Jottings From Jon

The car is packed and ready for the Georgia game tomorrow 

(ESPN2 @ noon)

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Go Cocks!

Jottings From Jon

24 hours until it begins...

Jottings From Jon

I know I haven't posted in a while, but I wanted to share this with you.  Some of you may know that Allison works as the Communications Manager for the South Carolina Center for Fathers and Families.  The Center works with community-based fatherhood programs in eleven communities across the state to serve more than 1,200 low-income fathers each year. The fatherhood programs help fathers remove barriers to responsible fatherhood by assisting with education, employment, parenting skills, relationships and access to health care. The Center’s goal is to reconnect fathers with their children so they are present physically, financially, emotionally and spiritually.  In a nutshell, they provide the means for fathers to become great dads.

For Father's Day this year, University of South Carolina men's head basketball coach Darrin Horn and Clemson head football coach Dabo Swinney have teamed up with the Center to support the Ugly Tie campaign.  Check it out here.  (All you Carolina and Clemson fans, you'll get a kick out of this).

Both Allison and I have had the honor of having wonderful fathers in our lives.  And now, I have the honor to be a father myself and I love doing all the things that come with that.  Not only do I have the responsibility to raise him but I get to create a bond with him and try to guide him in the best way possible.  I think Parker is also guiding me a bit and making me a better person.  I love chasing him around and hearing his infectious laugh when I tickle him.  I can’t wait to get home and see that booger and I appreciate that every day.

Happy Father's Day!

Jottings From Jon - Gamecock Edition

Gamecock football has officially started as of today! Head coach Steve Spurrier, LB Eric Norwood and WR Moe Brown will speak later today at the SEC media days about the upcoming 2009 season. If you want to check out Media Days, you can find all the coverage on ESPNU or at the SEC's website. Are you ready for some football?

I first need to show a little bit of SEC pride. Two years ago, the SEC was trying to decide what direction it wanted to go with a T.V. deal. The Big 10 at the time just started their own network and it seemed that the SEC was falling behind. With a little patience and lucky timing the SEC landed a deal that is bigger than could have ever been imagined. The SEC decided that starting their own network was too risky and then signed a $3 billion deal over the next 15 years with CBS and ESPN in September 2008 just before the economy's bottom fell out. Each team in the league will receive another $10 million in T.V. revenue to add to their caufers. The deal has now evolved into the SEC being shown on seven networks and will be broadcast to millions across the nation. This not only gives unreal exposure to the SEC but makes the SEC recession proof. Most SEC athletic programs have expanded the budgets and programs in a time where most programs are having to cut back their budgets. Can't you just hear the chants...SEC, SEC, SEC. I love it!

Now down to the Gamecocks. The spring and summer has been very quiet for the Gamecock team which is a good thing. Stephen Garcia has been a leader with the 7 0n 7's and has stayed out of trouble (YEAH!). Many of the much anticipated freshman have been acclimating themselves to the speed and toughness of an SEC program and Eric Norwood hasn't passed up the NFL for nothing. Our recruiting for next year has been amazing. We have 14 commits with 7 of those coming from OL prospects who are highly touted and much needed. We will only sign 20 guys this year so we will be able to be very selective through the rest of the recruiting process. The biggest guy on our board is 5* RB Marcus Lattimore from Byrnes High School and I have a feeling that he will dawn the garnet and black come signing day. Renovations to Williams Brice's facilities have come together as well. A state of the art trainer's facility has been completed along with a new entrance, players lounge and recruiting room. Take a look at this quick video of a few of the new additions. This is very impressive to not only assist in recruiting but also for the players who benefit from a place they can heal faster and hang out.

Fall football practice is only a few week away and I wanted to give you a few thoughts on the upcoming season. It will be nice to see how players have progressed over the off season and see if our play makers will step up. Before I have any fall info I will go over what we do know. To start, our schedule has been ranked the hardest in the country. This is because of brutal road games in the SEC including Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and Arkansas and non-conference foes including N.C. State at Raleigh and Clemson. We also have big SEC opponents coming to Williams Brice including Ole Miss, Kentucky, Vanderbilt and Florida. We have an unproven QB and are inexperienced at the RB, WR and DB positions. We have also had a major assistant coaching overhaul making several changes. I feel our team has become a more solid and disiplined team as the Spurrier era enters the 5th year. We obviously have under-achieved the last several years and I hope we can surprise a lot of people this year. We have lots of young talent, but I think talent is the key word there. We haven't had this much talent at Carolina for a long time. I also feel that our team has come together and will have less unanswered questions throughout the year. There are definitely unanswered questions right now but once the clock runs out in Raleigh against the Wolfpack, we will know for the most part how our team will perform for the rest of the year. I look for a unique offense with a Spurrier pass attack and a spread running attack. It is something that has not been done before. I also look for a more rested Ellis Johnson defense to step up again and make big plays. We have the ability and potential for a great season as I feel Georgia, Tennessee and Kentucky are down this year. I think we take care of Vanderbilt like we are supposed to and beat an over-hyped Ole Miss team that we beat last year in Oxford and an N.C. State team that is good but we are better. Second in the East behind Florida would be amazing.

