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Wimbledon Final 2008

Posted in Sorted Details on July 6th, 2008 by Weblog Master / Comments Off

When rivalry between two competitors at the pinnacle of their sport occurs, it rarely lives up to the pre-game hype. It’s over-analyzed and, with only a few notable exceptions, never quite materializes to be the epic battle anticipated. Often we come away dwelling on interesting moments of play, but having to squint and cock our heads to convince ourselves that the match up resembled anything it was supposed to. This, however, never stops the pundits from declaring the result as the “greatest game ever”. In the light of day, it almost never is.

This simply was not so with regard to the anticipated match up in the Mens Final at Wimbledon in 2008. Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal met in the Wimbledon Championship on Centre Court and gave sports fans a memorable battle - one that will leave an indelible mark on tennis and sport in general. It was a storybook match up, the world number one and five time successive champion versus the previously vanquished but rising star in the sport. The grass court titan versus the clay specialist. It was David versus Goliath, only David had been beaten twice previously and returned with huge biceps and better sling skills. As a sideline, the match was rife with records to be broken. Whether it was to be the most successive championships won in Federer’s case, inching him closer to the magic number fifteen for most slams won, or the first French Open/Wimbledon sweep in almost thirty years and first Spaniard in almost forty to win for Nadal.

Whatever pre-match hype you subscribed to, this match blew it into orbit. We knew this was going to be a set-your-alarm, phone-off-the-hook, kids-at-the-neighbors match, but no one anticipated what we saw. Smooth elegance, tectonic effort, unpretentious class, mental clarity, venerated tradition, and unbelievable athleticism blended into almost five hours of brilliant tennis. In the tennis world this will be a “Where were you when . . .?” match.

One of the many beautiful aspects of tennis is how intensely private and public it is at the same time. In front of 15,000 fans, players have got to keep their focus and composure to be successful. Other individual sports share this similarity, but none require the nano-second reflexes tennis does. Golf players get as long as they need to muster their confidence and hit a shot. In tennis, the result of this private focus is publicly evident in less than a second, and there’s no time for second-guessing, the next shot is already on its way back. That being said, Nadal and Federer bared their souls before the crowd gathered on center court. With no words necessary, they laid out for all every bit of effort they could summon from within, then somehow found more. They focused every molecule of emotion on every shot for almost five hours. Everyone watching was exhausted by the end as well. With matches like this, it’s less a matter of who gave more or even who wins. It’s simply enough to marvel at the complete devotion these individuals had to the competition and the new level of tennis that emerged from their duel. The match was much more than the sum of the participants. Something special happened on Centre Court and in the final calculation, a new standard had been set for excellence and effort.

Wimbledon has done a commendable job of changing with the times while preserving some of the mystique rooted in tradition. Slower grass courts mean longer points and less advantage for Samprasesque serve and volleyers. Hawk-eye line calling has also been added. Perhaps the biggest change will occur next year with the use of a retractable roof on center court. Thus the 2008 Wimbledon Championship was notable for the final three rain delays on Centre Court - tennis in three acts if you will.

In the first act Nadal leapt to a two set lead - feat in and of itself against Federer at Wimbledon. Federer stared across the court at him as if to say - “You’re hot now, but give me an opening and I’ll begin my methodical deconstruction of you”. How many times have we seen Federer find an opening, hit the gas, and speed away with the match against a stunned and dejected opponent? It was not to be in the 2008 Wimbledon Final. Only by his own sheer mental and physical fortitude, was Federer able to rally back to even the match at two sets all. His coolness, saving two match points, was pure Federer. Nadal was not to yield though, mentally or physically.

At two all in the deciding fifth set, the rain came back. It was as if the tennis gods were reminding us how savory our fare was, and how we should pause to remember the image for just a little longer. When play resumed, the final act ensued. In the end, Nadal found an opening and broke Federer and then held serve to take the match. In the fading Wimbledon light, Nadal lay prostrate on the battle scared grass - emotionally and physically spent. They had packed every second possible with beautiful tennis and eked out a result before darkness totally ensued and the curtain closed forever on Centre Court’s twilight battles.

He gave it all - every last little teensy bit.

Both competitors were gracious and humble in their discussions of the result. While Federer acknowledged that the loss hurt, Nadal publicly consoled him as still being the top player. There was no gloating, no screaming, and no lawnmower fist pumps. Instead there was a serene understanding on the part of Federer and Nadal that they had produced something entirely bigger than they could have expected. Their glances to each other said it all - the certainty that their effort would be enshrined in sports lore forever.

Centre Court at Wimbledon seems newly consecrated, and tennis has a new champion. All that being said, don’t look for Federer to fade into the mist. Perhaps he is proverbially down two sets now after losing in the French and Wimbledon, but hasn’t his hallmark has been his ability to find another gear - to summon further brilliance from deep within - and come out on top? He will break fourteen slams, he will win the US Open in 2008 and he will go down as the greatest man to pick up a racquet. However, now Nadal will be forever linked to Federer as a primary force behind his greatness. And every time Federer’s name is uttered as the greatest of all time, Nadal will also be in the sentence as the reason for his accomplishment.

