A sad day in Tulsa

As many of you have heard, our nephew Kyle Herren was killed the other week in a motorcycle accident near Tulsa. Sharon spent much of last week in Tulsa with her sister, Lisa, and her husband, Kent. She went down a week ago Sunday with her sister, Donna, and sister-in-law, Julie.
Kyle was 22 and had just graduated from OU last May with a degree in mechanical engineering. He was working in Tulsa and starting to look for his own house. He was just starting to enter that next phase of his life when he died.
The girls and I went down to Tulsa last Tuesday for a viewing at the funeral home. The funeral was Wednesday morning. All of Sharon's brothers and sisters and most of the Kyle's cousins were able to make it (Conor could not). It was a tough service. Kent spoke, as did Kyle's girlfriend and his younger brother Zach, who is a sophomore at OU. They were pretty close and hung out together at OU last year when Zach was a freshman.
Lisa and Kent have a lot of good friends down there, who took a lot of the Bohn family in Tuesday night. We spent the night at the house of a woman who it turns out grew up in Windsor (I asked her whether she was Canadian when she kept telling her dog to get "oot" of the kitchen while we were eating breakfast). She is a big Red Wings fan and knew where Stoney Point is. Like all Canadians, she was very gracious.
Please keep Kyle and his family in your prayers.

Feels It, Fires It, Fills It

On Nov. 12, I attended the annual Philanthropy Day Dinner at the Dearborn Hyatt to hand out the Neal Shine Media Award for Commitment in Philanthropy. This year's winner was the voice of the Detroit Pistons, George Blaha. He has raised nearly $1 million for a women's shelter, and also works with a few local basketball-related groups in and around the city. He was very nice and had kind words to say about Dad. So did some of the other honorees (Art Van and former GM chair Lloyd Reuss) as well as emcee Mary Kramer of Crain's Detroit. (FYI - Members of the Pistons dance team, Automotion, did not accept the award with George).

"9-1-1. What's your emergency?"

While Kim was trying to get an email sent out, she let Maeve play with the phone. A minute later she could hear this faint voice saying "Hello? Hello?" She thought Maeve had hit redial and it was me on the phone. When she picked it up and said hello, the woman said, "This is 911. What's your emergency?" Kim quickly explained what happened but the police are still required to answer the call. Sure enough, there was a knock on the door a moment later. When the cop was satisfied with Kim's explanation, he called off the other two cars that were speeding to our home. Bad, but perhaps not as bad as when Juliana hit the 911 button on the cottage phone and the poor OPP cop had to drive out to the cottage from Belle River to make sure all was OK.

Tigers black eye

Thought I'd share mine and Mark's Halloween costumes this year.  People who got it loved them, people who don't follow the news or sports mostly asked if we go beat up.  Sigh.

And in action:

State of despair

The Northwest volleyball team's trip to the state tournament was short but sweet. Northwest lost all three of its matches and didn't advance to bracket play. Alaina had a good time, even though she was playing on an infected pinkie toe. The team got to play in an arena that holds about 8,000 people, which was cool (there were plenty of empty seats.)
Northwest lost in two games to Olathe South, 25-19 both times. The other team had a 6-foot girl who was just a stud. Whenever it needed a point, she got the set, either in front or the back row. Against No. 2 Manhattan, Northwest led 22-20 but lost 25-22. It lost the second game 25-23. Manhattan wound up finishing third in the tournament. In the final match, Northwest won the first game against Blue Valley North 25-22. In the second game, it trailed 17-15 when Alaina made a service error (her only one of the day). It came at a bad time and Northwest sort of unraveled after that, losing 25-16. The team looked tired in the third game and got pounded 25-11. Of course, the fact that it was 10:30 p.m. might have had something to do with. Tom, Sharon and Aunt Donna didn't get back to Wichita until 1 a.m. Alaina and the team spent the night. Laura spent the night at her friend Hannah's house so she would be well rested for her soccer game the next day (it must have worked; her team is now 6-0-1 this fall). Alaina will take a day or two off and then start basketball conditioning. That season begins Friday, Dec. 4, against rival Bishop Carroll.
The photo is from last year, but Alaina likes it because it shows off her guns.

Going to state

Alaina's volleyball team qualified for the state tournament over the weekend. It is, we think, only the school's second trip to state since it was formed in 1978. Her team was seeded fourth going into substate and had to win two matches to qualify. Her team beat the host team, Campus High School (think Roseville only with more employment), in straight sets in the first match. Campus was pretty good blocking (three 6-footers) but not good in the back or on offense.
In the second match, they played Goddard, a suburban district near west Wichita. Goddard was the No. 1 seed and 30-6 coming in. Alaina has played basketball with a couple of the players on their team over the years. Northwest thumped them pretty good in the first game and then scored the last three points in the second game to win 26-24. The girls were pretty excited. Laura was, too, when she realized she might get a free celebratory meal out of it. Tom got a little verklempt.
Next is the state tournament Friday and Saturday in beautiful Topeka. Northwest is the No. 6 seed out of eight teams. The tournament is two, four-team pools, which play a straight round-robin on Friday. Top two from each pool advance to Saturday's semifinals. Northwest will play Manhattan (No. 2), Olathe South (No. 3) and Blue Valley North (No. 7). The last two schools are from suburban Kansas City, which tends to dominate this tournament.

Gift of Reading

Kudos to Ted for picking up the "Gift of Reading" column mantle from his uncles Dan and Tom (previous GoR columnists). His column on Grandpa Neal and the importance of supporting the Gift of Reading program ran in the Sunday, Oct. 25 edition of the Free Press. He was a little bummed that the Freep ran an old (2007) photo of him even though they took a new one of him at the Shining Light breakfast earlier in the month. Just another lesson to Ted that the newspaper business can drive you crazy. Read Ted's column here: http://www.freep.com/article/20091025/OPINION05/910250432/