OT - What are you doing right now?

Cleaning up my egging neighbors back yard as a result of the heavy winds from hurricane Debbie in our county on the east Florida coast. They are on vacation and normally I only take care of the pool but this was a surprise.
Cut up the limbs of the large branches from this Live Oak tree and placed in the green recycle bin for pickup today.  
Got most of it off his grass and then cleaned leaves out of the pool and the Poseidon cleaner; it filled up twice while I was cutting the limbs. Will do more after the green recycle bin is collected tomorrow. Photo does not adequately show the size of that branch; 6' tall fence with 8' sections. Hope to have it all cut and removed from the back yard before they get home from Tennessee.

Is this thing on?

ColbyLang said:

Watching the highlights of our hometown boy breaking the world and Olympics record for pole vault. Duplantis for the gold. He jumps for Sweden, his mother’s native country 

That guy is in a league of his own.  He’s like the Simone Biles of the pole vault.

ColbyLang said:

Hook_emHornsfan_74 said:

Dreading Dr’s apt. tomorrow. Think he is going to tell my appendix needs to come out.  He noticed it was inflamed when I had my colonoscopy the other day.  Said I probably should t go to Mexico but what do Dr’s know?  Here’s to hoping that it isn’t mad anymore. lol

How’d it go? I put off nagging pain for about 2 weeks. Went 75 miles offshore fishing for a day. Woke up and went to work the next morning. 2pm that afternoon I was at a Walk-in clinic on a Sunday at the peak of Covid. They sent me straight to the ER. Mine ruptured coming out of the laparoscopic incision. 

Trying to schedule a CT scan now.  waiting for my insurance to approve it I guess. Think I’ll hear something tomorrow hopefully.  

ColbyLang said:

JohnInCarolina said:

ColbyLang said:

Watching the highlights of our hometown boy breaking the world and Olympics record for pole vault. Duplantis for the gold. He jumps for Sweden, his mother’s native country 

That guy is in a league of his own.  He’s like the Simone Biles of the pole vault.

Great kid, very personable when he’s in town and gets swarmed by the masses. Always has time for all of the questions and pictures and signatures 

Fun fact - this was my father’s cousin:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Bragg

lousubcap said:

Thanks @JohnInCarolina for the Don Bragg article.  I believe he was the first vaulter to clear 15' way back when.  Lost in the history of track and field greats like Rafer Johnson (decathlon), John Thomas (high jump), Wilma Rudolph (track), Al Oreter (discus) and  Harold "Hal" Connolly in the hammer throw.  
Now old, back then I parlayed my knowledge of world class and Olympic track and field stars to win several sports trivia (before the game) bar sessions.  
Just an old sports junkie here but every four years...

My father spent summers with Don working on rooftops.  Apparently Don had this system of natural vines in his backyard that he used to swing around on and it helped build up his arms.  My father said he could put three stacks of roofing shingles on his shoulder and carry them up a ladder at once.  Not an easy feat by any stretch.  

I think he is the last Olympic pole vaulter to use a metal pole.  

He was actually in the running to go to the 56 Olympics, but he broke his arm during the trials or something like that.  My father and his whole family were in attendance for that and saw it happen.  I think it was a pretty bad break.  My father would not let me do the pole vault in high school as a result of what he had seen happen to Don.  I don’t think that was all that sensible but there were a few red lines my father had with me when I was growing up and that was one of them.  Funny how I remember that.

GrateEggspectations said:

Just realizing we haven’t seen @Carolina Q since March of 2022. Hope that all is well with that member, whose participation I appreciated. 

https://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1232726/in-memory-of-carolina-q

Shamefully, I had seen that and commented back in January. My memory just isn’t all that great and because I didn’t know the member personally, I failed to make the connection. 

Elijah said:

Anyone have advice on coaching little league soccer? Got asked at the first practice 

As a guy who broke his ankle during little league soccer, no…..other than make sure they have fun. Nothing worse than a kid having a bad experience and never wanting to play again. Re: my son and little league baseball. His coach the last season he played was a giant Richard. Don’t be a Richard

Elijah said:

Anyone have advice on coaching little league soccer? Got asked at the first practice 

They were trolling for suckers.  Don’t do it. 

It's 8 and under so hopefully the parents aren't too bad. Didn't seem to be the first practice at least. I know the coach so that seems to have led to it. They didn't troll for suckers, only one. Me. While I want to win I definitely want them to have a good experience even more. I'll keep y'all updated. Wish me luck 

Elijah said:

Anyone have advice on coaching little league soccer? Got asked at the first practice 

I would suggest that you "lean into it".  I coached my son and a daughter in soccer for similar reasons.  It ended up being a great journey with great bonding with my kids and other kids on the team.  They are all in their late 20's now and I still keep in touch with some of them.

Get the shortest book you can find on how to coach soccer.  It will have a few drills that can help the kids develop individual and passing skills and it will tell you some principles to follow.  There may also be a workshop for beginner coaches in your area where you can learn some good drills and principles.  

Some bullet points:

- Focus on skill development over winning games.  Some parents will want you to work on trick plays from free kicks, etc to win more games but skill development is more important.

- Recognize that youth soccer isn't about "soccer".  It's about learning to be a good teammate and learning to develop skills that don't come naturally and learning to receive feedback and learning how to win (graciously) and learning how to tie (an unusual thing in American culture) and learning how to lose (I always wanted the kids to be bothered by a loss for a number of minutes that is 2-4 times their age - then go about being kids again - then show up to practice remembering the loss so they would focus on getting better), etc.

- If your kid is old enough, good enough, and interested enough to be on a competitive club team, get them there so a better coach can do the training.

I could write many more pages of stuff but I'll stop there.  Feel free to reach out to me individually if you want more info.

fishlessman said:

found a wasp nest in a railing.....got me in the finger next to the knuckle. that didnt hurt much

Did you use all of the larva for fish bait?