D's Notebook

Tag: family (Page 4 of 80)

D’s Notes

October 2, 2024 /

Another dive into the notebook for a selection of random notes.

College NIL

Shockwaves went through college sports last week when UNLV quarterback Matt Sluka, who tore up KU in week three, announced he was sitting out the remainder of the season so he could transfer and retain a year of eligibility. He claimed that UNLV had not lived up to their NIL agreement. UNLV fired back that they had provided everything promised and he was looking for a better deal elsewhere because of his hot start.

Before we get to the NIL angle, there’s actually another dumb thing that needs to be addressed. In college basketball, if you play one game, you have burned your eligibility for that season. In football, players can appear in as many as four games and maintain their redshirt option going forward.

That is one of the stupidest rules the NCAA, an organization with a lot of dumb rules, has instituted. Before NIL you would occasionally see a player decide after week four he was shutting it down so he could jump to another program. Khalil Herbert did that at KU a few years back, running all over Boston College one week then not playing again that season before jumping to Virginia Tech. I think this might sneakily be the most destructive element of the modern, free transfer era. It’s bad enough coaches have to re-recruit their own players every year. Now you have to worry about whether they’re going to make a business decision before week five that wrecks your season.

I’m all for player power, but I think they have too much power in this situation.

Back to NIL proper. I just laugh at this, and know more of it is coming. For the 100th time on this site, let me remind you that the NCAA could have nipped this in the bud 20 years ago. All they had to do was share a fraction of the money they made from using players’ names in video games, which was the right thing to do on every moral and legal level imaginable, and then allow schools to throw kids a few bucks when they sold jerseys with their names and numbers on them. But, no, they insisted on protecting the “sanctity of amateur sports,” when college football and basketball decidedly hadn’t been amateur at the highest level for at least a generation, and refused to allow any of that to happen. Now we’re in a wild west where the NCAA has no rules or control and no higher authority is interested in stepping in to create ground rules. The result is kids getting paid flatly to play at specific schools rather than profiting off the use of their name, image, and likeness as was supposed to happen. Boosters are funneling money into NIL collectives rather than university booster organizations or general funds.

Congrats, NCAA! You managed to both destroy college sports while trying to protect it, and create a significant financial shortfall for universities at a moment when they face increasing budgetary hostility from the legislatures that fund them. That is some amazing work!

Replay/Refs

Pretty much every game I watch these days refs make terrible calls. WNBA refs might be the worst I’ve ever seen, worse even than high school refs. At least high school refs are out-of-shape, thin-skinned, semi-pros so you expect them to suck. I think WNBA refs make up the rules as they go some nights. Twice in their playoff series the Fever had to use a challenge in the first quarter because the referees assigned a foul to the wrong player. In each case it was obvious an error was made, but the refs made no move to correct their call, forcing the Fever to burn a challenge early. Fortunately, in each case they won and the call was changed. ESPN’s Rebecca Lobo blasted the refs and league for putting the Fever in that situation. A referee mistake should not force a team to burn their challenge.

Refs suck. You know what else sucks? Replay. In so many ways.

We can see a replay on TV and often in five seconds know if a call was right or wrong, then we sit around for three minutes while the refs try to figure it out. And then sometimes the refs still come up with the completely wrong call. The worst is in college basketball, where they will review an out-of-bounds call, realize the initial call was wrong, in the process see there was a foul that went uncalled, but can only change who has possession, not assign the foul that caused the turnover.

Then there are all stupid rules about what is and is not a catch in football. Or how in baseball a player’s body coming a fraction of an inch off the bag for a fraction of a second somehow means he was out. And so on.

I’m pretty sure I’ve suggested this before but I think replay review should only be shown at real-time speed. We don’t need to slow it down to one frame per second to analyze whether a ball moved a fraction of an inch when a receiver hit the ground. If we’re checking the refs, we need to check them at the same speed they made the call.

Yeah, folks will throw a fit if slow-mo shows detail that real time does not. That’s a downside I’m more willing to live with than how replay is used now.

And every review should be a coach’s review, with a limited number of challenges per contest. Give us back our games!

Kids

I forgot to mention the M got her sorority Little last weekend. It was the girl she/we expected, an architecture student from California. They both looked excited in the pictures we saw, so that’s good. We were worried the new girl wouldn’t be as into the process as M and her Big were last year. Looks like she can at least fake it.

We submitted C’s two college applications she plans on sending Monday evening. One to IU, her top choice, and one to UC. M got her acceptance letters from both schools in mid-November of her senior year, so we should know fairly soon.

Our mailbox has been flooded with promotional material from schools for both C and L. This week C got a package from High Point University. When we opened it up, this book was inside.

It’s a legit, hardback book. She hasn’t checked a box expressing any interest in them, so I assume thousands of these went out unsolicited. I guess at a hair under $70K a year, before aid, they can afford to send some books out. Seems like a weird choice for 17–18 year olds, though.

L has been sick for a couple weeks. It’s been so bad that she’s had to skip a few morning basketball workouts. We’re are pretty sure she had/has mono, but when we had blood work done last week, somehow the mono test got lost. There were other indicators that suggest mono so we’re going with that. Official basketball practice begins in three weeks, hopefully enough time for her to start feeling better.

ESPN

The alleged World Wide Leader is having rough times. Last week they laid off Zach Lowe, one of the best sports writers/analysts across all sports, and the finest basketball analyst they had. Another sign all they care about is the hot-take side of “analysis” that can be chopped up into Tik-Tok videos.

Also, last week I was sitting in a waiting room reading their story about the final home game for the Oakland A’s. It was a great story, and proof that ESPN does still allow some long-form journalism to take place under its watch.

But check out how user-hostile the reading experience was.

I’ve noticed this a lot lately. You get roughly halfway through a piece and this footer filled with disclaimers, etc pops up. You can’t dismiss it. You can scroll up and it will disappear, but when you scroll back down it returns. It remained on my screen until I finished the article. It’s not even a freaking ad, just a bunch of legalese that the reader should be allow to dismiss, or better yet, should auto-hide after a few seconds.

Finally, multiple times Monday ESPN showed graphics for the baseball playoffs that were completely wrong. One had the Royals and Tigers flipped, the Royals playing Houston and Detroit going to Baltimore. At least this one you could kind of explain away. The Royals and Tigers finished with the same record, the Royals getting the five seed thanks to winning the season series with Detroit. Obviously someone didn’t know the tie-breaker rules and either gave Detroit the higher spot because of alphabetical order or because they had a better record over their last 10 games. Or because they didn’t bother to look at MLB.com to get the official bracket. Still super dumb, but understandable since ESPN, like much of sports media, has fired many of their experienced editors and replaced them with cheap talent that doesn’t understand context.

Later in the day, though, they flashed a graphic that had Oakland in the playoffs. The A’s finished 17 games out of the final Wild Card spot. Worse, they had them playing the Padres…on the National League side of the bracket. I guess leaving Oakland means the A’s are also switching leagues?

Weekend Notes

September 23, 2024 /

Another full-ish weekend, with most of our attention focused on the corrupt and disgraceful arena of sports. Sports suck.

