Holiday Wrestling Tourney

Have you ever played a game where you can upgrade a base? The barn feels a little bit like that to me. It keeps evolving.

We're in the process of getting new stall doors. I mentioned moving them on Christmas Eve.

The horses have abused the old ones. We had to upgrade from latches to bolts, a few have broke, Sam likes to reach over his and pull/chew on things when he's bored, and Carrie had enough of it.

Nick is our local construction handy-man we trust to help out. In a perfect world, Carrie and I'd have all the time, tools, and energy to do it ourselves, but I don't mind paying for a weekend's worth of work. 

I graded most of the morning, but I had a wrestling tournament in Lynchburg in the afternoon. I was almost recruited to drive a van, but we only had four wrestlers going (I was sad about the numbers, but happy about avoiding the chauffeur gig).

I asked Carrie if she wanted me to take Shane. The answer was a resounding, "YES!" She had some things going on in the afternoon like the farrier visiting.

I got one picture of Meredith at work before I said farewell and threw a complaining Shane into the car ("Why do I have to go?").

It was a little over an hour drive. We gassed up in Lynchburg and I parked at what I thought was the school. It turned out to be a megachurch instead. It was a decent walk to the other side.

Shane parked with the wrestlers in the bleachers to start. I gave him my phone so I could attend the coach's meeting (and he drained the battery).

We didn't have much success on the mat. Our four wrestlers won 2 and lost 8. Our lone veteran was 2 and 2 for the day, so he at least qualified for day 2.

Shane was back to tackling everyone. Some wrestlers don't mind and give it right back. One of them was annoyed, but not assertive/mean enough to do much about it. "Just squish him a bit," I said. "Drop a knee on him."

They didn't and I peeled Shane off and put him in a time out. We had a talk about knowing when to quit and I brought up how Shane felt when Julia wouldn't stop tackling him in church.

I wanted to watch everyone wrestle at least once, so Shane roamed and climbed some in between. I didn't see where he went for a little bit, because he'd ducked under the bleachers. I didn't like not seeing him, but he eventually climbed up the outside of the bleachers and said, "Look at me!"

Fairly normal kid stuff. I would have done the same as a kid. I worry about it more as an adult, because I'm supposed to be the responsible coach. And it's doable. I only have one kid to keep track of. If I had more I wouldn't try as hard to monitor everything, because it'd be impossible (and I'd have spares...).

We got home after 9 PM, but there was a nice surprise waiting for me: Carrie had done the evening feeding! She was asleep on the couch, but Loki barked and woke her up (briefly). She left the poop for the morning, but I got to tuck Shane in and rest for the night....by grading!