The morning of the big day

Posted on 02/28/2009 by RLW3

It is bitterly cold here in Wichita this morning. 12° but it feels like 5°. Temperatures in the single digits make me laugh. It just sounds funny when I say it. Try it.

My son is sleeping in. The coaches are going to wake him up at noon. I am going to wake him up at 10:45. I have a surprise for him…

His oldest sister drove up from Dallas to watch him wrestle. She surprised her Mom last night when she knocked on the hotel door at 11:30 and said, “Housekeeping.” My wife answered the door and just stared at her. Finally, my daughter said, “Mom!”

“What are you doing here?”

Evidently, my wife couldn’t believe what her eyes were seeing.

We are going to eat breakfast together and then I will turn him over to the coaches.

This afternoon, he will wrestle the undefeated 3-time state champion for the title. Obviously, he will be a huge underdog.

However, I ended my last post with a comment about a dream…

Thursday night, my son had a dream that he would pin a kid in the semi finals and then watched it play out on the mat. That same night, one of his coaches dreamed that he pinned the three time champion in the finals!

Posted in Parenting, Weather | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on The morning of the big day

Just like he dreamed

Posted on 02/27/2009 by RLW3

Last night, my son dreamed that he pinned a certain kid. For that dream to come to pass, both of them would have to win their first two matches to meet in the semi-finals.

They did,

The first period ended in a scoreless tie, 0-0. But, it was far from uneventful. There were at least four exciting scrambles and throws that ended with no points being scored.

In the second period, my son chose the down position and escaped his opponent’s control to take a 1-0 lead. The second period ended that way with several more unsuccessful but exciting take down attempts by both wrestlers.

The third period started with the other kid started in the down position. He quickly escaped to tie the score at 1 with 1:30 to go.

Forty seconds later, my son was called for stalling!

His coach protested for several minutes. The referees then held a conference for another minute. The ref then stepped forward and announced that the call would stand!

My son now trailed by a score of 2-1 with about 40 seconds to go!

With 17 seconds to go, they penalized the other kid for stalling. Regulation ended with the score tied 2-2!

In the first one minute overtime, they started in neutral position with both of them on their feet. Whoever scores first wins.

The action was again fast and furious but no points were scored. That meant two more one minute overtime periods.

My son chose to begin the second overtime in the down position and escaped to take a 3-2 lead. Although there were several more exciting, ‘almost’ skirmishes, the period ended that way as fatigue was setting in for both wrestlers.

In the third overtime, the other kid started in the down position. If he escaped, the score would be tied. If the period ended that way, they would go to a 30 second first score wins format until the match was decided. If my son was able to maintain control of the kid for the full minute, he would win by a 3-2 score.

In the first forty seconds, the other kid almost escaped twice but my son maintained control. Then came the climactic finish…

With twenty seconds to go, the other kid gave a huge effort to break free. However, my son countered and put him on his back and held him there for the remaining 15 seconds. He was awarded 3 points and won 6-2!

As for his dream, it looked to me like the kid was flat on his back but the ref didn’t call it…

but who cares…

He is in the finals!

Last night, one of his coaches also had a dream…
Posted in Children | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Just like he dreamed

And then there were four

Posted on 02/27/2009 by RLW3

With each round, you can feel the tension starting to build. Every match means that one young man’s dream of a state championship is still alive and the other’s is crushed.

We have seen some very heavy favorites stunned in the second round. They grab their heads with both of their hands in disbelief at what just happened.

The match is over…

The decision is final…

There is no next week…

They will not be the champion…

Their dream has ended.

So, you can imagine the butterflies that were flying in my stomach as my son prepared for his second match!

Since the arena is much larger than a high school gym and there are several thousand people here, I realize that my shouts of exhortation can’t be heard. I am reduced to being a spectator…at his biggest moment.

My son began the quarter final match much more aggressively and won his quarter final match by a score of 7-3! He looked very good!

That means that he is in the semi-finals!

