Spot Starts

Whelp this season continues to get worse.  Definitely the least enjoyable season I have ever watched my son play, but part of that, well actually the whole thing is coaching.  He got to start 2 games in a row due to suspension and he was told that he would be in the starting lineup depending on situation, but...  It seems coach has found someone else to start and he is back on the bench.  It's cool that he got the start, but we lost both games, on the road.  That may play a small part in it, one game an opposing player scored 50 points, and E guarded him for about 21 of those points, but they were pretty much all jumpers, most off the dribble and sometimes he had 2 or 3 hands in his face.  He certainly deserved the 50 (well actually 49 because one of the officials called a 2 a 3).  The second game we lost by 40, and I called it 12 minutes into the contest, sadly.

The other team ran and ran like crazy and we never got back.  Now to me that is game plan, you have to know how a team wants to play going in, and try and take away what they want to do and we didn't.  So we lost.  By 40.  This was actually the OVAC first round and we ended up as the 3rd seed, which was a little surprising, but Sophie was upset because now we have to have a concession stand on Friday.  I mean it's like we didn't realize there was more work on the line for Sophie, come on boys you could have played harder.

Anyway so now we are playing at home against the Team that E got his first start against (see earlier post).  This time however, he won't start.  Not because he hasn't played well or done his job, but well I don't know why.  Last time we were missing the tall kid, this time our point guard is out, but we won last time and if you were going to give him the start then, wouldn't it make sense to start him now?  Honestly this season is so hard to figure out, but I knew he wouldn't start.  And it isn't like him starting the last 2 games is the difference, the other kid who would start also started the last two games due to suspensions.  I'm guessing we lose by 5, E says it will be over double digits.

Update: we lost by 6, but were down 12-1 after 1.

Back to the Bench

Welp that lasted all of two starts.  Now one of the boys who was done for the season may not be done and as much as I want my son to start, I don't want to sound like someone down playing another person's motivation or ability to play or the risk, but... If the answer to what you have done to yourself is to have something surgically repaired, putting it off for the glories of high school basketball may not be worth it.  Now there is something to be said for gutting it out and I could understand if we were undefeated and had a shot at all the championships and stuff, but we are 9-7 right now, can't win the buckeye 8, probably won't make the OVAC top 4, and in all likelihood unless something drastic with the coaching philosophy changes we are probably headed for an early exit in the sectionals.  So unless you were playing for a scholarship or maybe a school record, which I don't think either are on the line, it's probably best to pack it in and call it a career.  Now would I tell my own son this. abosolutely.  There is basically nothing to be gained and a life full of potential pain or limited range of motion in one arm on the line.  You only get to do this life one time, and you only have the body you were born with so you need to take care of it.  That is my advise, just kind of unfortunate what has happened and how it might play out.  E has also had an ear infection and missed the last game so he might have gotten bumped from the lineup anyway.  Hopefully he can still play and contribute.

Update:  Well the boy with the injured arm is done, but not without the coach asking him to stay.  Insert eye roll.  So E missed one game due to an ear an infection and the coach held him out the entire first quarter even though we were losing 12-6 at one point.  Must have been concerned for his well being even though the boy with the shoulder problems missed 2 straight games, and came right back into the starting lineup and played probably about 25 minutes.  Oh and the one kid who missed a week and a half with ham string issues came right back to the starting lineup and played damn near every minute of two back-to-back losses of 30+ and 20+.  Honestly I have no clue what this guy watches during games and his main assistant is about a joke.  Oh the game we were behind, when E came in we went on a 7-2 run and got the lead, now he didn't score, but tell me that he didn't make a difference.

Defensive Basketball Tips

So I saw a video on line and while I agree with some of the concepts there are other that I think are wrong.  Defense for basketball is one of the hardest things to get right, but oh what a difference it can make if you understand defense.  For one it is difficult to practice, everyone can dribble and shoot on their own but no one works on defense by themselves.  A lot of times we give credit to people for being "good" defenders when they are simply very active and maybe even fast, but don't necessarily use correct or good technique.  Plus how often do you hear when watching a game that a player is a fantastic positional defender?  Not exactly the flashyist comment is it?  So let's start with the very basics.

BASICS

See the ball - never turn your back to the basketball especially on defense.  good offensive players will take advantage.
Try to keep your back to the basket.
Stay between your person and the basket.
Bend your knees and keep your butt down, hands out when in a stance.
Slide your feet - basically don't cross your feet or a good offensive player will go right by you.

So that is what I try to get my elementary kids to do to start with.   If you master these concepts you at least aren't a space cadet on the defensive end.  So then how do you become a "good" defender?

MODERATE

Talk - always communicate with other players about where the offense is and any screens.
Ball - you - man - This concept keeps you in a position where one - you see the ball and the person you are guarding, and two - you are in a position to defend a pass to your person.
Know personnel - this is a little higher level concept, but if you are guarding a shooter you need to be close to that person if they are away from the basket.  If someone is not a great shooter you don't have to guard them that closely away from the basket.  This will also determine if you need to try and get over screens (good shooter) or can go under a screen (bad shooter).
When trying to block a shot be the second person off the floor.  If you don't do this you will constantly be falling for fakes and be out of position.