My Prediction: 8-4

I think we go 6-0 to start with national televised wins over N.C. State, Georgia, Ole Miss and Kentucky. We will then suffer our first loss at the hands of Nick Saben in Birmingham against the Tide. We will bounce back and beat Vandy and then go to Tennessee and show Kiffin how to pump gas and shove it bringing us to 8-1. I am afraid that the winning will stop there though. I think we will rack up our second loss to an under-rated Arkansas. Our third loss will be at the hands of Tim Tebow and the ridiculously loaded Gators. Finally, I hate to say it but we have had a horrible time beating the Tigers at Williams Brice. This game is going to be a toss up and I have no evidence to tell me that we will win that game. I think 8-4 would be a great season just with another disappointing stretch at the end. I think this would get us back to the Outback Bowl to avenge our loss to Iowa.

What is your prediction for the team this fall? Leave a comment and let me know what you think of my prediction.

I can't wait to keep you updated on Gamecock football throughout the fall. I will leave you with a quote that came from the SEC media days that I recently read in The State newspaper.

Kentucky offensive linemen Zipp Duncan, when asked the toughest place to play in the SEC, answered Florida or South Carolina, because the fans are "close to you, out of control" and "a little boozed up." Pressed, he chose USC as the toughest. "When we went there on that Thursday night, they were out of control," Duncan said. "I don't know how they kiss their moms with mouths like that."

Man, I can't wait till game day. Are you getting goose bumps yet? GO COCKS!

Y3W - A Couple of Days Late (Long)

Remembering a Grandfather: William Franklin Cowherd November 28, 1915 - July 5, 2009

As some of you may know, my grandfather passed away on Sunday, July 5th 2009. He was 93 years old and lived a long life. I wanted to post a blog about my week remembering a great granddad. This week was a pretty crazy week as it was an emotional rollercoster for me.

I first heard the news from my brother over the phone as Allison and I were driving back down the mountain after all our Independence Day festivities. We had been in the NC mountains since Thursday and were pretty much cutoff from all society as we didn't turn the t.v. on and cell phone reception was terrible at best. We were celebrating life and our freedom all weekend long and I was hit by an emotional truck when I heard the news. You probably know that I don't deal with grief very well. I do "happy" very well but don't know what to do when I'm sad. I was kind of shocked when I heard the news. I don't know, maybe I figured Granddad would be around forever. I mean, he survived WWII, two heart surgeries and had out lived his two loves of his life.

Granddad was my Dad's dad and I always had great memories whenever we were together. I remember the great times with Granddad and Grandmom Eloise in the Circle Drive house in Martinsburg, WV. I remember that great basement, back patio, the pool across the street and all the great cooking! We would always make biscuits together as this was something that the Cowherd family is know for liking. I also remember Granddad and Polly always making sure that we were having fun. I remember our millennium New Years celebration and I will always remember that bar he carried with him with the scotch and Bloody Mary's.

After I took the news in briefly, I called my dad to see what plans had been arranged and to see how he was holding up. Dad told me that the memorial service was going to be held on Thursday and I was racking my brain about how I could get up to VA around my work schedule. Mere was planning on driving up Wednesday morning and at first I was thinking that this would be my only option but I needed to be back to work on Friday. This was not going to work and I became sad that I couldn't make it. But, I knew I couldn't miss this memorial service. I knew that I couldn't miss it because I felt it pulling at me deep in my stomach. I did some research and found a flight going to D.C. Dulles airport on Wednesday evening and returning on Thursday evening. My dad understood that it was important for me to be able to attend the memorial service and was awesome not only to get the tickets but to also make the 50 mile drive with Mary Ellen both ways to pick me up and drop me off. Unfortunately, with the short notice and Allison's lack of PTO for the rest of this year, Allison and Parker were not able to make the trip.

The service on Thursday was at Grace Lutheran Church in Winchester, VA. Ironically, the pastor of this church, pastor Utts, knew Allison's uncle Johnny very well when they attended seminary together. I spoke with him a little bit about the Yost family and then got to see my family as we started to gather in a back room. It was great to see all the family again. I wish we didn't live so far apart as I want to make it a habit to get together more often. We all processed to the sanctuary for the service. Up front was a table set up with flowers, an American flag in a triangle flag frame, a blue US military urn and a picture of Grandad in his uniform that made him look powerful. The picture looked like a Hollywood picture, black and white and just really captured a great glimpse of who he was. The service was a traditional service and dad and my uncle Robin spoke about their memories. It was great to hear their memories and brought back a lot of mine as well. We obviously were sad but also were happy to be celebrating a long life. My cousin Erin and I also shared a laugh in the middle when I had to swat a fly that was in my face, lol. After the service, many people who knew Granddad came up and shook the family's hands and told stories of how they knew him. It was cool to hear how he impacted so many people.