Family

Let’s flip our normal order, though, and kick it off with family chat. M came home for the weekend. It was her first visit of the semester and nice to have her in the house for about 48 hours. She had no plans and mostly chilled on our couch while doing homework or taking naps. I told her to let me know if she was missing any specific meals and I would make them for dinner, but she never got around to picking something and/or we had other things going on, so she didn’t get any good home cooking. Which is kind of a bummer. That was always a highlight of trips home for me. This was also her first time coming-and-leaving on her own. When she left Sunday afternoon, S noted how it was nice that one of us wouldn’t spend the next five hours driving to Cincinnati, helping her get settled, then coming right back. Indeed.

Her classes are going well. Much harder than freshman year, since she’s in the business school now, but she’s working through it. Crazily, she showed me how she has her next two-and-a-half years completely planned out. Thanks to all the hours she took with her from high school, she can both spend a semester abroad and then do a co-op without taking any classes another semester and still graduate on time. We are also about to sign a lease for where she will live the next two years. Seems like she just started college and now we are about to lock up her housing up to graduation.

C had a quiet weekend, until she got sick Sunday night. She is home with me today. Fun.

L had a tryout for next year’s travel ball team yesterday. We think she’ll end up on the same team, or at least with the same coach and the same core players, she has been on. So this was more a required show your face type thing. She is really hoping that her old coach is allowed to keep the team together, because she didn’t feel very good yesterday either, and didn’t think she played very well.

High School Football

One reason we couldn’t do anything special for dinner for M Friday was that it was CHS’ homecoming, and the girls basketball team had a tailgate. S and I went and ate pizza and hung out with the girls and other parents for about 90 minutes. We came home after to hang with M. It was hot, the game was at Butler so our season passes didn’t work, and we knew it would be a blowout – CHS beat the school across the street from our house 53–13 – so we didn’t see any reason to stay.

That proved to be even smarter when our first rain in two weeks rolled in midway through the second half. There was lightning, of course, and the game got halted for about an hour. L was there with friends and they left to get ice cream then hang out at a friend’s house.

Jayhawks

This is why, as a KU fan, I should never, ever, ever have expectations when football season rolls around. In 44 years of being a KU fan, conditions have been right to have serious hopes, I’m talking potential conference championship game rather than just go to a bowl game, exactly twice in my life. Both times those expectations got blown out of the water before the season was even halfway finished.

This time it was allowing West Virginia to score 15 points in about 3:30 of game time in the fourth quarter. The defense was terrible, our two alleged all-conference cornerbacks getting roasted all day while the line couldn’t tackle anyone. Jalon Daniels struggled. Shocker. The play calling was odd, again. Yet the Jayhawks were up 11 with under 5:00 to play on the road, after a two-hour weather delay no less. Then they blew it.

While there was plenty to be mad about, and this game pretty much ruined my entire day since it took over five hours to complete and then I was pissed for the remainder of the night, all the attention goes to a couple coaching decisions. First, taking a delay of game penalty right before the weather delay and turning a 4th and 2 into 4th and 7 was idiotic. Especially when our punter hadn’t exactly been kicking the shit out of the ball. Then running to the short-side on the biggest play of the day, when a first down might ice the game, was criminal. As one West Virginia writer pointed out:

Kansas for the last hour: Succeeds for chunks of yards every time they run a speed option.
Kansas on the biggest 3rd down of the game: Let’s try something else.

Maddening.

Jalon missed some more throws that suggested to me he’s compensating for injury/weakness in his body. But the coaching staff had an entire summer to game plan around that, and apparently didn’t. Then they make dumb calls in the game’s biggest moments.

Just like the only other time I had big expectations going into the season – 2009 – this season has quickly gone to shit. Now, the Illinois loss doesn’t look so bad after they won at Nebraska this week. And the remaining schedule is still relatively weak. Given how KU’s best players – aside from Devin Neal and Daniel Hishaw – and coaching staff have performed through the first four games, I don’t have much confidence things will improve. And next year we will roll out a team filled with freshmen and sophomores who haven’t played much…

Again, with Kansas football, it can, and almost always will, get worse. Can’t wait to see what this week brings.

Other College Games

Well, it’s started. All the weird, new conference games that a year ago would have been awesome non-con games. USC traveling to Michigan, for a tremendous game that went down to the final seconds. Tennessee going into Norman and slapping Oklahoma around, which was cathartic to this Big 12 fan. The games were good, but the vides were odd.

I read this weekend how UEFA adjusted how they schedule the Champions League this year, requiring the best teams to play more games against other strong teams. It is starting to feel like college football should do something like that. Just get rid of conferences and throw all the names into buckets based on preseason rankings, and try to make balanced schedules from that.

Here’s a wild bonus idea: Keep the schedules geographically logical, too. Nah, that’s crazy talk. Why would we want schools to play most of their games against rivals from neighboring states?

Colts

Hey, at least the Colts won! Not that they looked good doing it and didn’t try to give the game back to Chicago like three times.

Quarterbacks

Jalon Daniels has seven interceptions. Anthony Richardson has six. I’m falling out of love with the forward pass.

Fever

Like a lot of Indianapolis, at 3:00 eastern I switched from the ugly Colts game over to watch the Fever open their playoff series with the Connecticut Sun. That went well for one quarter, then it turned into a rout. The Sun kept big defenders on Caitlin Clark and made her life hell. CC and Kelsey Mitchell combining to shoot 4–23 from 3 did not help. We’ll see if they can regroup and adjust for game two and get the series back for the finale in Indy. The Sun have handled the Fever pretty easily all season, but it would be cool to steal game two and have the deciding game back here.

Royals

Man, you think KU had a bad week, go check out what the Royals did. Six straight losses. At home. A 13–1 collective shellacking to the Giants over the weekend. Now somehow tied with Detroit, DETROIT, for the second/third Wild Card spots with Minnesota just a game back, and Seattle a game behind the Twins. Detroit closes the season with three against the pitiful White Sox, so they have effectively locked up one of those two spots.

A week ago the Royals had a five-game cushion over the seventh place spot, with a 99% chance of making the postseason. This morning that percentage has dropped to 69% (per Fangraphs). If Minnesota wasn’t nearly as cold as the Royals those odds would be even lower.

Maybe the bats will wake up this week. Or the pitching will do enough to get the R’s to the playoffs and then the bats will wake up. Sure doesn’t look promising this morning.

Weather

Mother Nature finally flipped the switch Sunday and our heat wave broke. Rain moved in midday Sunday, with heavier showers in the evening, and the temps have dropped 10–15 degrees from where they had been. The forecast has highs in the mid-upper 70s with cool nights. Just about perfect.

We put the Halloween decorations out Saturday. The holidays are getting close.

Holiday Weekend Notes

September 3, 2024 /

It was an action-packed weekend. At least for watching sports from the comfort of my house. Friday night in particular was kind of crazy. High school football on the radio. Indiana Fever and US Open on the TV. Royals-Astros Gameday coverage on the Mac. With bonus weather monitoring on every screen. I guess I’ll break things down by subject rather than day.

KU Football

A slow start turned into the blowout it was supposed to be Thursday night for KU. Not sure you can make any great assessments of the team given the opponent. I thought Jalon Daniels looked a little rusty, but I also don’t know how open the playbook was. It seemed like the coaching staff was doing some experimenting with the offensive line. A pick-six for Mello Dotson, likely not the last for this defensive backfield this season. Devin Neal scoring touchdowns, Luke Grimm catching passes. We’ll find out a lot more about the Jayhawks next week when they go to Illinois.

The first game at Children’s Mercy Park seemed to go just fine. Word from people who went is that it was a great atmosphere. The replay system not working early and likely costing KU two scores was kind of a bummer.

