Yes, I’m sure…

Posted on 07/02/2009 by RLW3

I received another call while I was on the phone with Chief Renegade…

It was a young lady calling from the high school. She was calling to see what size “Senior page” I wanted?

Senior page???

“Oh, do you mean those 1/2 page or full page ads in the back of the yearbook?”

“Yes.”

“No. We’re not interested. Thank you.”

She didn’t quite know how to react so she just said, “O.K.” and hung up.

Two minutes later, she called again. I certainly was not going to interrupt this man telling me how much he appreciated my son’s stand for what is right to talk to her about yearbook ads!

I called her as soon as my call with Big A’s coach ended.

“Hello.”

“Are you the man who said he didn’t want the Senior page?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I just wanted to make sure that you understood what we are talking about… ”

“You are talking about those 1/2 page or full page ads in the back of the yearbook, right?”

“Yes.”

“Yes. We don’t want to order any of them?”

“Well, I just wanted you to know that they are like REALLY important to the Seniors…”

“I know. I saw them in this year’s yearbook. My son just graduated.”

“Oh, O.K.”

I could tell that as she hung up, she couldn’t believe what she had just heard! I mean, a parent saying that they didn’t want to shell out a wad of cash to buy a page in the yearbook for their little shnookums, was, like, unbelievable!

Yeah, that’s pretty much me. She should read my blog posts on those ads!

Posted in Money, Parenting | Tagged , | Comments Off on Yes, I’m sure…

What did he write?

Posted on 07/01/2009 by RLW3

A man called my cell while I was at work today and introduced himself.

I didn’t recognize the name.

“I’m one of your son’s coaches…”

Still blank

“…the wrestling team…”

That didn’t help all that much. Was he from the high school, Mo-West, the St. Thomas Aquinas team, the Kansas state team…

“Which team?”

“The state team last week…Chief Renegade.”

That finally made sense to me! He does the All Class rankings on the Kansas Wrestling Coaches Association website. He was the man I asked to explain the scoring when my son lost to the second period to one of the top wrestlers in the country.

“Are you Christians?”

“Yes, sir.”

“I thought so but I wanted to make sure. I just visited your son’s MySpace page…”

Calls like this are usually a concerned parent informing you of questionable actions or decisions by your own children so my heart started sinking in preparation for the news. I braced myself just in case this was going to be a hard landing.

“I read where he said that we should always be praising God and how committed he is to moral purity and I just wanted to call you and tell you how glad I am to see that. I am going to show my son your son’s MySpace page.”

I went from bracing myself for bad news to holding back tears of gratitude.

Posted in Parenting | Tagged , | Comments Off on What did he write?

Do you want some cheese to go with that?

Posted on 06/30/2009 by RLW3

You won’t believe what I heard when I got home from work…

As you probably know by now, my son is rapidly becoming a very good wrestler; good enough to wrestle in college. And, wrestlers generally have the reputation of being pretty tough…

One of the pitfalls of achieving some success in life is the natural human tendency to get full of yourself, to think that you are special, that you really are “all that”!

Big A is fortunate in this area. To the rest of the world, he might be “unbelievably strong”, “tough as nails” and “has the heart of a lion”, but at home, he’s just part of the family.

“Dad, it not fair! Cakes is stronger than I am! And she’s a girl! And she’s younger than me!”

Evidently, they were having some strength challenges earlier today and she beat him over and over again!

This isn’t the first time that he has said something like this. Shortly after the high school wrestling season was over, he tried to persuade her that she should wrestle in high school. He thinks that she could make it to the State tournament.

And it’s not just him…

When she was 13, she asked is she could sign up for a boxing fitness class. It turned out to be actually a boxing class. We learned that because her instructor had never seen anyone hit so hard and wanted to start training her to be a boxer! I am not kidding!

Here I have been so impressed with how level headed and grounded Big A has remained in the midst of all of this success. Maybe it wasn’t due to good character at all..

Perhaps he’s afraid that his little sister will whip him if he gets puffed up!

Posted in Children | Tagged , | Comments Off on Do you want some cheese to go with that?

It’s official!

Posted on 06/29/2009 by RLW3

Although we haven’t heard from the Financial Aid Committee concerning our appeal, we made the final decision today.

Big A is going to Drexel!

We sent in the housing deposit and scheduled vacation time in September for the big trip to New Jersey/Philadelphia.

I called the Baker University wrestling coach with the bad news. I think he already knew from our last meeting.

I told him that he changed my son’s life. He started protesting but I interrupted him and asked him to let me finish. I wanted him to hear it.

