Tap Out Ten; September 24, 2020

For me, one of the biggest challenges is not knowing what it is that I want to do at any given moment.

As in, doing what will make me the most happy.

I've stated many times that I lead a pretty quiet life.

It is sleep, shower, work, eat, workout, read, go to a movie and that's about it.

I'm tired of most sporting events right now because of all of the limitations on the attendance at said events due to COVID-19.

I just don't have the freedom that I used to.

I've always liked not having restrictions placed on me.  That is, to be able to do mostly what I wish.

And a lot of times, I can't find what it is that I want to fit the bill.

About the only slam dunk right now in 2020 are movies.

There's a finite number of movies being released and making it into a theatre in our area so I figure out where the different ones are going to be and go.

I was asked by somebody if I go alone and the answer is, "Yes!"  All 67 this year in a theater have been by myself.

It's OK, as I see most movies late in the evening.  In fact, I just got back from one at the Star Cinema Grill in Springwoods Village which is closest to me.

Tonight's feature was a little pricey.  So much so that I should have gotten a meal with it instead of having a menu to choose from - and pay for.

I'm thankful that I have the monies and the time.

Earlier in the evening I got in a little more than a half hour workout on the Air Assault bike and knocked out a few chapters in the latest book that I'm reading called, "In The Blink of an Eye:  Forgiveness in Black and White."

It was the basis of the recent movie "My Brothers' Crossing", which was really, really good.

The interesting thing is that because of a comment I made on the movie's Facebook page I have actually communicated with one of the main individuals who was portrayed in the movie.

It is about a husband and wife who were involved in a Christian ministry that were killed in a motorcycle accident in late August 2015 in southwestern Virginia.

But the story is about how their family forgave the driver of the vehicle that caused the accident and how God used all of those situations to see many come to know Jesus Christ as their personal Savior.

And what's really neat - that I didn't learn until reading Chapter 1 of the book that the movie is based on - is that that man's daughter was a Resident Adviser the same year that my daughter was.

My daughter said that she recognized the young ladies' name and knows what she looks like, but never had the opportunity to meet her while at Liberty University.

Truly is that the world is indeed small.

Not much else going on.  I did get mentioned to announce a particular cross country meet, but it might be a bit too late.

The person that was putting me up for it might have ended up getting my name in a little late as the organization has already made a verbal commitment to somebody else, but that party hasn't returned a quote back in.

I like to think because of my preparation that I would be a natural fit (and because the organization likes for the announcer to use the information they have available), but it is in God's hands at this point.  

If He wants to make a way for me to be able to do so, He will.

If I don't get the opportunity, I'll be thankful that I was mentioned in the conversation.

Yet if it does occur, you can't get much bigger in the state of Texas.

Tap Out Ten; September 15, 2020

Great dinner with my parents on Sunday night.  

Something that my daughter and I don't do with them enough.  

Work is getting really busy as our clients and customers are going on new systems so a lot longer days are ahead soon enough.

So what did I do in response to that?

I bought myself an air mattress as one week out of six or more will be spent taking on call so there are nights that I likely will spend in my office.

Last night, I inflated it and did just that:  slept in the office.

Not sure why I got a queen instead of a twin as it filled up most of the entire floor.

The first half of the evening I slept better, but the second half I was up and down with those issues that men my age tend to have to deal with as we get older.

My doctor said that there's medicine for that but it might affect certain performance.  I think I told her that I didn't have to worry about any of that!

I will also be getting a new mattress for my bed soon.  It's been long, long overdue.  

Looking forward to getting a firm mattress.  

I don't even know what you would call the shape of what I'm sleeping on now.  I do sleep so it can't be incredibly terrible, but I can improve - and I have the money thankfully.

Close to finishing another book.  This one I got last week and it is called "God in the ICU:  The inspirational biography of a praying doctor."  (Not that I don't have enough already.)

The doctor is from South Africa and he shares his experiences with stories of prayers while serving as an anesthesiologist in various healthcare settings.  

