Hockey In the Desert

You may have seen the news that Wayne Gretzky resigned as coach of the Phoenix Coyotes this week. It was the end of an experiment. Now I'm not as much of an avid follower of the Coyotes as AZJazzyJ is of the Diamondbacks, however I follow them close enough to understand that this was probably a good thing.

In case you are unaware, the Coyotes are going through bankruptcy proceedings. There are two bidders to buy the club, The NHL and Jim Balsillie (you know the Blackberry guy). The NHL wants the Coyotes to stay in Phoenix. Balsillie favors moving the team to Hamilton Ontario. This has produced a long drawn out battle that has yet to be decided. Anyways back to Gretzky.

If you have heard of hockey at all you have heard of "The Great One". Gretzky is the best player to have ever laced them up. The debate (as some would say) is settled. He is the all-time leading goal scorer and produced several Stanley Cup championships. He had a feel for the game that others could only hope to attain. Herein is why I believe that Gretzky failed as a coach.

You see in every athlete there are two parts to the game. The talents you are born with and the things that you learn. You have to have both in order to become great. Gretzky was one of those rare athletes (similar to Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and Roger Federer) that could combine his natural talent with his learning to produce greatness.

As a coach it is your responsibility to teach your players to perform; to create as it were a system by which they can play. A lot of that teaching is from what you have learned either as a player or through experience as coaching. This is your job. However the one thing that you can't (at least that I have seen) teach is your instincts and natural talent. It just can't be done.

Wayne Gretzky, I believe, tried to teach what came naturally to him and couldn't do it. There could be several reasons for this. Among them:

• The talent wasn't there to execute
• Gretzky's instincts are still light years beyond today's player
• His team did not grasp that by playing the way he taught it would make them better

This makes it difficult to produce a winning team. Gretzky's coaching record bares this out. It doesn't help also that the team is losing money and can't afford to bring in more talent to help the core group. Shane Doan is a great player, but without a supporting cast (as Gretzky had with Messier for example) teams can neutralize him.

I'm not making an excuse for Gretzky. His system did not work with the Coyotes. It was time for a change. Hopefully Wayne will get the chance to teach again and hopefully he has learned that some things cannot be taught. If so, then he stands a good chance for success. The Coyotes will move along without him.

Tax the Wealthy

Yes I said it, tax the wealthy! But it's not what you think. You see I got to thinking after BYU got trounced by Florida State that Florida State could still play for the BCS championship if they get a little help. BYU on the other hand has no chance at the championship game or even a BCS game because of this one loss.

My proposal is to borrow the philosophy of the Obama administration for the FBS. You see not every team that is in the FBS is in the BCS and therefore they don't have a chance to play in a BCS bowl unless a ton of things go right (that's why they call them BCS busters). So the plan is to "tax the wealthy". In this system the BCS schools make the most and need to pay their fair share, while the other schools belong to the middle-class and need help to get up to the level of the BCS schools.

My plan is to have the NCAA tax the BCS schools at 30% at the end of the college football season. The tax is on every dollar that the BCS football program brings in (notice NOT profit). The money is put into a pool that will be evenly distributed to the non-BCS FBS schools. This way the non-BCS schools will have more money and will be able to compete better with the BCS. Eventually everyone will be equal and all schools in the FBS will be eligible for the BCS championship without having to jump through (over, around, etc) the major hoops that now stand in their way.

I mean if the President of the US believes that distributing the wealth will bring everyone up why should we not apply that to college football? So I say it's time to tax the wealthy and compensate those middle-class FBS teams that are put down by the elite BCS teams.

Of course a football playoff might actually be less expensive and allow teams to settle the issues on the field, but hey that's capitalism and I think that's a four letter word now.

Geeky

So the other day on Plurk there was an entry called "Lame Bumper Sticker: Shai-Hulud is my co-pilot". Of course being an avid fan of Dune I wanted one. Well I started thinking and have come up with a few Dune Bumper Stickers for our time. . .

On Global Warming

Don't blame me! I'm wearing a Stillsuit!

On Honor Students

My Fremen son just beat up your Imperial Sardaukar

On Alternate Vehicles

My other car is a 40 meter Sandworm

And finally:

On the 2012 Election

Atreides - Stilgar 2012

I think it's safe to say that my Geek card will not be revoked.