Before he approached me in the bleachers at the Husky Invitational, all that my son had on his wrestling resumé was a second place finish at the Johnson County Classic. Really, not much to get excited about. Big A was going to attend Johnson County Community College. They do not have a wrestling program. Coach May’s interest convinced my son that he could earn a scholarship to a university.

After the State tournament, it was Coach May that encouraged me to send Anson to the High School Senior Nationals because he “earned it” and he “wanted my son to get all of the exposure that he could get.”

Ironically, that is where Drexel became interested.

He awakened big dreams inside of my son. I thanked him sincerely.

Posted in Goals, Parenting | Tagged , , | Comments Off on It’s official!

Let’s try this way

Posted on 06/28/2009 by RLW3

I didn’t want to go home on the same road that I took to get there. So, instead of taking the safe route (I-35), I chose to take I-44 east…

You might ask, “What is so risky about that? It’s an interstate highway?”

I forgot to pack the A/C power supply for my laptop so it died. That meant that I couldn’t verify my route home on Google maps before we left.

“I’m not sure if highway 169 (this little state highway that I like) crosses it…I think it does, but I’m not sure. I could be wrong.”

If I was driving with my wife, I don’t know that she would have gone for it. However, I had another man with me in the car; a young man at that!

“Let’s go for it. We’ll get home sometime.”

We hit our first obstacle within 15 minutes. We had to pay a toll of $3.50 and I had, you guessed it, no cash! My son had exactly three $1 bills left in his wallet. We scrounged around every nook and cranny in that little Honda and found 53 cents.

I asked the young man at the toll gate if we would have to pay any other tolls.

“You’ll have to pay another $3.50 when you get to Tulsa.”

Since I didn’t know where the toll booth was, we just picked an off ramp before we got into the city to find an ATM so I could withdraw some cash. Lucky for us, the one that we chose had a Braum’s Ice Cream shop on it!

Now, I have never been to Braum’s but I have repeatedly heard that it is THE place to get ice cream. Both of us agreed that it seemed like a good time to find out if it really was all that…

It really is!!!

Every single bite of our double scoop of chocolate chip cookie dough and peanut butter cup cone was absolutely fab!

“Son, I am so glad that we don’t have one of these near our house. We’d both be big as houses! You might have to wrestle heavyweight!”

It was ridiculous how good it was!

We got back on the freeway only to get off two exits later when I saw a sign for Oral Roberts University. I had visited the campus 28 years ago when I was a new Christian. I had to show my son the huge praying hands!

On our way to get back on the freeway, my son noticed a parking lot full of hot Ford Mustangs! We stumbled onto one of the best Ford car shows that I have ever been to! Nearly every great sports car that Ford has ever made was represented. We saw at least two cars that are valued at more than $1,000,000!

What a great trip home! Although I nearly missed the exit, highway 169 DOES cross I-44! I’m glad we took a chance!

Posted in Travel | Tagged | Comments Off on Let’s try this way

I am starting to believe

Posted on 06/27/2009 by RLW3

At the beginning of the freestyle season (just a few weeks after his success in the state high school tournament), my son told me that his goal was to finish in the top 8 in the National tournament in Fargo, ND.

I didn’t want to squelch his dream…but that is a HUGE goal!

I didn’t think that he was dreaming. After all, he has surpassed all reasonable expectations in the sport thus far…

However, I did wonder if he had seriously considered what he was saying…

Fargo is the biggest wrestling tournament in the world. There are about 60-90 entrants in EACH weight class. Every one of those young men is a serious, year round wrestler. Every one of them has to qualify to get there.

Well, after watching him wrestle in the Junior National Duals, I am a believer.

He had 3 wins and two losses today. As has been the case, the losses are the most interesting…

His first loss was to the #1 guy in the country who will be attending Oklahoma State on a full scholarship. He got whipped in the first period, 8-0. However, in the second period, he lost by a score of 3-2 and there were quite a few people who questioned the scoring.

His next loss was to a young man who will attend the University of Minnesota on a full scholarship. Big A lost that 1-0 and 6-4. His normally passive coaches protested/questioned the scoring at the scorer’s table three different times during the second period.

I think he won the second period of both matches.

He definitely has the talent to reach his goal. Only one question remains: Will he train hard enough? If he does, I will be telling an amazing story to you at the end of July.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Comments Off on I am starting to believe

I’m on the road again

Posted on 06/26/2009 by RLW3

You probably guessed it…

My wife agreed that I should do it…

I got off work a few hours early and drove 5 hours to Oklahoma City. How many more times will I be able to spend time with him like this?

About 10 minutes before I arrived, my son called me to tell me that he wasn’t going to wrestle tonight. He was too worn our from the Greco-Roman tournament.

