Lacrosse is Over, Bring on Tough Mudder!

I was quite sad a couple of weeks back when I was told that the final game on the Bayou City Lacrosse Club's schedule was cancelled due to the other team's forfeiting for lack of players.  I had really been looking forward to that last game, and then it was yanked away and my season was suddenly over.  Sure, we still had the playoffs coming up, but I will be at the Tough Mudder that weekend, so my season was done.  (Sad music plays here)

Fortunately, San Antonio pulled out of a GCLA tournament, and we were asked to play in their place!  Woo hooooo!!!  Not just one, but THREE games!!!  That had me dancing for joy!  The games were big fun!  We lost vs Metro (imagine that), won vs TAMU Corps of Cadets, and then lost to the Bay Area Barnacles.  We didn't get to play the Swamp Donkeys.  That disappointed me.  I just wanted to play them because of their awesome team name.  I battled with a left ankle issue all weekend, so I ran with a rather nasty limp, but fortunately, my right foot held up just fine.  I'm thankful that the rest of me was decently healthy, and I had an absolute blast out there.  I hit a few folks, scored a couple of goals, won a few faceoffs, and even had fun in the final game brawl.  No one got hurt, just a couple of tempers flaring due to roughness and then the ensuing scuffle to pull them apart.  It is a full-contact sport, after all.

All in all, the season ended for me on a high note.  Of course, I'm already looking forward to next year, planning to train hard and come back as a wrecking, scoring, dodging machine!  I've said it before, and I'll say it until the day I die...I love this game!

Thumbs up at the GCLA Lacrosse Tournament, April 25, '15

As I mentioned, I'll be leading a team through the Tough Mudder this weekend.  It's a small, but enthusiastic group, and I'm looking forward to it with great anticipation!  There are new obstacles on the course, and my old favorites should be there as well.  I plan to take as many pictures as possible, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the weather holds...it's gorgeous out there right now!

In other news, I'm at around 60K words on Gart's Road.  My original goal was to have it finished by May, which shifted to having it done by the END of May, and since it feels like it should be around 90K words, I'll be somewhat hard-pressed to do that.  All I can do is just write at every available opportunity and see how it goes.  Fortunately, I'm doing better each time I sit down and things are coming along much easier these days.  I'm dying to see how it turns out!

Recently, I was a guest on a radio show blog, and that was tons of fun!  If you're of a mind to do so, you can listen to the interview here:

I read an excerpt from Chapter 2, and was flattered by all the positive responses I got afterwards.  Everyone seems to think that I have a decent reading voice, and that I should do an audio version of Mage's Burden.  After doing some research and asking around, some wonderful friends have said that I can use their facilities or equipment, so this thing might just work.  Of course, I want to finish Gart's Road first, but once that is complete, I'll dig into this project.  I think it would be fun!!

Speaking of projects, I've finally started digging into some boxes of old family photos that my Mom had given me a few years back.  It's a huge trip down Memory Lane, that's for sure!  I'm seeing pics I haven't seen in years, and many that I've never seen!  I love seeing my parents when they were younger and first married.  There are even quite a few of my Dad when he was young...quite the Rico Suave, that one.  My Dad was a stern old country boy, but he was also given to huge belly laughs.  Somewhere in there I found a pic of him in mid-guffaw, and it made me smile for the rest of the afternoon.  I also found many pics of myself with somewhat questionable fashion sense.  Geez, I really went out in public dressed like that?  With that hair?  Sigh.  Ah, well, I was young.  I had no sense.  Here's my 11th grade mugshot.  I obviously had no idea that I could put something in my hair that would make it stay in one configuration, because surely, I wouldn't have wanted it to stay like THAT.  And a baby pic!

Baby Whit  1969/1970

Whit McClendon, 11th Grade, 1986-87

One other thing of note...my Uncle Robert passed away last week.  He was my favorite uncle, and was well-loved by everyone who knew him.  He was always ready to help you fix whatever was broken, tell a funny story, and was just an all-around great guy.  The family held the viewing a couple of days ago, and I was told that there was a table upon which they had placed some of his favorite thing, service medals, awards, other items that he held in some high esteem.  My Mom noticed that someone had left my book on there, and when asked, found that it was placed there on purpose.  My uncle had loved my book, and so it was deemed worthy of being added to that collection.  I can't begin to tell you, dear readers, how much that moved me.  In fact, I have tears in my eyes as I type this.  Robert Pollock was a wonderful and amazing man, a man that I feel incredibly fortunate to have known so well during my life, and I was both deeply honored and humbled by the fact that he enjoyed what I wrote.  Godspeed, Uncle Robert.

Robert Pollock, Sr. 2015