The G.O.A.T vs The G.O.T.T

 The hype leading up to the Super Bowl this year had been bigger than I had remembered in years past.  That could because we were in a pandemic and more focus was on the event or possibly because I paid attention more than normal since we had been listening to ESPN on the way to school in the mornings.  Either way it soon became clear that the focus of conversation regarding the match up between the quarterbacks - Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes - would take center stage in Super Bowl LV.  In fact there was a promo at the beginning of the competition narrated by Brad Pitt that proclaimed that "tonight we would be watching the Greatest of All Time against the Greatest of This Time."

Doug's favorite quarterback had long ago become a favorite of the Heinisch family as well.  Thus, we all hoped that Brady would prove once again why he was the best.  Brett didn't quite share our enthusiasm as he still held a grudge against the ex-Patriot for beating his beloved Panthers in the 2003 Super Bowl, but he did find it impressive that he was still playing almost two decades after that game.  Even though we believed that Brady was the G.O.A.T most in the Heinisch family felt that Mahomes and the Chiefs would win tonight.  We planned to watch no matter the outcome and Cam and Doug spent the afternoon cooking our Super Bowl feast.  Cam tried a new recipe - chicken sliders - which were delicious.  Doug stuck with two traditional ones - guacamole and refried been dip - which were the perfect complement to the miniature sandwiches.

The game started off quietly with little scoring until the end of the first quarter.  We were all glad to see the Buccaneers keep pace with the Chiefs hoping for a close game even if we were let down by the outcome.  In the end the game was nothing like the sports media had predicted.  The Bucs defense was unstoppable and Mahomes spent the majority of the evening on the run.  He had several nice passes that were dropped, but overall the G.O.T.T. was completely overshadowed on offense by the G.O.A.T.  The final score of 31-9 gave Tom Brady his 7th Super Bowl win and 5th Super Bowl MVP.  He had now won more Super Bowls than any team in the NFL.  

As the night ended with interviews from the Bucs coach, Brady himself and several teammates, it wasn't too long before the next big question arose.  After proving that Brady may well be the greatest football player of all time, they wanted to know if he had surpassed Michael Jordan as the greatest athlete of all time.  In the Heinisch family he hadn't quite reached that level yet with only Cam voting for Brady.  Who knows maybe after another win next year, we will all have to agree with him.  

A Great Start to the Spring Semester

 Meg left for IU last Monday and was hoping that she would be able to connect with more people this semester.  In the fall she had several friends test positive for COVID 19 and even more that had to quarantine due to exposure.  Meg was diligent about wearing a mask and social distancing to avoid the risk of contracting the virus.  She didn't want to pass it on to those at Bell Trace and she also didn't want to have to quarantine at Ashton dorm.  Her efforts worked well as she was able to avoid getting sick, but it did limit her social activities.  

Thankfully, the start of the spring semester has been drastically different for her.  Since she's been vaccinated and the positivity rate in Bloomington is well below 2%, she hasn't had to worry as much about social activities.  She's only been back one week and she's already been able to do more than she did all of October.  She's met multiple friends at the Union to study or just catch up.  She met with her Bible study leader in person and this weekend was able to attend Seek, a catholic education conference for college students.  Every night she has filled me in on the key note speakers that she had listened to during the day and the fellowship that she had experience.  She was proud to let her Dad know that she had attended a Latin mass and had learned that Pope John Paul II liked to kayak.  The best part of the week was when Meg texted me last night to let me know that she was having so much fun.  I was so glad to hear that and couldn't have been happier for her.

Tiger

Although all four of the Heinisch children have played golf at one time or another, Cal and Cam have always been the most interested in the sport.  For Cameron, just playing it has been enough for him.  He does read about the ins and outs of the golf swing and practices even when he can't make it to the course, but religiously watching the sport on television has never been his focus.  He's enjoyed the majors and has always picked a favorite player in our family pool, but reading about the individuals on the PGA and closely following their careers has been only been a casual interest of his.

Cal, on the other hand, has not only loved playing golf over the years, but has also enjoyed watching it as well.  He knows all of the players, their back stories and does quite well in predicting the tournament winners.  It doesn't surprise me that he has always enjoyed following the PGA.  I can still remember the moments after the first tournament that Cal won at eight years old.  He was so excited that we had to tour the town showing off his trophy and relaying the highlights to his biggest fans - Grandma Jane, Grandpa Cutes, Bob Carlson and even Granny.  This first LYC golf tournament victory occurred during the height of Tiger Woods' career.  Thus, Cal not only was able to find success on the golf course, but he was also able to follow his favorite player's victories on television every week.  He could even pretend to be him on the PS2 with the Tiger Woods Pro Tour video games. Who could blame Cal for idolizing one of golfs best golfers?  The dedication, drive and commitment that Tiger put into the sport was impressive as was his athletic ability.  