After I found and checked into a hotel, he decided that he chose to heat up a bowl of his mother’s soup in the coffee pot rather than go out to eat. That is a smart young man!

Posted in Parenting, Travel | Tagged , | Comments Off on I’m on the road again

Back in time

Posted on 06/25/2009 by RLW3

(The post title comes from the theme song of the movie “Back to the Future”)

The Junior National Greco-Roman tournament is over. It is VERY old school wrestling…

It harkens back to the days when Greece and Rome were the powers in the earth. In this style of wrestling, you can only attack the upper body. To win, you have to be able to throw your opponent to the mat. You can’t take his legs our from underneath him. You have to beat him in a “most manly” style.

Big A finished 4-5. Considering this was his first time competing in this style of wrestling and that he was going against some of the best competition in the nation, that is a pretty good record.

The first day, he went 3-1. I started to get a little suspicious. Maybe the best guys in the country weren’t really there. I mean, how could he do that well in his first time?

When I didn’t get match by match updates yesterday, I figured that he was having a tougher time of it.

All in all, he did very well…and he is sore!

Posted in Parenting | Tagged , | Comments Off on Back in time

His first real bus ride

Posted on 06/23/2009 by RLW3

I took my son to the Greyhound station ta 6:25 this morning…

Last night, he called me on the phone to tell me that he HAD to be in Wichita by 1:00 P.M.

Well, Mom and Dad have jobs…with bosses who actually expect them to show up for work every day!

…so “Go Greyhound!”

Why did he have to be in Wichita this after noon?

The Junior National Duals tournament starts tomorrow. 32 teams from 27 states will wrestle each other in a dual meet fashion, team against team.

Evidently, the #1 160 pound wrestler in the Kansas (3rd in the nation) hurt his ankle at the U.S. Olympic Training facility yesterday. The coach of the Kansas team called Big A and asked if he could wrestle in his place!

This is another great opportunity for him as it is an invitation only national tournament. He will be competing against 25-30 of the top wrestlers from around the country!

But, he has to lose 5 pounds by tomorrow to qualify!

Posted in Parenting | Tagged , | Comments Off on His first real bus ride

Don’t mess with the glasses!

Posted on 06/22/2009 by RLW3

My eyes are very sensitive to light. On marginally sunny days, I am squinting. If I do that for a whole day, I end up with a pretty big headache…

I believe that would be called a “tension” headache.

With this being the case, sunglasses are a very important piece of equipment.

To complicate matters a little, I wear glasses. In the not too distant past, I had regular eyeglasses and a pair of prescription sunglasses. I was always taking one pair off and putting the other pair on. I got fairly adept at changing them quickly but I had to carry both pairs with me nearly constantly. It was a little inconvenient, but it sure beats headaches nearly every day.

Last summer, I complicated my situation further by starting to wear contact lenses. They improved my vision from 20/several hundred to 20/15! However, I had to have reading glasses to read anything closer than across the street!

Now I had regular glasses and prescription sunglasses, contacts, reading glasses and regular sunglasses. I almost needed a murse (a man’s purse)!

The solution to carrying all these optical contraptions came when I lost my prescription sunglasses. I really didn’t want to pay $200 for another pair so I completely changed directions…

I bought a pair of Style Science Suncovers! They fit over my glasses…

That means they are pretty big! The pictures on the Internet try to make them look stylish but if I tell you the truth, I probably look a little like The Fly. But, they do such a great job that I only have to carry one pair with me! I abandoned the regular, ‘stylish’ sunglasses. Besides, I have never been accused of being a fashion hound.

Not too long ago, I put my sunglasses on before going outside for our half hour lunch

My coworker, The Steel Trap (he of “Soup on the Half Grille” fame)  “Are you going to do some welding?”

Very funny! They actually do look a little like welder’s glasses. I still laugh at that one.

About a week ago, a driver got mad at me on the freeway and raced up behind me, pulled out his camera phone and snapped my picture. When I relayed the story at work, The Steel Trap quipped, “Well, he probably couldn’t believe that a blind person would be driving a car on the freeway.”

I had to fight back…at least a little.

Last Friday, I responded that my sunglasses were actually cool.

“Cool?”

“Yes, cool.”

“How is that?”

“Will Smith wore a pair just like them in the movie Hancock.”

Yesterday, The Steel Trap came in and contested my assertion…

“Will Smith didn’t wear those glasses in Hancock.”

“He did too.”

“I just watched the movie.”

“Look, I just threw a car out of my way this morning. Don’t tell me they are not the same glasses.”

I temporarily got him.

Posted in Humor | Comments Off on Don’t mess with the glasses!