Couldn`t sleep last night and lay awake awhile, I found myself calculating how many days I`ve been a physical presence on this planet (wierd-I know) and came up with the number 21,053.Twenty one thousand and fifty three days .
I woke up before dawn and got up to read email, make the coffee and head off to work, witnessing another nice sunrise in transit, worked the job for awhile and then blew out to surf when the tide got right. A beautiful summer day on March 31st, (the water warmed to 63 degrees ), you could see snow on the mountains and bikinis on the beach. The surf was small,but still I couldn`t help but enjoy the miracle of energy moving through water that we can hitch a ride on.
21,053 days, that number ran through my head all day, how many days have I just wasted? How many days have I actually lived to the fullest? Those days are a gift from God that I should take seriously, what is my life purpose that God put before me and am I even close to living it? I want to live a life pleasing to God and agonize over my shortcomings. Maybe I`m over-complicating the issue, maybe it`s his will that I smile at a stranger, help a friend, pause to enjoy the beauties of Creation, just try to be a force for the good.
I don`t know how many days I have left but I`m grateful to God for the days past and will try to live his will in the days to come.
I just couldn`t get it together today ,too dark and low tide early, work most of the day, wind on it in the afternoon. I`m aware it was pretty good most of the day. I`ll try again tomorrow
Looked fun early, I`m going to have to adjust my work load if the wind stays down.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Cold, windy, with rain eminent, nice morning to be warm in church. Todays sermon mentioned this story from SI, I wanted to share it.Good stuff.
Life of Reilly There are some games in which cheering for the other side feels better than winning. by Rick Reilly
They played the oddest game in high school football history last month down in Grapevine, Texas.
It was Grapevine Faith vs. Gainesville State School and everything about it was upside down. For instance, when Gainesville came out to take the field, the Faith fans made a 40-yard spirit line for them to run through.
Did you hear that? The other team's fans?
They even made a banner for players to crash through at the end. It said, "Go Tornadoes!" Which is also weird, because Faith is the Lions.
"I WOULDN'T EXPECT ANOTHER PARENT TO TELL SOMEBODY TO HIT THEIR KIDS. BUT THEY WANTED US TO!"
It was rivers running uphill and cats petting dogs. More than 200 Faith fans sat on the Gainesville side and kept cheering the Gainesville players on—by name.
"I never in my life thought I'd hear people cheering for us to hit their kids," recalls Gainesville's QB and middle linebacker, Isaiah. "I wouldn't expect another parent to tell somebody to hit their kids. But they wanted us to!"
And even though Faith walloped them 33-14, the Gainesville kids were so happy that after the game they gave head coach Mark Williams a sideline squirt-bottle shower like he'd just won state. Gotta be the first Gatorade bath in history for an 0-9 coach.
But then you saw the 12 uniformed officers escorting the 14 Gainesville players off the field and two and two started to make four. They lined the players up in groups of five—handcuffs ready in their back pockets—and marched them to the team bus. That's because Gainesville is a maximum-security correctional facility 75 miles north of Dallas. Every game it plays is on the road.
This all started when Faith's head coach, Kris Hogan, wanted to do something kind for the Gainesville team. Faith had never played Gainesville, but he already knew the score. After all, Faith was 7-2 going into the game, Gainesville 0-8 with 2 TDs all year. Faith has 70 kids, 11 coaches, the latest equipment and involved parents. Gainesville has a lot of kids with convictions for drugs, assault and robbery—many of whose families had disowned them—wearing seven-year-old shoulder pads and ancient helmets.
So Hogan had this idea. What if half of our fans—for one night only—cheered for the other team? He sent out an email asking the Faithful to do just that. "Here's the message I want you to send:" Hogan wrote. "You are just as valuable as any other person on planet Earth."
Some people were naturally confused. One Faith player walked into Hogan's office and asked, "Coach, why are we doing this?"
And Hogan said, "Imagine if you didn't have a home life. Imagine if everybody had pretty much given up on you. Now imagine what it would mean for hundreds of people to suddenly believe in you."
Next thing you know, the Gainesville Tornadoes were turning around on their bench to see something they never had before. Hundreds of fans. And actual cheerleaders!
"I thought maybe they were confused," said Alex, a Gainesville lineman (only first names are released by the prison). "They started yelling 'DEE-fense!' when their team had the ball. I said, 'What? Why they cheerin' for us?'"
It was a strange experience for boys who most people cross the street to avoid. "We can tell people are a little afraid of us when we come to the games," says Gerald, a lineman who will wind up doing more than three years. "You can see it in their eyes. They're lookin' at us like we're criminals. But these people, they were yellin' for us! By our names!"
Maybe it figures that Gainesville played better than it had all season, scoring the game's last two touchdowns. Of course, this might be because Hogan put his third-string nose guard at safety and his third-string cornerback at defensive end. Still.
After the game, both teams gathered in the middle of the field to pray and that's when Isaiah surprised everybody by asking to lead. "We had no idea what the kid was going to say," remembers Coach Hogan. But Isaiah said this: "Lord, I don't know how this happened, so I don't know how to say thank You, but I never would've known there was so many people in the world that cared about us."
And it was a good thing everybody's heads were bowed because they might've seen Hogan wiping away tears.
As the Tornadoes walked back to their bus under guard, they each were handed a bag for the ride home—a burger, some fries, a soda, some candy, a Bible and an encouraging letter from a Faith player.
The Gainesville coach saw Hogan, grabbed him hard by the shoulders and said, "You'll never know what your people did for these kids tonight. You'll never, ever know."
And as the bus pulled away, all the Gainesville players crammed to one side and pressed their hands to the window, staring at these people they'd never met before, watching their waves and smiles disappearing into the night.
Anyway, with the economy six feet under and Christmas running on about three and a half reindeer, it's nice to know that one of the best presents you can give is still absolutely free.
Marc Andreini at the Ranch-1973. Andreini and Bob Haakensen paddled a 2-man canoe up from Gaviota, tying it to the kelp, before paddling into these beauties.
Newsman Tommy Tsunami staked out the pier this morning, but not much happened. If a tidal wave rolled in, I missed it. The beach was closed , no one on the sand or in the water from here to Malibu.
"Warm midday sun brilliant blue winter sky, I carve lazy liquid S`s on an emerald sea, while trolls labor in flourescent lit caves..... Winning.....!" Surfin` Charlie Sheen
I had hoped to surf today but the winds didn`t lay down overnight, the water dropped to about 50 degrees,and I had work to do. Tomorrow will be better.
