Saturday, December 21, 2019

Second to last Friday of 2019

It was November 1st, 1986.  The boys' school, SPA, had reached the championship game of Minnesota soccer.  John was the catalysis of the offense where from his center midfield position he did not score a lot but set up goal after goal after goal.  Travis was the center back on defense where he ruled the field.  Many parents could not believe his defensive skill as in the 20+ games in the fall there had been ZERO breakaways on goal as Travis ruled.  Grandpa Lee had come down to see the championship game which would be in the dome.  He felt it was "big time" and two of his grandsons were in the center.  The dome could seat what, 55,000 and this being the high school game the stadium looked nearly empty but for high school it was good.  Maybe 2000 people were there.  The opponent was Apple Vally which meant two of the three premier teams in the state would battle it out. Grandpa almost had the run of the stadium and as he walked from his seat to the PRESS BOX during the game he let people know that he too had a stake in the game.  I am positive this was the very first and the last soccer game Dad ever saw.  He did not know the rules or the set up of the game but he did know two boys who were playing.  It was NO surprise that the game came down to a shoot out.  A shoot out is each team picks 5 players to shot.  At the end of the round of 5 which ever team makes the most shots wins.  Coach Lagos had John shoot first.  He pretty much knew John would make it and that would put pressure on the other team as SPA shot first and it meant Apple Valley, with their first shooter, would be playing make up.  He was right.  John made his shot and the shoot out was on.  SPA came out on top and the soccer team became the very first SPA state champion team from the school. Here you see a proud Grandpa with his two boys after the game as there was a gathering at the school.  I do not need to add this but I will.  Dad had his favorites and my children were not in that category.  It was and will always be a mystery to me as to why that was.  I am not saying that there is any magic in a name BUT after me and my siblings the Lee name in our family is carried on only with John, Travis and Aaron.  Does it reflect on me, not sure.  I also have no idea as to why Dad came down for the game.  It was so out of character for him but it turned out to be a fun time for him and I am sure all his friends heard about it more than once!

I started this yesterday so will complete it now, Saturday.  It is going to be a quiet weekend as we prepare for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Terry and I did took care of a couple of things yesterday.  We stopped in at a new grocery store, Oaks-farm to table store.  It was a mad house to put it mildly.  It is a huge store and pretty much has what ever you would like.  You can stop and have lunch, you can have a drink--coffee or stronger- and then you can buy ANY food you may desire.  Now the prices were pretty high but it certainly is a "one stop and shop" place.  One could guess that parking spaces were few and far between so one drove around until you saw someone leaving and then you stopped, put your blinker on and waited.  We were lucky enough to find a spot quickly, well not sure I would say LUCKY!  We did find a small jar of English Mustard which we had been looking for in other stores with no success.

I have come to the conclusion that our mail is crazy.  Here we are a very few days before Christmas and the cards have been slow in coming.  Now one can think that we are "out of favor" with people but I am not sure about that.  Well up until Wednesday we had gotten maybe 3 or 4 cards and really up to then there was a day with NO mail.  Thursday came and again NO mail.  Yesterday we opened the mailbox and there is a stack of cards HIGH--ten in all.  Go figure but I think our short armed mail lady skips some days to get home early--maybe.  I say short armed because if we have a card to be mailed we put the flag up.  Most of the time, after the mail has come, the flag is at a 60 degree angle so I have come to believe she has s short arm and can only push the flag a tiny bit.  Sounds kind of reasonable, right?  Anyway the cards made me kind of feel loved again!

I think things are good for today.  There is Christmas music playing on the TV, the Christmas cards are on the dining room table, the FP was delicious this morning and time to get some things done in the house.

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