Marathon

Hey
I watched a show called Kitchen Nightmares last night.
It is the guy from Hell's Kitchen and he has a reality show. He goes into a failing restaurant and tries to fix it up.
Now you have a world renown chef going into a failing mom and pop restaurant and trying to fix the restaurants many ills in five days.
This particular BBQ joint had three owners. A managing partner and a husband and wife "silent" partners.
The restaurant sucks and it is losing money so everyone starts to crucify the managing partner. He starts to lose more money so he starts to skimp on the quality of the cheese. Then the quality of the potatoes, then the quality of the carpet. Then the next thing you know nothing in this place is quality.
I mean this is a place with three dudes as "cooks". They certainly are not chefs. They can flip a burger and throw fries in the deep fryer but they don't know how to "cook".
So he starts in on the poor cooks.
He tells them how to do it right in the afternoon and says we are going to try the new menu and the new attitude TONIGHT.
Then they are suppose to execute things that he has learned in a lifetime of restaurant consultation in one night.
The night is seizure inducing chaos. He is a total spaz but somehow the restaurant makes it through the night. At the end of the night (day five) he says good job, gives them a pep talk and leaves.
WOW. What a crazy show. I think I will DVR it.
Have you seen it?

One thing I do envy is the ability for a person to say it like it is. I am this "no confrontation at any cost" kind of guy.
I envy someones ability to say what he or she is thinking. I know in my heart that things will be okay and probably better if I just tell people what I expect. But that may lead to confrontation and that is not okay.
I am working on it but when I see someone laying into someone it just makes me uncomfortable. Now maybe the dude deserved it and it will make him a better employee but just watching someone else being forceful makes me uncomfortable.
Crazy...I know.


The marathon...
Where was I?
I think I was telling you about the beginning of the marathon. I started with two of my friends and by the second mile they were gone, they wanted to get out of the crowd...so they bolted. I know that when you are running with 25,000 people there is always going to be crowds. I was using too much energy trying to keep up with them, so I let them go. Okay so here I am 24.2 miles from the finish line and alone.
I was freaking out. Am I just going to run for 4 more hours by myself? Will I be able to do it? Am I going to totally blow my time?
So I just started to run. During my training I run for two miles and then walk for a minute or two. You know for me running is a social event. If there was a lot of people at the water stop I would talk and the next thing you know it is 3-4 minutes later.
So during the marathon I didn't stop. I don't know why I didn't stop. I don't know if I was mad about my "friends" leaving me or I was not very tired or I was just out of sorts.
At mile 10 I started to walk for the first time. I got some water and walked. I used this time to have a GOO and drink without choking.
Remember last week I was telling you how excited I was about seeing all the military vehicles and all the monuments and memorials. Well I didn't see any of it. First there wasn't any Hummers or anything like that along the way. But the things that were there, like the Washington Monument, I didn't even see. I did see the Capital Building but that was at mile 18 and I didn't give a sh#$$!#%&t about it.
All I cared about was the looking for the next mile marker.
So things were going pretty good.
One thing that was golden for me was my shirt. I wrote my name in big letters on the front of my shirt. JOHN
So everyone was yelling at me, "Go John", " Way to go John", "Looking great John".
It was awesome. So some of the other runners would talk to me, "So you are JOHN."
Then we would get to talking. And if they talked to me I would hang with them for as long as I could.
So I finished the half mile and I couldn't tell how I felt. But I did feel okay.
I knew the clock time was 2:07. I was a little disappointed. But I didn't know how far from my chip time was from the clock time. It turned out it took me 7 minutes to get to the start line after then gun.
So it took me exactly 2 hours to do the first 13.1. This is pretty good.
So I was thinking 2:03 which isn't bad but I was not thinking very clearly. I just wanted to hang on.
But according to the clock I picked up speed. I was as low as 9:11 pace. This is pretty fast by my standards. But the other guys are usually my pace cars. They both wear GPS watches. They have the time, your pace, elevation on this watch. During our training runs they would always be the watchers of the pace.
Mile 17 I saw my family for the first time. It was cool. Everyone was so excited. But my daughter was like, "Ewh, don't touch me, you are disgusting."
They ran across the Mall and I ran around it and I saw them again at mile 19.
I was getting close. My wife told me that Rakesh was about 10 minutes ahead of me and Chris was about 5 minutes ahead...the bastards.
So I made it to about 21 miles before I hit the wall. Okay maybe the wall hit me.
I was feeling good mind and lungs but my legs started to go. I mean my calves were starting to cramp up. I would stop a minute and stretch and I could go a half mile or so before they froze up again. At the 21 mile mark I was on a 3:58 pace.
I would look down and I could see every muscle in my calves tight. This was not good.
At mile 22 the course bended on itself. I saw Rakesh and Chris. I was reeling them in.
But when I was running and I could see the other runners behind me I saw the 4:15 balloon. This means if this person holding this balloon catches me...I am pooping out.
I ran the next 4 miles willing myself NOT to be caught by the 4:15 balloon. I was hurting so bad. My legs were in full on rejection mode. They were like rocks. I sometimes run about 10 strides before I couldn't again. I was willing myself to continue. I kept looking back for that balloon. I was convinced she was going to catch me. The next couple of miles were a blur of pain. But next thing I know I saw 25 miles. I only had 5 laps around a track to go. But I might have to crawl to get there but I was going to get there. Even if I had to beat up the woman with the 4:15 balloons.
I saw the 26 mile sign. I am cussing at my legs at this point.
The last .2 miles are straight up a hill. It was a cruel joke. I pushed it. I did it.
My friends were still at the finish line. We all finished 4 minutes of each other. Chris 4:07, Rakesh 4:08 and me 4:11.
I was so happy it was over. I was such a mess.
I didn't cry this time but a mess none the less.
We got some pictures next to the Iwo Jima Memorial and walked to our families.
What a mess of people. It was crazy.
Then I started to realize that I had finished and I cut 19 minutes off my time. I started to process the race.
Wow. What a blessing. A beautiful day, a great time, I got to be with my friends and family.
It doesn't get any better than this.

