just realized i forgot to tell yall

Just realized I forgot to tell y'all about Fridays football game.

Last Friday morning, the kids in Florence were in rare form. They told

me during class that the controls on the schools computer system were

down, and we could get YouTube. So, of course, I clicked on it and it

came up. Then they started shouting out funny things for me to look

up, and eventually turned me on to this little number. Enjoy.

[EMBED]

Love the hell out of that. They also showed me the Village Sniper

video that I posted last week. Part of me wanted to show them the

Monkey Sex video, but didn't go there. Last thing I need right now is

to get fired for that kind of crap. Hell, they've probably seen it

anyway.

Anyway, Friday night, after eating our traditional Chinese dinner at

Dynasty, Dad and I drove down I-35 to the town of Jerrel and watched

the Academy Bees play the Jerrel... whatevers. I think Cougars. You

may remember Jerrel from the nasty tornado that ripped them a new one,

killing 30 people on May 27th, 1997.

I saw the whole thing happen. I was reluctantly going back to grad

school then, needing 18 hours of credit in Government so I could begin

teaching it. Only being qualified to teach History left my income in a

sad state. Getting 18 hours of Government would double the course load

and get me on the move. It took me a long time to get my mind around

it, not wanting to go back to school, but eventually I bit the bullet

and went down to San Marcos, south of Austin, and enrolled in the

program at South West Texas State University.

I'd driven down that particular day to close the deal on an apartment

and was driving back north towards Temple when I noticed that the

traffic was being detoured off I-35 to the access road. Like a few

others, I tried to drive north on the access road until the highway

patrol came zipping over the grass to stop us. I drove back south to a

Texaco that sits on a rise next to an overpass south of Jerrel. I got

out of my Jeep and stood there, along with a lot of other folks, and

looked North. All you could see was a huge slowly spinning cloud. It

looked like it was about a half mile across and heading our direction.

I'd never experienced anything like it. Stunning and fascinating to

see.

We all watched that thing heading our way for a good 10 minutes,

almost like it was driving down the interstate. Pretty soon the

clockwise spinning started to visibly slow, and the cloud began to

break up into lots of smaller ones. As it did, many of us onlookers

decided that everything was over, got back in our cars and headed

north along the access road.

Next thing I know a highway patrolman is driving across the grass to

stop me. He says that the tornado is reforming and that I should take

cover. I drove up, parked the jeep, and took shelter under the next

underpass. I stood there with about 15 other people watching the

tornado slowly break apart, and I was totally absorbed in how cool

this experience was , until I saw insulation from someones house

falling out of the sky. Seeing that woke me up to the tragedy I'd

witnessed, and come very close to being part of.

There was a huge relief effort after that, and it came in handy that I

was moving and could get rid of a lot of clothes and stuff by donating

it all to the relief effort. They've rebuilt the place since then, and

Dad and I were glad to see Friday that the folks down in Jerrel have

recovered from that tragedy and built themselves, among other things,

a nice new high school and football stadium.

Got a good shot of Dad while he watched the game. The wind was blowin'

a bit and chilly, but we'd dressed dad in lined jeans and I brought a

coat for him to put on. Still, he only lasted till half time. That's

usually when he make our exit.

Florence did OK at first, but the score went back and forth. This

Black kid on the left is a great punt returner/receiver who can run

and make points, when they manage to get him the ball.

Unfortunately, their QB isn't the most accurate guy in the game. When

we left, the score was in Jerrel's favor by one touchdown. I found out

later that they'd eventually won the game in a dramatic way by the

margin of one point. Maybe one of these days I'll get to watch the end

of a game, but I don't want to think about what will need to happen to

make that possible.

Oh, and when I went to the air show last Sunday I got Dad a new hat.

I'll surprise him with it when we go out this Friday. The kids in

Florence play Jerrel Friday, and I think Academy plays Rogers. We'll

be there, and I'll tell ya how it went. Take care. Cheers.