The Swamp

Pruitt wrote: ↑Mon Jun 07, 2021 4:05 pm My son (24) finally landed a good full time career-type job.

Kid's been struggling and has been oh so close a few times.

SCO (Strategic Content Optimization - I think) for a North Carolina based company that works with car companies. Right up his alley, and he'll be making decent money (and when the Canadian dollar tanks again, it'll be good money).

You could see his shoulders straighten up and two days later, his confidence level is clearly on the upswing.

Lookout, ladies of Toronto (or men, don't want to make any assumptions)

The Sybian wrote: ↑Mon Jun 07, 2021 4:27 pm

Pruitt wrote: ↑Mon Jun 07, 2021 4:05 pm My son (24) finally landed a good full time career-type job.

Kid's been struggling and has been oh so close a few times.

SCO (Strategic Content Optimization - I think) for a North Carolina based company that works with car companies. Right up his alley, and he'll be making decent money (and when the Canadian dollar tanks again, it'll be good money).

You could see his shoulders straighten up and two days later, his confidence level is clearly on the upswing.

Lookout, ladies of Toronto (or men, don't want to make any assumptions)

His first priority is buying a watch.

(Where did I go wrong?)

Nice work, young Pru!

elflaco2 wrote: ↑Mon Jun 07, 2021 3:02 pm so quick update on the boy on track and on the pitch..
ran the state sectionals friday and saturday... on friday, his team won the 4x800 - got his first state gold medal and PRd his (3rd) leg -- 2.08. The team goes on to the next State meet next saturday.

on saturday, he ran the top heat of the 3200 - came in 8th out of 35-- top freshman in the meet at 10.22; but missed the cut off by 10secs. not his fastest 3200 (but it was HOT and humid saturday and i know he wasn't hydrated enough). He is running the Season Finale Twilight Mile tomorrow (only event is the 1600) .

Last weekend played in the Delco tournament in Lancaster (same tourney that got rained out for the Syb family) - Finally broke through and scored a goal (he was a fullback/outside midfielder and his new team has been playing him at winback and striker...).. generally had a good weekend. They went undefeated until the final where they finally ran out of gas and lost 0-2... Good experience, although we did sadly face a couple of teams where the parents were complete asshats (lilly white teams from PA and VA) towards our very Jersey team (a little bit of everything mixed in!)

That's great man. We had a rough weekend at sectionals. As far as we can tell, our site was the only one in the state where the meet director panicked and canceled on Friday evening due to the weather. They then forced the entire two-day meet into a one-day schedule on Saturday when it was sunny and in the 90s locally. I had to drop the poor kid off at 6:15AM for the bus. The 4x8 got scratched because one of the runners got hurt doing a field event and they didn't have an alt. She puked up a bunch of water just before the individual 800 and ran 6 or so seconds off her best. Times seemed off across the board, but that may have just been smart running by the top competitors, who knows. She did end up qualifying for next week with the 4x4, though it sounds like a couple of big guns may not run because the schedule for that event has a bunch of sprint events on the same day.


And congrats Pruitt and son.

Fantastic, Pru.

Cha ching. Always feels good to get a check

Thanks.

It's really such a major step in his life.

elflaco2 wrote: ↑Mon Jun 07, 2021 3:02 pm (lilly white teams from PA and VA)

We seem to have the most issues with parents of teams that are completely white, completely minorities or from NJ. It's a weird dynamic. Our teams are co-ed and somewhat diverse. Maybe a third are non-white males.

We were down at the Hershey tournament. Terrible weather. It was a cheaply done tournament. Not great fields, games were 50 min instead of 60 and only one official at u12.

You really benefit from a melting pot of players on youth teams. Its an advantage to have black white latinos on the same team. No latinos on the kids current team but 5-6 black kids. Had 3-4 mexicans Peruvians, Salvador? on his old team but no white kids. He's played plenty of Latino teams and a couple Haitian teams but they had one white kid between them. Looking forward to seeing how the school team shakes out. It's demographics almost exactly split in thirds and they made state semis for first time this year.

HaulCitgo wrote: ↑Tue Jun 08, 2021 1:23 pm You really benefit from a melting pot of players on youth teams. Its an advantage to have black white latinos on the same team. No latinos on the kids current team but 5-6 black kids. Had 3-4 mexicans Peruvians, Salvador? on his old team but no white kids. He's played plenty of Latino teams and a couple Haitian teams but they had one white kid between them. Looking forward to seeing how the school team shakes out. It's demographics almost exactly split in thirds and they made state semis for first time this year.