HS Football

A week after beating preseason #1 Ben Davis, #3 Cathedral got a reminder their schedule is still brutal, losing to #6 Brownsburg 30–14. They got there a rather odd way.

BHS jumped out to a 17–7 lead Friday night before lightning was spotted. Although the storm was 10 miles away, and moving away from the stadium, the game was delayed over an hour before a second series of storms popped up and officials decided to postpone the game until Saturday afternoon.

Things didn’t get much better in the resumed game. CHS was playing with their primary running back – who ran for 168 yards week one – hobbled Friday, then without him completely Saturday. L heard Sunday he’s probably having surgery and out for the year. Not sure if he was worth 16 points but I think he would have helped. If he is indeed out for an extended stretch, the Irish’s already brutal schedule looks even more formidable.

Weather

Last week was hot, sticky, and nasty. The heat index was up around 110 a couple days. Friday night three rounds of storms came through, and torrential rains and heavy winds blew the heat away. The humidity stuck around through Saturday. Then Sunday morning it was 52 and 100% pleasant. The extended forecast has a bunch of mornings like that, with a few even colder, and daytime highs mostly in the mid–70s with a few mid–80s sprinkled in. September is a truly glorious month.

US Open

I watched a ton of tennis last week and into the weekend. Week one of the Open might be the best week of tennis of the year, hell one of the best sports weeks of the entire year, with great matches in progress just about any time you turn on your TV from noon to midnight.

Weekend highlights were Frances Tiafoe’s two wins and both Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic losing early. It was a bummer that Coco Gauff went out early, but at least she lost to another American. In general it’s great to have several decent American players in both the women’s and men’s game at the moment. It sure makes for better crowds in New York.

Royals

Crap on a stick.

Last Wednesday afternoon the Royals were tied for first place and were up on co-leaders Cleveland going into the seventh inning, nine outs away from a four-game sweep of the Guardians. Then the Royals melted down a little and they’ve yet to recover, losing six straight games. Three injuries during that span have not helped. At least they still have a cushion in the wild card race for the time being.

It’s been a bit of a charmed summer for the Royals, totally unexpected and built on out-of-nowhere quality starting pitching. The pitching has still been fine, at least the starters; it’s been the bats that have let them down over the past week. They were nearly no-hit Friday and have gone deep into other games with just one or two hits. Maybe, hopefully, surely the hitters can lock back in and they can hold on to one of those wild card spots to complete this surprise season.

Fever

I know I’m not alone in having watched more WNBA games this year than in the rest of my life combined. I now know exactly when the Fever are playing, and on what channel. Unlike other sports, which S doesn’t really pay attention to, for the Fever she gets kind of locked in. Ironically our basketball playing daughter will still just breeze through and watch a few minutes, but rarely sits down and watches long stretches with us.

Two more wins over the weekend for the hottest team in the league. The Fever are now over .500 for the first time in five years. Which sounds made up. Have they really been that bad, for that long? Again, since I never watched I don’t know if that is a real stat or not.

It’s been fun watching this team figure each other out since their disastrous start. Kelsey Mitchell is a revelation, and a perfect backcourt partner for Caitlin Clark. Aliyah Boston finally settled down and started playing like the former #1 pick she is. Lexi Hull is one of the most fun players to watch, and seemingly can’t miss a 3 since the Olympic break.

And, of course, there’s Clark. She was starting to get comfortable before the break, but has looked like a first team all league player since getting some time to both rest and work on her game. In those seven games she’s averaging 24.6 points, 5 rebounds, and nine assists. And that’s with her teammates still booting 3–4 passes a night, or blowing open layups.[1]

She’s added a floater. Her teammates are getting better at anticipating her crazy passes. She’s handling the physicality of the league better. She still makes a few horrible passes a game, but when she’s averaging almost nine assists a game, you’ll take those. And her outside shot still isn’t locked in. That will come next year. Any questions about her transition to the pro game have been answered.

The only real bummer to the Fever turning the corner is it has kept us from going to a game. Tickets were crazy expensive at the beginning of the season, as you would expect. I planned on waiting until the hype died down and the team fell deep into the bottom of the standings before trying to grab some for a weeknight game. So much for that. I was looking at tickets for tomorrow’s game and even upper level seats were going for $200 each. That seems excessive, especially when L isn’t super into watching. Although she would go if given the chance.

Oh, one other WNBA note. The yammering idiots on TV need to drop the whole Caitlin Clark vs Angel Reese thing and focus on the real issue: how stupid are the four teams other than Indiana and Chicago who passed on drafting Reese? She’s getting 20 boards a night over the past three weeks and leads the league in rebounding for the season. From watching Chicago Friday, it’s obvious that some of those numbers come because her coach leaves her on the court deep into blowouts to pad her numbers. But 20 rebounds is 20 rebounds.

The rookie of the year argument is pretty much over, as CC is both having a better and more impactful year while Chicago is dropping like a rock despite Reese’s play. That shouldn’t hide the fact that Reese is having a phenomenal rookie year of her own.

College Football

It’s always hard for me to dive in this first week of real college football action. There’s so much other stuff going on, both on TV and in real life, that it’s hard to lock in. I had plenty of games on but other than Notre Dame – Texas A&M didn’t get super focused on any of them.

That was a big win for the Irish. Notre Dame’s defense looks incredible. They have a cake schedule. They will be one of the top four teams in the playoff. The obvious joke is they will then lose to Alabama or whatever SEC runner-up they play in the first round. But that game will be in South Bend. In December. Surely Touchdown Jesus will scare up some lake effect snow, or at least nasty windchills, to aid the Irish.

Family Time

We didn’t do anything big family-wise for the holiday weekend. M stayed in Cincinnati. C and L went to the CHS game with friends Friday, but neither went back to the resumption on Saturday. L went to the gym with basketball friends Sunday. C went to the Pitbull concert Sunday night. We had the in-laws over for dinner Sunday, and three of the nephews over to swim on Monday. S and I went to dinner with friends Saturday.

I also found a little project for myself over the weekend. It scratches one of my biggest itches and will have a direct effect on some of my blog posts. I doubt most of you will be as interested in it as I am, but I’ll still share more details about it soon.

And with that, summer is over. Preseason training for school basketball started for L today, and I was up at 5:15 to get her to school on time. A perfect way for her to knock out some of her driving in the dark time!

  1. As the father of a lady baller, I will say the most frustrating part of the women’s game is how many layups are missed. That, more than any other area, is where the difference between men and women is glaring. It’s a lot harder to make a layup in traffic when you release the ball a foot/foot-and-a-half below the rim than within a few inches of it.  ↩

Vacation Notes

August 5, 2024 /

Our week in Florida wasn’t perfect, Mother Nature saw to that. But it was pretty good.

For the first time in eight or nine years, we drove for a vacation in the south. It was 11.5 hours, door-to-door, and traffic was not terrible on either trip. A lot of travelers, to be sure, but nothing like spring break volume.

We stayed in Inlet Beach, one of the 30A communities, with our old neighbors. We’ve now been to Mexico, Kauai, Captiva, and Inlet Beach with them. This was likely our last vacation as two families totalling nine: their oldest is getting married next summer. The adults may continue to travel once we navigate the college years.

Our house was nice, two blocks from the beach. That distance was just right on the days we had to pack up quickly because storms were moving in. Our little area was very quiet. We were in a duplex and the other side was empty, as was the duplex next to ours. There was a bachelorette group across the street starting Thursday, but they weren’t too loud, too late. Other than that, we barely saw or heard anyone in our immediate vicinity. Going late in the season, when some schools have already gone back to class, pays off.