Some of the language - not bad - is different, which makes you focus in even more; however, it's been a source of encouragement that if we know God and we get off the well-worn path that the easiest way back to Him is through prayer.  

And it isn't anything that has to be pretty or flowery.  Basically it is just:  talking to God.

It's also always good to hear some of the funny stories of the day that my daughter shares from her second grade classroom.  

So happy for her as her first year was such a challenge and almost a "beat down" that she's beginning to reap some of the benefits of her incredible hard work.  

And even if you know me a little, I've probably have told you how proud I am of her.

Not too much else going on.  Time to start thinking about the weekend.

I've got the new movies in the area mapped out as to when they're coming and going.  

I think there are four, plus one from back in August - "The Tax Collector" - that is in the area that I want to try to see in the next week or so.  That scene changes almost daily.

I also know of a 10-mile race over south of Johnson City and north of Blanco that is on the potential list for Saturday morning.  We'll see.  Haven't run 10 or more since before the pandemic started.  

There's a half marathon on the calendar for January 2 in Canton, which was a shift in the schedule after they cancelled the August event.  

The biggest benefit is that it should be cooler, but you just never know.  

I once ran the Texas Marathon in Kingwood on New Year's Day when it was in the low-to-mid 80s as I crossed the finish line.  Ouch!

Tap Out Ten; September 14, 2020

 I tweeted something irreverent earlier this evening and suddenly I wondered, "Who's following me and what might they thought about what I had just shared?

It was a tweet that was only intended about people in my world of following Texas private and parochial high school athletics.

Essentially, an attention-seeker.

Something that I am challenged by people who have that trait in their makeup.  

I know there is a stronger word for that, but I'd rather not use it.

I have always put my name to my work and I am disappointed when others don't.

It is almost that they are fearful of making a mistake and only seek to gain positive feedback.  I do not know, but, to me, it is a sad way to live.

Saw my 59th movie in a theater tonight in 2020.

One of the things that I am learning about the movie industry is how quick it seems that movies are going in and out of a market, especially with the lackluster turnout at the box office.

Obviously, there's been a lot of fear peddled out about getting COVID-19 in a theatre, but to me, if masks work, and everybody is wearing them, we should have no worry in spending less than two hours in a not completely closed (but not completely open either) space.

I do not know.  I just choose not to live in fear.

If there is as many showings as possible, I always choose the time that has the least amount of people who have purchased tickets.

I wish I had been keeping count, but I was the only one in the theater for "Blackbird" this evening at the Regal in Tomball.

It is sad to see movies having a hard time bouncing back, it seems.

I wonder if they will completely make it back.  

I do not know if some of them are still working on the last of their CARES act monies and then didn't get the pick me up that was expected with the showing of "Tenet".

And that is a movie that I have not yet seen.  Largely because it is two and a half hours long.

In a perfect world, I will see three more movies in the next three days, but stay tuned:  that's yet to be seen.

I had a fun time throwing a football in the living room with my daughter.

It seems like the large church young adults’ group that she goes to on Tuesday nights is playing flag football on Saturday, October 3.

She does not want to go out there like - as she put it - "dumb throwing girl" so we threw it back and forth about 10 or so times.  More work to come.  It was fun.  We had some laughs from it.

I am so appreciative of having my daughter be my very best friend in life.

I wish, however, though, that somebody might find me interesting enough to try and wrestle that title away from her.

H.B.'s Barrel Races

9/12/20 - 16.5 - Magnolia (2nd in 3D Open; 1st in 2D Youth) $
9/04/20 - 16.197 - Magnolia (5th in 3D Open; 2nd in 2D Youth)
8/21/20 - 17.4 - Magnolia
8/14/20 - 19.4 - Buffalo
7/31/20 - 18.15 - Magnolia (10th of 25 in Open; 2nd of 7 in Youth) $
7/20/20 - 16.494 - Magnolia
7/10/20 - 18.4 - Magnolia

Slow Leak and Customer Service; August 11, 2020

So you have to be able to laugh at yourself, right?