Even after the repeated injuries and eventual moral downfall of his golfing hero, Cal remained a faithful member of Tiger's fan base.  He had told me that Tiger's win at the 2019 Masters was one of the best sports moments that he had ever witnessed.  Therefore, when Cal said that he was watching the "Tiger" documentary on HBO Max, I wasn't surprised.  Every night he would give me the highlights of the episodes and when he finished it he said that it was one of the saddest documentaries that he had ever watched.  I decided after our conversations that I would watch it as well and talked Doug into viewing it with me.

"Tiger" was really sad.  In it we learned that his parents controlled every aspect of his life growing up and relentlessly pushed him to become a golf superstar.  The scenes where his father would taunt him as he played so he got used to the crowds of the PGA were hard to watch.  Tiger's parents were the king and queen of what was wrong with youth sports.  Worst yet was his father's promotion of Tiger as the next Messiah.  It only made his fall from grace even harder when news of Tiger's extra marital affairs broke in 2009.  

I was really glad that Cal suggested watching the documentary.  Tiger Woods had been a big part of his life.  I had forgotten a lot about that period.  It was definitely sad to see how much a narcissistic parent could really damage a child's life, but Doug and I did get a laugh out of it in the end.  Watching the large galleries surrounding Tiger in the flashback scenes reminded us of the time we took Brett and Cal to the BMW classic in Chicago during the height of Tiger's fame.  It was hard to get close to the mega star and we found ourselves following other PGA players for most of the round.  Even when we weren't close by we could still hear the noise coming form Tiger's fans.  After one of these loud uproars, Brett turned to the three of us and said, "Wow, Tiger Woods must have just changed his socks."  We all laughed especially as we realized that Brett might have been right.

Slow Going

All week I had been hearing that we would have a snowstorm tonight.  Therefore, I wasn't surprised this morning when I woke up to a winter weather advisory on my phone.  It stated that the snow would start at 4 p.m.   I thought that was perfect timing for me to get Cameron home from Bethany before it began.  I told Cam as I dropped him off in the morning to make sure to bring everything home that night as I could see a school cancellation for tomorrow.  

I communicated with Meg, Brett and Cal several times during the day to see how the weather was in Bloomington.  They weren't enjoying the 40 degrees and rain, but at least it wasn't supposed to freeze.  I told Cal that I was glad that he decided to head down last night for his weekend trip especially after getting the alert on my phone.  He was happy as well as he hadn't been to Bloomington in awhile and had plenty of room to work remotely from Brett's.  Little did I know how thankful I would really be that he left early.

Meg called me to check in again around 2:45.  As we talked I happened to look outside and noticed that it was snowing already.  The intensity picked up quickly and I decided to leave ten minutes early for Bethany.  I couldn't believe how much snow had already come down in such a short period.  It was not only sticking to the roads, but was starting to freeze as well.  It took longer than normal to school and even more time to return home.  While we were driving Cam sent a text to his friends saying, "I can't believe that my Mom won't let me drive in this" with a rolling eyes emoji.  I knew that he was joking as it was pretty intense and several times we hit patches of ice that pulled the tires of the Pilot towards the side of the road.  Although it was slow going we both appreciated everyone staying at 25 miles per hour or under on county road 29.  I explained to Cameron that I didn't want to get in an accident, but knew at that speed it would definitely be a minor one if we did.  Thankfully, that did not happen and we pulled into the drive safely at 4:20.  We were both relieved to be home.  

Later that evening he texted his friend Bailee who was on her way to Indianapolis for a medical procedure.  She told him that they saw eight accidents on their way down.  After hearing that I felt even more blessed that Cal made it to Bloomington safely last night and that Doug was able to avoid the icy roads as well by working from home today.  Cam was just happy to find out that Bethany had already called a two hour delay for tomorrow.

Wednesdays & E-Learning

 Throughout the majority of this school year Wednesdays have been set aside for asynchronous learning.  Teachers send out work on Google classroom for students to complete and they have office hours in the afternoon for questions, but there are no scheduled Zoom classroom meetings.  Some teachers have scheduled field trip on Wednesdays and standardized testing has also occurred on the middle day of the week, but overall Cameron has been at home almost every Wednesday since the start of the school year.  