I guess that’s my signal to get to the Mother Nature bullshit. On the way down we stopped at Buc-ee’s near Bowling Green, KY, our first ever trip to one. More on that in a bit. While we were grabbing food, C looked outside and said, “Oh, it’s pouring!” She was right. The gray skies were suddenly just dumping. I had to run to move our car closer to the doors so the family members who had straightened their hair before our trip wouldn’t have it ruined before we got to Florida. Not naming any names.

To avoid an accident that had I–65 stalled in Montgomery, AL, we took a side route that involved nearly three hours on state and county roads to the shore. Driving through intermittent downpours. A couple times it rained so hard we could barely see. Fun stuff.

Monday morning it rained just as we were getting ready to go to the beach. Tuesday afternoon it rained and drove us from the beach for over two hours. Same Wednesday, although for a little less time. There were storms Thursday. It stormed, loudly, from 5–8 AM Friday, which didn’t impact our beach time but did make for an early alarm clock no one wanted. Then Saturday, our departure day, those morning storms arrived at 4 AM. We had to drive in rain for about an hour before getting clear.

We’ve been to Florida in the summer before, and are used to the pop ups that come and go quickly. These were all big storms that would blow up and then sit over one spot with lots of lightning so you couldn’t be outside.


This storm sat right over us for three hours. It was the only rain in the entire state of Florida at the time.

It could have been worse, obviously, with Hurricane Storm Debby hitting just down the panhandle as I write this.

We still got several beach hours every day, but were curtailed at least a little by the weather most days. That wasn’t the worst thing, because it was stinking hot, the heat index well over 100 every day. Even with umbrellas and a breeze, you couldn’t sit in direct sun for very long without swimming in your own sweat.

The beach was very nice. Fluffy, white sand. Deep enough that there was plenty of room to find your own spot. Although some big, multi-generational crew decided to set up right next to us on Wednesday. I’m talking like less than three feet between the edge of our stuff and theirs. There were a lot of passive-aggressive dirty looks and music played louder than normal for the next few hours. When you got into the water, could walk way out a couple hundred feet and still both see and touch. It wasn’t quite Cancun, but it was close.

Wednesday I wandered out about as far as I’m comfortable going to enjoy the cooling water. Once I got settled in my chair with a new beer and my Kindle, there was a ruckus. Roughly the same distance I had gone out and a couple hundred feet to our left there was a shark. We could see its fins as it attacked something, fortunately not a person. Folks cleared out pretty quick, although we laughed out loud at a couple meathead dads who only came part of the way back in, then stood there defiantly. As if they had any chance against a shark in waist-deep water. Dumbasses, the whole lot. Meanwhile their wives were herding the kids back to land. Clearly all the brains in those operations reside with the ladies.

Thursday there were lots of small jellyfish around, so I avoided the water early. Once the winds kicked up and produced some waves, they disappeared and I braved the waters again.

We had our own pool, but it was very small. We expected it to be hot, too, but it was surprisingly refreshing. It was perfect for hopping into for a few minutes after dragging all our gear back from the beach.

We had three dinners out, all focused on seafood. M and C both tried snow crab one night, with mixed results. I can share food recommendations if anyone heads that way. We had burger, steak, and taco nights at home. We walked around a little in Rosemary Beach, but otherwise didn’t get out much. One family game night. A lot of recovering from the sun and watching the Olympics at night.

Oh, Buc-ee’s. Never had a chance to stop at one before. Our first stop in Kentucky Sunday morning, at about 8:00 AM, might be the perfect time to go. It was busy, but you could find a gas pump and move around the store easily. I got a breakfast taco that was solid. We stopped at one in Alabama on the way home, at about 1:00 PM on a Saturday, and it was a totally different story. Gas pumps all filled up. Store jam-packed. It’s an amazing operation, because we got gas quickly and I was able to grab a sandwich and pay within about 30 seconds despite the gridlock inside. The people who just left their cars at the pumps while they went into the store don’t understand that we are living in a society. I got a fried chicken sandwich for lunch, which was fantastic. Way better than Chick Fil A. Thumbs up, other than the crowds.

I had to chuckle that the road signs announce Florida as “The Free State of Florida.” 1) Serious Try Hard energy there. 2) As a native of a state that was founded as a Free State, I think the Floridians have a very different idea of what that means that I do. 3) I quickly amassed a list of things you are not free to do, based on my limited knowledge of Florida, that seemed to counter the governor and his lackeys’ assertion.

Worst bumper sticker I saw, just outside Nashville, TN: A confederate flag on one side, on the other “Fighting Terrorists Since 1861.” Oh Lord…

Speaking of Tennessee, what a gorgeous state to drive through. The rolling hills of central/western Tennessee might not be as dramatic as the Smokies of east Tennessee, but are still beautiful.

We also saw lots of Say No To Solar signs. I never realized there was actually an anti-solar lobby.

It boggles the mind why the Florida panhandle is on Central Time. Inlet Beach is literally straight south of Indy, but we’re in different time zones.

Pretty solid trip. I read a good book. The girls got to hang with their friends. S and I spent time with our friends.

And now we’re back to the academic grind. C and L start school Thursday, we will move M back to UC on Sunday.

Dog-ish Days

July 18, 2024 /

The Dog Days of Summer are supposed to come later, say very late July into the early weeks of August. That gap when the heat really kicks in, the newness of summer activities has faded, and boredom starts to kick in.

But, I realized this week, they really should arrive sooner since kids go back to school a lot earlier than our generation did. Which might explain why things seem kind of dead around our house and I’m lacking in blogging material.

C did knock out her senior pics last night. That was a little dicey. A cold front was supposed to slide through late in the afternoon, bringing cooler weather with it.[1] But, as the front passed, it was also likely to kick off some storms. Right around picture time. Uh oh…

She lucked out, though. There were some storms in the area, but they avoided the locations she had picked. The temperature did bump up to 90 late in the afternoon, and a breeze kicked in behind the front. But neither was troublesome for pics. It sounds like all went very well, and she and S came home in good spirits. You can never be sure with that kid in high-stress moments, so that was a huge relief. And it was the first big item checked off her senior year list.

L and I are off to Louisville Saturday-through-Monday for her last tournament, so no Weekend Notes post until Tuesday. M is off to St. Louis this weekend for a national leadership conference for her sorority. Wish us all safe travels.

  1. It was 60 this morning when I woke up and might drop into the 50s tonight.  ↩

Weekend Notes

July 9, 2024 /

Holiday Weekend

Not a bad Independence Day weekend at all.

S’s sister who lives in Denver and her family came to stay with us from Wednesday through Sunday. We had a couple cornhole tournaments (L beat her cousin in one, and she and I beat the cousin and his dad in the other).The kids went and played mini-golf in the midst of a downpour. We hit a hibachi place one night. And other assorted nonsense.

Our big family gathering was scheduled for our house on the Fourth, but as the forecast showed rain all day, we did a last-minute switcheroo and reserved some lanes at a bowling alley for Thursday at lunchtime. Somehow one of the eight-year-olds had the best score out of the 18 bowlers. The kids then played laser tag and spent some time in the arcade. That evening we went to one of S’s other sister’s homes for food and hanging out. A couple small showers pushed through, but once they passed the temperature dropped and the humidity disappeared and it felt more like early October than July 4.

