Sometimes life is like an onion, lots of layers and each one of them stink!

We had a split on the games last night. Drew's team won their game and Jess's team lost. The boys didn't play that well but the other team was pretty poor. The girls played terrible. I am not sure what the deal was but they seemed slow and tired. They just didn't play well. I think Jess had 4 points which is not a good night for her. She only shot the ball, maybe 8 times and most were inside. The refs weren't calling fouls underneath so that kind of hurt her game.

Tonight Jess plays in Carroll. It is the only team we have beaten this year so they have a chance. I guess it will depend on how they play. I was very grouchy last night so I came home after the girls game, ate a sandwich and went to bed. I haven't talked to the kids since they played so I don't know what they thought of the night.

I am a believer in bio-rhythms. I think we go through cycles in our day to day lives. Sometime we feel good and our attitudes are positive and other times the cycle changes to where we are down and sad or grouchy. I feel my mood changing to the down side. Grouchy, depressed, unhappy, the works. I hope this doesn't last long.

Jess and Drew both have tournaments this weekend. Drew plays in a basketball tournament Saturday and Sunday (Sunday if they win at least one game). Jess plays a volleyball tournament on Saturday all day. With my mood I really don't feel like going to either nor do I feel like going to the game tonight. I am sure I will go but I think I will kind of just keep to myself. (Flashbacks of Dad without the mean.)

My other plans for the weekend is to go into work for a bit Sunday morning an then go and snow blow the driveway at the other house. I also have a bunch of work to do for the classes I teach. It takes a lot of prep to teach just one day of a 4 hour class. Since I teach two of them, it is quite the load. Once I have gone through a semester and I kind of have an idea of how things go, it will be better but right now I am working as we go. Making tests, deciding what assignments to give and I need time to grade them so that plays a role if it is a paper.

Here is a list of emotions I am feeling right now:

• Bald
• Fat
• Lathargic
• Sad
• Angry
• Depressed
• Destitute
• Overwhelmed
• Underachieving
• Helpless

I am sure this fog will clear but as of today, it is what it is. I just want to note it for future Rich.

Everyone loves a Friday.

If I could think of a good title, I would put it here!

It was kind of good to have an easy day yesterday. Everything was closed so work was quiet and I didn't have to drive to Des Moines to teach. All in all a pretty good day.

Drew and I had to go over to the other house and shovel the sidewalk and the steps to the house. We also shoveled a path up to the house. I will go over this weekend with the snow blower and get the rest. I just wanted to do enough yesterday to avoid a ticket.

The city of Perry is not resident friendly. You can't park on the street AT ALL when it snows or they tow your vehicle. They have a compliance officer that drives around all day checking to see if you have too many tall weeds in your yard or a tree that is a bit over grown, haven't shoveled the sidewalk and any other thing they can think of. If you have a violation, they give you a warning and you have 48 hours to fix it. If you don't you get a ticket. They also publish your name, address and violation, even for the warning, in the paper. We also have the candy ass garbage bastards. Speaking of which, it is trash day. The chamber of commerce just doesn't understand why people don't want to move to Perry. Give me a break!

Two games tonight. Drew at 4 and Jess at 6. They are both here in Perry so that is good. Jess has her last regular season game on Friday in Carroll. It is about an hour away but I think I will go since it will most likely be the last game of the year I can see. Wednesday is their regional game and I teach class so I will miss it.

I was talking with Drew yesterday and we were talking about one of his friend and his dad is a construction worker. It was just a normal conversation but by what he was telling me, this kids dad is a no nonsense type of person. I got to thinking, it really doesn't matter what you do for a living. If you are working class, I think you have a normal scepticism and bitterness. I know people who work hard in physically demanding jobs but have money so it really isn't about what you do. I think it is about knowing that in a blink of an eye you can be in financial devestation and probably have had to make tough decision and go without. Living like this isn't easy and I think it changes you. Makes you a bit harder, more cynical and I am not sure if you can ever go back. Life is like that. Environment is almost everything.

This may be why elected officials are so out of touch with people. Even our city officials are business people in the community so they don't really stuggle. They are completely out of touch. Our Mayor, who I can't stand, said on the radio the other day that she would raise taxes if she could. We are one of the highest taxes communities in the state by the way. She said, if people want services, they should have to pay for them. She is very financially secure and completely out of touch with the rest of us. We already pay through the nose but she doesn't think it is enough. Whatever!

Alright I am done ranting. Trash day tends to get me going!

The weekend is just around the corner. Who knows what today will bring. Check back tomorrow for more of the exiting saga of Rich.

When was the last time you went to church on Ash Wednesday?.........LENT the events begin!

Well, the weather outside is frightful! Snow is the name of the game for today. I think we got maybe 5 inches but it was enough to cancel school for the day. The kids are excited and I am pretty happy too. I looked online and it looks like my night class at DMACC has been cancelled too.

