Wednesday, June 1, 2022

Aging Well in the Gorge June 1st 2022

Do you ever feel out of date like an old 45 record in an age of digital music? One possible reason is that each new generation tries to separate themselves from older generations by creating their own language or slang words - as we did when we were young.

If you grew up in the 50s, you may remember “knuckle sandwich”, “shiner”, “made in the shade”, or “the royal shaft”. If you were a child of the 60s, how about “far out”, “dig it”, (“It's) a gas”, “mellow”, “bummer”, and of course “groovy”.  For you younger readers who grew up in the 70s, there was “psyche”, “don't be such a spaz”, and “up your nose with a rubber hose” popularized by Vinnie Barbarino in the TV show Welcome Back, Kotter. Over time each generation has introduced its own slang. But unless you are a real “dork”, you probably won’t be using most of those slang words - unless you want to get that look of “When were you born?”

Those expressions are innocent anachronisms from our youth. But there are also words we consider vulgar and offensive and those too change over time. For example, when my son was elected 2003 senior class president in high school, he ended his acceptance speech with “We’re going to have a “badass” year!” Well, that didn’t go over well – except with his classmates - and he was disqualified. He knew it wasn’t acceptable, but in his defense, he argued words considered unacceptable are always changing. (The same can be said about what you can wear to school. I remember when boys couldn’t wear jeans and girls had to wear skirts.)

Today we may accept the use of “badass” - or maybe not? But what is difficult to accept for many of us is the excessive use of words we find offensive. I know many friends who won’t watch certain television shows because of all the swear words - particularly the use of “bleep” which seems to be common in entertainment and music these days, Once I tried to watch who I heard was considered a popular cutting edge young comedian on Netflix, but I couldn’t get past the first five minutes. If I was in the audience, I would have been squirming in my seat. It was just too much of a bad thing. Maybe you have had similar situations.

When we were young, we weren’t so direct. We used euphemisms for words that were considered vulgar: “What the fudge”, “dagnammit”, “Jiminy cricket”, “Oh, shoot”. I remember being shocked when my 8th-grade football coach told a lineman to keep his “butt” up.  In my family, we didn’t use that word!

What language we think is “cool” and what we think is vulgar is different for each of us and each generation. We may feel that the freedom of speech to say anything you want has gone too far and just isn’t right, but it isn’t the end of the world. Words we consider offensive today will lose their power to offend, and new words will take their place. It wasn’t that long ago when the public was shocked to hear Rhett Butler end "Gone With The Wind" with the famous line "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."

Brain Tease: You’re escaping a labyrinth and there are three exits. Exit A leads to an inferno. Exit B leads to an assassin. Exit C leads to a lion that hasn’t eaten in 3 years. Which exit do you pick?

Because of Memorial Day, I submitted this column early so I will mention everyone who answered last week’s question next week.

In 1972 an American comedian used in one of his monologues the “seven dirty words”. For this week’s “Remember When” question who was this comedian and social critic? Email your answer to mcseniorcenter@gmail.com, leave a message at 541-296-4788, or mail it with the forecast from the “hippy-dippy weatherman”.

Well, it’s been another week, trying to focus among all the distractions. Until we meet again, if you ever get down, there is always more than one way to get back up.

“If you feel you are doing as much at seventy as you did when you were twenty, you must have not been doing much at twenty.”

Answer: Exit C. If a lion hasn’t eaten in 3 years, it has definitely starved to death.

Monday, February 2, 2015

NOTES FROM THE COACH FEBRUARY 2ND 2015

BAKER CITY HIGH SCHOOL SWIM MEET
I hope everyone had a good time at Baker City. It was the first overnight trip the team has had since leaving the Inter-Mountain Conference when we went to Bend for the Friday afternoon prelims and the Saturday finals. I didn’t expect best times for this meet but there were several highlighted by Andrew setting a new all-time school record for the 500 Freestyle where he beat his brother’s time by over a second, Allie breaking 1:08 for the 100 Fly moving up to third on the D-21 fastest 100 fly times, and  the girl’s 200 Free A relay breaking 1:52 for the first time this season. It was a nice meet to end the regular season and I hope we can do it again next year. And now on to districts.

LAST TWO WEEKS
For this next to the last week of practice, we will be keeping up the intensity and then begin to taper next week. We will practice in the morning this week and next Tuesday but skip the morning practice on the Thursday before districts. Keep up the hard work so we can be ready to do your best at districts.

PICTURES ON WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 4TH 3:45
Pat Shortt will be at practice on Wednesday for pictures. The packets should be available soon. Be at the pool by 3:45 so we can set up for the pictures and have them completed by 4:30. We need to get in a decent practice on Wednesday. You will be able to buy an individual picture as well as a team picture.

PEE ON FRIDAY THE 13TH BEFORE DISTRICTS
We will have one more PEE on the Friday night before districts. If your family can host the PEE talk to me or Bri. Spaghetti is the traditional menu for the dinner before districts.