As Cameron did not have a set schedule on Wednesdays we signed him up for morning tennis lessons on that day.  It worked well with his busy instructor and gave him something to look forward to on his day off from school.  I used the time he was at the racquet club for our weekly Martin's and Menards grocery run.  We had recently even added stops at Aldi and the eye doctor into the mix as well.  We always ended our day in Warsaw with a stop at Moe's or Panda Express to pick up lunch.  

The past two weeks were an exception to our weekly Wednesday schedule.  The Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday and Winter Break changed the day off for Bethany students, so they were in school on Wednesdays.  Today we were back at it, however, with a tennis lesson and grocery shopping to start our day.  Cameron has almost always driven on our trips to Warsaw and today I introduced him to state road 15.  After multiple warnings of how congested it would be at the stoplight by Walmart, we both had to laugh when there were only three cars (including us) in the area when we drove through.  We did get lunch at Panda Express to take home and were glad to get a call that Cameron's new glasses were at the eye doctor, so we could pick them up on our way out of town.  

I have really enjoyed our Wednesday mornings together and will miss them once Bethany returns to a five day weekly schedule.  Today Cameron had so little school work to do once he got home that he even agreed to an afternoon game of Life - old style.  I didn't remember all of the rules from my favorite childhood game, but once we read through them and got started, it was a lot of fun and a great way to end our day.  

Live Action Remakes

 Over the past few years Disney decided to remake some of their animated classics into Live Action films.  The movies have received mixed reviews from critics and fans alike, but for the most part Meg and I have really enjoyed watching them.  We liked Aladdin (Cam's favorite), Cinderella and Dumbo (Cal's favorite), but our favorite without a doubt was the live action version of Beauty and the Beast.  In fact over the past few months I believe that it has grown to my number one Disney movie of all time.  I am positive that I could watch the movie every single day and I am pretty sure that Meg agrees with me on that.

I decided this week to take a break from Belle and the Beast's love story and try a few of the new Disney live action films.  I picked Mulan first.  It was supposed to be released last March, but due to the closure of movie theaters in our nation, Disney held off on the opening.  They eventually bypassed theaters all together and offered it for a hefty price of $30 on Disney +.  Since neither Meg nor Brett wanted to watch it, I waited until it was free with the Disney subscription.  It had gotten poor reviews, but I actually really enjoyed it.  I started it during the day and Doug finished watching it with me that evening.  Although it wasn't quite as good as the Jungle Book remake that we watched last week, it was still very entertaining.  I didn't miss the music as much as I thought I would since they played it in the background, but I could see why others complained about the absence of Eddie Murphy's dragon character.

Today's movie was Mary Poppins Returns.  It wasn't a remake, but a sequel instead.  Brett had seen it and wanted my opinion on it.  I think that we shared the same thoughts.  It was pretty disappointing.  The songs and scenes weren't near as fun as those in the original.  The exception was the last fifteen minutes as there was a surprise visit from Dick Van Dyke and Angela Lansbury.  I really enjoyed that and in the end I was glad to have watched it.  The best part of watching all of these movies hasn't been the films themselves, but instead discussing them with the rest of the Heinisch family afterward.  As Cal handed me the Bob Iger memoir that he thoroughly enjoyed reading (as did Brett), I realized that my love of Disney had rubbed off on all of them.  That made my heart smile.

There She Goes

 Meg left for Bloomington right after lunch today.  I cried as soon as she left, but got myself together fairly quickly.  I knew that she was more than ready to go, so instead of focusing on how much I would miss her, I thought about all of the fun that we had had these past few months.  The long walks, late night talks, grocery shopping trips, movie nights and family game time had been a wonderful way to pass the winter days.  One of the biggest positives of the pandemic was the added time that we got to spend with Meg these past ten months.  

That will change starting today.  Meg's return for her spring semester marked the last time that she would be home for an extended period time until August.  She will move into an apartment in June and take classes during the summer session at IU.  Thus, her time in Bloomington will only grow as her days in Syracuse wain.  I know that the thought of this was bittersweet for her.  She was excited to see her friends and gain more independence from us, but sad to think of leaving the security of home.  I was thankful for the morning to help her pack her car and to catch up with her before she left.  We talked hopefully of upcoming visits and what Rizzo would do without her.  I was glad that she already had made plans with her friends and had signed up for a Hoosier Catholic event this upcoming weekend.  I could hear in her voice how happy she was to be back in Bloomington when she called later that evening.  Nothing could be better than that.