I've been blog tagged: 5 things

Weiqi Gao blog tagged me. That means he demanded that I post in my blog five things that most people don't know about me.

Five things you might not know about me.

1) Divorce

There has been a fairly long gap in this blog. That's because last October my wife Tina announced that she was moving out and she wanted a divorce. It's not final yet -- we're trying to negotiate a settlement before we get the lawyers involved. In the light of this, a lot of things -- like blogs -- seem less important.

Thanks Weiqi for breaking me out of the slump.

2) Diving

From the time I was 9, until I graduated from High School, I was a competitive springboard diver. Highlights of my diving career include, Ohio AAU Age Group state champion 12 & under, top twelve (meaning I made the finals, but didn't win) in the Southeast Regional AAU Age Group Championship when I was 15, and a three (out of a possible three) athletic letters at Wichita High School West.

I never won the Kansas high school state championship, though, because Tom Pettit who went to Wichita High School North could always beat me. His front 1 1/2 somersault with 2 twists had a degree of difficulty of 2.6 while my best dive, a front 1 somersault with 2 twists was only worth 2.3.

For several years I coached the diving team for my local subdivision pool. It was a wonderful experience for me and I got to watch some great kids grow into twenty somethings (so far.)

You learn a lot in diving beyond the physical skills. Probably the most important lesson for me was controlled risk taking (or courage if you want to think of it that way.) A lot of time when I was diving I was deeply scared -- I have a very good imagination and I could think of all sorts of ways to get hurt if things went wrong! I still remember watching a friend break most of his toes hitting the board. In fact I hit the board painfully several times myself. Nonetheless when you dive you learn to have confidence in your skills and perform in public in spite of the risks.

This doesn't mean all my risk taking was reasonable or controlled My extracurricular diving activities included cliff diving and bridge diving -- probably the less said about these the better. I didn't kill myself.


3) White Water Canoing

Speaking of risk taking. In my late twenties (before the kids were born) my wife and I got involved in whitewater canoing. Have you ever seen the movie Deliverance? It was filmed on the Chattahoochee river in Georgia. I've been down that river in an open canoe. No banjo's, though when I was there.

4) Music

And speaking of banjos...

A lot of my friends know I and trying to learn to play the guitar -- I'm not very good, yet. Not many people know that I have been playing harmonica and flute (all sorts) for many years. That's because I mostly play for my own enjoyment.

Sometimes I play harmonica in public -- blues, traditional folk, or improvization, but I haven't played recorder (wooden flute) in public since Jeff Dearinger made me join his recorder quartet back in Lawrence, KS. I played tenor in the quartet, but I also own an alto, and a soprano (like the ones they make unsuspecting elementary kids play.)

Most mornings I greet the day by playing something on my Native American Flute. I have never played it in public except one time last summer when I went down to Elephant Rocks State Park in southeast Missouri. I hid in the rocks and played for a while. I hope some passers by were mystified and entertained.

And recently I acquired a tin whistle -- possibly the most annoying instrument known to mankind when it's in the wrong hands. I like to think that my playing, though not great, yet, is not painful.


5) Road Trip

And finally, back in 1969 I was planning to go to a concert in with a bunch of friends. We didn't have tickets, but we'd heard that you could get in without them. Even if you couldn't get in there would be a great gathering outside the concert. Unfortunately I broke my glasses right before we left. Since I'm pretty useless without glasses (although I managed to dive blind for many years!) I stayed in Lawrence long enough to get a new pair. That's why I didn't make it to Woodstock.