Bag of Randomness

  • Growing up, we always kept the Christmas tree up until after New Years, and I always felt strongly that it shouldn’t be taken down until after the start of the new year.  But know, I’m kinda tired of looking at it.
  • I’ve eaten wayyyy too much ham this holiday season.
  • There’s a new burger place in the neighborhood called Mooyah’s -  pretty good stuff.
  • I have ‘The Right Stuff’ recorded on the DVR but haven’t got around to it.
  • My todler niece opened a present which was a toy guitar.  After her father got it out of the package he gave it to her to play, be she refused to start playing and said, “I need a pick!”  Good times.
  • I hear more and more folks state that we should be thankful that Dubya kept us safe from the terrorists, but I have a few thoughts about that.  First of all, it’s his job just like all past and future presidents, and I’m think generally all of us are thankful for the protection and it pretty much goes without saying.  But I’m still bothered by that ‘Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in U.S.’ memo that wasn’t taken seriously that specifically mentioned hijacked planes and NYC and D.C.  I’m also bothered by the use of torture.  I think that destroyed our integrity with other nations, and it makes me fear for the safety of our soldiers should any of them become captured.  If we torture prisoners that are from other countries, what’s going to stop other countries from torturing our soldiers?  Many of you won’t agree with those thoughts, but it’s just one of those things that I’ve been thinking about.
  • I wonder if the Buccaneers from 1976 cracked opened a bottle of champagne and toasted themselves a-la the undefeated Dolphins team does each year when the Lions lost yesterday.
  • With WifeGeeding not home this Sunday morning I decided to visit a different church just to check it out.  As much as I love my current church, I just feel God is wanting me to serve elsewhere.
  • Maybe it’s good old days syndrome, but I liked it better when most bowl games were played on New Years Day.
  • I saw Pat Summeral the day after Christmas.
  • A Geeding utopia would include potatoes, no matter how they are cooked, being the healthiest of all foods.
  • I can’t decide if mortgage rates are going to drop any further or not.  But either way, I plan on refinancing soon.
  • The NFL has moved towards having a running back by committee, instead of just one featured back.  I predict this will also happen with the QB position one day.  You will have a QB that is known as a passer and another known for being like an option type of QB.  It’s the new Wildcat formation that will lead to this new trend, and it’s something owners will love, not having to put so much cash into one player.
  • In the book I’m reading I learned that Ken Norton Jr and James Washington use to recite this prayer before every game, “Lord don’t move the mountain, but give us the strength to climb it.”
  • That’s a prayer I need to say before getting out of bed each morning.
  • For someone that doesn’t like to read, in less than a week I’m more than halfway through with the 365 page book.  Not having to go to work helps out a lot.
  • The Cowboys last playoff win was on Dec. 28, 1996.  That was a very long time ago.
  • So someone born on that day is almost a teenager and has never seen the Cowboys win a playoff game.
  • It was interesting seeing Romo wave off the punting team.
  • Many Cowboy fans will disagree with me, but I think keeping most of the coaching staff is the best thing to do.  Landry went many years losing and not advancing, but later became a very respected coach.  Now I know Wade Phillips is no Tom Landry, but with some adjustments, he might just make this a better team next year.
  • In terms of changes, Wade will have to instill more discipline.  You can’t lead the league in penalties and expect to be a great team.  He will also have to get a new specials teams coach, and Jason Garrett will have to work on that offense.
  • A healthy Felix Jones would have made this an interesting season.
  • I bet Jerry really wants Mike Holgren to coach this team, and is willing to wait one year to get him.  He’s a good Parcells/Phillips mix in terms of attitude.
  • This team really needs a vocal leader like it had back when Michael Irvin played.  Perhaps trying to sign Ray Lewis would help?
  • Wow, the NFL regular season really flew by.
  • I don’t think any team really want to play Philly right now.
  • I wouldn’t be surprised if Atlanta made the NFC Championship game.  I could see them playing Carolina.
  • I wouldn’t be surprised if San Diego made the AFC Championship game.  Hopefully beating the Steelers.
  • I think I’ve settled on an elliptical, the Octane Q37.
Posted in Personal | 5 Comments

