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High School Football Idn’t Bad!

As a teen, I went to two high schools. Only going to one wasn’t challenging enough. Okay, maybe that’s not it. I went to 9th and 10th grade at Lenape High School in Medford, New Jersey. I went to 11th and 12th grade at Germantown High School in Germantown, Tennessee. In the 9th grade I was on the track team doing pole vault, high jump, hurdles, and the 400 meter relay. That was fun! I gave it up because I learned that if you work for someone they give you money. I started washing buses for $3 per hour under the table. That was the end of my high school extracurricular activity. What a mistake! Between working and being absorbed with computers, I never went to a high school football game.

Since my daughter Sarah is now on the flag team at her high school, we are going to the games as good band parents should, to support the school. I have to say I have enjoyed the games very much (despite what Cathy’s pictures would have you believe)! I like bumping into friends, and the teams play really well! I’ll be going to many more.

Farragut vs Bearden was a loud game! We showed up earlier than last time and thought we’d missed kickoff. From the parking lot the stadium could be seen as packed and it roared with activity. I won’t review the game because there are more qualified people to do that. I’ll just say it was not boring. The Bearden band did not know their routine so the half-time show had no marching and no flags. That was a bit of a let down. I was tickled to see Brian Hornback on the field during Scott Moore’s presentation of a $500 contribution to each school! Cathy knew he’d be there because Brian doesn’t miss Farragut football games but we really didn’t expect to see him much less on the field! During half-time a woman in the Farragut bleachers passed out and several paramedics and police carried her out. I fear it was heart attack. I’d certainly like to know that she’s okay. They almost drove an ambulance into the stadium to get her. The game went into overtime and the teams played ferociously but Bearden ended up losing to Farragut 35 to 28. Despite their great playing, the high schoolers were distraught, some to the point of tears. Frankly, Bearden won the can drive and played an exceptional game. I know its easy to say but they should be proud! Get ’em next time!

Here’s the schools I attended:

  1. Pre-school, St John’s Episcopal Church, Wilmington, NC
  2. Kindergarten+2weeks 1st grade: Forest Hills Elementary School, Wilmington, NC
  3. 1st-3rd: Cary Elementary School, Cary, North Carolina
  4. 4th and 5th: Not Audubon? (have to look that one up)
  5. 6th and 7th: Theodore Roosevelt Middle School, Kenner, Louisiana
  6. 8th: Medford Middle School, Medford, New Jersey
  7. 9th and 10th: Lenape High School, New Jersey
  8. 11th and 12th: Germantown High School, Germantown, TN
  9. 1988-1993: University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee
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Excited to See Tommy Grow Up

I am participating in a transition fair at West High School today. It is good to see so many familiar faces! Tommy’s teachers are there. Old friends are there. I like chatting with the parents of Tommy’s peers, the professionals, and people we have gotten to know over the years. The social opportunity, chance to catch up, and sharing of information is almost more valuable than the actual workshops. We talked our way half way through the first session!

This fair is exciting because Tommy has done so well for himself. I am excited at the prospect of Tommy going off on his own to further his education and then move onto be self-sufficient with a career. So unbelievable to consider either possibility since earlier in Tommy’s life we had assumed he would always live at home or otherwise under someone’s wings.

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SuperDad

Tonight was the elementary school’s open house. It may have been only the kindergarten open house but the cub scout troop was meeting so there were enough cars at the school that a couple of people parked on the lower branches of some of the trees and a couple of SUVs managed to find some space on the roof. Cathy went early and helped sell year books. I caravaned the children around town as we picked up Sarah, Sarah’s friend, and Tommy from high school activities. We ended up at McDonald’s having dinner with some cub scout friends of ours. In due time, we dropped Molly and Tommy off at the house with hopes Tommy would do some chores and the rest of us deploy to the school. Look out! Chaos coming!

