Hey! Merry Christmas

And this is for those of you who don't observe it, :-)

snow update

How much? 16.5" packed down on the back of the car.

So probably around 20" fell in 36 hours. Not bad. Only plowed the driveway 5 times in 2 days.

I mean, it's not like we live in Buffalo or something!

When I moved out here 10 years ago it was in a bit of a rush.

When I would unload the trailer some stuff was determined could go next to the driveway.

On the final day of moving it started snowing, and snowing, and snowing.

Snowed for 9 of the next 11 days. Some stuff didn't get found for months, LOL

this comes close.

Goodbye Saturday, hello bleachers

Wrestling season kicked off Weds. night. This means so long to Weds. nights and Saturdays spent in bleachers. Hamilton plans a pretty stiff series of tournaments for Saturdays, Weds being conference dual meets but the Saturdays don't count other than to prepare the guys for the end of the season runs for individual and team State tournaments.

Cole has a good chance at going to state and also at winning his weight for Conference. At least that's one of the personal goals he set. 6-0 for the season so far.

One of the team goals he helped set was winning the Gene Kraai tournament held this past Saturday. That's one down!, They've come in close the past two years so it was nice to see.

http://www.hollandsentinel.com/sports/x556846348/Hamilton-defeats-West-Ottawa-to-take-first-at-Kraai-invitational

Undefeated Hawkeyes from Saturday.

snowy day

Winter seemed to start Weds with a decent little snowstorm. Lots of idiots hitting the streets (and ditches). Welcome back to the same state you've always lived in morons. You've lived here all your life but have no memory it seems prior to March. Sigh.

I'll do something here against principle, bitch on my blog.

All summer long I call my H3 Hummer the Inverse Time Machine (That's as snappy as I get when annoyed). No matter the fact that I'm going the speed limit and usually above, no matter what the speedo of the moron behind me says, they must be going much, much slower (some sort of time space quicksand surrounding H3's). Because invariably, they just have to pass me, ASAP. Something about being near an H3 changes their perceptions or something. And it's not just my driving. Many many passengers will attest to the idiots.


So, now that mine is the superior vehicle on the roads,
"hurry up or get the eff off the roads!"


I've had to endure your tailgating, ect all summer. Now that the seasons have turned and I have a vehicle purposeful for winter I guess it's my turn to drive like a dick, right? No, I don't but I sure have no problem leaving them behind.




Headed out to Mushtaq's this morning in the latest lake effect snow storm and immediately decided to turn around. Not because the going was too rough, because of all the morons who just had to be on the roads headed to Church at 30mph (no comment on their misguided attitudes and self-righteousness).







Ah well, what're you gonna do?







It did turn out to be a rather pretty day though.

All told around 8", 6" in the first 4 hours.

(UPDATE, another 5-6" over night, LOL)

The Koi are all tucked in cozy in their beds.

Football banquet

End of the season banquet was last week. Talk about the team, ect and the awards they won (which aren't out for a few more weeks though). Cole's up for Academic All State, exceeds all the qualifiers and he's the only one on the team so.....

One of the nice things they gave them besides a scrapbook is a disc of pictures the official sideline photog takes. I tried to take some during the year but my camera didn't cost $1000.

Textbook tackle I'd say.

"there was this linebacker, and he was really big see, and....."

"Soon as you get that ball, I'm gonna put a hurtin' on you!"

Happy Thank a Native American Day

Hope you enjoy your Holiday and don't forget the origins of the day.

Ortho update

Saw the ortho. Turns out fortunately it wasn't dislocated (despite what the coaches and trainers thought).
Knee is completely stable and fine. Dr. could not find any unstability or cause any pain. Based on Cole's condition in the office, no way it could have been actually dislocated, as major trauma and ligament damage would have resulted and would have still been causing lots of pain and swelling.
Most likely cause was a "hypermobile minuscus".
http://www.ajronline.org/cgi/content/full/187/2/384
Meaning the minuscus has " a lack of normal meniscocapsular attachments" in the back of the knee. This can allow the minuscus to bulge out of the knee capsule, thereby causing the knee to lock and not move, as like a dislocation. This is especially caused by deep knee squats or kneeling.
Hypermobile Minuscus or The Wrisberg varient occurs in around less than 1% of the population depending on what studies you review.
According to the Dr. it just happens and there's not much that can be done about it other than to avoid the deep squats. Not too sure that's enough of an advice just yet.
We are getting an MRI of the knee on Sunday just to confirm that it really is the case. Dr. really didn't want to, oh well.

