Click images for desktop size: "Green" by Bryan Loper I didn't go out and look for work yesterday. My friend woke up ill and stayed in. It was a good excuse to stay home and play inept nurse.
We're both losing weight. I've no idea if that's a good or a bad thing. Probably good for me and not so good for her.
Although it was probably a good idea that I didn't go out looking for work yesterday. I mowed the lawn here. I had to do a rather poor job in order to save gas in the mower. Even that, 2 hours of pushing a lawnmower nearly killed me.
Sweat in the eye, ginchy grabbing pains sort of killing me, not the real deal killing me.
There was a brief but violent thunderstorm this morning. I'm hoping that it might have scared off some workers and I can go hit around the few construction sites and maybe pick something up.
My head still fills like its loaded with concrete but they won't be interested in whether I can think or not.
One thing about today. I woke up wanting to be part of the community. Yesterday there was a power outage. It bounced pretty hard and screwed up the network (as usual). I went out on the street and spoke to some of the neighbors who were out. Any kind of disaster and everyone runs outside. When I was a kid I used to run out in the street during earthquakes because I was convinced dinosaurs and lava would come springing out of the newly opened crevasses.
I was always disappointed. Although I did get to see a brick chimney collapse once. Cool but not as cool as a red hot dinosaur springing out of the ground ready to commit mayhem. I was certain that the ravenous dinosaur and I would be fast friends and he and I would go reek a horrible vengeance against the adults of the world.
But I woke up today wanting to be a part of the community again. That's a good thing. I tempers my stoic cynicism. I thought about coaching football. The schools around here aren't much for the sport. When I called when I first got here
Click images for desktop size: "Giant Panda" by Unknown they were more than a bit astonished that I was interested in seeing a game, let alone volunteer coach.
There's plenty of demand for Pop Warner coaches. I'm not sure if I have the physical strength and endurance to deal with the little ones. They take a lot more care and hands on demonstrations. They are amusing though.
Where my strengths in coaching lie are in turning kids into athletes. I tend to do it with mind numbing repetition. Like the stick foot move. It where you have to an abrupt change of direction to make a tackle or throw a block. Its a simple thing in theory. You stamp the ground with your foot and let momentum swerve you while you continue to run and pursue.
In practice its not so easy. The point is to do it so often that it becomes reflex. A player can't think on the field about anything but his assignment and the situation. If he has to take the micro second to consider the correct way to make a move even a guy with 5.0 speed will be one and a half steps past him and then further adjustments are needed. It doesn't work unless its just done automatically.
And with endless repetition the body gets so tired that it starts to do these things properly, without exaggeration or thought. It works. I've had enough players progress to higher levels to know that.
With little ones the main idea is to make sure they don't hurt themselves and that they play well enough to have fun. After that I worry about fine tuning the athlete and after that I worry about getting them to play as a unit and then, if there's time I worry about winning.
I've sort of given up on playing even softball. The arm can't take it. I've no zip on the ball and my accuracy decreases expoentially to the amount of zip I put on it. Maybe this weekend we can go watch a softball game and I can see how ept or inept the competition is.
No I have to go to work, or at least beg for it.