I haven't shared it openly, but I needed to make a trip to Pennsylvania this past weekend so I could open up an Estate account for the Estate of my uncle, who passed away in mid-June.

He and my aunt, who passed just a few days before Christmas last year, had named me the executor of their will about nine years ago.

It is an honor to be entrusted with such a responsibility - one that I put close to on par of putting together the memorial service for my sister six and a half years ago.

After I left the Altoona, Pennsylvania area two months ago, when we met with and started to work with the attorney that is handling the legal affairs of the Estate, Texas became one of many COVID-19 hot spots -- and made it such that anybody traveling to the Commonwealth from the Lone Star state had to self-quarantine for 14 days.

Couldn't afford nor did I have the time to be able to do that.

So flying into Pennsylvania from Texas was out!

Since the procedure to get sworn in as the executor of the will with Blair County in Pennsylvania was remote, via FaceTime, I elected to stay in Texas and then tried to get the Estate account setup without having to go there.

I spoke with the bank - Investment Savings Bank - that my aunt and uncle did their banking with about what needed to be done to open it, and they said I had to be there in person.

My only other option - at the time - was to open an account here in Texas and with a letter with the appropriate documentation, they could close the checking and savings accounts, cut a check and mail it to me for deposit.

I visited Chase Bank, where I've been doing my banking since they acquired Texas Commerce Bank, early last week and they came back and told me that there was a Commonwealth law that Estate accounts for wills in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania must be at Pennsylvania banks.

The rationale of using Chase was that since they have branches in Pennsylvania, any check presented on the Estate to a Pennsylvania business wouldn't be an out-of-state check.  But, to no avail.

Like Willie Nelson, I was "On The Road Again".

When I went to leave the hotel Sunday morning in Lexington, Kentucky, the indicator on the back right tire was that it was low on pressure, but it wasn't flat.  I went and aired it up, and then proceeded to head in the direction of the airport in Lexington to exchange it out.

While waiting on hold on the phone en route, I noticed that the psi number went up from 48 to 49 and that it was holding.

Exercising a great deal of faith, I decided to press on to Pennsylvania.  Much to my relief - and surprise, it basically held all the way and it was at 40 psi this morning.

(Oh, I had called the Budget office in State College and they didn't have a car in my class to swap out.  They also said that they would just put air in it as any patching had to be sent out from Roadside Assistance.)

I surmised that the tire was slowly leaking the entire time since the car was put into service.  When I got the car on Friday, it had about 7,600 miles on it.  (Not anymore!)

That gets you caught up to today, Tuesday.

On Monday, the good folks at Investment Savings Bank (ISB) were super helpful in helping me get the Estate account set up and monies transferred over from my aunt and uncle's checking, savings and Christmas Club accounts.

The first order of business was to go to another local bank to get the payoff amount for a loan where the house was noted as collateral.

That's what I did Tuesday morning.

It took about 10-15 minutes to handle everything when I realized I forgot one thing:  I wanted to get $5 worth of quarters in case I needed to air the tire up on the way home.  I didn't want to have to ask every convenience store in the south to make change to do so -- especially in a national coin shortage!

So I hadn't even left the building, waited my turn behind another customer and then spoke to the same young lady who worked with me to accept a large check to pay off a loan and she said, "I can't do that since you're no longer a customer of the bank."

I was stunned.  I got it, but it was one of those "Really?" moments.

I said, "Well, since I'm a customer of ISB, I'll just go right down the road" and left.

Needless to say, when I went to ISB, the folks there were more than a little surprised, but since I was a customer there, they gladly did it for me.

One of the many benefits of a smaller business.

However, that's not the best of it.

So I stopped at Sheetz and went to the machine to put air in my tire -- and their machine was free.  Hashtag that as #thankful.  Even though I had $5 worth of quarters.

I went inside, grabbed some items for a late breakfast / early lunch and headed back up Plank Road and got on 99 and started to head south - to head to Texas.