HIGHER LEVEL STUFF BUT REALLY SHOULDN'T BE

When guarding a right handed player you should challenge a shot with your left hand.  This is a concept that is lost on players or never taught to them, but makes sooooo much sense.  If you try to block a shot with the right hand on a right handed player, your entire body has to rotate or slide over to where you are no longer if front of the player.  If they faked the ball and you bit on the fake they will be able to go left with very little resistance because you are horribly out of position.  This is why left handed players have an advantage because their instinct is to block the shot with their strong hand and it happens to line up with right handed players, so they are able to stay in front of the offensive player the entire time without getting badly out of position.  Sometimes it is hard to tell if a left handed player is good at defense, because they have a natural advantage.
Never try to steal the ball from a good ball handler when the ball is in their hands.  They are too good at dribbling and by waving your hands your feet will stop moving or you will get off balance and they will expose you.  Be patient against a good ball handle and be content to make them work hard or travel the furthest path to the basket.  "You reach, I teach" is a favorite motto of good ball handlers.
Keep your hands at ball level.  If a player is dribbling you don't have to worry about blocking a shot so your hands shouldn't be up in the air.  You should be worried about them passing the ball, though.  If they are dribbling hands should be out, palms up.  If they have the ball in a triple threat, hands should be out to the side preferably with the hand to guard the shot forward towards the ball handler.  If they raise the ball to shoot or pass, the defenders hands should go up.  If they have already used their dribble, you can move in extremely close so that passing angles are taken away, just don't get beat on a back door or give and go, you still have to stay on balance and in front of the offensive player.
When there is a lot of distance between you and a ball handler you should flatten out.  If you have a shooting hand forward (and by extension a foot forward) a good offensive player will attack the front foot to get you to open your hips.  So if you don't give them a direction they have to pick a direction and you can easily slide over and take a charge if they drive at you.  Ideally by being flat (both feet the same distance from the ball handler) the ball handler will stop their forward progress and you can assume a more natural defensive stance.  If they are still coming at you while flat they will have to take a much wider path in order to make it around you without charging.  At that point you should have help or be able to easily drop back to pick them up. Always start to their strong hand and if you can, keep the ball centered on your body from a position stand point.  This is where quicker defenders have an advantage.
When guarding the ball prior to a dribble keep the foot forward that matches up with their shooting hand.  So for a right handed shooter you want your left foot towards the shooter, but outside of their stance or at least outside the ball.  The reason for this is, if they still try to drive right, they have to go around your foot which will give you a chance to drop your hips and still be in front of them on a drive.  Ideally they will be forced to go left, but if they pull up for a shot you will be directly on their shooting hand.  The key thing here is to not switch which foot is forward with out the ball handler committing to dribbling in that direction on a hard drive.  If they are just sliding right or left you want to slide with them but still in a position to challenge the shooting hand.  Why move your right foot forward to keep someone from going left if they shoot right handed?  They will be able to shoot right over top of you because you aren't in a position to block or challenge the shot effectively.

Tales from practice

So two things here.  One, I guess they were running a fast break drill, and in the drill the point guard was furthest back, there were two wings and one post player that was closest to half court to start (makes sense because on a break most of the time the post players are close to mid court...).  The formation proceeds to the front court and the point guard I guess throws it into the lane to the post player with the wings going to the 3 point line (this at least makes sense).  Fast forward to the next day and in a game situation a break occurs (except now there is no post in front of everyone, weird), well the wings go to the 3 point line and now the coach tells them they are wrong.  They should have went to the paint first.  Which is correct, but in the drill the previous day the wings were stopping at the 3 point line, so.... what are trying to accomplish with these drills? 

Two, a player gets the ball swung to them at the 3 point line, player takes the shot.  Coach "that is a horrible shot".  Now we are teaching kids that open 3 points shots after a swing is bad shot?  He was supposed to throw it in the post.  And I wonder why we are 1-3 in the last 3 post seasons.

Why Coaches Shouldn't Dress Down Players in Public

So this hits a little close to home and is exceptionally discouraging.  Let me start with what happened then give the reasons for why this is a bad idea especially for a coach to do.  During one of the recent games the coach on E's team got really mad at a play and started yelling "he sucks, he sucks" while standing on the sidelines. Now I didn't see it, but Sophie saw it and she is always defensive about her kid so she assumed he was talking about her son.  So she files that display in her memory bank.  Well we win the game, E has 5 steals, and manages to sink 2 clutch free throws to put us up 4 with less than 2 minutes to play.  Not a great game but good enough to help the team win.  The next day he says he is done with basketball and is going to bowl next year.  Mind you he is a teenager, but this is coming after a game the week before where he said he finally enjoyed basketball again, and the team goes 2-0 in his 2 starts. So Sophie calls the coach out and he apparently cops to saying that about his own player in the middle of a game in front of his team, directly in front of our fans and across from the opposing team student section.  Now if Sophie saw it, you know there was more than her that saw it too.  In this day and age of social media a coach lambasting a players ability is going to be captured and shoved in that kids face.  I think it is totally ridiculous that a coach would say anything negative about a kid's playing ability during a game, let alone a kid on his team.  I can understand correcting a mistake or pointing out a play that could have been made (that's called coaching), but to throw your hands up in the air, and strut back and forth yelling "He Sucks, He Sucks!!" is beyond terrible, it isn't coaching because you aren't making anyone better by doing it.  What are those other kids on the bench thinking?  What are the parents thinking (glad it's not my kid... this time)? What are the other fans thinking? "wow if this guy thinks his own players suck, maybe we can win".  Then you have kids who aren't playing and just watching for the other team, but they know these players, they have grown up with each other they have competed against each other in other sports, and they know how to communicate with each other.  And if one of those kids could have got a video and posted to social media imagine the embarrassment that kid is going to go through at their own school amongst their peers.  Now allegedly that isn't what happened, but even having this as a possibility is unacceptable in my mind.  When you are the coach of a team it is your job to protect these kids from the outside.  You have to have the mentality that everyone in that locker room is not only on the same side, but there has to be a united front against the opponent, their fans and sometimes even your fans.  You have to be willing to defend the kids and any mistakes they make especially if you leave them in the game.  What sense does it make playing a kid that you think "sucks" and then if they make a mistake leave them in?  Doesn't that just make you look stupid?  Well someone once said that stupid is as stupid does and I have about had my fill of stupid.

I think the most frustrating part, at least as a parent, is that I have invested so much time in helping him get better and building his confidence.  I compare it to building a building one confidence brick at a time and every good game, good practice, learning-something-new, backyard game we play is a brick that goes into building up this structure of confidence that the kids has.  Then you have a coach that instead of continuing to build the confidence structure so that these kids can go out and compete with their full skill set, he comes in with the wrecking ball of criticism  that is capable of destroying multiple levels confidence in one fell swoop.  Shooting - No, you can't do that!! Pass it to the tall kids!! Driving to the basket - That's not your F'ing job!!!  I mean it takes so much just to get a kid to be able to play at a varsity level, and to have a kid feel like they shouldn't be playing because of their coach is a travesty.  Most kids don't even want to play sports these days because there is too many other things to do.  I remember one play at summer league where E got the ball and took off with it down the middle of the court and drew a foul.  I said "great job, see when you take something good happens".  His coach said something to the effect of that was a terrible play and he got bailed out.  I mean this is completely ridiculous right, how can a player get any better if he isn't allowed to do anything?  At least bowling won't be like this.

