Sat Thoughts

Can it be 12 years already?  There are days when one can recall exactly where he/she was, years after the fact.  Twelve years ago today, I know and know well.  In fact, I told Bopper, "Twelve years ago today I was holding you and you weren't an hour old yet."  He grinned and said, "I bet you can't do that now."  Maybe, maybe not.  But it was one of the greatest days of my life, no doubt.  In fact, I held each of my three grandkids before they were an hour old.  Grandma has said the wonder is that I ever gave them up!

I'm upset with my coaching today.  OK, we won our first game of the season.  But I am left with a sour taste in my mouth from the lousy officiating.  Now, to be certain, I could care less if there are never any 3 second calls (it's actually 5 seconds in our little league), travel calls, in-bound violation calls, etc.  But fouls?  Those are a different matter.  It really irks me that they are called.  OK, so we can't call everything, at least, every little thing.  But I would certainly think running into a dribbler, sort of like a trap block in football, to steal the ball should be called.  I would think that if a kid goes home with welt marks all over his forearms, there should have been some fouls called.  I would think that if a dribbler is pushed out of bounds a foul should be called instead of whistling the kid for, well, going out of bounds.  I should think that if a team is whistled for "deliberate fouls" three times, as if a 5th-6th grader who can hardly run can "deliberately" do anything, on breakaways from behind (I fully agree my kids fouled, just not the "deliberate" part, which was explained as "pushing from behind) then the other team which also did it three or four times should be at least called for fouls, if not "deliberate."    Yep, it ruined my appreciation for the win.  What makes this esp grating is that I've been pointing it out in polite letters to the league.  I've had as many as three kids a game injured, unable to play.  In fact, our best player didn't play the second game last week due to a such a foul, most surely preventing our first win then.  He didn't play up to par at all today, either.  My own kid was undercut on a breakaway layup, landing on his mouth and slicing a tooth in half--no foul.  My other kid, after one game, when to the ER for a thigh injury, only to come home with 7 stitches in his head and a calf wrap, neither of which we knew--and he never shot a free throw.  What's so hard to see all of the time?  Yep, I realize, after 20 years of high school officiating, it's a hard job and that not everything can be seen.  But, esp, on breakaways?  point guards out in the open at half court?  I'm upset that I let the lousy officiating get to me.

Hey, what happened?  A week ago, I filled up the gas tank at $3.39 a gallon.  I was running low yesterday, after chasing all over after the kids this week, and opted to fill up.  Whoa!  I went past a station that advertised $3.66 a gallon, wondering where that came from.  With only "18 miles to empty," I figured I'd better stop and I did, at a station with $3.71 a gallon!  That's almost $5 more a fill-up.  And that's a welcome figure, too, after having one of my paychecks (working part-time) $90 short (due to government stealing, er, withholding--that is, tax increases!) and the other about $25 short--since the first of the year!  Yeah, I guess I favor an increase in the state gasoline tax, higher auto registration fees, or a rise in the state sales tax from 6% to 8%.  Let's not forget, as the President has said, "We don't have a spending problem."  I received an e-mail from Congressman Levin last week, touting his efforts at what he termed, "Paycheck Equality."  I responded with an e-mail of my own, asking what he was going to do about my paychecks being short since Jan 1.  Yeah, you guessed it--I received no reply.

Such a great letter-to-the-editor in today's newspaper!  It had a great campaign slogan for candidate for President in 2016 Hillary Clinton--"Who Cares?"  That, of course, is in reference to her incredibly ignorant and callous response to a Benghazi question before the Senate committee a couple of weeks ago.  But, with the types of voters we have out there today, I think she'd get elected.  Of course, I think Kwame Kilpatrick would be re-elected in a heartbeat.

What an odd day!  I finished both hard Saturday crosswords--much more difficult than the Sunday New York Times crossword--without too much difficulty.  Maybe their creators were giving us a bit of a break, maybe.  I really look forward to those Sat crosswords.

Speaking of Sunday newspapers, boy the coups have been pretty rotten since about Thanksgiving or so.  There are some good ones, but not nearly as good as usual.  BTW, with bottle returns, though, I spent 35 cents for groceries today.  Granted, it was a short list and I have to head out to the other store tomorrow for another short list (I won't spend $10, not close).  Still...I'll take it for a week's groceries (no meats).  Why everyone doesn't clip coups beats me.

Out for the birthday party....