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Showing posts from April, 2013

Stay in your lane

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I was roller skating on my local rail trail recently and coming up to an intersection, so I was slaloming slightly (barely more than C-cuts) to slow down. Someone on a bike came up behind me and said, "On your left!" Alerting people that you're passing is customary and courteous, though I don't know if there are signs suggesting we do that on this trail, like there are on the trails where I skate in Florida. There are also no alligators or exotic birds on my local trail. I was startled and swerved back towards the far right. "Thank you," I answered with a little wave. As the guy passed, he tossed over his shoulder, "Stay in your lane!" My initial reaction was WTF, dude!? You @$$ 4073! However, I said nothing. First of all, are there lanes on the trail? No. The picture above is the actual trail, and that person on the bike is the actual guy. Is he in a lane? No, he's right in the middle of the trail. ( Hypocrite! ) Furthermore, a g...

It's not fair!

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“It’s not fair!” “This stinks!” “That was a foul! The ref shoulda called that!” “That team is way bigger than ours!” My younger two sons were droning on and on about what a stupid basketball game we were watching. My oldest was playing in it. “You’re right. It’s not.” I validated their complaints. Silence. Their eyebrows drew together as they frowned at the game. I continued, “Does that mean our team should quit?” Silence. “Are there other ways of measuring success besides the score?” “Not in basketball, Mom,” my middle son said with disdain. “Yeah, Mom!” My youngest matched his tone. Ignoring the implied insult of stupidity, “Well, boys, what if we considered it a success every time we get the rebound?” Silence. “What if every time we prevent the other team from scoring, we look at it as a success?” More silence, but this time one pair of sky blue eyes and one pair of bronze eyes were riveted on me and not at the stupid, unfair, stinky game. “Honestly, boys. We all know it’s not fair....