D's Notebook

Tag: health (Page 1 of 5)

Weekend Notes

November 18, 2024 /

A Great Weekend To Be A Jayhawk

Saturday, specifically.

First, just before noon Eastern, Bryson Tiller, the #20 recruit in the current senior class, signed to play at KU next year. This was unexpected. KU had chased him hard, but earlier in the week his Overtime Elite teammate Samis Calderon had signed with KU. They are not exactly the same player, but have some overlapping skills and attributes. Most recruiting nerds thought this was an either/or situation. Apparently not.

Now KU has two long, bouncy, NBA-bodied big wings/inside players coming in to join Darryn Peterson, one of the top two or three players in the class. Even before whoever Bill Self adds in the transfer portal later this year, this is going to be one of the very best recruiting classes of his career. As Phog Allen once said, I hope they all try out for basketball when they arrive in Lawrence next year.

Later in the day, this year’s basketball Jayhawks had zero trouble with Oakland. Now this was not the same Oakland roster that beat Kentucky and took Final Four-bound North Carolina State to overtime last March. But they still play a funky style on both ends and are exactly the type of team KU has struggled with the last two years. No struggle at all Saturday evening. KU shot nearly 70% in the first half before cooling off. AJ Storr scored 10 points in about 45 seconds. Shakeel Moore made his debut and looked smooth and comfortable. A solid if unspectacular night.

Finally, to wrap up the day, the football Jayhawks went to Provo, Utah and knocked off the previously undefeated, #7 BYU Cougars. I’m not going to lie: I went to bed when the first quarter ended a little after 11:00 Eastern. If KU entered the game 7–2 or 6–3, I probably would have toughed it out. Or at least tried to. But at 3–6 and having gotten up at 6:00 AM to get L to practice, I was not feeling it. Especially against an undefeated, top ten team.

Shows what I know.

Hey, KU FINALLY GOT A BREAK THIS YEAR! Jalon Daniels’ quick-kick bouncing off two Cougars right to Quentin Skinner to set up the winning score was exactly the kind of flukey play that had gone against the Jayhawks all year. Hell, I’m convinced if that UNLV fumble on their final drive hadn’t bounced off six Jayhawks before the Rebels recovered it, KU would be at least 7–3 right now.

Speaking of that, super props to the coaching staff and players for sticking together. With the K-State loss three weeks ago and a bye week the next, it would have been easy for a lot of dudes to check out for the season. Instead they went out and beat ranked opponents in back-to-back weeks for the first time in school history. Which seems like an impossible thing to not have done in the first 134 years of Kansas football. Anything is always possible at KU, though.

Rock Chalk, bitches.

Colts

It was not pretty, but the Colts got a big win Sunday in New York with Anthony Richardson back behind center. The defense was incredible in the first 29 minutes of the game, forcing the Jets to go three-and-out on their first five possessions. Then they eased up in the final minute of the first half and let the Jets score to cut the Colts’ lead to just 13–7. I was driving at this time and laughed out loud when Colts radio analyst Rick Venturi kind of lost his mind on the scoring play. I’m paraphrasing here but it went something like:

No. No. NO! NO!!!!! (Long pause) Soft ass defense…

I loved it. Because it was true.

The Jets scoring to take the lead quickly after halftime was super predictable.

Guess what? The Colts made some huge plays late, especially Richardson. After taking the lead the defense shut down Aaron Rodgers one last time to seal the win.

All that said, it was another maddening game to watch. The defense was insanely good at times, totally inept at others. The offensive line, which has been erratic all year, was simply terrible Sunday. Richardson played about as consistently well as he’s ever played. It was smart to put him back in. Now let him play out the season.

Pacers

Hammered by Miami in the Emirates Cup Friday. Controlled almost the entire game in getting a revenge, normal win against the Heat on Sunday. That’s how things go in the NBA.

Body Stuff

I had a terrible, random back pain Sunday morning. Like out of nowhere. I was just standing there, not holding anything or twisting or lifting, when suddenly I had this horrible, crippling pain. I had to stagger over to a rug and slowly fall onto my side then roll onto my back. I could barely breathe or even make pained noises it hurt so bad. I’ve had back spasms before but this was waaaaay worse than any of those. After about five minutes it disappeared. I think it may have actually been a cramp rather than a spasm. But I had a big knot in my back the rest of the day. It is still sore this morning. Not fun.

Speaking of not fun, I took L to see the sports medicine doc this morning. I’ll share more about that tomorrow.

Weekend Notes

May 20, 2024 /

Lots of notes from the past several days.

Travel Hoops

Pretty good weekend of hoops in Louisville. For the first time ever, we went 3–0 in pool play at a national event. We won our first game Friday by 11. It was a very tough, defensive contest that we controlled pretty much from the opening tip. However we only scored 28 points for the game, so it wasn’t the smoothest of performances. Giving up only 17 is decent, though.

Saturday we had two games, eight hours apart, which was not ideal for planning the day. We won game one by 10. Again controlled it pretty much the entire time. Our final game we won by 19, but led by just five early in the second half before we finally got things figured out. Both games we were in the mid–40s so a little more typical performances.

None of these teams were great, but we also could have lost any of those games just a year ago. It helps having some more size and for our returning girls to really be locked in.

Sunday morning we had a semifinal game against a team from Southeast Missouri. We watched part of one of their games Saturday and knew they were basically one girl on offense and really tough, pressure D. We figured it would be a good game we could win if we handled the pressure.

That was exactly how it worked out. We did not handle their pressure for about a five minute stretch in the first half and they ran out to an 11-point lead. On consecutive possessions we turned it over in the backcourt and they scored, which is just a killer.

Their one girl was exactly what we thought. She’s probably 6’1” but super fast. Most of her game is just grabbing a rebound and taking off, daring anyone to stop her. She killed us either beating our defense up the court, overwhelming whoever was guarding her, or making a great move to get by the primary defender and then no one was there to help. She hit one three and a couple free throws, but everything else was on a drive to the basket.

We were down nine at the half. Midway through the second half we finally started getting some stops. We got it the lead down to four points three times, but kept stalling there. Then L hit a 3 to bring us to within three. In the final 90 seconds L scored three times – once on a drive when she was also fouled but didn’t get the call,[1] once on a long two, and once when she hit two free throws after her shot barely rimmed out – to cut it to one. But each time we either gave up a basket or they hit two free throws when we fouled to put them on the line. We never had the ball down one or two.

Their best player hit a free throw with one second left to put them up two, then intentionally missed her second attempt. L got the rebound and made a full-court heave that only went about 60 feet. Worth noting we were playing on a college court, which is 10 feet longer than where the girls normally play. So her shot would have only been 20 feet short had we been on a high school court.

Bummer to lose, but a really good game. If we could have just weathered those five minutes – L was on the bench for that entire stretch, by the way – it could have been a different result.

Playing for the championship at a national tournament would have been cool,[2] but it was nice to leave Louisville at 10:00 AM and not have to hang around for a 1:00 game.

LB was fantastic all weekend. It was the best she’s ever played over multiple games. Friday she only scored four points, but finally hit a 3, her first in a real game since December! Seriously, it had been since before Christmas, nearly five full months. Sure, there weren’t any games from the last week of January until the first week of April, but you figure she would have made one in there somewhere.

She scored 12 and 11 on Saturday, hitting another 3 in each game. Then she had 14 on Sunday, hitting two threes and both of her free throws while getting three rebounds, two assists, and three steals. I was pumped afterwards, she was pissed that they lost. Perfect.