Demo time

A former coworker I still stay in contact with now does martial arts and is also a pack leader for his local cub scouts. Asked if I would be willing to come in and give them a demo to help expose the kids to new stuff. Sure why not. You never know and it's for good fun.
Cole was coming along to assist but 2hrs before we were scheduled to leave, he dislocated his knee in wrestling practice. More on that after we see the Ortho. Never dull with that boy.

Soo change of plans and more solo demo- ing and my freind had to stand in.

Rather funny beginning. Starting out you can never tell the audience and they were a fairly rambunctious group when I started asking for questions.
But never fear, as soon as a pulled a Cold Steel Barung from the scabbard, I had complete, undivided silent attention!

" See the guy with the camera?' World Champion!

"No way, are you lying to us?" LOLZ

This btw, was a showing of INcorrect, not correct examples. We we want to blend and NOT be there instead (see next pic). This was also a nice segway to the general rule of "I don't want to fight you" and "don't be there".

Now I got your attention!

See, it's just a gardening tool.

12 months

Last week marked twelve months since my most recent (hah) surgery for my shoulder.

The surgeon advised it would be a minimum of 12 months before I could be back doing any sports with normal function and ability. And that would be for a normal recovery on a patient who hadn't developed many adaptive irregularities over the past decade (hah again).

I'd have to say I'm at about 85%. I've been very careful to rehab properly for the long haul. I've said all along the reason I did all this now over the past 4 years is i still want to be kicking ass when I finally get old (hah thrice).

I've tried a few times over the summer to push things and test my recovery, even comtemplated fighting in the PIG tournament. Sparring Cole squashed that (or he was just that fast).

But mostly periodic test cutting of bottles and vegetables.

A few have scoffed at this but training in an art that prefers sharp, long pointy things and only uses sticks for stand-ins, I've found the cutting to be a great training too. Lets you know if your motions/edge are correct, what is really in that power swing, where you end up under speed/stress, how you move with combinations while travelling distance, ect.

It also let me know during the summer how my recovery was progressing.

Some cutting earlier this summer gave me pretty dismal feedback. Vertical cuts weren't bad but horizontal was poor. So I also adjusted my rehab.

Ultimately, we had lots of fun last week! Especially before it gets too cold.

For some reason, Chris has an affinity for short blades.

So, based on this one I feel pretty good

So how good is your kung fu?

Friday night football

Cole started playing football in the 2nd grade, before most of the kids on his current team (different school district). It was iffy at the time, you know moms not so sure of their little boy playing football.
But it was love at first tackle. It's been a high point and anchor for him through some very trying years. But something about the controlled anarchy and of course the chance to crush someone within the rules (hmm, stickfighting?).
This will be his 10th and senior year and possibly his last. Yes at Stanford he could be a walk-on but would that be worth it.

Leading the team song after a win

Friday night was a great night for him (#44). Doubleteamed most of the first 1/2 (the other teams watched film and knew already) but he still wreaked havoc. Then in the 2nd 1/2 he really lit them up. Blocked a punt that set up the first score for the team and really changed the course of the game. Then went on to rack up solo and assisted tackles.
Came down to the final 25 seconds and a win. An extremely happy team. The only other two times I can remember seeing him this happy was getting his 34 on ACT's and winning Worlds in the PI.


And, he made the paper the next day too boot.
http://www.hollandsentinel.com/sports/footballfever/x1985976034/Hamilton-rallies-past-Byron-Center-with-trick-play

Hamilton rallies past Byron Center with trick play.
By ALAN BABBITT
The Holland Sentinel
Posted Sep 18, 2010 @ 12:30 AM
Hamilton, MI — The Hamilton football team refers to the play as “Z Explosion.”

