Lifesaver

"Just believe in all who shine, the light to help you see, cause if I believe in you, will you believe in me?" -Blue October- (Kangaroo Cry)

"Hey, don't give him beer.  If dogs were supposed to drink beer, they'd make "dog beer..." -Liz- (a new friend that I met on Saturday, speaking to another one of her friends at the pool)

"And there's no simple way to let you go, you've been such a part of me, and though you choose to walk a separate road, I still believe in you..." -Giuffria- (Call To Your Heart)

"I have so much to offer...  Ha ha, kidding.  I've got nothing..." -@Nicholey23- (via twitter)

"I really feel..., that I'm losing, my best friend, I can't believe, this could be, the end..., it looks as though..., you're, letting go..., and if it's real well I don't want to know..." -No Doubt- (Don't Speak)



Good afternoon everyone and welcome to July.  There's a lot going on here for a Monday, and I apologize for the late post.  I was about to start this entry when I searched Google for an older post that I had made, and I discovered that someone has been STRAIGHT STEALING several of my blog entries.  I have reported this to Google, but I'm guessing that if you visit http://telekgoreng.blogspot.com/, you will still find the guilty blog with several of MY posts...  Unbelievable...  Anyway, let's get to it, because I have A LOT going on, and I want to give you a post today.  Let's get the fantasy baseball out of the way right off the bat, because it's the hardest to format (with the columns), and there's a very interesting anomaly that is taking place this week with one of my teams...  Here are the most recent standings for my leagues:


League 1 (25 entry fee - 1st place/125, 2nd place/25)

1)  DraftDodgers                                  72.50 (leads the 4 players with over 60 pts.)
2)  Neshanic                                       69.00 (has been up here all season long)
3)  Buschleaguers                               62.50 (clinging to 3rd place)
8)  The View From Bikini Hill                42.00 (now "only" six players on the DL - look out)


League 2 (40 entry fee - 1st place/300, 2nd place/50)

1)  Breaking Bats                                83.00 (should be Breaking 'Bad' and be w/Mad Men)
2)  4troublemakers                              69.50 (solid hold on second)
3)  Loons XXIV                                    59.00 (leading the logjam)
5)  The Bikini Hill Bobcats                    52.00 (solid, but not spectacular)


League 3 (40 entry fee - 1st place/300, 2nd place/50

1)  Pittsburg Crawfords                        71.50 (brace yourself, we're coming)
2)  jonnylove7                                     66.00 (in the dogfight)
3)  Nappy Heads                                 62.50 (slipping a little)
5)  The Bikini Hill Nine                         58.00 (this could be the team)


Okay, so the anomaly is with The Bikini Hill Nine.  Both of my other teams have 4 pitchers who are making 2 starts this week (which is a lot by normal standards this season), but the 'Nine' has EIGHT pitchers who are making 2 starts this week (Arroyo, Kershaw, Corbin, Strasburg, Lynn, Medlan, Lincecum, and Weaver if you want to track them).  We are looking for a few earned runs, few walks and hits allowed, wins, and strikeouts from this group who will combine for SIXTEEN starts in the next week...


Okay, so you know that I've been losing weight and flipping my sleep schedule.  I did almost 3,500 situps in the month of June from when I began on the 11th.  I have also been using the river to help me lose weight this week due to a discovery that I made.  Having moved into my apartment complex in September of last year, I obviously wasn't in it during the summer.  I have learned that when the temperature hits about 100 degrees, my air conditioning doesn't do very well fighting the heat from 3:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.  My answer to this last week was walking to Bikini Hill and hanging out in the river a lot.  In addition to the quote and the story that Victoria and Trinity gave us on Friday, I have seen and heard a lot of other interesting things at the river.  I have been hanging out in the river on the ladder where the current takes the swimmers (and tubers) because it's in the shade (due to trees), it's obviously cool (being in the water), and hanging onto the ladder in the current actually burns more calories than doing nothing...  :)  Okay, let's start with Lola, for example, who was in a group of three girls heading toward me.  She stated, "I should be a professional doggy-paddler..."  If there was a market for that, I think that I could make a lot of money doing it too Lola...  ;)  A girl in another group swallowed a little bit of water and stated that she hoped that she didn't get "swine flu..."  This had me laughing when her group reached the ladder, noticeably enough that she said, "he's laughing at us..."  I reiterated her comment, and added, "sure, because of all of the pigs swimming in the river..."  ;)  And yes, they liked that...