The family then drove over the the Wayside Inn, the oldest continuously operating inn in America, and had a great setting to remember Granddad even more. We had a room setup with tables and a screen to view a great DVD that Jody and Sarah put together. Now this room wasn't just any old room, it was the old slave kitchen. It was a really cool setting with a very enthusiastic bartender. We all indulged his services throughout the night. Again, it was great to see all the family together and we discussed having a "Parker meets the rest of the Cowherds" party soon. We sat down for dinner which was very tasty. I had the beef and for dessert a key lime cheesecake fit the bill. Now for the emotional part...

As I mentioned earlier Jody and Sarah put together a DVD of pictures and captions that told Granddad's life story. It was great to see him as a boy and then every stage after as the Cowherd family grew and lived life. After the DVD, the best part of the night occurred. As I also mentioned earlier, Granddad always had his bar with him. It was a small case that carried his scotch in and some glasses. In his memory, we were all handed a shot glass with scotch. After each person told their memory or story of Granddad, they would take the shot. Diron started off and made us all appreciate the man Granddad was. We also heard Granddad's favorite story "Petey the Snake". It was so good to hear all those stories and memories and the worst part was that I had to leave early to catch my flight back home. I am so glad that I was able to be there and remember Granddad in that way. It really helped me and I know it helped Dad and the rest of the family. Granddad was a brother, father, grandfather and just recently a great grandfather. Granddad once wrote in his journal that he wanted to be remembered as honest, fair minded, friendly, jovial, generous and God fearing. He will be and more. Love ya Granddad and I will always remember you.

Jottings from Jon

Hey everyone. I hope everyone is doing well. The past couple of weeks have been very busy for me. Charlotte has seemed to become my home base of sales. It seems that business is starting to pick up but I am anxious to get some deals closed in the near future.

Lately, we have spent a lot of time working in our backyard. Our first step in the process was defining our beds with timber edging. This involved digging trenches, leveling the timbers, drilling holes and finally driving rebar through the timbers and into the ground. (I thought this project was going to go a little faster then it did but it ended up taking a majority of the day).

Recently, we have begun landscaping the beds. We hope to be able to expand our patio for more of an outdoor living experience soon. Once the patio has been finished, our plan is to add sod so Parker will have somewhere to play. Pretty soon, we'll have to start looking for a swingset! Below are some photos of our progress. We hope to have it completed soon!

Before:


After:

Jottings from Jon

Welcome to the newest feature of the Cowherd family blog - Jottings from me. I give full credit to Allison for starting this blog and keeping all our friends and family in the loop with what is going on in our crazy lives. I wanted to add my perspective and hope to share with you my thoughts on life. I plan on "jotting" whenever the mood strikes. Sounds like a twitter but I don't do that. This is easily done with my handy dandy blackberry so I'll do my best to contribute as much as possible.

Well my life the last couple of weeks has consisted of traveling around Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina for work. Selling transportation is what I do and if you ship anything or know anybody who does, shoot me a reply. I have been getting used to being a dad which is fun and exciting but definitely lacks on the whole sleeping thing. I can't wait to see all the new things that Parker does each day. I have also been playing kickball for the third season in a row. Our team is called the "Alcoballics" which pays omage to our college days and maybe a couple weekends of my life now. We have really developed as a team over the last couple of seasons and think that we are going to do well this season. I have also joined a softball team through our church, Living Springs Lutheran, and had fun at our first game this week. I had a few hits and scored everytime which was good. We rallied in the bottom of the 7th down by 4 and won. Can't wait until next week.

Some random thoughts over this past week...I watch the t.v. show Lost every week and am pretty much obssesed so I will talk about that normally. Don't want to do a review or anything since there are so many that are very involved but it was a standard, good episode this week with an unbelievable ending. My jaw dropped when Syaid actually shot Ben and the gun actually worked! I ate at a really cool New York deli in Charlotte on Thursday. I overheard a brother and sister there talking about running at this year's Cooper River Bridge run down in Charleston. I want to do that sometime. Work is going well and some shipments will hit the board next week. Hope it ramps up even more over the next couple weeks. Parker is getting big and eats his hands. Brice's birthday was really fun and I can't wait for the family reunion in Charlotte on Saturday.

I'll leave you with a picture I received from Parker earlier today...

Well that's all for now. Thanks for reading and can't wait to see what life brings next!

-Jon :)