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If I'm lucky it will be midnight on June 15, 2020 by the time I finish this post. I have a lot of thought running through my head and if I can only get them down on "paper".

So much of the time I do not want to say anything, because I think it's, for lack of a better word, stupid, or maybe people don't care or maybe I am just flat out wrong. If I've learned anything in the last 13 years, at the very least I'm being stupid. I can't care what people think, especially here, I've shared almost every important thing in my life that has happened. I have to share this. My best thoughts, thinking is when I am as mad as I am now, and now it has become more important than ever. Six or seven years ago, it was just the beginning, we are far enough into things that I am seeing things, the way they really are, how people really are.

Indecisive to be polite, spineless, gutless, to be blunt.

I think about my grandfathers, often, daily. Not everything they did good, damn sure not everything they did bad.

They always knew what they were doing, no questions, and I make sick of living in this in between bull.

Are we having fun or are we competing? I know where I stand on things, everyone else seems to have no clue. I am out there for The Man, everyone else just benefits from it and everyone else is going to have to understand that from now.

I was just half second from getting to the good stuff, but it reminded me of the most important issue that is bothering me.

A conversation between me and my brother in law. Not a soul in the world but the two of us. No one could hear, no one would know it ever occurred, expect here. There is one player on this team that is a leader, the leader. And here's my most important point. I have been influenced, biased, by conversations I have heard, and then I watch everything from several different perspectives.

My own, number one. Through the camera lens. Through the eyes of John and Chuck, my grandfathers. There are the guys that just don't have that IT factor, there are guys who are the troublemakers and there are the guys who just float in the middle. There is one guy that everyone flocks to, that one guy who puts everyone on an even keel, that one guy when he collapses the house of cards comes down with him. Someone needs to make it clear to him that he is THAT GUY. I am done waiting for coaches or parents or teachers to realize this.

He makes Miles Davis look like Steve Urkel.



About 3 inches from a Grand Slam on this hit. It landed on the warning track, he's playing with his buddies and he loves it, but they are anchors around his neck.

This is what I live for right here, this one of the best pictures I have taken all season so far, and it will always be one of the best pictures I have ever taken. He joined the team last season, he's gone to school with the boys since kindergarten. I only really knew him by the name. I haven't had much interaction with him. This is him rounding third base on the first home run he has ever hit. The kid is about to bust, if a picture says 1,000 words, they are all a synonym for joy. I went into the dugout and he gave me the hardest high-five I have gotten from anyone on the team. He may not know who I am, but he came charging up to me and slapped my hand.

A lot of the parents are shooting the at-bats through the fence and they get video and I hope they do it's great, but this picture, this emotion, I can still fell the exhilaration of the whole team celebrating. And that's where my problem is, something amazing happened and everyone forgets, but I have it capture for the rest of human history and maybe beyond.


And then I have something like this, completely goofy and having fun and you know what happened after all of this jackassery? They went out and beat the number one seed in a tournament to go to the championship game.


I don't even need to say anything about this, hard work, effort, hustle. The Man being The Man.

So I will say this so everyone is SURE. That was one play, he drove the ball deep to right field and busted his butt around the bases for a Charlie Hustle-esq dive into 3rd base for a triple. And for all you baseball fanatics, we have one kid on the team with three homeruns and Bub still has the highest Slugging Percentage on the team because he works for every inch on that field. He has come so close to a several homeruns this season.

Whoa, Bub has really grown up! Glad to see them playing, so many activities have been cancelled by us.

Where's Miss Ryanne?

lime rickie wrote: ↑June 15, 2020 5:30 pm Whoa, Bub has really grown up! Glad to see them playing, so many activities have been cancelled by us.

Where's Miss Ryanne?

Okay, yes, he has first off. It's amazing how much they have grown, he's a TEENAGER now.

I'm going to go into a deep dive on my next post, because they were just elevated to a Triple A team this week, something we have been working towards and I couldn't be more excited. We are lucky to have baseball, I think football may be cancelled in the fall. We've had teams from South Dakota, Oklahoma, Colorado coming to our tournaments.