A Father-Son Conversation

Last night I had the opportunity to take my oldest son out and get a Halloween decoration he wanted. Being high-functioning autistic he was obsessed with this decoration. I didn't imagine that we would have the conversation that we did when we set out.

After we had bought the decoration we started out at home. Levi started discussing about when we die how we will come back to life. So we got into the whole discussion about resurrection. I explained to Levi that Jesus was resurrected and because He was resurrected we all get to be resurrected. It's a free gift given to us by Him. I then went on to explain how that after we are resurrected we get to sit down with Jesus and review our life. If we have done good and repented for the things that we did wrong and lived our lives as Jesus wants us to then we get to live with Him and God. Now in my religion that place is called the Celestial Kingdom. If you didn't quite live up to Jesus teachings (remember I'm explaining this to an eight year old) then you would live in the Terrestrial Kingdom. If you decided not to follow Jesus (you are always given a chance to accept Him) then you would be assigned to the Telestial Kingdom.

After my explanation, my son looks at me and says "I believe in Jesus Dad." That made me happy. You see we have always taught Levi what we believe but we haven't forced anything on him. We have always told him that he needs to make up his own mind when it comes to the church. So to hear him say he believes in Jesus is a good thing to me.

This time has taught me as well. That the kids are listening even when it seems that they are not. It gave me hope that as a parent I'm doing the right things to bring up my child correctly. It also reminded me that sometimes you need to turn everything else off and just talk with your child.

One Great Man

On Wednesday September 2nd 2009 one of the greatest men I've ever known passed away. My maternal Grandfather taught me much in this life and I was privileged to have almost 40 years of life with him in it.

My first memories of Grandpa Sam are of his house with Grandma. His house was clean and we were always asked to behave and be as quiet as possible. I would sit at my father's feet while the adults discussed things I couldn't grasp. Later I would understand that they were talking about family and life in general.

When I was a little older, Grandpa had a cabin on Chautauqua Lake in Upstate NY. We would visit him on weekends in the summer and the highlight of the visit was always fishing. There were two places to fish, the dock and from the boat. Here Grandpa could teach us important life lessons. The first was patience (you can't fish if you don't have patience). Here also we learned about how to catch fish. We were introduced to some of Grandpa's greatest one liners. For example we couldn't catch a thing unless we started out by reciting Grandpa's fishing call. "HERE FISHIE, FISHIE, FISHIE!" The trick to this call was to go as deep as possible with your voice. The deeper your voice the larger the fish we would catch. The second lesson learned was how to properly bait a hook with a worm. Grandpa would always remind us to bite the head off the worm before putting it on the hook. You were guaranteed to catch a fish if you bit the head off.

On a more serious note, there is one experience with my Grandpa that taught me the importance of respecting women and my mom more importantly. We were at my Grandpa's house. He had a miniature pool table and I was always playing on it. Well my mom decided it was time to go and called us to get in the car. I was probably 9 or 10 and told my mom I would be out when I finished my game. Quick as lightening my Grandpa's hand seized my wrist and in his sternest voice told me "When your mother says it's time to go, you go." I learned that day how important respect for mothers and women was and have tried to live my life in the same way.

Grandpa loved to golf. When I was a teenager I spent several rounds on the links with him. We would talk about life and golf. It was a great time. I got to know not only my Grandpa, but also his friends and family because of the stories he would tell me. I learned how important family is during this time. I also learned some secrets to golf. Like Grandpa's famous "Ancient Chinese Secret" to golf: "He who play peekie-peekie, play lousy golf."

Grandpa loved to laugh. He would laugh at life, jokes and the ironic. His laugh was contagious. I enjoyed hearing it and it will be one of the things I miss. To me Grandpa will always be swinging a golf club or taking a fish off a hook.

I said before that Grandpa is one of the greatest men I know. Really he is one of the two men who have greatly influenced my life (the other being my father). I hope that I am living up to the example he set for me.

My Grandfather will be greatly missed by me. I will never fish or golf without thinking about him. I will not look at my family without thinking if I am living up to the example he has set. I hope that I can impart the stories of my Grandpa to my children and grandchildren and that they will be able to learn as much from him as I have. Hit 'em straight Grandpa, I will see you again.

