While trying to search for an old friend on The Google, I ran across this 2005 nugget from the Austin American Statesman. It’s just a tiny bit outdated, but it compares the 2005 and 1995 annual salaries of all the 4A and 5A Texas high school football head coaches at their respective schools. I tried to find more current data that compares salaries from a decade ago, but came up short.
A few observations:
The three highest increases adjusted for inflation are:
Houston Clear Lake at $69%, $53,028 to $89,642.
Ennis at 65%, $64,075 to $106,004.
Grandbury at 62%, $46,422 to $75,000.
Five schools pay over $100k back in 2005, with Ennis topping the list.
At the bottom of the list was Houston Furr High School. $54,983 in 1995 to $42,300 in 2005 – a 23% drop.
In 2006, the average salary for a teacher in Texas was $42,400. Teachers have seen their salaries go up from 36.8%, compared to 36.7 for coaches. Also, in 2006 27 coaches earned more than their principal. Source
Other thoughts for your consideration:
Texas high school football coaches’ contracts are based upaon a 226 day work year compared to the teachers’ 187.
Texas high school teachers work 40-70 hours per week. Coaches claim to work 70-100 hours per week during the season and many of the head coaches serve as the athletic director.
A winning football program can bring in over $200,000 to the district and community.
The coaches’ product is on display to the entire community and printed in newspapers which adds to the pressure. Source
This week I was 12/16, which puts me 169/256 or 66% for the entire regular season, four points short of my goal of 70%. I don’t plan on any prognostication for the playoffs, truth be told, I kinda got a little burned out over the season doing this. However, in the process I learned that a total of 256 NFL games are played in the regular season. For some reason I would have thought that number would have been less than that, but it makes sense when you multiple the number of games played (16) by the number of weeks (16). I also learned that I can’t predict NFL games as well as I thought. However, one reader mentioned that I predicted the Cowboys finishing 14-2, but I can’t find any post mentioning that. But if I did, I would have come darn close. The hardest team for me to pick every week were the Broncos, sometimes they sucked and sometimes they looked pretty darn good; either way, they were hard to prognosticate.Â
Patriots at Giants – Correct
Lions at Packers - Correct
Bengals at Dolphins -Â Incorrect
Panthers at Buccaneers – Incorrect
Saints at Bears – Correct
49ers at Browns – Correct
Jaguars at Texans – Correct Seahawks at Falcons – Incorrect
Bills at Eagles – Correct Steelers at Ravens – Correct Vikings at Broncos – Incorrect Chargers at Raiders – Correct
Cowboys at Redskins - Correct
Rams at Cardinals - Correct
Chiefs at Jets – Correct Titans at Colts – Correct
As for the BagOfNothing Fantasy Football League, I came in a respectable third place.
It was fun competing against the readers of my blog, even though I have no idea who the heck six of you are (loserville, RagaMuffin, Underdogs, Andy’s TOS, TurfToe (great name by the way), Gunners). Either way, thanks for playing, guys, and I’ll probably create this league again next year.
The most interesting race was between RagaMuffin and the Fort Worth Sleestaks who happen to be coworkers and were just 1.52 points apart coming into the last week of the season, with the Fort Worth Sleestaks in the lead last week. But as you can see, RagaMuffin pulled way for the victory and a year worth of braggin rights over a coworker.
It happened back in June 1981 on the Tomorrow Show, which many just referred to as the Tom Snider show. It’s a performance, interview, and another performance. Bono even walks into the audience.
Wow, that was fast . . . the final week of the NFL regular season is here.
