Week 23-Happy New Years

Happy New Year from MAUI 2010!

These two fabulous photos are taken on the same day in Maui at 6:30 PM. The sun was setting and the moon was rising. The photos were taken within 3 minutes of each other. Arley and I wish all of our friends and family a very Happy New Year with much love, health and happiness to all in the coming year!

By the end of this Hawaiin trip Arley will be handstanding in one of the photos with me!

Photographer: Arley Donovan

Week 22-Colored Lights

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Scene Set-up: Arley and Jack Donovan

Photographer: Jack Donovan

Week 21-Wrappin' up the Short Course Meter Season!

Coaching the ABC Gray Sharks Masters Swim Team is a pleasure! Posing with me here are just a few of the sharks! We get up at 5 in the morning to arrive at the pool by 6:00 to swim 3000-4000 yards. All of this to stay in shape to compete in 2 major swim meets a year! Most events cover just 200 yards or less! These swimmer guys and gals infiltrate my mind more than they know. If I had to project what I would have been doing as a 40+ year old when I was 20, I never would have imagined I would be a leader of 100 swimmers ages 25-90. I am truly blessed all of these people a part of my life! Thank you!

We finish up the end of each swim session with a beastly game of waterpolo where our competitive spirits really become exposed. The rules of waterpolo really don't apply to The Gray Sharks. Most, but not all, escape without scratches, bruises and bloody noses, but if you want to play you gotta be tough!

Photographer: Tracey Bird

Sharks from left to right: Lissa, Ilene, Dave, Ben (hidden), Steve, Kirsten, Andrew, Amy, Don,Mike, Steve and Dudley.

Just a few stats New England SCM@BU 2009:

Sharks came in 3rd place

4th place overall

2 men were in the top 10 highest point scorers out of over 400 male swimmers

2 of our swimmers broke New England records in the 200, 400 and 800 free and the 50, 100, and 200 breast

1 record was broken in the womens 4x100 free relay which we previously held.

We entered 50 swimmers in the meet.

Over 20 swimmers had best times or established their first swim time ever!

Week 20-It's good (and bad) to have followers!

Well, it appears some of my faithful followers feel that the premise of this blog has been compromised by my Week 18 entry, even to the point that they are threatening to stop following my entries on the basis that the intergrity of my statment has been jeopardized. Damn those followers for keeping me honest! If I may just lay down my excuses, perhaps the Blog Police will have mercy on me! See the little hats in this photo, on the foot rest? I have been in a knitting frenzy! There have been 5 babies born since Nov 16th and I am trying to knit hats for all of the little newborns! And let's not forget Thanksgiving dinner! Now that I have accomplished all of those goals, back to blogging without compromising!

Congratulations to The Wrights (Tom the 3rd), The Littles (Lea), The Barretts (Jake and Ethan) and The Abrhams (Tyler) on all of their new babies.

Photographer: Dan Donovan

Blog Police: Ben McBride

Post CCHS playoffs

Sadly, the end of the season. Masconomet 18 CCHS 6.

What a season GUYS! You should be proud! We are!

Week 19 Go Patriots!

After a rough start to the 2009 football season the CCHS Football team has put themselves in position to become league champions! Tonight they go up against Masconomet at Cawley Stadium in Lowell. If we win tonight, we then head to Gillette Stadium for the high school super bowl! This hasn't been done at CCHS in over 20 years! Many of these boys have been playing together since Concord Pop Warner was reestablished in 2004. GO PATRIOTS! Congrats to all of the players, coaches, parents and pop warner coaches who put so much time and energy into the making of this great team!

Photographer: Tracey Bird

Assistant Fence Jumper: Jerry Moss

Week 18-From the Archives-Officer Polite & Kind

Policemen scare me! They don't smile, they carry guns, they have big egos and have to appear bad ass, but look at Mr Officer Polite and Kind. He must do this as a part time gig, he probably works as a matrie d at some fancy hotel the rest of the time. I am sure he has another job because he is way to nice. Here, back at the Plymouth Tri, I asked Officer P&K if he wouldn't mind humoring me and my gang in taking a photo for my handstand blog. He obliged without hesitation. We waited for the traffic to clear and while keeping his mind on public safety struck a very official policeman like pose for a quick handstand photo!