Miss Ryanne has been distracted. She spent a week at my parents place because they got a new puppy and she likes animals much more than people. So she has been spending time with them swimming and swimming with Maggie.



She was going to play softball this year and they cancelled it immediately and she is such a competitor, she would play Rec the first season and probably be on AAA team the next. Kelby, brother in law, was pitching to her before everything started shutting down and she was bombing everything thrown to her. I had a great logo designed for her team, the Dirty Diamonds, it was probably some of my best work.

And for a someone who didn't want anything to do with me from the time she was 1 until she was about 6, she calls and texts me all the time. I think she realizes how much I hate people as much as she does.

So, yeah her and Maggie are swimming and painting and doing anything else because this whole world has lost its mind.

I come on here and make rants about poor performances from the Ravens and the coaches, which are much, much tamer than what I tell my parents after some games. If I leave no other legacy on this planet I need to share why I am the way I am, why I am who I am, why I feel the way I feel.

This is going to be a three separate posts.

John, my father's father.

John was born to immigrants, they came from Sweden to Canada to Minnesota. John was born in Minnesota, it was not until after he passed that I found out he had a younger brother. I have no idea what happened to his brother, and no one knows what happened to his father. Sometime after the age of four and before he was six, his father disappeared and I cannot find any records, except a 1920 census that mentions his father or brother.

His mother was not a good mother, my dad and my eldest aunt knew her and had nothing good to say about her. Again until after John had passed I knew very little about her. She passed on my 4th birthday, but I never met her.

I do know that she had a tattoo and that embarrassed my grandfather, he hated tattoos. Guess which one of his 7 grandchildren doesn't have a tattoo.

Funny story, after he had passed, my sister, my grandmother and I were sitting at the kitchen table. Emily told grandma that she wanted to get his initials tattooed on herself. She asked grandma, what John would think about that. Grandma told her you know how he felt about them. She insisted on honoring him. Grandma said, "Well, you know who else's those initials are?" And she winked at me. That was the first time I realized we shared the same initials. I was rolling.

Back to John, after his father disappeared, his mother sent him to an orphanage. He ran away several times, until they chained him to a bathtub. His grandmother finally took him out of there and kept him when she could afford keeping him. He had an uncle, similar age, they spent most of their time working, not much education beyond elementary school. They worked for the gangsters out of Chicago, running them across the lakes in their boats in the summer, their trucks in the winter.

His mother took him to Oregon, probably around the age Bub is now. I have no idea what he did in Oregon until he was drafted for World War II. I only know two stories from his time in the war. He drove landing crafts in the Pacific theatre and he said he spent more time in the water than out of it. The other, he was on a beach and he heard, "Hey Jack!" He was Papa or Grandpa John, I didn't know he went by Jack as a young man. It was his uncle, the man he grew up with and had not seen in a decade.

After the war, he joined the geodetic survey, which brought him to Kansas and a young woman who wanted to know who had the convertible, the 1940 Ford convertible, did not matter who it was, she was marrying him and she did. They traveled the country together, went to Oklahoma, had a daughter, to Texas and had a son(my father), back to Kansas and had another daughter, over to Ethiopia and had another son. She flew those kids around the world while John worked. He has more stories than I can begin to type here. He was held a spear point for several days by an African tribe that had never seen a white man before, they sent a runner to find out about them, and they were permitted to be there.

He wasn't a well educated man, but he learned calculus and trig on his own to give reports to M.I.T. and Ivy League graduates.

He worked for his family, so they could have what he did not. He finally retired back to a small town in Kansas and bought a gas station. He would sit out in front of that station, the old farmers would complain about the hippies running around. John would sit there with his bandana wrapped around his head, his old mutt at his feet, and he would tell the old farmers, "They're just kids, they're having fun.

Part 2: The Chuck-ster

Charles, Chuck, Charlie, Chas - My mother's father.

Chuck didn't grow up with much more than John did. More stable family environment, both parents, several brothers. Education level about the same. Chuck was drafted, went to the Pacific for the Navy, I don't think he quite the stories John did, did not see much action. When he came back to Kansas, he wanted to get in the oil industry. He was passionate about oil. He bought a couple of rigs, and did that for several years, but he did not want to be a driller, he wanted to be a producer.

