#astro turf near me

[firekitten830]

Combat tell us about getting grabbed by the octopus please I would like to know more /gen

I got to visit a marine research center. And they had a giant pacific octopus there (she was not particularly giant so I think she was probably pretty young but I forgot to ask). And she was hanging out near the top of the open topped tank (the rim and sides of which were lined with astro-turf because her suckers can’t grab it). So under staff supervision we were allowed to reach in and touch her gently, because we weren’t allowed to reach into the other tanks so there was no risk of cross contamination or anything.

And when it was my turn she immediately grabbed onto my arm and started trying to climb me and it was very cool and I’m still stoked about it.

[turfgrassorlando1]

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[chandlerartificialgrass]

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[suffolkartificialgrassservices]

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[happy-rascal]

i mean it is kinda that easy. like at my school if you wanted too you could walk out of like any classroom and ditch school but you'd be locked out and there's also lots of windows so you'd probably be seen

see i'm allowed to do that at college now but it's a little different when it comes to sixth form which is our alternative to college. despite leaving high school at 16 and actually having to stay in education until 18, college is still seen as a choice so we can leave and not attend class - it's not a good look on our attendance record - but it's seen as "if you don't come to class and you don't pass it's your fault because you could have been here" plus a letter home to your folks if it gets real bad and persists but before that you just keep getting called by your teachers to ask where you are. being seen isn't so much of a worry.

however, being in sixth form is very different, at least in my old high school. so you can choose where you go for sixth form but it's basically two extra years added onto to high school. it's considered further education but it's high school with more of a choice in classes. this means you still get locked in via magnetic locks just like all the high school students despite being the same age as you would be if you went to college.

so the reason i'm so confused is because of this: in our high schools, you get locked in because you absolutely have to be there and you get in trouble with the police who escort you back to your school if they find you out when you should be in school but in america it seems that as long as you're sneaky, people aren't going to give a shit or notice.

don't get me wrong, people did and probably still do attempt to kick the magnetic doors open and leave but it sets off all kinds of alarms and teachers patrol corridors like sharks. you've got cameras that'll get you caught too. not to mention, like you said, there were plenty of windows to be seen through. also, our school was pretty much surrounded by a long walkway leading up to school and then a fuckin huge astro turf and concrete tennis courts so you'd probably been seen before you got anywhere near an open road no matter how fast you could run.

tldr; americans make it look too damn easy to leave high school

[djjiahn]

Tagged by @sufferhyuns

Thanks for tagging me. Haven't done one like this before :D

Rules: bold the statements that are true

1. Appearance

I am over 5′5 / I wear glasses/contacts / I have blond hair / I wear sweatshirts a lot / I prefer loose clothing to tight clothing / I have one or more piercings / I have at least one tattoo / I have blue eyes / I have dyed or highlighted my hair / I have gotten plastic surgery / I have or had braces / I sunburn easily / I have freckles / I paint my nails / I typically wear makeup / I don’t often smile / I am pleased with how I look / I prefer Nike to Adidas / I wear baseball hats backwards

2. Hobbies & Talents

I play a sport / I can play an instrument / I am artistic / I know more than one language / I have won a trophy in some sort of competition / I can cook or bake without a recipe / I know how to swim/ I enjoy writing / l can do origami / I prefer movies to TV shows / I can execute a perfect somersault / I enjoy singing / I could survive in the wild on my own / I have read a new book series this year / I enjoy spending time with friends / I travel during school or work breaks / I can do a handstand

3. Experiences

I have had my first kiss / I have gotten drunk / I have told a crush I like them / I have traveled outside of the country / I have flown on an airplane / I have stayed awake for more than 48 hours / I have had a near-death experience / I have caught something on fire / I have performed in a talent show / I have shot a gun / I have been on TV / I have gone scuba diving / I have broken a bone / I have slow-danced / I have gone on a shopping spree

4. Relationships

I am in a relationship / I have been single for over a year / I have a crush / I have a best friend / I have known a friend for over ten years / I have a brother/ I have dated my best friend / I am adopted / My crush has confessed to me / I have had a long-distance relationship / I am an only child / I give advice to my friends / I have made an online friend/ I met up with someone I have met online

5. Aesthetics

I have heard the ocean in a conch shell / I have watched the sun rise / I enjoy rainy days / I have slept under the stars / I meditate outside / The sound of chirping calms me / I enjoy the smell of the beach / I know what snow tastes like / I listen to music to fall asleep / I enjoy thunderstorms / I enjoy cloud watching / I have attended a bonfire / I pay close attention to colors / I find mystery in the ocean / I enjoy hiking on nature paths / Autumn is my favorite season

6. Misc.

I can fall asleep in a moving vehicle / I am the mom friend / I live by a certain quote / I like the smell of Sharpies / I am involved in extracurricular activities / I enjoy Mexican food / I can drive stick-shift / I have memorized an entire song in a day / I believe in true love / I dream up scenarios to fall asleep / I sing in the shower / I wish I lived in a video game / I have a canopy above my bed / I am multi-racial / I am a redhead / I own at least three dogs / I amLGBTQ

I tag: @astros-turf , @theviewfromthebirdsnest

[tkturftampabay]

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[levellawns01]

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It's also a good idea to ask for various home areas where turfing companies near me are installed so you can evaluate the quality and finished product.

[davidpwilson2564]

Bloglet

Thursday, May 20, 2021

Damn. Damn. Damn.  I have arranged my morning to have the plumber come by and he’s a no-show.  Apparently he is looking for a leak in the building.  My worst fear is that the leak might be in the ancient piping behind a wall.  That would be catastrophic.  I did some tidying up in preparation for his visit.  I am hoping that the leak was found, elsewhere in the building, and is being attended to. 

Note: No surprise...Republicans, under orders from Trump, will vote down any effort to have a January 6 commission.  Even Pence’s brother, Greg (pol, Republican, of course, from Indiana)... (and we remember the crowd was chanting “Hang Mike Pence”)...voted against it.  They’re scared of the Donald, who is the meantime is facing numerous lawsuits in New York and Georgia. 

Note: Ms Greene is now saying that there were no Trump supporters among the insurrectionists.  It’s always something with her.  She’s having a great time, always trying to get under AOC’s skin, always talking about “false flags.” 

I talk to Kenichi.  I will see him on Saturday.  Queens Symphony is doing something at Forest Park.  They are doing a couple of small pieces.  “Peter and the Wolf”...it is a piece that will get played a lot as live orchestral music comes back, as it requires very small forces.  Kenichi tells me Jean and the kids are upstate, not coming back until their doctor and dentist appointments next month. 

Friday, May 21, 2021

Check out the newly astro-turfed Lincoln Center.  Near the library area there is a makeshift stage.  Can’t get over how the place looks like a miniature golf course. 

