Glenn's Daily Script » Friends

Coaching

Glenn — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 06:24:07 +0000

I’m not sure how the really good coaches do it. I don’t mean working with kids – I love that part.

What I do mean, is remembering everything you want to teach the kids so they can become better. I’m working as part of a team so it’s a wonderful experience since I remember one thing and another coach remembers other things and by the end of practice, the kids have had fun and unbeknownst to them, they learned something.

Mitchell is doing a basketball team again this year (I think it’s his 3rd year). We’ve got a great group of kids that all have a passion for sports, basketball or just playing with friends. The energy has been very high and is truly inspiring to watch and participate.

It’s hard to keep up with them too. Tonights practice, we had a game to promote confidence in dribbling and defense. I was with them (not all the kids had quite gotten there yet) and bending over dribbling the ball low compresses my diaphragm and made it very tiring even given that I’m very fit. The kids had a lot of fun trying to get me knocked out of the game.

Well tomorrow is our first game of the season so wish us luck!

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Coaching

Facebook

Glenn — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 09:05:21 +0000

Yesterday, a friend of ours popped out of the blue via Facebook. It’s great to hear from old friends and see how their families are doing.

Via this friend, we found a few other old friends too. This is great as I haven’t really been using Facebook for anything more than playing games with Kathy.

Maybe we will find more old friends this way.

Enjoy some family and friends time!

Glenn — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 22:05:07 +0000

Here is a short video that I made using my new Flip Video Recorder. Image quality is fine for the tubes so enjoy.

Check out the link: 4th of July 2008 Video for the video or browse to our Gallery (see top of page for link) and then choose Video and then 2008 to find it.

Lunar Eclipse

Glenn — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 23:24:58 +0000

We went to dinner with Kathy’s folks tonight and it seemed cloudy before the sun set so we figured we were not going to get to see the eclipse tonight. We had settled into watching a movie before bedtime when we got a call from our neighbor telling us we were missing the show.

We headed outside and wow! It was a perfect night for stargazing. The stars were out. The moon and the eclipse were in perfect view. It was a fabulous show.

I hope that everyone else got a chance to see it. Very cool!

I’m Superman…ok maybe not!

Glenn — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 17:52:04 +0000

Maybe I’m not Superman, but I did swoop in an save the day today.

A neighbor and friend was very worried about another neighbor’s cat that was stuck in a tree. Apparently, the neighbor that owned the cat tried some pretty silly things to get the cat down and chased the cat higher up.

When I got there, the cat was up about 20-25 feet or so. I didn’t get to fly in like Superman did. Instead, I had to nervously climb up a rickety extension ladder with my friend holding the bottom steady. Reach up and grab the very nervous cat (adding to my own nervousness). The cat of course fought me the whole way down though, amazingly, I didn’t wind up with any scratches though the cat did shed half of it’s coat on the way down, I think.

The cat is down and my blood pressure spiked though is back to normal. I’ve done my good deed for the week or maybe the month.

Back to normal?

Glenn — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 19:45:53 +0000

I think I’m starting to feel human again.� It’s been slower than normal because I couldn’t just take a day or two and crash and recuperate/heal.� We’ve got new windows going in and other normal life things so I’ve still been busy.� I even had a doctor’s appt (it was a previously scheduled annual checkup).

The windows are all in and now they are working on the trim.� It’s behind schedule but I think it’s because the original estimate was too aggressive.� The original estimate was that it was a 2 or 3 day job and now I think this is easy a 4 or 5 day job.� Live and learn.� I’m happy with the work crew.� They are friendly and professional and doing a good job.� I’m not thrilled with the slip but we’ll deal with that.

PTSA Meeting

Glenn — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 18:13:34 +0000

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this but I’m the Treasurer this year at the boys school.� Originally, I thought it would be no big deal since I was the Treasurer at their pre-school before for 2 years.� Man, was I over simplifying things.� This school is about 6 times the size and we have overhead that the pre-school didn’t.� The first few months seem to be all about membership checks and our main fund raiser (a pass the hat kind of thing).� It’s a lot of work though it’s not really different work from what I did before.� I like the people I’m working with though as usual I’m the only Dad around.

Anyway today’s a General Meeting.� I’ve done a few Board Meetings.� The General Meeting is supposed to have a lot more questions about the budget which is something I get to present so that should be fun.

I’ve got to go take a shower (since I just worked out) so that I can finish getting ready for this thing.� Wish me luck!

Xander had his first overnight…

Glenn — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 08:32:01 +0000

Wow! What a big milestone. As the cliche goes, they grow up so fast. I know it’s cliche but from a parenting perspective, these milestones just keep coming and coming so it always seems so true.

I mean, he’s stayed overnight at his Omi and Opa’s (Kathy’s folks) both with his brother and by himself so it’s not like he’s been without us but still, …

He was very excited. We should be getting the full report later today.

To Retrospect or Not?

Glenn — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 17:35:53 +0000

I was having a moment this morning while I was working out. All in all it was pretty wierd. I think it was because, having a moment to think while I’m focused on working out and while I have a movie blasting (which I always do) just seems unlikely. That is too many things that just require my attention. On the other-hand, maybe that’s the best moment to have some retrospection.

I was thinking back on my teenage years, more specifically my high school years. To me, these were some good years. For a long time I thought of these as some of the best of my life but then again, I’ve had some other good times too so maybe they weren’t the best but they were good. Maybe more accurately, they were the defining years of my life.