Before the war, he worked in the oil fields. Seventy-five cents a day and he had to pay a quarter for a ride to the fields. So, after drilling he tires his hand at producing. He's not very successful. In the late 60's/early 70's he goes out to Nevada and take a menial job. But the passion and desire for oil is still lingering over his head. He comes back to Kansas.

Now, Chuck wasn't the easiest to get along with, especially if you worked for him or ticked him off, which was pretty easy. I heard a story of him firing a guy that worked for another company once. Mom wanted to get away from him and she was planning on until my dad walked into the dentists office she where she was working. Much like John and Anne, Terry and Becky were off seeing the world, on the geodetic survey.

So, grandpa is buying land and drilling wells, and around the time a little mini-series comes on, he starts to hit oil. You might have heard of it, it was called Dallas. Those early days kept him afloat through the bad years until the Gulf War.

Now, my parents knew immediately they were goin to name my sister, Emily, they had no ideas for me. They're discussing it one night, watching Dallas, and mom suggests, Dustin. She babysat a kid name Dustin, Dusty, everyone called him Doobie. She thought it was cute, dad so no way in hell. Well, let's watch Dallas, we'll come up with a name. They are watching those excellent opening credits with that iconic theme song and they see a name. Jared Martin. Jared, they like that, but dad hates the way it's spelled. But they agree on the name Jerred, and who did Jared Martin play? Steven "Dusty" Harlow.

Grandpa had worked his hardest to build an oil company and it was finally successful, during the Gulf War, he was selling 1,000 barrels of oil a day at $40 a barrel. He never gave up on his dream, he never gave up on what he was passionate about.

Shoulda, coulda, woulda, I wish I could back and take advantage and truly respect the man for his passion. He was always a sharp man, good looking dude. He bought me a treadmill two years before he passed and I barely even looked at the damn thing. Like Pacino in the Devil's Advocate, his favorite sin was vanity. Even if his personality wasn't the most pleasant, he always looked good.

To try and tie all of this together, I ignored the great inspiration around. Whether it was to be successful in business or to be successful in life. To give the next generation what you did not. We all have been so bloody complacent. I accepted the fact that I was going to morbidly obese for the short time I would be on this planet. Because I was not going to have a long life as fat as I was.

And now what are we doing, we are worrying about the sins of the previous generations, not focusing on anything and everything good they did before us. Not realizing the good they showed us. Not to be passionate about life, about the greatness this world as to offer. No, absolutely not, let's worry about the bad, let's focus on the bad, we can put all the blame on the bad and not go out there and scratch and claw for our absolute best. Because working for our absolute best is too hard.

Two weeks ago the Ravens played in the Kansas State Tournament and they played awful. They lost their first pool game and had a tie in their second pool game. They're sitting at 0-1-1 and looking at being eliminated from bracket play. We had a rain delay and our game was pushed back until about noon. I walked into my Emily and Kelby's house. Bub is on the couch, Ryanne is up in her room TikToking , my sister and brother in law are in the kitchen dreading being eliminated. I don't say a word, I just start jumping up and down.

"We are going to go out there and smoke this third pool play game and we are by GOD making it bracket. We're getting in the bracket! We're getting in the bracket! We're getting in the bracket!" I said.

The Ravens went out and smoked the team and then that afternoon we watched all the games come across the board. Kelby and I are doing the math and watching the games. And sure as h*** the last game comes in and we are the 16th team out of 16 in the bracket. We have to go from possible elimination to jumping through our nose to get out to the field and taking on the number 1 seed in the tournament. This team we faced scored 40 runs in three pool games and only gave up 1. Those Ravens went out there and only allowed 1, one, ONE run to cross the plate. We knocked off the number 1 seed and continued on to Sunday play, we made it to the semi-finals, they busted their butts and just ran out of gas.

Bub is probably the shortest guy on the team, he has a lot more power than most, and definitely more desire than the rest. We were playing on 330 ft. fields. I know that because the fields are used for drunken softball tournaments. Bub flied one to the warning track on those fields, by far the longest hit of anyone on the team. If the other team hadn't been playing so deep against us, he would have had an inside the park homerun. That's one problem I have, they can put up snow fencing around the playgrounds, but not at reasonable depth for homeruns.