I have to go
First flag football practice today. I am only the assistant coach this year.
I will be telling you more as the weeks go on.
Have a great weekend.
john

Marathon Man

4 hours and 11 minutes.

There it is.
I don't know how I am suppose to feel about this.
My last marathon I finished in 4 hours 30 minutes. So I shaved 19 minutes off my PR (this is runners lingo for personal record).
But at mile 21 I was on a 3:58 pace. That means I lost 13 mintutes in the last 5 miles.
They say that there are three races in a marathon...the first ten, the second ten and then the last six. I believe them now.

Wait, wait, wait...let me tell you everything else and I will get back to the marathon.

Friday afternoon we packed up the family truckster and set off to our nations capital.
On this ride up it rained the entire time. It wasn't this rain that we are use to in Florida, it was this mist. The kind of mist that doesn't wipe away very easily. I drove the whole way to Washington with my teeth clenched.
We stopped in Georgia to eat dinner at Crackle Barrel. Then we drove until I couldn't drive anymore. We stopped in Fayetteville, NC. This was an eight hour leg of a 13 hour trip.
We stayed at a Hampton Inn from 1am to 8am. Took advantage of the free breakfast and left.
The kids tried to do their homework but it is hard to do 4th grade math when your sister has her headphones on and is humming. Or when your little brother is watching a movie on the portable DVD player.
The kids were pretty good. We try not to have TV or movies the whole time. I mean when I was a kid...oh, here it comes...we took many a trip and played many of car games.
Well, as much as I tried to recreate the golden years, it wasn't going to happen. Well at least not the way I remember.
I got alot of this, "This game is stupid!!" or "I hate this game". And I thought about it a second and come to think about it...I hated that stupid game too.
I am exaggerating but you get my drift.
They got along most of the time. We are in pretty close quarters so I tried to grant them some grace. You want to kill them when they start with the, "stop touching me!!" or "give me back my toy" or my all time favorite, "stop looking at me." This went as far as, "Mom, Luke is looking at me funny."
Remember the glory days of "no seatbelt" laws. It was like anarchy in the back of the custom van. Jumping from seat to seat, wrestling, throwing stuff. How did my parents do it?

