That bicycle story above reminded me of the time I was going to a game to watch my daughter in HS and the referee was a cyclist who rode to his games. He clipped in on his bike and carried his gear in a drawstring backpack. His game shoes never made it into the bag. So he wore his bike shoes for the game. For those of us who ride, you’ll know bike shoes are the stiffest, most unyielding, and most cumbersome shoe to do anything but ride a bike in.
Possibly pollen related. I woke up this morning still with a sore throat. No congestion, though. Doesn't feel like a normal pollen attack. Glad for the day off. I would have gotten it anyway with the thunderstorms that came through.
That is comical. I just wear my ref running shoes and have a hiking backpack that I carry all my other stuff in.
Fellas, got an update for the tax situation In addition to the $2,700 federal and $600 state I owe for 2021, I also now have to dig up the can of worms of having the estimated tax payments for my 2022 return! 4 quarterly $707 federal payments and 3 $200 state payments! And hopefully I remember that I had to pay these next year! Hell yeah
For what it's worth, you can schedule payments in advance on the IRS website to be paid on those quarterly dates. Many state tax websites offer the same thing. That was you don't forget a payment.
I was put into the US Soccer Demosphere yesterday and was on a call with the LAC informing us that US Soccer is moving to that from GO. However, they are behind on the transition and all of the US Soccer games probably won't be in the system for this summer's season which means US Soccer assigned adult games will come from two places and I will have 4 places to maintain blocks
Here’s my bad story: I was supposed to have my first outdoor center of the year this Friday. Then I tested positive for COVID. Now I get to isolate (as my state calls it) until Sunday!
I am no longer self employed (well, reffing aside), but man was I awful at that. I never paid my estimates and ended up having to write a five figure check every April. Even at that level though, the actual penalty wasn't too crushing.
Yeah I already scheduled out all 4 of my state taxes. IRS only let me do two but that's because I don't have an account yet. Maybe when I get the card in the mail I can schedule the last one. But man, I just had to drop $2,800 federal, $600 state, then also make the $707 federal and $200 state estimated payments for 2022 at the same time as those are also due 4/18. $4,300 gone in a day.
I might have opted for barefoot (socks). Dress shoes when your ref shoes somehow didn't make it into your bag when you left for your real job in the morning don't work that well either.
JV boys, varsity girls and varsity boys triple header yesterday. Two man referee crew. I'm too old and out of shape for that crap. My partner and I had cheap Maxqualls comms and the batteries lasted all three games. And they were very helpful. JV boys, very few fouls, no cards. Varsity girls, very few fouls, no cards. Varsity boys...I stopped counting fouls at 20. Four yellows, one red, and very nearly a post game brawl. Now I get to solo a U12 girls game tonight. Here's hoping tonight's parents aren't as mouthy as last night's varsity boys players.
You know you've been refereeing for a long time when... you see an assistant coach - a grown-ass man - walking up to you and the ARs after the game and you know, before he gets close to you, that he's going to shake AR1's hand, make a show of skipping you, and then shake AR2's hand. Readers, my hand went one time unshook last night, and I remain devastated by the blow.
Yikes. I've done a few boys+girls varsity double-header duals, and i would not have wanted to do a third right away; not even JV or MS. I'd need time for mental and physical recovery to properly service that next game. The only HS triple-headers i've done were with 3-man crews. FWIW, at the few travel club tournaments that i do i'll do a max of four 11v11 matches per day with a break after two. As Harry Callahan so eloquently put it, "A man's gotta know his limitations." I accidentally got four games out of my set of v4/v6/v6 Maxquall/Ejeas units across two evenings - two were only 72' JV's - as i forgot to recharge them. I should have left them on to see how much longer they'd last. As far as contributing to "Bad Stories", somehow i've lost my primary referee watch. It was just a robic pro, but other than being hard to read sometimes at night on dimly lit fields, i was quite comfortable with it and it had never failed me. Now i'm likely facing 30 days of analysis paralysis trying to figure out what upgrade/smartwatch to get next....
I was hoping for a mercy rule shortened first game. 7-0 at halftime. 7-4 final. 200 minutes total. Thankfully they were in two hour blocks. 3:00, 5:00 and 7:00. So I had time in between games. But at 53 years old and 300+ lbs., it was too much.
