Random thoughts as seasons change

Written by Bob Woelk Tuesday, 10 November 2009 13:48

Some random thoughts brought on by the change of seasons: fall to winter; football and volleyball to basketball and wrestling; “Deadliest Catch” to “Ice Road Truckers.”

I’ve noticed that if the weatherman is going to be right about the weekly forecast, it will be for rain on the day I really need it to be dry. If a nice day is predicted when I need one, the forecast is usually wrong.

The two commercial airline pilots who overshot their destination airport by 150 miles or so ended up losing their licenses. Honestly, I’m thinking they should have kept their jobs. Wouldn’t these two guys be the most careful pilots in the sky after this incident?

Opponents of insurance overhaul bills may have some good points. But predicting...

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Coaching tennis has been a good gig

Written by Bob Woelk Tuesday, 13 October 2009 13:48

Tennis is a game that is easy to love, if you’ll pardon the pun. Sure, some other sports—cross country and golf, for example—are also more individual than team competitions.

Cross country is aerobic and calls for endurance, but requires little in the way of hand-eye coordination, however. Golfers certainly need specialized skills, but the conditioning benefits are minimal.

Tennis is a nice combination of quickness, coordination and concentration. Really good players are a joy to watch. Decent players can put on a great show. Even unskilled racquet handlers can pull off some amazing shots at times.

Best of all, tennis is a lifetime game that can be played at virtually any age from toddler on up.

I have been head girls’...

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Fear mongers are taking aim again

Written by Bob Woelk Tuesday, 08 September 2009 13:57

I’m pretty sure I already wrote a column about the culture of fear in which we live. It had to be a while back because I couldn’t find it on my computer.

Normally, I wouldn’t broach a subject that I could be writing about for a second time, but recent events have compelled me to once again examine the idea that there are people, events and things out there that are conspiring to frighten us as never before.

I begin with the most obvious one. America’s senior citizens have been and continue to be the targets of several calculated terror attacks from within our own borders. They are being lied to on a regular basis about everything from Social Security to health care to the need to respond to unsolicited mail.

I don’t...

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Civil War stops a highlight of sight-seeing version of this trip east

Written by Bob Woelk Tuesday, 18 August 2009 14:13

For the third time in the past 12 months, wife Kathy and I headed east…way out east. Last year when we loaded up the van, we were taking our daughter to college in Harrisonburg, Va., about 1,200 miles due east.

We left home early on an August Thursday morning and returned the following Tuesday afternoon. That felt like a quick turnaround until this April, when we left late Thursday afternoon and returned late Sunday that same weekend as we retrieved Anna at the end of her first year at Eastern Mennonite University.

So, this time, starting in late July, we were determined to slow the pace a bit and see more of the country.

Our initial task was to tow Anna’s car to Harrisonburg. Ironically, she needed to stay at home in Kansas and...

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