The Rock Wall

Just in case you missed it last week, I’m giving you another shot at the survey Supt. Mark Koca put out last week on whether you favor or oppose a four-day school week.

I wasn’t sure what all that might entail so I interviewed Mark last Thursday. The school had already received over 300 responses in one day. I made sure the web address at the beginning of the interview article works but I didn’t fill out a survey because I don’t have an opinion.

– I do have an opinion on the Super Bowl: it should have been the Kansas City Chiefs and the New Orleans Saints. I can’t fault the Chiefs for firing their defensive coordinator the next day. If the Kansas City offense had won the coin toss or if the Kansas City defense had forced New England to punt, it might have been a different Super Bowl.

I can fault the officials of the Saints/Rams game for blowing the call. If they had called the defensive pass interference foul on the six-yard line, I feel pretty sure the Saints could have scored and won. And I think the Saints could have scored some points against the Patriots. The Rams must have left their officiating friends in the French Quarter.

I recorded the Super Bowl, which I’ve called the Stupid Bowl for years, so Kimball may go back and watch the commercials. That’s usually her favorite part. But I heard from Rush Limbaugh that the commercials were totally bland this year, like everybody was afraid of offending someone.

– I went to the only home match of the Bulldog Wrestling Team last Thursday.

It was fun to watch even though I didn’t have a clue how the ref scores it. I didn’t see one headlock, wristlock, hammerlock or full Nelson like we did in shadetree wrestling.

At lunch, Michael Graves told us that his grandson, Trey Graves, wrestled a Diamond wrestler ranked 5th in the state, who was several inches taller and several pounds heavier just so it wouldn’t be an open class and an automatic win for Diamond. Well, Tyler held his own even though he lost the match on points.

The most dramatic match was the last one pitting Keilan Jaques against, I think it was a 192 lb. Diamond wrestler.

It was almost over before it got started. When the ref gave the signal to start, in just seconds Keilan had his opponent down on the mat, on his back, struggling to avoid a pin. I wasn’t watching the clock so I can’t confirm it was actually over in 15 seconds, but it seemed that quick.

It ended in a 34-34 tie. After several minutes, the score keepers had gone down the tie breakers to H (A, B, C, etc.) and gave Diamond one point and the win. But when I got the report from Travis Payne the next day, he said El Dorado won 35 – 34.

– I learned something about our grandson and myself. I was telling someone that Adrian said Van’s other grandmother, who has 10 grandkids, said that he has a temper. If Van points at something and the adults don’t figure out what he wants, he gets angry and lets them know it.

Kimball told me something I had never heard. She said, “Your dad told me you did that.”

Maybe that was incentive for me to learn to talk. Once Kimball’s parents were asking her where her brother, Ross, was. She told them several times he was at the “Seek” which was as plain as she could say creek. Finally she got creative and told them, “He’s at the Quawfish Riber.”

– Our grandson, Ben, turned 10 on Monday. He’s talking pretty good.          KL