Happy New Year!

I had a very busy New Year’s weekend. I have never tried any of the energy drinks or 5 hour energy. That is still the case, but I was really tempted.

On January 2, I headed down to San Antonia for the Alamo Bowl. The Red Raiders were playing the Michigan State Spartans at 8 pm. I ran some errands with Carol in the morning and loaded up the Aveo with two Tech College boys and headed to San Antonio at about 11:30.

I Hotwire-ed a hotel, aLoft, in north San Antonio. It is rather nevus chic. One of the boys had hunted in the morning and jumped into the car. It was rather amusing to see a full “camo outed” deer hunter walk into the ultra modern hotel lobby. We definitely were not in West Texas. We all changed and headed to the Riverwalk.

Downtown San Antonio was a sea of Red and Black. Red Raider nation was out in full force. Since Texas Tech had recently fired the beloved head coach, it was quite amusing to see all the T-Shirts, stickers, and signs proclaiming loyalty to Coach Mike Leach, the firing of the athletic director, and the venomous reaction to the player that started the whole situation.

There has been quite a bit written about the firing of Coach Leach, so I don not really need to delve into it, but I think the whole thing is like the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. It really did not start World War I, but it was the trigger event that made it happen. Coach Leach and Texas Tech were going to part ways for all sorts of reasons. This just became the one reason.

Tech won a hard fought game that went really late into the evening. Coach Ruffin McNeill deserves a lot of credit for holding a team together through a potential melt down. Due to the encouragement of the Tech boys, we stayed for the trophy ceremony. It was neat to hear Coach Ruff accept the trophy. I don’t really know which way it’s going to go for the new head coach, but Ruff is one heck of a professional.

By the time we got back to the hotel room it was 1:30 in the morning. Not much time to enjoy the room, because we got up and got on the road at 6:30. I had to get back for Aedan’s one year birthday party.

The Tech boys slept and consumed lots of coffee. When I was done, I drank another cup. Carol will attest that I tend to fall asleep on the couch a lot. I cannot remember the last time I was up that late that did not involve standing around a campfire. We successfully made it back to Dalworthington Gardens at 11am on Sunday. We were gone for less than twenty-four hours. I was able to help as much as I usually help getting ready for the party at the other grandparents house.

Aedan had a great party as one would expect, although the wrapping paper and the tissue were just as exciting as his new toys. I really enjoyed watch Tamara, David, and Carol enjoy the moment. We are all blessed to have such a wonderful little dude in our life. It was neat to watch a tuckered out Aedan fall asleep in David’s Dad’s lap. I envied the nap.

Life is full. I crashed at 9.