Note: Trump says he will resume his rallies.  Oh, goody.  (He will soon be 75.)

In Arizona, the recounting of votes now put on hold because they have to use the building for proms and graduation ceremonies, Gaetz and Greene do their pro-Trump show, there is Arizona but I don’t think in the same venue. 

to be continued

[lit--bitch]

On ‘The Moth Apocalypse’, by Joseph Turrent (2020)

(Disclosure: I don’t personally know Joseph Turrent. I do know Haverthorn/HVTN Press, which is run by Andrew Wells and Iris Colomb (I’m familiar with Andrew). They both seem to have an interest in interdisciplinary practice, and they do some really interesting things with form and language, kind of messing with the dimensions of how we receive language on the page, how we receive language as performance. I think those values are synonymous in the work HVTN publishes. It’s not about work that can be classified, rather the unclassified. It’s been a really beautiful thing to watch Haverthorn grow. I was published in the first issue of Haverthorn Magazine, that must’ve been about 5 years ago, maybe longer (I was a completely different writer back then, I was 17). Back then it was just a tiny collective of poems and fictional pieces. Now they’re a press, they’ve got multiple different platforms including Haverthorn Magazine, they also run Interruptions and Correspondences. Their identity is much more streamlined. Thematically I would say that the publications are varied, but I think they’re all united by a common interest in intertextuality, or multidisciplinary influences. I think it’s rare to find publishers which are so openly into the “uncategorised” in the UK. I think the UK is still publishing a lot of writing which yanks itself into a genre, like the industry is still bound by a lot of traditional canonical stuff... I think it is changing a bit, but it is refreshing and comforting to know that Haverthorn have been thinking and publishing this sort of stuff for a while.) 

This debut collection from Joseph Turrent is like a fever dream. The relentless doom of oncoming death in a cyclonic-tidal-wave-storm where God is a 58-year-old man and Elon Musk is singing baby shark. How do we continue to forge and define our self-identity when the end of everything is so near? When our inevitable mortality is met by storms we can’t weather? How do we drive that message home without flying off the handle? 

What I’m most flummoxed by is this text’s use of layering, and the multiplicity of that “layering”, textually, structurally... (something I’ll unpack in a while). It plays on ambiguity in words, it cracks open these weird, beautiful dualisms mirrored between reality and irreality, sort of echoing Charlotte Geater’s poems for my fbi agent except the relationship here is not a coexistence between I and the agent. Rather this is a relationship with the world, felt all over the whole world. It’s our binding relationship with the very public disintegration of our existence in a world which never fails to learn from its mistakes, from a species whose errors seem to forever *glitch*. It’s a huge headache, but it’s also crystal clear in its admonition to us, and yet it articulates the world’s end in a beautiful, complicated, mesmerising way (certain lines make me think of Crispin Best). And in its prescience, Joseph really underlines how much of this is already happening before it has happened, in analogies both profound and absurd. 

So again, I thought because of some of the interesting pop-culture references and crossovers with poems for my fbi agent I decided to talk to my mother about the complexities that this collection poses, and jostle with its meaning. I think we both felt really weird reading this swirl of a text (it’s literally swirling down the page), I likened it to feeling ‘car sick’ at times, so I’m gonna start with the way the poetry is structured because I think it’s the first layer to this collection, which you need to pick at before you can bridge all this amazing, convoluted imagery. 

For the sake of keeping the poetry’s structure intact, I’m going to screenshot sections from the review copy HVTN generously sent me. This way I’m not spending ten years typing it out carefully (which I usually do cos I’m normally quoting from ze printed matter), and I want people to see how Joseph works with form and shape. It’s not obvious from the first poem in the collection, ‘Moths’, what the structure is because it’s a short opening piece, but begins to imply some sort of outline, or perhaps a disintegration, where line breaks leave words hanging. I begun thinking about what moths are in this scene, their presence, when do they come awake? Part of the collection’s thematics takes it focus from “darkness”, literal and figurative, the darkness of day, the “grimdarkness” (as Joseph puts it in ‘one rain drop falls out the sky’) of a summer in February and these gruesome, seasonal abnormalities which are set to interrogate us and make us feel uncomfortable. (Let’s face it, it’s uncomfortable when there’s daffodils in January). Beginning with ‘Ending Scene’:

All the way through, Joseph’s poems zigzag and swirl down the page like this ^. I enjoy Joseph’s, I’m assuming intentional irony here, in beginning the collection at the end. He’s intimating the symmetry of our present-day predicament: living in the beginning of our world’s end. That first line propels us to our future: ‘it’s 2030, the wind is so strong it’s a geometrical pattern’. Now take a look at this extract again, look at it as a whole image. Joseph is playing out that image of a geometrical pattern through line breaks and alignment. It’s so deliberate, so exact. It feels engineered. And it’s this powerful wind, winding its way down and down the pages, which embodies a resemblance to a natural form, like the way you think of clouds travelling across a digitised map of the world on a weather channel. Half of this collection situates itself amongst ramifications of climate change, the erratic change in weather, the sky’s putrid colour, threatening and sick. We’re seeing a storm unwind in words. But when you take a look at the other references Joseph wields in his writing, you can begin to see that this visual structure intimates more subtle connotations. 

Remember how I said that the collection is exploring the errors of our species which forever seem to glitch on themselves? We keep repeating the same history which evidences our end? I think this is implied by the way the text swirls, and eats on itself. Joseph says at one point, ‘this glitch is hilarious’ (one rain drop falls out of the sky), opening us up to this denial, like “the apocalypse is happening, this is surreal” laughter, but it’s also kind of like, we’re losing our minds, we’re laughing because we’re bridging the insanity of everything dissolving before us, endlessly replaying itself, over and over. I’m kind of reminded by that scene in ‘The Midnight Gospel’ from Episode 6, ‘Vulture With Honour’, when Clancy and Captain Bryce (the guy that comes to fix Clancy’s simulator), tells him his list of rules when navigating these dangerous different coloured wobbles to get to Sparkle (a cow-like creature who makes green oil which is used to preserve and keep the lantern part of a simulator healthy I guess, hard to explain if you’ve not watched the series). Anyway so they come across this little weird man creature with a hoopla head holding onto a rocket or bomb-like thing, stuck inside purple wobble, which Captain Bryce explains: that’s the kind of wobble that locks you in time. And this little man stuck inside the purple wobble is glitching like:

And then Captain Bryce says: “it’s too late for this guy, his mind is pickled” because he’s been stuck in the same second forever. And I got to thinking about how, the more acutely aware we become as a species of how we’re repeating the same mistakes, facing the same consequences, extinguishing the same forest fires, over and over, the more riddled the mind becomes, and anguished I guess. So the poetry here isn’t just like a cyclonic pattern depicting a natural form; the strange, violent weather tearing up the planet’s astro turf and rainforests. It’s also a visual representation of history’s rhythm. This glitch, this error that remains eternally stuck, jolting on itself. It really gives weight to the series of images in this writing, which repeatedly hit you in the face, but it also compounds the repetition in the writing. In ‘this is the sadness’, (and pretty much all of the poems), Joseph keeps coming back to lines like ‘I can’t stop thinking about’ and ‘I’m writing a’ pegged by a series of repetitive motifs, butterflies, 58 year old men as God, airplanes, butterflies, horror show, airplanes, horrow movie’... That repetition is attached to this glitch-affected way of writing. It’s clever and unusual, and when I started reading the structure as a message in its own right, I was amazed by how things suddenly started to make sense in terms of the writing. I could see all this incredible dualism which Joseph plays with and writes about. 

