I'm very thankful that we made it through unscathed after last nights tornado outbreak. Megan woke us up about 12:25 to let us know that we were under a tornado warning. Looked at the weather and the system that went through Sunnyside (a small community about 18 miles away) was headed our way. We hunkered down best we could in the closet and waited out the storm - the storm that fizzled out before it got to us. We got lucky. Folks in Sunnyside didn't. Two people lost their lives and a number of homes and businesses were either damaged or destroyed. Our prayers are with those who were affected by the storms.
It's been a crazy Spring. A few weeks ago, I was woken up by a storm that went through early in the morning. That normally doesn't happen, so I knew it was bad. Once again we made it through with some small branches down, but no damage.
Hopefully you and yours are faring well during this weather.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Wednesday, April 06, 2011
Is anyone home?
I pretty much suck at blogging. I need to get back to this.
Last weekend was the American Whippet Club National Specialty Field Trials. This year they had AKC and ASFA coursing on the first weekend. I drove up to Richmond, KY Friday evening with Everett to see how he could do and to help out my good friend Steve who was Field Trial Chair for the weekend. It was a busy weekend with lots to do, but also an opportunity to see some really nice running dogs. Everett ran well in Veterans in the AKC trial, placing third, and placing fourth in Field Champions in the ASFA trial Sunday.
Oh, I didn't mention that Everett turns 9 (NINE!) today. Yeah, at nine years old he's still holding his own against the youngsters. He was recovering from an injury that he suffered earlier this year so he wasn't in great shape, but I thought he performed superbly!
My club, CHASE, is hosting ASFA trials this weekend in Cartersville. We're going to do three days this weekend, and host an awards banquet on Saturday night. Hopefully we'll have a decent turnout, but we're up against a couple of other events. We'll see.
Last weekend was the American Whippet Club National Specialty Field Trials. This year they had AKC and ASFA coursing on the first weekend. I drove up to Richmond, KY Friday evening with Everett to see how he could do and to help out my good friend Steve who was Field Trial Chair for the weekend. It was a busy weekend with lots to do, but also an opportunity to see some really nice running dogs. Everett ran well in Veterans in the AKC trial, placing third, and placing fourth in Field Champions in the ASFA trial Sunday.
Oh, I didn't mention that Everett turns 9 (NINE!) today. Yeah, at nine years old he's still holding his own against the youngsters. He was recovering from an injury that he suffered earlier this year so he wasn't in great shape, but I thought he performed superbly!
My club, CHASE, is hosting ASFA trials this weekend in Cartersville. We're going to do three days this weekend, and host an awards banquet on Saturday night. Hopefully we'll have a decent turnout, but we're up against a couple of other events. We'll see.
Friday, January 01, 2010
Yeah, um, about that....
Hello again everyone, and welcome to a new year!!! I'm not going to say 'the start of a new decade' cause that happens *next* January 1.
Anyway, it's time to look back at my goals from last January and see where I am now.
Continue getting fit - I reached my lowest weight since high school earlier this year and it feels great! I started running seriously in June. I had a bit of a setback in August when I tore the meniscus in my right knee and required surgery in October. At the time of my surgery I was up to five miles at an average of a little over 10 minutes/mile. Not speedy, but a decent pace for a fat guy! Now I'm back up to running four miles and I averaged under 10 minutes/mile my last run. I feel like I'm in the best shape of my life and am really enjoying running. My goals this year are to run the Peachtree Road Race in July in less that an hour and run a half marathon at Thanksgiving. I'd also like to get back in the pool and do some cross training.
I still have bad eating habits that need to be worked on. I'm better than I was even last year, but still could stand to eat better.
I didn't get any tattoo work done last year. Sweeney remains unfinished and though I have a ton of ideas rolling around in my noggin, I keep finding other things to do with any excess fundage I collect. Maybe this year! :)
I have not returned to school, but will in the Summer semester. I did take a VMware class that I took a lot away from and plan on doing more classes and getting my VCP later this year.
Yeah, the family pretty much takes care of itself. Loving them comes naturally. The kids are great and my wife is a wonderful, understanding, patient woman. Thank god.
Not sure about smiling, will continue to work on that. The exercise helps there by relieving some of the stress of life.
I have been backing up my data, but I just switched laptops from a MacBook (I hate the damn thing) to a new Dell with Win 7. Win 7 makes backups easy, I just have to do it!
Music collection is cleaned and streamlined. I love the digital format just for the portability!
Ruthanna and I didn't get to do a lot of travelling, but we did take a vacation to my favorite place in Florida, Cocoa Beach. I took the girls down a few days early while Ruthanna finished her classes after which she flew down and joined us. We all had a great time and look forward to getting back down there later this year.