We arrived in D.C. at about 2pm on Saturday. DC is pretty spread out and it like any major city in the US, it is hard to drive in. Luckily we brought our GPS. It saved our lives a number of times. I have two running buddies that were also coming up for the race and we planned to meet up.
We were the only one with a car. So when we got to DC we picked up one dude and his wife at their downtown hotel and headed over to the EXPO. The expo is where all the runners pick up there packet. The packet has your number, a free T-shirt and some other knick knacks. But in the expo this is where the marathon people make some money. You have 30,000 runners and there families in one place. There were about 75 booths all selling some kind of running paraphinalia. My kids loved it. They were giving away a lot of free stuff.
From the expo we made reservations at an Italian restaurant...you know CARB LOADING.
We were home by 9pm.
I put out all my stuff for the next morning. It was suppose to be 50 degrees so before we left my wife bought me a "throw away" long sleeved shirt and a sweatshirt.
I took my Immonium (I took two for good measure...you don't want to run while you are running, if you know what I mean) and went to bed.
I had a wake up call at 5:45am because the race time was 8am. We met at the shuttle bus stop that took us to the start line at 6:15. Imagine 30,000 people emerging at one place. There are buses, the metro, taxis. It was organized chaos.
The wating area for the start line is this huge parking lot full of port-o-jons...I mean hundreds of them. So you have tons of people hanging out...some in line at the bathroom, some people warming up, some people rubbing vaseline on their feet and other parts of their body getting ready to go.
There is a concert going on and military planes flying over.
Well it was time to move to the start line. Wow was this crazy. You have to go to the corral of the time you desire to run. The faster times up front so you don't have to pass the slower runners.
There were 3 of us. It was great being with those guys. We trained together and now we get to run together. You know running and talking is so much easier than just running.
So the race started. Now picture this. There is a race start time and a chip time. Every runner has a chip that they put in their shoe. So you have a race time and a chip time. When the gun goes off it starts the race time and when my foot crosses the start line is when my chip time starts. It took us close to 7 minutes to get to the start line. That is a long time.
Oh, remember when I was saying how great it is to run with buddies. As soon as the race started my buddies took off. They were weaving in and out of traffic. It was like a game. I was keeping up but after about 2 miles of this game I realized I was spending a lot of energy trying to play this ridiculous game. I thought we would run together but they thought going out like a bat out of hell was more important.
So I ran the last 24.2 miles by myself. Turns out we all finished within 4 minutes of each other.

You know what...I am going to have to finish here.
I have so much more to tell you but it is getting pretty long.
Can't wait to tell you the rest on Friday.
Glad to be back, j.

The friday before the marathon

Oh my gosh...it is Friday. That means in two days I will be running 26.2 miles through Washington D.C.
Wow, doesn't that sound exciting?

I can't tell you how excited I am. I am excited because I can run 26.2 miles. I mean how blessed do you have to be just to be able to do this. Even if my body will not hold up for the hole thing, I still feel lucky to have the ability to run. Other than my foot, which is feeling much better (thanks for asking) I haven't had any real issues with my body holding up.
You know how many people I talk to and they say, "Yeah, I use to run but since my knee operation, I can't anymore". So far so good with this old bod.

And then on top of this I get to run through Washington D.C.
I heard they do it up real nice there. Lots of military presence, lots of Hummers and military vehicles lining the streets. I heard this week there are snipers on top of the buildings because there is so many military men running in the race. Guns are cool.
I get to run through all the monuments, all the memorials, and all the government buildings...all the things that remind me what makes this country great.
We run by the Capital building and the Pentagon. I feel like a kid sometimes.

