Thinking Thoughts

Occasionally, Holly says she is ‘thinking thoughts.’ Those are good things to think (I think).

I find myself doing the same from time to time. For example, has anyone noticed that since the Groundhog predicted an early spring, it has been unseasonably cold (with a few exceptions). Tomorrow is, officially, the first day of spring…and the forecast for the next week or so is colder than normal weather.

While I grab a seat on the couch (and a blanket so I can wrap up), here are a few other things that crossed my mind recently:

Spring Break -
Speaking of spring, it seems like everyone I know is ready for some sort of Spring Break (even those who don’t officially get a Spring Break). Maybe by the time we actually get that break, we’ll also get the break in temperatures.

Comings and Goings -
So Farragut is getting a Krispy Kreme (to go along with its Dunkin’ Donuts and various nearby Starbucks locations). But, even though we routinely get Macy’s tv ads and sales circulars, we can’t seem to attract a Macy’s to Turkey Creek - or anywhere nearby.

Speaking from experience, I can tell you the ladies in our house (and yes, sometimes even the guys) are big fans.

To be fair, we are also fans of breakfast.

But, clearly, the developers must think we value baguettes more than handbags and donuts more than dresses in this part of town.

Lent Me Your Ear -
Have you ever noticed that the practice of talking about what you’ve given up for Lent is almost as important as the act of sacrifice itself? Kinda makes me wonder if we’ve lost sight of the original concept…

Sports Talk Callers -
With the sad March Madness news breaking that the Vols did NOT make the Big Dance but are heading, rather, to the National Invitation Tournament (NIT), there was a rash of negative calls to the area Sportstalk shows. Have you ever noticed…when a caller starts off with “Yeah, I’ve got a comment…” it’s rarely going to be a positive call. Something like: “Yeah, I’ve got a comment. The daffodils sure look lovely this spring…”

Most of the calls about The Big Dance were not kind to the NCAA Selection Committee (or the media covering it).

By the way…have you ever wondered why we call it 'The Big Dance?’

Makes you think, doesn’t it?

JG?

Originally posted 3/19/2013

Allergy Season

One look out the brick walkway in front of my house tells you all the weather forecast you need to know. This was a rainy Monday.

Normally, those are supposed to ‘get us down’ (like the old song says) but I’m kind of happy about the rain. I’m hoping it will wash whatever is IN the air OUT of the air.

I heard there was some nasty tree pollen going on late last week and over the the weekend. Just as the warm, windy dry air fed those wildfires in the mountains, they also helped the particles to disperse.

I’m not usually very prone to seasonal allergy attacks but I’ve had something going on - starting late last week and getting worse over the weekend. I’m hoping that if pollen is my nemesis, that the rain will be the pollen’s nemesis.

Kind of like how paper covers rock and rock crushes scissors but scissors cut paper?

Then again, maybe I have just been plain ol’ sick these last few days. And in that case, the rainy day won’t help.

JG

Originally posted 3/18/2013

From One to Twenty-One

Happy Birthday, Holly! I hope you have a fantastic day.

Today is 21st birthday of my lovely daughter. That’s a special number, as you know. And a special girl. We’ll mark the occasion later today.

Holly was born on St. Patrick’s Day and over the years, folks have asked why we didn’t consider naming her Erin or Shannon - you know, names with an Irish flair. We never really considered it. From the first moment, I laid eyes on her, she was Holly.

I’ll never forget that moment, either, because just after she was born, I spoke to her and looked at her and she immediately looked right back at me. She obviously recognized the voice from all those many storybooks I had been reading aloud from the previous few months.

Fast forward a year and we have the ‘Blizzard of '93’ that I wrote about earlier this week. That freak mid-March blast of winter weather fell just before Holly’s first birthday.

We did a low-key sort of event. Just a few friends, a few presents, a few pictures and, of course…cake. The cake was decorated in green, appropriately, as it has been for every birthday since then: #2, #3, #5, #10. Sweet 16. Elite 18. And today.

The 21st birthday cake will also be topped with green accents and we’ll plan a big celebration for this evening.

