Sunday, October 31, 2010

All Hallows Eve

Costumes for the boys definitely got easier this year. Although I did enjoy making some of theirs over the years, I was OK having a break. Both the boys were into the nondescript costumes this year. Scary masks and plastic implements of death and destruction were the order of the day. At least until game time. Then Caz decided he wanted to go commando. Or as a commando I should say. It was definitely too cold to go commando. Caz borrowed one of Yaya's jackets from the Marines, to go with his fatigue pants, hat and Air Soft rifle. Those Air Soft guns are a whole different post. Caz briefly toyed with going as Jason. He even researched the clothes to go with the mask. He was a bit disappointed when we didn't partially burn clothes in the chimenea. I had to check myself when I thought back about watching Friday the13th at his age. No way Caz is ready for that. Or maybe it's me not ready for him being ready for that. Either way, he's not watching it.
This was also Caz's first Halloween going around the neighborhood without adult supervision. He had a new buddy come over and the two of them went around door to door. Caz, the poor kid, started with a mild fever in the AM and we worried that he was going to be sick for the second Halloween in a row. But he rallied and responded to the Tylenol. Coco had their cousin come over. This year Demi got to do the honors, while I manned the door here at Chez Chin. What a happy coincident it was that the Pats were playing at 4 PM game. It's amazing how that works sometimes.
The rounds through the neighborhoods were successful. That included Demi and my cousin too. The moms got to stop at a Halloween party for the grown ups while the kids went around that neighborhood. The candy exchange and inspection afterward was quite the scene with 4 boys. The bartering was almost at the level of the NYSE. Another successful year.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

The Sign

I think I received a sign that I am getting old. I went to Caz's practice tonight. I really wanted to work the kids on blocking. They all need it. We are getting no blocking. It doesn't matter if it is the offensive line or back. None of them can block. So I have a few blocking drills in mind coming into practice. On the last drill, one of mine, before we went to team and started scrimmaging, I saw The Sign. I caught a couple of kids, who had piled up on the ground and had started rolling towards me, out of the corner of eye coming behind me leg. I went to get out of the way. My foot stayed planted in the artificial turf. My leg went forward. As I did start to sprint out of the way, I felt what I can only imagine to be a gun shot to the back of my calf. White hot pain. At the time I thought I could walk it off. I would stretch it out and be fine. That was not to be. After getting home and sitting on the couch, I got up and couldn't walk. I tried to gimp but it was not happening. If this is the start of getting old, then I want no part of it.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

The Win

In my mind, I could only see the headline from the Globe after Sox won the 2004 World Series: "FINALLY!!!!" It was almost 3 years in the making, but we finally managed win for Coco's football team. I kept hearing for weeks leading up to our contest with DY, that they were not a strong team. But a team of perennial O-fers cannot claim to be better than anyone until you beat them. I really had to tune that talk out. I didn't want to get my hopes up, let alone the team. Plus, I would never try to give a pep talk by deriding the other team.
The team was ready from the first whistle and owned DY today. They really played well in all aspects of the game. Though we practiced the Wildcat in pregame, it was scrapped since it was not going well. We could have just run up the middle the entire game. But we were actually able to pass. We ran outside. And we pulled off our first ever punt. Yep. A punt. Who'd a thunk it? To be honest the play call made me nervous at first. But I guess if you pull it off, then it's a good call, right?
The boys were really excited after the game. I thought they composed themselves well and didn't excessively celebrate. The showed great sportsmanship. I know I was smiling all the way home. It made that long ride very enjoyable. I was just happy that the kids got experience a win after all their hard work. They have really played well and up until today, didn't have a lot to show for it. They deserved a win. I couldn't wait to get home to upload the game to our website for the kids. I even put it on my IPod, so I could watch it on my way to work. Crazy, I know. But can you really blame me?