About two or three exits down, specifically exit 32 for Roaring Spring and Portage, I realized that I forgot to get the contents on my hotel room -- other than my laptop bag, which I always carry with me!

I was in such a good mood - for many reasons - that I almost came to Tennessee, where I stopped tonight, without my clothes and other belongings!

Google says I logged 713 miles from Altoona, Pennsylvania to Dickson, Tennessee tonight.

Very thankful I made it here with everything and all in once piece!

48 Years Ago Today; July 28, 2020

It is early Tuesday morning, July 28.  Today would have been my sister's 48th birthday.

I started to think about this a bit on Sunday as I was finishing up a book that I bought on sale from the Barnes & Noble in College Station late Saturday morning.

Actually, it was two books that I bought.  Some might call it part of a minor addiction.

Nonetheless, one is Howard Kurtz's "Media Madness:  Donald Trump, The Press and the War over the Truth" and the other was Joe Biden's "Promise Me, Dad."

Call it equal opportunity reading.  :-)

Biden's book, honestly, was hard to put down as he covered many themes, but most importantly the common thread was his late son Beau's cancer diagnosis, treatment and eventual succumbing to the disease.

However, much was written about the relationship that Beau and his brother Hunter shared.

I read it with a little bit of envy. 

Not that mine with Holly was ever totally bad (yes, there were times that we were distant), but it wasn't where one consulted with the other over a major decision as the two Biden brothers, born little more than a year a part, did.

Holly and I were born five and a half years apart.  That probably kept up from being closer than we could have been.

I faintly remember her coming home from the hospital after she was born. 

Well, it was more like I think I remembering missing my Mom more than anything

I remember that I had stayed with my grandparents, my Dad's parents - my Gom and Papa, while my Mom was in the hospital bringing Holly into the world and remember running to her - and almost tackling her - when she came in the door to the kitchen from the garage at the house in Tipton.

There are other simple memories that stand out.

We moved a few times in the late seventies. 

From our home in central Pennsylvania to Texas, then to Arkansas and back to the western part of the "great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania" - as I like to say when I announce and know that a runner from home crosses the finish line.

Four and a half months we made a home in a two-story townhome - that felt like three due to the entry from the garage below - in Venetia (in Peters Township south of Pittsburgh) before heading back to Texas in March 1980.

We weren't there long enough to really get to know too many people - although I surprisingly had good enough friends that took me to a Penguins game before we left - so we played with - and I'm sure quarreled some - each other quite a bit.

I remember we spent too much time throwing either a ball - one of those ones that cheerleaders throw out to the crowd at sporting events - or a rolled up pair of white socks shaped similarly up and down the stairs between the two floors.

Minor in consequence, but major in the good memories column.

Some might call it a shame that our best memories don't some from more significant events in our lives, but I suppose working together on something is really significant.

I know this sounds really egotistical - given all of the races I've run, attended or been a part of putting on; however, the inaugural Chick-Fil-A 5K and the Run With The Cows Kids' 1K in Spring was about the only perfect event that I've ever been at or involved with.

Maybe something minor with the race happened that I've long since forgotten about, but when Holly passed six and a half years ago the race was still fresh in my mind when I delivered a eulogy at her memorial serivce and referenced it with the same opinion that I have today.

The results can still even be found online:  http://runhoustontiming.net/race_result/1342614807_8028428_cfa5Koverall.txt

Driving home from a movie late Monday evening, I chuckled remembering that we actually crossed Kuykendahl - over about a quarter mile into the race and back late in the race! 

You couldn't do that today, for sure. 

While I brought some resources to bear for the race, that was not any pull that I had, but rather the relationships that Holly had built through her professional career.

That was truly one of the greatest days ever, even though I personally that day experienced some emotional sorrow that maybe only Waverly knew about.

Obviously, today is hardest on my Mom as well as my Dad.

