Pop

Some of you know, some of you don't. I spent most of the last two days in Lubbock with Pop. Pop had surgery on Saturday to remove, what I thought was one, but turned out to be two, cancerous growths in his colon. For anyone who doesn't know, Pop is my mom's father. One of the growths was the size of a softball. In the process, they also removed 27 lymph nodes, 3 were malignant.

Tuesday, I met all of his doctors, and late in the day, we met with the man that will be his oncologist, cancer doctor. He said that there is a 65% chance of a reoccourance without chemotherapy. But what surprised me is there is still a 30% chance if he does the chemo. They will have to modify the chemo if Pop decides to do it because he has a pacemaker and is 81 years old. So, that incredibly tough decision will be up to Pop, Granny, Mom, Ricky and Larry. I will support whatever decision they come to without question.

Better news is that Pop is progressing in his recovery. He needs to walk to get his bowels moving, so he can get off of his current liquid diet. The surgeon removed a 12"-18" chunk of his large intestine, or colon, and they are waiting until he passes gas to give him food. He walked once Monday, once Tuesday, and 3 times today, before I left at noon, so I feel like he will be eating again very soon. I bet he can't wait to get home to a nice meal that Granny will whip up for him.

On the lighter side, in true Pop form, after the Oncologist told him all about his options for chemo or not, and the percentages and everything else involved. Pop asks the cancer doctor, "My knee hurts, can you fix that?"!!!!! The doc took it well, ordered him a test for blood clots and found his way out. I'm sure Pop strained a muscle or something moving himself around in the bed, but what timing!

Anyway, thanks to Tanner and Jennifer for putting me up for the night and driving me back and forth to the hospital. I really do appreciate it, and sorry for not being able to turn off the water in the shower, what a moron I can be sometimes. It was good to see everyone that I got to see. Sorry it does not happen more often, but I'm glad that when I usually see you that it is not under these circumstances.

Pop and Granny, I LOVE YOU!! Get well soon!!

Jimmy

P.S. Tanner and Jennifer, how's the Pathfinder?

J

Right now!!!

Alright, give me a second here, and see what you think.

Right now, somebody is cheating on their wife, somebody is cheating on their husband, somebody is eating chicken, somebody is eating beef, somebody is dying, somebody is being born, somebody is being completely cheated out of a little girls softball game, somebody is winning a little girls softball game, somebody is speeding, somebody is having a wreck, and somebody made it home safely.

Any guesses???

Yeah, I feel like we were completely cheated out of our game tonight, and it has nothing to do with how well we played. The umpire was 100%, COMPLETELY BIASED! Now let me back this up with, umpires make mistakes, THAT, I don't mind as long as it is the same for each team. But, tonight was a complete abhoration. We played a game in Boyd, and the calls were horrible, almost to the point where I protested the game. The only reasons that I didn't were, 1: I really don't know what difference it would have made, and 2: if we see this team in our tournament, we will destroy them with an impartial umpire. This was the most ridiculous game I have ever been involved in, and I have been a few bad ones. No, I'm not just bitching because we lost, but because it was totally unfair. The calls were completely different depending on who was batting. If we were batting, almost everything was a strike. If we were pitching, almost everything was a ball. One pitch, thrown by our pitcher, landed between our catchers feet, then went between the umps feet, and he called it inside!!! #$%#$^#%#&$%^& WHAT?! One thrown by their pitcher, hit the plate, and was called a strike, but should have been called a DEAD BALL, and a ball in the pitch count, but wasn't. I really didn't know what to do. I didn't want to make an ASS out of myself infront of MY girls, because I don't want them to think that it is OK to do so in a game, but DAMN, give me a break, give us a break! A strike is a strike is a strike, no matter where you play a game. Not so tonight!!

We did lose the game, but I don't care, there was no way we could have won. The girls did a great job. They didn't complain, but a couple did cry, not because we lost, but because I told them in our third, and last inning, that "You need to swing the bat if you think a pitch is close", and they struck out, and they thought we lost because of that. NO, that was not why we lost, we lost because if they swung or not, that pitch was going to be called a strike, and I would rather go down swinging with at least a chance of putting a ball in play than to watch a ball be called a strike. It didn't seem to matter if a ball was 1" off the ground when it crossed the plate, or was above the brim of their batting helmet, it was a strike. BULLSHIT!! Haley, our pitcher, hit the catcher's mitt several times and it was called a ball, because the Boyd girl didn't swing. At one point in the second inning, Jessica, last game's pitcher, jumped to avoid a ball hitting her, and the ump called it, yeah you guessed it, a strike.

I'm actually sorry to get on my own blog, where I don't care what you think about it, and bitch about a game I wasn't involved in and really doesn't matter, but this is supposed to be about the girls!! I guess it WAS about the girls, if they were from Boyd.

Here is what I have to say about tonight. We had a great ride down, Angie had hell with Brayden who missed his nap, and we had a nice supper at Subway (in Boyd). At one point, Angie, who was sitting in the suburban, yelled strike three so loud, that the umpire had to check the books to see if it was true, and it was. I guess he was going to give them 4 strikes per at bat, something I didn't catch, but she busted him on. Thanks BABE!!!

So, here is tonights short summary of the game. BULLSHIT! BULLSHIT! BULLSHIT!

Nobody should do girls, especially my girls, that way. OH, and now that I have been put on the Decatur Girls Softball Committe, spelling please, maybe I can get that changed.

That's it,

Jim