Kathy and I were both band geeks. I was in the percussion section of my high school band, Kathy played clarinet. I was athletic when I was younger, played basketball, baseball and football a year or two. When I hit high school though, I really got into music. Kathy is an amazing woman, however, athletics is not one of her strong points.
Somehow, these two band geeks got together and had two athletes. Chris has loved baseball since he was a baby. At age 3, he had figured out that you could watch the Cubs play during the day and the Braves played at night. Many times he would watch two full baseball games/day. Sarah is not quite as into athletics, though she loves softball and basketball. I think that she's looking forward to giving volleyball a try as well.
Chris has played baseball since he was 5. T-ball, coach pitch, little league, dixie youth, this past summer he played on his first travel team. When he hit 5th grade, he played football for the first time. He's played football every year since then except for one year when he played on a fall league baseball team.
Chris is very gifted athletically, the only thing that is hampering him right now is his size. He'll be 15 in December, many boys at his age are fully grown. He's got friends his age that are 6 ft tall and 200+ lbs. Chris is 5'7" 135 lb. The one thing he does have is speed. And like they say 'You can't teach speed'.
This year, with him being in the 9th grade, he's on the varsity football team. It's been quite an eye opener. They really do work him hard. I've told him since he was small, there are 3 parts to a person: mind, body, spirit. You have to take care of all three. Varsity football is working on the body part for sure.
Chris hasn't gotten to play much on the varsity squad, though he does get to play quite a bit at the JV games. Friday night, the JV squad got to play most of the game because the opposing team wasn't very good. At the beginning of the year, Chris was focusing on being a receiver. It seems like now, they are focusing on him being a running back.
Anyway, Friday night he got his first touch of the ball in a varsity game. He was a slot back on the right side and he got a handoff running a sweep around the left end. He broke it for a 62 yard touchdown! It was cool. The thing that I love about living here is that people really know the players. They've watched them grow up and are just as proud as the parents are when they do well. When Chris came off of the field, the crowd gave him a second standing ovation. It was really cool.
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On another note, I heard a story from Kathy's sister that was too funny. Her sister has 3 children, the oldest is 5. He wanted to go ride his bike so he asked his dad if he could. "No, son, that requires supervision" was the answer. His comeback in total seriousness was "But dad, I have supervision, I eat my carrots!" Too funny.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Power Under Control
Fred was an easy target. He was a bit goofy, a little effeminate, one of those guys that younger men find it easy to make fun of. Perry was a boisterous young guy that moved here from Louisiana. He was loud and a little bit mean. He found it easy to make fun of Fred. We all did to a certain extent, but Perry, for some reason, was particularly cruel. One day, they got to the point where Perry challenged Fred to a fight. Fred walked away. Years later, when I left that job, I found out that Fred was a 3rd degree black belt in Taekwando. It was something that he had a passion for, but he kept a secret from anyone at the office.
I remember, as a kid, hearing lessons about how Jesus didn't open his mouth when he was being accused. I would be taught lessons about how "He was a sheep, led to the slaughter". Even the pictures that you see of him portray him as a gaunt, weak looking man. But he had tremendous power. In the garden, he told Peter, "Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?". He let Peter, and us, know that he could have stopped it at any time.
Turning the other cheek was always something that I struggled with. I hate feeling weak. If I walked away, it was like I had accepted defeat. Later on though, I finally learned, that walking away is not necessarily weakness....it it simply power under control.
I remember, as a kid, hearing lessons about how Jesus didn't open his mouth when he was being accused. I would be taught lessons about how "He was a sheep, led to the slaughter". Even the pictures that you see of him portray him as a gaunt, weak looking man. But he had tremendous power. In the garden, he told Peter, "Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?". He let Peter, and us, know that he could have stopped it at any time.
Turning the other cheek was always something that I struggled with. I hate feeling weak. If I walked away, it was like I had accepted defeat. Later on though, I finally learned, that walking away is not necessarily weakness....it it simply power under control.
Monday, October 8, 2007
ABTY
The Yankees are facing elimination tonight in the American League Divisional Series. Here's hoping they find it.
Anybody But The Yankees
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Nashville really wants to be a big city...
