Texas Tech Football 2011

Texas Tech University plays its last home football game today against #2 ranked OSU. Expect to get blown away, both literally and figuratively as high winds are forecast.

But football tracks with the seasons, and as this season of high level spectator sport concludes, fans like me have fun even when the team loses.

The Tech versus A&M game was my personal favorite. I wore a Tech sweatshirt, sat in a season-ticket-holder seat and thought about the story of the little boy who refused to sit down in church. Finally, his mother succeeded in making him sit, but he said, "I'm sitting down on the outside but standing up on the inside." That was me at that game. I had to look like I rooted for Tech, but in truth I cheered for A&M, on account of my Aggie son, Jordan.

Now I'm wistful, too, about the breach from the Big 12 by A&M, which made this possibly the last time Tech will play A&M in Jones Stadium, at least for the foreseeable future. So here's my tribute to the Fightin' Aggie Band.

Read here to learn why this statue of Will Rogers is on the campus of Texas Tech http://www.ttu.edu/traditions/rogers.php

Coach Tommy Tubberville and his gunslingers … a tribute to Tombstone, maybe?

Storm Front

First game and I bailed when a storm front blew in. One minute, dead calm. The next, gusts of wind brought dirt from harvested cotton fields to the north to engulf the stadium. Temperature dropped 25 degrees in minutes. Lightning struck in the sky behind the Jumbo-tron.

"We gotta get outta here. (pause) Yeah, we gotta get out."

Dark settled in the midst of daylight.

The last patch of blue before the sky goes granite grey.

Oh, say, can you see?

Tech's band in their matador uniforms carry on school traditions, too.

"You wanna play some football?"

Guns up

Tribute to US flag, Sonic and son-in-law, Chris

Nobody does sunset better than West Texas

Lift off: four feet off the ground

Tech has had some high points this season and I hope they distinguish themselves in a good way during today's game. Lubbock fans are crazy for their football team.

"Ya'll come back, Ya hear?" (Coach Tubberville didn't say that. Granny Clampett did, but when it comes to football, that's what every coach hopes for, right? The fans will return, the players will improve and the coach will keep his job.)

Intentional

My friend, Marcia

Where have all the bloggers gone?

Like others, I have gone missing in action to pursue other concerns.

Has anyone missed me? I mean, really?

But I have missed blogging.

Still hacking away at a manuscript that I began in earnest at the beginning of 2011, I find this "book" (a memoir) the hardest to complete of all the projects I have ever begun.
And it's teaching me something about myself that I needed to learn.

Unless I enjoy the process, the product will disappoint.

During my second year at DTS, my great friend Marcia spent the night with me, and I shared with her my discouragement about school. She startled me by saying, "You will finish, Carol. You're a 100%-er. You finish what you start."

Pictures I took of Marcia when I studied photography at AC

And she was right, too. I did finish in 2008. And because I did not enjoy the process during the 4 years spent attending seminary, I have failed to appreciate that accomplishment.

Why has it taken me so long to realize this?

My friend's date of birth falls on Veteran's Day.
I will be thinking of her that day, as on so many other days since her departure. I wish she could have seen me graduate. I wish she were still here to celebrate another birthday. I wish she could have imagined a better future.

Rather than give up, I plan to blog again. Marcia would have been glad.