Dizzy...

Wow...I hardly realized that it had been a full month since I've updated this thing. Times around here have been busy, for both good and bad reasons I guess. To start, middle school soccer is going...but not well. We had to cut the JV team after having them practice for a month due to a number of kids just quitting, and mostly down to people not turning in paperwork to commit to the team when we've got to have all the info and money turned in by this Friday. And, of course, we've now got the angry JV kids parent's emailing us about why we don't have a team and how come we can't keep both. It's really not that hard, when you're required to have 15 players to make a team, 8th graders must be on varsity, and you have a total of 29 people signed up with 13 of them being 8th graders. There just isn't a way to make it work. Last year, we didn't have any problems with the parents, they were all nice, they were supportive, they worked with us. This year, I guess they figure since we did it for a year we're pros with nothing else to do, and they complain non-stop about every decision and how we're not in constant communication with them 24-7 about why their kid isn't on the roster. I don't know. I realize that parents want their kids to be amazing at everything...but we're not going to put 6th graders on a varsity team with 8th graders that are 2 feet taller, especially when the 6th graders, quite frankly, really don't know how to play soccer for the most part. There were a number of 7th graders that we were sorry to cut, but when you have to cap your number at 18...there's only so many you can take. The head coach just about quit last week because of the constant complaining for all the parents...it's just ridiculous. If they want it done better, they should do it themselves. Sorry, just venting there I guess.

The other thing that has taken up my time has been the whole being sick thing. I'm pretty sure that most everyone in the country was sick this past month, and I was one of them. I'm still coughing a little bit, but it's substantially better. I'm guessing that it's not good to cough for a week straight, but I hate going to the doctor, and then there's that whole insurance thing. On the bright side, I've made it through most of the past few days without really coughing any, so that's been a definite bonus. Boo on being sick.

Tomorrow is a big day, as far as work is concerned. I get to go out and be a project lead on something, which coincidentally enough is for SRS in Aiken, SC. So, perhaps in a couple years, if we continue doing work for them, then I might have a couple contacts down there if we decide to head that way. It's doing micro-hardness testing...which I won't go in to detail about, since I really don't know anything about it. The idea is basically that you're looking at tiny areas (microns), and seeing how surfaces and substances react to having a load (weight) place on to them. It'd be like taking a slab of concrete, setting it up, and then dropping a 500 lb mass on it, and seeing how it deforms. Just on a micron scale instead of something you would see out in public. It should be interesting, and I'll get to play with some expensive equipment.

In church news, I'm leading our Sunday night small group study, which is focusing on prayer. It's been good, I hope, and we've gone through about 2 weeks thus far. (On a side note, I just got interrupted by another irate parent. I don't even know how he had my phone number.) It's been good stuff in the group, and I've managed to steal a few ideas from things that went on at Harding. So it's been good stuff, and certainly something for our group that I don't think many of them have experienced before. Hopefully things will continue to go well. At any rate, just wanted to give an idea of what's been going on.