1/21&22/2019
I skipped a day. Hope no one has spent a lot of time trying to find it. Actually, I didn’t skip, I wrote down some very interesting thoughts about aging, but when I read it, it was way, way too personal! So, I decided not to publish it. If I figure out how to say all that without personal referencing, perhaps I’ll write it later. What I wrote wasn’t, in a literal sense, about my wife and me, nor anyone else. But it could have been construed to fit more than one family I know. No, too personal.
It is a hard morning to write. I really have no idea why, just is. Monday night’s bible class was well-attended, good friends from near and far. At the close of the class, it looked to me that I had failed to hit record and perhaps I had talked for 50 minutes without recording it. But, when we finished talking and visiting and I turned off the Zoom, I had recorded it and could upload to the YouTube channel. What a relief that was! When you are doing a series, even someone as unorganized as me, doesn’t want to go back and fill in the blanks, if you mess up. Hard to do the same message a second time and say it like the first. But I was spared, after all.
Then, yesterday was a pretty good day in the store, a couple of good bible conversations by phone, and an excellent cold weather day. My attitude about cold days is this: we’re only going to have so many. Therefore, every one we have is one less to anticipate! (You know: 6 down, 26 more to go!) However, it is supposed to start raining in about an hour and rain all day. We’ve had so many rain days this Winter, I’ve lost count of those! I’m still thinking “better rain than snow,” but I am so done with rain for a while. Soon, maybe soon.
My trip to Texas next week is Thursday morning to Monday morning. I’ve got some spare time on the trip, but not a lot. After getting there, I still have some driving to do. and some time is not yet scheduled. It is my plan to visit both stores that are close, as well as the memorial service for my friend, the rest is yet up in the air. Usually, my plans for a trip include more things than I actually get done. Nevertheless, I plan them, anyway. Makes for good stories about what interferes and what is my fault or who or what I can blame. Most blame goes to weather. Once, I had most of a Sunday free, so I wanted to visit a church I had heard about, Heading South out of Houston, I went to what I thought would be the correct exit, turned right, believing I was headed West on the proper road. In a hard driving rain, I motored about as far as I thought I should and started watching signs to find the city limit sign for this small town. Finally, I found it. It wasn’t the small town I was looking for, it said Houston!! I had turned North instead of West—dark with clouds, heavy rain, ARGH! but, that won’t happen now, I’ve got Seri! She’ll keep me going where I need to go.
By the way I’m writing, you probably think the SIMH this morning is “500 Miles Away From Home,” but that’s not it. Instead, it is “Going Out of My Head”—written by Teddy Randazzo, made popular by Little Anthony and the Imperials—-bring back any memories for ya? Luther Vandross also did a version, Dionne Warwick, Sergio Mendes, etc. Anthony’s and Luther’s were the best of the bunch. Strange love songs stick in my head, do they you, also?
A basketball note: Indiana University’s team this year may be a great bunch of students and make straight As in their academic endeavors, but they don’t think well in the game. They choose, more often than not, to make the wrong moves, make the wrong passes, or take the wrong shot. My “great” analyzing talents aside, most any observer of the game would say the same. It is as though they were not used to playing against anyone that is really good, like they don’t expect anyone to be better than they. There’s no chance for success if that is the case. Maybe it’s coaching, but I doubt it. Maybe they don’t like one another, but I doubt that, too. I think it comes back to my first statement: they don’t think well in the game. They’ve lost 5 games in a row, all Big 10 conference games.
While it is important to have confidence that one can get ‘er done, it is also imperative to have confidence in one’s teammates. It looks as though these teammates share the floor with one another only after being prompted by the coach.
All that I just said about Indiana applies to my other Indiana team, Butler, as well. Butler has a point guard who doesn’t know how to pass and not shoot. That’s called a bad point guard. Announcers, the conference teams, and his teammates expect him to just be great. But, he is mediocre at best. He probably will make it in pros, so perhaps that’s where he should be playing. He doesn’t fit in college play without changing.
I’m sure you were all worried about that, so I straightened it all out, ok?
Thanks for reading, the Elder
the Elder's Blog 