Opportunity Knocks, and Other Mumblings

Monday, I return to the sidelines as an assistant coach at Gulf Shores High School. This is a great opportunity for me in my quest to get a teaching job. I am super excited!

Also the feud between Auburn and Alabama grows more and more hostile. In reading certain message boards the accusations are flying. Alabama players were caught redhanded signing merchandise that was used to advertise for a Tuscaloosa business. To me this looks more damning than the Cam Newton scandal. There is photographic evidence and to top it off, Alabama appears to have used some half butt documents to cover it up. Stay tuned...

Took my first flight a few days ago. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. To be able to get from point A to point B in a fraction of the time is just awesome. Laura, Bree and I had a blast in Atlanta and stayed busy the entire time. Our hosts were great! They mad me feel like a rockstar!

Missed Opportunities

Tonight I am kind of depressed. A school I applied for a job, won a state championship. To know that I could have gotten a championship ring makes me sad. I guess that is part of life. That door may have been cracked, but I didn't get the opportunity. I know that all things happen for a reason, sometimes you just wonder why they happen. Oh well, the sun will come up tomorrow and I will succeed down the road.

Political Jive

I like to keep up with politics. I think that one day when I am older and wiser, I may want to throw my hat in the ring. When asked about our new governor, Dr. Robert Bentley, I told my wife that he really didn't excite me. I heard very little of his potential policies or his stance on some of the issues. A coworker is related to the governor elect and she got wind of my comments and gave me a hard time all day long. I explained to her that I am entitled to my opinion and explained to her as well what I heard (or not). I hope that the man does a great job for our state, however I want results. Politicians are like used car salesmen, they tell you how great a deal you are getting, then high fiving their coworker because he just knocked your head off. Until I see it, I will be skeptical like everyone else. I will be watching closely to see how it all goes down.

Auburn Football Musings 10/16/10

Another Satutday in the fall, another Auburn win. It never fails to amaze me though, how poorly our defensive backs play the ball on pass plays. It also shocks me that a back up quarterback, lights up our defense for 300 or so yards. It seems to me that we cannot put all the weight of the success of Auburn football on one mans back. Cam Newton is a man beast, but Gene Chizik needs to find a way to get our defense to play better in the passing game.

There were some questionable calls during the game but they went about the way they should have. They reviewed the plays on replay and they stood. Before there are conspiracy theories let me remind you, there were no ways to dispute the video evidence.

Will Auburn take the reigns in the SEC West? Who knows. There are still big games against Ole Miss, LSU and Alabama. Not to mention Georgia. They still have a lot of football to play!

Just some ramblings and observations...

I have a lot on my mind about a lot of things today. I guess I'll kind of tackle them on a first thought basis.

1. Auburn game vs. Clemson
Ugly and emotionally draining. I feared that we wouldn't come back, but the players fought through it and pulled it out.

2. Foley Football
They're good. Other than the loss at Daphne last week, they have pretty much dominated people. In Foley's 3 wins they have dominated and for a half they dominated Daphne, until a bogus call by the officials to eject Foley's best RB. I look for Foley to go deep in the playoffs and hopefully get some redemption on those Purple punks!

3. Elberta Football
We have an excellent shot to be really good. We played the best team in the county tough in defeat and dominated the other two teams on our schedule. I still think we can win out but Summerdale is tough. Bayside and UMS may give us fits, but those are winnable games in my book.

4. Oil Leak mess
I am glad the oil has stopped leaking! Now pay those who suffered and clean the beaches up as best you can. BP is going to screw it up though, I can feel it!

5. Kids
Kids are awesome. I love mine to death. They are full of life and funny without knowing it. They mean everything to me.