In high school, I was many things at least as I remember it.

I was a geek in an old school way because this was quite a bit before computers so being a geek meant that I was smart – among the top of my class in many subjects (not all cause there were subjects I didn’t find interesting but most). Being a geek also meant being into technology in general, even “nerdy” stuff.

One of the nerdy things I did was be a member of the audio visual club. This gave me access to technologies that were very new such as VCR’s which homes didn’t have yet and video cameras which normal people definitely didn’t have. We video taped sporting events for the sports teams. This also helped me know the sports teams.

Being smart meant taking AP courses and enrolling in college prep courses so I was around a lot of other smart people. One of the best times was in my Chemistry class where 3 other guys (2 were on the basketball team) and I were always lab partners and we just had fun doing all the labs and experiments. This class is what motivated me to go on to get a BS in Chemistry.

Via my friends in Chemistry and via my contacts through the AV club and also due to the fact that I had some surprising physical strength, I had a pretty friendly relationship with many football players and basketball players (these were our 2 major sports at the school).

I was also a member of our local Church teen choir and many of my friends from that were members of the various musical programs at school. I even was in one of the high school talent programs on year with one friend (it was very embarrassing).

I guess my retrospection was probably about what I was watching on TV. It was a teen angst movie which shows that all the different factions at high school are separate and very alienated. My high school life was very different than most of these movies show and in fact nearly polar opposite. It’s not to say there weren’t soap opera moments but it’s not the movies where jocks pound geeks.

Just some thoughts.

4th of July Pictures

Glenn — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 19:45:53 +0000

Here are some shots of the annual 4th of July Bike Parade in our neighborhood.

Here are some shots of our 4th of July celebrations. Our city has outlawed fireworks so we substitute the Coke and Mentos fountains which work pretty well.

Mitchell and his friends

Glenn — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 08:42:28 +0000

I couldn’t resist these pictures. These are pictures of Mitchell and his friends. You can tell that Mitchell just loves his friends.

Mitchell and Galen (his best friend!)

Mitchell with Hannah and Miles

Mitchell with Tessa (he loves her!!!)

School’s Out for Summer!

Glenn — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 09:45:16 +0000

Everybody, sing it!

Ok, I can’t help it even though it’s not me in school anymore. That song just sticks in my brain this time of year.

Anyway, Xander and Mitchell have their last day of school today. Pretty silly to have a last day of school on a monday to be sure. Even sillier is the fact that the last day is 100% assembly and no actual class room time.

They are off for a couple of weeks I think and then they have a few summer camps in a row. Then my parents arrive. Should be a great summer.

Little League Pictures

Glenn — Sat, 12 May 2007 05:30:06 +0000

I’ve been a little slow at posting this but Kathy put up the boy’s first Little League pictures last week. Check the gallery tab at the top of this page.

Here are a couple of my favorite:

Mitchell with his team and showing off his new red mit.

Xander at bat. Look at that form!

Little League Opening Day – Cancelled!

Glenn — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 15:53:16 +0000

Saturday was opening day.

When you picture opening day for a baseball season, you picture a bright sunny day with people coming to cheer their teams on. For Little League, you picture the same thing but instead of just a team to cheer on, they come to cheer on the children. America has much of it’s recent history and mythos built around baseball so it goes to many of our spiritual core.

We signed Xander and Mitchell up for Little League this year and are looking forward to the whole experience. The practices have been fun. The boys have been enjoying it and getting better at the game. Sometimes, they do the kid thing and get all upset about it because it interrupts something they were doing or they are a little lazy but as I said, they are enjoying it.

Saturday was the big day. Both Xander and Mitchell’s first games of the season – Opening Day. Xander was going to miss his game though because of some school testing (another post maybe later!).

But we got the email. The basic measurement for canceling games is that if you can fish in the field then you cancel the game. Well, given the pictures they sent, you could not only fish, you could probably go scuba diving in the infield. It had been raining for better than 24 hours and quite heavy. The games would not have been fun.

Sad to have opening day cancelled but good that Xander didn’t have to miss the first game of the season!

Little League

Glenn — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 05:04:22 +0000

We’ve decided to sign Xander and Mitchell up for Little League. Xander will be in AA and Mitchell in T-Ball. This is actually the first organized sporting activity that either has participated in. They have been in camps that have been training and general survey in nature but not really competitive.

Our introduction so for has been encouraging and intimidating.

It’s been encouraging because at both AA and T-Ball levels, the primary purposes are learning. In fact, Xander’s Team Manager said that there are four focuses – Fundamentals, Fun, Friendship, Fitness. This just seems like a great tag line for this level of sporting activity. Xander and Mitchell (me too, to be honest) don’t really know anything about baseball so this first year is all about learning.

It’s intimidating because the Little League organization is asking for a lot of volunteering. I already volunteer a lot (nearly a full time job since I am retired and a full time parent) and so does Kathy. That kind of request is a bit scary. It’s also intimidating because of the cost. We just had to get the uniform and such and spent $100 on each of them and I’m not sure we have everything yet.

I’m still quite hopeful (almost confident) that this is going to be a very positive experience for both the boys. They are very excited and I think there is some good chance they will make some new long term friends. That is what I hope from this.

Of course, I’m a basketball guy so I would have preferred this all be a basketball league but we go where we go, right?