The run will remind me of all the poop that is going on in the world and our role in it.
I think of the men and woman that are fighting, and have fought, for our freedom. When I am running I want to think of the men and woman fighting for others freedom.
I have made a shirt with all people I know in the armed forces on the back, thanking them for there service.


Here is my itinerary...
I will get there sometime Saturday afternoon. We are staying at a Marriott a couple of blocks from the start line. We are only going to stay there only one night.
When I get there on Saturday afternoon I will pick up my packet. This packet will have my number and a couple of give aways in it. It will tell you what corral you are in.
They have corrals set up by your proposed finish time (they want all the runners that run the same speed starting together). You can probably see how trying to start 30,000 runners at the same time could be tough. In my last marathon I ran for almost 4 minutes before I reached the start line.
Back to the packet pick-up...you always pick up your stuff at the EXPO center. This is where there are a bunch of booths for PowerBar and Nike shoes, and other running apparel.
After the Expo, a bunch of us from the running group are meeting up for a carb filled dinner, at a local Italian place.

We are planning to meet Sunday morning before the race and stick together during the run as long as all of us are able.
After the race my family and I are planning on staying with some friends 20 miles outside of the city. So we will have a couple days to show the kids all around the city. The Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials, The Smithsonian, the Capital Building. My son is so excited about seeing the Spy Museum.
Speaking of my son...he got to pitch in a game the other night. He struck out three kids. He was beaming. When he walked in the house we all started clapping. It was great. Oh, yeah and he didn't strike out. I am sure it was my awesome parenting. YEAH, RIGHT!
Lots to do in two days. Then we will start the drive home about 4am on Wednesday.

So I have to say there probably will not be a blog on Monday and most likely not on Wednesday either.
Does anyone want to have a go at this?
Does anyone want to get on their soapbox?
I could give you more YouTube videos to watch.?

Talk to you all later,
Have a great weekend.
Think of me on Sunday, race starts at 8am. Supposed to be low of 50 degrees and a high of 61.
I told you I haven't run in less that 73 yet this year.
I let you know how it goes.
john

Luke, I am your father (con't)

Hello,
Not much going on.
Worst Week was funny.
How I Met Your Mother...at the end of the show I said out loud, "that is too much drama for a comedy."
House was good, but Hilda threatened to never watch the show again. It is getting really racy.
We will see.
Chuck is very good and if you haven't seen Life yet...give it a try.

I watched about 40 minutes of The Bank Job and there was lots of nudity and other bad stuff, so my got up and said, "I can't watch this anymore". I said, "Honey we haven't even gotten into the meat of the movie, come on."
But she was already gone. So I stopped. I will finish it later. I am okay with violence and bad things but she is affected differently than I am. She said she can't sleep when that is the last thing she sees before bed.
Woman...can't figure them out.

Okay,
I know you are going to say, "Men...can't figure them out." After this story.
I was telling you about my experience this Saturday at the baseball field. I was about to tell you about my failure as a father.
I have been really down on myself the last couple of days since "the incident". But I had a friend come up to me and make me feel a little better.
He told me he coaches his daughters under 10 soccer team. Saturday they lost 13-1.
He told me he was out of his mind.
His parents came to the game to watch their granddaughter play soccer and watch their son coach.
By the end of the game the wife had already left (yes, got in her car and drove away) because he was acting like such a fool.
He said he was yelling, "What are you doing?" for about an hour.
He said the assistant coach came up to him and told him to calm down and that when he yells at the girls, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" It is not constructive and they are not learning.
He told me his daughter got hit in the chest with the ball and was whimpering and asked to come out of the game.
He said he went ballistic, "What!?!" he screamed, "In my whole life I have never asked to come out of a game."
I am laughing just writing this because it is funny how stupid we act sometimes.
After the game his parents wouldn't talk to him and for sure his wife wasn't talking to him.