Overall she was 16–31 from the field, 5–12 from 3, 4–6 from the line. Again, likely the best she’s ever shot.

She had told me she thought the training she’s doing three nights a week had been helping, making her both stronger and more confident. For this weekend, at least, that seemed to be absolutely true.

Now travel takes a pause for a month, although she still has a week or two of training left. High school ball will start the first week of June. Right now it looks like they’ll lift weights 2–3 times a week, have one basketball workout, then, assuming she gets pulled into the varsity group for summer, play two nights a week in different leagues. I think it’s a good assumption she will be varsity for the summer since A) she deserves it and B) one of the varsity starting guards is a D1 soccer recruit and is usually traveling for soccer and skips basketball over the summer. Then two more out-of-town tournaments in July before this travel cycle wraps up.

Louisville

A few non-hoops stories from the weekend.

We stayed at an Econo Lodge downtown. This was again a tournament where you are required to stay at an “approved” hotel. And the PGA Championship was also in Louisville. So pickins was slim. I read good reviews of the Econo Lodge and figured it was better to take a chance, be downtown for activities, and less than ten minutes from the Expo Center as opposed to staying 30–40 minutes away as a lot of other teams were doing.

They must have paid someone to do those reviews because they were not accurate.

Our hotel was old, it smelled, and it was surrounded by homeless people. Our room smelled like people had been smoking weed in it for years. Friday night starting around 11–11:30 a bunch of kids showed up for what seems to have been a post-party. They ran around screaming and yelling for hours. I guess the cops finally came flying into the parking lot at 3:00 AM and cleared them all out. I think I had finally passed out about 2:45 so missed that excitement. I had Sentry Mode engaged on my Tesla and never got any alerts, so hoped all was well. Some of our other families said they saw kids taking pictures around it. I haven’t gone back to review the footage yet, mostly because I can’t figure out how to pull it up, but there weren’t any scratches, dents, or dings, so I figured it’s all good. I’m glad I could contribute to their fun.

Despite the smell, our room seemed clean, which is more important than dodging homeless men and dealing with hours of teenage noise. The AC worked sporadically so I went from sweaty to freezing every 30 minutes or so as it debated what temperature air to pump out.

So qualified success? We have some good stories!

There was actually a good pizza place across the street. We went there Friday after our game to eat and watch the Pacers game.

A bonus of the PGA being in town was the parking for that event was at the Expo center, too. Thus, for some reason, they weren’t charging parking. Two years ago when we played in the same event it was $35 to park for the weekend. I’m sure they’ll get us when we go back in July. It was $70 to get in the door for the weekend, though.

We had a very bougey breakfast Saturday. L and I grabbed some Starbucks and ate/drank it while charging the Tesla.

That evening we had a good team dinner at a little hole-in-the-wall Mexican place. Not sure how, but they brought meals for 19 people out at the same time. A team of French Canadian girls rolled in while we were eating. One of their coaches saw our shirts and asked if we knew Jennifer Mathurin, sister of injured Pacer Bennedict Mathurin. She has done some work with girls youth programs in Indy, but isn’t directly associated with ours. He said she had played in his program when she was growing up in Montreal. Nice coincidence.

The Dreaded Procedure

I kicked off the weekend Thursday by having my second colonoscopy, seven years after #1. I put off the second because I’m lazy, justifying it by thinking since I was a little early with the first, I could be late with the second. All seems to have gone well. They did remove a couple polyps, like last time. Thankfully the biopsies came back clean.

The prep always sucks. I don’t mind the “stool time,” for lack of a better phrase. It’s the hunger and headaches that come with that bother me. Wednesday kind of sucked as I dealt with that. But Thursday was fine. Pro tip: pick a flavor of Gatorade you can tolerate but don’t love for your Metamucil dosing. After you suck down those two 32 ounce servings the night before and morning of, the taste is kind of disgusting. You don’t want to ruin your preference for a good flavor.

After my first scope, it took me hours to shake the anesthesia. I only vaguely remember leaving the facility and riding home. My first real memory was saying something at the dinner table and everyone laughing at me because it was, apparently, the third time I had said the same thing.

This time I bounced back pretty quickly. There were some hazy moments in the recovery room, but I clearly remember it being like someone flipped a switch and I was suddenly awake and talking to my nurse. We had a real good conversation, as I recall. It didn’t hurt that she was nice to look at.[3] But later I realized I have no memory of getting dressed. I’m pretty sure I did it on my own. If a pretty nurse helped me get dressed I sure hope I would remember it. Don’t tell S.

Before my scope seven years ago, a friend who had already been through it told me to plan on stopping for some kind of good food on my way home to reward myself for two days of fasting. Which I obviously couldn’t do since I was still sleepy. Thursday, though, I was wide awake, ordered Culver’s from my phone and had S stop there on the way home to pick up a shake, burger, and fries. Which tasted amazing!

I took a couple brief naps in the afternoon but otherwise seemed pretty normal. I slept like a baby Thursday night and was pretty much normal again on Friday for the drive south.

When I weighed in before we left for the surgery center, I was down six pounds! Just in time for pool season!

PACERS!!!!!!!

I’ll admit, I was totally prepared to be let down Sunday. Especially since we made it home in time to watch Pacers-Knicks game seven. Even when the Pacers jumped out to an early lead, shooting nearly 80% in the first quarter, I figured it wouldn’t last. Surely they would start tossing up bricks, Jalen Brunson would score 50, every close call would go against the Pacers, the Nova Knicks would shove with impunity, and the Pacers would slink back home for the off-season.

I was kind of right: the Pacers cooled off to shoot just 67.1% for the game, an NBA Playoffs record. They answered every Knicks run. Tyrese Haliburton turned into the Hali from before his January injuries. The bench was gigantic. The Knicks ran out of steam, other than Donte DiVincenzo, and Brunson’s body finally let him down, his left hand breaking when he tried to prevent a Haliburton break-away layup.

Massive win for the Pacers. This was supposed to be a year to just get back into the playoffs. Instead they are four wins from the NBA Finals. The #1 seed Boston Celtics block their path. It feels like a Celtics in five pick. However, a non-Pacers friend texted me Sunday evening saying he fully expects whatever voodoo magic the Pacers are working with to cause Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown to get hurt in the next week. Giannis didn’t play in round one and Dame missed two games. The Knicks started the series with a ton of injuries and seemingly added another each game along the way. I would be worried if I was a Celtics fan.

I felt terrible for Brunson. You can’t help but respect that dude, even with all his flopping. He works so damn hard and takes on such a huge role for that team, and makes tough bucket after tough bucket. And as much as I hate Jason Hart and DiVincenzo, I give them grudging respect for how hard they play. Granted, they foul on every possession and somehow never get called for it. This series generated flashbacks to the KU-Villanova Elite 8 game I went to in, coincidentally, Louisville, when the Wildcats somehow ran through every KU screen and were never called for a foul. It’s like the refs let it go the first time because they can’t believe anyone would be so brazen, then realize they can’t call it later in the game because they didn’t in the first half. Not that I’m still bitter about a game that was eight years ago…[4]

And how about Minnesota ripping off a 54–24 run in the second half to come from 20 down to knock out the defending champs? I never expect the Nuggets to be the team to fall apart in their season’s biggest moments.

PGA

I guess it was a good tournament. I saw bits and pieces here and there over the weekend. It was a little weird to be so close to the tournament without seeing much of it.

