July Musing

I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me and I doubt I get to all of it. I know I have one more Schedule Analysis to do. I normally do Tournament Previews and I haven’t done a single one, yet. Heck, I usually have my Top 25 done but I don’t have my statistic loss articles done for the ASC or nationally! Worst of all, the site will celebrate its 6^th anniversary next week and I haven’t even started to try to find a present. So, what am I doing? A musing article with really nothing to say. (Not that you should stop reading. Most of my best work is done when I let my mind wonder.)

I own a Google Pixel 4 XL phone that I’ve had for a number of years and just love.

I. Am. Not. An. Apple. Person. (Despite the following story.)

I’ve had this problem where the battery monitor stopped working intermittently. Researching the issue, this is a known problem and Google even extended their warranty for phones that had this issue. Of course, I’m outside even that extension. Still, it wasn’t a big problem until this morning when it just stopped working all together, which then caused my phone to think there was no charge when the phone was not plugged in. Yikes! In the end, I was without a phone for a few hours but let me tell you, I have become so reliant on that phone, it’s ridiculous. I think I had a near panic attack when I realized I probably wouldn’t be able to use my phone’s GPS to guide me to the repair center. I had to old school print the directions out but it failed when I wanted the paper to consistently update me on traffic conditions. The kicker is that I’m retired. I don’t know what all of you would do without that phone. Heck, think of the coaches during recruiting season.

I had a couple of updates from random people about the UT-Dallas situation. Of course, it’s only a situation because I think it’s a situation. There isn’t any word from them or the ASC about it but it does appear certain that they will be moving to DII. Sul Ross State has also made it official that they will be moving next year to DII. The NCAA DIII Championship Committee last month granted a waiver for Sul Ross State to still be considered DIII as long as they remain compliant with DIII bylaws. This is big as they will still be counted as a DIII opponent and in-region for teams playing them. I assume if the UT-Dallas move gets announced that they would also need a waiver unless they push it out another year, which would seem likely. With all of the defections from the ASC, it would leave (at some point) 5 volleyball programs in UMHB, ETBU, LeTourneau, Hardin-Simmons and Howard Payne. You need six to maintain your automatic qualifier.

Back to the Tournament Previews and I don’t want to spoil things here but there are some good tournaments in SoCal this year. Even Santa Cruz is hosting a nice one although they don’t get to enjoy that SoCal moniker. (Is it MidCal?) I am really struggling on what I’d like to watch. I factor in Southwestern first and then competition and then teams/coaches. Well, really, it’s “what will my (hot) wife allow” first. I’m going to be a little bummed if I miss Southwestern’s tournament that second weekend as I think my (dumb) daughter (she doesn’t read the site) is going to miss the alumni match in August. In fairness, I may be on a trip that week anyway but still, dumb for her to miss it. (It’s almost like she has a life outside of volleyball, which I was unaware you could do.)

Coach Tiffin (Schreiner) reached out to say (brag?) that they will retain two Super Seniors. I would love it if all of the coaches reading this would send me an email on which Super Seniors are coming back. It would be a great article assuming I can find my blog mojo again.

I can’t remember what I’ve reported on and what I haven’t. Do we all know that Whittier Head Coach Chris Duarte-McDermott (the coach so nice they named him twice) will not be continuing as the Region X RAC Chair? I think I mentioned this in the past. I still don’t know who is going to replace him. If someone knows, please clue me in. I would expect Chris to let me know but he was always super-secret on the RAC information. I’m hoping the new Chair is named three times so they will be even nicer. My guess is that it will be Leslie Shelvin (Willamette’s Associate Athletic Director). A one name-name. Not good.

I try to get these musing articles to at least 1000 words but I’m short so let me vamp a bit. I hit a car the other day. Not my fault. It was parked correctly but it has one of those slightly larger wheel wells and I needed that half inch to properly park my car. Still, I left a note and got to speak to an elderly lady that could be very blunt and, how do I word this, could be very dense. I mean, it was my fault but I felt I had to walk her through everything and half the time she didn’t believe me. I left a note. The time to be dishonest for me had passed. The thing that got me was that she was afraid to involve her insurance agency. I tried to tell her that they will be the go-between between us and will ensure that she get everything she needs. By the end, she was just banging my phone with text messages (kudos for being able to text) and demanding that I get my insurance company to deal with her directly. Let’s see what she last wrote me. “My agent doesn’t need to waste her time in this claim. If it was my claim, I wouldn’t be having this problem.” I’m thinking of billing her agent for all of the work I did on her behalf.

I am over 1000 words but this has gotten me to think. We all struggle with the elderly in our family, I assume. We keep telling our (dumb) daughter to just let us know when we become too much of a burden. I’d honestly just pay for a sub ride to the Titanic at that point. (Too soon? I feel that may have been too soon.) Can all of us 50+ old people just agree that we will all be better than our parents and grandparents and can all of the 20+ old people just agree to be better than us? When do we lose our self-awareness? To all of the 70+ old people out there, I’m not talking about you. You guys are perfect and the exception to all of this. Still, you may want to ask your kids if they think you should go on a Titanic sub ride.