Enough About That

The polls have closed. The votes are in. The name of my Bible study group has been decided. Enough about that for the moment.

Is Barry Bonds hanging it up? I seriously doubt it. In my opinion he has more to gain by coming back and making his run at the Babe and Hammerin’ Hank. If nothing else his Jupiter sized ego (roughly the size of his steroid inflated cranium) will drive his return just thumb his nose at people like me who wish he’d just go away.
Missing this coming season, half the season, or even just six weeks of the season at the age of 40+ will hurt his chances of him breaking a record that I for one hope he doesn’t do. According to a report I watched on ESPN the rapid decline in athletes bodies after the age of 40 can be dramatic, and would normally make this pursuit a long shot , even as close as he is. However, I couldn’t help but notice that all of the examples they cited were well before the ‘steroid era’. Is there anyway to tell what level a chemically enhanced athlete, over the age of 40, can perform at and for how long? Enough about that thought.

My week so far has been a fairly interesting one. Sunday the choir sang at all three services. Our director was gracious enough to schedule our singing all prior the sermons of each service. I sat through the 8 o’clock. After we finished with the 9:30 my stomach was growling so I made a quick run up to McDonald’s. As I drove back, it was about 10:05, I got a phone call from a friend of mine who I saw in the 9:30 service. She called to tell me that something happened during the service and they cleared out the sanctuary. Apparently an elderly lady in the congregation had a heart attack right there in the pew. After much commotion, speculation, and whispering, she was pulled out on a stretcher. There are two pieces of good news here: first she was conscience and alert (rumor had it that she was dead) second, for those of you that are aware of my track record, I was not even in the building when it happened!

My bowling team, predictably, got thumped this Sunday. With one night of bowling for score left I, like Bonds, am tired and need a rest. This has been a long season. We have the slightest glimmer of hope that we can pull ourselves from 10th to 9th. Yeah, …enough about that one too.

One of my small group friends keeps putting a bug in my ear, and I think it’s starting to borrow its way into my skull. Am I crazy for giving consideration to becoming a foster parent? This is a blog in itself, I’ll have to revisit this. Any thoughts?

I have been dubbed the ‘communications director’ for my Bible study group. I administered the name voting and started throwing around ideas for creating a simple website, or Yahoo! Group. I accepted the role mainly because it’s something I think I can do and do reasonably well. This on top of agreeing to serve a third season as my bowling leagues treasurer.
The name we voted for, by a slim margin, was Faith Works. I created a blog for the group. If you are so inclined you can visit it at faithworksstjohnrochester.blogspot.com.

In other thoughts…the Tigers starting pitcher Jeremy Bonderman seems to coming along nicely with developing his change-up. I’m excited to see what this season holds for him. Can he emerge as a true ace? Also I was thoroughly amused by Kwame Kilpatrick’s State of the City address last night and his comments about how this city has been dilapidated since he was a child, but now that he’s mayor ‘it’s suddenly MY fault’. No Kwame, no one blames you for creating the mess, but it is now your responsibility. Anyway, enough about that.

Pay Up Kwame!

It’s been a week since my last post. I better get something up here before people start throwing things.
This has been a fairly uneventful week. Each day this week all I could think about, on my drive in, was how I don’t have to do this much longer. The only problem with those thoughts is that it makes the drive in feel so much longer. I think I’ve already got one foot out the door. The only thing keeping my in the proper frame of mind to focus on my job are the two people I am training to replace me (that’s right 2 people are replacing me). They keep asking me questions and asking me to review stuff with them. So I still remaining focused, for now anyways.

Tuesday evening a bunch of us from work went to Mr. B’s for dinner and drinks. It was supposed to be a time to catch up with a few of our people that have been transferred or on TDY assignments. But most everyone that I hoped would be there bailed at the last minute, so it was me and a bunch of the ‘new’ people on the team, including the two that are replacing me. It was a good time, and I still got home in time to watch Oakland University win their play-in game. I just hope they can give UNC a solid game today before being thrown into the 16 seed heap.

Wednesday I had church and choir. As I was leaving work I got a phone call offering me great seats to that evenings Pistons game. Apparently they were tenth row. Mark would have gone nuts sitting that close to the action. But, it had been about three weeks since I’d gone to choir and we have Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and of course Easter Sunday to rehearse for (6 services in all). So I made the responsible choice.
An interesting thing happened during church. It was the final Lenten service and the new pastor, Pastor Timm, and one of the deacons were conducting the service. Our Senior Pastor sat right behind me. Normally I would think it doesn’t really matter much who is sitting around you during service. But I found myself very self conscience, and thinking to myself ‘why do you feel so self-conscience about this?’. I don’t know, it was just weird.