We had a wonderful time, saw some friends, had pleasant chats with teachers, Sarah fell chasing Evan and bled all over the new kindergarten rug, and Amy was able to show off her school. As we came to a close, I noticed the volunteer form horribly empty so I inquired and put our names down. In that time, already-over-volunteered-Cathy stared on in dread as I swiped another bit of time out of her life with a few strokes of a #2 pencil. While she was entranced with my unsanctioned scheduling, Sarah and Evan departed, followed shortly by Amy. As the ever confident Amy found herself alone in the hallway, she took it upon herself to walk out the front of the school, through the dark parking lot, and off to the playground. The parents got a frowny face tonight. Sarah and Evan took one hall of the school. Cathy raced to the gym. A couple of scout dads joined in the search with one commenting "my child is missing too…but he’s old enough to walk home!" The teacher joined the posse. Amy was found on the playground and as she was walked into the school, her name blared across the school intercom so that all visitors became away that the McCaughans lose their children.

Didn’t Noah go with us? Anyone seen Noah?

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When Online Friends Go Missing

You know, last week I had my withdrawal. I received no comments, questions, or phone calls. It was a little discouraging. I vanished and no one cared (of course, they probably just looked at Cathy’s blog and knew exactly what was going on) Toward the end of the week, I did receive a “you still alive?” email and for that I was very thankful.

With that said, What’s happen to Phillip?!Bluesloth is redesigned!

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Last Night’s Dream

I remember two dreams. Both involved Tommy. One was about camping. But this post is about the other one.

We are in a car. I am in the back seat against the door on the passenger side. Cathy is sharing the seat with me just to my left. Some girl is in the middle but it is kind of like an opening to another row of seats so perhaps she is in the back-back and leaning forward to the middle row of seats; she is holding an unlit joint between her thumb and index finger but mostly concealing it in her hand. Then a shadow of a person is in the other middle seat on the driver’s side. Tommy is driving. A police officer pulls him over. We all sit there stunned. We make no attempt to get the girl to conceal her illegal substance as the officer approaches the car and makes eye contact with her. He comes to my side of the car and takes the joint from her, makes a comment and hands it to me. As he walks away Cathy points out that the police officer is going to arrest me so I eat it.

Now I ask you, what the hell was Tommy doing driving?!

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What do I do?

Today I am calculating distances between UK postcodes so if someone says they live in the SW1A 0AA postcode and they want to find information within 3000 meters of that postcode, I’m doing the math for that.

Did you know that the UK postcode system is copyrighted? That means there are very few tools available for this so the wheel has to be constantly reinvented. http://www.freethepostcode.org/ is trying to help. Copyrights are not always a good thing.

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Don’t you have better things to do?

I blog a lot. Apparently I’m a noisy Twitter also. Some people take smoke breaks. I publish something. I am a juggler. A natural born multi-tasker. When I get some code block, I distract myself with a post then usually I can get back into the grind. Since I work constantly, and strange hours, I am at the keyboard perpetually which lends to being able to produce more posts. Blogging is not something that detracts from my day nor consumes quantities simply because I have built blogging into the rhythm of my life.

Last week I said some things in jest which offended Cathy … fill in some blanks … we got angry with each otherapparently only I got mad and I quit posting. The quantity of work on my plate was inhuman (and light compared to the ungodly amount on my plate this week). I withdrew from everything but work which probably wasn’t a terrible thing. But it knocked my rhythm out of whack. My blogging habit broke. I’ll get it back in sync but it may not be until next week after this work is done. If I survive this week and October I’m seriously thinking of taking November or December off completely.

Btw, Cathy and I have since made up. Married people know what that means.

As an interesting sidebar, I thought with no posting my readership would vanish. According to Google Analytics the number of visitors increased!

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From the mouths of babes

Evan, from his crib: "I’m not going to sleep and you cannot make me. I have been studying constitutional law on the History Channel and PBS along with escape tactics used by Wonder Pets on Noggin and tactical planning on Family Guy. You cannot legally nor forcefully hold me in this cell any longer. I am two years old for God’s sake! I don’t need to NAP! Release me now or I shall POO!"

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Seduced

Last night I decided to not sleep until January but the Sirens called and I decided to grab just a couple of hours rest. That’s where my seductress got me. Despite having the stolen covers between her skin and mine, her warmth was soothing and the weight of her body leaning against my back anchoring. We were not cuddling but she lay partially across my legs further assuring I would stay in the bed and it worked. Each time I jolted awake, I dared not leave the bed for fear of disturbing her…at least that was my rationalization. Shouldn’t the dog be sleeping at the foot of the bed?!

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