Our re-scheduled pool party went off Saturday without too many issues. It was warm and breezy and just about perfect. After a couple cool nights, the pool water checked in at 85 degrees, which had to be the coolest it has ever been for our family gathering on July 4. Or July 6, I guess.

And now we’re less than a month from C and L going back to school. Summer flies.

Driver’s Ed

L officially started her in-car driving lessons last week. She’s knocked out three of her six required sessions. Or rather, will have knocked out three by the time you read this. Her third lesson is Tuesday morning. She seems to be doing pretty good. We haven’t had much time to practice because of basketball, family stuff, etc. but I had her drive to the lesson last Friday and she did just fine.

College Visit

C and I visited IU Monday, her first, official campus visit. It was pretty much the same routine that I went through with M two years ago. C seemed to enjoy it but wasn’t blown away or anything. IU is where she wants to go, her grades and test scores seem to line up with what they are looking for. That all makes it pretty easy, fingers crossed.

I don’t know that we’ll make any more official visits this summer. She wants to spend some time with M at UC this fall. M will start leading tours on campus then, so C can get both the official and personal perspectives. She might also visit a friend who will be a freshman at Ball State once classes start. Then we’ll see if she wants to squeeze in any official tours before it’s time to start sending off applications.

Right now she says she wants to study forensic psychology. She is interested in CSI-type stuff, and working for the FBI is one of her goals. Or just deal with patients individually. Plenty of time to dial it in.

We had lunch at the always tasty Village Deli. While we ate C asked me which was bigger, Bloomington or Lawrence. I guessed they were pretty similar, but a check of Wikipedia showed that Lawrence is roughly 15,000 people bigger! That surprised me. It also surprised me that Lawrence has grown nearly 50% since I was in school. Damn!

One interesting aspect of our visit was there are a group of pro-Palestine demonstrators who are camped out on the IU campus. This is kind of a big deal because there was a rather violent encounter between the protesters and campus/state police in April. I’m not going to get into that too much, but it was pretty clear that the authorities WAY overstepped their mandate that day.[1] However, a lot of people in Indiana didn’t care because the Palestinian cause isn’t really a hot issue in this state. And most Hoosiers figured the protesters were dirty, commie, hippies and deserved whatever they got.

Anyway, our information session included a disclaimer that IU supported the right of people to assemble peacefully and express their beliefs. We were encouraged not to engage with the demonstrators during our tour, but were free to go back and talk to them on our own if we wanted to.

There were two groups of demonstrators who parked themselves in an area where each tour group had to pass. They peacefully, but loudly, stated their cause as we passed, which was basically that IU programs have helped develop weapons used by the Israelis in Gaza and IU has investments in Israel they want the university to back out of. A few politely offered us pamphlets.

Another highlight of the day was that the iHeart Radio AT40 station extended its holiday week marathon of year-end countdowns into this week. So we drove down listening to the middle of the Top 100 songs of 1984, and drove home listening to a nearly corresponding section of the 1985 countdown. Not sure if it’s a coincidence or not, but C napped most of the way down and back. I sure enjoyed the music, though!

  1. The state police brought in snipers that were based on tops of campus buildings and helicopters, and entered the fray in full riot gear. All to clear people who had been approved to assemble in an area set aside for protests and had shown no signs of being violent. Naturally the police ran out the old excuse that they believed the original protesters had been infiltrated by “outsiders” who were looking to agitate and force a violent encounter. They never provided any evidence for this argument. The Israel-Palestine situation is awful with no easy or clear answers. We don’t need American authorities making things worse here.  ↩

Weekend Notes

June 17, 2024 /

Father’s Day came at the right moment. After three very busy days preceding it, Sunday was a nice day to relax and not have to be anywhere. S got us donuts for breakfast. We had my in-laws over for dinner, eating some carry-out barbecue. I received a Solo fire pit as a combo Father’s Day/birthday gift. Based on the forecast, I might get to use it sometime in 2025. L and I played two rounds of Cornhole; we started a summer-long competition last week and I currently lead 3–0. These are best of three matches and I’ve been lucky to win two of those, so really anyone’s ballgame at this point.

The only bummer was our pool has developed an issue – some kind of algae – that required me to pour 14 gallons of liquid chlorine into it Thursday evening. If you don’t own a pool, that’s a lot. So much that it made the water too toxic to swim in while it hopefully does its magic and kills off whatever had been eating the chlorine. Fingers crossed it will get back to normal this week, although now the water temp has creeped up and it’s not super refreshing.

Donuts With Dad

Friday morning I attended a Donuts With Dad breakfast for one of my nephews at his daycare. K is one of the two boys my sister-in-law A has adopted on her own. I did the same thing for his big brother M three years ago.

These events are fun because 1) a bunch of dads at a daycare is always a little awkward and 2) K and M are both Black, and they attend a Black-owned daycare that has only Black kids. A few things made me chuckle, and I hope everyone understands I offer these observations with respect for the folks running the facility, love for my nephews, and am mostly making fun of myself.

When I arrived the owner’s husband greeted me at the door. I’m not sure if he got the memo I would be coming because he paused for a moment before letting me in until I introduced myself. Then he was super friendly and thanked me for coming. A few minutes later his wife walked through the room and greeted me by saying, “I remember you,” as she passed by.

That made me laugh to myself. Guessing there aren’t a lot of other relatives like me who come in for special days.

The other dads, grandfathers, uncles rolled in and we sat in stilted silence. I would imagine any of them who pick up their kids/grandkids from the center know my sister-in-law, so weren’t surprised to see a white dude there. But I’m sure a few were curious about my presence.

Before they brought the children over, the owner’s five-year-old wandered in. It was his graduation day and he was dressed up for the occasion. His father asked him, “Have you said hello to the brothers?” The kid then made a circuit around the room, shaking everyone’s hand. He didn’t seem fazed by me and said “Good morning,” as he shook my hand. In my head I was again laughing at the prospect of him skipping me because I wasn’t a brother.

Again, more making fun of myself than my hosts.

K eventually came in and handed me a card he had colored. He looked super tired and not into the events. That’s standard for him. We jokingly say he’s an 80-year-old man trapped in a four-year-old’s body. He gave me a hug and stood next to me silently. I tried a number of questions that he answered sleepily without much enthusiasm. Until I asked him if he heard the storms overnight. That got him going and he told me all about how he heard the thunder, how he stayed in his bed (he did not), how he never goes into his mom’s room (he always goes in there), and on and one. He didn’t stop talking until I left.

The owner’s husband gave a nice little speech about the importance of father figures. He asked us all to say something about what parenthood means to us. The kid ate donuts and ate orange juice.

K and his family stopped by our house Sunday and he was still talking about the orange juice, so it must have been the good stuff. Or maybe my sister-in-law just never gets OJ.

Kid Hoops

L had six games in three days last week.

In the Thursday summer league, CHS played both Lawrence North, who should be a top five team this fall, and Lawrence Central, who went 30–1 last year, won state, and return just about everyone.[1]

There was a rising senior showcase elsewhere in town, so most of the teams were missing their best upperclassmen. LN did not have their stud point guard, but had a perfectly acceptable replacement and most of the rest of their team. We closed the first half on a little 4–0 run and went to halftime down seven. The dad I was sitting with and I felt pretty good about things. Then our girls gave up a 23–1 run in the third quarter. We ended up losing by 23, but fought hard to get it from 32 to 23 in the closing minutes. I thought our girls played hard but were just up against a much better team. L actually felt pretty good after this game.