It can be called a season saver, too.

The Hawkeyes stunned Byron Center with a 14-13 win Friday at home, using a pass off a reverse for a 66-yard gain that set up running back Joey DeGood’s winning 1-yard touchdown plunge with 24.5 seconds remaining.

Hamilton evened its record at 2-2 overall with the thrilling OK Green Conference win. The Hawkeyes also kept their state playoff chances from flickering further.

PRIME PERFORMERS
• Cole Van Harn, Hamilton linebacker. The senior was a disruptive force at the line of scrimmage, blocking a punt to set up Hamilton’s first touchdown and making three tackles for loss.

• Nathaniel White and Mitch Klein, Hamilton receivers. The two executed Hamilton’s desperation trick play to perfection. White is the team’s backup quarterback, while Klein is not a regular on offense but was put there for the play.

• Cody Buresh, Hamilton defensive back. The senior blocked a critical extra point after Byron Center’s go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter with 5:34 remaining in the fourth quarter. It paid big dividends when Skylar Sale kicked the go-ahead PAT five minutes later.

TURNING POINT
Sitting 1st-and-10 at its 25-yard line with 1:51 remaining, Hamilton stood 75 yards from the end zone and had barely produced that much on offense for the entire game. The left-handed White took a pitch, reversed field and tossed a perfect strike down field. Klein caught the ball and was tackled at the Byron Center 9-yard line. Three plays later, DeGood ran in the end zone to tie the score.

KEY STAT
149 — Number of yards Hamilton produced against Byron Center. Half of them came during the Hawkeyes’ final scoring possession.

SCORING SUMMARY

BC 0 7 0 6—13
H 0 0 7 7—14
Second quarter
BC — Derek Sievers 5 run (Charlie Wait kick), 14.7
Third quarter
H — Joey DeGood 4 run (Skylar Sale kick), 7:42
Fourth quarter
BC — Sievers 3 run (kick blocked), 5:34
H — DeGood 1 run (Sale kick), 24.5


WHAT THEY’RE SAYING

“We said we’re going to go empty, try to chuck it and see if we can get the ball down the field. We really worked at that play. It keeps our season alive.” — Hamilton coach Chris Myers

“We work on blocking kicks a little bit. If we see a point, we try to capitalize on it. It’s just us going hard like we know how to do.” — Hamilton senior Cole VanHarn

“It’s a big turnaround for us.” — Hamilton receiver Mitch Klein

BOTTOM LINE

Hamilton still is struggling to get its offense moving, but the Hawkeyes came up with the clutch play they needed to bounce back from a 42-14 loss to Zeeland East. Hamilton now goes on the road for the first time next week at Wyoming Rogers.


Copyright 2010 The Holland Sentinel. Some rights reserved








And my Dad and Norma were able to be there along with Roberta's dad.
My dad's been in poor health all summer but got some encouraging news from the heart specialist that same day so he was able to make what was a very exciting night.

Mushtaq's Birthday Bash

Headed off to Mushtaq's for our weekly training and mayhem session Sunday
However this week was a bit different, it being his birthday.
Janet planned for guests to arrive shortly after our training finished so Roberta came along and so did Cole. Cole's pretty busy since College dual enrollment already started but with it being Mushtaq's birthday he would not be denied.
And a birthday is a thin enough excuse to break out the pointy things and execute the water bottles.




Chris also built a throwing apparatus for tomahawk and knife throwing to be used at the tournament in Chicago. It's now installed at Mushtaq's for a while.

This photo would atcually be Roberta's first throwing success.

You can be sure when Mushtaq's friends gather round, the food is phenomenal.

One of the prizes Cole won at the tournament was a Cold Steel Finn Wolf Knife. Figured I might as well try it out.

Mushtaq also taught Cole how to put a good edge on one of his tournament prizes. Pretty good job I'd say.

This one tried to escape so Chris pinned him down first

Now this is a Balisong. Got it back in 04 but never actually cut with it before, LOL

Now hold still

and Cole says "that's all"