Living in Contra Costa County

Nelson Riemenschneider - Football Player

My son Nelson went out for Freshman Football at Liberty High School this year.  He is a good kid, but has struggled with school and sports in the past.

However, this year he is doing very well.  It looks like he will be starting when they play the first game in a couple of weeks.  At 6'1" about 250 lbs he is playing left tackle.  He has wrestled for the last 3 years and I think it has helped him.  The conditioning hurts him a lot and I think he is the slowest kid on the team, but he keeps going and does not quit.  I suspect that if he keeps it up in years ahead it will pay off good for him.

As a dad I have pushed him and prodded him in sports, even when he was doing poorly and wanted to quit.  It is hard to know the balance between when to back off and when to make them keep going.  (He latter thanked me for making him play baseball.)  Watching him succeed and enjoying himself I feel like I the rewards of being a parent are starting to come in.  I know there is a lot of hard work ahead for both of us.

This year he seems to be doing good in school and taking responsibility for things.  He was elected to Student Government, even though he came from outside the district and does not know a lot of the kids.

I love football, and really look forward to the NFL season, but this year I am really looking forward to 5:00 PM on Thursdays when the Liberty Lions Freshmen take the field.

I couple of weeks ago I took my sons up camping to a place called Highland Lakes in northern California.

The boys actaully showed the patients to do some fishing.  I had brought the poles but was caught off guard by thier attention spans.  They actually wanted to fish and I had not brought that much bait.

These two lakes have a mixture of Brook Trout, Cut Throat Trout, and Gold Trout.  My son Corbin caught a 9.5" trout, but I cannot make out which one it is.  I suspect it might be a hybred of two or three types.  Rest assured he tasted good.

What type of Trout do you think it is?

I am always being bombarded with "Free Offers."  No doubt as real estate professionals you are too.  In fact we get hit with the stuff in all walks of life.  Well Free stuff is costing me a fortune!  In fact the surest way to turn me off is tell me you are offering something for FREE! 

What has set the curmudgeon off in me this time?  Well my 7 and 6 year old got free tickets for Six Flags Wild Kingdom and admittedly they sent two along for the parents.  But I got a family of 8, the two younger ones are free to get in but I still need to feed the 2 year old.  I had hoped (very unrealistically) the older ones would not want to go as they have been before.  But I could not say no to the sad pleading faces; so two more tickets to buy. 

My wife is now on line looking at Meal Packages and parking.  My wallet is begining to scream.  I am figuring by the time all is said and done this day trip is going to cost me between $150.00 to $200.00.  Part of my pain may be the thought of hanging out with 6 kids at an amusement park all day on a Sunday in August.

I think I would have felt much better about the situation if someone had offered me a deal up front all expenses included for the family of 8 at $200.00 for the day.  I would be paying the same thing, but somehow would feel better about it. 

People like certainty, they do not like to feel like they are being nickled and dimed.  There is no Free Lunch or Free Drinks in Vegas.

A few years ago my brother Earl flew down to Alabama to go hunting.   When he got there he needed a dog and went to rent one.  The guy running the kennel said he could rent him a dog named Lawyer for $200.00.  Well my brother thought that was kind of pricey, but the kennel owner assured him Lawyer would do a good job.

Well Lawyer was a great hunting dog, helping him spot all the ducks and running them down for him. 

The next year Earl flew down again and wanted to rent Lawyer, but Lawyer now cost $500.00.  Earl thought this was outrageous.  But the kennel owner pointed out what a good job Lawyer does and told him Lawyer was in demand.  So Earl paid the fee and sure enough Lawyer did a great job.

This year Earl Flew down and went to rent Lawyer.  The kennel owner told him he could have Lawyer, that the dog was now useless.  Earl wanted to know what happened to Lawyer.  The kennel owner explained that someone had rented Lawyer, but forgot his name.  He started calling him Judge and now all that Lawyer does is sit around and bark.

If you want an Broker and a REALTOR® that does more than set around and bark please give me a call.

My Family likes to play board games.  I grew up playing a number of board games.  My personal favorites are complex military strategy games.  I am not talking computer games or video games; I mean game boards and dice.  However, with marriage, family, and a decrease in time my games have become more family oriented.

One of your Favorite Family Games is Settlers of Catan.  Settlers is a fun game, certainly no more complex than Monopoly, but with a lot more strategy, options, flexibility, and fun.  Settlers was designed for 3-4 players, but expansions will accommodate up to 6 people. 

It is an award winning game with over 15,000,000 copies in print and in 30 some languages.