Tiger's Prowling

So the last two Sundays I have watched an amazing performance. Tiger Woods has won the last two weeks on the PGA tour. Sound easy? Not so fast my friends (hey a Lee Corso reference means college football must be starting soon, but I digress). First you have to consider what it takes to walk a golf course for four days straight in the summer. Second you have to factor in travel. Third there are charity events and practice rounds and media interviews. It's no wonder these guys don't play every week.

Now consider that Tiger didn't do enough to outpace the field in each of the first three rounds of the last two tournaments. He was in the hunt on Sunday meaning the red shirt would be on, but still he had to execute his game in order to win. The poor guys that play with him. It has to be one of the most stressful times in golf. It's probably akin to guarding Michael Jordan in his prime during the NBA finals. It's intimidating to say the least.

However, yesterday it looked as if Tiger had flinched. On 14 Tiger hit his second shot right of the green and tried to flop the ball over a sand trap to get an up-and-down par. He miss-hit it and landed in the sand. The result a bogey. Had Tiger flinched? Harrington made par on the 14th and both golfers parred the 15th. That lead to the 16th where both players tee shots left something to be desired. Woods hit his second shot to within 181 yards in the middle of the fairway. Harrington hit his further but it was in the rough just outside a fairway bunker. This is where it all changed and Harrington ended up flinching.

Tiger pulled out his 8-iron. I don't know about you but I would have been hitting a 6 or a 5 depending on the wind. An 8-IRON! The announcers were talking about him hitting left of the hole about 25 feet. That's not Tiger's game. Instead Tiger hits the shot about 183 yards (again with an 8-IRON) that landed about 6 to 8 feet left of the hole and spun back to within a foot. I don't know about you but if I'm Harrington seeing that shot I know I have to get it close enough to save par.

Harrington hit his shot to the back right of the green (did I mention the right front of the green was guarded by water?). He had an impossible lie to try and get it close for par. He tried a flop shot, but unfortunately it looked like me out there and came out way too hot. The shot rolled off the green and into the water. Padraig had to walk back down the fairway to the drop zone and ended up making triple bogey. A four shot swing that sealed the tournament for Tiger.

This week the PGA Championship is being played. It is the season's last major. It is also Tiger's last chance to win a major this year. The way he is playing right now I think the field should be thinking of what to do with the second place money. Although it is hard to win on Tour three weeks in a row, Tiger is on his game and may just run away with it to prove the point that he is the best golfer in the world. I will be watching and yes rooting for Tiger to pull this off.

Family Vacation Part I

OK, so two weeks away from the Arizona heat to spend time with family sounds like a lot of fun right? You bet it was! And now for a little recap of the vacation:

Day 1: Traveling to Utah. 10+ hours in the car with 5 kids. Not getting into an accident when some idiot forgot to tie down his empty blue water barrel? Priceless. As a side note, the spin created on the blue barrel was quite a site and the reactions of the motorists to not only avoid the barrel but a 10 car pile up was amazing. Of course the driver who lost the barrel had no idea the panic he caused and deserved every gesture every driver gave him passing by.

Day 2: Sunday meant baby blessing. The newest addition to the extended family was blessed by his father and was a great day for all family involved. A short luncheon was held afterward and it was good to see everyone. Later that day we had another family reunion where we visited the birth-father of our 5 year old. It was great because we didn't get to spend a lot of time with him when the adoption occurred. We got to visit with him and his mother and got some great stories. We also got to see where some of the traits of our 5 year old originated.

Day 3: Hiking Mount Timpanogos. My Brother-in-Law gets full marks for carrying the one year old up the mountain in the backpack. She fell asleep at least twice. The caves were amazing. I think the kids were in awe of what this world can create. Of course there had to be some excitement and using the emergency potty pouches qualifies for that. For some reason boys have to go when they get cold. Who would have thunk it?

Day 4: Golf and the Ropes Course. Doing team building exercises was a lot of fun. Everyone had ideas and nobody chickened out. Super high marks go to our 6 year old who had to do the rope swing twice. The first time the catchers missed her and she swung back to the pack. But leave it up to her to get right back on that rope and swing again. The most thrilling part of the ropes course? The 40 to 50 foot swing. You get harnessed in and then pulled up to the top where you have to let go of a rope to free fall about 10 feet and then begin to swing. All the kids did it at least once (so did the adults) and most of them did it twice. The rock wall was more of a challenge and not all of us made it to the top.

