Doggy Dip and the Start of Volleyball

This post falls in the personal category, but just illustrates some of the fun you can have with social media.

On Thursday night my daughter Rebekah’s volleyball team (she’s a senior co-captain) started their season with a non-conference loss. Two years ago they were something like 5-20, and last year they improved to 15-14, the first winning record in a long time. This year, with lots of returning seniors, expectations are high.

Naturally, I’ve started a Facebook “booster” group to upload video and photos (and to link to local newspapers’ on-line stories), just as I did for last year’s state tournament team in basketball. Here’s a video from Thursday’s match which I uploaded to YouTube; it shows some of the team’s strengths:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81fZngdOIuA]

Unfortunately there weren’t quite enough points like that on Thursday, but tomorrow they get a chance to even their record.

Meanwhile, last night was the third annual Doggy Dip at our Austin, Minn. municipal swimming pool. The day before they drain the pool and close for the season, the city opens the pool to the dogs for $2 each. It’s quite an event. Our dog, Gideon, who is a direct descendent of Shadow from the Homeward Bound movies, was much less dignified than his great-grandpa.

Gideon spent the first few minutes running around and barking. The guy next to me said, “Oh yeah, now I remember him.” He (Gideon, not the guy) also was pretty timid about jumping into the water until I shoved him (again, Gideon, not the guy) into the pool. Here’s the action:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0TP6aQPuuU]

As you’ll see in the video response I uploaded, after a while Gideon got very comfortable jumping into the pool. I was bummed that the batteries on my Flip ran out long before Gideon lost the energy to chase his toy and bring it back barking for another run.

The Austin Daily Herald also ran a story about Doggy Dip.

All part of the interesting life in Norman Rockwell’s America.

Assignment:

Let’s play the “Who’s farthest away from Austin?” game.

Here’s where you’ll find Austin on the map:

Austin, Minnesota, USA
Austin, Minnesota, USA

I’m inviting the first commenter to indicate the city from where you are reading this (e.g. Chicago, Ill.)

As others read it, if you are farther away than the previous commenter (or think you might be about the same distance), leave a comment with the name of your city.

The goal is to show just how far away people are seeing this video.

Yeah, we know that theoretically the reach is world-wide. But just for fun, let’s prove it.

Author: Lee Aase

Husband of one, father of six, grandfather of 15. Chancellor Emeritus, SMUG. Emeritus staff of Mayo Clinic. Founder of HELPcare and Administrator for HELPcare Clinic.

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