There are only four wrestlers left and he is one of them! Amazing!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Comments Off on And then there were four

One down, three more to go!

Posted on 02/27/2009 by RLW3

Our mechanic was able to temporarily fix our Super Crew for $40!!! It will cost $200 to fix it permanently.

We left our apartment at 6:45 and arrived at the Kansas Coliseum just in time to see the opening ceremony. This year, the Group 5A and Group 6A championships are being held in the same arena. Wrestlers from 64 schools paraded in with signs just like the Olympics. It was really nice.

There are eight mats: four for Group 5A & four for Group 6A. There will be 504 matches wrestled between the two groups today.

My son did not look all that impressive as he had his usual first round “blahs”. That being said, he wrestled very smart and controlled the match from the very beginning and won by a score of 6-2!

As I said, I am sure that he didn’t scare anyone, but he stays in the championship bracket and moves on to the next round and that is the goal!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Comments Off on One down, three more to go!

Whoa, horsey!

Posted on 02/26/2009 by RLW3

I am supposed to leave for Wichita tomorrow morning at 6:00 A.M. with my wife and youngest daughter That will get us to the Kansas Coliseum just in time for the first round of wrestling at 9:00 A.M.

Do you remember how glad I was to report that our new Honda was fixed? The “Check Engine” light came back on yesterday morning and the car resumed it’s schizophrenic behavior.

No, problem. We’ll just take the SuperCrew 150.

My wife called to tell me that the “Check Engine” light just came on in that vehicle.

Posted in Cars | Comments Off on Whoa, horsey!

Feel His pleasure

Posted on 02/25/2009 by RLW3

As I was praying for my son this morning, a scene from the movie “Chariots of Fire” popped into my head. He has to see that scene!

Since he and his team leave for Wichita tomorrow afternoon, that means that we had to watch it tonight.

Since I didn’t want to wake my wife so early in the morning, I called her after I got to work and asked her if we had the movie. We don’t.

Where am I going to find a 20 year old movie? Today?

A friend at work told me to try the public library. Great idea! They had a copy at the branch near our apartment! I put it on hold.

After work, I ran into the apartment, picked up my library card and went to go pick it up.

“I’m sorry. It is in transit to the Central Library.”

“What do you mean it is in transit? I put it on hold.”

“Yes, but the system has a default setting and you actually told us to send it to the Central Library.”

“Why would I tell you to send it to the Central Library?”

It turns out that there was a drop down box that gives me the option of sending material to whatever branch I want. I never saw it. I was so glad that they had the movie and that I remembered my PIN number!

The last time I checked something out of the library, you had to drive to the branch that had the desired item if you wanted it that day! And, because of my mistake, I ended up doing that…driving to another branch 15 minutes away so we could watch the movie.

I had forgotten how good that movie was!

Oh, yeah, the scene…

Eric Liddle, the son of a missionary to China and a famous rugby player, is telling his sister that he has decided to run the missionary in China…but first, he is going to compete in the 1924 Olympics in France.

She doesn’t understand. She is concerned for the state of his soul. He is leaving God’s work for medals and fame and glory…

and then Eric says, “Jenny, I believe that God made me for a purpose. But He also made me fast…and when I run, I feel His pleasure.”

After the movie, I told my son, “Son, God made you a good wrestler. When you wrestle this weekend, I want you to feel His pleasure.”

He can’t wait till Friday. Neither can I.

Posted in Parenting | Tagged , | Comments Off on Feel His pleasure

We definitely scored!

Posted on 02/24/2009 by RLW3

I wrote a few days ago that our Honda was definitely a “night” car.

I dropped the car off Friday night at the Honda mechanic so he could finally investigate the “Check Engine” light.

Before I bought the car, he thought that the car’s electrical problems might not be a bad computer but in the wiring of all of the aftermarket alarms, amps, etc. After they cleared the computer codes, the fixed all of the wiring.

I must tell you that I was a little apprehensive when I started the car this morning. The car had driven fine at night only to disappoint me the following morning. However, this time the check engine light did not come on!

