Deep Thoughts from the Shallow End

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Easter 1992

The following took place 19 years ago on Easter Sunday.

It was a lovely Easter Sunday day. It was warm, sunny, and we had plenty of candy. I was 13 years old and my brother was 11. We were getting ready to go to church that night, as usual. That particular night, Eric and I decided to walk to church. So off we went walking to church.

As we were walking by Pasadena High School, a green Cadillac pulled over to the side. There were two guys in the front of the car, and one in the back. The guy in the back got out of the car and approached me and Eric. He put his hand on his hip and pulled up his shirt. I saw what looked like a knife handle sticking out of his waist.

He asked for our hats (that's what we get for wearing our hats to church). I flipped my hat to him. Eric gave up his as well. He then asked if we had any money. Neither of us had any, but Eric reaches into his pocket and pulls out some Easter candy. Eric said, "I have some candy." as he puts it in his hand.

The guy looked at it and dumps in on the ground, as he got back into the car. The car pulled away and Eric said to me, "Remember I D E E". He remembered "3 0 4". (He had his cop instincts way back then...he got the license plate number.)

So we got to church, told our parents what happened, and the cops came to take a report. Turned out that the license plate was 1DEE304. The best guess was that we were a part of a gang initiation. Luckily no one was hurt.

One might think that given the plate, they would be able to track down these hoodlums. Well, less than a week later the cops had other issues taking up their time. The Rodney King verdict came down.

Friday, April 22, 2011

Who Needs the Movies?

Our kids were in rare form tonight. Lots of times they are singing, dancing, performing, but most of the time they shy away when we try to capture it on video. Here's our entertainment tonight. One thing that stands out is how much Brooklyn laughs when Jack is performing.

This first one is from one of their favorite shows The Backyardigans.

Itsy Bitsy Spider.

Dora the Explorer.

Jack being silly.

More silliness.

Brooke wanted to be like her brother.

And Jack finishes the night off.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Question of the Day

Student: "Mr. Street, what's your favorite kind of candy."

Mr. Street: "Peanut M&M's."

Student: "No, favorite CANDY?"

[Pause] Huh?

Mr. Street: "You mean like a candy bar? Twix."

Student: "NO, candy candy."

[Pause] Am I on candid camera?

Mr. Street: "Reese's Peanut Butter Cups."

Student: "NO! Like Skittles, Sour Patch Kids, stuff like that."

Turns out he thinks that if it has chocolate, then it's not in the candy category.

I told him Mambas and moved on. Geesh!

I don't know about you, but I'm going to eat some candy now. Thanks for reading.

Monday, March 14, 2011

Mix Emotions

So my team finished up the tournament we were in last Saturday. We had games at 9:45am, 12:30pm and at 2:30pm. We headed into play on Saturday with a 2-0 record.

We won our pool in the first game with a 7 to 2 victory. That meant we played the perennial favorite, Centennial High School.

We played a great game. Our guys were making plays on defense, putting the ball in play and scoring runs. Before we know it the umpire says, "This will be the last inning." We are up 5 to 1.

First batters gets out...two outs away. And then the wheels fall off.

A few errors, a few hits, mix in another error and we have a tie ballgame. In the bottom half of the inning, we got a runner to third, but struck out to end the inning.

At this point I lean on my pitcher a bit too long, and we find ourselves on the short end of the stick and lose 10-5.

So we move over fields to where we are competing for 3rd place. Our guys are drained...I'M DRAINED and my voice is shot.

We start off down 5 to 0 in the first inning, but rally back to tie it in the 2nd. New ballgame.

We move to the last inning (we are the home team) where we trailing by 2 runs.

First batter, base hit. Next batter, ground ball double play. Next batter, routine ground ball to the 2nd base girl.

Yes girl.

The ball goes through her legs. We have life.

The following 12 pitchers are balls, meaning we are down by one with the bases load.

Batter is down to his last strike and then gets hit in the helmet. TIE BALL GAME.

Next pitch is a wild one that goes to the screen, my player runs home for the victory!

It was a day filled with highs and lows. Our guys gained confidence in their ability to "play with the big boys." They showed heart in coming back from a brutal loss to come from behind to win a game against a good team.

Our next game is Friday as we open up league play. We feel good about our team. The bar was raised Saturday. Here's to the bar moving up.

Friday, March 11, 2011

Jackson's Quote

Just before bath time tonight, the following dialogue took place:

Me: "Jackson, bath time. Let's go."

Jackson: "Right after this commercial."

Soon as the commercial was over, I turned the t.v. off.

Jackson: "Smart."

Me: "What did you say?"

Jackson: "Smart."

Me: "Why do you say that?"

Jackson: "Because then I can't watch anymore t.v."

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Another Season Begins

You may recall that I coach the frosh/soph baseball team at the high school I work at (Bakersfield High). Today we had our first real games, well kind of real.

Usually we play 7 innings or a two hour time limit. The tournament we are in has a 1 hour time limit, AND a 5 run rule (after 5 runs, your team is done hitting.) Kind of like Little League.

We played two high schools that were not very good. First game we won 7 to 2 in 3 innings.

The second game we played 3 innings, but we only batted twice. The second game was very odd. The first five batters all walked, all stole 2nd base, either stole third base or moved over on a wild pitch, and then went home on another wild pitch.

5 batters, 5 walks, 5 runs.

Same story in the second inning.

We got NO HITS and WON 10 to 0.

Gotta love frosh/soph baseball! (Unless your team is the one that can't do anything right - been there, done that.)

Next games are on Saturday, where it should be more of the same in the first game, but then "real" competition after that.

So our record is 2-0 right now. I'll take it. We'll see how the rest of the year plays out.

Go Drillers!

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

UPDATE

Two items to update you on:

1) The pencil sharpener that I "fixed", is dead. It had been getting a lot of use lately, and it started to give off the odor indicated that it was burning. I took it apart and saw that a piece was starting to melt. It's really a lovely odor.

2) The STAFF team won the basketball lunchtime tournament. It was a lot of fun, plus I did not pull anything. But it is sad that by the end of the 8 minute (running clock) game, I'm out of breath and sweating like a hog. My class right after lunch always enjoys a sweaty math teacher.

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