DISTRICT SWIM MEET IN HOOD RIVER ON SATURDAY FEBUARY 14th
We are still working on the time schedule for districts, but I’m guessing warm ups will start at 10:00 and prelims at 11:00. Warm-ups for finals should start at 3:30 and finals at 4:30. The bus will leave the high school on Saturday at 8:00 AM.

ANNOUNCER NEEDED FOR DISTRICT SWIM MEET plus parents to bring finger foods for coaches and officials.  Contact Scott if you are interested in helping.

TDHS SWIM TEAM website at http://tdhsswimteam.blogspot.com/

All results for the last four years are updated weekly at the teams website plus the latest “Notes from the Coach” and meet information as well as the events you are entered. 

Monday, January 12, 2015

NOTES FROM THE COACH JANUARY 12th 2015


FANTASTIC HOME MEET – Great help is setting up and cleaning up after the meet, improving times (3/5 of the swims were personal bests) and great team spirit. You guys really stepped up. Now we need to build on this success during the next five weeks as we work towards Districts on February 14th.

PRACTICE SCHEDULE: We are now in the last phase of the training schedule. For the next four weeks lane 1 and 2 will concentrate on improving strength and endurance particularly for the last 25 of each race; and to maintain your stamina over the course of a long one day district meet. Lanes 3 and 4 will also continue to work on endurance and strength but will continue to work on technique. Shea Macnab, who has coached his own age group team as well as high school, will be helping out on several Tuesday and Thursday mornings.

NEXT PEE Friday January 23rd 5:30 – 7:30 at Annessa Clear’s home.
We will have a PEE on the night before Districts which will be February 13th. I am looking for someone to host the PEE.

NEXT MEETS:
White Buffalo Classic Invitational – Madras Aquatic Center, 1195 SE Kemper Way, Madras, OR 97741
Bus Departure 6:30 AM. Warm-ups at 9:00, meet starts at 10:00. Estimated time back in The Dalles is 6:00 PM.

Hood River Invitational – Bus Departure 8:00 AM. Warm-ups begin at 9:00 and the meet starts at 11:00. Estimated time back in The Dalles 5:00 PM.

Baker City – Overnight   More details will be coming.

TDHS SWIM TEAM website at http://tdhsswimteam.blogspot.com/

I have started a website/blog for the swim team where you can find team information including team members, meets and team records and results from the last 4 years plus the latest “Notes from the Coach”. Also the events you are entered will be listed on the site also.

Saturday, January 3, 2015

NOTES FROM THE COACH JANUARY 2nd 2015

CHRISTMAS BREAK I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year’s Day, and a chance to visit family and rest up for the remaining 6 weeks of the season. It is hard to believe that the swim season is half over. Now comes the fun part with 5 meets in the coming 4 weeks starting with the Hood River Relay Meet on Thursday January 8th followed by our own home meet on Saturday the 10th. Then there will be the Madras meet on the 17th, the Hood River Meet on the 24th and Baker City on the 31st. There will be a weekend off before the District Meet on February 14th. For those who qualify for the State Meet at MHCC, warm-ups start at 4:00 on Friday the 20th with finals on Saturday at 5:00 PM.

 HOOD RIVER RELAY MEET – Thursday January 8th The Bus will leave at 12:15 on Thursday, with warmups from 1-2:30, and the meet running from 2:45 - 5:00. We will need to clean up and then be out by 5:30 and home by 6:00. I’m not exactly sure about the format but we will spend more time in our warmup for this meet so we don’t lose another day of training.

 HOME MEET at HOOD RIVER AQUATIC CENTER ON SATURDAY JANUARY 10TH:
The bus will leave at 8:00 AM for Hood River with the warm-ups running from 9:00 to 10:00 A.M. The meet will start at 10:15. Also tell your parents that all swimmers are expected to stay till the end of the meet to clean up. With everyone’s help it doesn't take too long and we are usually out by 5:30. It is a large meet with 300 swimmers competing from over 10 teams. We are also responsible for setting up the lane lines and starting blocks and tables on Friday night at 8:00 PM after the pool closes. We will need 4 – 6 volunteers to drive to Hood River to help out.

 PRACTICE SCHEDULE: No afternoon practices on Tuesdays and Thursdays for rest of season. The time has come. There will no longer be afternoon practices on Tuesdays and Thursdays. If you find it difficult to make the 6:00 AM practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays because of where you live or parent’s schedule, talk to me and we’ll see if there is something we can work out.

 NEXT PEE Friday January 9th 5:30 – 7:30 at Allie’s Church. The next PEE will be on Friday the 9th the night before our home meet. We will discuss the mental aspects of competition and how to be mentally prepared to perform at your best.

