The good news thread

My wife and I spent the last week in Ireland, partially doing a 'rain check' of a trip we had planned that had to be canceled due to the pandemic, and also because our daughter had the opportunity to march/perform in the St. Patrick's Day parade in Dublin as a member of her college marching band.

We opted, somewhat last minute, to buy grandstand seats for the parade so we wouldn't have to arrive 3 hours early (and possibly stand in the rain) to get a spot close enough to see our daughter. As luck would have it, all the grandstands were sold out with the exception of about 10 seats in the block closest to the start of the parade route, so that's where we wound up.

For about 20 minutes just before the parade was to start, there were 2 MCs entertaining the crowd with Irish jokes, trivia, prizes for answers, etc. At one point, they talked about how music is a big part of their culture, how everyone sings or plays an instrument, and asked if any Irishmen in the stands wanted to entertain the crowd with a tune. A woman volunteered, was given the mic and did a fantastic rendition of an Irish folk song to throngs of cheers and applause (there were ~1,000 people seated in the block of grandstands we were in).

After she was done, the MC asked if anyone not from Ireland wanted to give it a go and a woman a few rows below us volunteered. Turns out she was an American and when given the mic, she nervously proceeded to sing the U.S. National Anthem, and every American in the stands - which I'd estimate to be easily 1/3 or more of the crowd - immediately stood, removed cover, placed hands over hearts and sang along...unprompted and completely spontaneously.

She wasn't a great singer and struggled through a few notes, but nobody cared and it was an awesome display of American patriotism that was met with cheers from all and amazement from the rest of the crowd.

A great trip to begin with, but what a fantastic bonus and reminder that, while nothing's perfect, we still live in the greatest nation that so many others admire and aspire to emulate.

🇺🇲
 
My wife and I spent the last week in Ireland, partially doing a 'rain check' of a trip we had planned that had to be canceled due to the pandemic, and also because our daughter had the opportunity to march/perform in the St. Patrick's Day parade in Dublin as a member of her college marching band.

We opted, somewhat last minute, to buy grandstand seats for the parade so we wouldn't have to arrive 3 hours early (and possibly stand in the rain) to get a spot close enough to see our daughter. As luck would have it, all the grandstands were sold out with the exception of about 10 seats in the block closest to the start of the parade route, so that's where we wound up.

For about 20 minutes just before the parade was to start, there were 2 MCs entertaining the crowd with Irish jokes, trivia, prizes for answers, etc. At one point, they talked about how music is a big part of their culture, how everyone sings or plays an instrument, and asked if any Irishmen in the stands wanted to entertain the crowd with a tune. A woman volunteered, was given the mic and did a fantastic rendition of an Irish folk song to throngs of cheers and applause (there were ~1,000 people seated in the block of grandstands we were in).

After she was done, the MC asked if anyone not from Ireland wanted to give it a go and a woman a few rows below us volunteered. Turns out she was an American and when given the mic, she nervously proceeded to sing the U.S. National Anthem, and every American in the stands - which I'd estimate to be easily 1/3 or more of the crowd - immediately stood, removed cover, placed hands over hearts and sang along...unprompted and completely spontaneously.

She wasn't a great singer and struggled through a few notes, but nobody cared and it was an awesome display of American patriotism that was met with cheers from all and amazement from the rest of the crowd.

A great trip to begin with, but what a fantastic bonus and reminder that, while nothing's perfect, we still live in the greatest nation that so many others admire and aspire to emulate.

🇺🇲

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More skating shenanigans with Owen. At 6 years old, Owen is a better skater than many adults. Also, being 6 years old, he's pretty damn good at teaching younger kids with roller skating. He has been teaching a little girl every Friday night. This is Owen and Aria.
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At the beginning of the year, Aria could not stand on her skates and could only get around with holding mom and dads hand or a Skatemate. The Skatemate is kind of a walker for beginning skaters, whether on ice or wood.

This is Aria on her own last night with coach Owen looking on. Last week, she was still using a Skatemate.
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(Being born and raised in Wisconsin, the Packers are part of my DNA, but I hope he quits wearing that Rodgers jersey soon.)

Just to show you my life isn't all puppies and unicorns, I found these fcuking things in a $7,000,000 machine.
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But, before I found those, I had the short end of a 4mm Allen wrench impaled in the palm of my hand.
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Not much pain, but boy, was there a lot of blood.
 
More skating shenanigans with Owen. At 6 years old, Owen is a better skater than many adults. Also, being 6 years old, he's pretty damn good at teaching younger kids with roller skating. He has been teaching a little girl every Friday night. This is Owen and Aria.
View attachment 412272

At the beginning of the year, Aria could not stand on her skates and could only get around with holding mom and dads hand or a Skatemate. The Skatemate is kind of a walker for beginning skaters, whether on ice or wood.

This is Aria on her own last night with coach Owen looking on. Last week, she was still using a Skatemate.
View attachment 412273
(Being born and raised in Wisconsin, the Packers are part of my DNA, but I hope he quits wearing that Rodgers jersey soon.)