LC was basically playing their JV. Their best player, who was the Indiana Gatorade player of the year as a junior, and her younger sister were both sitting and watching in street clothes. None of their other varsity starters were even in the building. We started up 11–4 but got sloppy and led by just two at half. The second half was back-and-forth. We trailed by six, got it to two, missed three chances to tie or take the lead in the last 19 seconds, and lost by two. A game we should have won. Even if it was a team full of sophomores and freshmen, it would have been cool to beat the defending state champs.

I don’t think L scored against LN; she had four against LC. She started both games, but two senior starters were gone for either the senior showcase or soccer.

Friday and Saturday we played in a team showcase that college coaches could attend. We saw one coach from Purdue but most were from smaller D1 or lower level schools.

Friday we played a tough 4A team from Fort Wayne. They had two long, athletic wings, a tall shooter, and a 5’11”-ish center who was a joy to watch because of her footwork. They worked us over pretty good and won by 18. L scored four.

Game two was against Jennings County, who just sent a girl to Michigan State but return a very good junior who scored 20+ on us last year. I bet she scored close to 30 Friday. It was actually a really good game. We trailed by nine multiple times but tied it with about three minutes left. L got a rebound, went full court, juked a defender, and then put her floater off the back of the rim. We never had another chance to take the lead and lost by nine, L scoring five.

Saturday the matchups were a little better. We played a semi-rural 3A team to start. Neither team scored for the first four minutes of the game. From there we went on a 33–5 run. We were super sloppy in the second half and only scored like 10 points, but only gave up eight or nine so it was a super comfortable win. L had five.

Our final game was against Norwell, who lost by three in the 3A state title game last spring. They lost seven seniors but were still stacked. They trapped everything, every player was lanky and athletic and aggressive, and they gave us fits for the first two, two-and-a-half quarters of the game. We trailed by eight in the fourth quarter before we finally figured out their pressure and used a 17–2 run to take the lead. We ended up winning by three. Really good way to end a long week. L didn’t play as much in this game because the pressure really bothered her, hitting one long 2 in the first half.

I think the team got better. The coach is figuring some things out about the lineup. I could probably guess our starting lineup and rotation if the real season started this week. I think L would be the first or second person off the bench, depending on what we needed and who the opponent is. She’s also seen what she needs to work on to make sure she gets those minutes after playing against older, bigger, stronger girls for three consecutive days.

US Open

Ugh. I’m glad our dinner with the in-laws coincided with the final 7–8 holes Sunday. Although I did walk in to see Rory McIlroy miss his short putt on 18 that cost him a chance at a playoff. I didn’t realize at the time he had missed a shorter put two holes earlier. Gutting.

I don’t like Bryson, I don’t buy that he’s changed, and some of the clearly PR flack cleared nonsense he was spouting after his win directly contradicts things he’s said before. And it’s patently ridiculous for a grown-ass man to wear the idiotic LIV team logo he has plastered on all his gear. Even with Rory’s meltdown and his disappointing avoidance of the media after, I will perpetually be Team Roars over anyone who has taken the Saudi blood money and claims, with a straight face, to have done so to “grow the game.” Especially when it’s a meathead like Bryson, who has a genuine, amazing gift for golf, but is equally off-putting in his personality and comments. Glad I only watch golf four times a year anymore.

  1. The arch rivals played three times last year. LC won by two in the Marion County tournament, by three in the regular season, and by seven in sectionals after trailing by 14. None of LC’s other wins in the state tournament were closer than 13 points.  ↩

Wednesday Notes

May 29, 2024 /

A few more random notes that didn’t fit into the weekend wrap-up.

Number Three Behind The Wheel

L finally got her learner’s permit today. She had been gung-ho about driving since she was 13, and dove into the driver’s ed self-teaching program when we signed her up back in December. We’ve been taking her across the street to drive around the high school parking lot since last fall.

Then a couple friends, who are smart cookies like her, failed their learner’s permit written test on their first tries. I think that spooked her. And one day when she was out with S, S let L drive her Telluride on one of the most difficult roads on the north side of Indy, Kessler Boulevard. This is a four-lane road that is riddled with potholes, is extremely narrow, there is zero curb, where everyone drives way too fast, and has a brutal double curve that can be frightening to even experienced drivers when it gets busy. C and I both avoid it when we drive to CHS, trading a slightly longer route for not having to deal with Kessler’s headaches. L didn’t wreck, thank goodness, but it freaked her out and she suddenly stopped asking to drive or bringing up going to take her permit test.

Fortunately she finally got past all that, studied this week, and knocked the test out in like six minutes.

Now she goes onto the Ready to Drive list, and hopefully we can get her six in-car sessions scheduled and completed before she goes back to school in August. The school across the street has a 12-week wait, so we signed her up in Carmel which was 3–4 weeks last we heard.

The Electric Company

We’ve had the joy this year of dealing with insane billing issues from our electric company. Late last year they updated their billing system – to serve us better, of course – and the result has been a disaster for some people. They claim only 10% of their customers have been affected, but it has to be more otherwise the issues I’m about to lay out would have been fixed by now.

We do the budget billing plan, paying the same amount each month. That total gets adjusted up or down each June based on our usage over the previous year. For some reason they adjusted ours in February, increasing it by over 50%. Our new monthly amount was 28% higher than our biggest month of usage charge over the past year. A couple weeks later we got an email saying we had been billed incorrectly and a credit would appear on our account. Of course they still took out the incorrect amount, because we are signed up for automatic payments.

The next three months we did not get a bill at all. I kept checking the local media and Reddit, and our company said “a small number of people” were not receiving bills. Others were getting bills that were wildly incorrect. One lady called and they couldn’t find a record that she had made a payment on her account since 1970. She was not close to 54 years old. The company claimed they were working on a fix and were not disconnecting service or charging late fees for customers getting incorrect bills.

Obviously we could have kept paying our monthly amount but given we had zero confidence they wouldn’t apply it incorrectly, we just waited for a new bill.

When we didn’t get a bill again in May, I called the special line set up to handle billing issues. I talked to a lady who could not have been less helpful. She wasn’t rude or anything, she just had zero ability to assist me. It took her five minutes and multiple tries to even find our account. I slowly repeated our account number three times and our address as many times. Despite my name being listed first on our bill, she said I was not on the account and asked if I had S’s permission to access our account. We’re all for challenging traditional gender roles in this house, but I thought that was wild that I was being asked if I had permission from my wife to call about our bill. I thought about telling her that my wife lets me have my own credit card and drive on my own, too.

Eventually she found our account. She couldn’t tell me a damn thing I couldn’t see for myself when I looked at our information online. Her advice: keep checking every few weeks, they were working on a fix.

Uh-huh.

We finally got a bill two weeks later. It charged us for the three months we had not been billed, which is appropriate. What was not appropriate was that they charged us three months at the new, incorrect, budget amount.

So I called the regular customer service line. It literally took eight minutes navigating their phone tree before I finally smashed 0 and was able to speak to a real person. Every other option just played various recordings, most encouraging customers to use the company website to get assistance.

Once connected with a live human, I explained my dilemma: our budget bill went up much higher than our highest actual bill, we never received the credit promised, we didn’t receive a bill for three months, and now we were being charged 3x the incorrect amount.

