Fantasy is for me (at least it used to be)

I love playing fantasy football. I’ve been playing for almost 10 years now. Most of the time I’ve managed 1 team at a time, but have had as many as 4. The basics of fantasy football are simple at their core, you get points based on the performance of the players on your roster. The most important part of the fantasy season is your pre-draft preparation. I usually start sorting through statistics and injury reports in May or June and add in mini-camp info and pre-season performances before finally settling on the players that I want to draft. The league has a commissioner that sets the date of the draft and handles all of the league transactions. Typically, the draft takes place late in August.

Those of you that know me, know that I’ve been really busy with work and what-not this year, so you know where this is heading, right? Well, I’m in a league with my brother-in-law where he is the commish. I asked him last week Monday when the draft was and he said that it would be in a couple weeks. Great, I thought to myself, I have a couple weeks to cram 3 months worth of prep work into. I got a text message from him at 9:00 last Wednesday that the draft was to be that Friday. He has a habit of pulling my leg when it comes to this type of thing so I took him at his first statement that the draft was in a couple weeks. I WAS WRONG! He called me Friday at 4:00, while I was still working, to tell me that my sister would be over at 6:15 to watch the kids. Great, I thought, I have 2 hours to finish fixing the elevator, rush to find a fantasy football magazine and drive the hour to his house.

Well, I made it to the draft and I was only 1/2 hour late. When I got there I found out that our league almost doubled in size and more importantly, I wasn’t prepared at all. I felt like I showed up to a final exam without having payed attention all year long. I have a feeling that this is going to be a bad year. I now know, more than ever, how important preparation is.

New philosophy

That’s it, I’ve had it!!! Just when I thought everything was slowing down, WHACK the levee burst. For those of you that don’t know, I repair/maintain elevators for a living. I currently have about 55 units that I maintain each month, not alot by anyone’s standard. I’m supposed to visit each one once a month, so that means I have to see at least 14 a week to be done each month. They are spread out from Portage, Indiana all the way to Gurnee, Illinois. Notice that I said I have to repair them also. If a unit shuts down, I have to finish what I’m doing and go fix that one. Well today is August 8th and I have a whopping 4 units done. The last 2 weeks the trolls have been playing games with me. Seriously, I feel like someone is going around messing with my elevators. I was up by Gurnee when I got a call that a unit in downtown Chicago was down, so I turned around and drove there. I got that one fixed and was headed back up north when I got a call in Oak Lawn, again I turned around and went there. Some of my accounts require appointments to be set up in advance. Needless to say, I’ve had to break the same appointments twice this week alone. Frustrating I tell Ya!! OK I feel better now.

While I’m on a ranting rampage, I shall continue. In addition to being an “elevator guy”, I’m also an avid bass fisherman and I have a degree in biology.

In one of my previous posts, I mentioned that I would talk about the effects of fertilizer on lakes, rivers and ponds later. Well it is later now, so here goes. I know we all love to have a beautiful lawn, but did you ever stop to think about the effects of the lawn products you use on our environment? Last month we had a tournament at Lake Wisconsin in Wisconsin. When we pulled up to the launch on Friday morning we were greeted by a layer of stinky green goo on the water. We launched the boat and went to have a look around the lake. The green goo was everywhere. It was in fact a blue-green algae bloom. Algae blooms are perpetuated by phosphorus and nitrogen that get carried into bodies of water by rain. To humans, algae blooms are just annoying at first, but can become rather destructive to an environment. As the algae reproduce, the layer gets thicker and the bottom layer begins to die off. When this algae dies, it gives off a toxin that kills fish and makes the water inhospitable to life. The algae layer blocks sunlight which kills other plants that produce oxygen for the water. The result, a stinky mess that smells like rotting flesh and stains everything it comes in contact with. These blooms can’t be controlled by algaecides either, as the addition of those chemicals may actually make matters worse. I can’t make anybody stop using fertilizers, all I can do is ask that you stop and think before you use them. You are right, one house won’t make a difference, but look around and spread the word.

Good Night and God Bless!

Where in the world is Les

Holy cow, It’s already July 27th. I can’t believe it has been 17 days since my last post. As you can probably guess I’ve been busier that a pooper scooper at a dog show. What have I been doing, you say? Hmmm (stretching out my fingers). Well, obviously I’ve been working like a mad man to catch up after my “forced vacation”, I’ve fished 2 bass tournaments (didn’t finish anywhere near the top) and I just got home from my father-in-law’s house. This past week was the worst as I didn’t get home before 10 PM any night, as a matter of fact I got home from work at 1:30AM Saturday morning and left for my in-law’s house slightly after 9 AM.