Oil Leak: A Microcosm of the Effects

This is my first attempt to express my feelings on the oil leak that has gripped my little slice of this great Earth. First of all let me set the record straight. It technically is not a spill, it is a leak. The media and others have referred to it as a leak, which is not the correct description of this tragedy. A spill is where one thing is holding another within itself. For example, a glass of red wine. Ideally you would attempt to put all of the wine in your gullet for the purposes of enjoying an adult beverage and maybe even getting hammered. Lets say that you are drinking your wine and you tip your glass just a bit too far and some of it falls out of the glass onto the white carpet. That is a spill. As for a leak, it is a totally different scenario. An example that I have seen personally is a pipe that bursts. One night from a night on the town, a friend and I encountered a sound of rushing water in the apartment adjacent to his. We kicked in the door to reveal a lot of gushing water leaking onto the floor of the apartment.

Now that the nomenclature is settled, let me tell you of a microcosm of the affects of this leak. I work at a locally owned convenience store on the beach. It has been there in the same location for 32 years and owned by the same man. Our store sells floats, souvenirs, groceries, beer, cokes and basic everyday things. Generally our store makes good money and is always busy during the summer months. Until two weeks ago, I was not working, however he called me back to work there. I had mentally prepared myself for busy days and nights, but what I encountered was far from it.

To call business slow would not do it justice. It is pathetic. I would say we are down 50%, but some days I think it is more than that. You may have a few customers here and there, but not at nearly the rate of customers you would experience on an average summers day. You sell more groceries than floats, more cokes than beach souvenirs, and more people dressed in jeans and work clothes than tourist in swim trunks, smelling like Coppertone.

According to co-workers, it has been like this since the leak was discovered. Numbers were off from Memorial day on. The week of July 4th, the busiest week of the year, we had some of our worst days. The owner looks despondent, employees wonder if the business will survive and all the talk revolves around the oil leak in the Gulf. Some customers come in and say how sad they are for us, some offer solutions and many offer blame for the problem. It is just sad.

I don't know who is to blame for this egregious disaster. Was it BP's or Transocean's fault? Who knows? Why wasn't the Federal Government involved sooner? Why didn't the President act sooner? There are many questions. There are not enough solutions which is the main area of frustration.

The talking heads on CNN, MSNBC, etc. all have their little spiel as to what is happening and who is to blame. Some of the problems from the tourism standpoint is from the media. When Anderson Cooper wants to rant and rave about people filming coverage of the sites where oil is washing up is he really upset about the Constitutional rights of his network? Or is he mad because an oiled bird may equal a bonus because of good ratings? They say they stand beside us, but do they really? Maybe if the media would just let the people work, more could get done. Now it is just another sad but true reality show for the media conglomerates to latch onto and exploit our area that is already suffering. Showing the globs of oil on the beach isn't going to encourage people to come here and enjoy our area. There are more things to do than sit on a beach and swim. We have local attractions that can take up a day or two of someones vacation. Also, the beaches aren't closed! They are open, but you cannot swim. 90% of the condominiums have nice pools to cool off in.

It is sad to see all of this. It has been a kick in the groin to our area. People are at their wits end about the situation. I heard it best from Jimmy Buffett, when I paraphrase, the people of this area are resilient. We have weathered many storms and while this one is different, we still have to have the same mentality. We will overcome this, one way or another.

Playing your hand...

Playing cards and job opportunities are a lot alike. In both you don't want to tip your hand as to what you have been dealt. In cards you play very straight laced and calm or other players will make their bets based on your body's reaction. In a job opportunity, you can't tip what you have been dealt either. It may be wise to just play it cool and not jump the shark by giving out too much information as it could come back to bite you. When I say bite you, I mean it could fracture relationships and cause hard feelings. That is why you wait until all issues are settled and all the small parts operate as one.

Sometimes you have to make a step back before you step up. When one door closes another one opens and that is important. It is imperitive that your decisions are made with all scenarios covered and cleared. It may mean working with someone that you may not see eye to eye with. It may mean working for someone you admire and are inspired by. All bases must be covered and you have to make the best decision for everyone involved. Also you have to look at who needs you more? Is it someplace where your help will be appreciated, or somewhere that there doesn't seem to be a payoff. The decision is yours, the grass is not always greener.