But, HOLY SHIT, the Scottie Scheffler kerfuffle! Obviously this in no way compares to another Louisville Police Department fuck up. Or others if you want to dig into their history. Still, what an absolute shit-show. Saturday when we were navigating to the parking lot there were a bunch of LPD officers directing traffic. You can be damn-sure I followed their instructions to the letter.

Obviously this is going to get “fixed” soon. Major props to Scheffler for handling it with absolute aplomb. Shooting a 65 after spending a few hours in jail is one of the most impressive things he’s ever done. He fell apart Saturday and you have to wonder if the stress of Friday caught up with him. He finished eight shots behind winner Xander Schauffele, so I doubt it cost him the tournament. But you never know how things would have turned out if he had been in the final group, or simply closer to Schauffele, and able to put pressure on him Sunday.

I also had to laugh at how many people were screaming “Free Scottie!” Friday who probably have performative Blue Lives Matter stickers on their vehicles, think George Floyd got what he deserved, and that Black Lives Matters is a terrorist group without legitimate complaints. And how a lot of these people suddenly took eye witness accounts that were completely different than the official police report very seriously when an affluent, white golfer was involved. America, baby!

  1. One of our other parents got a video and you can hear me yelling “AND ONE!!!” I’m generally more laid back at games than I have been in recent years, but for a moment I was That Dad again.  ↩
  2. That sounds cooler than it actually is. There are literally hundreds of teams in every age group at these tournaments. To win the “championship,” L’s team had to win their pool, win a semifinal game against another pool winner, then beat a team that won their semifinal. So this represented just four pools out of eight. And this was just in our division within the 2027 age bracket. There were four different ’27 divisions. I’m not sure if all the others had eight pools but assuming they did, that means there were eight champions just for current freshmen this weekend. I think there are even more teams in the middle school divisions. Wild.  ↩
  3. I’m sorry.  ↩
  4. As you well know I can get all fired up about games from way longer ago than eight years.  ↩

Thursday Notes

February 15, 2024 /

I had planned to post a new Reaching for the Stars entry today, but I can’t quite get the right flow to the piece, so I’m going to keep at it a few more days. Instead, some assorted notes to unload my brain.

Health

After nearly three weeks I think I’m finally beating whatever has been ailing me. S kept asking me in week two if I wanted to start taking antibiotics. Since I had no signs of sinus infection, I kept saying no. Sunday she forced me to start. Who knows if it was the meds or the illness finally running out of steam, but I’ve been getting better each day since.

I guess this is a good moment to share that late last year I had a couple more Afib episodes, my first big ones in four years. Each seemed to be triggered like the ones that led to my initial diagnosis: having a drink late in the evening.

The second episode was a little concerning because it did not seem to fix itself. I’ve had five of these events (that I know of) and each time my heart rate normalized after about 12 hours. Two weeks before Christmas, though, my heart kept beating faster than normal beyond that 12 hour window. No other bad symptoms – chest tightness, shortness of breath, etc – but where my resting heart rate is normally in the low 60s, it remained in the 80–90 range. When it didn’t clear after 12 hours I called my cardiologist, who asked me to come in for an EKG.

This was on a Friday afternoon before Christmas, and I have to pass two malls to get to the hospital. Traffic was a nightmare. But, you know what? Trying to get through holiday traffic to see your cardiologist must have been the right kind of stress because halfway there my heart rate slipped back into normal. I guess I should have left the house earlier.

The EKG read normal, my doctor had me wear an event monitor for two weeks and it came back clean.

Since then only once have I felt like things might be a little wonky, but my Apple Watch claimed I was still in normal rhythm. What triggered that? Having a beer one night after one of L’s games.

So, I’ve kind of stopped drinking. I’ve had a few drinks when we’ve gone out to dinner. But other than those I’ve had maybe three other drinks in 2024. Not that I was a big drinker before. I had already pared it back to having one drink maybe four nights a week. When I had two drinks at dinner one night last week it felt like five or six. I’m going to have to switch to low alcohol beer for spring break so I’m not passed out by noon.

Getting old is fun.

Career Change

No, not with me. I’m still manager of the house and kids.

S had a major change in her job recently. I won’t go into all the details but her organization went through some serious reorganization and adjustments of priorities last year, pivoting away from primary care and towards cancer and heart medicine. I guess that’s where the money is.

In her role as medical director S was responsible for passing word from above to the pediatric world of the changes. Changes she had been fighting against for months. The first eight months of last year were kind of terrible for her. And they were stressful around our house since she spent two days of the week here doing that administrative job. Often I could walk by her and feel the anger radiating from her body. Other times she would vent to me after contentious calls. She didn’t take it out on us but she wasn’t always fun to be around.

As part of the reorganization the network decided to eliminate her medical director job in August, splitting it into smaller, regional positions. They offered her what they claimed was a lateral replacement. She would go from managing over 100 docs and the org’s entire school-based program to about 10 pediatricians plus a handful of family medicine docs.

She told them to pound sand.[1]

Starting in September she was still home two days a week, but they became vacation days, burning through the time she never took off because she had been so busy. I wish I could tell you we spent those days doing fun stuff, but they were more a chance for her to decompress after a wild three years in the Covid era. She watched a lot of movies. I got annoyed with her being around. I counted down the days until January.

When the calendar flipped to 2024 she went back to seeing patients four days a week. Her current stress level is so much lower than it was a year ago. She is still super busy, but it is just devoted to taking care of kids. No more administrative BS.

Today was a perfect day to share this as it is her normal day off. Maybe we’ll go to the gym together, and then lunch. Maybe we’ll run some errands. Maybe she’ll sit and watch movies all day. Whatever it is, she won’t be on calls for 10 hours with her blood pressure steadily rising.

Cars

I can’t believe I haven’t mentioned this yet, but this is a new car year for me. You know what that means? The return of the New Car Chronicles!

I will preemptively tell you that this round won’t be as exciting as the last. With one kid in college, another headed there in 18 months, plus my wife having 50% fewer jobs than she had the last time I went through this process, my budget has changed quite a bit.

That doesn’t mean I’m going to get a crap car. It just means I will not be replacing my Audi with something as nice/nicer than it.

I’m already zeroed in on three vehicles with plans to start test driving after spring break. Watch this space for updates.

Royals Stadium

First off, I’m pleased to report that everyone I know in Kansas City who was at the parade Wednesday seems to have been nowhere near the horrific shooting. I’m sure the Founding Fathers had spraying bullets into a peaceful, celebratory crowd of a million people in mind when they wrote the second amendment.

The Royals released renderings for their potential new stadium on Tuesday. I have to say, they were gorgeous. But stadium renderings usually are gorgeous. I, like just about everyone else, immediately noted there was no crown-shaped scoreboard. While there was a water feature – right in the batter’s eye, which makes no sense – there did not seem to be fountains. Again, I know these are just renderings and can/will be adjusted, but seems like the people coming up with these knew nothing about Kansas City baseball.

Anyway, the pictures were dazzling. I do have questions, though. I’m in the camp that isn’t convinced that Kauffman Stadium, one of the best places to watch an MLB game, is obsolete. But there’s new ownership, and modern ownership groups often care more about building revenue generating machines than winning baseball teams.

One of the architects who spoke Tuesday said that the K has reached the point where its original concrete is beginning to deteriorate and could fail…sometime in the next 40 years. That seems like a pretty big window to require a new stadium in the next five years.

