24 hours of D - Not a race for the weak

Suffice it to say my last 24 hours have smacked me around. We can skip the first 4, I am not telling you all what it was anyway, plus the last few is where the action is, like a well constructed action flick. As I have been joking I got fired on my day off, TWICE, that is all. Then I woke up today and started over. Cool.
Get up, felt a little tired, got dressed, kissed my son and dressed him for school (love it), headed off to the weight room to start practice, it is 7am-ish at this point. Got a little business to hand but had to delay it because the person was not in that early. Gym it is! Now it gets good. I started smelling gas in the truck yesterday afternoon, but no leaks I can see but clearly by the time I was leaving the gym I was in full flow of when I was taking the truck to the shop, after practice was option 1A and 1B.
Well remember I had that business to handle so I decided to get it done between the weight room and track, let's roll betsy, even tho she was smelling a little gassy. Rolling along with the windows down hoping I do not pass out from the fumes. Then the accelerator goes dead. Uh oh, I just took the truck in for that. Coast around the corner, step on it to test it and NOTHING but a pop in the engine. Wow what was that? Out of the corner of my eye I see some thing. What is that says my brain. My eyes scream FIRE! The right front is in full flame, and growing!!! Jack Bauer was a black man for 10 seconds. brake/putinpark/unclip seatbelt/grabphone AAANNNNDDD bounce! Walk away from the vehicle D! Call 911, oops, wait...
I skipped a part. On my way to the gym I found out my phone was down. Thought I had made a payment and did not. So I am sitting there at 730am with money in pocket and no way to pay the bill until 10:00am when the shop opens. So no calls to be made except for 911. If you did not know you can always call 911 as along as you have a signal. ok back to the action...
CHP happened to be driving by and pulls over, he blocks traffic and stands next to me and watches the fire, the Car-B-Q as he and the fireman would later call it.
I am safe and sound. The engine is D-U-N! A few sprays from the water hose of the fire truck and it was all over, nice plume of white smoke.
Bye truck, 1989 silver 4runner in decent condition, gone by the car killer. That is 4 for me now, only one was my fault or carelessness, that other three are wear and tear, and a drunk driver.
It is over I proclaim. That 24 hours is in the books. As soon as I pay the 200 to the tow company that was called out to drag the truck away.
Get this, they want me to pay them for the towing and storage AND sign over the truck to them if I want to junk it to them! Where dey do dat???
Can someone show me a track meet! Damn!

Coherent ramblings

July 3rd was my last published blog, not my last written one LOL. If you follow me on twitter (@dgs1103) or facebook then you know I always have something to say. Kind of stunts my ability to blog because I run out of coherent ramblings since they tend to be random and varied. Let's go...
Indoors has started and while I love the fact I can see results and talk about what folks are doing, I still feel no relevance to outdoors (real track). This weekend is stuffed with big names on the pro level. The college kids have been at it for a while and running fast. For the life of me I wish I could remember these kids names that run these fast indoor times but a couple of them fell off outdoors, so... back to the pros. I watch the 60s, sprints and hurdles. So this weekend is exciting to me. At Millrose the 60s are stacked and over in Europe a few big names are over there to make statements. Should be fun and Sunday will have the track bears out of hibernation.
Pause

My prayers to one Mr Xavier Carter. Young man pick yourself up and grow up. I mean it with all the energy an old head is supposed to pass on to the young lions of the pride. We ALL make mistakes, the successful ones stand up and move forward. I implore and ask all that are near and dear to him to hold him up and push him forward. Forget track and running fast, I am talking about life. Lets all help him step away from the edge and realize there is thrill and energy away from the edge also. Someone pass this on to him if you can, I am rooting for him now and want to see him be a success story not a money story. Money is short, life is long, that will never change.

Ok back to light hearted stuff.
I would like to thank all my friends and associates and enemies for opening my eyes to the darkness of track and field. I was inundated with proclamations of knowledge all fall. No one in track can pr or improve without drugs anymore. Track folks we have too much disbelief in us. You re out there working damn hard to be great and to be the exception, yet every time someone achieves this level we tear them down without question. Benefit of the doubt is not even offered. Let tell you what I know for sure, if you do not think someone else can do it, you do not think you can do it, and you are operating on hope. Hope is not what gets it done on the track. Hope keeps you training, but when you line up to compete hope is a loser. Belief in the impossible is a constant in great ones.
And thank you for confirming that I have exceeded the boundaries of your imagination.

