the girl
Arrival in Knoxville
We made it to Knoxville for the next tournament. Two weekends in a row — that would be exhausting if K and I didn’t split the duty.
On the way here, L and I played music for each other: she selected one song, then I selected the next. I think we were both trying to find something the other liked. I liked a few of her songs; she “mehed” most of mine.
“I’m into alternative and indie stuff,” she said. And then very little of what she played sounded like what I would have considered “alternative and indie.” That was one of my staple genres growing up, so I played some R.E.M. for her. They are the godfathers of alternative. “Meh.”
At one point, she claimed I didn’t choose my song quickly enough and so that meant she got two songs in a row.
“That’s fine,” I said.
My next song: Genesis’s “The Musical Box,” which clocks in at just over ten minutes.
She was shocked and aghast.
“Next I’ll go with Pink Floyd’s ‘Dogs,'” I suggested, “which is 17 minutes long. After that perhaps Genesis’s ‘Supper’s Reader,’ which is 24 minutes long, and then maybe ‘Echoes’ by the Floyd again, which is 23 minutes long. We’ll end it with Jethro Tull’s ‘Thick as a Brick,’ which is a full album — one song, 44 minutes.” She was horrified.
Savannah 2021
Darts and Games
I've neglected photos for almost a month now -- almost nothing new added to the Lightroom catalog.
I've been taking pictures -- a few of them.
They've just been sitting on the memory card in the camera.
Plus, I've been writing and thinking about politics and religion...
Play Date
The Girl has, for all intents and purposes, outgrown play dates. Her friends come over occasionally, and they sit on the bed and talk. Or play games on the Chromebook together. But they’re not play dates. But we call them that anyway.
L’s best friend N came over yesterday and one of the highlights for them was walking together down to the CVS near us to buy snacks. K told me that after L told her friends about doing that, all her friends want to come for a visit to walk down to the CVS.
What a change from the summer L experienced in Poland a couple of years ago. She met with her newly-made village friends for pizza, went shopping with them, met them for ice cream, walked to their houses for visits. So much independence for a then-twelve-year-old. So relatively incomprehensible for American children.
Southern Classic, Day 2
At their age and ability level, the Girl and her teammates can go from one extreme to another. For example, they can lose the first set 25-16 and then turn around and win the next set 25-16.
They can make a brilliant play and follow it up by letting the ball flop slowly and gently in between three players as they all look at it, each on expecting someone else to get it, each one making a move for it and then backing off, each one remaining perfectly silent.
The Girl can hit serves that float over the net gently and then power rockets over the net. Then she can miss her timing and the serve doesn't even make it to the net.
Today, they got third place in the silver division. That means, roughly, they finished seventh place overall, I think.
Not horrible but not what they wanted. Still, they were all in a good mood at the end of the tournament, which is what counts.
Dalton 2021 Day 2
Dalton 2021 Day 1
It's a different tournament this year. There are fewer courts this year: five instead of eight. This means fewer teams in the building, so fewer players, fewer parents -- reduced risk, in short.
They won their first two games in straight sets. They didn't have much problem with either team.
As often happens, though, the third team was a different story. Our girls (and single boy -- long story) lost the first set something like 25-22. Not a devastating loss, but a loss nonetheless.
They started the second set strong and before we knew it, our team was up 19-12. "Surely this is a done deal." Nope. They ended up losing 26-24, which means in the second half of the game, they were consistently outscored 2-1.
It's a question of experience, of gelling together as a team. It's only their second tournament, and many of the points they lost were from silly, unforced errors. They'll weed those out with time, with some experience.
And the Boy got his soccer uniform for the spring season.
Celebrating 48
Sunday in the Park
