This is going to be another short update
due to extreme exhaustion. It was
past-one by the time I got home tonight; there was some family business work
that needed to be taken care of after I eventually got around to saying
goodnight to Michael; and now I really want to just crash and nap for a few
hours.
We had a bit of leftover rain here this
morning, so Tai Chi was indoors again. I
haven’t seen my parents, Ethan, and Ehlana since breakfast because we pretty
much needed to get ready to head for Sweetwater Ponds after school – or at
least we needed to hit the road by the time all of the gear was packed up and
ready to go. That was an hour and a half
of drive time each way, and a bit longer on the way there; so the pre and
post-game work along with the drive time took longer than the game did tonight.
I’ll get to that part of the report in a moment; but let’s quickly cover the
news from school today first.
We were on the Day One schedule; so we got
to have two days for each set of classes this week. As I’ve already mentioned, this is going to
be my favorite of the two days; and I had a lot of fun with Michael, Tim,
Rowen, and our classmates today. I had
some lunchtime fun with Naomi today too, and while I haven’t mentioned it in my
journal before now; I’ve tried to at least check in with her at least once
every day this week. She’s having fun at
school so far; likes being there better than at KidZone; and the only downside
is that she doesn’t get to spend time with Ethan, Ehlana, and Aiden.
That bit of news reminds me of two additional
bits of news that I should include before I forget about them. First, KidZone is in their new building as of
this week – the old clinic. I should
have reported that on Tuesday at the latest; and can only plead being too tired
to think much about things that I’m not at all involved with right now. Ethan and Ehlana were there for a while today
too; but I haven’t gotten the report from them on what they think of the
place. The second bit of news is just
that the twins are doing a sleepover with Naomi and Aiden tonight. I didn’t risk waking them when I came up to
bed; and will talk with them in the morning.
Their sleepover was all about hanging out with Naomi and hearing all
about her first week of school. I’m
wishing that I had a sleepover buddy right now too, but Michael and I are both
going to be busy tomorrow; and we’re trying to be good and save up for more
important sofa sleepovers.
So, moving this along, we spent nearly an
hour getting ready for our football trip after school; I did some of my
homework during the drive to Sweetwater Ponds; and we had to work quickly to
get warmed up and ready for the game once we were at their high school. One thing that I’ve learned through these
football games is that we are very lucky to have such a modern, well-equipped
school in our little town. Yes, I’ve
mentioned that before; but we should try to remember how fortunate we are here.
That, by the way, is particularly
appropriate for today; but I’ll leave the politics at the digital door to my
journal tonight; since I just don’t want to go there.
I do have to go on with the football
report, though; and that didn’t go at all well for us tonight. Let’s get the bad side of the news out of the
way first. We lost by a score of
forty-six to thirty-three. Sweetwater
Ponds scored five touchdowns and four field goals; thanks in part to the three
interceptions and one fumble by Ray that all led to points for the happy home
team. Their kicker missed on extra
point, but then so did Captain JJ – along with three missed field goals out of
five attempts. Lucas was top scorer on
our team tonight with two running touchdowns while Michael and Tim each had one
touchdown in the loss.
Going on to the ugly from the bad; you can
likely guess that Jason was not a happy camper to have a second loss in our
first three games. The problem is that
he is doing a terrible job of dealing with his team mates – and almost always
comes to the wrong conclusions about what the issues are. He’s starting to get some push-back there;
though that isn’t making him any happier – or easy to deal with. My modest analysis is rather simple. Jason missed workable kicking opportunities
that could have meant ten more points for us.
If the match had been closer, Ray wouldn’t have given up two of his
interceptions late while trying for the comeback; and those mistakes would have
kept at least ten points off of the Sweetwater Ponds side of the
scoreboard. That net twenty-point
turnaround in the score would’ve meant the difference between winning and
losing.
With that written, and knowing that Jason will
never read this anyway; I’ll also add that he was clueless tonight if he
actually believes that the junior members of his team are responsible for the
loss. No, Michael, Tim, and Lucas are
all behind their stats from last season; but the reasons for that ought to be
obvious to everyone – and especially to the team captain! Our team needs to adapt for what we do have
going for us this season; and Jason needs to stop thinking that he has a team
that is just as good as the past two or three versions of the squad. Let’s hope that Coach Robinson starts working
on those adjustments soon or this is going to be a very long season.
On the cheerleading side of the game, we
had a good night; our half-time routine went over great with the Sweetwater
Ponds spectators. Their cheer squad was
good too; so we had fun competing with them all evening and Rowen and I really
liked the girls that we talked with before and after the game. That isn’t always the case with the other
squads; so I’m glad that this was one of the good nights for that too. After the loss, getting packed up and ready
for the trip home wasn’t done with a lot of enthusiasm; which is why it took
longer than it did last Friday. The long
ride home was tougher too – especially for the guys on the team buses. It was that part of Michael’s day that had
him needing a bit of bonus alone time with me once we were finished at the
school; though the Magi-powered healing was a bonus for him. He and Tim both took quite a pounding tonight
thanks to all of the bad passes that left them open for hard hits. I wish that I could help Tim too, but for all
I know; Uncle Adam does help some of the other guys when the injuries are more
serious than minor strains and bruises.
I haven’t exactly short-formed this report
as I’d wanted to do, but I guess I needed to vent a bit before heading off into
nap mode. The need for that down time is
serious, though, so that’s it for tonight; and, until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