And, if I’m not mistaken, part of the tax extension being requested to pay for the new stadium will also fund further upgrades to Arrowhead Stadium. So I guess the concrete at Arrowhead is just fine since Kansas City taxpayers aren’t being asked to replace it, too?

I don’t have super strong feelings about the new stadium. As sterile as the giant parking lot around the K seems, that tailgating culture is part of being a Royals fan. How many dozens of hours have I spent in those lots before games, drinking, eating, throwing baseballs/footballs with friends? Taking 30 seconds to think back brings back all kinds of fantastic memories. Sometimes we did it when the weather was awful, and that became a huge part of our experience. That April Saturday in 1997, when Tiger playing round three of his first Masters in Georgia and a few of us braved sub-freezing temps to watch a bad baseball game. There were games when it was well over 100 in the parking lot and we powered through. There were days when we sat in the rain hoping the heavy stuff would blow through so the game would start. And there were a lot of balmy, summer nights where you got there early, told friends where you parked, and waited for the party to build.

I know with a downtown stadium the pregame stuff gets moved to bars and restaurants, which has some advantages. But you also lose most of what made pregaming at the K unique. You can’t walk into a bar with a President’s platter from Gates.

I’m not a Kansas City taxpayer and my focus is keeping the Royals in KC and competitive. If a new stadium makes that happen, I suppose I am for it. Even if the argument against the K seems flimsy to me.

  1. You know what calls were fun to listen to from the other room? The ones where the person above her in the org chart tried to say the new position was a lateral move. Talk about steam coming out of ears.  ↩

Weekend Notes

February 5, 2024 /

Last week was pretty much a lost week for me. I could never shake my cold. In fact, it kept getting worse. I thought I had turned a corner Friday before my stomach and head started hurting in the evening. I woke up Saturday feeling even worse. I ate some cereal, took some meds, and passed out on the couch for another three hours. Sunday morning I again thought I was feeling better. Then I woke up after an unexpected nap of 90 minutes. I just can’t get rid of this congestion. As I try to clear the cobwebs Monday morning my head still feels full of various fluids over a week after they first made their presence known. If I didn’t have a haircut this morning, I would probably be crawling back into bed.

I say it was a lost week because I barely left the house. I went to the grocery store a couple times. I picked L up from practice Monday and Tuesday. I went to her game Wednesday. And that was about it. Otherwise I just laid around the house, bundled under my blanket all week.

Maybe this week will be better.

Weather

Thursday was February 1. That was the first day we saw the sun here in Indianapolis in 10 days. It also got up over 50. I walked out to get the mail that afternoon and had that false sense of imminent spring that can come this time of year.

It’s one thing for that to happen on February 25th. It’s another on the freaking first of the month, when spring is still six-to-twelve weeks away.

We might get close to 60 a couple days this week, but there is snow in the forecast next week.

I’m just saying I wouldn’t mind an early spring.

HS Hoops

Friday night I watched the big CHS sectional semifinal on the computer. It was #9 Lawrence North, who beat the Irish on Wednesday, vs. #1 Lawrence Central. LN led by 11 late in the first half, then gave up a 22–2 run that bridged halftime. LN fought back and got as close as three a couple times, but LC won by seven. LC won the next night, too, capturing only the second sectional title in school history. They hadn’t won a sectional GAME in 20 years before Wednesday. Not sure how you go from that to 22–1 in a year, but that’s exactly what they’ve done.

There are five teams that CHS played this year that are still alive.

The highlight of the game for me was that the wrong team inbounded the ball to start the second half, and the refs had to re-start the half. I say this was a highlight because the teacher who normally runs the clock/possession arrow at CHS is notorious for talking too much and having the arrow pointed the wrong way. It’s not an every game occurrence, but it’s happened at least five times this season. Once he had the arrow wrong, they caught and corrected his error, then seconds later there was another held ball and he again forgot to switch the arrow. Come on, man!

It was nice to see he’s consistent and does it in non-CHS games, too.

Jayhawk Talk

I thought about putting this off until tomorrow. Saturday’s performance was so good, though, that I didn’t want to risk not being able to give it proper credit if the Jayhawks drop a turd in Manhattan tonight.

So…

OOOOOOOOH YEEAAAHHHHHH!!!

A good, old fashioned, ass kicking of an elite team in the Phog!

That was KU’s best performance of the season. Not only was it against the best defense in the country. It was against a historically great defense, one that was poised to set records for defensive efficiency. And the Jayhawks sliced them up for 40 minutes, shooting nearly 70% for the game. SEVENTY PERCENT!!!!! They scored more points in the first 35 minutes of the game than any team had scored against Houston all season, including overtime games. Even the area where KU struggled – 18 turnovers – was more about them throwing the ball out of bounds for no reason than anything Houston was doing on defense.

It was just the latest entry in the Magical Saturday Big 12 Games In Allen Fieldhouse catalog, one that the kids who were in the stands Saturday will recall fondly the rest of their lives.

The funniest part of how easily KU handled Houston is that most KU fans – including me – had been extremely worried about this game for a couple weeks. Houston is a fearsome team on defense. They are limited offensively but they also can put up numbers if their defense forces a lot of turnovers, as they did to Kansas State a week ago. This was exactly the kind of game that KU has always found a way to win at home. I’m not sure most KU fans had that much faith in this year’s team going into the game.

To beat the dead horse a little more, Johnny Furphy is the difference. He just keeps producing, and gets more efficient each game. He missed just one shot Saturday (although he missed two from the free throw line). His 3s came in huge moments. He threw down a powerful dunk in transition. He grabbed rebounds. He played decent defense. I was worried he might not be up for the task against a team like Houston. He proved me wrong. Now everyone is worried that instead of a 2–3 year player, he will spend a single year in Lawrence. Declaring for the draft is a ways away, but if it indeed happens, that would make his rise even more incredible.

It’s a small sample size, but since Furphy became a starter, KU is, by one analytical measure, the second-best offense in the country and the third-best team overall. Wild.

It’s not fair or realistic to expect him to keep going for 17 & 7 every night. Whether he is scoring or not, opponents have to account for him on defense. Which opens things up for the other four Jayhawks on the court.

My one hope coming into the game was that Hunter Dickinson would carve up Houston. For all their athleticism, they are not a big team. And athletic defenders don’t bother Hunter. He just uses his big body to render them helpless, as long as he can get the ball in scoring position. He had great numbers, 20 & 8 on 15 shots, but his willingness to share the ball was what made KU’s attack really hum.

We are now at the midpoint in the Big 12 schedule. KU and Houston are tied for first, with three teams a half game back. TCU is another half game back. The next month is going to be crazy. Houston would seem to have a slight edge because of their schedule, which includes a return date from the Jayhawks the last day of the season. Sure would be nice if Iowa State had to come to Lawrence…

Speaking of wildness, how about that Iowa State – Baylor game? Sadly I missed Scott Drew getting ejected. I did see each team blow five-point leads. I saw Baylor miss a ton of free throws. I saw the clock operator start the clock too soon, giving Iowa State a chance to stop the clock and inbound the ball instead of trying to grab a rebound and get up court for a final shot. I saw the Clones bank in a game winner that was wiped out because it came a fraction of a second too late. Imagine if that had counted. Whoever runs the clock in Waco might need to find a new city to live in because their itchy finger had just cost the Bears an important game. Situations like that are why parents make themselves scarce when coaches come looking for someone to run the clock in youth games. You never want to be the person who messes up the clock and have to deal with irate coaches/parents/kids afterward.