When I tell people that I grew up in Nashville, many times they are amazed. I get responses like "I've never met anyone FROM Nashville" everybody moves here from somewhere else. I had a friend that moved here from Chicago, he remarked that the quality of life here was so much better than it was up north. I told him "We are glad that you are here, you are welcome to stay, however, please don't call your family and friends and tell them how good it is here, you'll just mess it up"
I don't want to sound like a geezer, but Nashville really has gone through a lot of changes since I was a kid. I can remember NEVD which stood for "Nashville Extra Value Days". Back when all of the department stores were downtown, they would have a week during the summer where all of the stores would have outdoor sales. We would ride the bus downtown and spend the day. As a kid, it was amazing to see it all. It looked like New York City to me. Then came the malls...all of the stores left downtown and moved to the suburbs. Downtown Nashville was a ghost town for several years. It was sad to go there and see all of the boarded up stores.
The first time that I ever visited Chicago, I made a point to see the Chicago Art Museum, the Museum of Science and Industry, the Museum of Natural History. I made the remark when I got back that the closest thing Nashville had to that was "Barbara Mandrell Country". Over the years, Nashville has come a long way. We actually have some really cool cultural places. The Ryman auditorium is now a very cool music venue, we have Frist Center for the Visual Arts and now the Schermerhorn Symphony Center.
Here's the thing, Nashville is great. But, in my opinion, Nashville has always been struggling to become a big city. For some reason, the measure of a big city seems to be the number of sports teams that it can have. I can remember when the Nashville Sounds (AAA baseball team) began playing here. I was in high school and was a part of the opening celebration for the stadium. They have been the AAA affiliate for several pro teams over the years. Over the last few years, they've worked on a project to get a new stadium built downtown. The deal fell through and now some of the investors are suing the team to get their money back. It's a mess.
The Predators were the first real major league team to come to Nashville. They are in their ninth season now (does hockey have an off-season?) but the owner has lost money every year. A local team of business men are trying to buy the club and keep it in Nashville. My opinion is, that is not going to work, the team will wind up moving.
The Titans are our success story. They seem to be doing well, drawing plenty of fans and will likely stay for a long time.
But, will Nashville ever be a big city? I am not sure. I doubt that it will ever be like an Atlanta, Dallas, Chicago or New York. But that's ok. It's still a great place to live. Just don't go telling everybody...
I don't want to sound like a geezer, but Nashville really has gone through a lot of changes since I was a kid. I can remember NEVD which stood for "Nashville Extra Value Days". Back when all of the department stores were downtown, they would have a week during the summer where all of the stores would have outdoor sales. We would ride the bus downtown and spend the day. As a kid, it was amazing to see it all. It looked like New York City to me. Then came the malls...all of the stores left downtown and moved to the suburbs. Downtown Nashville was a ghost town for several years. It was sad to go there and see all of the boarded up stores.
The first time that I ever visited Chicago, I made a point to see the Chicago Art Museum, the Museum of Science and Industry, the Museum of Natural History. I made the remark when I got back that the closest thing Nashville had to that was "Barbara Mandrell Country". Over the years, Nashville has come a long way. We actually have some really cool cultural places. The Ryman auditorium is now a very cool music venue, we have Frist Center for the Visual Arts and now the Schermerhorn Symphony Center.
Here's the thing, Nashville is great. But, in my opinion, Nashville has always been struggling to become a big city. For some reason, the measure of a big city seems to be the number of sports teams that it can have. I can remember when the Nashville Sounds (AAA baseball team) began playing here. I was in high school and was a part of the opening celebration for the stadium. They have been the AAA affiliate for several pro teams over the years. Over the last few years, they've worked on a project to get a new stadium built downtown. The deal fell through and now some of the investors are suing the team to get their money back. It's a mess.
The Predators were the first real major league team to come to Nashville. They are in their ninth season now (does hockey have an off-season?) but the owner has lost money every year. A local team of business men are trying to buy the club and keep it in Nashville. My opinion is, that is not going to work, the team will wind up moving.
The Titans are our success story. They seem to be doing well, drawing plenty of fans and will likely stay for a long time.
But, will Nashville ever be a big city? I am not sure. I doubt that it will ever be like an Atlanta, Dallas, Chicago or New York. But that's ok. It's still a great place to live. Just don't go telling everybody...
