Mike Miller's Blog

Hello Everyone, and First of all, Thank you one and all for the wonderful support you have provided me through the months and years since I lost Kathy. As you know, she was the light of my life and I still miss her every second of every day. So may things have happened over this period of my life, I really do not know where to begin. Although I have been very remiss in making any posts to it, I would like to thank Jeff and Peter for providing me the opportunity to use this space in Skyhoundz for this blog. I love to tell stories, and I am a fair writer, but for me to sit and do this has just been very hard up to this point. However, I now have so very positive and happy news which I can present for you reading pleasure. (if you want to read about me that is) LOL….

Just prior to Kathy’s parting, Four wonderful people in Europe (Belgium to be exact) decide to start a European contest in Kathy’s honor to promote the Fun side of the sport, rather than the competitive side. Bring the family, the dog, the disc and enjoy a day of fun in the sun (for the most part) and see who comes out on top with the very loose but very fair and fun contest involved in the KMARCh. (Kathy Miller And Ruckus Challenge) Although Freeflight is involved in some legs of the contest, it is not the focus of the contest, it is just one of the fun parts. The bigger part is games played by everyone from all age brackets, and the fun and joy of just having a good time with your pup and a disc. The first year, 2008, three contest were held in three consecutive weekends in the same location. The first was attended by 14 teams, and the word started to spread that it was fun. They played games, and at the end of the day they awarded prizes and had food and drink for everyone. By the third weekend, the four people running the contest were exhausted, but had some great memories and lots of new friend and teams in the sport. The number had grown to around 30 teams, and plans were already in form for 2009.

Kathy was advised prior to her death January 3rd 2009 that the contest had such a great reception and caused lots of joy and fun, and she was very pleased about this.  In 2009 there were 4 countries which hosted KMARCh contests, and many others were starting to request hosting for the next seasons.  Sad to say, the four who started this whole event, had a separation in which one couple moved to another continent, and since I have only seen them at the Skyhoundz world contest in Chattanooga.   However Two of the four have done a world of work continuing this event, and hope to do so for may years to come.  These two along with many others from many countries have done a wonderful job promoting the sport of K9 Frisbee (sorry Skyhoundz, I’ll put a dollar in the jar) and disc dogin all over Europe.   In 2010, the contest were limited to two (Hungary and Belgium) because of wanting to review and start to prepare for 2011 and making it a strong international event.    In Budapest 2010, the largest ever contest in Europe was held with 152 teams showing their skills in several games as well as freeflight.  This year, 2011 I have just returned from a one month stay in Europe and traveled to the Netherlands, Austria and Italy for the first three legs of the KMARCh, and I will return for three weeks in August for Rumania, Hungary and the finals in Belgium.   Next year is looking like France and Germany will become members of this wonderful event as well, and more keep asking all the time.

I don’t know how Sven and Katrine handle all of this, especially considering that they are now the proud parents of Maxim, the first of what they hope will be two children.  Got the boy, want a girl.    OH, and Masim is my God Son.

I am just so proud of them. It has been a long hard road to parenthood for them, but they made it.  And in one piece.  LOL.

So, beyond these great happenings, when I was in Hungary 2009, I met a beautiful, wonderful young girl, Szilvia Toth, who unknowingly helped me move past the loss of Kathy.  Had she been interested, I think I would have married her is a hot second, but she was only 23, and I seriously do not think I could have handled that….

We talk on a more or less regular basis, and I credit her with making me realize life is there for the living, so take hold of it and do not let go.   After returning home from my country wide venture along with the trip to Europe, I decided to start looking for someone to spend the rest of my earthly life with, because I love my pups, but they can not talk back when I talk to them, and sex is out of the question…. (yes, that is a joke, no smart comments or thoughts please) LOL

Through a turn of events (ask me in person and I will tell you the whole story) I became involved with online dating, and through a period of almost two years I have been involved with multiple sites, and more women than I care to admit.  However it has given me a real view of life in other countries, attitudes of different nationalities, and intent for either true love or just looking for a way into the USA for citizenship.  Oh, and then there are the scams for money, (the stories I can tell about that………).  Anyway, 2010 was good to me in many ways, because I met a wonderful young man from China who plays disc with his BC there and actually arranged for me to make a trip to China to judge the first AWI Qualifier,

and gave me an opportunity to spend some time with a 54 year old Chinese woman whom I had been conversing with for about 6 months.