One thing that jumped out in those chaotic closing minutes is how imperfect replay review is in basketball, especially college. I’m sure I’ve made this rant before, but the fact you can review a play and overturn an out-of-bounds decision but not also review the foul that caused the ball to go OB is insane.

In the ISU-BU game, the referee gave possession to Baylor after a ball went out of bounds. Since there was under 2:00 to play, it got reviewed. The replay showed the ball, in fact, touched the Baylor player last. But it also showed that the ISU defender clearly hit his arm and caused the turnover. But the non-called foul isn’t reviewable. ISU got the ball.

The NBA allows fouls to be switched upon review. College should go to this system. If an offensive player loses the ball because he was fouled, call the foul, even if it takes replay to show it.

The best thing to do would be to say there was incidental contact that caused the turnover, and give the offense the ball back. But then you’re introducing even more variance into the replay interpretation, and not all plays are as obvious as the one Saturday. I can only imagine the outcry when three refs huddle around a monitor for five minutes trying to determine if there was enough contact to adjust the call one way or the other.

Even better, give each coach one review per half, which do not carry over if unused, and otherwise get rid of replay review except for clock malfunctions/scoring questions. There are 15 marginal possession calls every game. Why the game has to grind to a halt for only the ones in the last two minutes has never made any sense.

Holiday Weekend Notes

April 10, 2023 /

A pretty good Easter weekend in our house.

Family Weekend

As happens when your kids are in Catholic schools, it was an extra-long weekend. CHS had a four-day weekend, while St P’s had early dismissal Friday and were out for Easter Monday.

Throw in C being home sick and L having her annual school service day on Thursday and it was even longer.

C has the “Punta Plague,” as M is calling it. It should be no shock that a big chunk of CHS came back from spring break sick. It took a couple days to reach her but has kind of wiped her out. She may have had Covid in the front, had a stomach bug in the middle, which may have been associated with strep that came on in the backside.

When we asked M if there were a lot of kids out sick last week her response was, “Bro, the entire school is sick.” Love it when she talks to me like I’m an idiot. She’s been coughing like a smoker but has no other ailments.

I guess that’s what mass travel in the post-pandemic age will be like: we all act like old people after a cruise and get sick for a week or so upon our return.

Like I’ve done every year, I volunteered to assist on the St P’s service day. That has usually meant going to some kind of donation center and sorting things, since there’s only so much these places can ask large groups of kids to do. Which really means I do a bunch of sorting while making sure the kids don’t do anything stupid.

This year L’s group got sent to an adoption center that had just changed locations and were tasked with organizing several rooms that were filled with donations. That was a bonus as there were a lot of diapers, wipes, lotions, bath soaps, etc that had that good, clean baby smell. And most of the clothes we sorted were either new or at least washed if used. Which made it a pretty pleasant experience, and far different from the year we dug through huge bins of donated items and found fun stuff like dirty diapers, broken glass, animal waste, porn, and drug paraphernalia.

Our kids weren’t super focused but they did more work in the four hours we were there than the lady running the place expected, so they left a good impression.

I got a hug from the St P’s teacher who organizes this day since it is my last time assisting. We joked that if she needed extra help next year she was going to reach out to me.

Saturday we spent the day getting the house ready for hosting our family Easter gathering. I decided the pool cover looked filthy after collecting crap for five months and spent nearly four hours cleaning it. For some reason I always forget how long that takes. I think my brain blacks out the memories.

When I was done I opened up the cover to do a quick inspection and get a head start on cleaning out the leaves and worms that worked their way in since October. There was a large frog/toad floating in the water. I tried to scoop him up and it slowly tried to evade me. I think the water was so cold it was still semi-hibernating. I got him into the net and when it looked like he was going to hop out, I flung him lacrosse-style about 30 feet to the grass. Not sure if he survived his flight or not.

Easter Day was super nice here. Sunny, pushing 70. Nearly perfect. We bought some pulled pork and I smoked a couple chickens to go along with.

We had 22 people in all. A very good meal, between the stuff we bought and made and all the contributions from the rest of the family. The five nephews had an Easter egg hunt after we ate, and we were able to sit outside and enjoy the ideal day. Easter is always better when it is warm and you can be out in the open.

The Masters

I watched as much of the Masters as I could, between prep, errands, meals, etc.

I was very glad that Jon Rahm won. He seems like a good, thoughtful dude and plays pretty amazing golf. For him to win by four strokes after four-putting his first hole of the tournament and then having to play in the worst weather of the weekend was quite an accomplishment. He could have easily doubled that winning margin.

Like a lot of people I had mixed feelings about Brooks Koepka’s early domination. I enjoyed his style of golf and brash personality at his peak a few years back, but was disappointed when he fled for the LIV Tour after insisting he wouldn’t. I get that a hundred million dollars, or whatever he got, can change a person’s point of view, especially when he was in the midst of a pretty serious injury recovery and questioned his golfing future. He may not have been villain #1 in the whole fiasco, but I still heap some blame on him.

That said, I couldn’t help but get sucked in by how well he played through the first three rounds. I was glad a lot of golf people that I follow were having similar mixed feelings; it was good not to be alone.

This was my favorite thread that came out of the weekend. It is also a reminder that occasionally there are still a few good things on Twitter. Tech Karen will probably ban threads like this soon, since they give people joy.

Ortho

I took L into ortho Monday morning to have her braces removed. She set the family record of just 15 months; she was originally slated for 23. Other than a little gap when she struggled with her rubber bands a little, I think she did exactly what they told her so she could get them off as quickly as possible.

I guess she’ll have a six-month visit and then we’ll be done with ortho after seven and a half years of regular visits. Knock on wood.

Waylaid

March 7, 2023 /

You may recall that a few years back I made fun of S for getting poison ivy for the 90th time since we began dating. I bragged about how I had never gotten it so I must not be allergic to its oils.

Within two weeks I wandered into a whole mess of poison ivy vines, had sores all over my body, couldn’t sleep because of the itching, went on steroids to stop the itching and then couldn’t sleep because of them, and soon had my first major Afib episode.

You’d think I would shut up about such things.

When I went in for my annual checkup last December I got my first shingles vaccine. When I got home S yelled at me.

“You’re an idiot. I’ve heard that’s the most painful vaccine out there. I’d rather deal with shingles than go through that.”

Keep in mind that she has had bad reactions to other vaccines, where I generally just get a sore arm for a few hours. Still, I thought calling me an idiot was a little harsh.

My arm was indeed tender for a few hours but I had no other issues. I even trash talked a couple friends who got stomped when they received their first shingles shots.

Shingles shot #2 was Monday at 9:00 AM. Again, some arm soreness but otherwise I was fine. Twelve hours after my shot I gloated to those same friends that I had once again skated without any side effects.

Dumb, dumb, dumb.

An hour later my head started to hurt. As did my legs. I planned on getting up early today to take L to the gym before school, so I figured I might as well go to an hour earlier than normal and sleep off whatever these pains were.

Within another hour my entire body hurt. I tossed and turned for hours. My headache got worse. I got up to go to the bathroom around 1:30 and was nearly floored by intense nausea. Soon every one of my joints was aching. There was no position in bed that was comfortable because whatever body part I put weight on screamed out in pain.

At 5:30, when I was supposed to get up with L, I came downstairs to eat some cereal so I could take some ibuprofen. I had to hustle onto the couch as another wave of nausea hit. Eventually I choked down the cereal and the meds and tried to get comfortable on the couch. I squeezed in 20-ish minutes of sleep, bringing me to a grand total of maybe three hours for the night. S checked on me on her way out the door. She had the grace to not make fun of me.