So I went back and refreshed the first poem in this collection, ‘Moths’. 

I’m thinking of terms like ‘cloudz’, and what clouds are, how they move, what they mean in this day and age. The obvious dualism here is the physical clouds we see and study in the sky, their changeability as they move across throughout the day, carrying rain or snow, whatever. And then there’s this more enigmatic weird concept of ‘The Cloud’ in computing, which is a homonym in and of itself. You have Sky’s WiFi ‘The Cloud’, where anyone can make an account and sign into their WiFi and they have hotspots called ‘The Cloud’ all over the UK. You’ve got ‘cloud computing’ which is this method of data storage, normally created by a single provider. They manage the data and how it’s processed/stored/encrypted and users can upload or save information there. Anyone with an Apple product automatically gets an ‘iCloud’ account where their data is automatically backed by Apple’s cloud software. This means you never have to sync up your devices with wires or buy extra USB sticks/external hard drives to back up your data. You can just set a timer on your phone, link it to your iCloud account and it’ll automatically back up whenever you want. People think of this accumulation of data in one place, (without having to personally manage it) as being an “amorphous cloud”. I’m seeing this as a poem which introduces this element of denial about our surroundings. We’re pretending its normal and trying to squish out the reminder of these seasonal abnormalities. Even if it’s stripped across the sky, ‘black with insane swirls you could drown in’ (alluding to the writing on the page itself), our denial tells us to talk us away from the indefinite scream that it’s not okay. ‘Our cloudz are dying because of u’—the way Joseph intersperses Internet vernacular/text-speech/shorthand here introduces the Internet’s presence, and our tensions between our physical reality and our artificial one. We transcribe events into our phones. We see something, we talk about it in on an online platform. The way we transfer reality from a physical realm to a virtual realm is an exchange which happens so regularly and with such rigour that it’s an indented feature to 21st century society. Every time Boris Johnson makes an announcement in real-time, journalists flock to Twitter to unpack it in an online arena which stays up for the rest of time. The fact that language is swamped by Internet culture and adopts terms once pertaining to more physical objects or tangible sensations sensations, renders language more faceted and multiplicitous than ever before. Such ambiguousness in what we mean and how we mean it, contributes to this acute confusion and fear, which compounds contemporary culture. 

Other homonyms: 

I’m thinking of dark as in ‘dark mode’ and ‘dark’ as in ‘disturbing’. ‘I regret not running through Wheat’ I think is a reference to that Theresa May interview where she said the naughtiest thing she ever did was run through fields of wheat with her friends, (as opposed to increased austerity and fucking up Brexit + various other shit). 

‘accidentally deleting the human race’ makes a mockery of the way the world is ending, which is by no means, “an accident”. I also wonder about the dualism in ‘A tornado touched my heart & I’m crying’, is it that we’re seeing the destruction a tornado unleashes as a perturbance? Sometimes Joseph writes like the way emojis sound, does anyone get that? Sort of like a staccato, plain-text way of articulating emotion. Did an emoji tornado touch his emoji heart? 

Such an incredible line: ‘I love / thunderstorms because it sounds like God is choking on grapefruit’. I’m not even going to unpack that. I’m going to leave that one to simmer. But that’s not an example of an homonym here, in this section I was looking more at the part about ‘a million weird dead bugs’. There’s the bugs that come to eat us as we decompose. And then there’s “computer bugs”. Just a few examples where Joseph’s playing on words here. 

I think of these homonyms as alluding to our inability to discern between reality and virtuality. We’re unable to understand our reality as it is now, I mean if you discard the Internet and technology, we already struggle with deciphering between our own perception to another’s perception. What one perceives as being red, another might call pink, or orange, or green. The additional threat that Internet culture imposes is that, our language eventually becomes swamped by the technological vernacular of computers, of online-existence. And yet it’s inevitable, and it’s already happening. It’s interesting—Elon Musk said in 2016 about whether he thought humans were living inside a computer simulation— ‘The strongest argument for us probably being in a simulation I think is the following: 40 years ago we have Pong [the Ping Pong video game]—two rectangles and a dot. That’s where we were. Now 40 years later we have photorealistic, 3D simulations with millions of playing simulatenously and it’s getting better every year. And soon we’ll have virtual reality, we’ll have augmented reality. If you assume any rate of improvement at all, then the games will become indistinguishable from reality, just indistinguishable.’What Joseph’s showing here is the multiplicity and changeability of language, how technology burrows into its sinews, transforming terms we use to describe our tangible, physical realities into ones which you can hold in your hand and scroll down with your thumb. Language is the currency of culture which is being endowed to technology. But that’s not abnormal of language per se, I mean it’s symptomatic of how language and meaning evolve simultaneously, language’s multiplicity. Rather what Joseph is saying that it’s bridging a confusing gap, how can you tell between the tears streaming down your face and the ones streaming from your television? His poetry seems to breed flesh and wire together, forge them as inextricably bound entities of today. We can’t distinguish ourselves from our flesh to our wired online flesh. 