My picks are in bold:
Patriots at Giants
Lions at Packers
Bengals at Dolphins
Panthers at Buccaneers
Saints at Bears
49ers at Browns
Jaguars at Texans Seahawks at Falcons
Bills at Eagles Steelers at Ravens Vikings at Broncos Chargers at Raiders
Cowboys at Redskins
Rams at Cardinals
Chiefs at Jets Titans at Colts
Another card came in the mail today all the way from Italy. Nope, not Italy, TX home of Dallas Cowboy Keith Davis – but the one in Europe. And it’s from loyal BON readers Jim and Rita who live and travel in Europe. And here’s a tidbit for those that aren’t familiar with the Texas town, it’s pronounced “it-lee.” No joke, that’s the town’s correct pronounceation, it has nothing to do with our southern drawl. But anywho, thanks to Jim and Rita for sending me a card all the way from the country of Italy.
So that’s 12 cards from Texas, two cards from NY, and one from North Carolina, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Louisiana, New Mexico, Colorado, Canada, and Italy. Â
With a total of 23 cards, that’s $23 I’ll donate to help fight lupus.
With the holiday season coming to a close and all, I don’t expect anyone to mail me a card at this point, so I won’t bother posting the address anymore and will continue posting updates. I plan on totally everything up with a final post a little after the first of the year.
It’s the day after Christmas and the mailman was nice enough to bring me two more Christmas cards.
The first card is from BON’s favorite author Margaret Feinberg who now resides in Colorado. If you take the time to visit her blog, you will see just about the cutest masthead for a blog that an author can have – truly.  It makes me smile every time I see it because I just think it’s so gosh darn clever.
The second card comes from the Sadler family who is also from the DFW area. They were a little creative in their card as it wasn’t a Christmas card, but a get-well card for SisterGeeding who is now fully recovered from her tonsillectomy. The Sadler family was even nice enough to include a donation to help fight lupus.
Many thanks to the Sadler Family and Margaret for the cards and helping to fight lupus!
So that’s 12 cards from Texas, two cards from NY, and one from North Carolina, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Louisiana, New Mexico, Colorado, and Canada. Â
With a total of 22 cards, that’s $20 I’ll donate to help fight lupus.
With the holiday season coming to a close and all, I don’t expect anyone to mail me a card at this point, so I won’t bother posting the address anymore and will continue posting updates. I plan on totally everything up with a final post a little after the first of the year.
This week I was 12/16, which puts me 157/240 or 65%, the same percentage I was at last week.Â
Steelers at Rams – Correct Cowboys at Panthers – Correct Eagles at Saints – Correct Giants at Bills – Correct Browns at Bengals – Incorrect
Texans at Colts – Correct
Raiders at Jaguars – Correct
Chiefs at Lions – Correct Packers at Bears – Incorrect
Falcons at Cardinals - Correct Buccaneers at 49ers – Incorrect
Ravens at Seahawks – Correct
Dolphins at Patriots - Correct
Jets at Titans - Correct
Redskins at Vikings – Incorrect
Broncos at Chargers – Correct
ASHLAND, Ore. – Even in death, Chet Fitch is a card. Fitch, known for his sense of humor, died in October at age 88 but gave his friends and family a start recently: Christmas cards, 34 of them, began arriving — written in his hand with a return address of “Heaven.” The greeting read: “I asked Big Guy if I could sneak back and send some cards. At first he said no; but at my insistence he finally said, ‘Oh well, what the heaven, go ahead but don’t (tarry) there.’ Wish I could tell you about things here but words cannot explain.
“Better get back as Big Guy said he stretched a point to let me in the first time, so I had better not press my luck. I’ll probably be seeing you (some sooner than you think). Wishing you a very Merry Christmas. Chet Fitch”
A friend for nearly 25 years, Debbie Hansen Bernard said, “All I could think was, ‘You little stinker.’”
“It was amazing,” she said. “Just so Chet, always wanting to get the last laugh.”
The mailing was a joke Fitch worked on for two decades with his barber, Patty Dean, 57. She told the Ashland Daily Tidings this week that he kept updating the mailing list and giving her extra money when postal rates went up. This fall, she said, Fitch looked up to her from the chair.
“You must be getting tired of waiting to mail those cards,” he told her. “I think you’ll probably be able to mail them this year.”