Speaking of stupid....
Okay so the baseball game was over. I forgot to tell you but his friend came to the game to watch. So after the game we were going to go to lunch. We drove two cars because we have to get to the game 45 minutes early.
So I was driving Luke and his friend to the restaurant.
Now his friend is a real talker so I had to ask him if I could have a minute.
I was trying so hard not to lose it. I started off by, "What is going on with you and the bat."
"I donknow."
"Well let me tell you what is going on. You are trying to walk aren't you?"
I am starting to lose it.
I said, "You swung at the first pitch and then you watched two absolute meat balls go right down the center of the plate."
"Now I come to your practices and I come to all your games and I don't come to watch you not try. (voice getting louder) I didn't come to watch him strike out. (voice getting louder) I didn't come to watch him not swing."
All this in front of his friend.
He started to cry (I am such a loser) and tell me that he knows I am watching and he feels my dissatisfaction with him.
This did not stop me.
That this was a league that he is suppose to get better. A league that he is suppose to swing. I told him I would rather him strike out swinging than walk.
I asked him why he had lost his confidence in his swing.
I really can't remember what else I said, but it went on for awhile.
It was an out of body experience.
He was crying, I was mad.

The problem I was having is that I was not mad at him.
I was mad at the whole thing.
I was mad that I don't know how to help him. I was mad that I know that he is struggling and I have no avenue to help.
I was mad that he is upset when he doesn't feel respected on the field but yet he doesn't want to work to get better.
I was mad I didn't know what the coach meant by the "he needs it" comment.
It was kind of a helpless anger kind of thing. I can't explain it.
It was boiling up.

But I took it out on him.
HE IS NINE.
I keep treating him like his is 25.

This is the kid that plays crappy and is laughing with his friends 5 minutes later. The team has no idea what their record is. They don't know who is the good players or the bad players are.
But here I am yelling at my son in the car in front of his friend.
After we got out of the car, I knew I had screwed up.
I took him aside and told him I just wanted what was best for him.
He said, "He didn't want to talk about it anymore."
I agreed.
I walked in the restaurant and my wife said, "What did you do?"
How does she know? Woman, I swear they are psychic.

When I got home I called one of the assistant coaches.
I told him what I did and he told me he is having the same problem. He is having trouble controlling himself with his son.
But he also told me is that he would work with Luke.
It felt good to get this off my chest and ask for help.
That is what I should have done from the start.

Well there you have it. Failure 101. Class is dismissed.
I know what you are saying, "Men...I can't figure them out."

The next day in the parking lot of church, still feeling terrible, "I asked Luke to forgive me for being an idiot."
He said, "Of course dad, I have already forgotten about that."
Then he said, "You wanna throw the ball when we get home?"
I said, "I can 't think of anything else I would rather do."
I told you, I love this kid.

Have a great Wednesday,
john

ps I did also go up to Luke's friend and apologize for being a jerk to his friend.

Luke, I am your father

Go Rays. Wow, what an awesome series.
Just so you know I would love to go to the World Series so if anyone has access to tickets please let me know.
You can bet I am going to work all my angles, and you all are one of the angles.

The weather in Orlando is soooo nice lately. This is the weather we look forward to when we endure the heat of the summer. It was 75 and breezy almost all day yesterday. This morning there was a little nip in the air, so I shut all the air conditioner units and started opening the windows.
While I was opening them, I was saying to my 4 year old, "I am going to open the windows because it is so nice today."
He said, "Dad it is so nice everyday."
Isn't it nice to get a 4 year olds perspective on life.

I just finished watching Baby Mama. It was okay. There was some funny parts but just an average movie. With two budding SNL stars you would think it would be funnier.
I have The Bank Job here and plan to watch it today. Now that there is not a baseball game to keep me up til 1am.

I hope you all had a good weekend because mine was tough.
I had a moment this weekend that may haunt me (and Luke) for a long time.
Luke is 9 and I am realizing that these are the times he is going to remember. These are the times that are going to shape him.
I think about it often what are going to be the times in his childhood that he is going to remember. What events in time are we going to talk about at the Christmas table. What events is he going to remember when he is talking to his friends in college...
"Oh yeah, well my dad use to do this..."
or
When he is in therapy and he opens up about how his dad messed his whole life up.