Hip Dislocation of Aught 20

So my mom decided it would be interesting to see what would have if she dislocated her hip.  On the 15th she was in her bathroom and she said she reached to get something for her hair and she felt her leg give out and next thing she knew she was on the floor and her leg didn't work.  So she spent the next hour or so crawling on her back to a phone in her bedroom.  Did I mention she just turned 90?  Anyway she found a way to knock the phone down and call 911.  Well the 911 operator calls my brother too because he thought that was his mother.  [not sure exactly the timeline but Jim also heard the calls over the scanner and headed out as well, I think he may have actually beaten Bill there so not sure what he was doing] The EMS arrived and took her to Wheeling.  Someone called Deena and she called me to let me know Mom had fallen, it wasn't until around noon that I found out she was going to have to have "surgery".  And I put "surgery" in quotes here because no one really knew what was wrong or how they were going to treat her, but as it turns out the hip reduction as they call it is capable of being done by pulling the leg/hip back into place without cutting.  Well I didn't know that at the time so I left work and went to the hospital.  All indications were that the procedure would take place around 4:30PM.  But then we had to wait for the doctor to get there so 5:30.  Then we had to wait for some OR rooms to clear out 6:15.  In total the actual procedure lasted about 2 minutes.  I know right.  So she was done by 6:30 and I think in her room by a little after 7 or 7:30.  Jim and Carol had stayed through the procedure and then left.  Bill had left before I even got there because he had to go check on his building.  You know the building that gave life to him apparently as that was more important that whatever was going to happen to his mother.  I stayed with her until about 9 and then headed home and would come back the next day to get her discharged.  Well that took forever for some reason.  The doctor saw her at 11 and then it took another 4 hours to get out of there.  Then we had to go out to Beallsville to get clothes and the dog. 

E's first start

January10, 2020.  E made his first varsity basketball start and had to guard one of the best players in the OVAC.  They did run doubles at him every time he got the ball, so he didn't have to guard him on an island, but he was wore out in the first half.  Normally the coach will pull a player if they have 2 fouls and he got his second foul with about 2 minutes to go in the half.  As soon as he got the foul he made his way to the bench and was like signalling that he had 2 and he should sit because of that, not because he was gassed.  Anyway they did win and the reason he got the start was because our good 6'5" guy has some leg issues and is out for 2 games.  Our point guard tore his shoulder during the game though (it was a ligament or something to be technical), but now he is out too.  So E should be starting the rest of the season.  I told him, we'll see but just in case I did record the intro.  Pretty neat and I am happy for him because he has worked incredibly hard the last 3 years, well 10 years really, to get to this point.

Waking the Dragon

Poking the bear, let sleeping dogs lie, there are all kinds of euphemisms about not angering your opponents and this is a lesson I have taken to heart but is a story for another day as today's story is about Peach getting woke up.  Yesterday she played basketball against the hated UL Jets, well maybe that is a little strong but they did run the score up on our varsity girls to the tune of a 50 point victory where they left starters in until about 3 minutes left in the 4th (also a story for another day), they aren't great but Peach was feeling a little nervous and so was I since her team would be missing it's best player.  Well she did a great job running the point and got several good looks for her teammates, but late in the game, and I am talking less than a minute left and down by 20 UL decides to press.  Well they get a couple of turnovers but, the deficit is just too large at this point.  Anyway Peach either steals the ball or breaks the press I can't remember completely and she is breaking away but there is a girl running her down and she steals the ball.  Well she is mad already because during the press they are grabbing and holding her and the refs aren't calling anything and this girl stealing the ball is the last straw.  I did yell behind you but it was too late, so not on Dad.  Anyway when the girl steals the ball the breaking point is reached, and I hope I can get the video some day but right at that point the dragon gets woke up and Peach goes diving after the ball and takes the girl down.  Totally a foul on Peach and probably a border line technical foul, but the game is out of hand.  Well they get the ball and are bringing it up and she is in full defense mode.  We are playing a 2-3 zone at this point, but she is out front on the zone and she is fully engaged - hands out - fired up.  I told her I wished the girl had fired her up in the first quarter.  She plays again tonight against a team that they had to beat at the buzzer the first time they played.  Still don't have their best player back, but if the dragon is out...Ooooo who knows.  I would like to see it, but I will be watching E make his second ever varsity start.  Once again another story.

The Review of Skywalker (spoilers for Episode IX below...)

