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Thread: Figured I'd drop by

  1. #1
    High Roller Phonetek's Avatar
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    Default Figured I'd drop by

    I was greeted this morning with a notification on my cell phone from BowlingBoards wishing me a happy birthday, thank you. =) It reminded me I haven't been here in a while and I don't want Boatman calling out the FBI to release the search dogs. Not much has really been going on with ME personally in the recent months. Some bowling stuff to report first of course. I'm still working at the bowling center, still manager and just finished up with the last week of my kids league I coach. The kids league is probably the biggest accomplishment. ALL the kids have improved 10 fold from where they were at the beginning of the season.

    I managed to make bowlers out of each and every one of them that actually look like they know fairly what they are doing. Among them is my son who is a consistent 180's now! He's come so far so fast! Even the 5 year old's that started with the "Fred Flintstone" seem to have a good grasp on the 4 & 5 step approaches now. Including the one up until a month and a half ago who didn't put fingers in the ball and threw it like a basketball pass. Even he is consistent at around 80 pins a game now.

    He was stubborn to say the least, no matter how hard I tried I couldn't get him to throw the ball like a bowler. I told him if he didn't put his fingers in the ball he'd have to wash ALL the house balls we had. He looked and said, "HA! There is only 5 racks of balls, that's not much!" As I winked at his mom I said "We have 10 more racks in the back and those would be included! Low and behold, no more basketball passes! Would I really make him wash the house balls? Hmmm....I dunno, Coach Bobby can be pretty tough at times. =)

    It was a rewarding experience to say the least and I'm proud of what I accomplished with the kids. They all promised they'd be back next year....we'll see. I already got the go ahead from corporate for the fall to start and head up 2 separate kids leagues. Keeping the one on Wed afternoon for the sole purpose of learning and being coached and to start one on Saturday morning for competitive purposes. For the kids who are on both they will be discounted of course.

    I didn't like the fact that the kids on this league didn't get trophies but on the same token how could I give out trophies when it was all about learning? I didn't want to give them some crappy participation award that they couldn't take pride in. In addition to the parents vs. kids party I had hoodies made for them, printed up saying that they were on our youth league. They all loved them and I figured it's free advertising, maybe I'll get some new faces out of it next year? I'm glad it went over well.

    The only other bowling stuff to really report is that I'm in some early training to become General Manager. The current one is planning on retiring soon and I'm the only candidate. It's a feather in my cap but I'm hoping the paperwork entailed with that position doesn't keep me in the office all the time vs. being down by the counter where I enjoy being the most. I have nothing new to report about the Florida project. Everything is stalled with permits, licensing legal crap like it's been for a while now.....a total stand still. At this point I'm not even thinking about it hardly anymore. Until I hear anything new I'm making no plans and will continue doing what I'm doing business as usual.

    As far as my bowling? Meh, on rare occasion these days. I did bowl with the kids on their league because they wanted me to. So I bowled one game with each pair of teams bowling a total of 6 games. It was more of a fun thing, they were all curious how good Miyogi was. I did well, had a few crashing loud booming strikes and picked up most of my spares including a couple splits. They were all of course wondering how I did that. I told them because I listened to my coach. LOL Since then, I bowled one game a couple weeks ago when we had a dead night, shot a 213 and put my stuff away. Aside from that....again....Meh.

    On the home front, kids are doing well. As a super proud dad I gotta mention my daughter, I rarely get to brag about anything so this is my chance so indulge me. She is still jamming away on her flute every day. She won first place in the Illinois state competition where she was also awarded by the school board for being the only kid in the district to have a PERFECT spot on performance. She literally did not miss a single note. Not just 6th grade but the whole district!

    What's even more cool is she went to Michigan with wife and son to see his girlfriend who's dad is still in the Zeppelin tribute band. In two days of being there she learned to play "Stairway to Heaven" on her flute and extremely freaking well. Her dad was completely floored and gave her a book of Zeppelin sheet music and practices the songs all the time. This July, we are going back out there and she is going to play in a gig with them on stage. How cool is that? Could you imagine going to see a tribute band and having a 12yr old girl whip out a flute on stage and jam out Zeppelin tunes with them? She's gonna blow that audience away for sure.

    One more thing she did I just have to mention before I go that about made me fall off my chair at home.... One day she reluctantly stayed home sick from school which she hates. That day she decided to sit down at our piano which she never really touches and out of nowhere banged out "The Star Spangled Banner" It wasn't without mistakes, she made a couple and the tempo was a tad bit slow but for the first time ever really actually playing the piano? I heard this from the other room and quietly came in there while she was playing and it literally made me tear up listening to it. I asked her to play it a couple more times, each time improving over the last still making me tear up.

    Later that day after her mom got home I dragged mom into the living room and said "Watch this!" She said "What am I watching?" My daughter sat down and took on "Imagine" by John Lennon and damn near nailed it having never played it before. My wife just watched her also with tears pouring down her face and said "Is this really happening? How? When did she learn how to do that? Who sits down at a piano for the first time and does this?" I said "Yes... I don't know... today... and our daughter" I can't explain it and every day I just get more and more speechless as she takes on more and more songs each one more elaborate than the last. She's even improvising to add her won flare to some songs. She's never had one lesson! I cannot explain this but what a tremendous gift to be given. I hope she continues this for the rest of her life. Soon as school is out for the summer she's getting signed up for private lessons.

    That's all folks. As usual it's my trademark novel length post. Hopefully you enjoyed reading it as much as I did sharing it. Well, everyone except the usual one who's bound to complain and probably cringed seeing my name again. Too bad so sad. To everyone else, I'll try to come around more often, between work and everything else going on it's difficult to really want to sit down at a laptop these days. There isn't enough hours in the day. Now that I'm officially 48... a fact that BowlingBoards reminded me of... I'm not as young as I used to be. You all take care and happy bowling!
    Bowling Center Manager
    Arsenal consists of mainly 15# Motiv balls, I have several now and they are the bomb! Too many to list and carry. Still have a couple Hammer balls and my AMF RPM Swirl (old reliable) & 25+yr old Linds worth a mention
    Currently 535+ Rev Rate @ 19 MPH (This probably needs to be updated, I think I've toned each down a click or two these days. I'm letting the ball do more of the work as I get older.)

  2. #2
    High Roller
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    Jan 2018
    Location
    Pittsburgh
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    Default

    Hey a new guy!. oops...it's Phonetek...lol. Welcome back and come back more often....lol
    Arsenal "15# Global Eternity Pi-45x4.5x40" "15# 900 Global Xponent-60x4.5x40" "15# 900 Global Zen Soul-60x4.5x40" "15# Roto Grip Idol Helios-90 x 2.25 x 45" "15# 900 Global Altered Reality-50x3.625x30" "15# Brunswick Uppercut-80x3.625x35" "15# Brunswick Igniter-70x5.5x35" "15# Raw Hammer Pearl 45x5.75x40" "15# Brunswick T-Zone"
    Rev Rate about 270 @ about 15.5 MPH at the pins* High Game: 290 - High Series: 733. PAP: 5 1/8"x1" up; tilt 20*, rotation 75*. YTD highs - 290-733
    Oh, and LEFTY!!!

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