And that is all I ask out of anyone, give everything you got, leave it on the field. Leave it on the court. Leave it on the running trail.

I hated that they didn't win the tournament, but I loved how they played in the bracket. When they are on, AIN'T NO ONE CAN BEAT THEM.

And that's why I am so fanatical about them, even if Bub wasn't the incredible player he is, I would be this radical about them. If you don't believe that people are put on this planet to inspire you are wrong. If it wasn't for Bub I wouldn't post this picture, my absolute worst to my absolute best.

To try and tie all of this together, I ignored the great inspiration around. Whether it was to be successful in business or to be successful in life. To give the next generation what you did not. We all have been so bloody complacent. I accepted the fact that I was going to morbidly obese for the short time I would be on this planet. Because I was not going to have a long life as fat as I was.

And now what are we doing, we are worrying about the sins of the previous generations, not focusing on anything and everything good they did before us. Not realizing the good they showed us. Not to be passionate about life, about the greatness this world as to offer. No, absolutely not, let's worry about the bad, let's focus on the bad, we can put all the blame on the bad and not go out there and scratch and claw for our absolute best. Because working for our absolute best is too hard.

Two weeks ago the Ravens played in the Kansas State Tournament and they played awful. They lost their first pool game and had a tie in their second pool game. They're sitting at 0-1-1 and looking at being eliminated from bracket play. We had a rain delay and our game was pushed back until about noon. I walked into my Emily and Kelby's house. Bub is on the couch, Ryanne is up in her room TikToking , my sister and brother in law are in the kitchen dreading being eliminated. I don't say a word, I just start jumping up and down.

"We are going to go out there and smoke this third pool play game and we are by GOD making it bracket. We're getting in the bracket! We're getting in the bracket! We're getting in the bracket!" I said.

The Ravens went out and smoked the team and then that afternoon we watched all the games come across the board. Kelby and I are doing the math and watching the games. And sure as h*** the last game comes in and we are the 16th team out of 16 in the bracket. We have to go from possible elimination to jumping through our nose to get out to the field and taking on the number 1 seed in the tournament. This team we faced scored 40 runs in three pool games and only gave up 1. Those Ravens went out there and only allowed 1, one, ONE run to cross the plate. We knocked off the number 1 seed and continued on to Sunday play, we made it to the semi-finals, they busted their butts and just ran out of gas.

Bub is probably the shortest guy on the team, he has a lot more power than most, and definitely more desire than the rest. We were playing on 330 ft. fields. I know that because the fields are used for drunken softball tournaments. Bub flied one to the warning track on those fields, by far the longest hit of anyone on the team. If the other team hadn't been playing so deep against us, he would have had an inside the park homerun. That's one problem I have, they can put up snow fencing around the playgrounds, but not at reasonable depth for homeruns.

And that is all I ask out of anyone, give everything you got, leave it on the field. Leave it on the court. Leave it on the running trail.

I hated that they didn't win the tournament, but I loved how they played in the bracket. When they are on, AIN'T NO ONE CAN BEAT THEM.

And that's why I am so fanatical about them, even if Bub wasn't the incredible player he is, I would be this radical about them. If you don't believe that people are put on this planet to inspire you are wrong. If it wasn't for Bub I wouldn't post this picture, my absolute worst to my absolute best.

When I hear I can't, I lose my mind, when I hear that's impossible, I am enraged. I don't believe in those two words, and I won't tolerate them.

Amazing transformation, Jerred.

Too funny that your name is based on "Dallas". Make sure you document all those stories for future generations.

lime rickie wrote: ↑July 9, 2020 7:50 pm Amazing transformation, Jerred.

Too funny that your name is based on "Dallas". Make sure you document all those stories for future generations.

LOL Thanks, I've been trying to record all these stories, my grandparents, my parents and mine.

Too the important stuff, Bub had a night, last night. He's been itching to pitch. He got the night off from behind the plate, finally got in, for a batter. Shut him down, struck him out, pitching real heat. They have another game tomorrow, hopefully he gets a couple of innings if he's not catching. I love taking pictures, I love capturing that one moment, or 1400. But it sure is exciting to see everyone's reaction to him.

