area, and the chief topic of conversation was how to deal with coaches who lose control and forget just what it is that they are supposed to do...that is coach the kids and not abuse the refs.  I am now armed and loaded for bear with all sorts of new techniques to get the coaches off our back, and I can't wait to use them tomorrow afternoon as I head out onto the floor again.

Now to the topic of the evening.  Man!  Is it getting cold out there.  I wheeled the trash bin out to the street and nearly froze my kiester off!  It's not so much the temperature but the wind goes right through you, especially when you go out in a pair of shorts, a t-shirt and flip-flops.  Perhaps I should have prepared myself more adequately.  We are headed down to about 12 degrees tonight, and tomorrow we won't get much above 20.  At least the weather is going to be rather sunny for the next 3 or 4 days, so a little cold air will be no big deal.

In the morning it is going to be time to head out onto another court again...the tennis court...to see if I can be the butt kicker, or if I will once again be the butt kickee.  Wish me luck!

Cold Air Spillage

After what has turned out to be a rather mild and rainy January we are starting to see the winter of 2010-11 rear its ugly head once again.  We managed to dodge the snow but the cold air is now starting to roll in.  By tomorrow morning we will be down near 10 degrees, with a wind chill near 0 or below thanks to a northeast wind of about 10 to 15 miles per hour adding the additional bit.  Monday's high temperatures will only be about 20 degrees.  We are in for a stretch of sunny weather though, and that's a plus.  Things would be even colder if there was a bunch of snow on the ground, but there isn't so there!  Later in the week things will be moderating a bit again, we should be back up above freezing on Thursday or Friday.

Keep in mind that January ends tomorrow night, and on Wednesday it's Groundhog Day.  Make your party plans accordingly.