Congratulations to Alabama for completing on undefeated season. But you are not any type of national champion. Boise St is undefeated too. I love college football. I love football but this is about the farce that is CFB. The NCAA should be sued for false advertisement and prostitution, and pandering and racketeering. Nothing about D1 is for the well being of the student athlete, it is all about money. I resolved my anger by deciding the season actually ends the first week in December. The bowls are for entertainment value solely. Without a playoff we do not get a champion. What we get is arbitrary games that are mainly based on fan following (they travel well). College bball and soccer and baseball and track and water polo and ALL OTHER SPORTS have playoffs. Nope these teams do not travel 100+ ppl but with the millions that a playoff would generate it can be budgeted. Ah you get the point, I am not a fan of bowls, the bowl system and i think the presidents are full of shit whenever they try to defend this crap called the BCS. Come one TCU played Boise St this year. Why? Because they could not have another of their member conferences get beat again as Oklahoma did. that would have legitimized the complaints and law suits and legislation against them.
Whenever a congressman takes this issue to congress you know something is wrong with it. Oh and that for statement about the well being of the student athlete was squashed when we had 24 hours of college basketball to start their season. We had games starting after 9pm on the West Coast and at 7am on the east coast. LOL

Ok more later, back to tweeting and watching FB people think i am updating my status on FB 30 times a day LOL. I have my twitter connected to my FB, sorry folks, i like to share some things, at times it is even interesting.

Lion Chaser

As I sit here watching Beowulf, I decided to take five minutes to write. Let's see if it has any fluid direction whatsoever. The truth is most of my blogs do not flow because I am constantly mentally editing what I write. I have gone so far as to write entire blogs and erase them. LOL Yup a few times. One must guard their thoughts when speaking and writing them down. This is the one reason I chuckle when I am accused of spilling my guts or telling secrets. Ok I do not actually chuckle, I get pissed.
So, Eugene was not so kind to me and my charges this year. On we move to the summer circuit. Ryan started his campaign in Oslo and Kai gets baptized in Madrid. For those of you out there, welcome him to the road, he is a virgin, with a clean passport LOL. Watch out for my man, I do not want him wandering around Europe waiting for a pick up. We all know the stories.
Congrats to D Payne (you owe the track gods lol) T Trammell(again!), and Aries (about time), go get em fellas in Berlin. D.O. get better and see you out there in London.
Here's a little history for you, Johnnie Dutch ran 48.18 to make the team at age 20. Danny Harris in 1984 ran a similar time to win an Olympic medal at age 20. Man where can I get some of that gene pool??? We have Dutch and Anderson coming up through the ranks and young kid Wyatt just getting in the game. The long hurdles are looking for a return to their glory years where you ran 47 to medal or stayed home.
Tomorrow is Madrid, come on Kai let's get it.

Slow days

I went to Houston this weekend and saw my best friend for the first time in about 5 years or so. He and I have gotten a kick out of our significant others who have implored us to call and visit each other. We are just as close whether we talk every week or twice a year (which has happened). That was put to the test this weekend when as we said, nothing has changed. That's my boy for life and I am blessed to have found such a friend. I really wish he still lived in LA though, this is the one thing my girl T Danvers was right about, I do miss him. More than I realized, but it is all good. his baby girl is beautiful, Leila. And his wife is a nut case, Tonnie. LOL

Meanwhile, track season is upon us. Started well and has hit some road bumps for the DSports crew. Tasha returned to London as is her routine, and ran in the inaugural Super8 series. A great idea that will force track into the 21st Century. A two hour team meet with some variations on the competition to keep it entertaining and action packed. Tasha was one of the team captains and spokespersons for the meet. We decided to support the endeavor and have some fun. She ran the short hurdles and the medley relay. She won the short hurdles which is always a fun race for her, and we decided to run the 200 leg of the relay. All was well until 80 meters and she pulled her hamstring. Rehab time! Tasha has a terrific attitude and as her blog said, she'll be back!
Kai Kelley finally broke through and dropped 13.44 last week. That brought a little dance out from the coach. Nothing like the newbies having success to remind you why you do something.
Jonathan Williams had a nice run in front of the federation, and for his own confidence.
Ryan has been running well. He took the Brazilian tour and got a good chance to establish some rhythm. He took second in Berlin yesterday at 13.21. Props to Dexter Faulk who won it in 13.18.

