The Pollen Post 2: Ode to Pollen
How do I love thee, pollen?
Let me count the ways.
Zero. Naught. None. Nunca. -278°C(0°K). X/0.
There are no ways I love thee, pollen.
The Pollen Posts No.1
Pollen Post 1: Introduction
Today, April 15, 2010, The Coach Hays page is starting a series of outrageously ridiculous posts on pollen. I can’t remember a spring allergy season (tree pollen, grass pollen, flower pollen, mold spores, pet dander, etc. etc. etc…) that has been as bad as this very 2010 spring. This morning, for about the 12th straight day, I woke up with the pounding sinus headache, sniffling, sneezing, coughing, gravely voice, you know, the whole nine yards of allergies. Just for the heck of it, I thought it would be appropriate to have a little stupid fun at pollen’s expense. Well, how about a lot of stupid fun at pollen’s expense? It has definitely earned it!
Filed under Uncategorized
“Tell me, what do you do with witches?”
Rest Day Read (SR-19)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail: Scene 5
“Who are you who are so wise in the ways of science?”
Scene 5. Man alive this is so funny. Being a scientist by profession, this is so much more funny for me. Not because it is such an outrageous spoof of ancient, backward scientific logic and thought, but because it is such a mimic of scientific logic and thought and their relationship to the knowledge base of a historical place in time.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I absolutely love this movie. I have watched it at least 50 times. At least. Way back in 1981 or 82, I won a free video disk player from Doc’s Video, one of the first stores in the KCK dealing in the new technology of home video. Doc let me pick one disk from his rental collection as an addition to the prize. I went to the rack and there it was…The Holy Grail! I could sense Doc’s mortal fear at having to part with the disk, but I did not feel one bit of guilt or regret. Besides, Doc still had the Beta and VHS copies. I hauled that dinosaur of electronics back and forth to friends houses, college and beyond just to watch The Holy Grail. Eventually, early in the 21st century, the disk lost its magic and became non-operational soon followed by the failure of the video disk player’s motor. I now assume the soul of the device could no longer stand the separation from The Holy Grail disk and died of deep and utter despair. I now watch the DVD. My progeny, the faithful HaysKids, also love the movie. We often share the secret language of Holy Grail quotes within casual conversation or dinner time. Scene 5 is one of our favorites.
And by the way, does anyone know the air speed velocity of a laden swallow?
Scene 5 from YouTube
Easter 2010
2000 years ago, a seemingly insignificant, on-the-fringe carpenter/preacher, rose from the dead and changed our world forever. Happy Easter!
Music for Good Friday
Ellis Unit One by Steve Earle
I heard Ellis Unit One early this morning on the Alt Country station at AOL. Very powerful song to begin with, even more powerful in the context of Good Friday.
Filed under Rants
Happy Fitness New Year!
Fitness New Year
Back on January 1, 2010, I designated April Fool’s Day 2010 as the first day of the Fitness New Year. Well, today is the day! And I must admit, it wasn’t a bad idea. The weather was cold, crappy and there was a buttload of snow on the ground 1-1-2010. Today? Well in Clay Center, KS, it is absolutely beautiful; sunny and mid-70s with the associated Kansas “breeze”. I know, I know, I am a freaking genius! No, not really, but today is as good of day as any to turn over a new leaf.
Start today with a clean slate, eat better, move more often and use movements that expand your range of motion as much as possible. Baby steps are still steps!
Last night it was 80+ degrees. The Mrs. Hays and myself went on our first “real” bike ride of the year. After going up the Hill from Hell, The Mrs. Hays actually admits she wishes she would have not stopped Fam-Fit over the winter. HA! Can I use that as a ringing endorsement? Sure, I can…
Fam-Fit
Enjoy 30 minutes of favorite outdoor activity.
(Me, I took the day off, had a parade then pulled the rose bushes out. Proceeded to cut out an area of the nasty Bermuda grass then expanded the vegetable garden in a Napoleonic fashion to double the empires previous size.)
Rest Day Read 3-30-10
Rest Day Read (SR-18)
Choruses from The Rock by T.S. Elliot
“But it seems that something has happened that has never happened
before: though we know not just when, or why,or how, or where.
Men have left GOD not for other gods, they say, but for no God; and this has
never happened before
That men both deny gods and worship gods, professing Reason,
And then Money, and Power, and what they call Life, or Race, or Dialectic.
What have we to do but stand with empty hands and palms turned
upwards in an age which advances progressively backward?”
When I did a little rant about poetry a couple weeks ago, I received a copy of this gem of a poem by T.S. Elliot from Mr. A. Catlin. I thought it appropriate to use early in Holy Week to help us evaluate where we are, both personally and professionally, in our relationship with our fellow man and with God. After reading and digesting, decide if you currently work to advance “progressively backward” or are determined “to work and live to honor God”.
Rest Day Read 3-25-10
Rest Day Read (SR-17)
If ever there is tomorrow when we’re not together…there is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think, but the most important thing is, even if we’re apart…I’ll always be with you.
-from Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne
Today, I read this and heard it spoken at a very sad event I attended. In this particular time and place, it brought a tear to my eye, a lump to my throat and punched a hole in my heart. As modern life spins and whirls around us, we must remember to smile and to hug and to enjoy on a more frequent basis. We are fragile things.
Baseball
“‘Little by little… I got to see the bigger point of baseball, that it can give us back ourselves. We’re a crowd animal, a highly gregarious, communicative species, but the culture and the age and all the fear that fills our days have put almost everyone into little boxes, each of us all alone. But baseball, if we love it, gives us back our place in the crowd. It restores us.” -Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird
Filed under Uncategorized
Rest Day Read 3-20-10
Rest Day Read (SR-16)
Life Value and the Paradoxes of Risk a commencement address by Charles S. Sanford Jr., University of Georgia, 1989.
“In the end, you’ll find there is more happiness in creating value for others and enjoying the benefits, both material and psychological, that flow to you, than there is in only adding to your own net worth. It’s that simple. When we create value for others, we do not personally take in all the value we have created – and that, the people who have done so say again and again, is a source of incomparable satisfaction. Actually, the implications are encouraging, for they suggest (amidst all the headlines about greed and ego-centrism) that there is a nugget of altruism in our natures – buried deeply, perhaps, but still accessible.”
Oh boy…where do I start. This article was tagged off of a Crossfit.com post a couple weeks ago, so again, thank you Crossfit.com. I had an incredible amount of trouble finding one quote to use as an intro from this article, it is all golden. Looking back over my printed version, I have almost 75% of the article marked in orange highlighter. Inspirational and intellectual, informative and considerate, personal fulfillment intertwined with communal fulfillment, Sanford hits a home run with these ideas. It may take several readings to completely wrap your arms around this one (3 times for me), but give it a chance and let it sink into your person. Just think how much greater our society, our economy, our government, our country and even each of our own lives can be through this path of using risk properly and creating value with our deeds.
THE COACH HAYS 