But although set it in the future, you can tell that this collection is entirely rooted in the now, even when it oscillates between different years in the near and distant future, from 2030, to 3042, to 2076. It reads like a series of tweets, but it appears like scan-lines coursing down the page, so Joseph’s really capturing a generational voice here, that “online” voice which is stripped and clipped, where it feels squeezed into 100-odd characters. The poetry is peppered with well-known, familiar references pertaining to our present-day. And I think year dates are an artifice in this collection. The world’s end is so resolutely close to us that we can taste it in images like Elon Musk singing baby shark, Lana del Rey as the saddest superhero, David Hasselhoff eating the white wine emoji... It’s laughable. It’s funny. It’s hard. I think part of the way I read into this mesh of pop-cultural references was down to its implied superficialism. Y’know, we sort of think of our extinction as being a distant probability, but we can’t think about it without losing our minds. We barely accept the inevitable truth of our own mortality, we just can’t come to terms with the reality that someday we will sip our last cup of coffee, hug a friend for the last time. And we won’t necessarily know it’s the last time, until it’s the last time. This fear is particularly prevalent in Western culture, so we’ve barricaded ourselves with our egos, and constructed this site which vows to distract us from that not-so-terrifying revelation, that we’re all going to die. Death is natural. But we think it’s so unnatural and upsetting, that we’ve invented celebrity culture, make-up tutorials, 100K followers, emoji reactions, opinion polls, status updates, likes, Facebook algorithms, botox and red shoes as part of a sequence to distract us from the eventuality of death, thinking that these things will sustain us. It’s all artificial, it’s all blue-light, it’s all moths ever gravitate towards. Joseph humours it, (I wonder if he’s jaded at times) with a sigh: 

‘There’s all sort of thunder & / lighting and it is Fantastic and important tv.’ Me and my mother both laughed when we read this, it’s more mockery of the kind of vapidity in contemporary culture. Just endlessly being like: ‘oh watch this, oh I’ll link you the video, this is so funny watch it, look at this, this is my fav clip’, it’s nauseating. And you get this nauseating feeling when you’re reading this collection as it continues, it begins to make less sense, it begins to glitch and unravel to the point where you don’t really understand what’s going on. It’s bombardment, and the struggle in making sense of what’s going on typifies the way the ‘I’ is struggling to hold onto sanity. And while the dystopia of The Moth Apocalypse makes for a terrifying read, it’s also met with such beauty, I don’t think I’ve ever read a more beautifying approach to apocalyptic writing. You can take deep pleasure in the way Joseph articulates natural disaster. From ‘one rain drop falls out of the sky’: ‘I went to see the cherry blossoms in the glowing forest / [...] / THE SKY IS PURPLE LET ME SLEEP / [...] it smells like strawberry / pop tarts outside’. This “glowing forest” alludes to a forest fire, the purple sky alludes to light pollution, making it hard to sleep. Strawberry pop tarts goes without saying really, probably one of the best examples of describing consumerist culture in a nutshell: pre-cooked, chugging in artificial colours and flavours. But when you read these sentences alone, you don’t get the impression that the world is dying awash in blood and fire, rather the violence is extinguished. It reads and feels more like a painting, this gradual description of shades and experiences. There’s something kind of Eva Figes-esque about his writing style, just the way he colours in scenes. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s glamorised, but rather, the apocalypse is beautified. 

I want to bring this review full circle and come back to the collection’s title: The Moth Apocalypse. By the end, I came to think of humanity, us as being the moths, here, roused by darkness and addicted to rectangular devices emanating blue-light. We frantically flap around its notification, its constant stream of information as the world around us is plunged into dark mode. The points where you’re thinking that the collection is relenting and giving up, are actually the most profound moments where it gets up. Joseph writes it best in ‘Everything Is Peachy’: ‘if you’re / looking for a sad and hopeful story / just sit / back and watch this rain.’ This collection begs us to be present, to consider and amend, and if nothing else, to laugh wildly as you don’t remedy it. It is an incredibly self-aware read, an invaluable perception of the “way things are heading”. The composition and structure of the poetry is masterful, art in its own right. The Moth Apocalypse is a promising and brave debut from Joseph Turrent.  

If this review’s piqued your interest, you can purchase The Moth Apocalypse from HVTN Press here but they have stopped postal orders for a while due to Covid-19, so you may have to hold on. In the mean time you can find more of Joseph here on Twitter. 

[rdgpcg]

“Have you ever raced Steelman“? The question was posed to me by Dan Gleason as we jogged along the Chester Valley Trail. Dan had joined our little Friday morning running group. “Sure! Many times.” I replied. “Are you doing it this year?”, Dan asked. “Well, hopefully. If the weather is good.” Dan then explained that long-time race director Dale Winterhoff had retired and handed the reins over to a new race director. “Oh? Who’s that?”, I asked. “Me!”, Dan replied. “Well, me and my friend Dave Michener”. Dan went on to explain how he and Dave were hoping to reinvigorate Steelman. We agreed that local races like Steelman are quickly fading away and he and Dave hoped to add new energy to the race. He explained the changes they were making and hoped I’d sign up. After our run, while sipping coffee I did just that showing Dan my entry confirmation on my phone. “Awesome!”

Dan Gleason

Dave Michener

Two months later I found myself tooling up Lois Lane (insert your own snarky superman crack here) in Gilbertsville toward the house of my friend Jen Bush. We have a bit of a carpooling tradition for Steelman. It was o’dark thirty and when I parked in front of her house to load her bike I expected to hear the normal cacophony put forth by her trio of barking dogs but there was silence. Jen was waiting with her bike in the driveway and said “I think I managed to get out without waking anyone.” It is always good to catch up with Jen. I don’t see her that often which is preposterous considering we live no more than a half-hour from each other. We chatted the whole way to Lake Nockamixon, the home of Steelman. We were directed to a parking spot and headed for packet pick-up.

Still the best selfie I ever took. Jen and I at a race earlier this season.

Changes made by Dan and Dave were noticeable immediately. Transition was in the same spot but the finish line was moved to a more central location. Additionally, the old swim course had been replaced with an out-and back rectangle and we would do a time trial start. I loved the old swim course so for me, the jury was out on this especially since we would be heading straight East into the rising sun. But let’s wait and see.

A beautiful start to the day. You can see the swim buoys in the distance.

Jen and I got through the pre-race rituals: packets, bike and helmet stickers, body marking, and transition setup. By happy coincidence I was racked very near Christine Eadeh. She is a long-time Facebook friend whom I’d never actually met in person but we had been involved in lengthy on-line discussions about triathlon over the years. It was great to meet in person and it was like seeing an old friend. She and I were both doing the olympic distance while Jen was doing the Sprint.

The hustle and bustle of transition setup.

This summer in Pennsylvania has been hot. While it hasn’t bothered me even a little (I was a chameleon in a former life) nobody expected the lake to be cool enough to allow for wetsuits. But the chilly morning air and hard rains had done their job and we were pleasantly surprised to learn the lake temperature was 77 degrees and was wetsuit legal! Forget the fact that I hadn’t swam in my wetsuit since early May and had not raced in it in a couple years, I was happy for the added speed and buoyancy offered by my wetsuit.

As part of the changes for the time trial swim start, we were now able to warm-up prior to the start using the boat ramp. I skidded down the slick ramp and splashed into the water, and felt the thin layer of water form between my skin and the neoprene wetsuit. I began stroking for deeper water . . and then remembered my wedding ring. Shit! I turned and did my best to crawl up the slick boat ramp. It reminded my of the squirrels in my backyard trying to climb the waxed shepherd’s hook my bird feeder hangs on. I’d make it a few inches up and then slide twice that back down.