Several weeks ago I made a post about how I think Sonic car hops don’t like the debit/credit card machines because if customers don’t pay with cash but with a credit/debit card, the likelyhood that they would receive a tip from the change is greatly diminished.
I thought of this again as I was leaving Wal-Mart and walked past the Salvation Army bell ringer with no change or bills to donate. I can’t recall the last time I paid for something with cash at Wal-Mart or the grocery store, which makes me wonder if donations for the Salvation Army are going to be down if more folks start to pay with plastic?Â
Here’s another thought for ya . . . if paying with plastic just gets to become the norm, I wonder if eventually the Salvation Army will arrange something with Wal-Mart to allow an oportunity for the customer to donate at the end of the debit/credit card transaction? So if your total is $9.25, you can have the option of rounding your transaction to the nearest dollar ($10.00) and the change ($0.75) going to charity.Â
Update:Â I decided to email the Salvation Army about this idea.Â
On Christmas Eve I received two cards in the mail – just in the nick of time.
The first card is from Doug and is actually a post card from the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. And you guessed it, there’s a large missile on the front of the post card. Doug actually lives in the DFW area, but since the card is post marked from NM, I’m going credit this card from a New Mexico destination.
The second card comes from the Leach family of Midland, Texas.  I’ve only been to Midland once to fly out of their airport, and my most vivid memory of that travel is just how darn windy and dusty West Texas can be.
Many thanks to the Leach Family and Doug for the cards and helping to fight lupus!
So that’s 11 cards from Texas, two cards from NY, and one from North Carolina, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Louisiana, New Mexico, and Canada. Â
With a total of 20 cards, that’s $20 I’ll donate to help fight lupus.
With this being Christmas Eve and all, I don’t expect anyone to mail me a card at this point, so I won’t bother posting the address anymore.
That Stuart Scott has cancer. He’s in WifeGeeding’s One-Eyed Hall of Fame.
The guy annoys me a bit and I really can’t stand his very politically correct chat sessions that are in ESPN the Magazine, but I certainly don’t like the idea that he now has cancer. Thankfully it was caught early.Â
ESPN anchor Stuart Scott has been diagnosed with a malignancy in his appendix and plans to begin chemotherapy.
The malignancy was discovered when he had emergency appendectomy surgery on Nov. 26. He had a second surgery to remove surrounding tissue.
A statement Thursday from ESPN said Scott’s physicians “are confident they eliminated the cancerous tissue but have prescribed preventative chemotherapy.”
Scott will return to on-air studio work on ESPN’s NBA doubleheader Friday and will debut as ABC’s NBA studio host on Christmas Day. If needed, ESPN’s Mark Jones would sub for Scott.
Says Scott, in a statement: “Talk about a shocker … But I’m not the type of guy to let this eat up my life.”
Tracy Phillips, the daughter of Dallas coach Wade Phillips, plays a belly dancer in a critical scene of Charlie Wilson’s War, the film starring Tom Hanks, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Julia Roberts. Phillips does a seductive dance in front of the Egyptian defense minister. It’s a long story. We’ll all have to see it to understand it. Daughter joined Dad in Charlotte for the Cowboys-Panthers on Saturday night, by the way.
There are going to be very few posts until the start of next year. I need the break, and I’m sure most of you are off visiting family and doing better things than surfing the Internet. As a matter of fact, this 32 year old just realized that 10 years ago I spent my last ever Christmas with my father, and now this will be my second without my mother. Life is short and very unpredictable, so be sure to really let the time you spend with loved ones sink in.
I’ll continue to post any updates regarding Christmas cards. I won’t post a final total until a little after the first of the year since the mail may be a little behind. At that time I’ll be sure to total everything up and report on the final numbers.Â
I was away for the weekend but when I arrived home my 17th and 18th Christmas cards were in MailboxGeeding.
The first card is from the Weaver family of Mesquite, TX who were even nice enough to include a donation to help fight lupus.
