Left-Handed Laughter

Lots of Exciting things going on.  Sorry I’ve been in and out of the loop the last few days with training updates and some stories.  I’ll be honest, I didn’t really realize how many people actually enjoyed and looked forward to these blog entries until some of the notes I’ve received lately.  I sometimes have thought I was just talking/typing to myself which is ok because the process of all this really has been good even just for me.   I appreciate everyone being a part of this and look to continue this journey and hopefully pick up a few other fans of dad along the way.

As far as training updates:

Monday I ran some trails behind our home for around 30 minutes trying to wear the puppy out.  I think I’m the only one who gets worn out, he just sprints ahead, looks back with the look of “will you hurry up”.  Hopefully I’m not as slow as he makes me appear. 

Tuesday I wanted to get a little bit of a longer run in so I extended my turn around point.  However, I’m not sure where the beautiful weather went, the cold wind and long sleeve shirts was a quick reminder that I should enjoy the sunny warm days a little bit more when we have them.  I ran a little over an hour along the country road with a few hills included to challenge a little bit.

Wednesday, I FINALLY got to Parkersburg in time to get my new running shoes at On the Run and Walk.  I suppose I had put that off long enough as several blog entries ago I mentioned I needed to do it.  I had to reward myself somehow for finally getting my crazy taxes organized enough to pass over to our uncle who happens to be a really good CPA and probably this time of year wants to hide from our tax help neediness.  With the move, getting rid of my agency, the rental properties etc, I’m sure I’m not his favorite relative during this tax season.  I just love all the places I stuck receipts that I “wouldn’t forget where I put them” during the move, which we all know how that turns out, exactly not knowing just “where” I placed them all.   It was good to see Dorsey Cheuvront who owns the store as he was always involved in every running event (still is) during my high school days.  It’s easy to take for granted when you are younger everyone who is involved with things because you don’t think twice about it, and realize later in your life when you’re busy yourself how much time people dedicated to things to make them as special as they were.

Yesterday (Thursday) I laced up my new shoes and hit the pavement.  I’ve got a little “course” figured out to be around 5 miles for some of my evening runs (sometimes I sneak in another little half mile loop).  I always love getting to this point in the run this time of the evening running back because the sun hits a little hill that has an older barn usually with cattle around…and it just always looks like the perfect picture for a country setting.

I had to laugh about this story I’ll share with you today.  It came up in a conversation I had with someone the other day and with it being “baseball season” for dad I assume it will be appropriate.

            Kelly (the youngest sister) was in Tee-Ball while I was in Little League.  (See, my parents claim the age gap between us because I was a wild terrorizer of a child and they weren’t so sure they could handle another one)  Maybe when I share those stories in the future you’ll agree with them, but for now we’ll just pretend that it isn’t true. 

            Kelly had a tee-ball game one evening and I’m assuming dad was working on a project of some sort because I went out in the back yard to toss Kelly some pitches to practice hitting before her game.  That’s when you know you grow up in the country with a large yard when the fear of hitting the house didn’t weigh too much on you because you had that much of an open area.  I had Kelly all in the right “stance” and gave her the” concentrate on the ball speech” and so forth.  Well, she kept swinging the bat but NEVER hit the ball.  I was getting aggravated and would tell her to “Choke up on the bat”…She starts coughing!  I didn’t even pick up on it the first few times she did it, and exactly why she was doing it.  My patience was probably wearing out and I stomped over to show her HOW to “Choke up on the Bat”, then I realized she literally thought I meant “CHOKING” (as the reference to her attempt at it was coughing) on the bat.  I then showed her to move her hands up on the grip of the bat.

            So after we took that step I pitched a few more balls to her, and still hardly hitting ANYTHING.  At that point I may have given up or at least given up to the point of going to get dad.  I walked into the house probably venting “Kelly is worthless at hitting..blah blah blah” (Sorry Kelly).  Dad proceeded to ask why and what’s wrong, so I told him to deal with it.  Dad proceeded to go outside and started laughing right away…. Apparently I had forgotten our little sister was Left Handed…and left handed people bat from the other side of the plate. 

            So after that little ordeal, I do believe Kelly started to hit the ball much better and I realized I needed to learn how to switch my normal way to do things to try to then be able to explain to her how to do things which always seemed backwards to me.  I still laugh sometimes when I hear the phrase “Choke up on the bat” because it reminds me again how literal we have to be when coaching kids and what we take for a general understanding means to someone else.



Braves Fans- Atlanta one year to see a game on Vacation

My Favorite Player was always Terry Pendleton because he had Dad's name, but I never would have been a good 3rd Baseman :)

 

We have already received our first “Dollar for Dad” from Parkersburg, WV. It was exciting to have that first envelope in the P.O. Box when I checked it!  I look forward to many more!