2010 U.S. Transplant Games - Update #6

Check-in for The Games is now only 4 weeks away. Time is flying and there is still a lot to do. Online fundraising ended Wednesday, June 30th. I was blessed to raise $1500 which was my original goal. After reaching it, I raised the goal by $500 to my second goal of $2000. However, no more donations came in. However, I believe I'm in good shape as far as having my expenses covered. My reason for setting the second goal was because I believed it would enable me to help some of my teammates who have not be as fortunate with their fundraising. I want to say thank you to all who donated. I kinda feel like a race car with multiple sponsors. I am so blessed to have 8 sponsors for The Games.

Now that fundraising has ended, I have one less thing to think about and can focus on bowling. I've been having trouble with my Roto Grip Cell Pearl for the last several weeks. It has not been turning as well as it used to. I've tried having it re-surfaced. I've tried slowing it down and changing lines. Nothing has worked. It became obvious that in order to get the ball to perform the way I need it to I had to do something drastic. That's not usually what you want to do four weeks out from a tournament, but I knew if I didn't I was not gonna be competitive. I am not going to run second, third, or fourth. Silver is the first loser.

Therefore, I put the ball in "the shop" today for a tune-up. It is being re-drilled more aggressively to make it turn better and hook more. I will get it back Monday afternoon and then get back to work with three weeks of practice left. The re-drilling is a bit of a gamble, but like I said, I'm going to Madison to win - period. NASCAR Champion Dale Earnhardt once said when asked what his strategy was for winning the The Winston, NASCAR's All Star Race, "I'm either gonna win it or bring back nothing but the steering wheel."

That works for me.