I did not blog more. Blogged much less as a matter of fact. I blame Twitter and Facebook. Those two sites make it way to easy to just throw a quick post up and it shows up on a bunch of folks computers. I love it, but do miss the longer form of blogging. I'm going to try to do better this year.
Pretty good wrap up of what happened this year. Look for more later.
Anyway, it's time to look back at my goals from last January and see where I am now.
Continue getting fit - I reached my lowest weight since high school earlier this year and it feels great! I started running seriously in June. I had a bit of a setback in August when I tore the meniscus in my right knee and required surgery in October. At the time of my surgery I was up to five miles at an average of a little over 10 minutes/mile. Not speedy, but a decent pace for a fat guy! Now I'm back up to running four miles and I averaged under 10 minutes/mile my last run. I feel like I'm in the best shape of my life and am really enjoying running. My goals this year are to run the Peachtree Road Race in July in less that an hour and run a half marathon at Thanksgiving. I'd also like to get back in the pool and do some cross training.
I still have bad eating habits that need to be worked on. I'm better than I was even last year, but still could stand to eat better.
I didn't get any tattoo work done last year. Sweeney remains unfinished and though I have a ton of ideas rolling around in my noggin, I keep finding other things to do with any excess fundage I collect. Maybe this year! :)
I have not returned to school, but will in the Summer semester. I did take a VMware class that I took a lot away from and plan on doing more classes and getting my VCP later this year.
Yeah, the family pretty much takes care of itself. Loving them comes naturally. The kids are great and my wife is a wonderful, understanding, patient woman. Thank god.
Not sure about smiling, will continue to work on that. The exercise helps there by relieving some of the stress of life.
I have been backing up my data, but I just switched laptops from a MacBook (I hate the damn thing) to a new Dell with Win 7. Win 7 makes backups easy, I just have to do it!
Music collection is cleaned and streamlined. I love the digital format just for the portability!
Ruthanna and I didn't get to do a lot of travelling, but we did take a vacation to my favorite place in Florida, Cocoa Beach. I took the girls down a few days early while Ruthanna finished her classes after which she flew down and joined us. We all had a great time and look forward to getting back down there later this year.
I did not blog more. Blogged much less as a matter of fact. I blame Twitter and Facebook. Those two sites make it way to easy to just throw a quick post up and it shows up on a bunch of folks computers. I love it, but do miss the longer form of blogging. I'm going to try to do better this year.
Pretty good wrap up of what happened this year. Look for more later.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Almost 4 month update
I'm still here, alive and kicking. Twitter and Facebook have pretty much taken over for blogging for me. You can follow me on Twitter @sithndman or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/sithndman .
A lot has been going on here. Kids out of school, the oldest graduated High School, kids back to school and Corey gone to Kennesaw State University. I'm working myself into better condition than I've been in many years, running 15 miles or so per week and still cutting trees on the weekends.
The BMW has been a lot of fun this summer, but is out of commission right now. Seems that a seal has failed in the rear drive which made itself known by soaking the rear brake shoes to the point where they no longer provided any stopping power. I have the parts ordered and they should be here by mid-week, so I'll have the motorcycle back on the road soon!
Haven't run the dogs since the II, but that will start up again soon. We're planning on going to the WRA nats in October and I'm judging in November in California, that's about all we have planned so far.
We're actually going to get a vacation this year. I'm taking the girls down to Cocoa Beach in a couple of weeks (they'll be on Fall break) and Ruthanna will fly down and join us after her Tuesday evening class. Haven't been to the beach since 2007, so I'm jonesing pretty bad and really can't wait.
A lot has been going on here. Kids out of school, the oldest graduated High School, kids back to school and Corey gone to Kennesaw State University. I'm working myself into better condition than I've been in many years, running 15 miles or so per week and still cutting trees on the weekends.
The BMW has been a lot of fun this summer, but is out of commission right now. Seems that a seal has failed in the rear drive which made itself known by soaking the rear brake shoes to the point where they no longer provided any stopping power. I have the parts ordered and they should be here by mid-week, so I'll have the motorcycle back on the road soon!
Haven't run the dogs since the II, but that will start up again soon. We're planning on going to the WRA nats in October and I'm judging in November in California, that's about all we have planned so far.
We're actually going to get a vacation this year. I'm taking the girls down to Cocoa Beach in a couple of weeks (they'll be on Fall break) and Ruthanna will fly down and join us after her Tuesday evening class. Haven't been to the beach since 2007, so I'm jonesing pretty bad and really can't wait.