So I saw the new Star Wars movie over the weekend - The Rise of Skywalker.  My big take away is that the sequel trilogy on the whole was not overly well done.  Kind of a large cash grab that paid stuff off with nostalgia and some call backs to beloved characters.  The biggest difference between this one and any of the other trilogies is the story isn't as strong.  Starting with "The Force Awakens" these Star Wars movies kind of want to throw gender in your face and show you how awesome women are, and Women are awesome, but that isn't a story in itself.  The original trilogy is a little different because it started off as a single movie and then kind of blew up and they had to make more.  So it was all self contained in the first one but there was room to grow for sure because Luke never even used the light saber in battle in the first movie.  So the next 2 movies kind of grew the narrative that was going to go back to the well so to speak to and blow up the death star again, but there was going to be some real conflict between Good and Bad and the Good was going to be pretty decimated after the second movie and then third would be a full redemption story.  Anyway they pulled it off and in my youth Return of the Jedi was about the only movie I would even rent to watch when we went to go pick out a movie, it was just that good to me, but we are here to discuss the new movie so... This movie was no where near as good.  I think part of that comes from the main character Rey and her development. In the first movie she is already beating a Sith lord with a light sabre and she hasn't even been trained.  By the third movie of the original trilogy Luke was a Jedi badass and everyone was willing to follow him into war, but he wasn't great from the get-go and that made him more relatable and believable.  Rey has basically never had a set back, and I don't think she has lost a one-on-one battle.  She is also so awesome and scary that Luke doesn't even want to train her in the second movie.  Then you get to the third movie and the shtick kind of continues.  You see Rey has never been knocked down a peg by her opponent.  The one time she faced Snoke in the second movie he ended up dead, and you are kind of left to the conclusion that Kylo did that, but did he...  So now you get to the third movie and the main big baddie has already been beat, but wait no he hasn't.  It turns out that the real bad guy was Emperor Palpatine.  From the first 6 movies. But not 7 and 8.  No in 7 and 8 he is never mentioned, like he was actually dead from episode 6, but it turns out he wasn't.  And the reason is...well the movie never gets into that, it just makes a vague reference to episode 3 when he is talking about unnatural means that the Sith can use to stay alive.  But no details of how this works.  He at least is in a weakened state so there is that and from what he says it's kind of like Snoke wasn't real in that he wasn't really a separate Sith just like a puppet of Palpatine, so the law of 2 Sith is preserved with Palp and Kylo during the series.  Whew right?  It still doesn't make sense though because one thing the other trilogies did was tie things to the end ahead of time.  Remember all the subtle holograms of the death star in the prequels.  This series not only has no hint of Palp being alive, but there was also no hint that Rey was his Granddaughter.  Yep, that gets revealed about half way through the movie.  The only thing that saves the movie as watchable is that it is moving so fast that you don't have time to question things while it is actually going on.  But the movie itself basically makes the second movie in the series a waste.  For one, in that movie it was stated that Rey's parents were just junk traders, but this reveal of Pappy Palpy at least makes more sense because of how powerful she was.  Even though the off spring of someone who was actually conceived by the force still needed training for like a movie and half and even at the end of the second movie got his ass kicked.  I think part of the problem with this series is that you had two different directors and two different stories trying to get told and I don't think the second movie fit the story of the first and third.  And they wanted to have 3 different directors, yeesh.  I think the series would have been better if they would have had the commitment of 1 director for all three movies and if the story and been developed and written for all 3 movies first so that cast, director, production, and crew were all on the same page going towards the same goal I think it would have had a different feel and been a better product and probably made more money.  They did tie a bow on the whole series but after 9 movies (and then some if you count the extra ones) I want complete story closure, kind of like Harry Potter or the Marvel series of movies.  The one bad thing about Star Wars is that there are hardly any consequences in the movies (except for in revenge of the Sith where every Jedi but 2 end up dead).  Through the prequels the only real loss (excluding all the Jedi in ep. 3) is Qui-gon and we didn't even know he existed until the beginning of the movie.  Well I guess Padme too, but we knew she was going to die.  In the original trilogy, Obi-won and Yoda die, but not really and I think one E-wok.  In this movie Kylo is killed, but then saved, Leiah dies, but she is dead in real life so not a shocker here (even though she some how survived in space without a suit or anything in the 8th movie, hmmm), chewy gets killed, but then it turns out he was on a different ship, so he is ok, and Rey dies at the end only to be saved by Ben who then dies in her spot.  Oh and also C3PO is going to have his memory erased to help move the plot along, but then R2 backs up his memory, so even that is saved.  Not even the millennium falcon gets destroyed and that is just a ship.  I mean I guess the rebels lost a lot of people in the last movie when all of their ships were destroyed, but those were kind of nameless faceless people so they don't count.  Anyway it is a watchable movie, but not one you are going to rent endlessly.  Maybe I buy it, but these last 3 are just not the old movies at all.  Overall it is maybe a 3 out of 5, but story telling gets a 1 out of 5, and answering all the questions the movies created on their own gets a (-1) out of 5.  One final thought, I will say that the actors did a good job, doing what they were asked to do, it is just that what they were asked to do could have been so much better.  How awesome would it have been for Luke to come back in Force Awakens in the snow fighting scene and he pulls the light sabre out of the snow.  He would battle Kylo for a minute or so, the entire planet cracks in half and ends the battle and they all leave of the

Wim Hof and MAF training

I have started doing the Wim Hof breathing method.  Basically you take 30 deep breathes without fully exhaling and at the end of the breaths you hold your breath after the last exhale.  You can hold for a minute or minute and a half or even longer if you can.  The idea is that when you are holding your breath there is a blood chemistry change as the blood is becoming saturated with CO2.  Right after the deep breathing the blood and tissues should be saturated with oxygen, which will gradually get exchanged for carbon dioxide.  Allegedly this is making the blood more alkaline, but wouldn't a carbon dioxide reaction (even in blood) make an acid?  Regardless the pH of the blood is changing through this interaction and is supposed to help fight off infections.  At least it is supposed to when you do it in conjunction with taking cold showers / ice baths.  Kinda sounds like it sucks right?  It isn't that bad, but finding a time to take cold showers can be a little difficult depending on what you have going on.  I also have decided to not do the snooze alarm any more.  I just get up, and go and do the breathing first thing.  Trying to stay in an alpha state right after I wake up.  I have found that by completing routine tasks this is made easier.  Any interaction with a digital device may through you out of this state.  After I do the breathing I will meditate for about 10 minutes, then try and take that cold shower.  So I have about 30-40 minutes tied up in this new routine but it does make me feel better, at least when I get enough rest.  Trying to do this on a short night's sleep is not advisable.  I have also kind of soured on the MAF training.  I think it is a great thing to do, but I don't think I am a good enough runner to try this.  I think this is more for people that already know how to run, because I find that my efficiency is very low running at the rate to keep my HR low.  And I know that the idea is you are training the aerobic engine to be better so that it will work more efficiently when needed, but man is it hard.  I tried to incorporate some interval training back in this week and I just didn't see the benefit, but I did seem much slower than before when I was doing intervals, and I think this is because I haven't been pushing myself and I'm not that good of a runner to start with.  Now one day after that I did try a longer run and ran with some pace at the end.  That felt a little better at the faster pace, but couldn't keep the HR down.  So I am going back to the drawing board to try and run with more speed to try and get my form fixed and then maybe go back to the low HR method.  Anytime I am running slow though I will try and keep my HR down as much as I can.

Why the Browns will beat the Broncos and 538 knows nothing... [remember to delete this if it goes badly]

