Weekend Notes

Finally a weekend with a few more activities.

Crowded House

Saturday morning S and I drove down to Bloomington to move C home for the summer. She had brought some stuff when she came home for L’s prom, and was confident we could get everything into S’s Telluride. Man, it was close. We had pretty much every inch of space crammed full but we got everything in.

It was in the high 40s/low 50s when we got to her dorm making it a near-perfect day to move. We lucked out both ways this year, missing heat indexes over 100° by a day when we moved her in.

We stopped at her favorite bagel place to grab a late breakfast on our way out of town. Even with that, it was a four-hour round trip, which I was not mad about. I bet we saved an hour by getting there early when we could still park right at the front of the building and not have to wait on the elevator.

This week is actually IU’s finals week, but she only has one exam, coming up on Thursday, that she will go back for. All her friends were moving out so she decided to come home over the weekend, too.

Now our bonus room is again overrun with college crap. We moved a bunch of pool stuff out of the basement to give her space (more on that later), but she needs to get things organized upstairs before we can begin moving items to the basement.

BTW, if anyone in the Indy area needs to hire an almost 20-year-old, she desperately needs a job…

M also came home on Saturday. Friday was the last day at her spring co-op and most of her roommates were clearing out. She may go back to Cincy for a night or two as some girls who were overseas this semester will be rolling through. Then she leaves for her summer program in France on May 15.

L has two more weeks of classes followed by finals, wrapping up her junior year on May 22.

For two weeks we are, again, a house of five.

Unpleasant Surprise

We are having our pool liner replaced this year, as it has been beaten up through seven summers of use, sun exposure, and the occasional chemical imbalance. We were hoping to get the process completed last week but the weather did not cooperate and it could be a couple more weeks before the crew can get here. At least we aren’t paying to heat it, I guess.

With the girls home we decided to go ahead and drag out all the pool furniture so they can at least hang out on sunny days.

We have a large Rubbermaid chest in the pool house in which we store all kinds of loose gear over the winter. Deflated inflatable toys, pool noodles, life jackets, etc. Every fall we pack it full of stuff confident it is secure to keep critters out.

Well, this winter some critters got in.

Sunday I opened the lid and was hit by a wave of terrible odor and saw movement inside. I quickly slammed the lid. Motherfucking mice. Disgusting.

We drug the chest out into the yard, opened the lid from behind, and tipped it over, spilling all the gear into the grass. It was a process but eventually we got the family of mice out. One of them jumped on S as it fled, causing some screaming. They had been in there a while, so everything inside was a total loss. It took several rounds of spraying the inside with a hose and household cleaners to get it cleaned out.

Turns out it was probably my bad that changed our luck this winter. Our corn hole bags have real corn kernels in them. We always store them in ziplock bags to prevent exactly what happened. Apparently I just threw them into the chest in an open bag. There was chewed up corn mixed in with everything we pulled from the chest. Those bags were at least seven years old, but I guess mice will eat anything.

Fuckers.

We were glad this happened on a random, chilly day and not Memorial Day with the extended family here. And that we have a big yard we could drag the chest into to clean it.

NBA

Some solid game sevens over the weekend, although only one went down to the final minutes.

Good for Philly and Joel Embiid finally not shitting themselves in a game seven, coming back from 3–1 down to eliminate Boston. Of course, Jojo seemed to get injured at least two more times Saturday night so who knows how healthy he’s going to be against the Knicks. Dude had an appendectomy less than three weeks ago and after shaking the rust off, played mostly terrific ball in the final three games.

It’s been funny how the Eastern Conference has ebbed and flowed all season. The Knicks were the preseason favorites, but scuffled often enough to put that into doubt.

Detroit was the clear best team over the course of the season, but I’m not sure anyone really trusted them, and they were down 24 in the second half of game six, down three games to two, before a monumental comeback that saved their season. Last Thursday, it seemed like Orlando would not only beat Detroit, but might be the Eastern Conference favorites.

Boston was supposed to have a gap year like the Pacers, but overachieved all year then got Jason Tatum back for the last month of the season. A lot of people were picking the Celtics to come out of the East two weeks ago, and now they are sitting home watching.

It sure seems like the Knicks are the favorites again, although I’m not sure you can be confident in any pick on the East side of the bracket this year.

Not that it matters. Oklahoma City is the obvious overall favorite, with San Antonio the clear #2 pick. I can’t see the Knicks, Pistons, or whoever beating either of those teams if everyone is healthy. But the Pacers weren’t supposed to be in the Finals last year, so there’s plenty of time for more wackiness (and injuries).

The best part of my NBA weekend, though, was watching the NBA TV replay of game seven of the 1981 Eastern Conference finals between Boston and Philadelphia. I started watching midway through the third quarter and was thoroughly engrossed until the end. A terrific game full of swings and intrigue. The Sixers had a couple nice leads that they blew. The Celtics went on a couple huge runs that had the Boston Garden crowd in a frenzy. Philly missed one of two free throws when they had a chance to tie with under ten seconds left. That was fitting as the Sixers had led in the series 3–1 before falling apart.

I watched a quarter-and-a-half of the game. I saw zero 3-point shot attempts, which was incredible. Guys would stand with their feet on the 3-point line and the defenders would sag away, daring them to shoot. And the guys wouldn’t shoot! Can you imagine that happening today?

Also wild was the old free throw rules. If you were fouled taking a shot and the other team was in the bonus, you got three shots to make two. Wild. I also read that if you fouled in the backcourt, it was an automatic shooting foul. Super wild. Both rules were struck after the following season in the name of speeding up the game.

Plenty of other elements of the game were different. In addition to almost no true outside shooting, there was a huge effort to get to the rim and use the glass. Every post player was Tim Duncan, spinning and throwing it high off the backboard hoping to bank it in.

Only the very best guards had an off hand when dribbling. It was weird seeing Dr. J, one of the greatest players of the era, try NOT to dribble with his left hand if possible.

This game was played on May 3, 1981. It was the last game of the conference finals. We had an NBA champion well before Memorial Day. On the same date, 45 years later, we were just finishing the opening round of the playoffs.

The other fun thing about watching was digging into the Wikipedia page about that playoff season. That was also the year the #5 seed Kansas City Kings went on a miracle run to the Western Conference finals. They won game three of their first series – the playoffs opened with best-of-three series! – in Portland, a finish I remember watching at the Foot Locker in Bannister Mall. Next they upset the #1 seed Phoenix Suns in seven games. The Kings seemed to have a path to the NBA Finals, facing six seed Houston next. They had no answer for Moses Malone, though, and fell in five games.

That was the only time in my life I remember there being any Kings excitement in Kansas City. Which I loved, because I was a huge Kings fan. They went back to sucking the next year, and soon were actively looking for a new city to call home, moving to Sacramento after the 1984 season.

Screw you, Joe Axelson.