Happy Birthday Holly. And may this special birthday be filled with excitement, happiness and joy.

JG

Originally posted 3/17/2013

Districts

Having successfully wrapped up the four-show run of “Pirates of Penzance” at FHS last weekend, the young thespians from the Admirals Performing Arts Company (APAC) now turn their attention to district forensics competition this upcoming weekend.

The APAC actors competed in a tournament last month in Gatlinburg to help them get ready for this particular competition. And if they are successful this weekend, many of them could qualify for state competition which is next month.

Friday competition held today at Pellissippi State Community College consisted of interp theatre performances and one act plays. Farragut entries included:Fingerpainting in a Murphy Bed and two student-directed interp pieces, Calvin and Hobbes and I am Number Four.

Then, on Saturday, the scene shifts to FHS for individual competition where the Admiral actors hope they might be able to add a few more trophies to the trophy case outside the Wells Auditorium.

I am particularly pleased that our students will get to be at their home school on Saturday. Looking at the seniors, for example, it gives them one additional opportunity to perform at their school and looking at the calendar, those dates are dwindling. For the underclassmen, it gives them a chance to learn more about perfecting their craft in friendly surroundings.

No doubt, they will be performing in classrooms where they have studied English, math or business, for example. I was thinking about that when I sat in the classroom at Collierville High School last spring at states.

For the parent volunteers, Districts provide us another chance to support the efforts of these talented performers that we have followed so closely over the past four years. They will compete in the same categories I mentioned to you when I wrote, Rivals Under the Same Flag, last month (a preview of the Gatlinburg trip).

This also gives us a chance to greet students, teachers and family members from places like Soddy-Daisy, Jefferson County and Maryville (among others) and show them a little Farragut hospitality.

JG

Originally posted 3/15/2013

Championship Week

We’re into the middle of March and that means March Madness is upon us.

The pre-cursor to ‘The Big Dance,’ of course, is conference tournament week…or Championship Week. All across the country, conferences from A to Z are holding their conference tournaments in big city venues and smaller town arenas. Some conference tourneys have already been held and champions crowned; others are in progress. Some started today.

I’ve enjoyed going to a couple conference tournaments. It seems like it has been years since Knoxville hosted the SEC Tourney. It was actually 1989. Thompson Boling Arena also played host to the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 in 1994. I was fortunate to be able to attend those games (which resulted in Duke making it to yet another Final Four).

I was also lucky enough to go to two Conference USA Tournaments held in Memphis at the Fedex Forum in 2008 and 2009. Talk about exciting.

There’s something about seeing multiple games with multiple teams (and their fans, cheerleaders and administrators all in town to cheer them on).

For my two teams, Championship Week seems to hold different paths this year.

The Memphis Tigers wrapped up an undefeated run through C-USA with a win last Saturday. By all accounts, they have punched their ticket to the Big Dance. Really, they’re just playing for seeding. An untimely slip-up by the Tigers would surely put them in an unfavorable match-up when the NCAA tourney begins next week.

As for the Vols, the situation is less clear. Depending on which expert you follow, the Vols are anywhere from ‘probably in’ the tourney, ‘'On the Bubble,‘’ or needing to make some hay this week in order to make it. My gut feeling tells me they are probably in right now, but that is shaky because so many teams are on the fringe. If some team gets hot this year and sweeps their conference tournament out of the blue, that probably knocks a team “On the Bubble” off the bubble.

For UT, the best course of action, naturally, Is to win out. My gut tells me if they go to Nashville and win two games in the SEC tourney (a win over the SC-Miss. State game and then over ‘bama), they’re probably in. But my guess is as good as anyone’s – just a guess.

Meanwhile, Belmont University is already assured of a spot, having won the OVC tournament. MTSU also has a pretty good resume and could receive an at-large bid. I always like to see teams from our state do well. I think it reflects very well on the Volunteer State. If all four teams get NCAA bids, that’s a great statement. Can you think of another  state in America that would get four bids?

Anyway, it should be a fun week and weekend. There’ll be drama, surprises, buzzer beaters and heartbreak.

