Rain, axes, trees, presidency

Yesterday we left school at 2:15 for a track meet. We had been looking at the weather all week and all day since it was scheduled to rain all day Friday. The meet was not called. We arrived at the meet. Home coach decides to wait out the rain. We wait until four. He says we will wait a little bit longer to see if it dies off. All the coaches are waiting in the computer lab doing scratches and waiting to see if this optimism the coach is full of will influence the weather and make it stop raining. He looks on weather.com and sees that the rain is moving directly North. A long stream of green on the radar that seems as though it will never end. He says we will wait until five when he sees a little bit of lighter green on the radar that could mean it is going to clear up. Five comes along and he says he wants to go ahead and run it even though the rain is not going to hold up.

We all go outside and walk through the flood that is the parking lot to tell our children to start warming up. They do.

They are waiting at the line to start the 4x8 which we threw together in order to get some points. I intend for this meet to be the first whole meet that I win as a coach. So four people volunteered to run this race (including a shot putter). They are still waiting right at the line after the starter announced that they will run boys and girls together. We are standing near the fence at the finish line. A bunch of wet coaches sharing stories of what we were doing during the quake. Hilarity. Bonding. We love just getting to chat in the rain and when the weather is steadily seeming to get colder.

At 5:40 the home coach calls a coach from every school to the finish line. The meet is called off. We waited two and a half hours in the rain to not have a meet. Nice.

We suggest Monday. Everyone is asking if we will be sure to be back that day. For sure. We are trying to win this mo-fo.

Apparently all the coaches are really wanting to run/jump/throw against us. They all keep asking us about our athletes, if we are going to be back, if so-and-so will be returning. If they can hear some of the things I have been doing with them to improve them.

I almost started to get a big head. But I am grounded. We have to focus on winning this and seeing what we can work out so that we can roll out at the District meet as well. But that isn't the end, that is the preview for the Sectional meet, which will hopefully be a sign of what we can do at State.

I am hopeful. I am eager. I am really wanting to do big things with the team this season. And they are all on board as well.

Sean said something the other day that his grandfather used to say: small axes. Small axes can still chop down big trees.

We are that small ax. I have been trying to chop that tree for five years now as the head coach and this is the year that the divots in the tree are possibly meeting together to help it fall.

Here's two videos to some songs I enjoy. Watched the debates (if you can call them that) on Thursday. Wishing it would come down to one candidate. Wishing that people would not ask ignorant questions. Wishing that people would ask questions about the real issues that affect people rather than what connection this man has with someone who did something horrendous 40 years ago. Wishing the opposing party would not try and attack needlessly in an attempt to draw attention away from herself.

I guess he has been listening to Jay Z and Ice-T talking about 99 problems (yes, Ice-T came with it first for you younguns. 1993 album Home Invasion.)



Make sure you get out and start paying attention to what the candidates are saying, what they have been doing, and what you can do to help this nation and its people reach greater heights.