Video!

https://ezrelic.com/assets/view_events. ... ,+Field+16

In a world that has gone insane, I can deal with, a world that has gone stupid, I struggle.

I say it all the time, but it doesn't make it any less true. Bub continues to elevate, not just as ballplayer, but a young man.

I feel like this something I am doing to brag on myself, and I hope it's clear that I am not. These baseball rules are insane from when I was that age, but at 13 they have to use a specific size bat and I offered to buy the team a couple of bats. Not only because the main reason I am out there is team's best player is my main man, but because I love getting to shoot and watch the team. They only have to use a certain size bat for this season and then they have to change next season. Why wouldn't I contribute?

Went out to dinner last night with the head coach, he said Bub is throwing, from catcher to second base, better at 80 feet than he did at 70 feet. I didn't need to hear the coach say that, but I loved hearing it from him. He has hasn't been a rocket, he's been a sniper. Yesterday he threw out three guys trying to steal. Why did the other team keep running on him? He did the same damn thing the night before.

Bub and the pitcher ran into each other and it jacked Bub's jaw, but he's still too pretty. He came out for an inning then went back into catch and threw out three more runners. That was after coming in the first game of double header down 6-1 to, he did not allow a run. His E.R.A., for the whole of summer and into fall is 0.00. He has not allowed a run and barely a baserunner. He walked one guy, Saturday night, left him stranded at third.

He is simultaneously our #1 catcher and our #1 pitcher.















The umpire called the runner safe, I thought the coaches were going to start a riot. I was ready, seen plenty of them.

Ryanne is supposed to play volleyball this fall, fingers crossed. She did get to spend a whole tournament with her best friend, who's brother was playing in the same tournament. And I did get a couple of pictures of them before they realized it.

The kids look great, Jerred!

Can't read it all tonight, but LOVE the pictures of the kids and, of course, YOU!!! Thank you for sharing, again.

Bub is so awesome he is going to throw a mad pitch, race to the plate and grab a bat, pop up a foul and then catch it himself for the out.

Jerred's head will explode.

johnson2113 wrote: ↑September 14, 2020 11:22 am In a world that has gone insane, I can deal with, a world that has gone stupid, I struggle.

I say it all the time, but it doesn't make it any less true. Bub continues to elevate, not just as ballplayer, but a young man.

I feel like this something I am doing to brag on myself, and I hope it's clear that I am not. These baseball rules are insane from when I was that age, but at 13 they have to use a specific size bat and I offered to buy the team a couple of bats. Not only because the main reason I am out there is team's best player is my main man, but because I love getting to shoot and watch the team. They only have to use a certain size bat for this season and then they have to change next season. Why wouldn't I contribute?

Went out to dinner last night with the head coach, he said Bub is throwing, from catcher to second base, better at 80 feet than he did at 70 feet. I didn't need to hear the coach say that, but I loved hearing it from him. He has hasn't been a rocket, he's been a sniper. Yesterday he threw out three guys trying to steal. Why did the other team keep running on him? He did the same damn thing the night before.

Bub and the pitcher ran into each other and it jacked Bub's jaw, but he's still too pretty. He came out for an inning then went back into catch and threw out three more runners. That was after coming in the first game of double header down 6-1 to, he did not allow a run. His E.R.A., for the whole of summer and into fall is 0.00. He has not allowed a run and barely a baserunner. He walked one guy, Saturday night, left him stranded at third.

He is simultaneously our #1 catcher and our #1 pitcher.















The umpire called the runner safe, I thought the coaches were going to start a riot. I was ready, seen plenty of them.

Ryanne is supposed to play volleyball this fall, fingers crossed. She did get to spend a whole tournament with her best friend, who's brother was playing in the same tournament. And I did get a couple of pictures of them before they realized it.

Oh my gosh, can't believe how big they're getting!

P.s. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

I ran around with her and her neighbors yesterday, she is the big kid in the group. Bub was on the PS4 all day after baseball practice.

She's the big kid on the block running things now.