Pappa Hardy’s Musings on Life.

This has been a tough year to be a Michigan fan. The team has a new coach. He came as the team went through a number of significant changes. Many seniors graduated, were drafted into the NFL, or players left the team for other schools because they were afraid that they wouldn’t fit in. Therefore, Rich Rodriguez has a large number of freshman, and this year it is showing. For the first year in my memory, it appears that Michigan will have a losing record. This is a painful year to be a Michigan Wolverine fan. Oh, the pain.

This morning Michael and I went golfing at Gladstan Golf Course here in Payson. There is a story behind that name, but I won’t repeat it on this blog. What I do have to say is that once again, this cursed game is after my sanity.

You see, this is how it works. You have these fond memories. In those memories, you hit long drives and birdie lots of holes, and everyone in the kingdom of Golf calls your name blessed. Then the reality of it all sets in. We somehow got to play the back nine, which I told Michael was the most beautiful and challenging holes on the course. We teed up on the 10th hole, and immediately the nightmare began. We were hitting our tee shots into the woods, into the sand, into the water, and of course, a par was something we only dreamed of. Then came some of the later holes, and all of a sudden, you have a shot that makes you want to come back.

Let me tell you about my par on 17. I had a decent drive, putting the shot right behind the green. Ok, now I have a rock collection to hit it over to put it on the green. I swung, the rock collection loomed, and voila, right onto a rock, off the rock it goes, rolls up on the green, and about 3 inches from the hole. Everyone around sung my praises. I can play this game, I think? Yes, the wonderful world of golf.

I had an experience last night at the Energy Solutions arena that reflects one that I had at Coors Field in Denver. That is, I had tickets that were courtside at the mid-court. I had to take a customer and we had just excellent seats. You could almost shake hands with the players. It was the Jazz versus the Bobcats. The Jazz just swamped em.

The same type of experience happened once in Denver when Michael and I went to a ball game at Coors Field. Because of a mistake on the part of the club, Michael and I had a seat at home plate directly behind the umpire and catcher. It was a fun experience then too, and the home team won that time too. I really enjoyed myself.

Yeah, the guys behind us at the BYU-Wyoming Game were much worse. I have heard incessantly about how good the BYU fans are, versus how bad UW fans are. I have been to both stadiums and I can tell you that the BYU fans that sat behind me tonight as UW was trounced by the Cougars were terrible. Their language was not good, and they made some veiled references that I thought were outright bad. I was not impressed by BYU.

Well, it was a repeat of 1984, but the other team won? Yes, my poor Tigers lost the World Series. Oh well. I had hopes of a repeat of that year, but I guess if they had to loose, it was OK to loose to the Cardinals, as they are one of my next favorite teams. Michael isn’t going to like this though. His Detroit teams haven’t done too well lately when they get in championship series with other teams. Well, they did make it to the World Series.

One of the fondest memories I have when I was growing up was attending Davis High Football games under the lights at Dart Field.  My kids have been very critical of the name of my favorite high school.  However, it was a great place, and Friday night in Kaysville was wonderful.

Everyone had been talking all day about the game that night.  We would be guessing how well the team might do.  We came with our friends, ready to scream in support of our team.  The brown and gold would come onto the field and we would go crazy, our attention hanging on each and every play. The only thing that would have been better would have been if I was on the field with the rest of the guys.  I am so sad that I never played for the Davis High Darts football team.

Michael is today’s star of the day.  I am so proud of Michael. He has done many things in life that are so special and which show his determination.

One thing that I believe shows his tenacity is his willingness to be patient and do whatever the doctor asked him so that he could return to the mission field.  Michael came home from his mission after he had already been gone a month.  When he talked to the Stake President, he was told the obstacles that he would need to overcome before he was able to return to the mission field.  What made it worse was that they weren’t things that he could overcome by performing a task, or meeting a set of goals.  These items were completely out of his control, and completely dependent on the actions of others and on how well his body would heal up. 

He faced many problems and set backs.  All of these were out of his control, yet he was patient and positive, plus he kept his eye on the ultimate goal. He prepared himself both mentally and physically.  Finally, just recently he was given the go ahead and hopefully he will return to the mission field soon.  He isn’t there yet, but how he has conducted himself has proved that he is an exempelary adult in every sense of the word.

 

He has always conducted himself this way, throughout his life.  He is in control, working hard to make sure that he reaches the goals he has set for himself.  He is not afraid of working hard, of putting in the necessary time it takes to develop the skill sets that he needs to do well.  I am so proud to call him my son.  I wish that I had his determination, faithfulness, and desire.

I have lived in a lot of places.  I guess I love Payson just about as much or more than any place that I have ever lived.  It is a beautiful community.  It is a great place to raise a family.  I guess I have just one major problem with living in the Utah Valley.  What is that problem?  It is BYU Football.

People in Utah County somehow figure that if you live here you must be a BYU football fan.  BYU fans are obnoxious.  People here assume you are routing for the Cougars.  I can only think of one set of football fans who are worse.  Yes, it is the Scarlett and Gray fans.  Those fans are Ohio State fans.  Otherwise, these people are obnoxious.  They feel we all exist to cheer for BYU.  No, BYU isn’t the best, it is the University of Michigan Wolverines.  Everyone should cheer for the Wolverines.