Make your own coffee break room
Waddya trying to do, kill of some of the DTR membership with clogged arteries etc?
06-27-2018, 11:21 AM
#17
Proprietor of Fiver's Inn and Hospitality Center
Afternoon all - - just grabbed a minute before heading back out to grab a ph00 - - thanks Stan. Nuther day of trying to catch up. No rain yesterday, but cloudy today. I was in Cadillac yesterday so had them run the car thru their wash line - - don't always do that cuz I keep a very heavy wax (not cheap stuff) coat on it and don't want heavy detergent washing of the car. But, it is time for another waxing and it had not been washed since coming home from the trip. Sooooo, it is clean again.
You probably did not catch this one - - Monday, man on Siesta Key beach here in Sarasota killed by a lightning strike. Was trying to get to his car in the parking lot and it nailed him. Really makes me think when out in the boat - - I watch very close and listen for warnings. Get 10 or 15 miles offshore fishing and diving and you don't want a storm moving in, especially if it is coming from the east - - nowhere to hide then. ….
Off to lunch with friends in great Chinese all-you-can eat, so gotta run. Be good. …………………………..
Talking of storms, this morning was reading a very interesting aviation related article on lightening and in the article it mentioned something about FiverBob's area. He has often spoken about the lightening in his area.
There are certain areas that have higher than average lightning strikes, one being “Lightning Alley” in Florida. The Alley runs along Interstate 4 from Orlando to St. Petersburg and is the site of more lightning strikes per year than any other location in the United States.
There are certain areas that have higher than average lightning strikes, one being “Lightning Alley” in Florida. The Alley runs along Interstate 4 from Orlando to St. Petersburg and is the site of more lightning strikes per year than any other location in the United States.
Off to lunch with friends in great Chinese all-you-can eat, so gotta run. Be good. …………………………..
06-28-2018, 11:46 AM
#18
It's my pot and I'll stir it if I want to. If you're not careful, I'll stir your's as well!
Good morning from a very soggy Paradise. Boy, did we get dumped on last night! Around 22:00 the extra loud thunder and ultra bright lightening started and then it rained. About 2.3 inches of rain. It stopped at dawn as usual during the rainy season.
Bob, have you recovered from pigging out on Chinese food.
Here are some words of wisdom for everybody. Spread it around.
Twenty years ago, in Nashville, Tennessee, during the first week of January, 1996, more than 4,000 baseball coaches descended upon the Opryland Hotel for the 52nd annual ABCA's convention.
While I waited in line to register with the hotel staff, I heard other more veteran coaches rumbling about the line-up of speakers scheduled to present during the weekend. One name, in particular, kept resurfacing, always with the same sentiment — “John Scolinos is here? Oh, man, worth every penny of my airfare.”
Who is John Scolinos, I wondered. No matter; I was just happy to be there.
In 1996, Coach Scolinos was 78 years old and five years retired from a college coaching career that began in 1948. He shuffled to the stage to an impressive standing ovation, wearing dark polyester pants, a light blue shirt, and a string around his neck from which home plate hung — a full-sized, stark-white home plate.
Seriously, I wondered, who is this guy?
After speaking for twenty-five minutes, not once mentioning the prop hanging around his neck, Coach Scolinos appeared to notice the snickering among some of the coaches. Even those who knew Coach Scolinos had to wonder exactly where he was going with this, or if he had simply forgotten about home plate since he’d gotten on stage.
Then, finally ...“You’re probably all wondering why I’m wearing home plate around my neck,” he said, his voice growing irascible.
I laughed along with the others, acknowledging the possibility.
“I may be old, but I’m not crazy. The reason I stand before you today is to share with you baseball people what I’ve learned in my life, what I’ve learned about home plate in my 78 years.”
Several hands went up when Scolinos asked how many Little League coaches were in the room.
“Do you know how wide home plate is in Little League?”
After a pause, someone offered, “Seventeen inches?”, more of a question than answer.
“That’s right,” he said “How about in Babe Ruth’s day? Any Babe Ruth coaches in the house?” Another long pause.
“Seventeen inches?” a guess from another reluctant coach.
“That’s right,” said Scolinos. “Now, how many high school coaches do we have in the room?”
Hundreds of hands shot up, as the pattern began to appear. “How wide is home plate in high school baseball?”
“Seventeen inches,” they said, sounding more confident.
“You’re right!” Scolinos barked. “And you college coaches, how wide is home plate in college?”
“Seventeen inches!” we said, in unison.
“Any Minor League coaches here? How wide is home plate in pro ball?”...........“Seventeen inches!”
“RIGHT! And in the Major Leagues, how wide home plate is in the Major Leagues?
“Seventeen inches!”