I haven’t had a reaction to a vaccine like this in at least 20 years. With that track record, you can see how I might brag about my body’s resilience.

Luckily I had nothing pressing on the calendar today. I’ll skip the gym and my planned trip to Costco. Over the past hour or so I’ve started to feel a little better, so hopefully if I can get a nap in I’ll rebound by the afternoon.

My apologies to all of you who I have mocked over the years because you had a bad, short-term reaction to something that was going to protect you. I now literally feel your pain.

Insomnia/Sick Day Notes

January 31, 2023 /

Ugh. I had battled a cold for a week or two, with this weird congestion passing back-and-forth between my head and chest. I never had a sore throat, never felt bad. Just constant plug of yuck in part of my body.

In the midst of that, I took NyQuil for several nights so I could breath and sleep peacefully. I slept like a baby all of those nights. Since I got off the meds, though, my periodic insomnia has returned. Last night I went to bed 11:30ish, drifted off for a bit then jolted wide awake. I came downstairs around 1:30 to read and have a drink to try to reset my body, then tossed and turned for several hours before maybe getting two solid hours.

I hate when this happens. I know my body will eventually get back on track and in a few nights I’ll be sleeping great again. And it’s not like my days are busy, so I can sneak in a nap if needed. Just doesn’t give me much energy or motivation to do things.

Didn’t help that C threw up this morning, so the errands I had planned got wiped out. I tried to nap but my one cup of half-caff coffee was enough to keep me from getting any rest. At least there’s nothing big going on tonight, so I will be relaxed and ready to hit the sack early.

Thus, a few more notes that I planned on holding for a couple days but I’ll share now since I’m kind of a zombie.

Kid Hoops

L’s team got a 12-point win last night. It should have been more than that; they led by 15 at half and then played sloppy and let it get down to four before we put them away. L had 10, including six in that late run.

I forget if I shared this already, but we have new coaches for the winter session. Now the CHS varsity coach and her top assistant/freshman coach are in charge. Our two wins this week were against pretty bad teams, but at least our girls seem to have a much better idea of what’s going on compared to when the previous coach was running things. A good change, and a chance for L to spend time with the people who will hopefully be coaching her next fall.

College Process

I haven’t shared the latest on M’s college search.

You know that she was accepted to IU quickly in November, including admission to the honors program. Then we waited to hear on her next four applications. We got word on each of them over the last three weeks.

First was an acceptance from Purdue. She doesn’t want to go there, but it was serving as her in-state, backup school. It was nice that she got in, though, because she heard of several kids she thinks have similar grades to hers who got deferred admission.

Next came Cincinnati, two weeks ago, another yes. Which was expected. UC is a solid school but not as selective as IU or Purdue.

Then last Friday she got word from Michigan: deferred. Which at first she was thrilled about, thinking that meant she has a shot to get in in April when they open up the enrollment spigot again. However, she read that all out-of-state applications are automatically deferred, so they may not have even looked at her file yet.

I heard from the parent of another kid who was deferred by UM that is not true; he knows of a couple out-of-state kids that got in last week. So we don’t know if M has gotten any attention or not.

Michigan is kind of fucking this whole process up. She’s never visited there, hasn’t done deep research about any specific programs, housing, etc. She just knows it is arguably the best public school in the country. If she gets accepted I think she’s really going to want to go there.

I’m torn. It would be awesome if she got accepted and had a chance to spend four years in Ann Arbor. But basically doubling the tuition we had planned to pay the next four years changes the parenting math quite a bit. And I’m not sure I could deal with her ego if she gets a Michigan degree!

Still, I didn’t want to crap on her excitement Friday, so I told her it was awesome that she’s at least still in the game. I would be surprised if she gets in, simply because it is so competitive and her non-academic resumé is lacking. But you never know.

Now she is stressing about not hearing from UM until April, while both IU and UC need a decision by May 1. I told her not to sweat it, spend the next two months making a choice between IU and UC and then we’ll have a plan in place when she gets her final decision from Michigan.

We booked a spot in UC’s admitted student program in February and will take a similar trip to IU in March. I gave her the task of coming up with some specific questions to ask when we are on each campus so we’re not just repeating what we did over the summer.

I can’t get a good feel for where she’s leaning. For awhile I thought she was higher on IU. But over the weekend she told us one of her best friends since grade school may go to UC, and they’ve talked about rooming together if they both head that way. The good thing is the tuition at the schools is basically the same so she can make a decision purely on where she thinks she fits best.

I honestly never realized how stressful this process is. I applied to two schools and knew where I was going. I only applied to UMKC because my stepdad was going through his first battle with cancer at the time and wanted a local option in case I needed to stay in town.

Health updates

The beginning of the year has been busy on the health tip for our family. Or at least for two us.

I mentioned awhile back that C was diagnosed with a bulging disk. She’s been doing PT twice a week to try to build some core strength and take the pressure off her spine to avoid more invasive treatment. It seems to be going well. I think she’s been consistent with her home exercises, and most days when we go in for PT she says she feels better. She’s been cleared to do anything that doesn’t cause new pain, so she has the ability to be active. She’s not really taking advantage of that, although it is January. I just hope she can be consistent with continuing her therapy at home once she’s released from PT so she can feel better and avoid either injections or surgery.

A couple weeks back I went to a dermatologist for the first time in my life. Being light skinned and having spent too much time in the sun in my life, it seemed like a good time to have a doc who is trained in such matters to take a look at my skin.[1]

Good news is I got a clean bill of health. I did have a spot he was a little worried about. Years ago my primary doc told me it wasn’t anything to worry about, and S had assured me that she also thought it wasn’t problematic. But my dermatologist said while he thought they were both probably right, he wanted to go ahead and do a biopsy just to make sure.

I got the results late last week and it came back benign. I wasn’t super concerned but was still nice to hear. I figure most people are going to end up with sun-related skin issues at some point, so it’s nice to be able to kick that can a little farther down the road. Use sunscreen, my peeps!

  1. I often ask S to look at moles, skin tags, etc that look odd. She’ll poke it, wrinkle her nose, and say, “Yeah, that’s weird. You should get that looked at.” Those two months of derm she did really come in handy!  ↩

Weekend Notes

January 9, 2023 /

It’s back to semi-normal today. L returned to school after her Christmas break. M and C still have one more week of J-term, so they go in a little later and get out a little earlier. But all three have to get up in the mornings again.

Last week I had to get up to make sure C was up, so my alarm was 7:15 instead of my normal, school-day 6:55. Still, it was a little weird coming down this morning and finding the house dark instead of two Christmas trees already turned on filling the living room and front office with their soft light.

We took all the holiday decorations down Saturday. Since they went up earlier than normal and stayed up a little longer than normal, this was our most decorated Christmas ever.

We all have dentist appointments this afternoon, which wraps up a busy run of visits to health professionals over the past few weeks. I’ve been to the orthodontist three times, optometrist, sports medicine, MRI center, physical therapy, and had my annual physical.

I’m good, all that middle stuff was for C. She’s been having back pain for a few months, and even resting it plus a few visits to a chiropractor last fall didn’t help. Walking around in Italy was awful for her, and she was generally miserable at the end of each day, and progressively worse as the week went on. We finally got her in to a sports medicine doc three weeks ago. X-rays were clean but her MRI showed two interesting things. First, she has a bulging disk, the likely cause of her pain. Second, she is missing a vertebra and one set of ribs. That diagnosis got S into super medical research mode and she found about 4–5% of the general population has this issue. Weird!