Thursday I picked up my taxes. Once again the City of Detroit owes me $7. Pay up Kwame, that’s my lunch money! Also on Thursday I was able to watch some college basketball, as the tourney officially started. I watched a pretty entertaining Nevada – Texas game. I didn’t get my picks done in time to join any pools this year. In fact I didn’t actually finish them until after the games had started. But Derek, you’ll be happy to know that I was honest and didn’t look at any results until I was done with my picks. Surprisingly, as of the time I went to bed last night I was 8-0. Of course I missed all four late games and still haven’t checked the results of those.

Tonight could be rather emotionally draining. My small group is getting together to watch the original version of the ‘Passion of the Christ’. We’re starting a short Bible study based on the movie. That movie is pretty intense, if you’ve seen it you know.
In other news relating to my small group we have decided to name ourselves. It will help with promotion and bringing new people in. Anyway, I have taken the reigns on administering the vote. The four nominees are: ‘Called 2 Belong’, ‘Faith Works’, ‘Fellowship of the Mat’, and ‘Wisdom Seekers’. I’ll fill you in on the outcome once the polls are closed.

That’s about it for this update. I don’t have anything too exciting planned for this weekend. My bowling season is mercifully winding down, only three more nights of suffering.

April 18

Well, I had a good update going but I just got some news that is causing me to scrap the whole thing and start over.

I was going to wait until Monday to ask my manager for an update on my potential transfer. She beat me to the punch. This afternoon she called me in her office and gave me the details.
I will, as I expected, be moving to the FLC (Finance Leveraged Center). My start date with the new group will be April 18. So, one more month of driving downtown every day.

I think I already know how I'm going to celebrate. I'm going to buy myself a new toy. I'm thinking about replacing my pc with a laptop. I need to start my research to figure out what I want.

Busy Weekend

I am coming off a busy weekend. Friday night I passed up my usual dinner with the family for ‘game night’ with my new circle of friends (a.k.a. my small group Bible study people). It was fun. We went to dinner, then off to play games. I learned a new game called ‘Spinners’, which is a variation on dominos (no, not the pizza chain). I didn’t get home until almost 1am, which made Saturday morning that much more of a challenge.
I showed up at the designated meeting place at 7:30am; yes on a Saturday morning. We eventually made our way down to this school and got there a little before 9. At one point during the drive the person that got us all organized was telling us who we would be working with. She said she left a voicemail for this guy named “Greg Krueger, or is it Kreuger”. Some of you know him. I haven’t seen Greg in quite a few years. I didn’t immediately recognize him without hair.
We got started on our service project a little after 9am. We worked pretty much straight through noon. I started out by taping off borders and trim and doors; much of that time spent on my knees. I then went to work painting in one of two hallways we were working on; a lot of my time was spent painting above my head. When we got there the place was dingy and dark, and kind of depressing. I could hardly believe it was actually a working school. It’s amazing what some cleaning and a fresh coat of paint can do to a place.
We found out that this school is one of a handful of Lutheran schools in the city of Detroit currently. It was mentioned to us also that nearly a half dozen of those that are open are likely to close in very near future due to shrinking enrollments. It was a really good day, being able to contribute and ‘give back’ as they say.

Sunday the family celebrated my nephews third birthday. That was fun. The kids all had fun playing with the new toys. Predictably the shirts I gave him were quickly discarded for the new collection of toys, even though the shirts were pretty cool.
Bowling went about as well as I expected. We were facing the best team in the league (not the first place team, but no doubt the best bowlers). We went into each game with a 200 pin margin in handicap. The first game was kind of close, we lost by about 30 pins. The second game was our best, winning that by about 20 or so. The third game we fell apart. Once again all three games, as a team we finished between 775 and 800, which is pretty solid. We just got very few breaks. There are three nights of bowling left, two for score. I think I’m ready for the season to end.
This has already been a long week and it’s only Wednesday. Both Monday and Tuesday I have had stuff going in the evenings, right after work. I got home both nights after 9:30. Tonight looks no better. Maybe Thursday I can go home and relax. We’ll see, I’m sure something will pop up.

