Soccer Weekend in the Rain

Hello Fellow Soccer Parents --

Oh boy!  Another weekend of four soccer games and all four had rain.  It was either a slight mist, light rain, steady rain, cold rain, and why haven't they cancelled the game yet rain.  Andrew's game was at 9:00am, so while it was raining steadily throughout the game, the field had not turned to a giant mud pit yet.  I was dressed in warm clothes, a good umbrella, an excellent rain coat, and a large golf umbrella, so i survived the first game relatively unscathed.  My shoes were wet, and my socks were damp, but overall, it was kind a fun bit of excitement to play a game in the rain.  But the day was early...

Delaney had an end of year tournament that included three sorter than normal games from 2:00pm to 4:30 pm.  The rain had continued all day, and the fields had been used all day too for the 3rd grade tournament, so by the time we arrived, every step was like walking through an inch deep puddle.  Some of them were mostly water, other steps had your foot sinking deep into mud.  The rain actually lightened up as the day went on, but by then the fields were too far gone.  At one point, there was a throw in, that when the girl threw the ball into the field, it landed with a load smacking sound, came to a dead stop in the middle of a mud puddle, and then even the brave hearted players timidly walked through the mud to kick it out of the puddle.

Both kids had phone, and i just worried about them not getting sick and not getting my car muddy on the ride home after the game.

The Mortgage

That is what is consuming me now. I received a layoff notice at my work yesterday. I am fired, or soon to be. I feel like I haves failed my wife and kids and put our way of life at risk. I have never been fired before, and it is a combination of despair, terrified , and failure. What now!

I know that I have to lift my chin and move on. Find a new job and keep on moving. It happens to other people all the time and most come through it a little worse the wear and a whole lot wiser. I want to be the wiser.

So what happened to me? I was so desperate to get out of my last job, that I jumped at an opportunity, ignoring my feelings of caution. I never really fit in at the new place. It was out of my area of expertise and the stretch was too much for me. I know that I am partially at fault, but I felt abandoned and untrained by the new company. I was never even introduced to people.

Right now, I simply feel lost, disoriented, and scared to death. I am going to learn, be cautious, and look out for me next time.

A Nice Autumn day

This was the scene down at the river on a Saturday in October this year. We were at the park for Andrew's two soccer games and Delaney was bored.  I asked iof she wanted to go throw rocks in the river at halftime instead of watching more of his game.

When we got to the river, we were greeted with a sight of all the ducks lined up along the shore in a row, sunning themselves.  We got pretty close before they felt it was time to move.

Once we got there Delaney and I skipped rocks in the river.  She successfully skipped a rock for the first time -- in fact, she did it three times before we got tired of the rocks and went back to the game.  Overall, a pretty nice Saturday in October.