I'm a little embarrassed by the percentage of white kids on my daughter's teams over the years. I think this year is the first time she has a black teammate, though a black girl joined the town travel team after my daughter left. They have an Indian girl, too! Town team had a Colombian girl and an Ecuadorian/Puerto Rican girl. When my daughter moved up, the Ecuadorian/PR girl's older sister was on that team, can I count them twice? Had a Korean teammate one year, and a girl whose mother is Chilean. Other than that, all white, and that covers 4 teams.

testuser2 wrote: ↑Tue Jun 08, 2021 12:43 pm

elflaco2 wrote: ↑Mon Jun 07, 2021 3:02 pm (lilly white teams from PA and VA)

We seem to have the most issues with parents of teams that are completely white, completely minorities or from NJ. It's a weird dynamic. Our teams are co-ed and somewhat diverse. Maybe a third are non-white males.

We were down at the Hershey tournament. Terrible weather. It was a cheaply done tournament. Not great fields, games were 50 min instead of 60 and only one official at u12.

Can't disagree with anything you said about the Hershey MDW tournament (though we only had a truly terrible field once and it was at Hershey HS) but the team always stayed the weekend together and we had a great time all four years we did it. Sort of missed it the last two years...

The Sybian wrote: ↑Tue Jun 08, 2021 1:54 pm

HaulCitgo wrote: ↑Tue Jun 08, 2021 1:23 pm You really benefit from a melting pot of players on youth teams. Its an advantage to have black white latinos on the same team. No latinos on the kids current team but 5-6 black kids. Had 3-4 mexicans Peruvians, Salvador? on his old team but no white kids. He's played plenty of Latino teams and a couple Haitian teams but they had one white kid between them. Looking forward to seeing how the school team shakes out. It's demographics almost exactly split in thirds and they made state semis for first time this year.

I'm a little embarrassed by the percentage of white kids on my daughter's teams over the years. I think this year is the first time she has a black teammate, though a black girl joined the town travel team after my daughter left. They have an Indian girl, too! Town team had a Colombian girl and an Ecuadorian/Puerto Rican girl. When my daughter moved up, the Ecuadorian/PR girl's older sister was on that team, can I count them twice? Had a Korean teammate one year, and a girl whose mother is Chilean. Other than that, all white, and that covers 4 teams.

The part of Salt Lake City where we live is very white, so our kids' teams were always all white.

But my daughter's high school, from which she just graduated on Friday (Proud Parental Unit!), includes a lot of the west side of the city, so well over half the graduates were either Latino or Pacific Islander.

I'ma need to check out the WESSSIDE! of Salt Lake. No way they pull that no vices shit there, right? Kids need a nature vacation and SLC seems better than Tahoe for dad getting missing on family vacay.

Congrats steve!

rass wrote: ↑Tue Jun 08, 2021 5:52 pmCongrats steve!

Thanks.

That's two kids graduated with 0 arrests, 0 pregnancies, and only 1 in-patient mental health commission.

Now I just have to make sure the second one follows through with college. Her two best friends are not going to college, and they're all making good money at Smash Burger, money that seems like a lot when you're 18 (damn those companies paying above minimum wage).

You got it. Good job dad.

Steve of phpBB wrote: ↑Tue Jun 08, 2021 6:00 pm

rass wrote: ↑Tue Jun 08, 2021 5:52 pmCongrats steve!

Thanks.

That's two kids graduated with 0 arrests, 0 pregnancies, and only 1 in-patient mental health commission.

That's a pretty good tally right there.

Congrats!

GF's daughter and her boyfriend are in a video for Outside Magazine's mountain biking vertical (Beta MTB) called "72 Hours in Hood River".

That’s great. Beautiful scenery.

bfj wrote: ↑Fri Jun 25, 2021 9:38 pm That’s great. Beautiful scenery.

Video by Satchel Cronk! Holy shit what a name.

(And it was beautifully filmed. It really looks like they do that every weekend together. The power of advertising. )

Oldest working as a senior counselor at a local day camp again this year and his campers absolutely love him. This was relayed to me by more than one camp staffer as they see me in the morning when I drop off my youngest for camp. So that is nice to hear.

My youngest is in their LT or Counselor in Training program for the first time. He is too old to be a camper and this was the next step after aging out of the bunks they have. We were holding our breath, but from all reports he is doing an amazing job and the kids in the bunk he is working with love him. He has no ego, he has no issues playing the same games little kids (6-7 year olds) like to play and he has fun doing it. He has a 1 on 1 aide who gets paid for by Baltimore County schools who is only there to help him advocate if he needs help, but they don't do much from what they are telling us. He loves the independence of his new "job". He has expressed interest many times in working in a school with little kids as an aide and he really seems to have found something he enjoys.

