Ramblings from the Ol' Broadcaster

Part of my Parkinson's therapy has been painting over the past few months.  I like painting.  Oils are very forgiving and I need that.  I am not very good and I know that.  But I want to help myself and others through this hobby. So, I have decided to once again begin my "Painting for Parkinson's" campaign.  I will post a few of my paintings here in the blog and if you see something you like, or would like me to paint something more specific I would love to give it to you for a donation.  When I sell a painting I take just the cost of my materials out and the rest goes to the Michael J Fox Foundation. I will say I am not very good at reproducing an actual scene.  I paint from my imagination.  I also don't frame my paintings.  I am doing a more modern method called "gallery wrap" in which the edges of the canvas are painted a complementary color.  I will show you this method in some of the pictures. Here is what I would like to d...

If I offered you a $100 bill I am sure you’d take it. Even if I crumpled it up, threw it on the ground and stomped on it, dragged it through mud, you’d still take it. Right? It’s a 100 bucks! The value hasn’t changed.   Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make, the decisions others make, words by some, gossip by others, bullying, or just the circumstances that come our way. We feel as though we’re worthless.  I learned a long time ago, that what others think, say or do has no bearing on my life. Let them say what they want, think what they want, do what they want. I am not on this earth to please them or let them degrade me. I am on this earth to do one thing, please God. Do I always do that? No, I do not. There are mistakes I have made, decisions I have made, things I have said or done that have been far from pleasing to God. The great attribute of God is His love, grace and mercy. Even when I do th...

I was looking through some old stuff last night and got to thinking.  I have coached a lot of teams in a lot of different sports at many different levels.  I have coached in state playoff games, and I have coached games where only 10 people were in the stands.  I have a lot of great memories.  I coached my son in 4 sports (only a couple of games in soccer), coached many of you and your kids in sports.  I have way to many memories to put them all here but a couple I would really like to share. I was a nickname giver.  One day this left hander strolled into practice and I put the kid at first base.  He gobbled up ground balls right and left and handled throws pretty well.  At the time, the Reds had a player who played some first named Leon "Bull" Durham.  I looked at this kid and immediately started calling him "Bull"  We became friends immediately and have been for over 25 years now. My wife rarely missed games when my son played. ...

OK, so this you are confused about this whole 3A District 5 playoff scenario?  Join the club.  The district ended in a 3 way tie for first.  The first tie breaker is head to head.  But that doesn’t break the tie.  Why?  Because Russell beat West, West beat Fleming and Fleming beat Russell.  The next step in a fair, yet confusing and somewhat antiquated tie break basically states that each team tied can select 4 teams they have beaten (not involved in the tie breaker) and earn 1 point for each win those teams have.  If there is still a tie, another team is selected, if still tied another team, etc until the tie is broken.  If the tie is still not broken, then it is up to the Commissioner to break the tie.  So, to help me decipher this fair, yet confusing and slightly antiquated system, I gathered a couple of friends from NASA and access to their super computers, contacted a few football buddies and 3 MySpace friends and went to w...