Both the Tigers and Vols begin their conference tournament runs tomorrow night. Here’s to many wins for both.

JG

Originally posted 3/13/2013

The Blizzard of '93

One look at the bright blue sky on this mid-March afternoon and you’d never have the idea that this was the 20th anniversary of a notorious winter weather event here in the greater Tennessee Valley.

The Blizzard of 1993. Bomp. BOMP. BOMMMMMMMMMMM!

Twenty years ago today, a three day snow event started just before Holly’s first birthday. By the end of that period in Knoxville, we wound up with more than 15 inches of the white stuff. Needless to say, anyone who didn’t make a pre-storm run to Kroger for milk, bread and tee-pee was out of luck. For a few days, the town was pretty much at a standstill.

I remember the Friday night the snow started, I was out to dinner with friends. As we enjoyed our meal in the Old City, we watched the snow start falling. By the end of dinner, the weather situation had started to deteriorate. I was barely able to get home that night and, even still, I had to park on the street because the driveway at our first house – where we were living then - was already too slick to climb.

Once I got safely home, though, our young family enjoyed being snow-bound. We took Holly out a couple times for her first introduction to snow. Mostly, I think she just enjoyed the complete attention of her mom and dad for those three days.

These days, she kind of scoffs at the notion that the snow event in March 1993 was really a ‘blizzard.’  Generally, we’re bigger fans of the dessert treat you can buy at a Dairy Queen! (And we frequently do that whenever we travel and encounter a DQ).

I’m not sure how the weather folks classify that term, however. In some places up and down the eastern part of the country, there was much more snowfall than just a foot or so. And some locations far south of here – places that rarely get snow – got a healthy dose that weekend.

Still, we enjoy looking back at that fun period of our life – that first birthday cake and the first real snowstorm.

JG

(Source: knoxnews.com)

Originally posted 3/12/2013

Time After Time

“Until we master ourselves we have no proper use for time.”

H.G. Wells (Malcolm McDowell) from
”Time After Time“ (1979)

Did you have trouble getting up and getting going this morning? Thought so. Seems like everyone I talked to had some difficulty adjusting to ‘spring forward.’

Even though I like the end result - the longer days - of Daylight Saving Time, I am not a fan of the switching process. Invariably, there is one clock we’ll forget about (I was driving around in my car late yesterday when I noticed the dash board clock was off by an hour). And in the fall, there is the added need – albeit a good one – to also switch out batteries in smoke detectors.

And then there is the general grogginess that comes on those dark mornings right after we spring forward. Seems like it takes a few days to adjust and that can be tough to do.

Of course, it doesn’t help that this year’s spring time change fell right after we had an extremely busy weekend. There was no opportunity to ease in to the shift which, technically, came at 2 a.m. Sunday.

I was reading up a little bit on the background of Daylight Saving Time. Some things I didn’t realize:

• The first proponent was actually Ben Franklin
• The first real experiment with DST was driven by World Wars I and II
• The practice was signed into law in 1966

Also, I had forgotten the current DST configuration dates just to 2005 when the DST time period was extended by a few weeks.

Still…even though folks are somewhat divided on whether they are fans of DST or Standard Time (at our house, I think it is a 50/50 split), I don’t know anyone who actually embraces the bi-annual change; no one seems to cruise right through Spring Forward (or Fall Back, for that matter) without a certain amount of grumpiness or, at the least, period of adjustment.

The twice-a-year grousing makes you wonder if this is really worth it all. Today, I was listening to an ABC radio news report on my evening commute that offered some interesting facts. Heart attacks increase during the week of this time change. So do accidents. 

As ol’ H.G. said in the movie, seems like we haven’t yet mastered time - at least not spring forward part.

I suppose, at least we should consider if there isn’t some way to ease the burden. Could we phase it in? Could we adopt one ‘standard’ time year-round? Or if we keep the same configuration, could it be timed to coincide with one of those helpful Monday holidays?

In the meantime, the best remedy is a good night’s sleep tonight and a little extra patience for us all.

Oh, and some extra caffeine tomorrow morning probably isn’t a bad idea either.

JG

Originally posted 3/11/2013