Sausage 20 Years Ago
g
Autumn Soccer Practice
Sleep
When sick, there’s only one cure…
Sickness
sucks. So does cheating to keep up a streak…
Flames
Pinnacle Mountain
18.46 km, 767 m elevation gain.
No Parties in Hell
Another one of these memes I ran into on Twitter: “There are no parties in hell. There’s no cool rock music, no hanging out with friends. You will be burning. Forever. Repent and give your life to Jesus Christ!”
This is clearly aimed at Christians who more fundamentalist Christians see as living a life of sin. It’s certainly not going to convince any unbelievers. In fact, most of us will just read this, shake our heads, and say, “Yes, but Jesus, as God, is the one sending us to this place. What kind of an abusive relationship is this?!”
Coexist
Another gem from social media: fundamentalist Christians like to point out the perceived tendency in Islam to force conversions. In their defense, this was the way Islam initially spread, and there is a fair amount of coercion in Islamic countries to remain Islamic (the death penalty for apostasy will do that to you), and there are certainly fundamentalist Muslims who still wish to spread Islam by force. But fundamentalist Christians, despite all their protestations to the contrary, are not all that different.
“Daily reminder that Christ is King and all false creeds will be destroyed.”
Game Night
Family game nights are rare these days. They hit a peak during the Covid lockdown, I think, and then as everything slowly returned to a semblance of normalcy, our evenings filled back up with obligations and promises.
Tonight, though, we played a game.
One evening, it will be the last time we play a family game with everyone at home. Will we know it’s the last?
Side-note: My most recent musical discovery
Evening Walk
While the Boy was at soccer practice, I took my normal walk…
Basketball Practice
The Boy is playing basketball with his church team again this winter. This year, he moves up into a much wider age bracket — middle school players. So there’s up to a two-year difference between the boys on the team.
He looks much better than he did this time last year, but he’s still unsure of where to go, what to do — how to play the game. The other boys are aware of his inexperience as well: there’s a wide range of skill levels on the team. And of course, the Boy is aware that they are aware. I find myself wondering how this affects his self-confidence in the game. He said nothing about it on the drive back home this evening, and that’s a good sign. Still, we have to start going back to the Y for practice again.
Halloween 2023
Thanking the Polish Community
Which raised several thousand dollars for the parish during the latest international festival…
Steve Hackett Live
It’s something D and I have wanted to experience since we were just a little older than the Boy: a live performance of old Genesis music, in this case, the entirety of Foxtrot, which includes their magnum opus, the 23-minute “Supper’s Ready.”
The whole show was amazing — but I obviously didn’t film the whole thing…
Coming Home
The Girl was heading out to Target.
“I want to go, too!” the Boy exclaimed.
What was going to be the reaction? She’s often reticent to take him anywhere, but surprisingly she simply said, “Well, you can come with me.”
So our children went clothes shopping alone.
Looking for Recipes
Soccer Evening
Hits
Some the the Girl’s hits at a recent game — never published it.
Neighbors
Playoffs, Game 2: The End of the Season
The Girl’s volleyball team played in the second round of the division playoffs tonight, facing River Bluff just as they had last year. Last year, the girls won in straight sets, but each set was by the closest margin.
This year, River Bluff jumped out to a 1-8 lead in the first set, and I was afraid it might be one of those nights. However, they fought back and eventually tied it at 13. That means they went on a 12-5 streak. And what did they do after that? They gave up 7 consecutive points, ending up at 13-20 in a heartbeat. This has been the story of this team this year: they pull back and tie a set or they roar ahead and dominate a set, only to give the points back. So they lost the first set 19-25.
The second set they jumped into the lead and held a two-point lead for a long time before River Bluff tied it up at 18. At one point, they were down again, 22-23, but they tied it on a big hit from L. They went on to with the second set 25-23, which is the same score they won their final set against River Bluff last year.
In the third set, it happened: they fell apart and could not pull themselves back together. It was 3-3, and suddenly that transformed into 4-10. Then it was 9-17. They just never managed to keep it together and ended up getting trounced 13-25.
I don’t mind so much when the Girl’s team loses when they just get out-played. I don’t like to see them beat themselves so badly.
Down two sets to one, the girls had to pull it out in the fourth set to send it to a final fifth set. They were doing fine, trading point for point until it was 5-5. But just as happened in the third set, they began playing uncoordinated ball and soon it was 7-13: a 2-8 run. They fought back to make it 18-19, but then they gave back three more points to make it 18-22. In the end, they lost the fourth set 20-25, thus bring their 2023 season to a close.
And in the end, tears. Tears because it was the end of the season, and seven seniors will be leaving this year. Tears because it was the end of the season after a state championship that they were all convinced they could repeat. Tears because of the stress of a whole season and the release when it all comes to an end.
There is a sliver of a silver lining in all this: the Girl desperately needs a break for her ankle to heal some. At least now she’ll get some rest before club season starts. But that’s little consolation when you see your daughter in tears.
But we have a 3-0 sweep and a subsequent state championship from last year to keep in the bank…