This lady was very nice. She told me to just pay our old budget amount. She said they were working to fix all these errors, but, “Obviously they haven’t got to yours yet,” she said with a sarcastic chuckle. She said she would flag our account again so it, hopefully, gets reviewed and corrected. I could tell she didn’t have much confidence that would happen. Unlike the other lady, who seemed to just be reading from the script in front of her, this woman was friendly and empathetic. I told her I knew she was probably getting tons of calls about these issues, and appreciated that she actually seemed to care about helping me and was nice about it. I think I made her day. Hell, it’s not her fault her company sucks.

So we’ll see if we get a corrected bill here in the next few weeks. I wouldn’t be surprised it if takes another call or two after that bill comes to get things straightened out.

I normally don’t post on Reddit, but I’ve checked into a couple threads on the local thread chiming in with my experience. Again, it sure seems like more than 10% of customers are affected.

Strangely our state utility board has taken zero action to force the power people to get this straightened out. They even approved a big rate increase in the midst of this. Again, to better serve us, I’m sure.

Bill Walton

I found the varied reactions to Bill Walton’s death very interesting. You either loved his schtick as a broadcaster or you hated it, and that view affected your first thoughts when you learned he had passed.

I did not like his TV style at all. That’s because I’m a super fan that takes sports way too seriously. When I’m watching a KU game, I want descriptions and analysis of what is happening. Not wild asides that have nothing to do with what’s on the court. Nor histrionic statements based on one play rather than an entire body of work. So I loathed the rare times that Walton did a KU game. He distracted from whatever the Jayhawks were doing on the court. In time I learned to keep the TV muted, or the volume barely high enough to catch some crowd noise, if he was on the mic.

As I thought about his life and career, though, I realized he really was a trendsetter. All of these modern, alternate broadcasts, which have reached their peak with the Manningcasts of Monday Night Football, stem from how he called games. “Don’t take these things so seriously,” he seemed to be saying, “they are just games and there are far more important things in life like your relationships with the people you love and how you interact with the planet we call home.” Well, the Mannings and Kevin Harts of the world probably aren’t thinking that deeply, but Walton opened a door for non-traditional broadcasts that people who don’t care about the game turn in to watch.

That’s a much healthier view of sports that I generally take, at least when my teams are involved. It was good that someone was pushing that idea, even if Walton’s technique was maddening.

For all his goofiness and frustrating qualities, the outpouring of love for him after his death has been wonderful to read. He was a truly unique human, and he very much lived the peace and love values his generation espoused in the Sixties. There have been so many examples of him going out of his way to make other people’s lives better in difficult moments, or needling people he cared about with perfectly timed barbs.

Let’s not forget that Walton was a remarkable player who had his career cut short by a series of cruel injuries. He was one of the most dominant college players ever and was on that trajectory in the NBA until his feet and legs started failing him.

I won’t miss avoiding him on ESPN, but I appreciate that he made the world a better place in his 71 years.

Weekend Notes

May 28, 2024 /

A long holiday weekend filled with guests, rain, and fun.

L had a group of girl friends over Friday night. Storms curtailed their pool time but otherwise they kicked off their summer well. Since she spends so much time with basketball girls, it’s always good to get a confirmation that she hangs out with other freshman girls sometimes. Sorry, sophomore girls!

She took me to the gym Monday morning for a shooting workout. She shot the best I’ve ever seen her shoot…until the friendly maintenance guy came over and asked me if I thought the rim was crooked. She had already told me it felt off, but something about him asking got in her head and the second half of her trip around the 3-point arc wasn’t as good as the first 40 minutes of shooting.

M had three UC girls from Ohio stay with us Saturday and Sunday nights.[1] A few local UC kids linked up with them at various points. The group took over our pool Saturday evening. Seemed like good kids and everyone had fun. M enjoyed showing off her hometown. This was the first time I’ve ever bought alcohol for my kid and her friends, which was a little odd. I thought it was funny the Ohio girls all brought drinks of their own but didn’t bring them into the house until they realize we didn’t mind if they drank as long as they stayed at our house once they started.

C ran around with friends a few times over the weekend.

Friday night M, S, and I went to a grad party. Right when we showed up heavy rains made a right turn from the path they were taking and drenched the party for about 30 minutes. Worth noting this was a mostly outdoor party, so that was kind of a bummer. We huddled in the clubhouse during the actual stormy part of the rain, then escaped to squeeze under a tent when it switched to straight rain. I ran into the guy who coached L’s St. P’s team her 8th grade year and we caught up a bit. Also saw one of the people somewhat responsible for S and I meeting 24 years ago, who was down from Michigan for the party.

It being Memorial Day weekend in Indy, the Indianapolis 500 dominated events. For a week we knew the weather would be a problem. Sure enough, just before the race was scheduled to start severe storms blew through central Indiana. We knew a lot of people at the race and apparently it was a lot of fun to go sit in cars or squeeze into shelters for the 90 or so minutes it took the storms to pass through. The four-hour delay turned an already long day into a monumental investment in time. We know people who got to the track around 6:00 AM and didn’t get home until close to midnight. That sounds horrible to me, terrific race or not.

The bonus of the storms, and the window of clear weather that followed, was that the IMS decided to waive the local TV blackout. So when the green flag dropped at 4:45, we were able to watch live for only the third time since I moved here.[2]

What a great race! Or at least the last ten laps. The last lap specifically. Two passes between winner Josef Newgarden and runner up Pato O’Ward in the final trip around the track was a lot of fun. The UC visitors were watching with us, and the Ohio girls were enthralled by the finish.

Monday we had our family gathering, with most of the locals present. I had two grills going to feed everyone. It was also the 8th birthday for one of our nephews, so there was cake and presents. Another round of storms came through late Sunday/early Monday and made it a blustery and cooler day. I cranked up the pool heater and the nephews didn’t seem to mind, although none of the parents or our girls got into the pool with them.

I had a moment over the weekend when I had some longing for old school holiday weekends, when your favorite radio station had a Block Party Weekend, or some other gimmick to get people to tune in. I remember an All Eighties Weekend around July 4 in the late 90s, which seemed like such a crazy idea. Imagine playing nothing but 80s music!!! It seemed like everywhere we went that weekend, people our age had that station on and we talked about how great the selections were.

Anyway, I realized that The Bridge, the eclectic KC radio station I stream sometimes, was doing a block party deal, and the iHeart Radio AT40 station was playing a marathon of year-end countdowns. I’m sure other outlets had gimmicks, too. The problem is me, and how I just don’t listen to any radio feeds for more than when I’m making/eating lunch or dinner or otherwise hanging in the kitchen. Otherwise it is all streaming playlists I have made myself, or whatever new album I’m spinning on Spotify.

Pacers…man, what a disappointing week. They had game one locked up until Tyrese Haliburton made a horrible, unforced turnover, Rick Carlisle failed to call a timeout to advance the ball which led to an awful turnover which led to an unforgivable defensive lapse that led to Jaylon Brown sending the game to overtime with a corner three. And still the Pacers had a chance, until Haliburton again sucked in the final minute of OT.

Then in game two, they were hanging in there, battling, down just four in the second half. I left to help S do a few things to get ready for weekend guests. I was away from the TV for maybe five minutes. When I came back the Celtics were up 15, Haliburton was in the locker room injured, and Pascal Siakam, who had been torching the C’s, was on the bench with the rest of the starters.