Finally, I knelt down and crawled up the ramp wedging my fingers in the traction grooves of the ramp. Warning boaters! Don’t get those back tires too far in the water if you don’t have four wheel drive!

I scurried back to the transition area, ignored that admonishment from a volunteer that it was closed, and stashed my wedding ring in my bag. My wife puts up with a lot of racing shenanigans but I’m assuming if I lose my wedding ring somewhere in the bottom of a deep, dark lake the result at home would not be positive.

I still wanted to warm up so hurried back to the ramp, plunged into the now empty lake, swam 50 yards or so, turned and repeated the squirrel crawl up the ramp. My quick swim had made sure my goggles were well seated and that I had invoked the mammalian diving reflex. I headed off to find the proper self-seeding line prior to the start. What’s that you ask? What the hell is the mammalian diving reflex? If you are a creationist, move along to the next paragraph. Otherwise the mammalian diving reflex takes us back to a time when all things lived in the ocean and, believe it or not, give us some chance of not drowning every time we are dunked in the water.

I made my way to the end of the 25-30 minute self-seeding line. I heard a familiar voice and turned around to find Christine had picked the same line. She and I would pair up to start together in the 2×2 swim start.

After a moment of silence for a local athlete who had died at a recent event and the National Anthem, the lines of olympic swimmers were led toward the lake. The sun had climbed higher but we’d still be facing significant glare for the swim. The line of buoys for the olympic distance course stretched to the middle of the lake. The local sailing club volunteers their boats to help with navigation positioning them in proximity to the course to make it easy for swimmers to stay on track and make the turns. This would prove infinitely useful.As Christine and I neared the end of the dock there was no wind and conditions were nearly perfect for a great wetsuit swim. Christine had just done the Escape from Alcatraz where athletes leap ten feet off of a ferry into San Francisco Bay before making their way through big currents, waves, pinnipeds (and the things that eat pinnipeds) back to the city of San Francisco. While we wouldn’t have seals, sharks, currents, or big waves to deal with Christine reminded me to hold on to my goggles while jumping. Good tip.

We jumped and started swimming. Happily there were no goggle mishaps. The sighting was as difficult as I suspected with the glare from the rising sun right on the water. The buoys were hard to see but I could see the splashes of the pack in front of me and the sailboats were to my left. All was well . . . except my Garmin still had a watch face on it.

Not the screen I expected to see when I glanced at my Garmin mid-swim.

I never set it to triathlon and hit start. Not that it was an emergency but I kind of wanted time and paces and useful stuff your Garmin provides throughout the race so I set about trying to get it going. Stroke, stroke click a button. Stroke, stroke, click.

I  wear glasses. While I can survive in the wild without distance vision correction, reading is another matter. Without my glasses all the words on my Garmin menus look mostly like a smudge on the lens when I’m on land, with no goggles. Swimming in a lake, with goggles, and my watch in the water I picked something on the menu with a vague approximation of “Triathlon” and after a few more stroke/click sequences hit start. As far as I could tell I may have just started a round of golf or downhill ski run. Both seemed just as likely as having picked triathlon from the fuzzy menu items.

I got back to swimming and focusing on sailboats and buoys. The swim was awesome! I glided along in my wetsuit like a turtle. (Turtles are slow on land but are fast swimmers.) For most of the swim course, there were few collisions with other athletes. This is the beauty of a time trial start. In fact, I didn’t hit congestion until after the second turn. About half way back to land, I caught up to one or more of the sprint waves. At that point, it got a little crowded but nothing crazy. I was focused on the boat ramp and getting to the bike. One thing holds true for Steelman: I’m always sorry when the swim is over. In hindsight, despite the sun glare I like the new swim course.

The 2019 swim course.

Once back at land, a group of volunteers and a piece of astro turf really helped with the greasy ramp. I began jogging toward transition and heard a voice: “Pete!”. I turned to see good friend and multi-time Ironman finisher Tina Devlin along spectating along the fence.

My Iron-friend Tina.

I waved an acknowledgement and trotted on toward T1.

  Interval Time of Day Split Split Pace Age Rank Gender Rank Overall Rank

Swim 7:34:34AM 00:27:49 01:52 min/100m 5/24 19/176 31/290

I know I have been focusing on the fun in racing this year, but for the second time in a row transition was not fun. The wetsuit legal thing caught me by surprise. I should have practiced ripping it off once or twice. I should have put Body Glide all over my legs. After a couple minutes of wrestling, I was ready to go to the food tent for a knife and start cutting. After a small eternity I finally managed to wheedle it off over the timing chip and my giant feet. I threw the suit under my bike in frustration, put on bike shoes, glasses, and helmet, bid Christine a good ride and headed out. A glance at my watch showed that, miraculously, I had picked triathlon so I clicked “Lap” to move it to bike mode. I left transition, mounted up and headed for the difficult climb out of the parking area.

Interval Time of Day Split Split Pace Age Rank Gender Rank Overall Rank

T1 7:38:15AM 00:03:42 – 18/24 128/176 193/290

One of the things I love about smaller events with shorter courses is the variety of people and bikes you see. I’m not a bike snob. I don’t care what kind of bike you have and it certainly isn’t necessary to have a bike that requires a second mortgage. The game is swim, bike, and run. Not swim, spend, and run. In the grand scheme of things you can do this on whatever bike you have. That said, at least make sure it fits. Climbing out of the parking lot, I passed a gentleman that, so help me, looked like he borrowed his kids bike.

Any bike will do for triathlon but maybe find the right size.

His knees were never less than 90 degrees on a pedal stroke. Just when I couldn’t figure out how he was going to make it up the hill, he got off and started walking. I couldn’t imagine riding the 12 miles required for the sprint like that. I couldn’t imagine riding 12 yards like that.

The bike course at Steelman features one or two loops on a closed road depending on whether you are doing the sprint or olympic distance. An additional change they made was to move the second turn-around so that athletes didn’t have to jam on the brakes at the bottom of a big hill to turn. Instead, we went partially up the next hill before turning. This was a great change.

Let is show for the record that I suck on the bike. It certainly felt like I was going fast out there but I got passed by everyone and his brother. And his grandmother. I may have even been passed by the dude on the kids bike. Clearly I have under emphasized the bike in training. That will need to change for next year. Still, conditions for the bike were ideal. The air temps and humidity were low and the road had been freshly paved. Even at my pace the miles flew quickly by and before I knew it I was descending back into the park toward T2.

If sloths could ride a bike, they’d have passed me.