Day 5: Lagoon. Roller coasters, Blast Off and Reentry, Scramblers, and various other rides. What more needs to be said? The kids and adults had a blast. A lot of sun was gotten as well. Best ride? Reentry (even if I did close my eyes for the first drop).

Day 6: Up. Movie day. I stayed with the toddlers so they could get a nap (and not waste money on a ticket to a movie I wouldn't have seen). According to all who saw it "Up" is as good as it gets.

Day 7: Down time and reunion with 6 year old's birth mother. It was good to have a day of resting after the first few jam-packed days. We met up with our daughter's birth mother at a park where she was able to meet her half-siblings as well as her birth grandparents and uncle.

Day 8: Extended Family Picnic and Date Night. So we had an extended family picnic where we met up with my in-laws families. They're a good bunch and fun was had by all (even if volley ball wasn't up to our usual Olympic standards). Later that day the adults went out to dinner. Our first choice had a 90 minute wait and so we went to Red Fish. As usual the food was good and the conversation as well. Best line? Mother-in-Law: "If I looked like you I would be able to eat like that as well." You can imagine the jokes and other lines that this sparked.

Day 9: Church and Reunion with Oldest's Birth Mother. Going to church with five kids is always an adventure. Somehow we survived without interrupting the reverence too much. Later in the afternoon we met up with the 8 year old's birth mother at Temple Square in Salt Lake City. He was able to meet his half-siblings and talk about what they liked to do (his is swim, his half-brother's is run). At the end of the meeting it started to rain and was quite refreshing as the heat and humidity were starting to get annoying.

Days 10 and 11: Mostly down time. We did go to the Farm and Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point. The kids got to touch different animals, ride a horse-drawn wagon and look for gnomes amongst the dinosaurs. The best part of the Dinosaur museum is the erosion table. Here the kids can see what water can do to soil and how it can bury animals to create fossils. Golf was also played at the Rances. The low score was 103 for 18 holes, not bad, but we could have done better.

Day 12: Reunion with Youngest's Birth-mother and Girls get away. We were able to meet in West Jordan with our youngest's birth mother. It's amazing to see how similar the two of them are. Again there were half-siblings there and all the kids played on the play sets. It's great to get caught up on the lives of these incredible birth parents and find out how well they are doing. Later that day the "Girls" went shopping and I watched the kids (yes all 10 of them). Grandpa did come over to enjoy the site of cousins playing together. There was very little (if any) fighting that occurred. A lot of sun was gotten by the kids (not enough sunscreen duh!).

Day 13: Another Movie Day. We went and saw Ice Age 3. Well that is all but Cheryl and my Sister-in-law. See we didn't get a babysitter for the toddlers and so all four of them sat outside while the rest of us were in 3-D heaven. Later that night a different group of us went and saw "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince". I was very impressed by the film even though it did have some omissions I thought were critical to the story. The movie ended at midnight which meant a short night's sleep.

Day 14: Friends and Dinner. This was our last day and we had made arrangements to have lunch with friends who were also in town. We hadn't seen Jared in about 4 years so it was good to meet them at Ruby River and catch up on old times. They are moving to Virginia so who knows how long it will be until we get to see them in person again. The adults were able to get out one more time sans children for dinner at Famous Dave's. Trash Can Lid Feasts for everyone! Literally you can order the Feast and it comes out served on a garbage can lid. Ribs, Brisket, Chicken, Pork, Corn on the cob, French Fries, Coleslaw and Beans. Did I mention we had to be wheelbarrowed out of the place? Well worth it.

Day 15: Time to head home. The trip back is the hardest part. Everyone is tired and traveling 10 hours in a car and returning to 110 degree heat is not something people look forward to. However my wife, (did I mention she is the best mother in the world?) had a brilliant idea. . . Cooperation Dollars. It works like this. If you behave, you get a quarter for every 15 minutes we are in the car. At the end of the trip you get the money earned. If you misbehave a quarter or more is taken away. We didn't have any negative balances so I don't know what would have happened. Personally I think it would be great if my kids would pay me. All of the kids made good money which means we didn't have very many incidents on the way home. Also there were no signs of Blue water barrels joy-spinning on the highway so we didn't have to worry about that.

All in all a great vacation. Next up? All of us on an airplane to Buffalo for my Brother's Wedding. We may need a lot of cooperation dollars. . .