Solar Panel System Turned On

I received the notice that my solar panel system was officially turned on June 13 although it was commissioned on June 11. I learned that the installers actually turned the system on when they came back to my house to wrap-up the installation. My system actually started producing on June 1, 2012. Here is a snapshot of my system's production for June:

That is pretty good considering my panels are still dirty from the installation and a summer rain storm that happened the day after they were installed. If I was disappointed with any part of the process, it was that the panels were dirty when they were installed and the installers did not clean them.

I used the Go Solar California incentive calculator to estimate the production of my solar system. That estimate was less than my guaranteed production from Sungevity and my actual production for the month of June is even higher than that. My system actually produced 134kWh more than my guaranteed production! That is enough to make me think that my system will perform better than I expected this year.

Here is the Go Solar California estimate:

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Sungevity Solar Panel Installation - Day 2

Day two of our solar panel installation got off to an early start. Andrew from Kuykendall Solar showed up at 6:45. He had to do some work in the attic, so it made sense for him to start before it got too warm outside. Our shipment from Sungevity did not arrive yesterday, so it was supposed to arrive today. It turns out that it was shipped to Kuykendall's shop about two hours north of my house this afternoon.

It seems like Kuykendall is going to be behind the eight ball to get this installation done by Friday, but Brian has a good attitude. The roof doesn't look much different from yesterday since Andrew did a lot of work installign conduit in the attic.

Get A Free Sungevity Solar iQuote now! It only takes a few minutes.

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Looking Back, Looking Ahead

My fortieth year was a great one. I am very happy with my life at this point. I am not done growing, but I am satisfied with my progress.

As I begin my forty-first year, I need to contemplate my goals. I know I want to simplify my life. I want to remove the clutter from all aspects of my life. I read a blog post in which the author was attempting to limit his personal property to one hundred items. I thing that would be a difficult goal for me to achieve, but it is something to think about.

Another selfish goal is to travel to Europe next summer. I don't know if it will happen for sure, but it is my goal. And I feel like The Queen and I deserve it.

I also have a goal of dropping ten pounds before my brother gets married in September. I not only want to lose the ten pounds, but I want to get in much better shape. This is an attainable goal and is my top priority at this point. I have been getting healthier the last few years, so this is just the ultimate goal.

In my professional life I want to take more control of other aspects of my company. Up until about a month ago I was satisfied to sit back and let the other managers run their departments. I really got tied of watching them make mistakes over and over and began to work myself into our production and standards meetings. This is where I really feel like I can make a difference in the company and make people be responsible for their own work. I am tired of the excuses and can no longer sit back and allow the company to deteriorate.

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Is The Earth Still Flat?

If you remember your history, the Catholic church used to finance and thus control most scientific studies. Most of the advancements were actually made by members of the church. Because they financed these scientific studies, they edited the findings to support their view either literally or with threats.

I think most of us today have forgotten this lesson from history. Wealthy organizations controlling what we hear. Remember, the church believed that the Earth was the center of the universe. The church also believed that the Earth was flat.

A lot of money has been spent the last decade arguing with scientific findings from around the world. Global warming is a fact and it has been brought
on by man. Since the industrial revolution we have been polluting our planet without worrying about the consequences. It has now caught up with us!

I think most people have a problem understanding the term global warming. Especially when the weather may not be warmer today. For this reason, I prefer the term global climate change. All of the rain, flooding and tornados are proof that our weather patterns are changing. Just this week there was a tornado in Massachusetts and that is not common at all.

We need to open our eyes and stop believing all of the rhetoric being spread by wealthy corporations and the politicians and political groups they control. We need to make decisions for ourselves and our children and grandchildren. It is our responsibility and we cannot afford to make the minor changes that will solve this problem we currently face.


- Posted from my iPhone

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No Excuses

My company has been behind schedule in engineering and production for several years now. Up until recently, we have been able to pull together for the really important projects and complete them close to on time. Things have gotten much worse for about the last six months and I have lost all faith that we can even complete one project on schedule.

Things really came to a boiling point recently when one of our regional sales managers called me out of frustration. He said that he was told one date one day and the very next day he was told that project would be a month late. He was confused as to what changed in that twenty-four hour period. I had to admit that I did not know. I asked around and nobody had a good answer so we decided to have an emergency meeting of department managers to figure out what could be done from this point forward.