So everyone is pretty much dog piling on the Browns right now because they were supposed to go to the super bowl and be great and all that.  Well as a Browns fan / watcher for the last 19 years I can tell you that expectations were to just have a winning record.  You see you have to start there first.  You can't go from 0-16 to the Super Bowl, doesn't work that way.  Sure the hype is great, but those kind of expectations are completely unrealistic.  The Browns intentionally tanked for 3 or 4 seasons.  The other 15 were just an unhappy coincidence.  [Question: if you are trying to be bad and you succeed at it, are you successful for failing intentionally? Answer: I guess so if you have success intentionally afterward].  But there is a process to complete (thanks 76ers) to go from nothing to champion.  I have picked the 76ers as my pick for the championship in the NBA this year, but it has been a 7 year process to get here.  Same with the Browns.  If you say 1-15 was the start we are in year 4 and are trying to win.  So what has gone wrong (besides officiating), well how about a new coach and the schedule.  If you have followed the Browns for any amount of time you know that the schedule never favors them.  Anytime they have a chance to be good, they are playing at odd times with long trips across the country usually followed by a bye at an inconvenient time.  So this year when I looked at the schedule I thought, wow they let the Browns have a bye in the middle of the season, what luck.  But the teams that they played through the first 8 games would include 2 trips out West, only 1 division game (on the road no less), and playing both super bowl teams from last year.   So as game number 8 approaches we are looking at that second trip West to Denver to play in the altitude.  ESPN says Denver has a 60% chance to win and 538 says Denver is at 53%.  I legit think the Browns are a 9 win team, still.  Maybe thought they were an 11 win team at the beginning of the year, but they would have to run the table now, which is possible.  Here is the problem though.  The Browns have the same number of wins, the quality of the wins is about the same, but the difficulty of opponents for the Browns so far has been insane.  They have played 2 undefeated teams, 3 division leaders, five teams with at least 5 wins.  That is crazy in 7 games.  The only garbage team they faced was the Jets without their starting QB and they won by 20.  They also are one of the Titans victories, but the Titans seemed especially fired up in that first game, and that game was close before the screen touchdown at the end of the third, but then Titans have sucked the rest of the season and actually got shut out by the Broncos.  I think the Titans kind of blew their load in the first game so to speak, because they absolutely haven't been able to pull it together.  The Broncos though, have lost to the mighty Bears, Raiders, Jags so far this season, while only managing to eek a second win against a horrible Chargers team.  So why do I think the Browns should win?  Well they are relatively healthy at this point, while the Broncos will be playing their back up QB and their #1 pick from 2 years ago is out on defense, plus they traded away one of their better receivers last week.  But these sites are still picking the Broncos?!?!  I don't get it.  I know the expectations were sky high, but right now the Browns have 3 games at the end of the season against teams that haven't won a game yet.  Would the model be different if the Browns were 5-5?  But you know what.  According the to betting sites the Browns are favored by 3.  Take that for data...
Edit: I didn't delete this, but damn we still lost.  24-19. We did beat the 6 win Bills though the following week.

Day Light Savings Time continues on...

At least for me.  So this year my contempt for standard time has reached new heights and rather than be told what to do by the federal government I have elected to keep living in daylight savings time.  Now I realize this isn't an option for everyone but with my job I don't have a fixed start time and I can come in an hour earlier and leave an hour earlier no problem.  Well if something happens to be going on I can easily get stuck at work for longer, but that could happen anyway.  So far the hardest thing is getting up at 4:30.  I know that this is the exact time I was getting up a week ago, but the psychology of seeing 4:30 does something too you.  I have tried to stay on the same routine for eating as well.  Breakfast is roughly the same time, my morning snack that I used to do after the morning meeting is now before the morning meeting but around the same time, lunch has been pushed back a half hour to 10 AM. After that I eat a snack of an apple, banana, pack of raisins and a zone bar one every hour.  It actually works way better in the evening though as now I can go run when I get home and then eat dinner at 6PM (7 PM in my mind) with the rest of the family.  Honestly I don't know if I can keep this up though.  The hard part is the morning, but once I'm up I feel pretty good.  But laying in bed for another hour would also feel pretty good.  Maybe there is a compromise somewhere, where I could sleep an extra half an hour one day when I'm not running.  I'll have to think about this.  I also need people to look at the weather when they are scheduling things, because if it is nice outside I need to go run, not sit at your meeting.  The cold weather is going to suck though and basketball season is starting, so running could get pushed out of the way a little.  The good news is over the next 2 months I have 10 days of holidays and vacations that should allow me to get some miles in.  The bad news is that I have 10 days off over the next 2 months that could really play havoc with me getting up at 4:30 in the morning for work... As of right now I feel pretty good about making it through Thanksgiving, but no guarantees after that.  I mean wouldn't that make more sense anyway to not change the clocks back until after Thanksgiving?  I don't want it to change at all anymore, to be honest.  When I was younger fall back was always the best, but now I want that extra hour of daylight in the evening, not in the morning.  Being dark at 5 o'clock in the evening sucks.  The blow of springing forward was lessened by the idea that the sun would shine for longer in the evenings and it was getting warmer.  Not sure what I'll do if I'm able to make it that far.  I mean why does everyone have to switch anyway?  If they schools think it isn't safe to have kids wait for the bus in the dark, then just move school back an hour.  "Well that wouldn't be fair to the kids to go to school at 8 AM instead of 7 AM".  Really?  is that even an argument?  Then the rest of us wouldn't have to switch our schedules.  I mean for regular businesses this can't be good right?  If you are a bank, wouldn't you want it lighter so people felt like they had more time to visit the bank, instead of being rushed at the end of the day and maybe not making it.  Or a resturant, or shopping center wouldn't they want it too be lighter later?  All I'm saying is that there will be 10 hours or so of daylight at some point this winter, and I would rather it be daylight when I am awake.  The problem is if you want to watch a show or something the T.V. schedule or sporting contest gladly goes along with the time change, but if they didn't what would it matter?  Oh no the game started at 7 PM instead of 8. Heck that is better anyway, because I would rather watch the end of the game than the beginning, but if the end is going to happen after I go to bed, why do I even want to watch the beginning?  (Looking at you MLB) So this winter is going to be a little bit of an adventure and we'll see how long this last, but honestly this changing of times thing is a little ridiculous. 

2019 XC Crosses the Finish Line at least for us

Well it was a great season, had some ups and downs but recovered nicely the last quarter of the season.  A recap of the season for Sampson -

All Buckeye 8
All-OVAC
All-District
District All-Academic

In addition to these his team won:

Belmont County Championship
OVAC 4A
Buckeye 8
OVCCL
Martins Ferry Invite

He qualified for the regional for the second year in a row along with his team, and this year he did much better.  Last year he got 81st and was a little overwhelmed at the race.  This year he got 52nd and it wasn't his best race, but it was pouring down the rain and we had talked before about the worse the conditions were the better it was for him if he was going to have any chance to make it.  The bad things is I don't think it was better for his team.  He ended up running a 17:35 in 50° weather with the rain pouring at the start of the race.  He actually beat 2 kids that he hadn't beat this year so that was good, and one of the kids it was their first year and I don't think they had ever run in those conditions.  Last year it was about the same, real sloppy course and bad weather, but this year all of the races had been dry and warm and if a kid hadn't run it that before they were in for a rude awaking.  Sophie was like "I hope it stops raining" and I was like "I hope it pours for the next 18 minutes to give him a chance".  Alas there were still enough kids who were prepared and talented enough that they held him off.  I thought he ran a good race given the circumstances and cross country is a funny sport in that it is rare something could come up and change the place you should finish.  You could run an amazing time that is just way above anything you have run, but that is usually because of your training, and maybe tapering and having everything hit just right.  By the time you are a junior in high school this is probably less likely and it isn't like other sports were you can keep the score close and throw a hail Mary at the end or have a stud pitcher that other teams can't hit, or just shoot lights out behind the arc in a basketball game.  No in cross country you can pretty well figure out where your team is going to finish before you go into the race.  I had his team at about 13, well they finished 15, but like I said the conditions were good for him, and maybe one other guy, but the other 3 guys not so much.  It should help them next year to at least be prepared for this, but I know Sampson wants more.  We had the team banquet and as soon as we came home he was trying to figure out what he had to do to get to State.  I told him about 500 miles between May and August.  We'll see.  I just hope he is able to go into the season healthy next year and have a good last season.  I hope all the boys can be healthy.  This year we had a knee injury kind of take out our number 2 guy, plus a kid on the team got bit by a tick over the summer and ended up with Lyme's disease.  So hopefully next summer goes better.  Anyway a link below to the video from coach's husband. 