Ok tired of typing, see you all in Eugene, for the show. Time to put people on the team.

The NBA

Recently I have been told that the NBA is fixed. It is a universal thing it seems. We all like to talk trash about our favorite team and root for them and we all get upset when they lose and occasionally scream about the inconsistencies in the calls. It is what we do as bball fans. And I have heard this from fans and haters across the board. For the record I am a Lakers fan, I do not pretend I am not, I am also a Kobe fan and I also am still pissed about the Shaq trade. We should have at least five rings right now. I digress.
The point is, the officiating this playoff has been suspicious. I am all about human error, but there are some obvious calls either not being made, or only being called at certain times. I am currently watching the Magic/Cavs game and so far I am pleased to say it is just a game undisturbed by the calls. Good for the East. Out West it remains a different story. A rule of thumb for those of you reading and wondering what I am talking about, if you start to notice the announcers talking about calls, or become familiar with the referees names, they are far too visible. Refs should be unknown when the game ends, no matter the result. I promise you any Lakers fan knows Steve Javie's name. And not because of just this year. The funny thing is he has been one of the more balanced referees in Lakers game's.
What I want. I want consistency in calls form game to game. I want them to let this be the playoffs and stop handing out flagrant fouls on routine, hard nose fouls in the playoffs. I want them to call the little hip push everyone defends Kobe with. I want the refs to be invisible. We should never watch a playoff game where the 2 teams combine for 70+ free throws. I can accept the Lakers losing when I know the refs did not influence the flow of the game and the tone of it. Unfortunately this series is reminding of when the Lakers used to play the Spurs, how well the Lakers do depends on how the refs call the game. This should never be the case, but for us Lakers fans it has been the case for years. I will never forget the year the Lakers played the Spurs and for the first 2 games Tony Parker ran right through the Lakers. If they touched him he got the call. I told everyone I knew then, the Lakers will win the series, just let me see how they call the game. Sure enough, Parker went to the hole, Shaq laid him on his back and there was no call. The Lakers won the series in 6 games.
I have a friend that told me after GAME ONE of this series, the NBA wants this to go seven games. I told him no way we are winning in five. After game three I told him "See!" He simply replied, "It is going seven". If you think I am a crazed Lakers fan just look at the Houston series and notice decidedly different game seven was called and how easily the Lakers won.
Ok that's my NBA rant. I am putting my rose colored glasses back on because I want to believe the games are decided on the floor by the teams. Yup.

Let's go Magic!!!

The Refs!!!

Charles Barkley said it right, the refs are struggling. People like to pigeonhole me on this topic as if I am a blind Lakers supporter or Kobe backer. I am clearly a Lakers fan and a Kobe fan. However, when I say the refs suck I am talking both conferences and all throughout the playoffs. George Karl said it best, there is a lack of consistency.
Example, Denver beats on the Lakers for three quarters, at least on Kobe, then all of a sudden it is the fourth quarter and they start blowing the whistle left and right. This type of inconsistency is happening throughout the playoffs. It throws the rhythm of the game off and keeps the players guessing at what is going on.
As a Lakers fan I am too well versed on the non calls, such as the hip push, which seems to have become an acceptable defensive move but was an instant call in the Jordan days. If you think Kobe shoots a lot of free throws now just think if they called the hip push.

HOWEVER, I am enjoying the competitiveness of the playoffs. There are good games and high drama. Teams are battling to the wire and not giving up. This is what conference finals should look like.

At this time I would like to give a shout out to my man Robby Hughes, the die hard Lakers fan living out there amongst the enemy. I know you are keeping them honest Robbie. And to my favorite Nuggets fan out there in Florida, sorry we have to do it to you. LOL

Blogging

Been a minute. I will post to make sure I keep up. So...

Season is underway.

Carson was whack. Misplaced hurdles, cool weather, no atmosphere, and a lack of energy.

New York should be exciting.

Wariner returns to Hart.

I lost an athlete to the demands of life.

My son is growing up and it is amazing.

Kobe and LeBron are headed for a collision.

Lakers are the best team in basketball. If they play like it, we win.

Here comes the summer, the road to Berlin is about the HOT up!

Obama is still president hahahahahaha.

I still hate baseball but enjoy the fact that the Dodgers are playing well.

Be back one of these days