I put together a list of fourteen items that I thought should be done to fix the mess. When I handed out the list in the meeting, everyone there was surprised that I had gone through that much trouble. They acted like they were shocked that anyone would put that much time into fixing the problem.

There was a lively discussion in the meeting and the excuses started to fly from everyone. I had to speak up a few times and refocus everyone back on our customers. I explained that there is no good excuse to our customers and the first thing we need to do is stop accepting excuses. Everyone agreed, but the excuses kept flying.

We had a follow-up meeting a few days later and nothing was solved. There were more excuses and not solutions. That meeting wrapped up with them inviting me to their weekly production meetings. I told them that I did not know if I could handle sitting through them if they were like these last two meetings. They asked me to attend again and I agreed.

I have heard rumors about how bad the production meetings are for several years. I attended my first production meeting yesterday and I was not dissappointed. There was excuse after excuse given by everyone in attendance. Nobody wanted to commit to any dates and there were no solutions given to any problem. Everything was done verbally because our production schedule does not track enough items. It was difficult to follow and I asked if the production schedule could be expanded to include more items. I was told that there is another schedule that tracks those items. Someone even volunteered to show me where it was.

I have to admit that my company is in worse shape than I believed it to be. I feel like this is partially my fault for not getting involved earlier. While I have nothing to do with production at all, I am a vital member of the company and one of the leaders of the management team. I can't let things continue down the path we are currently on our the company may not exist in a few years.

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Our Choice

I downloaded the app "Our Choice" by Al Gore. It is a book that includes full sized photos, interactive charts and videos. I guess then it is more than a book, but you can get a printed version of it.

I absolutely love the idea of this interactive book. I think this is a good example of what all books should be. It is perfect for reading on the iPad.

I started reading it before I even finished "The Art of Non-Conformity." I just could not wait to start it after I downloaded it. I really enjoyed watching "An Inconvenient Truth" so I was excited to read this book. So far I have not been disappointed. I have learned a great deal about what we are doing to the planet and why our weather patterns have started to change so drastically.

We need to stop denying the science and blaming other people and just take responsibility for our actions. The West can be a good example for the rest of the world and we can even satisfy our capitalist needs by creating better alternatives to our current energy sources and industrial practices. The developing world would have no other choice but to follow us or be left behind...again.

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Perfect Day

I finished reading The Art of Non-Conformity by Chris Guillebeau. I really liked this book, but I don't know how practical it is for me. I would love to sell all my stuff and just take off to someplace in the world where I could volunteer and help people. I would love to not have to work a "normal" work day. The problem is that I have bills to pay and people to support.

After I finished the book I started thinking about what my perfect day would be. I think it would be great to start my day at eight o'clock in the morning. Wake up and drop Meg off at school. Come home and do some sort of exercise. I would prefer if I lived in the mountains on a lake. It would be great to take a kayak out on the lake every morning. A good jog or hike would also be spectacular in the morning.

After returning home and taking a shower it would then be time to get to work with whatever I would be doing. This is the part that gets a little fuzzy for me. I don't know what I am passionate about. I know that I want to do something that I love so work does not feel like work. I have thought about becoming a professional photographer, but I don't know if that is my passion. I really enjoy it when I am doing it, but I go weeks without picking up my camera. I also don't particluarly enjoy photographing people, but maybe that is because I am not good at posing people.

I would then pick Meg up from school and help her with her homework. At that point I would either do some more work or other projects that I like to do. I would exercise again in the evening after an early dinner and go to bed about midnight.

I know I have a lot of holes to fill in this perfect day, but it is a start.

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Am I a Negative Person?

I know I can come off as a negative person a lot of the time. I do not spend enough time telling people the positive things I like about them. I tend to focus on the areas that need to be improved. This is my focus on myself as well as others. I think other people sometimes tag me as being negative for this fact.

I am not a negative person, but I guess perception is reality.

One of my shortcomings is developing relationships with people. I have always been an observer. I am not the person that jumps right into a conversation. I would rather lay back and figure out exactly what is going on and try to determine what each person's motivation is. I enjoy listening more than I enjoy talking. I believe that this has made me a good judge of character.

I had a conversation with The Queen yesterday morning. She told me that she has not heard me say one positive thing about one of our girls in a long time. I got very defensive. I guess I have not been following my own advice of praising in public.

My only defense is that I have also not said one positive thing about our other daughter in a long time. I know that is not a very good defense, but it is all I have at this point. I really do need to work on building better relationships with people.

I think I do a pretty good job of this in my career. Although I have to have respect for a person before I build that relationship. I am not a two-faced person, so I cannot pretend to like someone. I can deal with them in a working relationship, but I will never pretend to like them.

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Great Advice

I am reading a book named UnMarketing. Yesterday I read what is the best business advice I have ever seen in print. It is something that I totally believe in and have been doing from the beginning of my business career. Praise in public and reprimand in private. Or better yet, assist in private.

As managers we need to focus on developing our people and making our companies great places to work. We can no longer expect our people to accept that they are lucky to be working for our companies. We must continually prove to them that our company is the best place to work. We must appreciate them and help them become better employees. If an employee fails, it is because of poor management.

I want to emphasis this fact. If an employee fails, it is because of poor management. Management either hired the wrong person because they do not have the proper interviewing or hiring skills or they failed to develop the employee. That is it! This is a pretty black and white situation in my opinion.

I am not saying that we need to pamper our employees and reduce expectations. Quite the opposite actually. I think we need to hold our employees to a higher standard, our standard. We should be performing our own jobs at a higher standard and that should trickle down to even the lowest level employee.

Sometimes there are external factors that come in to play and cause an employee to fail. A good manager will be aware of those factors based on the working relationship they have established with their employees. Once aware of those factors, a good manager will work to reduce their impact and get the employee back on track.

We need to stop propagating the us against them attitude and really start building teams. After all, as the old saying goes we are only as strong as our weakest link.

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Commitment

National Signing Day for college football was on Wednesday. This day has really gotten to be rediculous for these high school athletes. We have to remember that these kids are only in high school yet they are already being treated like they are superstar athletes. Some of them are great athletes, but they are still just kids.

In the last ten years or so more and more of these kids have been commiting to a school and then switching their commitment at the last minute. They cannot officially commit until National Signing Day, but they commit verbally as much as a year before they can make it official. Many times these kids who commit early change their minds and end up signing with a different school. That is not a problem unless they wait until the last moments to make that change.

I know that many people call college football recruiting a game, but there is nothing worse than a coach counting on a player's commitment and not recruiting other kids for that position and then the player changing his commitment on signing day. That leaves a hole in the coaches recruiting class that he has to scramble to fill at the last moment. That is what makes this a game. We are letting this generation of kids run this process with their lack of commitment and honor.

These kids do not need to commit to a school before National Signing Day. They can wait to make a commitment until they are sure of their decision and then stick with it. We are creating a generation of kids who will grow up thinking that it is OK to commit to something and then later not follow through. We are babying them. We are creating monsters.

There are a lot of people to blame for this problem. The media who is looking to capitalize on the popularity of college football any way they can. The college coaches who keep allowing and encouraging this to happen. The people that bear the most blame are the parents. We all know that our parenting skills have diminished as a nation. But to buy into the hype of your seventeen or eighteen year old kid is the most rediculous thing. Parents are supposed to have the level heads and help their kids make the corrrect decisions. By allowing kids to drop their commitments we are teaching them a lesson that will haunt them their entire lives.

We need to take a stand and become parents again and not allow our kids to run our lives. We need to teach them the life skills that will allow them to be successful. We need to create the next great generation.

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We Need Change!

My company is struggling with many issues. I could have told you a few years ago that this would happen, but nobody bothered asking me. At that point there were two people promoted to vital positions who do not have the skill set required.

I really do not know how the owner of the company is so blind, but he is. He loves to tell everyone that he can read people well, but he was sold a bill of goods by both of these individuals. His other major problem is that he does not like to get involved in the day to day operations of the company until it is too late. Everything is coming to a head at this moment.

I blame myself for this issue escalating to this point because I did not try to push for change. I don't mean to get those two people fired or demoted, but I should have pushed them for change and then tried to force them to stick with it. Some of their major issues is that they do not track the right information and they do not motivate their direct reports to do their job to the best of their ability.

Another major issues is that a few members of our management team are spending big portions of their day trying to cover for themselves. A few team up to cover for each other as well. This is bad for the company as a whole because we cannot progress if the issues are not being properly addressed. They cannot be addressed if nobody is aware of them and that is what happens when people cover for themselves and/or someone else.

I was not in the meeting when everything bubbled to the surface because I was on a business trip. I was let in on what transpired yesterday by our production manager. It is ironic that I was thinking about some of these issues and how to address them while on my trip.

In my conversation with our production manager I really tried to coach him on the things that he should be doing to improve is department and keep him out of the line of fire. There are four departments in our company that need a lot of improvement and his is one of those. His department is not the worst, but after the two major departmental issues are solved his will be next in line.

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First Change of 2011

I bought the 4-Hour Body at the end of last year. I started reading it as soon as I got it, but I was moving through it slowly. I read Tim's previous book and found it interesting, so I thought I would try this one.

Tim says that you should not read the entire book from cover to cover. Instead, you should focus on specific chapters based on your goals. My first goal is to lose weight so I read the chapters that deal with rapid fat loss. On Monday The Queen and I started our new eating plan, the slow carb diet.

We have drastically reduced our intake of sugar and carbs six days per week. On the seventh day, we can eat anything we want. We decided that our "cheat" day will be Sunday and we cannot wait. We have been thinking about what we will eat that day all week. It has really not been that difficult for me to stick to the plan, but The Queen has been struggling a bit. She is sticking to it, but she is not very happy about it.

I have been on this eating plan for three full days and as of this morning I have lost two pounds. At that rate I will be able to drop about sixteen pounds in a month. I have not even exercised at all this week and am still losing weight. That just goes to show you how damaging carbs are to your waist line. The only exercise Tim recommends at this point is the kettle bell swing. I hope to start that soon.

I will be travelling next week for business, so I am interested to see if both The Queen and I can stick to the plan while I am on the road. I have been cooking all of the meals this week and don't know if she will stick to it while I am gone. Our goal is the The Queen and I to both look good for our trip to New York next month. We need to stick to it!

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My Year of Forty

This is the year that I turn forty. I never thought I would be this old, but alas it has happened. I don't feel old, but I guess I am by most people's accounts.

I decided a few years ago that I wanted to go out of my thirties with a bang. I fantasized about going to Machu Picchu, Chichen Itza, Tulum or even Europe. I wanted to do something big for my fortieth birthday. Well, I have come to the realization that I need to take it down a notch.

My company has had a rough twelve to eighteen months. My bonus last year was negligible and I most likely won't get on this year. That was the money I was hoping to use for my big adventure. This just means that I need to get more creative with what I am going to do.

We decided at the beginning of this week that we were going to go to Yosemite this weekend. Park admission is free and I have always wanted to go in the winter, so the timing is perfect. I have been doing some research to find out what I want to photograph in the park. I have read that everything is different when there is snow on the ground and I can't wait to find out.

We will drive up on Friday after school and stay the night at the Tenaya Lodge. Actually we will be staying in the cottages. That is where we stayed the night I proposed to The Queen way back when it was call Apple Tree Inn. Tenaya raised the prices substantially, but they say that they remodeled everything. I can't wait to find out if they are right. It was pretty nice before.

Next month The Queen and I are going to New York to see American Idiot on Broadway. Billie Joe Armstrong, lead singer of Green Day if you didn't know, will be playing the part of St. Jimmy. The Queen has been a big Green Day fan for as long as I have known her. We even went to see them in concert at Pac Bell Park in San Francisco for the American Idiot tour. It was perhaps the best concert I have been to.

In June we have a few trips planned. I want to go to Yosemite again around my birthday and hike Half Dome. I think that is something that I will remember for a long time. It is not Machu Picchu, but it will do just fine. At the end of the month we are going camping at Dinkey Creek. We did that last September and it was a lot of fun so we decided to do it again this year.

That is all we have planned at this point, but I may try to lobby to go to the biggest trade show in my industry this year in Dusseldorf, Germany in May. I will just have to wait and see how the company is doing as the show gets closer. It only happens every three years, so it is a big deal.

It would be great to go to Mexico again, but the drug wars that are currently going on are enough to keep me away this year. I love visiting, but I am not about to risk my life and the lives of my family. I with they would just get the situations under control.

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Out of Control!

We, in the United States, often look at the messes in other countries and laugh at them. We believe that the struggles they have are because they are not as civilized as us. We believe that the things that happen there could never happen here. We are jaded. We are arrogant!

Politics in this country has gotten out of control. Obama was elected president based on a campaign of change. The people bought into this change agenda, even though we knew that it is virtually impossible to change politics in this country.

Obama and the Left pushed through health care reform, which I think is a good thing. I have said before that I don't believe health care reform was marketed correctly. It is really insurance company reform. The Right was angry and they got everyone all riled up about reform. The Tea Party started whipping everyone into a frenzy by making them believe that this was going to be bad for them. It was going to turn us into a socialist country. Even people on government health care, Medicare, were furious that we were implementing government health care. A lot of hate was being directed at the Left from the conservative Right.

The Tea Party gained some control back in the elections last year. The first agenda from the Right was to reverse health care reform. That is the last thing we need in this economy. It will cost us hundreds of millions of dollars to reverse what is already being changed. That money could be better used to create jobs for the massive number of unemployed workers this economy has created. Or, it could be used to pay down the deficit that has been increased in order to help spur the economy along. Instead the Right is forcing this reversal of health care reform as a direct attack on Obama and his supporters.

Sarah Palin created a frenzy in March of last year when she released her target map of congressional districts with cross hairs on them. The map pointed out districts that her and John McCain had won in 2008 whose Congressmen voted for health care reform. She created hate among her followers for anyone who disagreed with her and the Right. I believe that her and some other politicians from the Right have gotten out of control. They are not trying to solve any problems, they are just trying to force their agenda down the public's throat. And I think that there carelessness contributed to the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona. She was one of the Congressmen in the cross hairs and Jared Loughner, the shooter, took her words literally.

I don't blame them for the actual shooting as it appears that Loughner was mentally ill. What I do blame them for is dividing this country and creating anger and hate. They are just fanning the flames of unhappiness instead of trying to overcome the issues we are all facing and improving our situation. They are creating a bad culture in the United States and that can be blamed on poor leadership on their part.

You can look at countries as larger versions of companies and we all know how important culture is to the success of a company. Without a great, or even good, culture, a company will not thrive. It can limp along and be somewhat successful, but it will never be a great company. The same goes for countries. The culture of the United States needs a severe tune-up. We need to stop the hate and fighting amongst our politicians and focus on trying to make positive changes. I don't know if Obama's health care reform is the answer for the problems in the system, but at least he is trying to change it for the better.

We need our politicians to be leaders and focus on being positive and inspiring us to do great things. They need to help us embrace change and realize that it is necessary if this country is going to survive. We need to stop all of the hate and fighting and move forward so we can make this country great again.

Read this good article.

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Recap: Personal Goals for 2010

I think I failed miserably this year. In my post of January 7, 2010, I listed my personal goals for 2010 as follows:

1. Reed 1 Book a Month.
2. Run in 2 5K Races.
3. Volunteer.
4. Change a Child's Life.

Here is a recap of how I did:

1. Reed 1 Book a Month.
I did OK on this goal. I read eleven books, listened to one audio book and read three short ebooks or pamphlets. I learned a lot this year and I plan to keep on learning into 2011. I plan on keeping this goal as is this year.

2. Run in 2 5K Races.
I failed miserably at this goal. I not only did not run in any 5K races, but I stopped exercising and running the last quarter of the year. I have put on about five or six pounds since I stopped. I am slowly starting to get back into things again by using the Nordic Track, but I really need to start running again. I plan on keeping this as a goal for 2011.

3. Volunteer.
All I can say is epic fail! I did not volunteer for anything this year. My excuse is that this year has just passed me by, but that is only an excuse. I really need to volunteer in 2011. I want to volunteer again at the Visalia Rescue Mission and I would like to do some work for Habitat for Humanity. I also have the idea in the back of my mind of an afterschool photography program at The Queen's school. Maybe I can figure out how to get that started this year. I really need to focus on this goal for 2011.

4. Change a Child's Life.
I don't know what to say about this one. We ended up getting two foster children for a little over a month. I really think we did change their lives, but I feel bad that we could not make a permanent change in their lives. I don't think we will get any other foster children for some time as it was much different than we expected. It was a learning experience. I think we can change a child's life without actually have them as a foster child. We can do this with some volunteer work or we can find another way. I would like to keep this as a goal for 2011, but I don't think it is realistic any more.

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Taking the Plunge

I was watching some videos on Monday that inspired me once again. I read "The 4-Hour Workweek" back in February and have been thinking about starting my own business ever since. Actually, I started thinking about my own business a long time ago but I really started to get more serious after reading that book. Ever since I saw the movie "Father of the Bride" I have wanted to own a small manufacturing company. I don't know why that movie inspired me, but it did.

I feel like I need to create something tangible. I love technology and know that is the future...and present...but I just need to create something that I can put my hands on. At least I feel like that is my ultimate goal. I have flip flopped a little bit though after what I saw on Monday. I feel like I just need to create a revenue stream as soon as possible. I am not going to take the complete plunge and quite my job. I will just get my toes wet and start a new source of income until I am ready to take the plunge.

I love the idea of reducing my things, but it is just not in the cards right now. The Queen and the girls are not ready to give up there things, even if it means that we can travel the world. They are so entrenched in American culture that they believe that they need things. Don't get me wrong, I have my things as well and am not completely ready to give them up. I think I am closer to that than they are though.

Besides leading a simpler life and not having bills to worry about and upkeep of cars and a home. It is more in line with the greener lifestyle I desire. It would be great to get our from under the weight of the world and just do whatever I want to do. If I want to go to Mexico for six months or a year, so be it. If I want to travel farther South from there and end up at the tip of South America I could do that to.

I could start the non-profit that I have been thinking about since reading the book. I could show my kids the world and not worry about anything else. That would be a great life, but we are not yet ready for that. I just need to take the first step and getting a second income coming in first. That is my three month goal. Even if it is just an extra five-hundred dollars a month. Every little bit helps.

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Busy, Busy, Busy...& Sick

Time is flying this year! I have not been prepared for anything in both my work and personal lives all year. It just seems like as soon as I start to think it is time to begin planning for something I get busy doing other things and before I know it the even is upon me.

I am not ready for Christmas. I am not ready for Christmas shopping. I am not ready for The Queen's Christmas party which takes place this Saturday at our house. We are not done with our Christmas decorations yet. I have a plant on the front porch that died a month or so ago and I have not replaced it yet. The plants along the front walkway have decided that they are not going to come back yet this year so the flower beds are pretty bare. I have not had a chance to mow the front and back lawns because of the rain pattern we have had. And to top it all off, I am starting to feel sick. I am just not ready.

I was outside the last two nights building a fence and gate on the side of the house to keep Cocoa under control. It is taking me a little longer than I thought because I decided at the last minute to add another post and make the gate smaller than I planned. It is not a big deal, but now I need to wait for the concrete to set before I can hang the gate, which I finished building last night.

Meg has a playoff soccer game tonight, so I won't be able to get that much done tonight. I am just planning on getting the indoor Christmas decorations done tonight so I can move outdoors tomorrow night. I still need to finish the fence and gate, wash the windows, mow the lawns, pull weeds and plant something in the bare spots near the front door. I hope I can get everything except the windows and planting done tomorrow night. We are expecting rain again at the end of this week, so I need to work fast.

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The Politics of Youth Soccer

I have been participating in one way or another in AYSO soccer for more than ten years. I have coached, been a team referee and volunteered for numerous team duties. I saw the politics of the sport ten years ago and I have seen the new politics this season.

I never thought much about how being a coach or assistant coach was a political move, but it dawned on me a few days ago. If you as a coach can get the parent of another really good soccer player to be your assistant, your chances of being successful are that much greater. Having two or three good players on your team is enough to move you to the top tier of your league. That means moving on to the playoffs.

Ten years ago the coach of a team would recommend two or three players to be considered for the all-star team. The coaches of the all-star team would then select the players they wanted on the team. This was a very political process since there was no formal tryout. There was also no way that the all-star coaches could get around to see all of the players that were recommended play in their league games. It was a who you are and who you know system. Chels was almost always recommended for the all-star team, but she was never selected.

With the effort of appearing to be more fair, our local AYSO has changed things us a bit. The coaches still recommend two or three players from their team for the All-star team, but now there is a three hour tryout. It turns out that Meg as recommended for the team and attended the tryout. There were more than sixty girls at the tryout and only twenty-seven girls would make the all-star team. Meg did not play her best at the tryout, which was disappointing, but I was not overly impressed by many of the girls there. I think Meg was a middle of the pack player. This, in my mind, would mean that she should make a team. We are still waiting to find out.