“SEV-EN-TEEN INCHES!” he confirmed, his voice bellowing off the walls. “And what do they do with a Big League pitcher who can’t throw the ball over seventeen inches?” Pause. “They send him to Pocatello !” he hollered, drawing raucous laughter. “What they don’t do is this: they don’t say, ‘Ah, that’s okay, Jimmy. If you can’t hit a seventeen-inch target? We’ll make it eighteen inches or nineteen inches. We’ll make it twenty inches so you have a better chance of hitting it. If you can’t hit that, let us know so we can make it wider still, say twenty-five inches.'”
Pause. “Coaches... what do we do when your best player shows up late to practice? or when our team rules forbid facial hair and a guy shows up unshaven? What if he gets caught drinking? Do we hold him accountable? Or do we change the rules to fit him? Do we widen home plate?"
The chuckles gradually faded as four thousand coaches grew quiet, the fog lifting as the old coach’s message began to unfold.
He turned the plate toward himself and, using a Sharpie, began to draw something.
When he turned it toward the crowd, point up, a house was revealed, complete with a freshly drawn door and two windows.
“This is the problem in our homes today. With our marriages, with the way we parent our kids. With our discipline.
We don’t teach accountability to our kids, and there is no consequence for failing to meet standards. We just widen the plate!”
Pause.
Then, to the point at the top of the house he added a small American flag.
“This is the problem in our schools today. The quality of our education is going downhill fast and teachers have been stripped of the tools they need to be successful, and to educate and discipline our young people. We are allowing others to widen home plate! Where is that getting us?”
Silence.
He replaced the flag with a Cross. “And this is the problem in the Church, where powerful people in positions of authority have taken advantage of young children, only to have such an atrocity swept under the rug for years. Our church leaders are widening home plate for themselves! And we allow it.”
“And the same is true with our government. Our so called representatives make rules for us that don’t apply to themselves. They take bribes from lobbyists and foreign countries. They no longer serve us. And we allow them to widen home plate! We see our country falling into a dark abyss while we just watch.”
I was amazed. At a baseball convention where I expected to learn something about curve ***** and bunting and how to run better practices, I had learned something far more valuable.
From an old man with home plate strung around his neck, I had learned something about life, about myself, about my own weaknesses and about my responsibilities as a leader. I had to hold myself and others accountable to that which I knew to be right, lest our families, our faith, and our society continue down an undesirable path.
“If I am lucky,” Coach Scolinos concluded, “you will remember one thing from this old coach today. It is this: "If we fail to hold ourselves to a higher standard, a standard of what we know to be right; if we fail to hold our spouses and our children to the same standards, if we are unwilling or unable to provide a consequence when they do not meet the standard; and if our schools & churches & our government fail to hold themselves accountable to those they serve, there is but one thing to look forward to ...”
With that, he held home plate in front of his chest, turned it around, and revealed its dark black backside, “...We have dark days ahead!.”
Note: Coach Scolinos died in 2009 at the age of 91, but not before touching the lives of hundreds of players and coaches, including mine.
Meeting him at my first ABCA convention kept me returning year after year, looking for similar wisdom and inspiration from other coaches.
He is the best clinic speaker the ABCA has ever known because he was so much more than a baseball coach.
His message was clear: “Coaches, keep your players—no matter how good they are—your own children, your churches, your government, and most of all, keep yourself at seventeen inches."
And this my friends is what America has become and what is wrong with it today.
Bob, have you recovered from pigging out on Chinese food.
Here are some words of wisdom for everybody. Spread it around.
Twenty years ago, in Nashville, Tennessee, during the first week of January, 1996, more than 4,000 baseball coaches descended upon the Opryland Hotel for the 52nd annual ABCA's convention.
While I waited in line to register with the hotel staff, I heard other more veteran coaches rumbling about the line-up of speakers scheduled to present during the weekend. One name, in particular, kept resurfacing, always with the same sentiment — “John Scolinos is here? Oh, man, worth every penny of my airfare.”
Who is John Scolinos, I wondered. No matter; I was just happy to be there.
In 1996, Coach Scolinos was 78 years old and five years retired from a college coaching career that began in 1948. He shuffled to the stage to an impressive standing ovation, wearing dark polyester pants, a light blue shirt, and a string around his neck from which home plate hung — a full-sized, stark-white home plate.
Seriously, I wondered, who is this guy?
After speaking for twenty-five minutes, not once mentioning the prop hanging around his neck, Coach Scolinos appeared to notice the snickering among some of the coaches. Even those who knew Coach Scolinos had to wonder exactly where he was going with this, or if he had simply forgotten about home plate since he’d gotten on stage.
Then, finally ...“You’re probably all wondering why I’m wearing home plate around my neck,” he said, his voice growing irascible.
