weekend

adventures / Alabama / Auburn / video / weekend — Comments Off on Flipping for gymnastics
4
Apr 15

Flipping for gymnastics

Tonight was the NCAA Regional gymnastics meet. There were six teams, with the top two advancing to the NCAA Finals in Texas later this month.

I was going to shoot a whole bunch of video, but the network is less than good and the cell system finds itself lacking whenever there are more than eight phones vying for attention. So I went 20th century and watched the event.

Alabama was the highest ranked team coming into the meet, and they should be. Auburn, ranked eighth in the nation, was the second seed. And those two big teams slugged it out throughout the night. It was never in any real doubt, and, even as Auburn struggled early, they kept pressing Alabama. At the end of the night the two top 10 teams each punched their tickets to Texas.

The Tigers set a school record for an NCAA Regional score – and didn’t even hit all of their routines. Hopefully that is promising as they go forward. Auburn earned their way to the national finals, just their fourth appearance all time and their first since 2003.

Here is one video, quick shots of Bri Guy and Abby Milliet on bars for Auburn.

I shot this on my phone, from across the arena, and edited it in the iPhone iMovie app. I also just discovered that app now has a zoom feature. So that’s shot from across the building and then zoomed in. Not bad, huh?

adventures / photo / triathlon / weekend — Comments Off on Super-sprint triathlon
29
Mar 15

Super-sprint triathlon

The local bike shop — and a host of others, but let’s just say the bike shop guys because they made it go and that’s how we got involved — held a weekend of triathlons. Yesterday was a kid’s triathlon of varying distances based on age.

Today was a super sprint triathlon, a short distance race. The idea was that it would be a good race for people interested in trying a triathlon for the first time or for people getting a start on their tri season.

The distances were a 400-meter swim, an 11-mile ride and a two-mile run. Since I don’t sprint, and since I’m not super, I did not race. We did, however volunteer. It was cold and it is March, but the swim was indoors:

Not a bad day when you get to swim beneath all of those banners in the same pool where champions and All-Americans and Olympians have kicked and stroked.

I’ve never volunteered at a triathlon. I got four jobs. I made a few announcements over a PA system. I collected towels, because the race organizers offered them for the cool temperatures. I had pointed runners to the proper exit out of the transition area after their bike ride and I watched for cars near the end of the race.

Also, I got to watch a lot of great athletes, including our friend Victoria, who was one of those first time triathletes. It was a lot of great fun. We got to be outside for the nicer part of the day and I didn’t have to do anything more than stand and talk in a loud voice.

So, naturally, I took a nap.

adventures / family / history / memories / photo / site / weekend — Comments Off on A day in Georgia
28
Mar 15

A day in Georgia

Today we were at the New Hope memorial for Southern 242 – Georgia’s largest aviation disaster.

The Southern 242 committee just unveiled their upcoming memorial sculpture.

Around the pedestal, the committee says, will be the names of the 72 fatalities and 22 survivors of the 1977 crash.

A terrible storm, bad radar brought on by the storm, a bad forecast, complete systems failure on the plane and human error on the ground led to the crash. The pilots, former military aviators, then steering a glider, desperately attempted the unprecedented: landing a DC9 on a country road. Witnesses on the ground say Capt. William McKenzie and co-pilot Lyman Keele, with 23,000 flight hours between them, put their front wheel on the center line of the two-lane road. But for power poles. The wings hit poles, snapped trees and spun the plane out of control.

When the plane came to rest, emergency workers couldn’t get to the site for the debris. Survivors were carried through that house, into the backyard, through the woods and to a parallel road. Everyone that made it into that house and out the back door survived.

At the memorial, they prayed and sang and rang bells for the dead. Over the years it has turned into a reunion. I wrote about all of this a few years ago.

We had a late lunch here, a nearby north Georgia barbecue joint that had good brisket.

And then in walked this guy:

Isn’t that a great photo?

photo / weekend — Comments Off on Catching up
22
Mar 15

Catching up

And now the 168th installment of the weekly post of extra photographs that haven’t already appeared on the site.

New rule: If you are using three or more fonts, it better have something to do with Vanilla Ice.

You pull up next to a bus, inspiration strikes and you drive all of your designer friends absolutely nuts with your irreverence.

That’s not bad for a Wednesday afternoon.

The Yankee and the Black Cat do yoga. Allie is very interested in this lately.

Walking in the sunset.

Mowed the lawn Wednesday. Had this in the lawn on Thursday. So I picked it, and gave it to my best girl. Take that, dandelion.

A frog in the aquarium at Mellow Mushroom. For ages we thought they might be fake. They almost never move. When we saw them this week they were all over the place.

One of the frogs’ tank mates.

The driveway (I wish we had) …

Seven-foot tall furry mascots help us get over our kid fears.

They also take good mock-selfies, which is now my raison d’Aubie. I asked him to throw his hands up and he figured it out, took my phone away from me and started take pictures everywhere around us. I have 16 shots on my phone now of the people sitting nearby, with Aubie sort of photobombing the foreground. Genius.

Raison d’Aubie.

Auburn / baseball / cycling / Twitter / video / weekend — Comments Off on Hours of ping
21
Mar 15

Hours of ping

Today Auburn played a doubleheader against Vanderbilt. There’s rain in the forecast today, so let’s play two! … Against one of the best teams in the country and the defending national champions. No biggie!

We watched almost eight hours of baseball today. Good thing we got in a bike ride this morning, however so brief. In between games we got a snack and then went back to sit in the cooling night air, get rained on and watch a marathon, 10-inning game. Auburn was down, but not out. In the bottom of the ninth all of this happened.

And then, with the score tied, Vandy went ahead by a run in the 10th. In the bottom of the frame it all came down to a bloop single in right field.

Apparently the TV announcers said the umpire blew the call. Our DVR recorded three hours of the game, which got us through the first eight innings, but not the next 63 minutes of game time.

It was a long day. Auburn lost the series, but it looks like they proved to themselves that they can hang with a great team. In the press box, meanwhile, the poor guy ran out of songs to play from his iPod, I think.

Good times, nice people and plenty of fun.

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