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The past several days have seen ample rainfall to the point of flooding here in parts of the Bluegrass. My yard has that wonderful green hue to it but it also is getting a bit long and does need some manicuring. The rain has affected other things as well. At McDonald's it has dampened the spirits of some of the workers as they see no real reason to be excited about getting off work in the early to mid afternoon. When people are disappointed they tend to get a little testy at times. That little bit of edge can spill over into service. Conquering that feeling is a matter of attitude. …  ( Click for more )

Things happen in life that sometimes leave us frustrated and even afraid. Other things bring us a certain measure of anticipation and even excitement. Some have the capacity to do all of the above mentioned things. Back in 1999 I never thought that, following my forty-ninth birthday I would be flipping burgers at McDonald's. Sure enough, there I was working the "backline" as it's called as the grill man. At times it was hectic and at times it was pretty sedate. But it was work. And I was getting paid and making a living to go along with my "weekend" ministry with the Berea…  ( Click for more )

According to the Random House Dictionary of the English Language, College Edition, a "moron" is a "person having an I. Q. of 50-69 and judged incapable of developing beyond a mental age of 8-12," or, "any stupid person or a person lacking in good judgment." I had not met too many people who possessed both of those attributes until the other day. The odd thing is, I didn't spend all that much time with the person. We met on an elevator headed to the same floor of the building. What happened from there is the stuff of legends.

My wife had a doctor's appointment last…  ( Click for more )

When we first moved to the Georgetown area over two and a half years ago I found a ready golf partner in Donald Clark. Since that time Don and I have played quite a bit of golf together and I have watched him grow as a golfer. Golf has a lot to do with getting through certain barriers. The first is just being able to hit the ball solidly. The second is being able to hit it straight, or at least in the general direction you want it to go whether it fades or draws to get there. The third is getting rid of three putt greens. Most golfers just want to play regularly in the 90s and breaking…  ( Click for more )

Almost every evening my wife and I take a walk. The circuit we walk is completely contained within our subdivision and covers two and one tenth miles in length. We walk this in about thirty-five minutes which is pretty brisk for her considering she isn't quite five feet two inches tall. We have been doing this since the spring of the year and it is truly showing in both our overall health and weight. She hardly ever misses her evening walk while I sometimes fudge and don't go. Some evenings I mow the yard or have had a big day on the golf course and have already walked…  ( Click for more )

Back in the mid to late ‘90s I had a regular group of golfers that I used to play with every Tuesday morning at 7:00 at the Southwind Golf Course in nearby Winchester, KY. We would tee off promptly at 7:00 and be done by around 10:00 most mornings. The fellows that I played with were a joy with which to play. They were all older than me and reasonably good golfers who would venture into the low 70s for a round or two but usually played in the 80s. It was fun because we would enjoy each other’s company and share about our families and our work or, if applicable, retirement. …  ( Click for more )

Late this past Saturday morning I was making my way back to Georgetown from Minorsville where I had been making a few calls. I had decided to squeeze one more in before lunch so I was going the long way into Georgetown so I could go by the bowling alley in hopes of catching up to one of our prospect families which has a son in a Saturday morning bowling league. I left Minorsville at about 11:10 and by 11:15 I was just south of Stamping Ground on State Route 227 when I came upon a procession of cars moving very slowly.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"…  ( Click for more )

2005 may go down as one of “those” years in sports. A major sports figure currently playing may be indicted by a federal grand jury. Barry Bonds is under investigation by a federal grand jury and his former trainer, Greg Williams, refuses to testify to the grand jury. Maurice Clarett, just four years removed from a NCAA national football championship, is now in jail facing multiple charges from robbery to consorting with known gangsters. Hugh Landis has been stripped of his Tour de France title due to doping charges.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"…  ( Click for more )

There was a very quiet birthday last week. A thirty-first birthday. There was no fanfare. There was no celebration. On August 9,1975 the New Orleans Superdome opened to a sellout crowd of 72,000 people. It opened as the most impressive structure of its day. It dwarfed the Astrodome in Houston and quickly became the favored site for such events as Super Bowls and NCAA Basketball Final Fours. In fact, to be part of a live event at the Superdome carried a great deal of weight.

Last year when it turned thirty the Superdome was housing a live event of a different sort. This modern…  ( Click for more )

Rhythm. It’s that funny word made up of six consonants that determines the flow of music. Without rhythm one person might be able to sing a song, but add a couple more people and you would probably have a song more like alley cats yowling from the back fence. Rhythm is what makes a melody come to life and harmony come together. It is the very essence of music for it is that which primitive man could determine just by tapping a foot or slapping his side.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Professional athletes will…  ( Click for more )

Wednesday evening my youngest son, Sean, and I celebrated our birthdays in our own little tradition. We went to a Cincinnati Reds baseball game. With his birthday being on August 8 and mine on August 10 we chose August 9 as the logical night for the game. We were both very happy that we did. Not only did we get to see a wonderful game but we also hit one of those special giveaways that the Reds have every so often. We also hit a break as we had driven through a downpour on the way north to the game, but it never rained a drop for the game.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns =…  ( Click for more )

Tiger Woods is a golfer of destiny. Now I am going to put something in print that I never thought I would. Tiger Woods is the greatest golfer of all time. He is the One. That is a difficult thing for me to do. I was raised in South Central Ohio just down the road from Columbus and the Ohio State University. I was raised marveling at a chubby kid from Columbus, the son of a pharmacist, who stood the world on its ear at OSU as a golfer in the late fifties and early sixties. I was raised idolizing Jack Nicklaus.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"…  ( Click for more )