Meeting Sandy Gin was interesting to say the least, (again, ask me for some stories) but sad to say, she was not the one.   However, meeting all the disc dog teams and spending some time with them was just super.

Carrying forward, I did not give up on the idea of finding a lady from China, and my patients has been rewarded.  This year, I have become very involved in coordination for the China DiscDogs and AWI, and although sponsorship funding was lost for this  year, next year looks very promising to build the sport in China.  Last year there was not sufficient time to get visa’s for winners to travel to the USA, but this year they had started proceedings well before contest time to try to bring winners to compete in the World Finals.  As of this week, there are 5 teams and three companions which are working on visas to come to the USA for Disc Doging….

Anyway, back to me…….  I was looking at an email which was a standard “women who you may match with” from one of the many dating sites I had become a member of, and decided to attempt contact with one lady who caught my fancy.  She was looking for someone a bit younger than I, but I composed an introduction hoping she may check out my profile before looking at my age.  I guess it worked, because we will be married July 3rd in ChengDu China and she will follow me to the USA within a few months.

Our government must be convinced that she is not a terrorist, nor just trying to gain entry to the USA.  And yes, I have been through all of that with many friends and relatives, but this lady loves me, and I have no worries of this kind.  She actually has a beautiful life in China which she is going to leave behind to start our life together.

On April 13th, I made a trip to Brussels to hook up with Sven for a one month stay and the first 3 legs of the KMARCh and having one weekend free there, I jumped on a KLM flight and 22 hours later I met (Hua Han) Kelly, pronounced kay lee in person.  We spent a beautiful 6 days together and shortly after returning back to the USA, I went ahead and asked her to spend her life with me.  After she stopped crying, she did say yes, and yesterday I bought my Tux for the wedding.

Now let me tell you the best part of this story.   While in ChengDu, Kelly and I had occasion to visit a playday for the ChengDu Discdog community.

It was pure havoc, and after spending 3+hours teaching and working with them, I suggested they change how the playdays are done.  When I got there, about 18-20 border collies were running loose on the field all after the same disc, ball, other dog, or anything moving.  I tried to have one or two show me what they were doing with their own pup, and it was futile.   It was funny, because before I departed I suggested that in the future they keep all but one or two crated or tied while working with working with that one or two so some progress could be made.  It was like the light bulb turned on.   LOL   “Oh, that sounds like a good idea……. “   Ya think………..

So Kelly is sitting on the side the whole three hours watching and taking photos.  Fights broke out right next to her, dogs almost knocked her down chasing stray disc, but she never flinched one time.  Then, the day I leave for home we go out on the courtyard in front of the 19th floor flat she owns and I give her a disc.  I turn and walk away about 18 yards, turn to her and say throw it. She did, and it hit me right in the chest like she had thrown them all her life.  And, I taught her 5 or 6 other throws in 20 minutes….    Can you see my smile…..   I am sure it will take some time, but we are going to have fun with this.

After returning home, I have been trying to do things around the house, but there seems to always be something happening to slow this down.   There was the Skyhoundz Regional weekend again, held in Kathy’s honor, and it was a big success this year.  Saturday produced some amazing freestyles, and at the end of the day we had some great teams talking about the trip to Chattanooga.  I will be there again this year as Field Manager again, and hopefully able to qualify in the D/A with one of my boys.

So, the rest of my year will be busy busy busy.  Working on the house as much as possible, July to China to marry, August to Europe for the last 3 KMARCh games and then September/October off across the country for a week in Chattanooga, two in Florida and then to Missouri for my last contest before going home for the year.   I look forward to seeing many of you on the road at some  point, and there is always beer in my tent…..    Come see me.