The sports med doc said while there’s no research that would definitely tell us the bulging disk is directly tied to the lack of that vertebra, she also said it sure didn’t help. She also said it likely cost C an inch or two of height, which makes her topping out at 5’2” while her sisters both made it to 5’4”-ish make sense.[1] She took some teasing for that.

She started physical therapy last week and will do that for a month or so, with the hopes that helps her avoid anything more invasive to correct the issue.

Big 12 Hoops

Another crazy-ass weekend in the best conference in the country. Three teams are tied for first place at 3–0, all three getting there on the strength of two road wins. KU is not a huge surprise to be in that group. Kansas State and Iowa State, though? HUGE surprises. These were picked 8th and 9th in the preseason polls!

I think it’s too early to draw broad conclusions about any team. Especially in a conference like the Big 12. The Wildcats and Cyclones might be mid-tier teams a month from now. But they are off to great starts, and those road wins are huge bonuses in a conference that will likely be tightly bunched much of the season. 14–4 is always my default answer for what it takes to win the Big 12. Could this be the year that something like 12–6 guarantees you no worse than a tie?

More Jayhawks-centric talk later this week.

Pacers

The Indiana Pacers were expected to win right around 20 games this year. They just played their 41st game of the season, the exact midpoint of their schedule. After grabbing two more close wins this weekend, they stand at 23–18, good for sixth place in the Eastern Conference.

It’s been a remarkable first half. They are hella fun to watch, as my friends in Cali might say. Tyrese Haliburton is a legit All Star, and plays with a joy that is infectious. Buddy Hield leads the league in 3-pointers made, connecting on nearly 20 more than the second-most prolific shooter. Rookie Bennedict Mathurin is going to be a star. Second-round pick Andrew Nembhard could be one of the steals of the draft, an ideal backup to Haliburton who can also play next to him. Aaron Nesmith is beginning to show why he was a lottery pick two years ago.

But the biggest surprise is Myles Turner, a player most expected to have been traded by now. Turner is playing the best, most complete, most inspired ball of his career. I’ve always thought he was a little immature and disinterested in doing the hard work it took to be a star. At least for now he seems fully invested. To the point where the Pacers have made him a contract extension offer, attempting to capitalize on the big chunk of salary cap space they still have open. Turner has, for now, said he’s not interested.

That will set up an interesting game of chicken. Can the Pacers really trade their second-best player when they are in the running for a playoff spot and far too good to have a realistic shot at the #1 pick if they suddenly decide to tank? Can Turner turn down more money than any other team will be able to give him next summer no matter how badly he wants to end up in LA?

A year ago I would say the sides will come together and find an agreeable extension before the trade deadline, and Turner will quickly get injured. He’s always getting injured, and it would be just the Pacers’ luck for that to happen after they lock him up.

I think the Pacers’ luck has changed, though. So I think they either re-sign him and he stays healthy, or they can’t agree to terms, he plays out the year, signs with another team over the summer and that inevitable injury pops up in training camp. Meanwhile the Pacers use all their cap space to plug some other holes and immediately turn back into the solid 40–50 win team they usually are.

cLots/NFL

What a finish to the regular season! The cLots began the season with that humiliating tie in Houston, one that required a furious comeback just to get to overtime. They ended it with an even bigger embarrassment, losing to the Texans at home in the final minute of the game. Houston had a 10-point lead three times, but the cLots rallied to take a seven-point lead late in the fourth quarter. The Texans, who should have been satisfied with the loss and the #1 pick in April’s draft, for some reason decided to play full-out, converting on fourth and 20+ two different times on their final drive, including the touchdown that cut the lead to one. Then they went for two and the win and got it.

Amazing!

In the process they allowed the Bears to jump them for the #1 pick. The Texans’ owner was on the sideline after the game and he seemed to be the only person not celebrating. A few hours later he fired coach Lovie Smith. I like to think Lovie and his players knew what was coming and the final drive was a big Eff You to ownership.

The L could be good for the cLots. The Bears don’t need a quarterback, so perhaps they will entertain flipping that pick for Indy’s #5. Or at least that’s what speculation is around here. The Bears can certainly use the top pick to select someone other than a QB, and the cLots will have to hope either they can get a decent candidate in their fifth slot, or focus on one of the teams between them and Houston to swap picks with.

***UPDATE***
I heard at least four times yesterday that the cLots’ pick will be #5. Turns out they snuck into #4 thanks to Denver’s win.

I don’t know. It sure feels like the cLots will be stuck at five, reach for someone who is not ready to be an NFL QB, and remain mediocre, at very best, for the foreseeable future.

Not that I’m convinced either Bryce Young or C.J. Stroud are sure-things. Maybe it’s better not to pick them.

  1. And L is still growing.  ↩

Weekend Notes

November 7, 2022 /

An unexpectedly long weekend. And not just because of the time change.

Flu

Both M and C got the flu and stayed home Thursday and Friday. They tested negative for Covid and had all the classic flu symptoms. I don’t think either has ever had the true flu before, and were a little overwhelmed by how it kicks your ass. They were still dragging a bit on Sunday but trending back towards normal.

L had Thursday off for parent-teacher conferences, and we were already scheduled to get our flu shots that day.[1] Seemed like tricky timing but we both appear to have avoided catching anything from her sisters. Fingers crossed…

FNL

Friday was, likely, the last ridiculously warm day here. It was pushing 80 in the afternoon and utterly delightful.

As it was so nice out and the Cathedral game was on TV, we sat on the back porch and watched the Irish win their sectional championship game.

Next week is regionals, which brings a trip out to Brownsburg, where the Irish lost their only game of the season. Brownsburg just shellacked both teams in their sectional so my confidence is low.

Weather

This really might have been the greatest fall I can recall. We had a few cool weeks early on, but it’s mostly been warm and dry. I think we’ve had rain three times in the last two months.

Saturday we had some showers blow through then crazy winds for hours and hours. Our power blinked a couple times. We know some folks who still didn’t have their power back on Monday morning.

This week still looks warm, although about 10 degrees cooler than last week, peaking in the mid–60s. The furnace has been off for two weeks but will likely kick on a few mornings. Next weekend is when it looks like we’ll have the first “Oh crap, winter is close!” set of days. I actually saw a low in the teens about a week out.

KU Football

YES! SIX WINS, BITCHES! SHITTY BOWL GAME HERE WE COME!

L, of course, had basketball Saturday afternoon. But we made it home in time to see most of the KU-Oklahoma State game. I could not believe that the Jayhawks were a one-point favorite by kickoff. Wasn’t it just two weeks ago that OSU were the Big 12 favorites? I know they had several injuries to important players, but so has KU.

I guess Vegas knew what they were doing with that line.

The game was never really in doubt. When we got home KU was up 7–0. I believe the margin never got below seven again as the Jayhawks rolled to a 21-point win and bowl eligibility.

As great as the beginning of this year was, I was having a hard time buying into this team getting a sixth win. A lot of it was Jalon Daniels going out to injury. His replacement, Jason Bean, has a lot of talent, but that talent always feels unharnessed. Plus he’s prone to making big mistakes in big moments.