We won't understand it fully until it is our time to pass on from this earth and - as a result of accepting Christ as our personal Savior - spend eternity in Heaven.

All I know to do is to keep the best memories - regardless of how significant they are or aren't - alive and well and to pay respect to all that she accomplished and had a hand in or was a part of, including - in different ways - the continuing successes of her two daughters - my two nieces.

I know from the Bible - and believe - that Heaven exists, but wouldn't even fathom to say how things actually are there so I hesitate to say the popular "Happy Birthday in Heaven" just because I don't know if that's really the case or not.

However, I will use the occasion to keep her memory alive as long as I'm around to do so.

2020 Movie Ratings

Make You Think / Action
1.  "Just Mercy", Cinemark 17, The Woodlands, TX (January 9)
2.  "Clemency", Regal Green Hills, Nashville, TN (January 29)
3.  "The Gentlemen", AMC Metropark Square 10, Shenandoah, TX (February 17)
4.  "21 Bridges", Star Cinema Grill Richmond/Katy, Richmond, TX (June 12)
5.  "The Outpost", Tomball Premiere 7, Tomball, TX (July 5)
6.  "The Hunt", Star Cinema Grill Conroe, Conroe, TX (March 16)
7.  "Bloodshot", Star Cinema Grill Missouri City, Missouri City, TX (July 10)
8.  "The Last Full Measure", Cinemark 17, The Woodlands, TX (February 4)
9.  "Richard Jewell", Cinemark 17, The Woodlands, TX (January 7)
10.  "1917", Cinemark at Market Street, The Woodlands, TX (January 17)
11.  "The Rhythm Section", Cinemark Valley Ranch, New Caney, TX (February 3)
12.  "Bombshell", Cinemark Spring-Klein, Spring, TX (January 10)
13.  "Deadpool", Star Cinema Grill Vintage Park, Houston, TX (July 3)

Thriller / Odd Endings
1.  "The Invisible Man", Cinemark 17, The Woodlands, TX (February 27)
2.  "The Wretched", ShowBiz Cinemas Fall Creek, Humble, TX (June 5)
3.  "Brahms:  The Boy II", Regal Lone Star 19, Tomball, TX (February 26)
4.  "Underwater", Cinemark Valley Ranch, New Caney, TX (January 20)
5.  "The Turning", Regal Green Hills, Nashville, TN (February 13)

Feel Good
1.  "The Photograph", Cinemark 17, The Woodlands, TX (February 25)
2.  "The Call Of The Wild", Cinepolis Luxury Cinemas The Woodlands, The Woodlands, TX (February 23)
3.  "Mighty Oak", Star Cinema Grill Baybrook, Friendswood, TX (June 6)
4.  "Playing With Fire", Star Cinema Grill Cypress, Cypress, TX (June 6)
5.  "The High Note", Waco Hippodrome Theatre, Waco, TX (June 13)
6.  "Max Winslow and the House of Secrets", ShowBiz Cinemas Baytown, Baytown, TX (July 6)
7.  "Jumanji:  The Next Level", Cinemark Tinseltown 290, Houston, TX (March 10)
8.  "Harley Quinn:  Birds of Prey", Cinemark 17, The Woodlands, TX (March 3)
9.  "Bad Boys For Life", Cinemark 17, The Woodlands, TX (January 21)
10.  "Smallfoot", Huntingdon Cinemas Clifton 5, Huntingdon, TX (June 25)
11.  "Irresistible", Star Cinema Grill Springwoods, Spring, TX (June 29)
12.  "The Way Back", Xscape at 1488, Conroe, TX (March 8)
13.  "Like A Boss", Cinemark 17, The Woodlands, TX (January 16)
14.  "Downhill", Cinemark 17, The Woodlands, TX (February 18)

Classics
1.  "Indiana Jones and Raiders of the Lost Ark", ShowBiz Cinemas Kingwood 14, Kingwood, TX (July 2)
2.  "Jaws", Cinestar of Huntsville, Huntsville, TX (June 30)