Click images for desktop size: "Purity" by Subterfuge Malaises It was a beautiful day. A day to listen to birds sing, butterflies flutter and to watch my puppy expect the world to always be this kind and wonderful.
Yesterday the special clinic was successful. Forty four kids showed up and four sent word that they had to work.
I've held similar things where it was just me and one other kid. The quantity isn't ultra important to me. Of course I missed the 6 who didn't come.
It was one of my Shark sessions - named after my brave dog of long ago - Sharky, named so because if she stopped moving she thought she'd die.
We did forty eight minutes of constant motion. Forty eight minutes is how long it takes to play an high school game. I always thought that to play at max for 1 hour you had to enter the game prepared to go for three.
I only had three kids quit, not the session, they just had to take a break. Only one vomited and none passed out.
I ended the session with a team race. Some of you've been through that with me.
Four teams - 11 athletes on each. They link arms and race as a unit.
One hundred yards. The winner gets to stop and the other 3 continue till they're finished. I think it builds character, interdependence as well as team work and competitiveness.

To leave the office I have to walk through the locker room. I try not to eaves drop but I still heard the kids chattering and discussing me.
One kid said, “He's a volunteer? He don't get paid?”
Another answered, “yeah, he just gets off on torturing us!”
And another said, “I don't know. I feel like I'm getting something out of this.”
I kept walking but I didn't hear anyone knocking the last speaker down.
I felt pretty good about that.

Coaching and then work tomorrow.
Work is a grind. It's worse this time period because of money. The last check was small and was 21 days between pay checks. Vagaries of the calendar that no one in an exec position cares about. They do not value their employees.
Being broke gets hard.
I keep making lists of things I plan to buy. Pathetically the list is headed with, “Socks, underwear, fuzzy bathroom rug . . . ”

While I enjoyed not being poked by doctors for the last two weeks I'm looking forward to seeing them this Weds. The sickness is overwhelming.
If I thought that they had planned it this way, to encourage me not to hate seeing them, I'd have more respect for them. I figure it just is one of those things.

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