Just to show you my life isn't all puppies and unicorns, I found these fcuking things in a $7,000,000 machine.
View attachment 412274

But, before I found those, I had the short end of a 4mm Allen wrench impaled in the palm of my hand.
View attachment 412275

Not much pain, but boy, was there a lot of blood.

Actually, that's a (y) for lil' man Owen helping others out, and big a :oops: for the impalement. Kinda puts a sick twist to the term "hand tools"...
 
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Luckily, the wound just separated skin from muscle. I yanked the Allen wrench out of my hand, tossed on a band-aid, and tried to go back to work, using my left hand. After finishing another row of screws, I figured with the amount of blood I was leaving in my wake, that this was worse than it looked, and needed more than a 'railroad field repair'; blue paper towel and electrical tape.
I had my coworker take me to an Urgent Care place and had it dealt with. The boo-boo was cleaned, glued shut as it was a shitty place for a stitch, and bandaged. I also got a tetanus shot. As I was already taking antibiotics for a sinus infection, I was able to skip those.
As it happened on the job, I had to file a Workman's Comp Claim. While the doc is filling out his form for me, he asked if I wanted to go on light duty. I said no, I want to get this job finished and get the hell out of New Jersey. It also happened on a customer's property, so now I have two sets of self important yahoos pestering me on how it happened. I kept it short and sweet in what happened, then told them they are keeping me from finishing my job and to kindly fuck off.

In 26 years on this job, this was the first time I'd ever needed more medical attention than the FA Kit on my tool bag.
 
Well…I’m new here so the good news I have a jeep now! It needs some love, so parts are on order and it should be on the road in a couple weeks. (Fingers crossed) Lots to do so I’m busy and that’s good because I get bored easily.
 
my local supermarket added Ackee produced by Linstead Market, Jamaica; they've been carrying callaloo & Mountain Peak coffee along with a few other excellent imports for years but this was the first time I saw ackee, tell you what I couldn't tell the difference between this & the fresh stuff there. Took the opportunity to make the national dish of the island by grabbing a slab of salt cod along with the usual accouterments, closed my eyes & I was there:

Sauteing the callaloo:

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warming the ackee through with the salt fish, scotch bonnet, onion, scallion, thyme, garlic, red bell pepper & tomato:

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altogether on the plate with some fried plantains:

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Fan-Tastic!
 
had a couple beers a couple weeks ago & jumped the gun on the year's vacation plans, booked a quick solo trip to Port Antonio, Jamaica, more specifically Boston Bay; buddy that lives there has been telling me for years I have to go to that end of the island, so I left last Thursday & got back this Tuesday - stuffed myself with Boston Jerk, a little different that what I'm used to, along with my body weight in callaloo, ackee, dumplings, stew peas with pigtails, patties, festivals, plantains, bread fruit & Red Stripe of course, what a blast.

Oh, stayed in a tree house on top of a cliff, open air - the sound of the tree frogs singing while the waves crashed onto the limestone rocks & nightly downpours was freakin amazing -

Kind of hard to see but this is the view of Boston Beach from my tree house/hut:

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a cove I seemed to have all to myself, very low occupancy this past week

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view from the cove

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the 'diving board' rock

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some other random shots

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absolute blast, though things took an odd turn when a woman threw a complete nutty on the plane ride home & went so far off her shit the pilot had to divert to Orlando for an emergency landing to remove her, what a cluster fuck that part was, but all part of the adventure!
 
Eli's soccer season drew to a close today with a tournament. His team made the finals after making it through the preliminaries with only one goal scored against them while they averaged five goals a game.

They went up against the most aggressive girls teams in their league. They weren't outplayed, but they were outscored for their only shut out of the year. There is, however, going to be a review of the game by the league management because of questionable(I'm being nice here)actions by the refs in favor of the girls team. Even Stevie Wonder saw it.

Anyway, second place isn't the end of the world and this was only their second loss of the year. Eli's mom and grandma were heading back to the car and I went to get Eli off the field. I round him up and he says,"Grandpa, can I say something?"
Me, "Sure."
Eli, "That ref fuckin' sucked."
Me, "Um, yes he did fuckin' suck. I'm also not going to tell your mom your choice of words. I'm gonna tell grandma later, tho.";)

Grandma laughed hysterically but agreed with his assessment.
 
Eli's soccer season drew to a close today with a tournament. His team made the finals after making it through the preliminaries with only one goal scored against them while they averaged five goals a game.

They went up against the most aggressive girls teams in their league. They weren't outplayed, but they were outscored for their only shut out of the year. There is, however, going to be a review of the game by the league management because of questionable(I'm being nice here)actions by the refs in favor of the girls team. Even Stevie Wonder saw it.