After allowing the car sufficient time to warm up, I took off to work. The transmission shifts beautifully! The car runs beautifully. I had trouble keeping the thing down to 70 MPH! We got a beautiful green 1998 Honda Accord with a tan leather interior for $3,800!

And, to top it all off, the stereo works! I thought I would have to have that fixed separately.

I’m telling you, it pays to follow those “hunches”.

Posted in Cars, Money | 1 Comment

We be headin’ back to Wichita!

Posted on 02/22/2009 by RLW3

Last year at this time, I was buying a plane ticket from California to surprise my son at the Kansas state wrestling tournament. This year I will be driving with my wife and my youngest daughter! He won the Regional!

I am not making any predictions but…

here is what I know.

Two weeks ago, my son beat the third ranked kid in the state of Missouri by a score of 13-5. The same kid lost Friday night in the semi finals of the Missouri state tournament to the undefeated (56-0 record) state champ by a 12-4 score.

I’m not saying anything…

I’m just saying…

He is 38-7 and very few people have seen him wrestle. 

The brackets came out this morning and the seeding came out about as favorable as my son could have hoped for. Hopefully, his opponents will see his name and think that they have an easy match with one of those “soft, rich kids from Overland Park”!

Now if we can figure out a way to shrink his ear…

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Comments Off on We be headin’ back to Wichita!

Stupid happens!

Posted on 02/21/2009 by RLW3

Have you ever done anything that was just dumb? Have you ever said “I can’t believe that I just did that!”

Well several years ago, in the span of about two weeks, I realized that I said those very words about 5 different times. Then it dawned on me…

Why do I keep saying “I can’t believe that I just did that”? Evidently, I do stupid things fairly often. So I decided to stop being surprised. I came to terms with the fact that ‘I ain’t the sharpest tool in the shed’!

When I do something stupid now, I’m not happy about it but I just shrug my shoulders. With me, stupid happens! I am no longer surprised!

And I save so much emotional energy because I don’t spend hours and hours kicking myself! In fact, it has helped me as a parent. When my son does something stupid, I just look at him and say, “Son, don’t worry. You come by it honestly.”

With that being said, there are still moments that I still astound myself. I move out of the realm of just plain stupid to WOW stupid. And I had one of those yesterday…

I had taken the Honda back to the dealer so he could remove the after market security system with the remote starter. I did that for two reasons: he could sell the security system and make a little more money on the deal and I would get the car back closer to its original configuration to sort out the electrical problems. Besides, Accords came with an anti theft device built into the computer. Pretty smart, I thought!

We got the car back and I drove it to work the next morning. I pushed the button on the steering wheel to start the cruise control and it didn’t work…

It worked when I took it in…

I called the dealer who called the stereo shop and I took the car back in. They got on it right away.

It turns out that there is this BIG button on the lower part of the dashboard just above my left knee with the word “CRUISE” written on that has to be pushed in before the buttons on the steering wheel will work!

DUUUUHHH!

I apologized for wasting their technician’s time and promised to come back and buy something to make up for it.

And you know, I wasn’t really even surprised. WOW stupid happens!

Posted in Personal | Comments Off on Stupid happens!

Almost eliminated!

Posted on 02/20/2009 by RLW3

My wife called me this morning to tell me that she took my son to see the doctor.

“Why?”

“Because the coach noticed ringworm on his leg and said he had to get clearance from a doctor before he would let him wrestle.”

Keep in mind that tomorrow is the Regional tournament. If he wins this, he goes to the State tournament.

“When we went in, he told the doctor that he had noticed it on Monday and started treating it with the medicine that he had from the last incident. The doctor said that if he had not been treating it, he could not have cleared him to wrestle. Ringworm must be treated for at least 24 hours before he could issue a clearance.”

His high school wrestling career could have been ended by a fungus!!!

I am glad he noticed it right away and glad he had the presence of mind to treat it immediately!

I think that I am going continue to pray for him!

Posted in Children | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Almost eliminated!