Our grandson Jake is a senior in high school. He has always been active in sports, but in the last couple of years he has devoted his efforts to golf. Jake has worked hard to be the best he can be, but his determination to be better hasn't changed his kind spirit.
Now, as grandparents, it is our duty to take pride in all our grandchildren's accomplishments and take every opportunity to boast about their special character and abilities. Jake is no exception. He qualified at the regional tournament, but had a bad round in the sectionals and missed going to the state finals.
But, his year wasn't over yet. Last week the twelve coaches in his conference voted him the sportsmanship award at the annual golf banquet. This week the local newspaper selected him along with five others to the all-area boy's golf first team.
Did I mention that we're proud of Jake? It must be in the DNA.
This week on cable television there has been a Monte Python tribute of sorts. Featured has been six part documentary on the Python phenomenon with appearances by the five remaining cast members and re-runs of their movies.
I was too old to enjoy the series and it's peculiar humor as much as I did, but I did enjoy it to the amazement and wonder of my Irish bride. I suppose it's due to my immature personality and my enjoyment of strange and base humor.
One of my favorite bits was Eric Idle stepping out of a refrigerator and singing the Galaxy Song which he also wrote. Feel free to sing along with Eric and me..
Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving And revolving at nine hundred miles an hour, That's orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it's reckoned, A sun that is the source of all our power. The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see Are moving at a million miles a day In an outer spiral arm, at forty thousand miles an hour, Of the galaxy we call the 'Milky Way'. Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars. It's a hundred thousand light years side to side. It bulges in the middle, sixteen thousand light years thick, But out by us, it's just three thousand light years wide. We're thirty thousand light years from galactic central point. We go 'round every two hundred million years, And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions In this amazing and expanding universe.
The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding In all of the directions it can whizz As fast as it can go, at the speed of light, you know, Twelve million miles a minute, and that's the fastest speed there is. So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure, How amazingly unlikely is your birth, And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space, 'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth.