A is for Awana, Allen, and Ample.

                                                                

Good morning and welcome to another year of the A to Z Challenge.  This year I chose 3 themes for the challenge: Limericks, MLB Sluggers in my life time, and A to Z Wordles.  For more information about these themes click here.  

I did not grow up attending the kind of churches that participate in the children's program Awana.  So, it was not until Amy and I started our own family that we participated as parents and volunteers.. Awana is a program that among other things promotes the memorization  of bible verses from children 2 -18.  They are in many ways similar to a youth scouting program and one of their biggest events is the Awana Grand Prix which is very similar to the Pine Box Derbiesthat  I participated in as a Cub Scout.    Awana is something that worked for out family for many years which I 0ne reason why I penned this limerick 8+ years ago.

                                                         Tell folks, tell friends, tell an iguana.

There's plenty of fun at Awana

                                                         We learn that God is King

                                                         We play games and we sing

                                                         But never Hakuna Matata

                                                         From My Facebook page 3/5/2014

Dick Allen (1942-2020) was my hero when I was a young White Sox fan. His 3 year tenure on the White Sox (1972-1974) is a big reason I became a White Sox fan. When you look at the list of the 10 best homerun hitters from 1964-1975, 7 of them are in the Hall of Fame. Only Dick Allen , Boog Powell and Frank Howard are not. Powell was a MVP winner and Frank Howard won the Rookie of the Year award. Allen had more homers than either of those men and won both awards. Allen hit 331 homers from 1964 -1975. 189 with the Phillies, 85 with the White Sox, 34 with the Cardinals and 23 with the Dodgers. Allen averaged 33 homers per every 162 games played.

Note: Correct letters in the correct places will be shown in bold. Correct letters in incorrect places will be shown in italics.

My starting word on March 1st for Wordle was ample.

A M P L E

With the P and the E in the correct place. I tried to think of words that would fit. The first thing that came to my mind was Rupee.

R U P E E

Much to my delight and surprise it was correct, I found out a week or so later that Rupee caused a little bit of an sensation on wordle with many people breaking their win streaks on this word for Indian currency. For me it was a rare 2 time solve, but a good way to start my a to z wordle openers.

Thus begins another April A to Z to see what other prople are posting click here.

Last 5 Next 10 Spring Break edition

I am currently on Spring Break and I hope to get a lot of reading finished.  Here is what I have read and or listened to since 2/15/22

 

The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis

Listened to via Hoopla

3/9/22

Prince Caspian - C.S. Lewis

3/11/22

Listened to vis Hoopla

Open and Shut - David Rosenfelt

3/14/22

Read to self borrowed from library

The Hawk and The Dove - Steve Ditko

3/20/22

                                                        Read via Hoopla

                                                            Born Again - Charles Colson

                                                            3/24/22 Listened to via Hoopla

It would be pretty easy to assume that most of my reading is taking place on my phone these days.  That is not actually to the case.  I am reading a number of books the old fashioned way but have been mainly finishing the electronic ones.  Over Spring break I hope to finish a few of the ones I've been plugging away at.

Ten books I am currently reading or planning to read soon are .

Essential Defenders Volume II - Len Wein

God's Forgetful Pilgrims - Michael Griffiths

Big Nate - Vol 1 - Lincoln Pierce

Love, Dance & Egg Rolls - Jason Tanamor

Renegades, Born In The U.S.A.  - Bruce Springsteen & Barack Obama 

Until Tuesday, A Wounded Warrior and The Golden Retriever who saved Him - Luis Carlos Montalvan

Voyage of the Dawn Treader - C.S. Lewis 

Inside The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - Devin Brown

Roger Ebert's Movie Yearbook 2007 - Roger Ebert

The Story of God - Walter Wangerin

I finished my last book on 3/24 but today is 3/31 so I'll give you stats for both days. from 3/9 to 3/24 I finished 5 books in 16 days.  That's a book every 3.2 days.  If that could be sustained it would mean 114 books finished in a year.  As of today there have bee 90 days in the years and I have finished 15 books which is a book every 6 days which makes about 61 books for the year.  

Shamrock Shuffle Part II

 On Saturday March 19th, I ran in a 1 mile race in Chicago.  The mile at the Shamrock shuffle is a precursor to the 8k (5 mile ) shamrock shuffle run on the following day. I had not run in a timed mile race since 1980 when I was a freshman in highs school.  On that day I finished with a 5:50 mile.  

On the 19th in the cold and rain I ran it in about 9:45.  

My wife and I stayed overnight in Chicago on Saturday and I ran in the 5 k as well.  My 16 year old niece ran the 5k with a faster mile average than  my 9:45 and I finished my 5 k in less than an hour somewhere in the 11:30 mile range.  I achieved my only goals of finishing both races without walking.  I hope to run in a few more races this year.  I'll keep you posted.  Here are some pics from Sunday. 

Start of the race

My wife kept tabs on my location during the race

Me finishing the race. ( I'm not paying the outrageous fee for a copy of this picture, which is why the company logo is all over it.)

Pre (or possibly post)  race craziness

Shamrock Shuffle 1

Barbara Streisand and John Wayne show how to present and receive Oscars

The Academy Awards are a one week away and in preparation for the awards I have been watching some acceptance speeches. In 1970 John Wayne was nominated for True Grit and Barnbara Streisand who had one best actress in 1969 for Funny Girl was presenting the award for best Actor. Not only did Wayne put on a clinic for how to gracefully and quickly recieve an award, nut Streisand set the standard for how to read off the nominees.