Another short night. It may have been the moonlight that woke me up at 0530. It may have been the change in temperature as the stove cooled down. I was able to get back to sleep but the damage was done. I spent the rest of the morning waking up enough to look at the clock, trying to prevent the alarm going off but still getting up on time.
Today’s hike with Mike was somewhat more difficult than normal. Just before we got to Mike’s driveway, someone out of sight fired what sounded like a .22 rifle. A single distant report was all it took to turn Loki from a dog eager for her morning walk into a spooked and unhappy dog ready to run home and den up in her kennel. It took 5-10 minutes for her to calm down and to quit trying to stop suddenly in front of me in order to turn back.
The dead raccoon is still along the road about 0.7 miles downstream. Loki ignores it and I encourage that. Also dead on the road, a black chicken that appeared sometime yesterday or today. Loki also noticed it but followed the pull on her lead with no reluctance as I guided her away from it.
There is still some ice and packed snow in the driveway and on the ground around the decks. It may all vanish by midnight but then more snow is predicted for late tonight and tomorrow. We’ve measured 12 inches of snowfall. The official total at the local airport is 13 inches.
I need to read about 300 pages of textbooks today and tomorrow.
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/LIVING/01/20/making.of.sports.superstar/index.html?hpt=C2
“Going to extreme measures for child athletes
By Stephanie Chen, CNN
“Like many other American teens, 14-year-old Nick Heras wants to be a professional quarterback someday.
Unlike most teens, he has left home and moved across the country to attend an elite athletic training program. His family foots a hefty bill for Nick's dreams: More than $50,000 a year.
"I knew I had to leave and do this program if I wanted to be serious about football," he says.”
This is becoming all too common. I’m appalled at the money spent by parents trying to live or relive their own “athletics” dreams via their kids. I’m also dismayed at the lack of socialization and education they are willing to inflict upon their kids. These athletic factories are quite similar in nature to those we used to complain about being run by the USSR and East Germany. I guess that the profit motive makes it less damaging to the individuals.
The only good aspect that I can see in such sports factories is the possibility that they may eventually provide a tool to eliminate the use of our school systems as paid for by taxpayers training programs for the various franchise owners.
The article stops short of where it should stop. The reader comments at the end of the article make it worth reading.
Burgers for dinner tonight.
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