Anyway, second place isn't the end of the world and this was only their second loss of the year. Eli's mom and grandma were heading back to the car and I went to get Eli off the field. I round him up and he says,"Grandpa, can I say something?"
Me, "Sure."
Eli, "That ref fuckin' sucked."
Me, "Um, yes he did fuckin' suck. I'm also not going to tell your mom your choice of words. I'm gonna tell grandma later, tho.";)

Grandma laughed hysterically but agreed with his assessment.

I feel this 1000% my 8yr old (in the above) won their division, made the tournament team and after waking her at 7am this morning, got crushed 14-1. More importantly, like you, my in-laws are local and make it a point to be at every game or practice they can. I hope you know how much it means to your grandkids and their parents.
 
I feel this 1000% my 8yr old (in the above) won their division, made the tournament team and after waking her at 7am this morning, got crushed 14-1. More importantly, like you, my in-laws are local and make it a point to be at every game or practice they can. I hope you know how much it means to your grandkids and their parents.

Yup. We try to make both the boys games. Not always successful, but we try.
 
Eli's soccer season drew to a close today with a tournament. His team made the finals after making it through the preliminaries with only one goal scored against them while they averaged five goals a game.

They went up against the most aggressive girls teams in their league. They weren't outplayed, but they were outscored for their only shut out of the year. There is, however, going to be a review of the game by the league management because of questionable(I'm being nice here)actions by the refs in favor of the girls team. Even Stevie Wonder saw it.

Anyway, second place isn't the end of the world and this was only their second loss of the year. Eli's mom and grandma were heading back to the car and I went to get Eli off the field. I round him up and he says,"Grandpa, can I say something?"
Me, "Sure."
Eli, "That ref fuckin' sucked."
Me, "Um, yes he did fuckin' suck. I'm also not going to tell your mom your choice of words. I'm gonna tell grandma later, tho.";)

Grandma laughed hysterically but agreed with his assessment.

The normal half of me loves that he said that… the referee half of me hates it, don’t yell too much at us 😉. That’s my job during the spring, winter, and fall.

And as @red02tj said above, it great that you’re getting out to watch the games. When I used to play, my grandparents would almost always be at the games, and I loved it. It means a lot.

As for some good news for me - I just got my summer job as a camp counselor at the national whitewater center! It’s so cool that I live so close to it. Id do the job for free, I feel lucky to get paid for it 🙂.
 
I just got my summer job as a camp counselor at the national whitewater center!

Enjoy every moment! Best job I ever had was running an outdoor adventure summer camp for kids. Don’t underestimate the impact you can have on a young kid trying to fit in. It’s why 25 years later outdoor activities are important to my family.
 
The normal half of me loves that he said that… the referee half of me hates it, don’t yell too much at us 😉. That’s my job during the spring, winter, and fall.

And as @red02tj said above, it great that you’re getting out to watch the games. When I used to play, my grandparents would almost always be at the games, and I loved it. It means a lot.

As for some good news for me - I just got my summer job as a camp counselor at the national whitewater center! It’s so cool that I live so close to it. Id do the job for free, I feel lucky to get paid for it 🙂.

I'm the one old guy in the seats that doesn't get too excited* about the playing or the refereeing. Refing the kids games is tough, I've been there. This guy, though, was a bit sketchy. But it's over and done with.

We usually attend Owen's hockey games, too. If that kid is on skates, he's smiling. And congrats on the job.

*There was the final play at the Kane County(IL)Cougars AAA baseball game last week that had me jumping up and spilling my beer. And I'm not a baseball fan.
 
Enjoy every moment! Best job I ever had was running an outdoor adventure summer camp for kids. Don’t underestimate the impact you can have on a young kid trying to fit in. It’s why 25 years later outdoor activities are important to my family.

I was in the camp when I was younger and loved it. Can’t wait to start working for it.

I'm the one old guy in the seats that doesn't get too excited* about the playing or the refereeing. Refing the kids games is tough, I've been there. This guy, though, was a bit sketchy. But it's over and done with.

We usually attend Owen's hockey games, too. If that kid is on skates, he's smiling. And congrats on the job.

*There was the final play at the Kane County(IL)Cougars AAA baseball game last week that had me jumping up and spilling my beer. And I'm not a baseball fan.

There’s definitely a good amount of refs out there that aren’t great. A majority of them are newer to the job. When I started doing it 4 years ago, I did make some bad calls and got yelled at for it. As I’ve gotten more and more experienced, I haven’t gotten yelled at for a valid reason in probably 2 years. However, every single game, I can always count on a few spectators who have no idea how the game works to yell at me for reasons in which they are incorrect.

That’s the hard part of the job - dealing in your head with unhappy, ignorant parents. It hard to ignore them, and engaging in an argument just isn’t a good idea. I’ve learned to just smile at them. They hate it, I know that I am unbiased and as long as I make confident, well thought out calls, they’ll usually be right and I’ll feel satisfied. The parents don’t bother me much anymore.

Nobody reading that here probably cares much about it, but I felt like writing it anyway 🤷‍♂️🤣
 
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