Yeah, we had one of those weekends.

I told you about baseball and how three weeks ago Luke wanted to quit. Well since then I have been trying to "help" Luke get better. I have been subtly pointing out things that might get him recognized by the coach. I also would point out things that might look bad and that the coach might frown upon.
Baseball has been great for us. We go out everyday and throw the baseball. I think we both love it. It gives us some father son time. We talk about our days.
So there is some good things there.
But Saturday was the game.

It was a terrible game for the whole team.
We beat this team the first game of the season and we were far superior to them.
But in about 6 weeks it has become apparent this team has turned it around. They are now better than us.
Luke is usually pretty good at fielding but one slipped through his legs but everyone's fielding was particularly bad because this other team was hitting the ball very hard.
For the first time there were hits into the outfield. The outfielders who usually are picking there butts out there were shocked to see balls flying at them (and of course they didn't know what to do).
Our hitting was even worse. We had about 4 base runners the whole game and they beat us 13-1. And the reason it wasn't worse was because they have a run limit each inning.

Luke's hitting is getting worse.
Last year he was close to the best hitter on the team, so the kid could hit.
This year his confidence is gone.
The first two innings it is machine pitch and he does okay with this.
The last four innings it is kid pitch.
We have spoken after the game before and he admits that he is just looking for a walk. He knows the kids are not very accurate with their pitches so the likely hood of a walk is pretty good. I told him he is a good hitter so he should be ready when a good pitch comes.
But he still goes up there and looks for a walk.
So on Saturday he struck out during the machine pitch inning and got up again during kid pitch. He swung at the first pitch and missed. So then he sat there and watched meat ball pitches go down the middle of the plate.
I started to fume up inside. I want him to at least try. If he is going to fail at least give it his best shot. Not hoping for someone else to fail so he can succeed.
I started to pace. I started to think to myself, "I am so pissed right now, should I just get in the car and leave or what."
Okay I know it sounds stupid because as I am writing this I am thinking to myself, "you are such a dumbass."
If we can just have some mulligans in life, things would be so much easier.

But something happened first that got me going...when Luke was up the first time he stuck out but was unaware that he had three strikes. So he stayed at the plate. So they had to tell him that he struck out and leave the batters box. I thought that was funny so I yelled out, "Can he have four strikes."
But afterwards my wife said she hear the coach say, under his breath, "he could use it."
Now, I have told you before, I love this guy. He has a great attitude and he is really good with the kids. I don't know if he was also trying to be funny or didn't mean anything by it.
Or maybe he is giving up on Luke and to me that would be unacceptable.
But this is when I started to feel myself starting to lose it on the bleachers.

This is getting long so I am going to stop here. I know it is a cliff hanger but you are going to have to wait.
Trust me, Wednesday's blog is not going to be pretty. I was awful.
I am a bit ashamed but...I will tell you Wednesday.

See you then,
john

Baseball and more

It is Friday.
Yeah baby.

For me it has been a long week. I have been working hard this week.
Trying to put together a schedule at the beginning of the day wears on you.
It is not like before when you would come to work with a packed schedule and then an emergency would call and you would have to work them in.
Now the schedule is full but it didn't get that way until the day before and you never know who is going to come.
I mean I feel blessed that I am working and it has been pretty good but I am still stressed.

What up.
Gators have a bye week this week.

Nothing going on at home, just getting ready for our trip. 7 days until we leave to Washington D.C. The reason I chose this marathon is that the whole course is weaved around everything Washington. We start at the Pentagon and run through all the monuments and memorials.
We run through Arlington Cemetery and past the Capital building. We finish at the WWII memorial.
I will probably be very emotional when I finish. I don't know if you remember my "Marathon Blues" blog. It is my favorite blog. At my last marathon wanted to hug the woman giving me the medal, I was so emotional.
Imagine what this run is going to be like.
I am pretty patriotic kind of guy and get all vaklemp when I visit these kind of things.
As an aside, I am going to write the names of my patients that are in the military on the back of my shirt.
It is going to be great. I can't wait.