Predictions for the New NBA Season 2019-20, Cause why not?

So to be fair I haven't watched much pre-season basketball, but I did watch the draft (at least until Bol Bol was picked) and I saw what happened during free agency (lots of crazy stuff).  So with that here are my picks for MVP, Rookie of the Year, and the playoffs in the East and West.

MVP - Giannis Antetokounmpo (repeat, dude is not even in his athletic prime and really hasn't learned to shoot.  Most teams don't have someone who can even stay in front of him)

ROY- RJ Barrett. I just feel like Zion won't play that much this year because the Pelicans are being sooooo cautious, but you got the guy to play basketball and at some point he is going to play, but with the early knee injury I now doubt he plays any back-to-backs and just doesn't get the games in to make an impact.  He may have better averages than RJ, but I think RJ is going to put up better numbers on a worse team.  MPJ would be my second pick, but that team is loaded and I think he is just going to be limited minutes wise to start the season.

Let's start with the East because the team are a little easier to evaluate here.
1. 76ers - Added talent, competition got weaker, should be an easy walk to the conference championship baring injury.
2. Bucks - Lost Brogden, still have a lot left though including the MVP.  They did get exposed by Toronto so they will have to fix that if they are going to the finals.  If they find someone to fill the hole left by Brogden could move to first.
3. Celtics - 2 All-stars leave, one comes back.  Will be interesting to see how Hayward plays without Kyrie and if Brown and Tatum improve.  Also they got some good rookies again.  Ton of talent, but kind of starting over.
4. Nets - They made the playoffs last year, and trade an All-star for an All-star.  If KD comes back at all could be a tough out in the playoffs.
5. Toronto - probably.  Lost a lot, OG is back, but they have a huge target on their back every night.
6. - 8 - All these teams have a wart of some sort so in no particular order
Orlando - If Fultz plays well they get better, if not probably still make the playoffs.
Chicago - They have talent, coaching is the question mark here.
Indiana - Depends on when Victor comes back and if he is healthy.  If he is rushed back and still hurt this team doesn't make the playoffs.
9. Miami - About right for a Butler led team. Maybe they get to 8.
10. Hawks - Still a year away, but should be fun to watch.
11. Pistons - Made a push for the playoffs last year, but older and slower now.  Blake starts out hurt too.
12. Knicks - idk, too many power forwards.  Maybe they can make a trade. RJ probably isn't good enough to get this team to the playoffs by himself...yet.
13. Cavs - If Beilein coaches well they move up, if they play like they did in the preseason they are the worst team in the East.  Why draft another point guard?
14. Wizards - Beal is good, probably gets traded, full tank mode with Wall out.
15. Hornets - Bad, maybe Jordan isn't a good talent evaluator.  I mean he did say Steph isn't a HOFer...

The West is L-O-A-D-E-D, too bad all the games will be on too late to watch :(
Let's do this in Tiers
1-3 - LAC, LAL, Den.  Top 3 teams, maybe in the league.  Any could be number one.  I could see the Lakers falling out of this group if the players don't mesh and Lebron plays less than 70 games or so and his defense is still objectively bad.
4-7 - Blazers, Jazz, Rockets, Warriors - Lots of returning players, but some exciting new players, the team that has the best of the new players will get a home playoff series or the best of their returning players.
8-12- Spurs, Mavs, Thunder, Pelicans, Kings - I would say one of the teams above drops out of the playoffs and the Spurs make it.  After that these teams are likely fighting for one spot.  If Zion doesn't play at least 60 games, that team is done.  The Thunder are a long shot here, but they did get CP3, SGA and Danillo G. So there is some talent.  Mavs it depends on K-Porzi and Luca and if they can stop anyone.  Kings were close last year so if they get better they hold the other teams off and make it in and get swept in the first round, if they get worse this teams likely gets blown up again.
13. Suns - Still not very good, but they have Rubio and Saric now so at least some scoring and what looks like an NBA level starting 5.
14. T-wolves - A team going the wrong direction, in a stacked conference.  Could be last if the chemistry blows up.
15. Memphis - Should be exciting to watch, but Morant and Jackson have a lot to learn.

Impeachment - An exercise in futility for 160 years...