The other card was actually inside a package and is from Shawn of Baton Rouge, LA. Shawn is a longtime reader of BON and knows my heart, and I’m pretty sure he’s BON’s biggest fan in all of Louisiana. Last year he was kind enough to send a Dallas Cowboys floor mat that is still on display at our front door, and this year he kept tradition by sending Dallas Cowboys floor mats for automobileGeeding. I didn’t think a Saints fan could ever be so nice.  On top of that, Shawn and his family included a donation to help fight lupus.Â
DogGeeding insisted on being in the picture of our new floor mats.
Thank you Weavers and Shawn and your family for the cards, donations, and helping to fight lupus!
So that’s 10 cards from Texas, two cards from NY, and one from North Carolina, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Louisiana, and Canada. Â
With a total of 18 cards, that’s $18 I’ll donate to help fight lupus.
A small recap of the experiment of me trying to see if any of you are willing to send me a Christmas card:
Option 1: You can make a direct donation to the Lupus Research Institute in memory of Kim Geeding. Have the acknowledgement sent to my address, and I’ll consider that my Christmas card. I’ve done some research, and out of all the lupus organizations I feel most comfortable with the Lupus Research Institute came out on top.
Option 2: If you just want to send a card and no money, then I will total up all the cards received before Dec 25, and for each card donate a dollar (up to $50) to the Lupus Research Institute. If you include any money, I’ll make sure to donate the funds directly to the Lupus Research Institute.Â
Send all cards to
Keith “BagOfNothing†Geeding
421 Vista Noche Dr
Lewisville, TX 75067-8345
Please be sure to include the “BagOfNothing†in the name so I know the card comes from a reader and not the dentist or plumber.
It’s from Judy who is BON’s biggest fan in East Texas. She was even nice enough to include a donation to help fight lupus.
Thank you Judy for the card, donation, and helping to fight lupus!
So that’s nine cards from Texas, two cards from NY, and one from North Carolina, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and Canada. Â
With a total of 16 cards, that’s $16 I’ll donate to help fight lupus.
A small recap of the experiment of me trying to see if any of you are willing to send me a Christmas card:
Option 1: You can make a direct donation to the Lupus Research Institute in memory of Kim Geeding. Have the acknowledgement sent to my address, and I’ll consider that my Christmas card. I’ve done some research, and out of all the lupus organizations I feel most comfortable with the Lupus Research Institute came out on top.
Option 2: If you just want to send a card and no money, then I will total up all the cards received before Dec 25, and for each card donate a dollar (up to $50) to the Lupus Research Institute. If you include any money, I’ll make sure to donate the funds directly to the Lupus Research Institute.Â
Send all cards to
Keith “BagOfNothing†Geeding
421 Vista Noche Dr
Lewisville, TX 75067-8345
Please be sure to include the “BagOfNothing†in the name so I know the card comes from a reader and not the dentist or plumber.
Ken Hendricks, 66, was checking on construction Thursday night on the roof at his home in the town of Rock when he fell through, Rock County Sheriff’s Department Cmdr. Troy Knudson said.
Hendricks suffered massive head injuries, according to his company, ABC Supply Co.
Hendricks’ wife called authorities and attempted CPR on her husband, Knudson said. Hendricks was taken first to a Beloit hospital and then transferred to Rockford Memorial Hospital in Winnebago County, Illinois.
He was pronounced dead there early Friday morning, Winnebago County Coroner Sue Fiduccia said. An autopsy was planned for Friday.
Hendricks was the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of ABC Supply, which describes itself as the nation’s largest wholesale distributor of roofing. The Beloit-based company does about $3 billion in business a year.
Hendricks had a net worth of $3.5 billion in September, according to Forbes magazine. That made him the country’s 91st-richest person, according to the magazine’s ranking of American billionaires.
Is how Julia Roberts says “Charlie!” on the commercial for Charlie Wilson’s War. 
That Stuart Scott has cancer. He’s in WifeGeeding’s One-Eyed Hall of Fame.
 On top of that, Shawn and his family included a donation to help fight lupus. 
