Football Friday and Family Reunions

So last week's re-cap of games: In CFB I went 2-0 in my main picks (ISU and S. Caro) and 3-2 in my throw out picks (wins for Bama, Florida, and Ohio State. Losses for OSU and W. Va) In last weeks NFL picks I only went 1-2 but i think we can get back to work this week. So, without further adieu. . .

CFB

ISU+14.5: Why spoil a good thing.  Iowa State has a good team, and if Oklahoma State can't put Kansas away, I'm not sure how they are giving 14.5 to ISU, even if they are at home. Take the roadie.

Colorado+40.5: CU stinks. USC is good. Over 40 is a lot of points.  This game will probably go like most of CU's games this year where they will score 1 or 2 cheap td's somewhere.

KSU+3: I think in order for this to happen, KSU is going to have to show up again.  They will have to do this all year.  Most pundits are on WVa which is where I like them to be. Go Cats.

Others: Rutgers, Stanford, Boise, FSU, San Diego State

NFL

New Orleans-2.5: This is the most dangerous 1-5 team there is and like Green Bay, I don't see them letting up, and I see them feasting on inferior teams, which despite what Tampa Bay did to KC, is.

Green Bay-5: Yeah they are on the road, and yes, St. Louis plays good D at home, but Green Bay has to find its rhythm and if last week is any indication, GB is mad and St. Louis is in for it.

NYJ+10.5: The teams are similar, the Jets showed they can keep up, NE can't keep leads, and in the NFL this is a lot of points. 3rd road team to take this week.

So, after football, what else do we have on this weekend's agenda? Oh yeah, a lot. Tonight is my 4 year old daughter's Halloween party at school.  My oldest has gymnastics, but then I have to get her over to the Halloween party because God forbid she not get to do something that her sister does. Tomorrow I have the day off, but we have a "family reunion" planned for the day. That should last most of the day, and hopefully I get a work out in at some point, and then a good buddy is in town so I am going to try and meet up with him later Saturday night. Sunday, with the Chiefs off, is shooting day out at the gun range, then maybe another workout, or maybe spend some time with my relatives who are in town for the reunion. The reunion.

My parents two sides of the their families couldn't be more different, but oddly still the same when you get down to the heart of it.  Both are extremely different from my wife's families, so anything we do that's "family" related always makes the wife smile because while it's new to us, it's usually old hat to her.  My dad comes from a large family, who have been in the area for quite some time. Our background is Lebanese, but when people ask where our families from, I always tell them Oklahoma, because that's pretty much where they migrated from after coming over from the old country in the early 1900's. As we get older, we seem to see less of each other, and have grown further apart.  I guess it's only natural that as grandparents or great grandparents move on, the family settles in more with the new grandparents.  Whereas my father's mother was the matriarch of the family, that role is now headed by my father but we don't see the uncles, aunts, and cousins as much anymore.  We have a large reunion on my father's side every summer, and it gets bigger and bigger each year, but I see a lot of those relatives in passing as most of us all live in Wichita. The wife's families have 3-4 reunions every year, and it's always the same people, regardless of which last name is getting together, because as German Catholics from Smalltown, Kansas, everyone is related.  To me, its just an excuse to get together, eat, drink, and share stories, and I guess that's what it's really about anyway.

My mother's side of the family is a little different, and it's why this reunion tomorrow might be a little strange. My mother can trace her families roots back to the beginning of our nations history. After the Civil War ended, the Ralston's migrated from Pennsylvania, and my grandfather's family settled in Kansas and specifically the Augusta/Andover/Rose Hill area. Time passes, their farmers, ranchers, cowboys, yada, yada, yada. As things go, it gets down to my grandfather and his brother.  The only two living children of my great grandfather and great grandmother (I still had one of my great grandmother's until I was 20) ended up with small families, but a whole lotta land. My mother is only 1 of three and her older brother passed away over 20 years ago, leaving just my mother and her sister who has lived in Tennessee for the last 20 years. On the other side, my Grandfather's brother also only had two children, and they subsequently only had 1 or 2 children each as well.  Let's just say that there aren't a whole lot of the Ralston's left in the area and after changes in name through marriage, there really aren't many left.

Since the passing of my grandparents, and his brother, I think nostalgia has started to set in. My grandfather and his brother spoke very few words to each other the last 20 years of their lives due to a family feud after my great grandmother died divided the family. It divided land, blood, and it made people choose sides.  Unfortunately, you always choose your families side, and because of that, my mother and aunt have had very little contact with their first cousins because of it.  Well, they say that time heals all wounds, and maybe our family is no exception.  As they have gotten older, my mother, her sister, and their cousins have become increasingly curious about their families history. How they came to where they are; where people have been and where people went. Between the two sets of Ralston's, there are farm houses, home stead's, burial sites, river's, ponds, and beautiful Kansas land.  In the last several months, I think they have all gotten together and decided that maybe it's time to mend the family fences that have been weathered over time.  This Saturday will mark the first time that this set of Ralston's will have gathered together in over 20 years.  I'm not really sure what to expect or what's going to happen, but I'm excited to go, and excited to see and meet family that I don't really know.