You know who was the last American president to be impeached?  Nixon... no he actually resigned before he could be impeached.  Andrew Johnson... sort of.  Actually it was Bill Clinton.  Now I know what you are thinking, but he didn't get impeached he served 2 full terms.  Yes he did.  But he was impeached by the house of representatives in the late 90's, before having the impeachment process fail in the senate and allowing him to finish his final term.  Actually this is what happened to Johnson as well, as the senate could not reach the 2/3rds vote to get him out.  By one vote.  Regardless, if you look at it through this spectrum then the United States has never impeached a sitting president.  Nixon probably would have been impeached had he tried to stay in office, but obviously didn't think the risk of fighting the impeachment was worth staying as president, especially since he had already endured a year in office after the Watergate scandal.  So why is it a waste of time.  Essentially you have a partisan Congress that wants to oust the president and even when the Senate may be agreeable to an impeachment it is essentially an impossible task.  You see Nixon did something really bad, by spying on the opposition, then lying and trying to use the office of the president to cover it up.  This is really bad and yes it should be an impeachable offense.  So what did Johnson do - he fired one of his cabinet members... that he appointed.  "Don't they do that all the time?"  Yes. But in the 1860's the congress actually passed a law that it was illegal for the president to fire a cabinet member without congressional approval.  That law was later overturned by the Supreme Court, because really it makes no sense.  Clinton, well he lied under oath... about who he had sex with.  Not the most world shattering revelation, and certainly not something that put the country in jeopardy either.  So why did he get impeached?  Because the congress was under rule by the opposition party at the time.  You see the Congress is kind of like the kids that want to be loud and unruly and the senate is kind of like the adults.  The kids get to do whatever they want and if there are enough kids they can impeach the president.  Then it goes to the Senate, where they have to have a hearing.  Mostly no matter how outrageous the kids are the Senate won't let them screw up too badly and make the country look stupid.  Thank goodness.
So the partisan house has started an impeachment inquiry.  Which from what I understand isn't an actual inquiry because it hasn't gone through the courts, but I honestly don't care that much.  The reason is because no matter what they come up with, it won't go through the Senate.  Remember, it isn't enough that people just don't like the president, or that he did something questionable, he literally has to do something that is impeachable.  Did Trump do that?  Well they are saying that he was with holding aid to a foreign country until the country agreed to investigate a potential corrupt power grab by a former U.S. Vice President.  Who happened to be a democrat.  Yeah, that should pass a republican senate... Plus did he actually threaten to withhold the money?  Because it is actually never shown on the phone records (which I'll agree are a little suspect), so to me this is a complete waste of time.  But because the Democrats have painted themselves in a corner by wanting to impeach Trump ever since he got in office, they now have to pretend to be going after him.  And you know who it will hurt if they don't impeach him?  The Democrats.  So it is actually in their best interest to keep the inquiry going as long as possible, because if it ever goes beyond that it will fail miserably.  And the people who have been misinformed or underinformed will look at these democrats and not understand why they couldn't impeach him when it was soooooo black and white.  Honestly they should have let this die, and never even broached the subject of impeachment, because this will ultimately end badly for them.  And you know who will learn the lesson from this?  My guess is no one.  And we will have to repeat the process in about 20 years, when some people who know better come along...

The District Race of Aught '19

Well this race was kind of a combination of the last 2 years.  Sampson did cramp, but it wasn't until the last mile and he was still able to gut out an all-district performance, so this should put him up for all T-L team.  He did get all Buckeye 8, All OVAC, and now All-District.  He was probably the number 2 guy this year because of the hot races.  He actually cramped in a couple of races but it never really caused him a "bad" finish.  The only races he was out of the top 10 was usually the loaded fields, and even if they would have run the large school division at Claymont he would have gotten 10th so that is really good.  The team ended up getting 3rd at the district which is one spot better than they did last year.  I think some of the boys though they could win if everyone ran their best race or at least their top 3 race, but probably only 2 or 3 of the guys did.  Sampson didn't.  One of the boys didn't even get to race because something felt wrong when he was warming up so they had to go to the alternate runner.  He has actually run here the last 2 years, but got caught a little off guard getting shoved into the action at the last minute.  He ran well, 4 seconds faster than last year, but this year he was actually the 6th guy for the team not the 5th.  The bad thing was the guy who finished 2nd for us last year was our 7th guy this year, but he has battled knee issues all year.  So now on to the regional.  Sampson is hoping for a top 50 finish.  This is a reasonable goal.  I would say State is the goal, but this division is very competitive and the whole thing about cross country is - you get what you have prepared for.  This isn't like basketball or baseball where a kid could get hot or you can ride a great arm through to the state championship.  This is all about how many miles you have ran and how many guys have put those miles in.  Sampson has definitely done enough to earn a regional birth, but probably not state.  He has the potential, if he runs his best race and 2 or 3 guys that would have beaten him, either cramp or don't have a great race, but there just isn't a way in like some other sports.  We can't sit here and hope for a fluky bounce of the ball or maybe getting a couple of calls from the official.  Cross country doesn't work that way.  There are no buzzer beaters, or in game adjustments that can sway the contest.  No this is competition in its purest form, the gun sounds and it is about who can push their body the hardest for the next 16 minutes or less.  I say 16 because whoever wins the race will probably be below 16 minutes for 5k.  That is really fast.  No where near as fast as what Eulid Kipchoge did though when he broke the marathon record, but really fast for a high school kid.  When you step to that line all you have is the miles you have run, and the prep you have put into the race.  The girls team also made the Regional, but in a different division.  They may actually get a girl or 2 through to the state if they have a great race.  

Differences in Teams - When a team comes together

So watching sports and coaching teams there are definitely differences between teams.  Sometimes the differences are noticeable in talent or how well prepared a team is, but sometimes a team just has "it".  I have come to the conclusion that there is usually one singular instance that has allowed this team to gel in a way that they are overachievers based on talent or coaching.  One instance comes to mind of the 2017 Michigan Wolverines basketball team.  A good team by all accounts, but nothing overwhelmingly special.  Good talent, a good coach, a team that was certainly capable of going on a run.  But right before the big 10 tournament that year their plane ran off of the run way and almost crashed.  Well actually it did "crash" it just never even got the ground.  Nerve wracking for sure, but an experience that was shared by the team and one that you would think would make a team closer by having such a traumatic shared experience.  Well they went on to win the tournament and make a substantial run in the NCAA tournament to the championship game.  Did I mention they were the 8 seed...in the Big 10 tournament.  Here is Moe Wagner's recount of the story and their run to the sweet 16 (should have waited until the final four). So how does a team that was coming in 8th in a conference make it to the last game of the season?  Could they have figured something out or had a player go on a remarkable run?  Sure.  But I really think there is something under the surface that when a team deals with a substantial amount of adversity it can bring a team together in a way that no amount of practice, coaching, or talent can account for.  I bring this up because Peach's team is on a 4 game win streak after dropping 5 in a row in and the last of those was a total melt down.  So what happened.  Well one of the girls who was on the team, but had to leave because of her mother's health, actually lost her mom and this was the first parent that any of these girls had lost.  It just so happened that several of them were at my house when they found out, and they had a very emotional experience.  Well the girl has come back to the team now, and I think they have kind of rallied around her.  I mean it is only junior high girls volleyball, but maybe that is enough to bring this team together.  I don't know how you would construct an experiment to do something like this, it is just something I have seen.  If you want to run a plane off of a runway in a wind storm, well good luck with that, not sure the benefit would out way the risk.  But that is kind of the trick isn't it if this is a key.  How do you team build in a fashion that everyone is really together as a "team" working together and caring for each other?  I think it has to start outside of what ever the sport is.  You can't have a shared experience in practice.  Every team has practice, this has to be something special and if it is a once in a lifetime (and not necessarily a positive experience either, I think the more that is overcome from adversity the more it means) experience that is not easily replicated I think that would carry the most weight.  But this is all speculation.  I have also seen teams where things have gone wrong and the whole thing has imploded, and people can't wait to go their own way.  But I think it may well be up to the coach to realize what is going on and use that motivation to further the success of the team.  That is what I believe the good coaches are able to do, and what the special teams have in common.  I'm not talking about the Warriors, or Alabama someone you expect to go in and win, I'm talking about the plucky under dog, with the remarkable story.  Something that maybe other people can look at from outside the team and have some empathy with the team, on what they went through.  Maybe that is the key, some cosmic outside energy flow that is directed to a team in a positive manner.  Anyway this is just an observation of mine, but I would be interested to hear other teams where people have seen this happen or have first hand experience.  One other thought if this could happen for a sports team, could be applied to a business or office environment?

