Where I’ve been update

To sum it up in one word…BASEBALL, BASEBALL, BASEBALL…Ok I know that is three

words but you get the point. Ha-ha. Anyway for you non-petal-a-lights out there 11 year old baseball is in full swing

(no pun intended) at this point Petal is undefeated, wining the Sub-District, District and last night won the South State District against Pascagoula.

This means we are heading to Greenville Mississippi Friday to play for the State championship. We will be there Friday, Saturday and Sunday if everything goes well, so I’ve been told.

All the above said this left me very little time to blog…

biGalscompound.blogspot.com

but I plan to redeem myself, I plan on taking my motorcycle on this trip and report back on everything Greenville

http://www.greenville.ms.us/

has to offer on my blog. Oh yea there will be baseball updates too for you guys and girls who are following along. (I have been posting most of the baseball photos on FaceBook, due to time, remember just request to be my friend on facebook if you want to see….I’ll let you in…I have nothing to hide. Ha-ha)

Win or lose the boys have done a GREAT job…and lets not forget the coaches…THEY HAVE GIVEN UP SO MUCH OF THE TIME…THREE CHEERS!!!

For them all!!!

Until Friday
Big Al

Motorcycle rides; when is too far to far???

Morning everyone, I’ve got a question for you. I guess this goes out to the more experience motorcycle riders out there but anyone is welcome to chime in. How far is just too far to ride? Here’s my problem, I’ve been thinking of riding my bike to the big Sturgis Rally this year.

THE PROBLEM? …It’s in Sturgis, South Dakota and I live in Petal, Mississippi. That’s a little over 1500 miles one way…oh yea and I would only have a week off from work to do it. I just did a little work on Google maps and it looks like 3,442 miles round trip. Yeah I know, I added a side trip back through Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas.
It just looked like the proper time to get some of those pesky northern states added to the States I have been mapping, out of the way (see map below).

LETS BREAK IT DOWN…I would have 9 days off (Saturday-Sunday) lets say 3 of the 9 days for the Rally…so that leaves me 6 days to get there and back…3,442 divided by 6 = 573 miles a day of riding time…hmm is that to much??

I know, I know it can be done…but is it too much too really enjoy yourself? Truth is, it's more about the ride for me, the rally itself. Well lets just say I’d love to say I’ve been there, but I know myself well and feel sure I’d only spend one or two days at it at the most. For me it’s the journey…not the destination

as many bike riders have said before me. I guess I should mention that around 400 miles in one day is the longest I have ridden in one day….I do remember it to be an easy ride, with energy to spare. So what do you think…easy ride? Or, is it something I should think long and hard about?
Big Al

Living on the wrong side of the track

As I said before I live in the small town of Petal that backs up to the much larger town of Hattiesburg where I work. I love living in a small town, manly due to the lack of traffic…but there is one problem to my paradise, the train track that runs right along the border of the two towns. I have to cross the tracks twice on my way to work, once about a mile form my house, and then downtown Hattiesburg about a half mile from work. I live in a rural area, so sometime the train will park on the track and stop for hours at a time at the location by my house. This leaves you with two options; one sit there and hope the trains moves soon are drive about ten mile away from work and then circle back to the office, just to find out that the train has moved.

It use to make me say very bad words, but now I just live with it…no need to get mad about something you can’t change. Now my wife on the other hand, I thinks she get out of the car and kicks the train a few times. Ha-ha. I have to admit this can be a bad thing if you have to go pee p, are god forbid…well you know, that other bodily function. Ha-ha, clean up aisle three!!! Gross.

Ok so I make it pass the first train and I’m right on time for work and to my horror there it is just sitting there blocking the road again, so close but yet so far, I can see the tower on the building where I work but know way to get around the d#m train. (Oops that slipped out) only good news is this is down town Hattiesburg at rush hour so the train will move but (there’s always a but) it may take as long as twenty minutes at the worst. So it decision time again, do I just sit and wait (the option I usually choose) are do I drive around like a mad man to the many crossing in Hattiesburg (like most people do) ninety percent of the time everyone does this and ends up going to the wrong crossing and ends up waiting longer due to the train doing its little dance…you know the one, where it goes forward then stops and goes backward for awhile, I have to admit I love watching people in my rear view mirror falling apart in their car as the train almost gets across the tracks and then stops and backs up. People really let this bother them; I think it funny most of the time.

Then there is one more thing I find very funny, most of the people in my office live in Hattiesburg, and have to fight god awful traffic every day to and from work, I’m sure it takes each of them thirty to forty minutes of commute each way everyday. But if I show up late maybe once a month due to a train, all I hear is “that why I would never live in Petal” crazy how peoples mind works…ha-ha

Oh yea in case you are wondering why this post now…well I was stopped by a train this morning, and was late for work. Ha-ha.

PETAL HOME COMING WEEK!!!!!!! OCTOBER 12-18, 2008

Yep its that time of the year again…home coming week…this can only mean one thing…toilet paper, toilet paper, toilet paper and more toilet paper, lots more!!! Ok we live in a small town and the big thing to do around here is to roll houses on home coming week, here is the funny part to me, the kids tend to roll their friends, cheerleaders, and school maids. Here is the problem…my daughter has many, many friends is a cheerleader and elected junior maid at school this year.

That’s pretty much like having a death sentence on your yard…odds are about 100 percent that my yard is going to get rolled. The way I see it is I have three options: (1) stay up 7 days straight, hide in the bushes and bash the little deviant thugs , with baseball bats with spikes (2) land mines (I actually considered this) and last (3) just let them do it a clean it up in the morning. Yea I went with # 3, even though # 2 sounded good to me. Ha-ha.

Tuesday October 14, the attack began, that night I was feeling bad (my tooth) so I went to bed early, the invaders hit around 11 pm, my wife was in my sons (Myles) bedroom and heard the intruders but for some reason let them carry out their mission. (It’s either now are later) after the deed was done the attacker’s hit on the windows and ran away into the night, so my wife and son went to the front door to check out the damage and found the front door tied to the porch so they could not open it, after a few pulls it came open.

I forgot to mention that a lot of the cheerleader had spent the night at our house that night, and were still out helping the elderly, saving the world….not rolling houses, I’m sure….some things a daddy just don’t need to know. Ha-ha.

FUNNY HOW THEY ARE ALL DRESSED IN DARK COLORS...HMMMM?

The girls came home late, to toilet paper hanging in the trees, on the house, the cars, and yellow construction tape all around the yard.

If only the attacker would have left some kind of clue…..hmmmm then maybe we could have figured out who it was. It’s not like they would have had to write it on the ground in shaving cream, me having the giant brain that I do, would have picked up on even the most microscopic clue. Well there is always next year; I may even try out the land mines.