 ALUMNI RELAYS The Alumni Relays were once again a lot of fun with 11 alumni returning to relive their glory days. The Alumni scored the most points finishing first to the second place Seniors/Juniors; and finishing third were the Sophomores/Freshmen. The most fun was catching up and learning what everyone was doing. The Alumni Relays are always between Christmas and New Years with the 2015 Alumni Relays tentatively scheduled for Monday December 28th.

Sunday, December 14, 2014

Notes from the Coach - December 15th 2014

A GOOD FOUR WEEKS:
The majority of the team may be inexperienced but you determined and supportive of each other and that has shown in the first 4 weeks of practice and our first two meets. There has been significant progress already and there’s still work that needs to be done especially on starts and turns, but everyone is coming along. Much thanks to Senior Brianna Staavas who has been helping with the new swimmers. She and I both would rather have had her swimming but she has been able to help the team in many other ways.
We now have two meets under our belts and have had many good swims already. You can’t judge a season by the first two meets but I this could be a very exciting year.

LaGrande HS Invitational Dec. 20th bus leaves at 7:00
Our next meet is in LaGrande at the Veteran’s Pool:L a nice pool with touch pads and room for parents to watch. The bus leaves at 7:00 with warm ups at 10:50 and the meet starting at noon. I have done a poor job of predicting when we will be home, but I will make a guess the meet will be over by 3:30 and we will be back home between 7:00 and 8:00 PM.

INDIVIDUAL GOALS
I reviewed your goals sheets from the PEE and I feel you all have aggressive but realistic  idea what you want to accomplish this year. For mental skills many of you mentioned working on staying calm before your events at the meets. We will talk about different ways that have worked for other swimmers so you can find what works for you.

TOP 10 D-21 RECORDS:
At the River City Invitational, Ben Feil set a new D-21 school record for the 100 Breaststroke nudging Andrew to second place. And Annessa moved up to the 2nd best D-21 time in the 50 free and 3rd in the 100 Free. Congratulations to both of them.

THE DALLES HIGH SCHOOL INVITATIONAL - JANUARY 10TH
Just a heads up to all the new swimmers. Our home meet usually has around 10 teams competing and takes quite an effort to stage. Fortunately we have the able leadership of Kevin and Jamie Bailey, but we need the assistance of your parents such as to timing (which is easy to learn and you have the best seats in the house), providing the food for the volunteers, announcing and other jobs. Kevin may be contacting your parents sometime in the future to find out how they can help.


Sunday, November 30, 2014

NOTES FROM THE COACH DECEMBER 1ST 2014

Every two weeks I will try to send out a “Notes from the Coach” to keep you abreast of what’s happening on the TDHS swim team. If you have any questions you can always call me at 541-980-4645.

It has been a great start for the 14-15 swim season with an almost 50% increase in the number of swimmers: from 16 to 23 swimmers. As is typical we have almost twice as many girls than guys and we could use 1 more boy to complete two relay teams. If you know anyone who can keep their head above water send them my way.

We have a strong core of returning swimmers but also just as many new swimmers. To be successful we need a combination of both particularly in our small four team conference where numbers can make a difference at the District Meet. For the size of the four lane pool, 24 swimmers would be ideal.

First Meet in Pendleton Dec 6th Blue Mountain Community College pool
Our first meet is in Pendleton which is only 2 ½ weeks after our first practice. But the meet does gives us a chance to see where we are doing well and where we need to work. This is one of the few meets that has Junior Varsity events, where new competitive swimmers will have a chance to swim strokes other than freestyle for the shorter 50 meter distance.

The bus will leave the HS at 6:30 AM, warm ups are at 10:00 and the meet starts at 11:00. On the way back, we we will stop in Pendleton to get something to eat, so bring some spare cash with you. I don’t know when we will arrive back in The Dalles, but with the size of the Pendleton team (they have 60 swimmers) it should be later than in the past. Also parents can certainly come to watch the meet although it is not the best venue for watching. If you go home with your parent, make sure they check with me to sign you out.

TDHS SWIM TEAM website at http://tdhsswimteam.blogspot.com/
I have started a website/blog for the swim team where you can find team information including team members, meets and team records and results, and the latest “Notes from the Coach”.

TEAM MEETING during lunch date TBA
We need another team meeting sometime this week to complete some of the administrative details now that I know who is on the team. I will announce the day after I talk to several swimmers to determine which day works best.

PARENT’S MEETING - Thursday Dec. 4th from 6:30 – 7:30 at the Senior Center 1112 W 9th
We will have a Parent’s meeting on Thursday December before our first meet. If will explain the season schedule, my coaching philosophy and answer any questions.

1st PEE to be scheduled
A PEE is a tradition started around 7 years ago. Simply, it is team gatherings usually a day or two before a meet when we discuss different aspect of swimming and life skills, play games and eat. The first one is usually at the Senior Center and then the rest are at swimmer’s homes. We will need to schedule our first PEE soon.