Yeaa Denver Broncos!

 

That was a fun game for us!  Exhausting, but great fun.

 

 

Even when he's bad he's good

 

We love watching Alex do his gymnastics routines, even when he’s not having his best day.  He thinks he had a terrible meet.  We continue to be amazed by what he does.

 

The first event on Friday was the rings.  He did a good routine and scored a 12.0, his best score on the rings ever.

 

Rings

 

 

The next skill was the vault.  The vault happens pretty fast.  The whole thing only lasts a few seconds.  He got wrong-footed on the approach; so right as he hit the vault (he told us later), he changed what he was going to do and did a vault that better fit the approach.  How do you do that in microseconds?  He took a side step on the landing, but still scored a respectable 12.2.

 

Vault

 

 

The first big mistake of the day was on the parallel bars.  He got just off-center and fell out of a skill that he never falls on.

 

Parallel Bars

 

Still scored an 11.3.

 

 

He missed two moves on the high bar.  The first one happened right after the start and he ended up briefly right up against the bar with no momentum.  At this level there shouldn’t be any hesitations.  A short while later, he didn’t get all the way around on a giant and had to bail while he was still upside down, but still somehow landed on his feet.  I asked him later how he had the presence to do that and he answered “I fall a lot in practice.”

 

High Bar

 

He scored a 10, his lowest score of the day.

 

 

He did well on the floor.  Took a couple extra steps on landings, but did some wonderfully difficult maneuvers.

 

Floor

 

12.4.

 

 

His final event, the pommel.  That fall looked tough.  We head the thud from across the gym.  The skills were difficult enough that he still scored an 11.8.

 

Pommel

 

 

His target at this level is to score 75 points total in a meet.  That’s what he needs to be doing to be around the podium at the end, but he hasn’t done that yet.  He has scored in the low 70s, but hasn’t hit 75.  In this meet, with the falls, he scored 69.7.  Each fall is a one point deduction.  When he can do these routines without the falls, he’s right in there.

 

In sports, it’s all about winning.  That’s what you’re there for.  I think there are important lessons in losing too though.  We watch him fall, brush it off, get back up there, and finish.

 

We’re so proud of him.

 

You don't always get what you want

 

We got a super visit to Houston.  Lots of time with Matt and Lindsay.  Hung out with the team.  Watched a competition.  We didn’t get to watch Alex win anything though.  He did well his first two events.  He scored a 12 on the rings, his best score ever on that apparatus.  Then he scored a 12.2 on the vault, even with a step-out at the end.  Good start.  But then he had his worst meet ever.  He fell on the parallel bars.  He never falls on the parallel bars.  Then he fell on the high bar.  Then he had a good floor exercise.  Then he fell on the pommel.  Even with the falls, the lowest score on any of his events was a 10.  Everything else was still in the 11s.  He didn’t do well enough to get any recognition, but things didn’t go nearly as far wrong as they could have.  We saw two kids in a row score in the low 6s on the high bar.

 

A fall doesn’t necessarily hurt, it can just be a step-aside in the middle of a routine and you have to pause, regroup, get back up and finish the routine.  It’s always a full point deduction.  In some cases it has to hurt.  The fall from the pommel made a thud.  He got back up and finished the routine though.  That’s what you do.

 

I guess every athlete has to have a “worst meet ever”.  Now Alex has that out of the way.

 

 

Off to Houston

 

We flew in today and met up with the kids this afternoon.  We’ll all go watch Alex compete at the Houston National Invitational tomorrow.

 

We’ll report back.

 

 

It's just a dog

 

Yet we grieve.

 

We have lost parents.  We grieved for them.  We have friends who have lost spouses.  We can’t imagine their pain and grief.  How do you get over that?  It’s embarrassing to us that we use the same words to describe our loss when Annie died.  It’s just a dog, we tell ourselves.

 

Yet we grieve.

 

 

I'm feeling the Bern

 

Flaming liberal that I am, I can’t resist Bernie Sanders.

 

I don’t want Hillary to lose.  I like her.  I think it’s her time.  It’s our time for a woman president.  I have liked the recent democratic administrations better than republican ones; they seem more human.  But republican or democrat, it still feels like the candidates are all owned by big money.

 

In the current campaign, every candidate is beholden to big money, including Trump (his own money).  Everyone except Bernie.  If we’re worried about being ruled by an oligarchy (I am), that rigs the electoral system and the economy for their own benefit, there is one candidate who is truly supported by the people, and only beholden to them, with no big donor Super PAC.  Bernie.

 

I think Obama might have been the first to benefit from large scale small internet contributions.  Bernie appears to have perfected it.  He is matching the traditional political funding without participating in it.  If someone really can succeed in politics by appealing to citizens rather than big donors, then I want to encourage it.

 

I can vote for stability, the establishment, electability, and vote for Hillary; a conservative democratic choice.  Or I can vote for the passion of the people.  If Bernie’s flame fizzles out after the first few states, and I have to vote for Hillary in the general election, I can do that no problem, but in the meantime, when it’s our chance to vote in Texas, I’m voting for Bernie.  Power to the people!

 

Plain Chacalaca

 

This is how they are supposed to look.

 

Prehistoric

 

Plain.  One color all over.

 

This one however, is not plain.

 

This variant should be called the “Fancy Chachalaca”!