Bag of Randomness Christmas Edition

  • I was out doing last minute Christmas shopping and ran into the dollar store to pick up some gift bags and when I saw the plastic poinsettias I felt like I’ve been hit by a Mac truck.  Every year I use to take some to my grandparents’ grave, I hear they were my grandfather’s favorite.  He died when I was negative seven years old, but I do remember Grandma telling me about the poinsettia during one trip to the grave.  Well, I wasn’t planning on driving about two hours to my grandparents’ grave, but I just realized that I haven’t even considered taking any to my father’s grave.  In my selfish pitty of not having my mom and dad around anymore, I totally forgot to visit the grave of my father and where some of my mother’s ashes are scattered about.  I made sure to take a trip out there later in the afternoon.
  • The grave is actually in the DFW National Cemetery.  It opened a few years after my father passed, but we moved him out there as he stated years before his death when it was being built that he wanted to live long enough to be buried out there.  I remember my first trip out there looking at this newly opened cemetery, and one old vet told me that I won’t appreciate it’s beauty of a national cemetery until I’m old enough to have grandkids because by that time there will be many more headstones.  That thought has popped into my mind over the last two years as every year I travel out there I’m amazed by the number of new headstones.  I guess that vet didn’t realize the number of WWII and Korean vets that were about to die at the time.
  • I remember my father telling me he spent a lot of Christmases overseas alone.  That always made me sad, and as an adult looking back I can see why he always valued having the family together on Christmas.
  • Since my father’s passing a decade ago, every Christmas has felt incomplete and unfulfilled.  I expect it to be this way until I become a father.
  • Webcams help make family that lives far away feel a lot closer.
  • I try never to shop or go to the movies on Christmas.  I’ve worked a few Christmases and never liked the idea of being apart from family.
  • On Christmas day I have two friends that will send a gerneric mass text message saying Merry Christmas.
  • I also have one of my oldest friends call me on Christmas day as he travels back to Mineral Wells America just to tell me a new random fact about our hometown.  This year it was the new population sign and the decrease in the updated number.
  • When I think of the population of my home town, it reminds me of my first trip to Texas Stadium.  I remember thinking that if you took the whole population and multiplied it by three it still couldn’t fill the stadium.
  • Speaking of Texas Stadium, WifeGeeding gave me one of the coolest and most personalized Christmas presents I’ve ever received.  She got me two seats from Texas Stadium and even paid the extra cash just to get me an aisle seat with the star on the side.  They won’t come until Feb I think.
  • She also gave me a Cowboys book I’ve been wanting to read.  I started reading it and to my surprise little Hardin-Simmons University was mentioned in it.
  • Last year I was given the Tony Dungy book, and I read that rather quicly and really enjoyed it.  So it appears as much as I don’t like to read, I don’t mind reading unless it’s about football.
  • This is the first Christmas that I can remember in which I didn’t wrap one present.  I find the gift bag route much easier, and I filled them with schredded paper of old bills and stuff.
  • Yes, DogGeeding and OtherDogGeeding also got presents.
  • Our Christmas tree is stacked with old ornaments from my childhood.  It might look a bit tacky but I don’t care.
  • The Christmas Eve service at church started with a video of the Charlie Brown Christmas Special.  It was the part where Charlie Brown gets upset at the Christmas production and right when Linus was about to recite scripture the video stopped and a light was shown on a kid on the alter who read the piece.  I thought that was well choreographed.
  • For as long as I can remember on Christmas Eve I’ve always eatened a Honey Baked Ham and these special brown sugar friend potatoes that Mom always use to make.  For the last two Christmases my sister made the pototoes which came pretty darn close, and since she’s gone this year I thought it would be the first in which I don’t eat the Honey Baked Ham or those potatoes.  Well, WifeGeeding got the ham and did her best to make the potatoes, and she came pretty darn close.  I didn’t really know how much that meal really meant to me or the memories it would bring back.  It was so very nice of WifeGeeding to give me that gift.
  • The local news had a story about the Austin Street Centre, which is a homeless center that only operates off of donations as it doesn’t accept funding from the federal or state level.  The story focuses upon this choir of homeless people that travels to nursing homes and churches to sing.  I was so touched I plan on donating.  You can find more details about it here.
  • Several friends I expected a Christmas card from this year didn’t send one.  Maybe it’s the economic times, but either way I was left a bit sad and disappointed especially since we sent one to them.
  • Lots of commercials for that Brad Pitt Benjamin Buttons movie.  Off hand, I just think it’s Forrest Gump in reverse.
  • Several people think WifeGeeding and Tina Fey look alike.  I don’t think so, but I can see how they might think that because both are kinda tall, slender, lanky, wear glasses, and both are brunettes.  As a joke, WifeGeeding gave me a copy of Vanity Fair with Tina Fey on the cover but with her face over Tina’s.
  • And I leave you with 1984 home video of 9-Year-Old-Geeding when I opened the one thing I wanted more than any other that year . . . Optimus Prime.  It was taken at a time of innocence and when I really cared about the season.  It makes me laugh because of the excitement I had at the time, and my grandma (and by her voice you can tell she was a smoker) asking me who he was, and after telling her hearing her reply, “Ohhhhhh.”

Posted in Goofy, Personal | 9 Comments

Sentimental About Sports

Here are two nice little nuggest for you.

This Rick Reilly story explains why a Texas football coach told parents to root for the opposing team.  Weird, I know, but it’s a touching story and gives me hope that there are Coach Eric Taylors out there, not that many of you would know who Coach Taylor is.

This second piece comes from local sports personality Bob Sturm, who was nice enough to link to this blog more than once.  In one of his more recent posts, he perfectly describes what it means to be a die hard sports fan in a fatherly advice sort of way.  Perhaps it will help the ladies understand their men a little bit more, and it’s one of the better sports pieces I have ever read.

As I was leaving a frigid Texas Stadium after the game, I was walking right behind a Dad and his boy. The boy must have been 7 or 8 years old and was crying about the result. Some people might roll their eyes, but I knew how the boy felt. When you are young, and you love a sports team, you believe the games and the seasons will all have the happy endings of the Disney movies that you watch. Guess what, son, if you are going to pledge allegiance to a team as it appears you have with the Dallas Cowboys, I want to welcome you to the fellowship of the die-hards. Understand, that once you do, you are not allowed out of this commitment, and you should also understand that most seasons are going to end in tears. A favorite team is the only thing a male human feels the same about when he is 5 and when he is 45 and when he is 75. You will change your mind on everything else. Girls, money, hobbies. But, you will always still feel the adrenaline rush of a win, and the gutting sadness of a horrible loss. I didn’t say anything to the boy, as his Dad was handling it (and he might not have welcomed my advice) but I felt for him. Welcome to sports, young man. Someday, you may live to see a championship or five, but most years will end with your guts spilling onto the floor.

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Posted in Touching | 4 Comments