Okay today's topic.
Baseball.
I want to give you a mid season report on my 9 year olds experience (and mine).
Luke got into baseball because of his friend Eric. These two are great friends and Eric's family is a baseball family.
We particularly like baseball as a family because it is fun. Our community have awesome fields with good concessions and a decent playground for the other kids.
This is Lukes second season playing baseball. This season Luke moved up in leagues. So he is only one of two kids that have moved up.
So out of 12 kids on the team he is the second youngest. I would say ability wise he is about the lower middle.
The coaches are three past minor league players that now have kids. Needless to say, these three kids are real good (they are nine years old and they are probably better than me).
But the coaches are real good. They are fundamentally sound and they are fun.
Everyone plays and everyone plays at every position.
And everyone gets to pitch.
So the team thing is great.

But a couple weeks ago my son wanted to quit. He started with, "the coaches don't like me".
Then it was,"all I do is play outfield."
Now I know he loves it and I know he wants to be in it, but he wants to be appreciated. He says, "I work so hard at practice and all I do is play outfield."
As a dad I don't know what to say to him. My job as a dad is to teach him up in the way he should go. What does that mean? Well, it means to teach him how to act when things are not going exactly the way he wants it. I mean he is going to have to deal with this kind of stuff the rest of his life. In sports, in school, and maybe in his employment. This is the real world.
I don't want to baby him and I want to teach him real world experiences but I want to protect him from getting hurt. This is the tough part of being a parent.
First I tell him how much I love him and how I think he is a great baseball player. I love going to his games and watching him play.
I then try to break it down for him...he is smart enough to recognize what I am going to tell him. I say, you are the second youngest on the team. You are not the best player on the team like you were last year.
You have to work harder. When you do get a chance to play the infield, remember you are being watched. When you are playing outfield remember you are being watched. When the coach looks out there and you are throwing your glove up in the air and your back is turned to the field...it doesn't look good.
I told him to stick it out a little more.
The next game he got to play third base for two innings and he got to pitch. He has been riding so high since then. He loves baseball again...
And I didn't even have to get into the life lesson stuff like, "What if your boss doesn't recognize your potential? Are you just going to quit your job?"

Last thing. We are getting to the level of baseball that is passing me by.
You know that I am cheap. My son is wearing all hand me downs. He is using his cousins old cleats. He has had the same glove since T-ball. He uses a bat we borrowed from a friend and he has a used bat bag.
Now apparently others don't prescribe to the Gammichia philosophy on spending money. Did you know that there are baseball bats that cost $175.
We have one kid on our team that has a bat bag that rolls. It is bigger than him. Gloves on both hands, air brushed personalized batting helmet, everything brand new.
I don't get this stuff. It is passing me by.

Okay last last thing. I am sitting and watching the game. The coaches youngest son is hanging out with the mom. The kid is 6 years old and I have yet to see him eat anything other than candy. It is either he is sucking on a ring pop and drinking a Coke or it is a Kit Kat bar and a slushy. The kid is like 2 and a half feet tall and about 20 pounds over weight. The kid was bugging the crap out of his mom for some more candy and she didn't have any money. I gave them a dollar so he would be quiet. Then it was off to the concessions stand for more candy.
These are the people that come to my office and I tell them they have 9 cavities and the parents are so surprised. "I don't know what is going on...he brushes his teeth."
But it is not just this kid. There are numerous kids that are plumpy and have blue crap all over their face from all the candy.

Man am I being mean today or what?
See what happens when I get on my soapbox...my blogs get long.
That is all the complaining I will do today.