61.94 mile month

I know, some people call this a light week, but running is hard for me and this is the most I have ever run in one month.  So back off.  I have been going up on my mileage since April, but I think this is probably the peak for this year.  I'm sure October won't be a complete drop off to nothingness, but it will probably be harder to get the runs in as it is getting dark by 7:30 so I almost have to be done by then.  Basketball will be starting soon so running between games will difficult.  Looking forward to the challenges of running in the winter this year as that is something I haven't really done before.  But I will say if this is the high water mark for the year, I totally plan on breaking it at some point next year as the distance runs have gotten easier, or at least more palatable.  On a side note, the Map my run app has an annual challenge to beat during the year, and the challenge for 2019 was to run 1019 km.  That is 633 miles, or 52.75 miles a month.  If I would have been doing the challenge from the start and averaged what I have the last 2 months, I would be on pace to beat it.  As it stands I am a little under half way and only have 92 days left.  I would need to run 3.62 miles per day to make.  Probably not going to happen.  To beat it the whole year, you need to run 1.73 miles per day. 

To the Brink and Back?... Fall Sports Update

Well we are about half way through the fall sports season and the kids' teams have not performed as expected.  Peach's team is 4-8, and Sampson's team has actually done really well, but the way they are finishing is all over the place.  In the smaller meets they are winning them because they have 7 or 8 guys finish before most teams get 5 across which I though would happen, but the order of the top 4 or 5 has changed every race, which is unusual for cross country.  Normally guys finish in similar order and one or two guys will switch spots every now and then depending on the course, weather, prep, etc., but this team will have one guy finish first, then fourth, then second and the top 4 is just a shuffle and see what happens.  Sampson has been hampered by some breathing issues through about 3 races and cramped up in that first race, but has finished first for the team twice, and finished second overall once.  He hasn't finished outside the top 10 in any race, which is impressive as the last race had about 243 kids...approximately.  Overall they have done well, but still haven't been ranked.  I think if they do well at the next meet they could crack the top 20 team rankings but they need everyone to run well.

As for Peach's team it has been a little rougher.  They started out 3-3 and they were doing the little things to pass the ball and hit it over that they didn't do last year and eventually I thought it would translate to wins, but instead it was a lot of close losses because they weren't really hitting with power or to the open spots.  Also the servers are pretty even talent wise and we don't have one dominate server, but we do have one weak return rotation that always seems to get put up against the other teams best server and that is when we give up the majority of service points to the other team.  Anyway, Peach's team was in the midst of a 5 game skid and during the last 3 games they had kind of fallen apart, especially the last game.  I would say Peach probably played her worst game on the road at the Huskies.  Everything she hit was weak, or hit incorrectly and the coach was laying into her pretty heavy on every point.  Well she ended up getting taken out for a 7th grader and this kind of sent her over the edge mentally and she kind of checked out.  Well she was so far out of it that the coach decided to give her a call and talk to her.  Sophie also had a talk, but that was because one of the girls Mom's had passed over the weekend and she was trying to give her a heads up... for 40 minutes or so....  Anyway I was prepared to throw in the towel thinking the season was lost, I have even given up line judging as I was extremely agitated.  In the past I have seen teams fall completely apart and usually they are just done, and mail it in the rest of the season and you might see one or two kids have some individual success, but you never see the team really put it together to pull out a dub in a tough situation.  Well the game last night may have changed the out look yet again.  We were playing the hated Jets (I mean it is junior high girl volleyball, so hated or rival may be a little overstated) and they had beat us in 3 sets in their house during the 5 game losing streak.  Basically that game was 1 set a piece and it was anyone's game and they made a huge momentum play to get the ball over the net, got the mo, and had a server fire fastballs over the net for 6 straight serves or so and every other time she has served was no more than 2 before she netted it or hit it out, so that was extremely unlucky, at least for us.  So we won the first set in a close manner, and the second set was not going our way (bad rotation first I think), but about midway through the set Peach started playing out of her mind.  She had 4 or 5 kills in a row (which at this level is crazy) and everything that was coming over she was hitting and making passes or hitting it over and she finally got a jump ball at the net.  It was crazy!!!  Her team was totally fired up and they just kept feeding her and she kept making plays.  I was very happy for her, and I think she figured out if she just plays things will go better.  That is the trick for young kids, getting them to actually play, rather than just execute A, B, C or X when Y happens.  Playing to me is just reacting and letting instinct take over and the instincts result is good plays without overthinking.  It is a hard place to get to, and we will see if she was just in the "zone" once or if her playing style is changed as they play again tonight, this time against the evil empire.  So that name may be harsh for junior high, but the school has totally earned that nick name, plus they are Sophie's old rival so she definitely has no issue with that name.  Hopefully we are trending up the rest of the season, time will tell...

The Streets are running yellow with rage!!!

So yesterday I hear from Peach that Sophie got yelled at and honked at on the way to school by the paper delivery guy.  Apparently Sophie didn't have her lights on and this guy thought that was entirely unacceptable and bordered on unsafe.  So he proceeded to tell her that she need to turn her lights on and honked generously at her apparently to reinforce the idea.  Well Sophie tells the whole story over dinner that after she dropped off the kids she saw him again on the way home.  This time he was stopped in the middle of the road and Sophie being the ever kind and gentle soul that she is, decided that "no matter how small the space was between the car and the side of the road she was going to squeeze in".  I didn't say she was patient.  Also on the way through she rolled the windows down and informed him that "It would be nice if people didn't park in the middle of the road."  To which he responded "Were do you want me to park?"  I don't think she replied, but the obvious answer is not in the middle of the road.  Anyway Sophie says she saw the guy later at Kroger, but he apparently didn't recognize her.  Perhaps his vision was blurred with rage during the earlier encounters.  This morning Sophie is looking out the window and she sees him delivering papers to the neighbors... and some urine to the bush in front of his business.  Well the neighbor has some cameras, so Sophie is going to check and see if the cameras got anything.