Interval Time of Day Split Split Pace Age Rank Gender Rank Overall Rank

Bike 8:56:22AM 01:18:08 18.37 mi/hr 12/24 96/176 115/290

I knew T2 wasn’t going to be fast. I need to work harder on the bike next year but I also need to figure out a way to speed up T2. In the past for the run I always used Zoot shoes that were designed to be used barefoot but that was before I had orthotics. I cannot run without the orthotics or rather I cannot run without orthotics assuming I like to be free of pain and able to walk at all. I quickly learned that orthotics and bare feet don’t mix leading to major heel blisters as the orthotics reposition my foot in the shoe. But putting socks on in T2 takes forever providing plenty of opportunity for the people that forgot their bike pedals, or had mechanical trouble on the ride to pass me in T2. I’m gong to experiment with duct tape. (‘Cause that’s what guys do.)

If it doesn’t move and should use WD-40. If it moves and shouldn’t . . . or gets blisters . . use duct tape.

Anyway, I’ve gotta figure out a way to skip the slow procedure of putting on socks for the run.

                    Interval Time of Day Split Split Pace Age Rank Gender Rank Overall Rank

T2 8:58:13AM 00:01:51 – 14/24 106/176 155/290

The run course at Steelman is fun. Like the bike, it is an out and back with one loop for the sprinters and two for the olympic distance. The course runs on a partially shaded, paved trail that, at a glance, seems narrow but really provides plenty of real estate if runners are courteous and patient. You get to see everyone at least once on the run regardless of what distance they are doing. I saw and acknowledged many old friends and former teammates along the course including Jen and Christine. Jen looked great and was nearly finished with her sprint event as I headed out for my first loop. I didn’t see Christine for a while. Like everyone else, she passed me on the bike but had called out that I would probably catch her on the run. I had my doubts, but did pass her shortly before the finish.

Steelman run course albeit from a previous year.

Every time I’ve done Steelman I have always chosen the the olympic distance. Nearly every time, I look longingly toward the finish as I make the turn for lap number 2 of the 10K run. That wasn’t the case this year. Like the bike, the low temperature and humidity made the run fly by. I could have kept running all morning. The last time I did Steelman temps were nearly 80 degrees as we setup transition in the dark and reached a boiling point in time for the run. It was misery. Not so this year.

The new run finish was much better than the old. At the end of the second loop, we ran out on to the marina loop then back through the parking lot to the finish. They had a timing mat a few yards before the finish allowing the announcer to call us out by name as we crossed. It seemed very professional and very well done. Kudos to Dan and Dave for the positive changes!

Before I was a triathlete I was a runner. I’ve always prided myself on my run splits. It is where I catch a lot of those people that pass me on the bike. But my age group is getting fast on the run! I can still hold my own but it is clear that if I want to have an eye toward the podium that I need to not only work harder on the bike but add in some speed work to be able to gain some advantage on the run again.

Interval Time of Day Split Split Pace Age Rank Gender Rank Overall Rank

Run 9:45:03AM 00:46:51 06:49 min/mi 5/24 52/176 68/290

I crossed the line, surrendered my timing chip and received a spiffy looking finishers medal. The medal was another change by Dan and Dave. Finishers used to receive a cold, wet towel. With the gorgeous weather, the medal seemed nice but in the back of my mind I remembered how awesome that wet towel was at the end of a steamy run.

We may miss these towels on less ideal days.

I was thirsty. I looked around and spotted the line for the food tent. After a moment of recovery I headed that way assuming that is where beverages were. There were a lot of sprint finishers in line already and it took a good ten minutes to get through. Jen found me and we chatted while I waited. Typically I am not hungry after a race. The fact that I was testifies to how good the weather was. The spread of food was impressive. One thing I had emphasized to Dan when we ran that Friday morning was to be sure to keep the fruit! Steelman happens in prime Pennsylvania fruit season and Dale always had piles and piles of cold watermelon and other choice summer fruits at the finish. Dan had listened and there was no shortage. I loaded my plate with watermelon, grapes, and oranges and gleefully wolfed it all down in the shade. After eating, I found coolers full of water and Gatorade alongside the food tent. My one piece of feedback to Dan and Dave is to have water at the finish. Medal. Water. Perhaps not in that order.

I knew with my slow bike and transitions that I was not going to be on the podium but went to check results regardless.

Race: OLYMPIC 

Division: M50-54

Showing 1 to 15 of 24 entries

Rank

Name

Bib

Time

Hometown

Gender

1 Martin Brans 32 02:08:53 Allentown, PA M 2 Michael Vannata 301 02:24:07 Bethlehem, PA M 3 Don Mack 178 02:26:46 Royersford, PA M 4 Simon Moore 211 02:34:14 Allentown, PA M 5 David Dauphinais 63 02:36:34 Phoenixville, PA M 6 Peter Githens 104 02:38:18 Reading, PA M

This is not bad for me for a competitive even. I think Martin Brans will win our age group forever. That dude is one awesome athlete. Only 12 minutes separated me from 3rd place and 14 minutes to 2nd place. Heck I gave up 3-4 minutes in transition alone. The rest will require some work on the bike. Overall it was a perfect day to race.

A Perfect Day to Race "Have you ever raced Steelman"? The question was posed to me by Dan Gleason as we jogged along the Chester Valley Trail.

[fallen029]

It’s the final game against the Astros in the Ranger’s ballpark (barring us facing one another in the post-season via wildcard) and for some reason that’s hitting me way harder than just leaving the ballpark all together. We didn’t ‘have’ to have a new ballpark and there’s a lot of reasons people are already pissed about the new one that I don’t feel like getting into, but the earliest game I can remember going to as a kid was against the ‘stros when they were still in the N.L. and we both sucked, kind of, but we’re okay kinda too. Like, the book’s not closed yet, but we’re nearing it and I don’t really know if the new ballpark can ever come close to the memories tied to the old one. 

Plus it has a fucking roof. 

I hate roofed in ballparks. Reminds me of the Jays park. I toiled in the heat of those afternoon games for years. Yeah, it sucks sometimes, but that’s baseball. And we’re also getting artificial turf. Fucking sucks. 

But anyways, knowing this is the last time the Astros will probably be here is...depressing. 

[oleanderopal]

:)

tythan high school au part 1, part 2 should be up tomorrow or so but here you go! Enjoy!

(I don’t know what to call this yet so :) will do) 

The sharp noise of a whistle pierced the mid afternoon air of the high school football field with a cacophony of grunts and thuds of thick plastic colliding. Practice had started a half hour earlier for the football team.

Cheer practice was just now kicking off as most of the cheer team was finally present. The cheer coach brought out two water coolers setting them on the foldable table on the edge of the field.

“Hey, coach, are tryouts today?” One of the brunette cheerleaders who had been relaxing in the bleachers asked the woman standing at the edge of the field, scrolling through her phone.

“I don’t think so, Ana, that was next week.”

“Well then who are they?”

The brunette, Ana, gestured with her thumb over to a group of boys and girls standing at the far end of the field in some fitting yet sporty clothes, backpacks at their feet.