I Waited to Write This, I Should Have Waited to Run

Every Twitter post, every Facebook message: running, running, running.  What is the fascination with running?  Why is it that as we get older, we think we should automatically become healthier, as if we weren't before, and that running is somehow the answer? When do we realize that as adults, that competitive team sports like soccer, baseball, and basketball are either below us now, or to difficult to do anymore and that our only alternative to the sports we once loved but can only watch are now solo sports like golf, fishing, and running?  I just don't get it. I go to the gym on a fairly frequent basis and besides the young muscle heads on the weights, everyone else is running. Elliptical's, treadmills, stair step's, the track, aerobics. . . .it's all running to me, no matter what you call it. So this brings me to this year's Prairie Fire Marathon. I'm sure you've seen the posts, and I'm sure you've read countless articles about it, but I'd thought I'd throw my two cents in as well.  Since I was made to run it, I might as well get to talk about it.

Let me first say that I did not run the marathon.  I didn't even run the half marathon.  I ran the mayor's 5k. Since the wife has me on this "plan" to run with her in Vegas in December, this race lined up with my "training" schedule she has me on. I've stated before, on several occasions, that I hate running.  This race was no different. I'm only doing it to stay in shape, keep some of the weight off that I lost in the last few months, and get a nice trip out of season to Vegas out of it.  The wife on the other hand seems to love it.  Eats the shit right up.  Likes running, training, racing, buying the shoes and jelly beans, the whole ordeal. And good for her.  If she's found something she likes, then so be it.  And I support her. I'm, there when she finishes every time, tell her good job and that I'm proud of her, and makes sure she can get the time she needs to train.  Me? I got my full running cross country in high school. My body just doesn't want to do it. 1 mile. 2 miles. 6 miles. It hasn't gotten any easier, and I haven't found a set of songs to make a play list out of to make the time I do it any more enjoyable. I do it, get it done, and then I'm over it. Ran 4 miles this morning. Didn't like it, but I did it.

This race though?  These people are nuts. Only in suburbia Kansas or suburbia anywhere do you find stuff like this.  And it's every week. These people are fanatical. It was my first experience with a large scale race, but I'm told their all pretty much the same. thousands of people. In every different color of spandex imaginable. thousand dollar shoes, and no shoes at all.  It's 50 degree's outside for the race and their barefoot in a speedo?  What are these people thinking? They have watch timers, special glasses and and fanny packs. Hand packs to hold drinks. Waist packs to hold multiple drinks. Jelly beans and goo for energy. And energy? You'd think our body's can't make their own. There's bars, drinks, gum, candy, lotions, gels. It doesn't stop.  Energy is everywhere and in every form at these events. The events themselves, ridiculous. Paying anywhere from $20 to $100 bucks a pop to run a race. On a city street. Yeah, there's free drinks and eats afterwards, and if I finish I get a t-shirt, but do i need that stuff. Give me $60 bucks and i"ll buy you a shirt and put up a finish line.

So I run my race. It was short and easy.  I didn't like it.  I didn't improve any time or have any goal.  I ran slowly by myself because I didn't see anyone else I knew running the 5k that would want to run slowly with me, but I got it done. No big deal.  I then spend the next 3 hours waiting on the wife. I get to people watch.  My number two favorite thing to do in my down time after you know what.  these races; great place to people watch. The crying, the laughing, moaning, groaning, screams. It's every where. Guys and gals giving it their all for any variety of cancer, AID's, SID's, ALS, Parkinson's; whatever this week's race is for. Discarded clothes every where. Matted grass, mud, and rock across the landscape of pavement. But it is a spectacle I can't stop watching.

It's the people who make these events enjoyable.  It's the looks on their faces. It's the gratitude people give you when you finish, regardless of what place you finished in or what race you ran. It's genuine. It's honest. People who have overcome cancer. Beat the disease. Lost the weight. Ran for a loved one lost. The sense of pride they get when they finished, for what they accomplished. the happiness on their faces when they hear strangers cheering them on for finishing something they just started. It's the fulfillment of that goal.  That's why people do it.  That's what I need to find. I don't have it yet.  Simply running to say I ran isn't going to do it for me.  It's not running towards anything or for anything.  It's just running, and that's why it doesn't get any better or any easier.  I'm not sure how you find those things or get those things inside you to create that burn or desire to topple the challenge, but I don't it yet.  Might not ever have it. Maybe I should have waited until I did before I wrote this. . . .