Dublin (Ohio) Roadie, Day 1

820 miles in thirty six hours, and we're home again...

Quite a bit took place during the trip to Ohio for the Last Chance for Boston, and most of it was good, very good. The first day was begun with 6+ hours driving through New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio looking at scenery that pretty much looked like the image above, snapped on one of the first off ramps upon reaching Ohio. It was great having the time together in the car to listen to the radio, talk about schools (the one he attends as a student, and the one I teach at),
and just catch up.

Jack and I have, what I think is, a close relationship, but I must confess to occasionally feeling guilty about not spending more "quality time" together. My son is a great kid and I was pleased he wanted to some with me on the trip.

Upon arriving at our hotel, we were please to see that we had been given a most excellent suit with a king sized bed, couch, and television with... TA-DAA... cable television. We don't have cable television at my home, although Jack has a basic cable-type thing at his mom's house. While he and I did bond over some bizarre sports programming on ESPN-Z, I remain proud of Anne's and my ability to resist getting satellite, cable or whatever.

The show Jack and I spent about two hours watching and laughing with intermittently during the afternoon and evening was the 2006 World's Strongest Man Competition, which was taped in, of all places, Sanya, China(!). It was while watching this wacky show that Jack and I coined a phrase that would become our inside joke for the weekend. The televised competition consists of twenty five international "strong men" from around the world, the lowest scoring of which was competitor Gu Yan Li, from the host country, China.

Despite being the hometown favorite, Gu Yan Li, was clearly outclassed and failed to win, or place in the top three, in any event. Remembering how on The Simpsons, Homer's repetitive mistakes, led to a mistake being termed "a homer," Jack and I began to think of how one might use a variation on the competitor's name (Gu Yan Li), Gung-Lee, as a noun, too:

gung-lee (n.) a challenge one attemtps and fails to complete

Had I known what the next day was to bring for me in my own athletic endeavors, I might not have found it so funny... (To Be Continued)

Adio, wli nanawalmezi.