I laughed along with the others, acknowledging the possibility.
“I may be old, but I’m not crazy. The reason I stand before you today is to share with you baseball people what I’ve learned in my life, what I’ve learned about home plate in my 78 years.”
Several hands went up when Scolinos asked how many Little League coaches were in the room.
“Do you know how wide home plate is in Little League?”
After a pause, someone offered, “Seventeen inches?”, more of a question than answer.
“That’s right,” he said “How about in Babe Ruth’s day? Any Babe Ruth coaches in the house?” Another long pause.
“Seventeen inches?” a guess from another reluctant coach.
“That’s right,” said Scolinos. “Now, how many high school coaches do we have in the room?”
Hundreds of hands shot up, as the pattern began to appear. “How wide is home plate in high school baseball?”
“Seventeen inches,” they said, sounding more confident.
“You’re right!” Scolinos barked. “And you college coaches, how wide is home plate in college?”
“Seventeen inches!” we said, in unison.
“Any Minor League coaches here? How wide is home plate in pro ball?”...........“Seventeen inches!”
“RIGHT! And in the Major Leagues, how wide home plate is in the Major Leagues?
“Seventeen inches!”
“SEV-EN-TEEN INCHES!” he confirmed, his voice bellowing off the walls. “And what do they do with a Big League pitcher who can’t throw the ball over seventeen inches?” Pause. “They send him to Pocatello !” he hollered, drawing raucous laughter. “What they don’t do is this: they don’t say, ‘Ah, that’s okay, Jimmy. If you can’t hit a seventeen-inch target? We’ll make it eighteen inches or nineteen inches. We’ll make it twenty inches so you have a better chance of hitting it. If you can’t hit that, let us know so we can make it wider still, say twenty-five inches.'”
Pause. “Coaches... what do we do when your best player shows up late to practice? or when our team rules forbid facial hair and a guy shows up unshaven? What if he gets caught drinking? Do we hold him accountable? Or do we change the rules to fit him? Do we widen home plate?"
The chuckles gradually faded as four thousand coaches grew quiet, the fog lifting as the old coach’s message began to unfold.
He turned the plate toward himself and, using a Sharpie, began to draw something.
When he turned it toward the crowd, point up, a house was revealed, complete with a freshly drawn door and two windows.
“This is the problem in our homes today. With our marriages, with the way we parent our kids. With our discipline.
We don’t teach accountability to our kids, and there is no consequence for failing to meet standards. We just widen the plate!”
Pause.
Then, to the point at the top of the house he added a small American flag.
“This is the problem in our schools today. The quality of our education is going downhill fast and teachers have been stripped of the tools they need to be successful, and to educate and discipline our young people. We are allowing others to widen home plate! Where is that getting us?”
Silence.
He replaced the flag with a Cross. “And this is the problem in the Church, where powerful people in positions of authority have taken advantage of young children, only to have such an atrocity swept under the rug for years. Our church leaders are widening home plate for themselves! And we allow it.”
“And the same is true with our government. Our so called representatives make rules for us that don’t apply to themselves. They take bribes from lobbyists and foreign countries. They no longer serve us. And we allow them to widen home plate! We see our country falling into a dark abyss while we just watch.”
I was amazed. At a baseball convention where I expected to learn something about curve ***** and bunting and how to run better practices, I had learned something far more valuable.
From an old man with home plate strung around his neck, I had learned something about life, about myself, about my own weaknesses and about my responsibilities as a leader. I had to hold myself and others accountable to that which I knew to be right, lest our families, our faith, and our society continue down an undesirable path.
“If I am lucky,” Coach Scolinos concluded, “you will remember one thing from this old coach today. It is this: "If we fail to hold ourselves to a higher standard, a standard of what we know to be right; if we fail to hold our spouses and our children to the same standards, if we are unwilling or unable to provide a consequence when they do not meet the standard; and if our schools & churches & our government fail to hold themselves accountable to those they serve, there is but one thing to look forward to ...”
With that, he held home plate in front of his chest, turned it around, and revealed its dark black backside, “...We have dark days ahead!.”
Note: Coach Scolinos died in 2009 at the age of 91, but not before touching the lives of hundreds of players and coaches, including mine.
Meeting him at my first ABCA convention kept me returning year after year, looking for similar wisdom and inspiration from other coaches.
He is the best clinic speaker the ABCA has ever known because he was so much more than a baseball coach.
His message was clear: “Coaches, keep your players—no matter how good they are—your own children, your churches, your government, and most of all, keep yourself at seventeen inches."
And this my friends is what America has become and what is wrong with it today.