The coach was baffled until her assistant coach came sprinting out from the locker room.

“Hey, uh, sorry coach,” he sputtered between breaths, “I moved the tryouts to this week instead of the next because of homecoming. Some of the girls and I thought it would be bet-”

The coach silenced her exasperating assistant with the raise of her hand and the pinching of her nose bridge.

“Why didn't you tell me sooner?”

“I-I… I forgot?”

She exhaled deeply trying her best not to lay him out on the spot.

“Okay! Change of plans! Tryouts are today!”

The loud shouting drew the attention of the group of assumed tryouts who shuffled closer towards the coach. Most of them seemed just as unprepared as she was.

“Hello! Nice to meet you all, I am Coach Des Moines and this is my assistant Ben.” she hit Ben in the chest with the back of her hand. He let out an oof and rubbed where she struck him.

“Tryouts are simple, show me what you got and you just might make it to the team. Not all of you are going to stay but I look forward to some fresh new faces ready to get the crowd excited.”

All of this she said with a slight frown and underlying anger to her voice. It was a wonder why someone so lovely was the cheerleading coach.

After her speech she took Ben by the arm to lead him away from the rest of the crowd.  

The football coach watched as  Des Moines turned to Ben and proceeded to scream loud enough for even him to hear it fifty yards away.

“What's goin on over there coach?”

“Ha, looks like Ben forgot to tell Des Moines tryouts were moved to today and she’s tearing him a new one.”

Ethan dropped his duffle bag to the astro turf excited to tryout for the closest thing this school had to gymnastics: Cheerleading.

He never really thought of himself as a real peppy upbeat get the crowd going kind of guy but he was willing to give it a shot if it meant he could do a bunch of flips and get some cheers.

He had been in gymnastics for as long as he could remember and since his gym instructor had gone on a very long very necessary six month vacation, he had to look for somewhere else to spend his time.

If it meant having to be surrounded by a bunch of all too happy girls then so be it.

At least the coach seems nice?

Across the field the football team had just finished their squirmish and were taking a water break. Half of the team was seated on a bench close to the sideline, chugging the water from their jugs.

One of the cheerleaders, Hanna, was crossing the field towards the team. Most of the boys hoped she was going to talk to them. Unfortunately for them she stopped in front of a particular running back at the end of the bench.

“Hey, Tyler.” she greeted him with a smile.

“Hey, Hanna, what's up?” he returned her smile.

“Are you seeing this? It’s a trainwreck over there!” she took a seat next to him with a dejected sigh.

“Yea, she looks fuckin’ pissed. Why does Ben never tell her anything? How is he even her assistant?” he laughed while he watched Ben literally get his ass handed to him about sixty yards away.

“I have no idea how she puts up with him everyday.”

“Are you doing anything next Saturday?”

“Nah, I might just hang with the guys.”

“Candace is throwing a kickback I was wondering if you’d want to go.”

“Sure, I’ll be there.”

Coach Des Moines had finally given Ben a break long enough to call her varsity girls back over. Hanna noticed the huddle and got up to go back to cheer practice.

“Cool, I’ll text you where it's going to be. See you later, Tyler!” she called with a wave as she ran back to her coach.

“See you!” he called to her back.

Coach and the cheer team got everyone into a large circle meant for the classic get-to-know-everyone routine. They started with the team and moved through the rest of the tryouts. They would say their name what grade they're in and what they like to do for fun.

“Uh, Hi. My name’s Ethan and I just moved here from Maine.” Ethan introduced himself to the rest of the group.

“Hi, Ethan.” they said back.

“I’m a sophomore and I like to do gymnastics.”

“Wow.”

“Hi, I’m Amy. I’m a sophomore and I like to sleep.” the group chuckled collectively at the small blond.

“Okay guys, we're going to take a short break while I get some things together really quick. Feel free to mingle amongst yourselves.”

With that coach sped off towards the locker room and her office. Ben trailed not too far behind but he was clearly terrified of her snapping again. He winced when she threw open the door and held it for him.

Ethan took the time to go through twitter and instagram while they waited.

“Hey, Ethan right?”

He turned to see a small blond smiling at him.

“Yea.” He returned her smile.

“I’m Amy, I don't know you seemed cool so I decided to introduce myself.”

“Aw, thanks. Nice to meet you Amy.”

“And this is my friend Kathryn, she’s just here for moral support.” she motioned to a brunette standing to her left.

“I couldn't do any of this if my life depended on it.” she joked. The other to chuckled quietly.

“So how long have you been here?”

“Just today. My family finished moving last tuesday.”

“Wow, really? Maine right? That’s so far!”

“and cold.” Kathryn added.

“Yea, it's way different than here for sure.”

Amy opened her mouth to speak but coach had returned with her clipboard.

“Okay guys, I want to see what you can do so first some stretches and then just, impress me.” Coach Des Moines sort of waved her hands around flippantly before turning to Benjamin and starting to criticize him again.

She's a real peppy one there huh?

Ethan bent down towards his bag to find his water bottle then joined the rest of the group sitting in a circle on the turf. Once everyone was ready to start the senior cheer girls started with the basics and grew more and more challenging when they could see what the tryouts were capable of.

Ethan prided himself with being able to do the most flexible of exercises that a few of the others could not.

Not long after they broke apart with a team shout to begin the real tryouts.

Ethan was ecstatic to finally be getting to the reason he came here in the first place. He started easy with a few standing backflips and a couple backbends before he jumped straight into his favorite stunt.

“Whoa.” Tyler gaped at the small blue haired boy doing flips across the sideline. He hadn’t noticed that cheer practice was still even going but was fascinated by the flexibility of this one tryout. His form was something to behold.

“What are you looking at, bro?”

His trance was interrupted by his teammate knocking him on the shoulder with his helmet.

“Cheer, that guy’s got some sweet moves.” he nodded his head towards the boy who had just landed his third flip.

“That twink? Yea he’s awesome.” The running back started laughing at his own shitty joke.

“Whoa, not cool dude.”

“Oh, calm down, Tyler. We both know it’s true.”

Tyler stood up with his mouth open for a rebuttal but was cut short by coach blowing the whistle again. Conner bolted towards the coach leaving Tyler by himself. He hustled over to join his team around their coach.

Ethan let himself collapse ungracefully to the turf, breathing heavily and tomato red. Amy followed but instead sat on the ground next to him.

To both of their enjoyment, tryouts had also meant running eight laps around the track as a “warm up”.

Kathryn sidled up to the pair and took a seat on the bench near them.

“You see what you’ve gotten yourselves into? Exercise. For fun.”

Amy and Ethan tried to laugh but only groaned in pain at the further strain of their lungs.

“That was, the hardest, two miles, of my life.” each pause was punctuated with a gasp for air.

After they had finally regained their composure (and color), Ethan and Amy joined the group again for whatever activity came next.

