January 16th, the month more than half over

 TERRY

As I write it is 10:15 and Terry is sleeping.  She has read the paper and with the TV on some show that I can't stand she feel asleep!  I think the show is on TLC and is about people who weigh 600 lb!  Enough of that but Terry is about the same.

We are having a very "none Naples" kind of weather day.  The sun is FAR from shining and the rain is heavy now.  It is supposed to be rainy for the next few hours.  I had planned to go to Costco but may postpone that to another day.  

I watched Henry's BB game this morning, a game that was played yesterday.  They won and played well.  Henry does not have all that much left of his HS sports.  He finished soccer in the fall and now BB is about half over.  I do not remember IF he does track but maybe both he and Liam do track.  It will be interesting to see IF he plays any sports in college.  If I were a betting person I would say Henry will go to a big time school where most if not all the sport teams have aid for their players.  I am NOT saying Henry would not be good enough BUT college sports are a whole different ball game and I do not see Henry playing on a college team.  Now if he does that would not surprise me but we will see.  Oh my goodness I need to stay on my game as after Henry's entrance into college we have Liam, Leo, Faustina etc etc etc etc etc!!!!!!  There are times that I allow the thought to enter my mind, "should I have tried playing football in college as coach Newman gave my name to the football coach at Jamestown College.  I would have been one of the smallest on the team.  Just so you know Jamestown College is a small college in Jamestown ND. 

I did get on the scale this morning and it showed my weigh to be down a bit.  Not a lot but down so that was good.  That was after two days of zero up or down. 

It was mid February of 1965

It was a Friday night and the temp was near zero as the team bus pulled into Ellendale for our second game of the year with them.  In mid January we had played them at home and won fairly handily by the score of 69-53.  Now I wanted in the worse way to have win #2 as I still could not shake the memory of our football game against them where we lost 6-19.  I sat near the back of the team bus with Larry F and we talked about our first game against them and tried to figure out how we did that so that we could get win #2 against them.  I may add that I would not sit with Larry on the way home but need not explain why!  The game ended up to be a nail biter though out the entire game but we did came out on top 64-62.  I did not have my best game but still scored in the high teens as Larry and John scored in the last minute to cement the victory.  On the way home I kept warm by sitting with JoEllen as was the case pretty much all season.  Little did we know that the injury to Dan would haunt us in the last three games of the season.  Well not the last three but we would go on to lose our last two regular season games and then the first of the district tournament only to win the last two to take consolation.  It was not the way I wanted to end my HS basketball career but sometimes it happens.  

As the days after the season finished I had time to think back to my HS days of basketball.  I would say for the most part they were wonderful.  Of course the highlight was playing in the state tournament when I was a junior.  Perhaps close to the top was our freshman year where we went undefeated and to top that off Coach Wohler allowed John C and I to dress for the last couple of varsity games.  As I may have said in the past the strong point of my game was shooting and defense but the weak point was dribbling as it was awfully difficult to practice that on our weedy court on the farm were the basketball rim was mounted on the light pole near the barn.  I realize that my practice facility on the farm was not up to par when you looked at the town kids who were able to often practice in doors on a REAL basketball floor!  Anyway basketball was fun and the memories were good BUT yes my football days were something I loved.  Really I was a very nice kind guy but for some reason I loved to tackle on the gridiron!

Enough of the OLD days as it is now 57 years later so just maybe I should think about the NOW!  I am feeling better today.  I had my FP which was wonderful and now it is on to the rest of the day.  I should add that making the OLD days fun to remember is watching Henry play his games this year.  It is interesting to watch them as all of them are on YouTube.  

That is it for the day.  As I sign off the TV is talking about not so good weather this AM so will continue to be watchful.