Sand Traps

Will got to play golf today in Raleigh. He also played Thursday in Atlanta, with DJ, David, and childhood teammate Darren. Anna is dog-sitting.

Ever notice how if something happens in New York City its really big news, bigger and supposedly more important than if it happened anywhere else? Super Storm Sandy. Coronavirus. Space junk falling to earth. Guess I need to start reading more of the Marietta Daily News.

 

Things have picked up at work. Every day we have a 9 am conference call. At home whenever I take a phone call I walk outside because the phone reception isn’t good inside. Phone calls are longer and more frequent these days since everyone is all spread out and not in the same place. So I’m not “at my desk” as much. I had been kicking sweetgum balls off the driveway to keep it clear but those are mostly all gone now that it’s May. Been walking up and down the driveway during calls for exercise. Lately I’ve been taking a golf club and hitting pine cones.

 

Any way I’ve been trying to say my work routine has been off. All the phone calls and other stuff is slowing me down. Still just as productive at home as I am at the office. 

 

My Sunday School class has prayer calls every day. C has been joining in on some of them.
 

Four good nuggets from Denison:

1. An entomologist writing in the Conversation states that Asian giant hornets will defend their nests, but "in most cases they will not do anything if people aren't aggressive toward them." They are fairly common in Japan, where wasp and hornet stings kill less than 0.00001 percent of the national population.

2. Earlier this week, the body of a spent Chinese rocket became the largest piece of space junk to fall uncontrolled toward our planet in decades. According to the US Space Force's 18th Space Control Squadron, the core passed directly over New York City before scattering debris on the west coast of Africa, though no injuries have been reported as of this morning. If re-entry had been just a few minutes earlier, debris could reportedly have showered the Big Apple.
3. Brother Curtis Almquist of the Society of St. John the Evangelist in Boston writes: "In many circumstances of life, we end up sharing life with people we would not have chosen, some of whom we inevitably find quite challenging. The monastic tradition has a name for these sometimes-quite-difficult people: 'teachers.' They teach us about ourselves; they expose us to what otherwise we may not see in ourselves or show to others." 

4. Tolstoy observed that "Life is life, only when it is the carrying out of God's purpose."

Denison’s monk comment especially rings true for me. This week I’ve been dealing a lot of "teachers". Stuff like this really wears me out. Sometimes I fail the test. I’m sure I am a teacher to other people as well. 

 

NOMAR GARCIAPARRA  [SABR Bio] was the last player in the twentieth century with 10 RBI in a single game - 10 RBI 10-May-1999 vs. SEA (It has happened 5 X since then). He won the Silver Slugger Award at his position in his rookie season - SS at SS in 1997. He finished second in MVP voting after he’d played only two full seasons – 2nd in MVP voting in his 2nd year (1998).