This is a big relief since my wife and I have no faith in the school system being able to teach him so from now on we are concentrating on preparing him for life outside of school eventually and this path may be a good fit for him when he gets out at 21.

You raised good ones, bud.

That is huge, BFJ. Really happy to hear about his success and finding an interest he can pursue.

Happy for your good news, Big J.

That's great man

That's awesome, bfj. I know the fear of letting them out on their own and hoping that things go well.

That's really cool.

My 12 yo daughter has been trying to start a "business" for a couple years, but she was too young to baby sit and her dog walking business idea meant me becoming a dog walker. She took a stack of index cards, wrote her contact info and advertised her "soccer camp" and dropped it off in every mailbox at houses where she knows they have little kids. We were going for a walk, and a mother ran out of her garage asking if my daughter was the soccer girl. She signed her 3 year old boy up for lessons. No idea what my daughter is going to charge, but she is so excited. She also landed a gig as a mothers helper, going to community pool with a family, playing with their 3 yo while the mother handles their baby. Come to think of it, she is taking care of the neighbors dogs for 4 weeks while they go away, so I guess I am roped into the dog walking business for a month.

The Sybian wrote: ↑Tue Jul 13, 2021 2:20 pm My 12 yo daughter has been trying to start a "business" for a couple years, but she was too young to baby sit and her dog walking business idea meant me becoming a dog walker. She took a stack of index cards, wrote her contact info and advertised her "soccer camp" and dropped it off in every mailbox at houses where she knows they have little kids. We were going for a walk, and a mother ran out of her garage asking if my daughter was the soccer girl. She signed her 3 year old boy up for lessons. No idea what my daughter is going to charge, but she is so excited. She also landed a gig as a mothers helper, going to community pool with a family, playing with their 3 yo while the mother handles their baby. Come to think of it, she is taking care of the neighbors dogs for 4 weeks while they go away, so I guess I am roped into the dog walking business for a month.

She's learned the value of cheap labor. Atta girl. Good stuff though. My wife babysat from the time she was 13 through college. People are always looking for reliable help and word of mouth travels quickly.

The ~13 year old across the street is on the swim team so we hired her to give our 6 year old some lessons assuming she'll listen a lot better to "not us".

So, my son went on a solo camping trip on his way to stay with a group of friends in Seattle.

He managed to total his car on the way (no injury, air bags didn’t even trigger). He was going too fast on a 90 degree turn and went into a yard, but the car got f’d up when he crossed through a small ditch on the way.

This was pretty traumatic for him. He has significant depression and emotional stability problems anyway, plus wrecking your car and getting stranded in Klamath Falls isn’t easy to deal with anyway.

Luckily USAA came through for us, got him a rental quickly, and he went on to Seattle.

He even went to the Mariners game yesterday.

And this is what happened to the rental car when he returned to the stadium lot.

Glad he's ok physically, hope he's ok mentally and emotionally.

Steve of phpBB wrote: ↑Fri Aug 13, 2021 9:15 am So, my son went on a solo camping trip on his way to stay with a group of friends in Seattle.

He managed to total his car on the way (no injury, air bags didn’t even trigger). He was going too fast on a 90 degree turn and went into a yard, but the car got f’d up when he crossed through a small ditch on the way.

This was pretty traumatic for him. He has significant depression and emotional stability problems anyway, plus wrecking your car and getting stranded in Klamath Falls isn’t easy to deal with anyway.

Luckily USAA came through for us, got him a rental quickly, and he went on to Seattle.

He even went to the Mariners game yesterday.

And this is what happened to the rental car when he returned to the stadium lot.

That stinks.

On a lighter note whenever I see a bumper like that I think of the scene where Chevy Chase explains it is a feature of european cars.

Steve of phpBB wrote: ↑Fri Aug 13, 2021 9:15 am So, my son went on a solo camping trip on his way to stay with a group of friends in Seattle.

He managed to total his car on the way (no injury, air bags didn’t even trigger). He was going too fast on a 90 degree turn and went into a yard, but the car got f’d up when he crossed through a small ditch on the way.

This was pretty traumatic for him. He has significant depression and emotional stability problems anyway, plus wrecking your car and getting stranded in Klamath Falls isn’t easy to deal with anyway.

Luckily USAA came through for us, got him a rental quickly, and he went on to Seattle.

He even went to the Mariners game yesterday.

And this is what happened to the rental car when he returned to the stadium lot.

That sucks. Glad he's ok.

Found out this morning that my daughter got accepted to the Gonzaga Study Abroad Program for the spring semester, in Florence (Gonzaga has a satellite campus there).

