Volleyball Team

I get an email saying Georgia Cyber Academy is getting up a volleyball team.  They will practice twice a week in Marietta, about forty miles northwest of us.  There will be twelve spots on the team and tryouts are September 3rd at 9:30 a.m.  The cost is $150.

I had read somewhere how there must be equal dollar amounts for girls college athletic scholarships as for boys.  And since there are far fewer girls on high school teams a girl is a shoe in for an athletic scholarship.  With this in mind I show Andrea the email and asked her if she wanted to try out.  She said she did and told all her friends she was going to try out for the volleyball team. 

The neighborhood teens took this as an oppertunity to torture her.  They set out to whip Andrea into shape.  Like all good coaches they made her run laps around our part of the neighborhood. 

I did my part by getting us a ride to practices and games.  Yay me!  Our neighbor across the street said she would drive there and Andrea will drive back. 

So we head out.  We thought we were prepared.  GPS said 42 minutes to get there.  We allowed an hour.  With rush hour Atlanta traffic we were late.  We should have allowed an hour and a half. 

There were some really good players and others who'd move out of the way when the ball came near them.  Some played all over the court, trying to keep the ball from hitting the floor.  I saw one girl let the ball bounce right by her.  Like most, Andrea was in the middle when it came to skill and aggression.  I didn't know how it would go until they called her name. 

She is so excited.  "I'm on a sports team!" she enthused. 

Breaking News

We here that phrase a lot in Atlanta.  WSB Radio has breaking news all the time.  Before I moved to the Atlanta Area breaking news meant, first and foremost, important news; and to a slightly less extent, happening now. 

I've lived here three years and still expect to hear something terrible when WSB says breaking news.  It brings up memories of President Reagan getting shot, Columbine, September eleventh, the earthquake in Haiti, the tornado in Moore, Oklahoma.   Something that will keep you glued to the TV or radio all day.

Not so with WSB.  This morning the breaking news was a few fire fighters slipped in some water while putting out an escalator fire at the airport.  I am not making this up.  The fire fighters had already fallen and been taken to the hospital with minor injuries.  Where is the new here?  WSB concentrated on the fire fighters falling in some water.  Fire fighters are around water all the time.  If these particular ones fell in water presumable others have done the same.  We never heard how the escalator fire got started.  The photographer in me would have loved to see pictures of a burning escalator. 

The most common breaking news around here is traffic.  A traffic jam may have materialized out of nowhere but this is not news; this is a traffic report.  I wish they'd learn the difference. 

Another type of non breaking news misnamed as breaking is looking for suspects.  As in we're looking for the person or persons who smashed the window of the Smith Jones Jewelry store and made off with an undetermined amount of diamond and gold jewelry.  We think the incident occurred around three a.m. this morning. 

WSB, save the breaking news terminology for news that is important, effects our safety, effects us historically, or is information we need to know NOW.  Traffic jams happen every day.  It doesn't matter if burlgars are cough before breakfast of after lunch.  Report more responsibly, please. 

Mormon Wedding Jackets

If you're LDS you know exactly what I'm talking about.  These have got to be the ugliest thing on Earth.  Do I blame the brides who wear them or the wedding dress industry?  I'll spread the blame around and call them both to account.  When I got married in the mid 1980's dress manufacturers still made bridal gowns with sleeves and even high necklines.  A Mormon bride could find a dress she liked without too much trouble.  Skip ahead to now; what 99% of wedding dresses are strapless.  LDS brides have turned to the dreaded ugly jacket. This looks almost like the long rectangles they sell with prom dresses to keep them modest.  Both ruin the look of the dress.  In researching this post I found a blog, http://ldsbrideblog.com/adding-sleeves-jackets-vs-build-ups/ that talks about how to make a strapless gown modest.  I also got the pictures from there. One suggestion was to make the jacket out of lace.  I'm glad that was mentioned because just last week my daughter, Holiday, and I were saying lace would be an improvement. We also came up with the idea of some sort of lace blouse to go under the dress.  If the bride can't have a dress made a lace jacket is a much better alternative to the solid fabric jacket. I like the jacket with the cascades, don't get me wrong, but not on top of a wedding dress; come on people.  Make it fuzzy and throw it on to keep yourself warm in early fall. 

Another suggestion was to make what the blog calls "build ups".  Basically this means taking a strapless dress and remaking the bodice while incorporating parts of the original dress and adding sleeves.  My question is why didn't you get someone to make the whole dress the way your wanted it in the first place?   It's got to be cheaper to do it my way. 

