matching tracksuits

fun in threes, sometimes fours

the girl

Volleyball Tuesday

Tuesday 27 September 2022 | 0 Comments

The Girl's team played Woodmont High today -- where three of her former teammates play. Mauldin is the team to beat right now, and when the home team went up four points on us, the crowd was going wild.

Then our girls got their act together and won by four points.

There's always a bit of an advantage, I think, being the underdog on the home court. You really have nothing to lose, and if you hype yourself up enough (and you actually have the skills), you can convince yourself you can win. And then when you are winning, when it looks like you might pull off an upset (at least one set), your confidence soars. Until you start making mistakes, the favorites start coming back, and you start doubting yourself.

So Mauldin came from behind to win the first set 25-21, and in the second set, they did what I believe they felt they'd do the first set: they won 25-15. The third set was 25-18 or something like that, but they came close to losing the first set due to underestimating the opposition.

"Plus," the Girl explained, "everyone thinks we're the team to beat, so they play their best against us."

After a tough club season last year, it's good to see the Girl winning again.

International Festival 2022

Saturday 24 September 2022 | 0 Comments

Serve

Tuesday 20 September 2022 | 0 Comments

Champions

Saturday 17 September 2022 | 0 Comments

L's high school team won a local tournament with about 12 teams competing.

Return

Tuesday 13 September 2022 | 0 Comments

The Girl has been sidelined for three weeks with a badly-sprained ankle. She did physical therapy the entire time, and last week she was hoping to get the go-ahead to return to play. Instead, her therapist told her, "You can return to practice, but don't play."

She was heartbroken.

Tonight was her first night back. It was their first region game -- all the other teams they've been playing have been out of region. They won in three straight sets: 25-6; 25-15; 25-17. Or all-told, 75-38, just under a 2-1 scoring ratio.

The Girl got to play about 1.5 sets. She indicated she was pleased with how things went, but I know she wanted more, wanted to do better. Still, after three weeks of not playing, she did a fantastic job. And as always, hers were the loudest cheers on the team.

Sunday at Home

Sunday 11 September 2022 | 0 Comments

Lake Tillery 2022

Monday 05 September 2022 | 0 Comments

Saturday, Late August

Saturday 27 August 2022 | 0 Comments

It's late August -- the time of year when cooler autumnal temperatures approach, but sometimes not quite fast enough. Daytime temperatures can still get up into the mid-90s, and summer's humidity still lingers, making it feel even warmer.

That's all fine and good if your HVAC system is working well. Sure, it might work a bit more than you would hope. The heavy heat of July is a thing of the past, and although it can be hot, late August usually brings a bit of a break for one's HVAC system and one's power bill compared to mid-July. Not much -- just a bit.

Still, we have a relatively high-efficiency system, and the difference I guess is no big savings. Five or ten bucks perhaps.

But then the system starts stalling, starts leaking coolant, and the indoor temperature climbs despite the temperature outside. Specialists arrive, investigate, diagnose, and give a $2,200 quote for fixing the system or $800 for a temporary bandaid.

"How long will it last?"

"A few months to a few years."

Cheap is expensive; lack of information leads to poor decisions. It lasts less than 24 hours. $800 for 20 hours of cooling.

More specialists arrive. They'll do the fix for about 75% of the other company's quote. We go for it. The system works for a couple of weeks, still showing some strain and problems but keeping the house comfortable.

And then the whole thing shuts down. Completely. When temperatures return to the mid-90s. And the company we've been working with doesn't work on the weekend, so we're stuck until Monday. And so you start researching things like this.

Our Games

Saturday 20 August 2022 | 0 Comments

The Boy's first games with his new soccer team took place today. It was a tough start to the season: 0-4 and 0-5 losses. I was expecting him to be terribly disappointed about it, but he was surprisingly stoic: "We have some things we need to fix, but we could be good."

The Girl's high school varsity team, for which L plays middle, won their first tournament today.

A day of contrasts.

First Day 2022

Monday 15 August 2022 | 0 Comments

The Boy had a rough day of it: he's been in a multi-age classroom for four years, meaning he's been with the same group of people (mostly) for those four years. Fifth grade, though, doesn't have a multi-age program, so he's back out in the general population -- and none too thrilled about it. All his closest friends from the last four years -- all of them -- ended up in different classes. A few of them got grouped together, but none of them are in E's class. Which makes him less than thrilled about school after this first day.

We tried to help the Boy see things from a different perspective, but for the longest time, he just wasn't interested. It was going to be a disastrous year, he was sure of it. There was no way it could get better -- he was convinced. He might as well just switch to homeschool.

After some time in the pool and a lot of reassurance, he informed us on the way home that "all of Mama's speeches" had made him a little more excited about tomorrow.

As for the Girl, she sat down in the car after volleyball practice, looked at me, and said, "Guess what we have in English class?" I raised my eyebrows in anticipation. "Articles of the week!"

I've been giving my students an article of the week for almost ten years now. It's one of the most effective tools I use.

"Do you know what this is?" one of the Girl's friends asked her.

"Yes," she whispered back. "I've been grading them for years." Which is dramatic sounding, and it probably got a laugh, but it's not quite true. I've had her checking multiple choice questions, adding up the points, and using my scale to determine and write the grade on the paper, but that's not really grading them.

"Same difference!" L playfully huffed when I pointed this out.