Glad your son's ok, Steve. I'm guessing your insurance rates might increase.

sancarlos wrote: ↑Fri Aug 13, 2021 12:44 pm Glad your son's ok, Steve. I'm guessing your insurance rates might increase.

I've never paid a dime for children car insurance, on the advice of my actual insurance agent. Now, if the oldest had their own car that didn't stay at the same residence, I would have, but no car has been in either child's name, so they drive it, but it's my car, same as if Giff drove mine in a couple of weeks. Still covered.

It's saved me a bunch of money and it amazes people when I tell them that, but it came from the agent directly. YMMV.

A_B wrote: ↑Fri Aug 13, 2021 12:53 pm

sancarlos wrote: ↑Fri Aug 13, 2021 12:44 pm Glad your son's ok, Steve. I'm guessing your insurance rates might increase.

I've never paid a dime for children car insurance, on the advice of my actual insurance agent. Now, if the oldest had their own car that didn't stay at the same residence, I would have, but no car has been in either child's name, so they drive it, but it's my car, same as if Giff drove mine in a couple of weeks. Still covered.

It's saved me a bunch of money and it amazes people when I tell them that, but it came from the agent directly. YMMV.

But doesn't your company ask how many drivers live in your household or something like that? I figured that is how they got you. You own n cars, you have x drivers, and y of them are under 25, and z of them are males. I enter this world next year. Trying to educate myself.

wlu_lax6 wrote: ↑Fri Aug 13, 2021 12:57 pm

A_B wrote: ↑Fri Aug 13, 2021 12:53 pm

sancarlos wrote: ↑Fri Aug 13, 2021 12:44 pm Glad your son's ok, Steve. I'm guessing your insurance rates might increase.

I've never paid a dime for children car insurance, on the advice of my actual insurance agent. Now, if the oldest had their own car that didn't stay at the same residence, I would have, but no car has been in either child's name, so they drive it, but it's my car, same as if Giff drove mine in a couple of weeks. Still covered.

It's saved me a bunch of money and it amazes people when I tell them that, but it came from the agent directly. YMMV.

But doesn't your company ask how many drivers live in your household or something like that? I figured that is how they got you. You own n cars, you have x drivers, and y of them are under 25, and z of them are males. I enter this world next year. Trying to educate myself.

Yeah, I thought that's how it works too. It doesn't matter if your kid has their own car or not.

A_B wrote: ↑Fri Aug 13, 2021 12:53 pm

sancarlos wrote: ↑Fri Aug 13, 2021 12:44 pm Glad your son's ok, Steve. I'm guessing your insurance rates might increase.

I've never paid a dime for children car insurance, on the advice of my actual insurance agent. Now, if the oldest had their own car that didn't stay at the same residence, I would have, but no car has been in either child's name, so they drive it, but it's my car, same as if Giff drove mine in a couple of weeks. Still covered.

It's saved me a bunch of money and it amazes people when I tell them that, but it came from the agent directly. YMMV.

Is this your way of telling me I'm going to be DD?

Shirley wrote: ↑Fri Aug 13, 2021 12:58 pm

wlu_lax6 wrote: ↑Fri Aug 13, 2021 12:57 pm

A_B wrote: ↑Fri Aug 13, 2021 12:53 pm

sancarlos wrote: ↑Fri Aug 13, 2021 12:44 pm Glad your son's ok, Steve. I'm guessing your insurance rates might increase.

I've never paid a dime for children car insurance, on the advice of my actual insurance agent. Now, if the oldest had their own car that didn't stay at the same residence, I would have, but no car has been in either child's name, so they drive it, but it's my car, same as if Giff drove mine in a couple of weeks. Still covered.

It's saved me a bunch of money and it amazes people when I tell them that, but it came from the agent directly. YMMV.

But doesn't your company ask how many drivers live in your household or something like that? I figured that is how they got you. You own n cars, you have x drivers, and y of them are under 25, and z of them are males. I enter this world next year. Trying to educate myself.

Yeah, I thought that's how it works too. It doesn't matter if your kid has their own car or not.

This is exactly what I thought, too, when I called to add her. But I was told twice, first by the receptionist and later by the agent (we had to add a new vehicle due to getting rear-ended) explicitly. The agent did say about the extra car that "a lot of people have a sports car or something they don't drive everyday so 2 owners having three cars isn't uncommon." That's why said an extra driver didn't matter. So my kids don't even appear on the coverage at all, just the cars. Did say in both instances that if there was an accident you may get asked to add them to the account within 30 days.

Maybe it's just downhome Kentucky goodness. Allstate if it matters and we've been with them a LOOOOONG time.