Luckily for them there would be no more strenuous exercise. The coach settled for a few easy small group stunts before attempting one large group stunt.

Due to their inexperience of working with each other it took a good fifteen-minutes to get one person off of the ground. It took another ten to get her back onto the ground.

Coach decided that it was as good a time as any to call it quits for the day. She had Benjamin write down all of their names before their last activity of the day.

“Okay boys and Girls before you leave we’re going to do some wind down stretches to keep your muscles from being sore tomorrow. Hanna will tell you guys what to do.”

She turned to go back to the locker room but paused before she took a step.

“By the way none of you guys can leave until all of you have finished your stretches, Right Ana?” she gave her head cheerleader a nod which Ana returned with a sweet smile.

“See you all tomorrow at three!”

“Okay everyone circle up!”

Ethan and Amy groaned but complied, ready to be home.

The wind down stretches were probably the second hardest thing they had to do next to running. They had to hold each position for a minute and a half and if anyone broke form in the slightest, everyone had to start over.

They had to restart four times.

Ethan was starting to regret joining the team.

Finally after six tries they finished with their final stretch.

The tryouts were dismissed with an excited woop from Amy and Ethan.

“That was awful I hope we never do that again.” Amy said to Ethan who nodded in agreement.

“Unfortunately we'll probably be doing the same thing tomorrow.”

“Probably.” Amy covered her face with her hand.

Kathryn joined them as they walked off of the field.

“Was it everything you guys hoped for?”

She asked sarcastically.

“Yes and so, so much more!” Ethan spun around in mock glee.

They arrived at the parking lot.

“You have a ride?” Amy asked.

“Yea, my dad's coming soon. What about you guys?”

“I got my mom’s beat up honda that I get to drive this one around in.” Kathryn pointed her thumb at Amy who was rolling her eyes.

“You so do not I hardly ever even ask you for rides!”

“Whatever you say miss take me to the mall every day.”

Amy crossed her arms, huffing at Kathryn who was just laughing. Ethan was excited to call these two weirdos his friends in the future, or so he hoped.

“Okay, guys so I’ll see you tomorrow!”

“Wait, meet us at the Cafeteria at brunch. I want to know who you have.”

“Okay sounds good, see you later.” He gave them a short wave as they walked off into the parking lot. He took a seat on the benches beside the wall of the cafeteria to wait for his dad.

Not much later, Ethan saw a group of guys he assumed to be part of the football team walking to the parking lot together. Most of them were pretty average for football players but one of them stood out to him.

He had curly brown hair and stood probably half a foot above the rest. He laughed bigger and louder than his friends around him. He seemed, to put it plainly, very happy. His smile was infectious and Ethan found himself just smiling at his existence.

Ethan shook his head and returned to scrolling through his phone while he waited for his dad to pick him up. He mentally cursed himself for staring so unabashedly long at him.

Needless to say Ethan was pretty okay with his new school so far. He almost didn't want to wait for tomorrow to start this new chapter in his life.

[footballghana]

AstroTurf will solve infrastructure deficit in Upper East – Overlord of Talensi Traditional Area

The construction of an AstroTurf at Wintogo-Bolgatanga will solve a huge infrastructure deficit in the Upper East Region, Overlord of  Talensi Traditional area, Tongraan Naab Kugbilson Nalebegtang has said.

The Overlord said this on Wednesday, August 05, 2020, when Executives of the Ghana Football Association, led by President Kurt E.S Okraku called on him at the Tongaraan Palace at Tongo near Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region.

The President was there to unveil the signpost for the construction of an AstroTurf at Wintogo, Bolgatanga following the decision of the Executive Council to use part of the project funds from the FIFA Forward 1.0 programme for the construction of two Astro Turfs - one at Prampram and the other at Bolgatanga.

“When the information got to me that you were looking for a place to build an AstroTurf for this region, I was so elated that I didn’t want to listen to any complaint from others,” Tongraan Naab Kugbilson Nalebegtang told the gathering.

“The Chief of Winkogo told me that he was encountering some difficulties so I called him and his people to come here. Luckily, I spoke to all the parties and they all understood that this was a venture that we should not miss.

“So gladly, they all agreed that the project must come on. I am pleased to have you come here, especially you the President. Because it indicates to me that you mean business.

“The fact that you have travelled all the way from Accra to this region to see to it that the plot of land that we have given to you is used for the purpose for which you have taken it, I want to say that I thank you very much for this park.

“This region, most of the time, is deprived of so many things and I will not mince words here and say that this is something that is going to project the Ghana Football Association in your era, having solved the infrastructure deficit in the Upper East.

“We have quite a number of talents in all spheres of sports and I am sure that the land that has been given to you will soon produce results. In no time, you are going to have talents in your Black Stars, Black Meteors, the Queens and all the other national teams.

“We are ready to support you. All you have to do is to let us know your problem and we shall be there to support you,” Tongraan Naab Kugbilson Nalebegtang added.

President Kurt E.S Okraku, on behalf of the GFA, thanked the chiefs and elders of the community and authorities of the Bolgatanga Senior High School for the land and promised that work will commence soon.

“I am particularly happy that this construction will go a long way to help the growth of football in the region,” Mr. Okraku stated.

The facility, when completed, will serve the people of Bolgatanga and its environs and will help solve the huge sports infrastructure deficit the region has been facing over the years.

Other projects earmarked under FIFA Forward 1.0 will be announced in due course.

source: https://footballghana.com/

[becirspahic]

Saturday 22nd February

This weekend I decided to go visit the park a bit earlier since I wanted to catch the nice weather. I took my dog and his tennis ball and stopped at Greggs on the way for my breakfast. I arrived at the park around 10:30am and took my place at the band stand.

There were people of all ages in the park on this day. I saw an older couple walking along with a small child on a bike that had stabilisers. A couple with a puppy on a leash that was running in circles and tying their legs up. The play area was packed with kids wearing puffy jackets and using the slides - some of them blocking the others by trying to climb up them the wrong way.

I saw a group of teenagers walk in and through the park with a football to go play in the astro turf pitches near the high school, kicking the ball as they ran towards it. One of them looked at me funny as they walked on the path past the band stand as if to say “Why is he sitting there?”. I spotted another group of kids playing on the exercise equipment on the trim trail - spinning each other on the twisting platforms to see how long they could last without falling off. Maybe they should have added a merry-go-round when they were building the new play park.

Dog walkers were out in force and dotted all around the park in different areas, sometimes crossing paths and chatting with one another whilst their dogs done the same. One in particular had 3 big white Samoyeds with him that were really well behaved and seemed to walk in unison.

I spent an hour watching the people in the park and taking notes and only one person noticed me sitting at the bandstand. This is definitely going to be the location of my project. I need to draw people to it.