We had a girls game today where literally every one of the 5 ref colors had a conflict. Home team was in black Away team was in a horrible jersey where the top half of the shirt was our red and the bottom half was our blue Home keeper had our yellow Visiting keeper had our green We ended up wearing yellow because obviously one keeper isn't enough to cause problems, but never had that before and hopefully never again.
Didn't have a great two game set yesterday. The forecast was for rain in the morning and dry in the afternoon. Turned out the other way. I get to the game and go to put in my contacts. I then realize that I left them on the counter in the bathroom. I did have a back up pair in the bag but they had been there so long that the contact solution had dried up. That left them with a scum around each contact, which I washed off and then put them in. It hurt, so that's not going to work. I had to wear a hat to keep most of the rain off my glasses. And it's in the low 40's. O-40 men, solo. One team is late but, by that time, I'm behind schedule getting ready too. No time to stretch before the game. Fortunately, I had brought my 'weather riter' which allowed me to check in the players against the rosters without getting the rosters soaked. Of course, one team didn't have numbers on their roster, so I had to collect that from every player. Mostly white bread v. Vietnamese, who were wearing Germany shirts. The second game, I was supposed to be AR2 for O-30 men. But no referee was assigned and the other guy had never done O-30's before and didn't want to be in the center, so I'm up again. It started raining more. One player comes on to sub for a teammate. He takes two steps onto the field and says, "Ow!", grabbing his calf. He had to go back to the bench and the guy he'd replaced had to return. Not a lot of issues in either game, one card each, SPA and non-violently pushing down an opponent during a dead ball. Eventually, it ended and I got to go home.
Well, had a doozie last night. HSGV, woke up to about 35° and gusty, light snow falling... Only got worse through the day. Winds gusting up to 40MPH by the afternoon and snow falling as well. Kept checking my email for the cancellation. It never came. School was about 35mi Northeast of me. During the ride the snow got worse, blowing sideways across the road. Show up and the lights were on. Walk down and met AD and asked if they really want to go through with this. He says the visiting team didn't want to travel again. So off we went, home team in maroon, visiting team is supposed to be white, but they want to wear their Red warm ups (long sleeve's). Both coaches come to me and say some of their girls won't have same color undershirts/pants. I say I don't care what they are wearing as long as they are warm and there are no zippers. So it is West Ham v Arsenal I guess and the color differences were not that bad for me. AD is out there on the turf field shoveling off the lines during the game, actually had a ball stay in bounds because it just ran along the groove of the shovel path. At halftime it was 0-0. 25° and 30MPH gusts still going across the field. Luckily it wasn't at one end sweeping across the pitch and not end to end. My AR2 had the worse of it because he was face into the wind the whole game. He came to me at halftime and asked if he could put on his jeans I again said, you wear whatever you want to stay warm. He came back with jeans and a winter jacket and put his shirt over. I get a good ball to the thigh about 10 minutes into second half, drop ball and off we go. One goal scored and game over. Girls were all in pretty good spirits after. I sure it was a fun experience for them for the most part. Something I am getting too old for.... Here is my snapchat of the evening... https://imgur.com/LoBY3py
Yeah I’m from a warm weather state. You aren’t catching me anywhere near snow. Lol Unless it’s in a cabin or lodge and I’m sipping coffee looking at it.
On Tuesday, I was officiating high jump at a high school track meet. Just as we were getting to start time, it started snowing. A couple of girls, with their hoods tight around their faces, come up to ask when we were starting. "When you are ready. You are up first." They did not clear four feet. With the rain and snow mixed, we had to scrape the ice and snow off the cross bar after every jump. It stopped snowing about the time the girls were done, but it kept up a cold wind during the boys.
Thought about it, but this in Northern WI. Girls season starts on April 1st. I have had 4 contracts already moved to different days late in the season. Happens at the start of every season for the girls. Then you get into seniors getting out of school about 3 weeks before all other kids and teams have a hard time keeping teams together at the end of the season. Games are REALLY bunched up in May. Both teams were ready to play and it wasn't like there are any scouts in the stands if you know what I mean.
The pit wasn't frozen, just the cover had a lot of very cold moisture. This was the kind of water that starts out as rain, goes through a cold layer and freezes and then comes down where it's about mid-30's temps, as either sleet or rain.