Bradley K. Johnson
Journal
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Another busy but good week. This time of year is very tough as I have just finished writing reviews on 11 employees, I need to give those reviews before February 1 and at least a couple of them will not be fun as I will be giving some tough messages, I have a couple of big presentations to the Board in two weeks, and we are going through our year end close and audit.
Tuesday there was a skiff of snow and so once again they cancelled school. The kids were excited but I'm not sure they will be as excited when they are still going to school well into July. We have had the craziest weather over the last couple of months without a lot of blue skies. It was so nice to see the sun yesterday. If every winter were like this one, I don’t know how many I could stand here in WA.
We have had a week of the kids’ basketball games. Rebekah had her last basketball game on Thursday and she did very well including a terrific “and one” three point play. She also had a church game that night and that season is just getting started so basketball is not over for her. She starts school soccer on Tuesday so she will be plenty busy with sports.
Andrew had a game on Wednesday night that I was able to go to at Thunder Mountain Middle School. It was fun to watch him play. His team is not very good as they lost 30 to 8. But he was cute as could be. Their point guard must have had 25 turnovers but the kids have fun. Andrew had a couple of shots and both of them came very close to going in. He has the most ability of anyone on the team but he doesn’t have too much confidence. After the game I was talking to him about a few things and tried to tell him that when you play defense you need to look for the ball as well as your man. He disagreed vehemently and said, “No, my coach said I need to guard my man.” He was doing a great job guarding his man but if the ball came right next to him he would not go for it because he was “guarding his man”. I tried to explain some things about defense but he would not listen. It’s that highly literal side of him.
On the court next to Andrew’s game there was an old man’s league game in progress. Many of the guys looked like they were my age and as I sat and watched I had these pangs of sorrow as I wanted to be out there playing. I miss playing basketball and it has been years since I have been able to really play. My big hope is that in a few years they will make enough progress on the artificial knees that when I have to get mine replaced they will be so good that I will be able to play basketball and run again. That will be a glorious day. If it doesn’t come in this life it is one thing I can look forward to with great anticipation in the next one.
Paul had games on Thursday and Friday. I got to go to the Thursday game but had a late meeting I could not get out of and was not able to go on Friday. Paul played great in both games. Friday was his best game of the year as he had 15 points and led the team in assists, steals and rebounds. I’m so happy to see him playing a lot and playing well. He is such a nice young man and continues to be NBA obsessed. Each night we talk about the games going on and the outstanding performances of the evening. He is in a couple of fantasy leagues and he is checking his standings all the time. I like to tease him about the “stiffs” on his fantasy teams. We are both excited about the NBA road trip in two months. It should be a great time.
Paul and Rebekah went to the Especially for Youth program in Renton yesterday and both loved it. We all had a busy day yesterday. Rebekah had her annual basketball team sleep over at the Middle school on Friday night. I went and picked her up at 8 AM and then went back to pick up Andrew. We needed to be out of the house because Rosie had all the RS Presidents in the stake over for breakfast and we needed to let her have the freedom of no children to disrupt their discussions. (Paul and Melanie slept in late). So I took the youngest two to breakfast at the Pony Express restaurant in town and then we went up to the church to play basketball for an hour or so. Those two play together very well most of the time but they will go off on major fights every hour or so and it gets tough as can be. Andrew does not do well with any kind of teasing and will quickly go into a rage if anyone teases him.
After basketball, we did a couple of geocaches. The kids love to find those things and it is a great activity. When we got home, Rosie and I went over to Mount Peak for a good hike. We have loved our new plasma TV and the sound system. It is a wonderful experience to watch a movie with this set up. I also appreciate the Clear Play system that takes out all the bad things in movies. The sound system has been wonderful as I just plug in my ipod and get a world class music listening experience.
I finished a couple of wonderful books. Maravich by Wayne Federman was a great biography of my boyhood idol, Pete Maravich. It was an excellent story about a man who totally changed his life and became a wonderful disciple of Christ the last few years of his life before he died at the very young age of 40 of a heart attack. He was the greatest basketball player in my eyes and the things he did changed the game dramatically and have never been equaled. If he were playing today he would be every bit as big as Michael Jordan was.
The second was Jane Austen’s finest novel – Emma. She was such a tremendous writer and I loved this book. Her insight into human nature is as good as anything in fiction. I just started reading
This afternoon Rosie and I went home teaching and then went to take some cookies to President Rodarte and Joe Dahle. Pres. Rodarte had serious surgery this week on his ankle where they had to fuse it to eliminate some horrendous pain. Joe was coming down Mt. Peak on Thursday and stepped wrong on his foot and broke two bones down by his ankle. It took the paramedics over three hours to get him off the mountain and he will be in a cast for at least three months. I sat and talked with both of them for a few minutes, and it was obvious both were in severe pain but positive about the future. As we drove home I told Rosie we need to be grateful every day for our good health and every prayer at night I thank the Lord for this priceless blessing. Things can change in an instant just as they did for Joe who is healthy as can be and in excellent shape.
Janice told me a great story about my brother Scott. He was in UT last weekend and borrowed her truck. When he left he took the keys to the truck with him to Atlanta. She called me to tell me and we both laughed as he is an absolutely brilliant guy – I’m sure his IQ is off the charts, after all he has a PhD from MIT – but he is like the absent minded professor sometimes. A couple of days later she called to tell me that she had received the knife on the key chain in the mail but not the keys. She couldn’t figure out what had happened so she called Scott to ask him. He was not there but Melanie told him the following. He got to the airport and at the security screening they told him he could not take the knife on the key ring on the plane. He would have to leave the knife there. He told them, “I can’t do that this is my sister’s knife.” SO they told him he could mail it back at the post office just down the way. So Scott dutifully went to the post office and mailed the knife to Janice but did not include the keys. No on as yet has been able to determine why the knife was sent but not the keys. I told her she may have to go to Atlanta to get those keys.
Mels continues to love her classes at college and she seems to be doing well. She also loves her part time work at Kids Space and she plays soccer once or twice a week as well as the community orchestra
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