Game three, again, was right in the Pacers’ hands. Even without Haliburton, who re-aggravated his hamstring injury that derailed the second half of his season, the Pacers built an 18-point second half lead. They blew the entire thing, losing by three. They became the first team in the last 25 years to lead two NBA playoff games by five in the last two minutes and lose each. They became the first NBA team to ever shoot over 51% in the first three games and lose them all.

Last night’s collapse to give the C’s the sweep was inevitable. The Pacers failed to score a point in the final 3:33 and again lost by three.

The Celtics are clearly the better team. The Pacers lost their best player seven quarters into the series. Yet they could have easily been up 3–1 this morning, headed back to Boston. This team is so flawed on the defensive end and on the boards, yet they are so good offensively they still almost make up for it against maybe the best team in the league. If I was a Boston fan, I’d be worried that my team couldn’t put away a team that was missing their star and plays defense like the entire team has five fouls and don’t want to pick up their sixth.

Great, fun season, though. If Haliburton hadn’t gotten hurt in January, maybe they are higher in the playoff seeding. But that would have robbed us of the dramatic wins over the Bucks and Knicks to get to the Eastern Conference Finals.

Fingers crossed they re-sign Siakam. There is a ton of talent on the wing. Is Ben Mathurin the perfect third cog with Haliburton and Siakam? Maybe they move a couple of those guys to both clear playing time and find another solid defender/rebounder. Maybe rookie Jarace Walker is ready to contribute next year, as he seems perfectly designed to fill that role. They really need another big body. They don’t have a first round pick but do have three second round picks to play with. Should be an interesting summer for a team on the rise.

  1. One from outside Cleveland, one from Dayton, one from Cincinnati.  ↩

  2. The other two times were the 100th running, which was sold out months in advance, and the delayed 2020 race that had no one in the stands due to Covid.  ↩

Weekend Notes

May 13, 2024 /

A nice weekend here in Indy. I know eventually it will come back to bite us in the ass, but this is like the fifth or sixth straight season here that has been terrific. It got warm early but didn’t turn into summer in April. We’ve had a few cooldowns but none of those surprise weeks when you go from shorts and tees to coats and hats again. All that after a mild winter, a normal fall, a terrific summer, another nice spring, and I believe a relatively warm winter a year ago. Mother Nature is loading up for something big.

The pool has been open since Monday and by Friday the water was both warm and filtered enough to get in. L had friends over Friday night, and after spending the night they hung around to swim Saturday. We hosted S’s dad and stepmom for dinner Saturday night. Sunday we hung out around the pool, with two of the local nephews coming over to get their first swims of the year in.

Kid Props

I mentioned Friday that I had to attend a function Friday morning. I went into school early with L to attend the Blessed Basil Moreau awards ceremony. We knew she would receive an award. We were not told what it was for or who had nominated her when we got the invitation.

When we arrived her religion teacher, Mrs. K, strolled over and sat with us. She had both M and C in her classes, so we chatted a bit about them.

The ceremony began and Mrs. K went to the podium and asked L to join her. She said a series of nice things about L’s attitude, leadership, and dedication. She said L was the kind of kid you wished you had 24 more of in class. She then shared a specific example of L’s behavior.

One day L saw one of her friends getting picked on in class. L didn’t think that was right, so she went and sat with her friend, calmed her down, got her back on track, and after class let Mrs. K know about the situation.

That all sounded pretty good.

After the ceremony I asked for the whole story.

“It was T,” she said, referring to a basketball teammate who is autistic and has been targeted by a few mean girls this year. “This little bitch was picking on her because she knows T won’t say anything back to her. So I went over and shut that shit down.”

Even prouder, especially for how she related what happened! Of course, if Mrs. K had heard that version she might not have nominated L for the award!

Now L is a part of the Holy Cross council at CHS. Not sure exactly what that entails but she acted mock put out about it. “More meetings,” she sighed.

As a parent you hope that your kids have a strong set of core values and that they will speak up when those values are violated. One of the things I am most proud of is that our girls do exactly that. When they see friends in need, they help them. They all, to a certain extent, are wiling to confront people who they think are being assholes.

It’s one thing to convey these lessons to your kids. It’s another for them to have the strength to stand up for their values when presented with an opportunity. Our girls aren’t perfect, but it gives me immense satisfaction that my primary job for the last 20 years has not been in vain.

Pacers

I was pretty pissed after the first two games of the Pacers-Knicks series. Yes, there were a lot of bad calls, most of which seemed to go against the Pacers. I mean, how do referees get kicked ball calls wrong against the same team, in clutch moments, in two straight games? And how do they claim they can’t correct an incorrect call one night, when it goes against the Pacers, then stop the game to huddle up and correct an incorrect call two nights later when it allows the Knicks to keep the ball in the final two minutes of a close game?

But, let’s be honest: bad calls or not, the Pacers lost the first two games because they couldn’t block out on the boards or stay in front of anyone on defense. They reverted to December Pacers ball, thinking they could just score 150 and win by two. That shit doesn’t work in the playoffs. At least not usually.

After two games in Indy, though?

WHOOOOO DOCTOR, WE’VE GOT A SERIES!!!!

An incredibly frustrating and tense game Friday, with the Pacers jumping out early, giving the lead up, getting another cushion just after halftime, then not only blowing that but finding themselves down nine points with nine minutes to play. Were they going to get swept? They righted the ship, made some big plays, and Andrew Nembhard threw in a prayer of a 3 with 17 seconds left to break the final tie.

The Knicks are about as banged up as you can be so there was no reason for this game to be close. Yet the Pacers’ refusal to even pretend to play defense killed them.

Sunday all that switched. The Knicks looked injured, tired, and short-handed. The Pacers defense was nearly as good as their offense. The lead was 20 points in the first quarter. It was around 40 points much of the third quarter. The fourth quarter was one of the most bizarre things I’ve seen in the NBA: both teams cleared their benches early and just let those cats roll for 12 minutes. It was not scintillating basketball. Pacers fans didn’t care.

Two-two, going back to New York.

You figure there’s going to be a huge swing after game four. The Knicks can’t play that poorly again, can they? The Pacers can’t play that good on the road, right? It feels like this series is going seven, unless either Tyrese Haliburton’s or Jalen Brunson’s bodies completely fail on them and their teams are forced to play without them.

Northern Lights

We missed them here. Friday evening it was mostly cloudy in our part of Indy. I walked outside several times between 10 and midnight but never had a clear view of the sky. Where the low level clouds had gaps, higher clouds were reflecting the ground light and preventing any glimpses of the colors. I saw great pictures that people got not too far from our home, so had I hopped in the car and driven even 20 minutes I could have seen the spectacular views on my own.

But it was late, I was fired up after the Pacers game, and had drank a beer. Bad combos for an old man. Probably best to stay at home.

Saturday our skies were crystal clear but the lights weren’t as intense in our part of the state. Again, I could have taken a drive but M and one of her friends tried that without success so I stayed home.

Bummer. I’ve never seen the Northern Lights in person and this weekend’s show seems like it was one of the best in memory. Seeing them would have been a nice companion to watching the eclipse last month.

Blog Archives

For some reason I got out of my routine of reading through my posts from 20 years ago in February. This weekend I caught up on three months of blogging from 2004. It was fun to read through a lot of pregnancy posts. I was surprised how much I wrote about American Idol and The Bachelor. That was the one spring I watched both of those shows.

Anyway, if you’re ever really bored, a reminder that I have nearly 21 years of archives you can read through. Could be good for nights you can’t sleep. Probably better than white noise for easing you into a slumber.

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