LDS brides should make a stink about the lack of modest wedding gowns.  Maybe more manufacturers will go back to making a selection of dresses with sleeves and modest necklines.  I'm tired of seeing these ugly jackets over beautiful wedding gowns.  I'm not the only one.  I looked through my Facebook friends' photos and I found only one with a jacket over dress number.  Surprisingly hers was plain and looked nice.  Most of my friends must have made their dresses or had them made. 

My Last Camera, or Maybe Not

I look through the viewfinder and what do I see,

Something that's there, or may not be.

I click the shutter and the picture comes up,

Do I say nope or smile cause it's yep?

This hit and miss exercise had gone on long enough.  thank goodness I'm not shooting film.  At least I can delete the sub-par images and be none the less for wear.  The Viewfinder on my Canon Digital Rebel XTi is fine for outdoor shooting.  I found myself having to shoot wide and crop indoors, leading to more computer time.  My video camera has no viewfinder.  It just has a live view screen.  I have trouble shooting outside because I can't see the screen very well in bright sunlight. 

Technology is still helping me keep up my hobby/business.  I decided I needed a DSLR with video and live view.  I didn't have much research to do.  The new camera had to be a Canon.  I have a lot of money invested in Canon lenses.  It couldn't be a full frame because again I already have all these lenses.  So my choices were narrowed to the Canon Rebel T3, T3i, and T5i.  The T3 was out because it's not much of an upgrade from my XTi.  The other two are similar but I choose the T5i comes with a lense that focuses quietly.  No strange noise when shooting video. 

Now I have spare cameras and not at a disadvantage where ever I am.  Andrea is going to be my apprentice so all cameras will be put to use.  I'll use my new camera as a crutch when I need it and my old tried and trues when I don't. 

Driving Rules for Youngsters

"They're stupid in Georgia,"  Beazle is fond of saying.  She has had many chances to say it lately when I tell her about Georgia's driving rules for teens.  Thou many state are tightening their rules for teens driving, Georgia is the one we have to deal with. 

When Merritt and Holiday got their licenses in Arkansas they could take the road test whenever they thought they were ready.  If they passed they got their regular, unrestricted license.  Not so for Andrea in Georgia.  She has to keep her permit for a year and a day no matter how competent she becomes during that time.  Because she is under eighteen there is a lot of Joshua's Law rigamarole she has to go through:  thirty hours of classroom instruction, six hours of behind the wheel instruction from a driving school, fourth hours of driving with at least six hours being at night.  OR the teen can take the class online, print out this umpteen page driving lesson book, go through them and have a parent witness that they were done, plus the forty hours of driving with at least six hours at night.  Needless to say we're doing the latter.

We're enjoying a measure of freedom with Andrea driving.  We have some neighbors who ride with us while she drives.  She still have to work around other people's schedule but it's better than being strictly on MARTA. 

When the weed eater broke it was nice to be able to take it into Sears instead of finding someone to come to the house to fix it.  Andrea put the address of the service center in her phone's GPS and off she went.  Our neighbor thought we were taking it to the Sears in the nearby mall but we went all the way to Chamblee to the service center.  She got on the freeway, drove, exited, made a wrong turn, turned around, found Sears service center, parked away from other cars, and was proud of herself. 

Going back the way she came wasn't in her wheel house.  Our neighbor told her she was heading back toward Chamblee.  Andrea pulled off the freeway and parked at a gas station.  she put our address into her GPS and off we went.  I told her to program HOME in the GPS so she won't have to put it in every time. 

I decided to persue Andrea getting her license early because I'm visually impaired.  I figured Services for the Blind may be able to point me in the right direction.  My counselor and I did a three way call with the DMV.  Here is where more of Georgia's stupid rules come in.  At fourteen Andrea could have gotten her permit early.  Then she could have driven around with just me in the car because I'm visually impaired.  I asked the lady from the DMV is Andrea can drive with just me in the car now that she is sixteen and has her permit.  The lady said no, because the law is for fourteen-year-olds to get their permits early if a parent is visually impaired.  Since Andrea was sixteen when she got her permit she has to have a licensed driver ride in the front seat with her.  I couldn't wrap my brain around this at all.  I called her back the next day so she could explain it to me again.  I just knew she didn't understand the question or I didn't understand the answer.  We went over it all over again and the way I explained it here is how she explained it both times I spoke with her.  She didn't even sound like this was strange while explaining it.  It's obvious nobody proof read this when they wrote or passed it.  If you have a visually impaired parent why is there a cut off when you can drive the car without a licensed driver?  Either a licensed driver is needed or not; but why not if you start at fourteen put so if you wait until sixteen?  Shake my head.