The following 5 users liked this post by Mexstan:
Bob L (06-28-2018),
FiverBob (06-28-2018),
Lary Ellis (Top) (06-30-2018),
NJTman (06-28-2018),
patdaly (06-28-2018)
06-28-2018, 12:19 PM
#19
Registered User
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Land of the Toxic Avenger
Posts: 6,770
Received 1,637 Likes
on
1,112 Posts
Great post, Mexstan !
I enjoyed that read.
I enjoyed that read.
06-28-2018, 05:23 PM
#20
Proprietor of Fiver's Inn and Hospitality Center
Wow Stan - - what a sermon. And right on. Men can't be men, women can't be women, so we make one bathroom for both of them - - or worse yet, allow women who imagine themselves to be men to be able to walk into the men's room while we MEN are standing there piddling. Happened to me once - - how stupid. Gals and guys play around before marriage and she gets pregnant. Oh, how unfortunate. Don't worry about taking responsibility for your actions - - just kill your new child. See, ya got me going. Right is no longer right and wrong no longer wrong. It is somewhere in between - - and if that doesn't work, we will create a new law that with make it work. OK, shut up Bob. Won't help a bit.
Too late for ph00, but hi anywh00. Busy day with paperwork and house repairs. Just had one of our bombers here too, Stan - - about ten minutes ago. I was outside with the gardeners, sprinkles came, suddenly huge flash and crack at the same time. Everyone headed for trucks, cars, and me the house. Bam bam bam, could hardly see my neighbor's house across the street - - and as quickly it let up.
Gotta go rustle up a bite to eat. Take care - - - morry.
Too late for ph00, but hi anywh00. Busy day with paperwork and house repairs. Just had one of our bombers here too, Stan - - about ten minutes ago. I was outside with the gardeners, sprinkles came, suddenly huge flash and crack at the same time. Everyone headed for trucks, cars, and me the house. Bam bam bam, could hardly see my neighbor's house across the street - - and as quickly it let up.
Gotta go rustle up a bite to eat. Take care - - - morry.
06-29-2018, 07:09 AM
#21
Proprietor of Fiver's Inn and Hospitality Center
WAKE UP - - RISE AND SHINE. Come get your coffee and ph00 I just made for y00. Also brought cut fresh fruit, yogurt in several flavors, raisin bread ready for the toaster and some wonderful North Carolina preserves. Enjoy.
I am off to see what I can mess up - - uhhhh, I mean fix on this gorgeous morning. Was out pulling some weeds and tweaking the major cut back the yard people did yesterday. Looks much better and will look better in a couple weeks when the flowered plants bloom again. They had gone crazy with all the rains and sunshine.
Me gone...……………...
I am off to see what I can mess up - - uhhhh, I mean fix on this gorgeous morning. Was out pulling some weeds and tweaking the major cut back the yard people did yesterday. Looks much better and will look better in a couple weeks when the flowered plants bloom again. They had gone crazy with all the rains and sunshine.
Me gone...……………...
06-29-2018, 08:08 PM
#22
Registered User
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Land of the Toxic Avenger
Posts: 6,770
Received 1,637 Likes
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1,112 Posts
No women while,I'm piddling. Can't let them see the stuff, as they would attack,me for no reason whatsoever.
Hey Bob. Can't you keep that heatmiser down in Fla? I'm tired of 85 plus deg days. And they've only just begun.
Cecil turtle is still plugging away.
My cat showed me her junk yesterday, and its the only junk being shown around here lately. Ugh.
Hopefully be done with the siding install tomorrow, then all I have left is final sand, and stain, to be able to move back to the ground again.
Fixed a customer sink,yesterday. Amazing Chinese metal rotting like that. Almost as bad as my brake drums on my dodge.
I will be skinny by the time this is done. On the bright side, no doubt.
Hey Bob. Can't you keep that heatmiser down in Fla? I'm tired of 85 plus deg days. And they've only just begun.
Cecil turtle is still plugging away.
My cat showed me her junk yesterday, and its the only junk being shown around here lately. Ugh.
Hopefully be done with the siding install tomorrow, then all I have left is final sand, and stain, to be able to move back to the ground again.
Fixed a customer sink,yesterday. Amazing Chinese metal rotting like that. Almost as bad as my brake drums on my dodge.
I will be skinny by the time this is done. On the bright side, no doubt.
06-30-2018, 11:18 AM
#23
Registered User
Still chipping away at my house too. Got the dish washer out and a cabinet to fill the gap. Got to remove 2 more cabinets and cut the kitchen counter off. Started wiring for the new washer and dryer in the yet to be built laundry/storage room. Hence shortening the kitchen.
07-07-2018, 11:38 AM
#24
Registered User
Another year older today. Just wish all the people that said I'd never make it this far where still alive.
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