I don't know who started the standard of the first weekend in August being the best time for a family to have a reunion, but it seems that there are many that do. My wife's family is one of those. Some forty plus years ago the extended family got the idea of returning to the area where all these families used to live. It is a region called Big Ridge and the focal point of the region is the old Antioch Christian Church. All the families that used to populate the area; the Midkiffs, the Smiths, the McDaniels, the Humphries, the Fridleys, the Hiltons (I probably left one…  ( Click for more )

August has been a big month for my family. Years ago, when we had the custom of trading small gifts with relatives, August was the reason we stopped. There were too many birthdays mounting in August so our family quit giving gifts for each extended family member's birthday. That was just my own family. Then I married and August got even more interesting. Counting birthdays and anniversaries August is a definite "avoid-buying-gifts-at-all-costs" type of month. Let me fill you in.

On August 1 there are the birthdays of my nephews Scott Snyder (my side) and Wade Johnson…  ( Click for more )

You may have heard of the "dead ball" era in baseball. That was the time period when power numbers were way down. People were not hitting homeruns the way they do today. Baseball historians and those close to the game blame it on the way the balls were manufactured back then. They were not as lively as those in use today. There are a certain group of people in the know who contend that it was not the ball but rather the way that the game was being played then. Runs were scored by concentrating on getting on and moving the runners up.

Today that's referred to as "small…  ( Click for more )

Okay. I need to know some things. This isn't quite a "didjever?" type thing but it is close. This is more of a "cosmic balance" thing. More of a "canyatellmewhy?" thing. Maybe you have thought of these also, but, then again, maybe you haven't. If you have, you don't win anything, other than the satisfaction of knowing that you think like me. That might not be all that satisfying for you. It could be disconcerting or maybe even borderline frightening. Anyway, here goes.

Why do men (or women) who live on narrow back roads drive pickup trucks with dualies?…  ( Click for more )

Wednesday was a difficult day for me in trying to get my column out to you good folks. Unbeknownst to me the local cable TV company began early to do a job and accidentally cut into the phone lines that service our neighborhood. I did not realize it that morning as I just credited it to another of many malfunctions with the ISP I have. It was not until later that day that I tried to get online that I noticed we had a little problem. The software was telling me that it was dialing the number but nothing was happening.

I felt a little Buck Owens and Roy Clark on Hee Haw, except…  ( Click for more )

Believe it or not it has been ten years since the homemade bomb exploded in Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, Georgia. It was ten years ago today and it cast a shadow of doubt over the Summer Olympic Games of that year. There was a concert in the park at the time of the bomb blast and more than one hundred people were injured with one person dying from their injuries. It led to fears and speculations of international incidents of terrorism during the rest of the Games. The Games continued and nothing more happened.

Terrorism is a tool of the weak to attempt to control the…  ( Click for more )

Anna Kournikova. Remember her? She took the professional tennis world by storm as a young woman. She had it all was what we were told. Mostly what she had was enough game to play well and enough beauty to make a living with endorsements because she looked good in a commercial. Got a quick question for you. Name the tournaments that she won. Go ahead, I'll wait. And wait. And wait. That's enough waiting. Time's up. Could you name the tournaments that she won?

If you couldn't, don't feel bad. She never won any tournaments. For all the hype she…  ( Click for more )

Ever since I was just a little kid I have been involved in competitive sports. I began in little league at age six although I am almost certain there were some rather feverish contests of teething ring wrestling at a much earlier age. I am still playing sports competitively as I play golf in several tournaments each year as well as tee it up with blokes who think that our friendly matches are the U. S. Open. In those fifty years of competition I have been swept up by the malady of sports; professional expectations.

A number of years ago I was one of those glowering, article…  ( Click for more )

Back in those halcyon days of yore (I love those old phrases) golf was contested by a format called match play. Match play is a contest in which the players compete from hole to hole not stroke to stroke. The player with the lowest score on any given hole wins the hole. The player with the most holes won wins the match. At the end of the round the competitors do not have a score to compare against each other based on their total strokes for the round, just the hole by hole comparison.

Forty-nine years ago today was the last time that the PGA Championship was contested in a…  ( Click for more )

Some of you may have seen the email that circulated some time back about the man who went into a McDonald's Restaurant and ordered a half dozen Chicken McNuggets only to be told that they only came in orders of six, nine or twelve. Supposedly it was a true story. Maybe it was and maybe it wasn't. If you believe it was then you are one of those who believe in the fallibility of the American worker when it comes to applying their intellect to a situation. In short, the American worker does okay until he has to think.

Personally, I fully believe that the story about…  ( Click for more )

Day to day life. We see it as a life and death struggle on some fronts. That is why we come up with statements such as, "It's a dog-eat-dog world," and "It's a jungle out there." Perhaps it is a bit difficult at times just trying to make it from day to day. I cannot help but think that, for the most part, it is not as bad as we make it out to be. Maybe, just maybe, because it isn't a piece of cake, we make it seem worse than what it actually is. After all, if it is happening to us, then it always seems worse.

If we were to watch the world that is around us…  ( Click for more )

Speed seems to be a very important issue in many sports. In track and field watching the one hundred meter dash is a lot more exciting than perhaps watching the one hundred meter crawl. The fastest time traversing the distance is what is considered important rather than finding out who can take the longest to cover the distance and still actually be moving the entire time. Speed makes foot races fun to watch. It does the same with NASCAR, IRL, NHRA and CART events.

Speed also carries some weight in boxing as well. Many boxers are known as being quick punchers with fast hands.…  ( Click for more )