The Miracle of Plastic Cups

A seldom heard from voice has resurfaced. Thanks for dropping by Ritch. Just one thing though, I don’t remember asking what the weather was like in KC, just like I don’t ask Derek what the weather is like in NC, and I don’t torture myself with the weather reports of say the Bahamas, or Hawaii, or Tahiti for that matter. I’m not trying to draw a comparison between KC (the fine city that it is) and the any tropical paradise, but compared to what we’ve got right now 60 degrees might as well be a sun drenched island in the South Pacific.

Let me begin by offering an explanation to my somewhat cryptic clue in my previous post. As many of you know I did stats for my high schools varsity baseball team all fours of high school (Yeah, even us non-athletic types should be able to earn letter jackets). During my freshman year we played an away game at one of conference rivals (I use that term loosely here). Our first baseman, a senior at the time, was covering the bag as there was a base runner on first. A rather sharp grounder was hit toward him. I watched as he hunched over to field the ball. In less than a second the ball took an unexpected bounce which lifted the kid several inches off the ground. After he dropped to ground in the fetal position everyone there knew he forgot one very import piece of athletic equipment. Thus, I learned the importance of plastic. The coach, or someone, went through the guys bag to find his cup, which was walked out to him as he was helped back to his feet.
My other significant memory of this place involves Derek. He was my stats colleague for my last two years. Due to circumstances that I don’t full remember (hey, this was more than 15 years ago folks) he arrived at the game with a bladder that was nearly at capacity. This was a miserable game day, weather-wise. Really the only thing I remember from this game was Derek jumping around, squirming in his seat, and nearly crying the whole game. Derek probably would have benefited from the use of a different kind of plastic cup at that moment.

The site of these games, and the place that I am visiting this weekend, is the no longer existent Lutheran High School West in Detroit. Along with Lutheran High East, and I’m not sure how many others closing, the presence of Lutheran high schools in Detroit has shrunk significantly. The building that once housed West is now a k-12 Lutheran school. So I guess it’s good that there is still that presence in, from what I remember, is a pretty undesirable neighborhood.
The people that run this school have been soliciting help from the area churches to do basic maintenance things, like painting walls and doors. A few of us from my small group decided that this is something that we can do. Plus it will give us the opportunity to mingle with other similar groups from around the area. It will be a lot of physical labor, but it should be a good day.

This coming weekend also holds another celebration of my nephews birthday, and bolwing. I'm sure I'll feel the need to fill you all in on the results of those games.

Appeasing the Peanut Gallery

I’m taking some slack for not posting in more than a week so this is to appease the peanut gallery….you know who you are.

There is an old expression about March coming in like a lion and going out like a lamb, or something like that. Yesterday was certainly the lion tearing the door of the hinges of the new month. With the storm that rolled in, and continued a good part of the day yesterday it made things pretty hairy.
I got up early to look outside and watch the news to determine whether or not it was worthwhile making my ridiculous drive to work. I kind of made my decision to work from home, but was second guessing myself even before I made ‘the call’. As I was crafting the email to my boss, and backup person, I heard a report that there was an overturned semi on my commute, and that the backup it caused was already 6 miles long and growing. That made my decision so much easier.
I was reminded yesterday that I don’t really enjoy working from home. That is kind of contrary to what a lot of people feel. For me there are far too many distractions and temptations, and things that can divert my attention from the job I should be doing. Maybe this has something to do with the infrequent nature of my working from home, I don’t know. But it was just as much a task to keep on task as it was just doing my work for the day.
Yesterday evening I was channel surfing and come across Fox Sports Detroit showing their Detroit Tigers Spring Preview show. I looked out the window at all the newly fallen snow then looked at the images of the Florida sunshine; I can’t wait for spring and summer.
I really thought we done with this for the season. Meaning, the big snow falls. I know we almost always get snow around Opening Day, heck this is Michigan after all. But, in my mind we shouldn’t be getting 6 inches of snow on a day where the average temperature is around 40. Since there hasn’t been any hockey to watch this year I’m that much more excited about the baseball season, and spring, getting under way.
I just got out of my annual review with my boss. It went well. Nothing was brought up that I didn’t expect, which I guess is what you want from those types of meetings. There were a few peer comments that I found interesting. Mostly about my focus on advancing my career and taking on more responsibilities. I’m not getting the push back that I thought I might for trying to transfer to a new group. I’m actually getting help and encouragement, which admittedly freaked me out a bit.
That’s it for today folks. I’ll fill you in on my plans for this weekend later in the week. I will provide a sneak preview though; it involves returning to the sight of one of my more memorable high school baseball experiences. Oh, one more thing. I googled myself the other day and found someone had put a link on their blog to mine. I don’t have the first clue who this person is. I guess it kind of surprised me. Anyway…