Thursday, May 07, 2009
The inanity of it all
It really just makes me shake my head. Clayton County School System lost their accreditation a couple of years ago for multiple reasons including school board interference with day to day operation of the schools. Another problem cited was a so-called teachers unions actions. So what shows up on the homepage of the Atlanta rag? A story about how said 'teachers union' are protesting the hire of the new Clayton County School System. All six members. Six. Yeah, I said six. Yes, this makes front page news.
Here's the money shot. A quote by the chairman of the teachers union: "'I don’t like the fact that he’s from California,' said John Trotter, chairman of MACE. 'They don’t know the people. Clayton County likes their home folks.'" Yeah, that's a hell of a reason to oppose the assignment of a new superintendent.
Here's the money shot. A quote by the chairman of the teachers union: "'I don’t like the fact that he’s from California,' said John Trotter, chairman of MACE. 'They don’t know the people. Clayton County likes their home folks.'" Yeah, that's a hell of a reason to oppose the assignment of a new superintendent.
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Good dogs
We've attended a couple of coursing events over the past month that have really been enjoyable. First was the Whippet National, this year held in Atlanta. Coursing was at Chattahoochee Hills Farm in Fairburn, GA, a huge, beautiful spot with multiple fields suitable for coursing. What a nice treat that turned out to be! Most everyone was in a good mood and had a good time. Dogs didn't do so great with Everett taking an NBQ. Of course, Ev is seven and Lobo will be seven this month making them among the older of the Field Champions. They still hang with the younger dogs pretty well!
This past weekend we travelled to Boswell, OK, a beautiful spot in the middle of nowhere south Oklahoma for the ASFA International Invitational. I love Don and Sally's place! It's something like 40 acres, footing is wonderful and hospitality can't be beat! The bad news for this weekend was the rain that came in Wednesday night and Thursday morning dropping something like 6-8 inches on the grounds. This made for a soppy mess when people pulled in Friday night and Saturday morning for the trial. We all got in and set up well on Saturday, but another 2-4 inches of rain during the day made the entire grounds a quagmire. Most everyone had to get pulled out with Don's tractor. What a mess!
Lobo was entered in FCh and finished just out of the ribbons both days. Lobo really isn't a warm weather dog, but in the Winter he's usually unstoppable! We had Everett entered in Veterans for the first time at this II and he proceeded to win the Veterans stake both Saturday and Sunday. He lost BoB on Saturday pretty obviously to a wonderful dog named Bonzer. On Sunday, the competition came down to Everett and Vidalia, a little bitch owned by Deb and Maurice Bahm. They tied a couple of times again after the FCh was knocked out in the first run. Vidalia ended up taking BoB Sunday over Everett. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed, but I know that running as well as he did and hanging with a Whippet of Vidalia's caliber is nothing to sneeze at! Additionally, Maurice and Deb are sportsmen, true competitors but gracious in victory and defeat. I'm happy to call them friends and happy that we could share those run-offs.
These were a couple of really nice, relaxing trials. The people I think made the biggest difference as there wasn't the petty BS that we've had to put up with so much in the past locally. The Region 4 people did a great job with the II and made it a friendly, stress-free experience.
This past weekend we travelled to Boswell, OK, a beautiful spot in the middle of nowhere south Oklahoma for the ASFA International Invitational. I love Don and Sally's place! It's something like 40 acres, footing is wonderful and hospitality can't be beat! The bad news for this weekend was the rain that came in Wednesday night and Thursday morning dropping something like 6-8 inches on the grounds. This made for a soppy mess when people pulled in Friday night and Saturday morning for the trial. We all got in and set up well on Saturday, but another 2-4 inches of rain during the day made the entire grounds a quagmire. Most everyone had to get pulled out with Don's tractor. What a mess!
Lobo was entered in FCh and finished just out of the ribbons both days. Lobo really isn't a warm weather dog, but in the Winter he's usually unstoppable! We had Everett entered in Veterans for the first time at this II and he proceeded to win the Veterans stake both Saturday and Sunday. He lost BoB on Saturday pretty obviously to a wonderful dog named Bonzer. On Sunday, the competition came down to Everett and Vidalia, a little bitch owned by Deb and Maurice Bahm. They tied a couple of times again after the FCh was knocked out in the first run. Vidalia ended up taking BoB Sunday over Everett. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed, but I know that running as well as he did and hanging with a Whippet of Vidalia's caliber is nothing to sneeze at! Additionally, Maurice and Deb are sportsmen, true competitors but gracious in victory and defeat. I'm happy to call them friends and happy that we could share those run-offs.
These were a couple of really nice, relaxing trials. The people I think made the biggest difference as there wasn't the petty BS that we've had to put up with so much in the past locally. The Region 4 people did a great job with the II and made it a friendly, stress-free experience.
Friday, April 24, 2009
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