Pressing Puzzles

As I'm writing this entry, my Kansas City Royals (baseball team) have won the 2015 World Series for the first time in 30 years! I realize as you read this it may not matter to you because when I look to see who have been reading my posts, many of you are not only from other parts of the U.S., but a lot of you are from all over the world! I can't tell you how humbling that makes me feel. The reason why I wanted to bring this topic to your attention isn't the fact that I was actually at game 7 of the World Series in 1985, or that afterwards we were the jokes of late night shows because we were awful after that, but what the win has done in general for the whole city.   Since I'm seeing this through Asperger eyes, I've noticed a lot of 'small' things that might not mean much, but I believe have a larger impact as I write this. The parade for the team will being on Tuesday November 3, 2015 and schools are actually cancelling classes for the parade. Back in ...

As you may know, I am a bit of a history buff and two things happened in sports very recently that hasn't been seen for a few decades and others a full century. I'm not too crazy on horse racing, but I couldn't help to be captivated by the three major horse races that happen every year since they started back in 1875: The Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes. If a horse can win all three races then they accomplish a rare feat of winning the Triple Crown. Since I do have Asperger's, number and odd facts are things I can really get into because of the logic that is involved. The last winner was a horse named 'Affirmed' back in 1978. There have only been 12 horses that have ever won all three races and that twelfth horse was American Pharoah. I realize that I misspelled "Pharoah" because when the name for the horse was turned in, the name was misspelled and it stuck. In 1978, I was only about nine-years-old when the last horse ...

Being a teacher as long as I have and seeing thousands of students over the years, I have a terrible habit of trying to remember names. There have been times when I run into a former student and I want to so badly try to remember their name, but dejectedly I usually end up having to be refreshed on their name...and many times which school they attended! I really feel disappointed when the student is looking at you in hopes that I would remember everything about them. I guess I can remember when I was younger and I'd see my former teachers and some of them would remember my name (though I'm not sure if that's a good thing or bad thing). Although, I have had other teachers not remember my name, but they remember me by my face. So to all my students that I've had or will have, I apologize if I can't remember your name, but understand I will probably recognize you by your appearance. I have noticed that as my wife has gotten older, many people don't realize it...

Again, another topic to which I'm wondering why I didn't get to earlier considering how much I enjoy it. Right now my biggest obsession is Fantasy Sports (Football, Baseball, Hockey, and Basketball). I love playing it, but NOT for money; two reasons: 1. I don't feel like possibly losing money. 2. Because my wife would kill me. Even though I'm in my forties now, I still yearn for the day to play around with a soccer ball or a tennis ball, golf ball...you get the idea. Growing up, the big sports person in my family wasn't my dad...it was mom. She would watch sports many times and we even got to go to major sporting events like Royals games (Baseball) or Kings Games (When the KC Kings basketball team was still in town.) [sad face]. One of the biggest thrills for me was being able to go to game 7 of the World Series in 1985. (Yes, the Royals won the Series that year...and yes again; we USED to be a great team.) The two main sports I played were soccer and baseball. M...