A snowy egret working the marsh below the boardwalk.
And a great blue heron.
And a great blue heron. Tattoo
Remember that movie from the 80s? It’s a thriller. We see the crazy protagonist working all through the movie, but for the big reveal at the end, we find that he has tattooed every inch of his captive girl’s body. We’re all horrified.
Fast forward to now. We’re doing it on purpose. It’s not a thriller anymore. Go figure.
Fast forward to now. We’re doing it on purpose. It’s not a thriller anymore. Go figure. An open letter to every politician in the United States
Please stop saying you are sorry for the victims and families of mass shootings in our country. If you are in a position to do anything about the spread of gun violence in our country and you haven’t, you are not sorry, you are part of the problem. Your actions speak so loudly, I can’t hear your words.
Happy December 1st
For our December 1st, we got a visit from daughter Becky.
We picked her up at the Harlingen airport.
We don’t get to offer her warm weather. It’s cold, cloudy, and sixty. However, since she hasn’t seen the top side of freezing for several days, she’s fine with sixty.
We picked her up at the Harlingen airport. We don’t get to offer her warm weather. It’s cold, cloudy, and sixty. However, since she hasn’t seen the top side of freezing for several days, she’s fine with sixty. Time for an Alex update.
Alex has graduated to Level 8 gymnastics this year. It’s a big difference from Level 7. In Level 7, there are required moves and routines that everyone has to do. In Level 8, you get to assemble your own moves and routines. You incorporate the highest scoring moves, you think you can execute well, in your routine. Level 7 is also broken down by age group to keep it fair for the younger kids; they are changing so fast when they’re younger. 10 year old Level 7s compete separately from 11 year old Level 7s. At Level 8; no more age groups. The pool of participants gets smaller at each level, so at the higher levels they run multiple levels at the same time; levels 8, 9, and 10 all together. So little twelve year old Alex is out there competing at the same time, and on the same equipment, as high school kids. That’s particularly evident at the start of the vault video. The coach hoisting Alex up to the rings is a new coach for him this year, Alex Svitlychnyy, an Olympian and USSR National Champion, who works exclusively with the Level 8s. The coach facing the camera and spotting Alex on the high bar routine is Roman Gryshayev, the Men’s Team South – Head Coach. (There are two gyms associated with 5280 Gymnastics, the north and south gyms.) Roman holds seven national pommel horse titles from Ukraine. Here are some videos from Alex’s first Level 8 meet. We weren’t there; Matt took them: High Bar Parallel Bars Vault Rings Floor He didn’t podium, but he scored pretty well overall. He had some 10s and 12s.