True Champions

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Crainal Nerve Mnemonic

Posted in Sorted Details on February 27th, 2008 by Weblog Master / No Comments »

Recently someone asked me if I had a mnemonic for remembering the cranial nerves, you know the Olfactory, Optic, Occulomotor, Trochlear, Trigeminal, Abducens, Facial, Vestibulocochlear, Glossopharyngeal, Vagus, Accessory, and Hypoglossal Nerves.

The best one I’ve ever heard, and one that’s family friendly, was coined by Mike Markowitz in medical school. I like it because it incorporates the first TWO (or three) letters of the nerves:

Old opossums occasionally trot triumphantly about farmers vegetables, gleefully vandalizing ace hybrids.

There it is. I wish I could claim it, thanks Mike, wherever you are.

More Summer Wrap Up

Posted in Family on August 28th, 2007 by Weblog Master / No Comments »

Well, I promised more details, so here they are. The guys and Aubs took tennis this summer. They loved it and every Friday ended with a water fight. Good clean (and wet) fun!!

They also did a soccer camp:

I should also mention that T-ball this spring was a blast too:

Aubrey had a dance recital for her little dance class - too cute for words:

Finally, Karate class was a blast and they had the world’s best teacher (seefu):

I’ll end with a recent family picture:

More summer wrap-up to follow in the coming days . . .

Summer Wrap Up

Posted in Family, Web Stuff on August 27th, 2007 by Weblog Master / No Comments »

Has summer really come and gone? What the heck! I feel like I didn’t get anything done. Well, here are some highlights:

1) Summer sports with the kids - especially swimming and tennis
2) Trip to see Heidi’s folks in Kansas
3) Hiking with the family to First Meadows on Elk Creek
4) Reconnecting with my old friend RS
5) Fishing the Conejos
6) Making it through a whole summer of taking care of the yard

Lots of pictures to go along with the summer. Will upload to flickr tonight and do a more detailed summer wrap-up posting

Never Better . . .

Posted in House Stuff on May 5th, 2007 by Weblog Master / No Comments »

After years of working on my small rose garden at our old - and recently sold house, I went over to check it out. It has never looked better!!! I flagstoned it last year - wow what a difference. Here’s a pic and a stitched photo:

I really hope the new owners will enjoy the roses as much as I have. Bronze Star is a particular favorite of mine - one I’m definitely going to get for the new pad.

In other news, I spotted a vulture across the street at our new house in a tree:

Roses for vultures doesn’t really seem like a fair trade . . .

Boring Stuff

Posted in Blog Site on April 7th, 2007 by Weblog Master / Comments Off

I got the image rotation thingy to work again after I upgraded Wordpress. Most of the old header images are from a different default format, so the border color doesn’t match too well, but oh well, deal with it (I don’t feel like going back and changing all my old header images).

New House - great.
New House Lawn - terrible.

Must do yard work this weekend.

I did manage to finish putting together the play set in the backyard with the new swing attachment:

Wordpress Upgrade

Posted in Web Stuff on March 8th, 2007 by Weblog Master / 1 Comment »

I upgraded Wordpress to a newer version. I kinda got sick of filtering spammy comments, so I just stopped blogging. Hopefully now, I’ll get the itch a little more. Rose pruning season is here.

Puzzle

Posted in Uncategorized, Family on January 7th, 2007 by Weblog Master / Comments Off

Check out the cool puzzle I made. I took a picture of wood ducks at the zoo last weekend.

Online Jigsaw Puzzle

Update

Posted in Family on December 16th, 2006 by Weblog Master / No Comments »

We recently moved to a new and improved house - casa 2.0 . Presently we are in the unpacking pahse. I really had high hopes for throwing a bunch of stuff out, but in the end we just got more boxes and moved it. So we are now we are slowly unpacking our junk and trying to find new placed for it. Boys are in karate and girl is in ballet:
Ballerina
My mind hasn’t clicked into holiday mode yet due to all the craziness surrounding our lives right now. Hopefully that’ll happen soon . . .

Where does the time go?

Posted in Sorted Details on June 5th, 2006 by Weblog Master / 2 Comments »

Has it really been three months since my last post? What happend?

It’s certainly summer here. Kids out of school and swimming, summer car trips, and of course, trips to the mountains.

This weekend Heidi left for her parents with the kids and I headed up to the Conejos. My intention is to install a computer with hi-res webcams and a weather station that is accessable over the net. I’ve worked pretty hard on putting a nice system together and testing it. It works great.

When I got up to the cabin, however, I figured out that the DSL service was not operational. As such, I installed all of the equiptment and then left. Pretty disappointing, no fishin’ or hikin’, and no webcamin’. What can I do?

Hopefully this issue will be rectified soon and we’ll all be enjoying real-time weather data and hi-res shots of the river. Stay tuned.