Now we're going to segue into the river meeting with the Chi-O's, so that I can update you on all of their lives (really, the only reason that you read the blog)...  :)  So it's mid-afternoon on Saturday, when seemingly ONE THOUSAND PEOPLE show up, out of NOWHERE...  Okay, that number was closer to 200 people, and they arrived via the sidewalk, but that's not important...  What IS IMPORTANT is that I was pretty sure that these people were future Bobcats ("Cat Campers - incoming students in the Fall of 2013), and I also thought, "anytime that you see a ton of people, Gabby must be around, because she's so popular..."  Knowing that Gabby was going to be a 'Cat Camp' counselor had nothing to do with me reaching this conclusion...  ;)  Like I said, there were so many people that it would have been next to impossible (and would have required me getting OUT OF the river) to find her, but sure enough, after about twenty minutes, I heard a "Hey Coach!" as Gabby floated toward me...  Gabby let me know that Mo was also a counselor, and that she was around "somewhere..."  This is the same Mo who gave me the Haribo Gummy Bears as a going-away present when I left Harper's, so I don't need any excuse to mention her in the blog, but I got another great reason to on Saturday.  As Mo was floating BY ME, I heard a "Hey Coach!"  At this point, I motioned for Mo to swim over to me (she was about ten yards from me).  As she began to approach me, I saw her eyes WIDEN as she looked about five yards to my left.  I saw this same look from my friend and former student Kari about 100 years ago when I had my back to the swimming pool that I was managing, talking to her while she was up on the lifeguard stand.  Sure enough, as I turned my head to my right, and Mo asked a distressed girl, "are you okay?," the girl who was waving her arms (in the "classic" drowning style) shook her head "no..."  Mo, swimming with the current toward her already, got to her almost instantly, and I left the ladder to assist.  As the three of us were being carried by the current toward another ladder about twenty-five yards away, Mo already had the girl by her left arm, and I didn't want to scare her more by suddenly grabbing her, so I just said, "relax, we've got you" when I reached her, at which point Mo turned toward me and nodded, now realizing that I was there also.  By the way, Mo is a lifeguard, so this was pretty fortunate for the girl, to be seen before she went under, and by a lifeguard at that...  :)  I'd like to think that she wouldn't have drown since I was there, but Mo did see her first...  :) :) :)  Of course this story has a happy ending, and as soon as we reached the ladder, that's when I GRABBED the girl's right bicep and made sure that she made it up the ladder okay.  Good eye Maureen!  :)  #lifesaver

This segues to some of my other Chi-O friends because I saw Mo's good friend Amy a few nights earlier.  This is the same Amy that brought me the pretzel pieces as a going-away present when I left Harper's.  SEE?!  You try to lose weight, and these girls just bring you food???  :)  KIDDING!!!  I don't want to tell you what Amy and I were discussing, but I just want to say that she made me smile when she said, "It SUUUUUUCKS..."  Just the way that this innocent looking little girl  :)  said that word for about TEN SECONDS made me smile...  Speaking of other punks, I saw Verissimo and Chelsea later that same evening.  This would be the Verissimo of the group of people that is being ABANDONED here at Texas State, while Chelsea would be part of group of Chelsea and Castelluccio that is..., wait for it..., ALSO MOVING TO AUSTIN!!!  :)  I will probably run into Chelsea and Castelluccio more in San Marcos than in Austin, but we're here to congratulate Chelsea on getting her first "real world" job.  There seems to be a lot of that going on in the blog lately, and let's hope that continues to be the case...  :) #jobforcastelluccio #jobforcoach  At this point I also need to say hello to the "golf girls" that I ran into at Harper's, although I was stupid enough not to ask for their names (if you have twitter, PLEASE send me a tweet ladies (@coachatx) - I've known you for too long not to know your names anyway)...  #myfault

Going up to the quotes and the lyrics at the top of the page, you already know how I like to make predictions.  Although I'm sure that I've already told you that Blue October is my favorite band, I don't know if I told you that when I taught and coached here in San Marcos, I predicted (to my students) that they would make it big.  Back at that time, I could watch them perform for $8.00 presale ($10.00 at the door) at a spot on the Square that was called Gordo's (which is now the Texas Music Theater).  I am by NO MEANS an expert on happenings in the music industry, but they were my favorite band, and I just knew that they were really good...  ;)  During the first week of school when you get the kids to tell you something about themselves (I had them fill out 'information sheets' for me, and then I answered the same questions for them),  I was like, "and they'll hit it big in about a year and a half (this was in 2002, and I wasn't far off)...  ;)  As for the first quote up top, EVEN AS I SPOKE TO LIZ about putting it in the blog, I KNEW that a "dog beer" had to exist, and our friend and fellow blogger --S (with the Las Vegas Poker Dealer AND Maui blog links to the right - don't get me started) informed me moments after I tweeted that quote about... "Bowser Beer..."  This is the guy whose fault it is that I have a blog in the first place..., so place all of the blame on him, and follow his new Maui blog, and his twitter account @LahainaHaole ...

In closing today, I wanted to let you know that sometime in the near future there will be a blog post about my Dad, who this week is working his last shifts at a bar that he has worked at since 1979, and managed since 1985.  He will actually be leaving the state after working there for 34 years, which is going to affect a lot of people since he is one of the best people that you're ever going to meet.  The bar was packed last night for his going away party, but there was SO MUCH FOOD there that I brought home leftovers that, with my current dieting, will probably feed me FOR A WEEK (no exaggeration at all)...

I hope that all of you have an outstanding first day of July, I want to say thank you for your patience in waiting for today's post, and I'll see you again tomorrow...  ;)