I was talking to Meg's assistant coach for a lot of the tryout and the first thing out of his mouth was that this looked to only be a formality. In other words, he was implying that most of the selections have already been made. For instance, all of the all-star team coaches' daughters have already made the team. That means that there were only twenty-three or twenty-four slots open for the girls trying out.

I watched the tryout pretty closely and I told The Queen that I don't know how the coaches can make a decision in just three hours, especially with so many girls trying out. There were only five coaches watching all of the girls, so there was no way that they could really watch each girl to see what there skill level was.

I read a book recently that looked at hockey all star teams. An economist studied the make up of the teams and found that the older kids usually made the teams over the younger kids. The older kids were usually bigger, which meant they looked the part of an all-star. They did not find that the bigger kids necessarily had better skills, they were just bigger. Over time these kids do end up becoming the better players because they get more practice time with better coaches. It turns out to be a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy. The thinking goes something like this, "you are bigger, so you must be better" and eventually the kids are better.

I really hope that the selection process for this AYSO all-star team was more fair than that. Meg is not one of the bigger kids and she is one of the younger kids, but she has some natural instinct that makes her a good player. I think with some more coaching she could develop into a great player. If she does not make the all-star team, I have already told her that we will work on her skills in the off season to make her a better player next year. She has already identified the skills she wants to work on, so I know she is serious.

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Play Like an All-Star

Two weeks ago I told Meg that she was being recommended to try out for the AYSO all-star team. I told her that the coaches would be watching her and that she needed to play her best, she needed to play like an all-star.

I missed her game that week while I was in Chicago, but she did indeed play like an all-star. She scored two goals in the first quarter of her first game that day. She did not score anymore goals that game or any in the second game of the day, but The Queen told me that she played really well. I was proud of that because she has not been playing like herself this season.

I reminded her when I got home that this past weekend was the start of the playoffs and that she needed to play as hard as she could. All of the teams had three games and if she wanted to keep playing she needed to play like an all-star again. I guess she was listening to me.

Her team had to be at the sports park by seven in the morning on Saturday to check-in for the games. That was early and cold, so I did not expect very much from the team in the first game. They played a solid game like they usually do and ended up with a one to one tie. That was not a bad performance, but I knew they could do better.

They started out sluggish in their second game and let the other team get a lead. But in the second half they dominated the other team. They held them scoreless and cut into the lead. It was too little too late though and they ended up losing the game. That second half was the best I had seen them play all season up to that point. They had one game left on Sunday to try to keep their season alive.

On Sunday they came out playing hard, but gave up a goal early. They did not let that hurt them though. Meg came back and scored two goals in the first half and her team took the lead. In the second half she had a great assist which ended up putting the game away. They ended up winning the game five to four. We did not know if that was going to be enough for them to continue their season or not.

We got a call last night that they squeaked into the playoffs and that they would continue practicing for the next two weeks. The girls ended the season strong and get another chance to play like a team and continue their playoff run. I hope they can keep it up.

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Ch Ch Ch Changes

I don't know why that song line popped into my head when I was thinking about this post. I really don't even know what song it is.

My family has gone through some changes this last month and a half...and the changes continued yesterday. As you may know, we added some foster kids to our family in September. Today we had to drop them off with their new family.

I can't give all the details about why this happened, but I can say it was a sad day for all of us. We hope that B and K will be able to grow with their new family. We also hope that Meg will be able to go back to being the old Meg we love so much.

Foster care is a big decision. It is not to be taken lightly. We all thought we were prepared, but there really was no way for us to be. We were all taken by surprise.

I hate to call it an experiment because it affected so many lives, but it was definitely a learning experience for us. I hope that B and K will take the things we taught them with them for the rest of their lives. We hope we did our little part to make their lives better.

If "stuff" is a measure of happiness, then they are much happier now then when they first arrived in our home. When The Queen picked them up they only had the clothes they were wearing and the shoes on their feet. The county gave them each a sweater, but that was it. We bought them a lot of clothes and some toys to help them be kids. I just hope they took more than "stuff" with them. I hope they learned some things from our family.

It was somewhat funny. When we told them that they were going to live with a new family, K just asked what she was taking with her. She asked if she was going to be able to take a couple of items with her, like her Halloween costume. She also told us she wanted to leave a picture she drew recently with us.

She told us she missed us, but she was OK with the change as far as we could tell. B shed some tears, but she was her same outwardly strong self. I know she was disappointed that they were moving, but she tried not to let it show.

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