The premise of the game is hexagon tiles that represent different resources (Wood, Wool, Grain, Brick and Ore).  The tiles are put together randomly to get a different playing surface every time.  You build settlements and cities on the intersections of the hexes with roads running on the sides of the hexes.  A number is assigned to each hex.  Every turn if a number is rolled on hex with your settlement or city you get resources to build more settlements, cities, roads, and other things.  You can also trade resources with other players.

That is the basics, but you really need to see the game.  Unlike Monoply as you get familiar with the game you can buy supplements to expand the rules, opitons and fun; including Seafares of Catan and Knights and Cities of Catan. 

There are also a number of off shoot games, using the same basic system but separate stand alone games with a specific focus and some modification of the game.  They include Starfarers of Catan, Struggle for Rome, Settlers of Canaan, Travel Editions, Dice Editions, Card Game Editions, and many others.

Don't get overwhelmed.  We simply started with a Basic Settlers game and added stuff for fun as we went along at birthdays and Christmas. 

We buy our Settler's stuff at Black Diamond Games in Concord California, an excellent game store.  I am heading over to Black Diamond Games today to pick up the new game Settlers of America: Trails to Rails.

This video stars my 2nd son Corbin.  The video was made by his mom's boyfriend Will Leoppard who is in Film School. 

The plot is basically a Shaggy Dog type story we used to tell at summer camp.  The filming technique is what he is working on.  I like the star, even though he is somewhat of a ham.  The video is not too long.

He has some other Video's on YouTube.  If you like this one or some of the others you might want to tell him so. 

Brentwood's Liberty Lions need your support.

Yes it is that time of year for high school fundraisers and no doubt you will be getting hit up for a lot of them.  However, I am going to share a really good one with you that will actually save you money and is for a good cause.

As you know the budget crunch has hit east Contra Costa County High School sports hard.  Many local business are also getting hit hard.  For supporting high school sports many local, regional and national companies will provide you with discounts.

The coupons and discount cards only cost $20.00, but you can get significant savings and coupons for free items at many local restaurants, movie theaters around the country, theme parks, national stores, Las Vegas Vacations, Disney World and more.

Just to satisfy the Federal Regulators I will disclose I have a vested interest in this as my son plays football, wrestles and is selling these coupons for a small fee of $20.00.  So please by one from my son or any other Liberty High Athlete and Help the Lions.

You can call me for more information at 925-260-4321 or e-mail me at Gene@AskGene.info.

It has been said, "Dad is a lot smarter now that I am 30 than when I was 15."  We all know that it was not dad that got smarter.  Here is a list of five things kids should understand about life.

1. Education might make you smarter about some things, but it is no substitute for experience and will not make you wiser.
   
   
2. Poverty does not cause crime, but crime will cause poverty.
   
   
3. Things will not go as you plan in life - Plan on it!
   
   
4. You can spend a life time earning a Good Reputation, but blow it all in five minutes.
   
   
5. Stop whining about what you do not have to do what you want.  Figure out what you can do with what you have.  You will be surprised about how creative you can be and how little you really needed to begin with. 
   

I am sure there are many others.  Just a few things that have been on my mind.

Put Curt Flood in The Hall of Fame

Yesterday I read an article about Curt Flood in the Contra Costa Times by Carl Steward and it was very enlightening.

Curt Flood gave up what could have been a Hall of Fame career to challenge baseballs reserve clause.  The reserve clause tied ball players and the rights to that player to one team.  It was a virtual slavery.

Now I know many of us think ball players are over paid, and you may be right, but at the time they were not.  Furthermore, if you think they are overpaid you have a right not to go to the games and not to support them.  I honestly rarely go to major league games and spend my time watching the Class A Stockton Ports.  But this is for another day.

Curt Flood was a champion of freedom and it goes beyond baseball.  He stood up for people to ask for what they are worth in the open market place.  I think that applies to real estate agents as well as people in a number of professions. 

Curt Flood left baseball as a player before he could achieve stats that would have put him in the Hall of Fame as a player.  There is no category in Hall of Fame voting for him in management, broadcasting or other areas, but he was a baseball pioneer and some one to be admired. 

There is a Facebook Group lobbying to get Curt Flood in the Hall of Fame and give him his due.  Link here and join:

Put Curt Flood in The Hall of Fame!

Please join this group.  They have 2,420 members right now.  Let's overwhelm them with Active Rain Support.

Please Pass it on.

This is a cheap post as I am simply going to link This Article in the American Spectator on the American Ruling Class and the disconnect many of us feel.

Rush discussed this extensively on his show today.  Although a long article and not for the faint of heart is summarizes many of the issues we face and the challenge of bringing America back to the basis of the Constitution.