Hey, have a great weekend,
See you Monday,
john

Economy bad = service good

Hi all,

I was in the car the other day. I had gotten up early, 4:15am, to run. Then I got home at 7:50 and I had to be at the baseball field, for Luke's game at 8:15. Jump in the shower, run to the field and "assistant" coach the game, while watching my 4 year old, Noah. On our way home, I sighed and said out loud, "I am one tired Mother". Noah pipes up and says, "You mean, father."
Aren't kids great. I laughed all the way home.

Did anyone see Worst Week? I still think it is very funny. My wife is starting not to like it because it isn't fair. But I love physical comedy.
How I Met Your Mother has only been so so this year. Does any one watch Chuck or another show called Life. We like those...and The Unit.

No movies lately. My kids got a hold of my Netflix queue and put all these kid movies on the list. So it has been stuff like Invincible and The Game Plan.

Today's topic.
Service.
Has anyone noticed that people in the service industry are actually giving service.
They are becoming nicer, but not just nicer but crazy nicer.

My wife's van needed new tires. I told her that I would go on the computer and look up the best rated tire and she can call around and check on the prices.
I found the top three and she started calling around. After about 20 minutes she said out loud, "Man, everyone is sooo nice."

Did you know that unemployment is up to something like 6.2%? To me this number seems low but it is like the highest it has been in 4 years. So 6 out of 100 people don't have jobs. Okay out of the six, how many people don't want to work? Would you say 3?
So 3 out of 100 people don't have jobs.

What does this mean? Well people are going to be fighting for the jobs.
Meaning, for the consumer things will get better. Service is going to get better.
Remember last year when you wanted to do something in or on your house. It was like a game.
I had a leak in my roof and I called 5 people. 2 of them flat out told me they were so busy they couldn't do a small job like that. 2 of them didn't show up for the appointment.
And the dude who showed up smell like he just smoked a big bong.
"Dude, your roof has this righteous leak dude. My brother has this killer set of tools, I can fix it for you."
Now, if you have a roof leak, not only do all 5 guys show up, they are courteous and don't smell like smoke.
You guys know how I feel about the cell phone companies. I STILL need a new phone. Monday I was like, this is it...I have to get a new phone. I sat down at the computer and called AT&T.
Remember when you use to call them and you would go through about 6 different things. "Press 1 if you are an existing customer. Please punch in your cell number to speed things up". Then you would finally get someone and then they would ask you your cell number. AAARRRRGG!!
On Monday I was talking to someone after one "Press 1".
Then after about 2 minutes into the conversation, he said Mr. Gammichia do you realize that after the 28th of this month your contract will be up and you will be eligible for some significant discounts on purchasing new phones.
WHAT?!!!
I couldn't believe it. I looked around my house for hidden camera. I didn't know what to say.
I asked him to repeat what he just said and waited for the caveat. I waited for the "but" or the catch or the something that was going to make them money. But it never came.
He was just being nice. He was looking out for me. Crazy isn't it.

I went to Chilli's a couple of weeks ago and I had great service. I never get good service there.

Finally service is coming back to the forefront. Something that to me is like breathing. It always has been. But because the past couple of years have been so good, people got lazy.
When no one gives good service customers stop expecting it. They stop demanding it.
So when a roofer doesn't come to an appointment and doesn't call, we call them back and make another appointment.

I am hoping now that service is hear to say. I love being talked to like people want me there. Where is there? Well, it is at the grocery store, it is at the golf course, it is at the foot doctor, it is at Sports Authority, it is at the gas station, it is the restaurant, it is at the AT&T store (crazy, I know). Service is everywhere... at the Ritz Carlton and it is at the La Quinta.

Is it me or have you noticed too?
I know the economy is not looking so good but if this is one of the by products...then so be it.
Have you noticed that you are giving better service. Are you more conscientious of how you are serving your patients or customers?
Well if you aren't then you better start. Who knows maybe it will stick.

That is it.
I know, it was a short blog today. It is my way of giving you good service.
Last thing, some people rated high on the blogger.com thing. Thank you. It means a lot to me.

Talk to you on Friday,
8 days until I leave to Washington D.C. for my marathon. I am getting very nervous.
John