I guess if I could have my choice, I would teach the class tonight instead of cancelling. Not my call so I guess it doesn't really matter. I just hate having to figure out how to make up the day.

Lent officially begins today. Ash Wednesday. I am giving up nothing for lent this year since the last time I have been to church it was wedding. It seems these days I only go to church for weddings and funerals. If I were to give up something for lent it would be hypocritical.

I am actually pretty happy with myself knowing today was Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent. Not sure if that is enough to get me into heaven though. I have accepted the fact that I may be spending a significant time in purgatory.

I am sure Nancy will be reading this post this morning so I have a couple messages for her.

• Don't forget to bring in a little coffee, I will bring a bit too.
• My shovel is still at your house so on the way to work this morning, could you bring it with you? The kids are going to shovel snow today.

So it looks like John McCain is going to be the Republican nominee for president. He won pretty good on Super Tuesday so it looks like he is up.

On the Democrat side it is still a toss up. Hillary or Obama. They both did well and kind of split the votes yesterday. Not sure who will be the nominee yet. Hillary has cried twice so far for votes, we will see how many more times we will get to see her "tear up" before the convention.

Here is the breakdown for the kids games the rest of the week. Jess and Drew both have games on Thursday. Jess has a game on Friday and on Saturday, Drew has a tournament and Jess has a volleyball tournament.

With all the activities and teaching class, the weeks really fly by these days. I think about class all day Monday. I feel great on Tuesday knowing I have nothing in the evening, Wednesday I am usually thinking about teaching again, another late night. Then it is Thursday already and there are games on those nights and Friday. So the weeks just really fly.

I need to get going to start the big day.

Fat Tuesday?........Hell, I was fat Monday!

The weather is going to be poor over the next 36 hours. I think we are supposed to get a bunch of snow but we are kind of on a the boarder between the area that is suppose to get a bunch and the area that is supposed to just get a little. I guess time will tell.

Here is the bad part. Jess and Drew both have games today. Jess also has a volleyball tournament in Des Moines on Saturday. The basketball coach told the girls last night that if the game get cancelled today, they will play it on SATURDAY!!! What are the freaking odds? For Drew this is the last game of the year so if it gets cancelled the season is over.

There is one bright side for Drew. The coach entered the team in a tournament this weekend so he will get to play in that. Even if his game is cancelled he will still get to play a few more games.

There was a bit of drama with the basketball team yesterday. Jess was telling me last night that the JV coach got fired yesterday. It is a long story but basically a player can only play so many games in a year, this is a state rule. Anyway, if they play 2 quarters or less in a day, that doesn't count as a game. This is how they can let Jess and a couple other varsity players play JV. Anyway, the JV coach, which I think they have had trouble with before, played two of the varsity girls extra quarters of JV and now they only have one game of eligibility left on the season. With the limited number of players, the varsity coach blew a gasket and told the jv coach that he was not longer part of the team.

They have cancelled the rest of the JV games for the year and have to get through the rest of the season. Jess was not one of the players that is close to the game limit so it doesn't really impact her except she may not get any rest in the upcoming games.

I taught class last night and it went well. The students had to take two quizzes and they were not thrilled, but they paid attention and everyone seemed to be in pretty good humor. Jess stoppped by during class for a visit. She was watching the boys JV game and came in after the game. I think it was the first time that some of the students put it together that we were related.

Four hours of class is a long time! It makes getting up at 5 a little more difficult.

I guess I should get ready to face the snowy day ahead.

As many asses as I deal with, you would swear I was a proctologist

Well the football season ended with a perfect Tri-Fecta of suck! The Giant won the Superbowl and I hate Eli Manning. Any quarterback who declines an offer to play with a team because THEY aren't good enough for him, needs his ass kicked.

The trend of uneventful weekends has continued. Jess had a game on Saturday morning. They won, I am not sure how points she had. On Friday night they played at home and it was a very good game. They lost by two but it was a battle the whole way. Jess had 18 points, team high, and had a four point play. She shot the ball and made the basket and then after the basket was made a girl fouled her. She got a 1 & 1 and made both free throws.

Drew has his last practice this morning. I am glad. I have to walk him over to the school every morning at 6 and it is getting a bit old. Tomorrow he has his last game of the year. It is a home game so I will get to see it.

Saturday I took a three hour nap!!!! Damn was I tired. There really wasn't anything going on and with the weather being cold and crappy, I don't feel like doing anything either.

The weekly routine is begining again today. MONDAY.....Drag! I have to proctor a test this morning for a state competition at the school. It will only take an hour so that isn't so bad. Mostly boring. I teach class tonight. Jess has a JV game in Carlisle tonight.

Drew just came up and said we have a two hour delay for school. I checked and sure enough we do. What the hell? I just saw a flash of lightning and hear thunder outside. I guess we are having some weather issues.

I will write more about it tomorrow. I don't want to lose power in the middle of my post.

Have great day!