Work is work and there’s no sense in talking about it. My first tourney was at the beautiful Cal-Sag canal. Of couse, I say that dripping with sarcasm. I spent 3 hours fishing in front of a garbage dump (literally). The tournament itself was alright, but the events at the end were really nasty. I was due back at the weigh-in at 2:15 and when I pulled up there were paramedics surrounding my brother’s boat. I watched as they took someone out on a stretcher. At first, I thought it was my brother, but the legs were too big. I realized it was his partner. I pulled up to his boat to see the front of it smashed in completely, it was totaled. Somehow his boat hit the shore around 50 mph. I don’t know how it happened, but thank God everyone was alive and well. My brother hit his head/chest on the console, bending the steering wheel, but he made it out with a sore neck. His partner partially tore 2 of the ligaments in his knee when his legs hit the console, again thank God it wasn’t more serious and no surgery was required. After all that, I didn’t even get to weigh in a fish. To add insult to injury, I had to take my brothers place and act as a release boat, which meant I had to release the fish that the other guys caught. Oh well, such is life.

The other tourney went much better, there were no injuries and I got to weigh in fish both days. I won’t bore you with the details yet, but later I will rant on the effects fertilizer has on lakes, rivers and streams (we’ll just say that it STINKS).

I do know that I miss my Crossroads family as I haven’t seen them in 3 weeks now, sorry folks I will be gone 1 more weekend. I promise I’ll be back (that’s a promise, not a threat)

Never know when we’ll meet again, so farewell for now.

Yippie!!!

Hi ho, Hi ho, it’s off to work I go …. Thank the Lord, I was called back to work today and what a day it was. Overtime on my first day back was an unexpected blessing. I hate traffic. Did I mention that I hate traffic, if not, I HATE TRAFFIC! It took me over 3 hours to get home from Lake Forest.

Since my last post I read a book that I borrowed from a friend entitled Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson, M.D. It was a quick read that got me thinking about my situation. I highly recommend it to anyone that has experienced a recent change in their lives.

Well it’s time to retire for the night. Until we meet again, farewell my friends

Friends and the Lord

Thank the Lord for your true friends daily! Matt’s sermon on Sunday dealt with the “valleys” that we all must walk through in our lives and how God helps us through those times. This sermon really hit home as I’ve been dealing with a hard time at work. I am employed by a small family business that services elevators, escalators and handicap lifts. I’ve been asked to take some time off while the company takes care of some matters. With the economy the way it is, I was a little weary but I figured a couple of days wouldn’t kill me. I had some things to take care of around the house, so I got busy right away. I have now completed all of those little projects that never quite got finished.

When we were all called into the office, we were given the “news” and were told we should be back to work today. We agreed that we would be back to the office at 7am today, well we met today and found out that it will be a couple more days. I was a little bummed out so I went and talked with Matt. He and I talked for a while about God and the possible doors that he may be opening and/or closing to me. We prayed and shared a few laughs. I left there feeling much better about any of the challenges that I may be facing in the near future. Thanks Matt and more importantly, thank You Father!

Happy day after the 4th!

I love the 4th of July, especially the fireworks! If you’ve ever taken a child into a toy store and looked at the expression on their face, that is how I am when I go to a firework store. My favorites are the cakes and pre-loaded tubes, and that is usually all I get. Needless to say, I got a few for this year and I was quite impressed by the quality of the items I selected(mental note: get more for next year).

Today my brother and I headed out for a good day of fishing on Lake Michigan. We got a late start due to last night’s activities, so I missed the sunrise over the water (sorry Bob). I got to eat a large piece of humble pie as my brother spanked me in total fish caught, hey that’s why it’s called fishing not catching. I did however beat him in one thing, total square inches of sunburn.

I’m looking forward to Bible study and the service tomorrow morning. Well, I’m beat so it is time to say goodnight.

Hello World!!!

Well, I finally got conned into trying this, so here is my “birth”.

My name is Les, I’m 31 years old and I’m a father of 3 beautiful children. Oh yeah, I’ve got a “smokin hot” wife named Lori.