Saturday, October 6, 2007
Go Vols!
UT is doing amazingly well against Georgia, I hate to admit it, but I really thought we were going to get clobbered. Oh, Chris got his face painted now as you can see. The picture is straight from Neyland Stadium...
Go big Orange!
Any idea where Chris will be today?
Last night, I asked Chris if he had to choose between a baseball scholarship at a small school or going to UT with no baseball scholarship, which would he choose. His answer was "I'll go to UT and walk on to the baseball team". For some reason, I've always thought that maybe there was a chance that he would go to some other school. Don't get me wrong, I am a UT fan, but I went to a small college and am somewhat concerned about sending him to such a big school. Last night, though, I think I resigned myself to the fact that he wants to go to UT regardless.
He had the opportunity to go to the UT Georgia game with Kathy's sister and her husband. When they saw his outfit though, they may have wanted to rethink their decision. Oh, he wanted to paint his face too, but we couldn't find the right color orange. He'll probably find some on the way. He took the camera, I hope he gets some good pictures.
Catching up...
Well, as you can probably guess, its been a bit of a crazy week at the Hall home. Let me see if I can catch you up on what's going on.
Truck update well D&R automotive threw their collective hands in the air on my truck. They simply didn't have the equipment that they needed to diagnose the problem. They recommended that I take it to the dealer. There is another shop in town where the owner used to work at a dealership. He seemed to have the equipment that he needed and was even aware of a technical service bulletin that was related to the issue that I was having....here's hoping. To D&R's credit though, they looked at it 4 times and didn't charge me anything. I begged them to charge me and they wouldn't.
Job Update Wrapping up my part of the first big project at the new job. About to start the next project. It's challenging, hard work, but it is good to feel like I'm really part of a team rather than being the 'outsider'.
Kathy Update Kathy is really enjoying getting going on the real estate thing. She's going to do well, though, if you read the news, its not a good time to get into real estate.
Chris & Sarah I'm so proud of these two. We got their grades this week. They work hard at it, and have done very very well.
Football Update The 5th & 6th grade football season is over (Sarah is a cheerleader). That frees up one night per week. We are in the second half of the varsity football season. Chris doesn't play much during the varsity games but has done well at the JV games. FCS had their first district loss last night. It was a hard fought game.
Spiritual Update I think Donna wrote in her blog about worry being sin. I know that. I also know that instead of worrying you should pray. I remember to do that....sometimes. Sometimes I just worry. The Jews were always big on monuments and festivals. They were constantly surrounded by reminders of events where God had taken care of them. When pressures start getting to me, I try to think back about all the times where there is no possible explanation other than God reached down and took care of me. I think when I get into trouble is when I start thinking its up to me...
Truck update well D&R automotive threw their collective hands in the air on my truck. They simply didn't have the equipment that they needed to diagnose the problem. They recommended that I take it to the dealer. There is another shop in town where the owner used to work at a dealership. He seemed to have the equipment that he needed and was even aware of a technical service bulletin that was related to the issue that I was having....here's hoping. To D&R's credit though, they looked at it 4 times and didn't charge me anything. I begged them to charge me and they wouldn't.
Job Update Wrapping up my part of the first big project at the new job. About to start the next project. It's challenging, hard work, but it is good to feel like I'm really part of a team rather than being the 'outsider'.
Kathy Update Kathy is really enjoying getting going on the real estate thing. She's going to do well, though, if you read the news, its not a good time to get into real estate.
Chris & Sarah I'm so proud of these two. We got their grades this week. They work hard at it, and have done very very well.
Football Update The 5th & 6th grade football season is over (Sarah is a cheerleader). That frees up one night per week. We are in the second half of the varsity football season. Chris doesn't play much during the varsity games but has done well at the JV games. FCS had their first district loss last night. It was a hard fought game.
Spiritual Update I think Donna wrote in her blog about worry being sin. I know that. I also know that instead of worrying you should pray. I remember to do that....sometimes. Sometimes I just worry. The Jews were always big on monuments and festivals. They were constantly surrounded by reminders of events where God had taken care of them. When pressures start getting to me, I try to think back about all the times where there is no possible explanation other than God reached down and took care of me. I think when I get into trouble is when I start thinking its up to me...
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