But Bean was fantastic on Saturday, playing a nearly perfect game. Props to that guy, who could have easily left KU after last year knowing Daniels was the likely starter this year. Bean barely got on the field the first few weeks, and even when he did was often used as a decoy rather than an actual playmaker. While his first three games as a starter this year were erratic, he kept KU in every game. His 74-yard TD run Saturday was a beautiful moment of catharsis. And his visible emotions after the game were terrific.

Devin Neal was a beast, and dropped one of the greatest performances in KU history. When he committed to KU, I had to wonder if he was really as good as his recruiting profile claimed. Maybe he just racked up those gaudy stats because he was playing in Kansas. Maybe KU was the only school he had a chance to play at from day one, and that’s why he took their offer.

He’s a straight-up stud, though and proved that on Saturday.

I was also having a hard time believing the sixth win would come just because of all the scar tissue that remains from the past 14 years of KU football. So many Saturdays sitting at a soccer field or a cross country course or in a gym and checking the KU score, knowing it would be bad but hoping that maybe they would surprise me, and then seeing they were losing to a crappy team by three touchdowns in the first quarter. There was rarely a reason to turn the game on when I got home. Those five-straight wins to start this year were fun, and Lance Leipold clearly has the program pointed in the right direction. But there was no way we were going to beat one of Oklahoma, Baylor, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, Texas, or Kansas State, right? Not with a backup QB who is limited, not without our most physical running back, not without our top cornerback, not without our best pass rusher. KU is better but there still isn’t the margin of error built into the roster to make up for that many injuries.

Yet they’ve done it. And now who is to say they won’t be able to grab a seventh win somewhere between now and the end of the season?

I saw one bowl preview list Sunday (why do they do those things now when there is so much football to be played?) and it predicted that KU would play Missouri in the Liberty Bowl. What a way to return to the postseason!

Colts

I’m so glad I only caught a few minutes of the Colts’ putrid performance in Foxborough. Blow up this team and start over. They stink.

Kid Hoops

We had a lot of kid hoops over the past week. So much that I’ll share those notes in a different post. I will provide this teaser: we had one of the most stressful games of year, one of the most embarrassing games of the year, and the best performance of the year. More on all that tomorrow.

Christmas Shows on TV

WHY THE FUCK WERE SO MANY CHRISTMAS SHOWS AND MOVIES ON TV THIS WEEKEND? IT’S NOT EVEN ELECTION DAY, PEOPLE. CHILL.

  1. I got second Covid booster as well. She was Covid positive about a month back so gets to avoid that jab a little longer.  ↩

Holiday Weekend Notes

September 6, 2022 /

I’m guessing this was our last ever four-day Labor Day weekend, at least on the academic side of things. St P’s generally (but not always) gives the kids Friday and Monday off, while CHS just takes the actual Monday holiday off. Who knows what M’s schedule will be this time next year, but she won’t be here, so that means the remaining girls will be on the same schedule for the final holiday weekend of summer in 2023.

L took advantage of her extra day by doing some work for us and family members to earn some money. She’s been drafted as the St P’s football team videographer/photographer and has been saving up for a camera. With a final push over the weekend she was able to order it.

Her first project of the weekend was mowing her aunt’s yard, which she has done a few times. I followed her around with the trimmer, which is too big and too temperamental for her to use. As I was trimming I felt a white-hot heat on my right forearm. I dropped the trimmer, thinking it was in the process of blowing up or something. But I didn’t see any smoke and it started right back up.

“Well, shit,” I thought, “I think I just got stung!”

But I hadn’t seen/felt anything on me or seen anything fly away. I looked around and then noticed, on my nephews’ swingset/playhouse, the biggest wasp I had ever seen crawling around. I got a fly swatter from inside the house and nailed it. Seconds later several more Big Ass Wasps emerged from under the decking and I fled before they could get me.

Fortunately my sister-in-law had a couple cans of wasp/hornet killer. I unloaded one on the nest I could see poking through the frame and left her instructions to hit it again when the wasps returned for the evening.

Not going to lie: the sting hurt like hell. I don’t know if I’ve ever been hit by a wasp before, but this fucking hurt. Even today, Tuesday morning, the area is all swollen, red, and itchy. I’m not sure what flavor of wasps these were, but I’m just going to call them Murder Hornets because they were so big and the sting was so painful. Still, happy to take one for the team rather than one of my nephews.

IMG 5531

Don’t fuck with the Murder Hornets

Friday night was one of the more interesting sports following nights in my recent history.

I had the US Open up on the TV, watching Serena Williams’ final match that began at 7:00. At 7:30 the Cathedral game began, and I pulled up the audio on my phone. And at 8:00 KU kicked off their season on ESPN+, which I had on my MacBook Air.

Super Sports Fan #1 here!

It was a bit chaotic keeping track of everything, but I managed, selectively muting as conditions warranted.

I should probably write more about Serena’s loss. I think of my life not really hitting adulthood until right around 1999–2000. That made Serena the last athlete from my extended childhood or adolescence or whatever who was still active. Just another sign that we are getting older.

Props to her for such an amazing career, for coming back after having an insanely difficult pregnancy and childbirth experience, and for going out on her terms. I couldn’t believe she was still playing doubles with her sister Venus on Thursday. I think that effort clearly affected her in Friday’s match. Then I realized that she just wanted to play with her sister one more time and was willing to sacrifice her singles match for that opportunity. When you’ve won everything there is to win, you get to pick how you say goodbye.

Cathedral fell behind 13–0 but then ripped off 35-straight points for a 35–21 win. The game was three hours away so none of the girls went. The Irish had a ton of injuries going into the game, so played a number of kids who had not played the first two weeks. This week they play their big-time rivals BC, who are ranked #1 in 3A and just lost the the #1 4A school on the final play of the game.

KU rolled Tennessee Tech. Which should be expected, and I know non-KU fans are making fun of us Jayhawks for being excited about the win. Never forget this is KU football, a program that has found a way to do the un-doable for decades. Pounding an overmatched opponent is never a given for Kansas, and while one or two more wins is likely the max we can hope for this year, at least we checked off the easy win.

The team looked better, with more playmakers on defense than I can recall. But they still lack depth and things will be very different this week against West Virginia and pretty much every week for the rest of the year and the competition keeps getting tougher and tougher. But this game was the baby step we needed.

Saturday we headed up to S’s aunt and uncle’s in the morning. They live on a lake and offered to take the girls out to ski. M took a brief run and had no issues. L tried but could not get up. C was annoyed about having to wake up early on a holiday weekend and stayed in the boat. We took a nice trip around the lake and got off the water just before rain moved in.

Later in the day L had a basketball game. They were playing a team they’ve played many times. That team plays and practices all year, and added another good player since our last meeting. We were down 13–0 to start then went something like 5–22 from the free throw line and lost by 15. L alone was 1–6 from the line. She was 0–4 from the floor but had three rebounds, three assists, and three steals. She hit one shot that came after a foul was called away from the ball and was super annoyed by that. I was super annoyed she was missing so many free throws after all the practice shots she put up over the summer.

Sunday we had the local family over for our annual Labor Day gathering. It never got too hot or humid and the rain held off, so it was a pleasant day around the pool. I stay the hell out of the pool when the nephews take over. It’s more fun to drink and watch than constantly babysit your kids so they don’t sink.

Monday was your standard, lazy Labor Day. I watched some tennis – Frances Tiafoe upsetting Rafa Nadal was obviously the highlight, a truly enjoyable match. I was bummed Danielle Collins lost, but we don’t need to go into details about that.

(Another quick aside about tennis: Nick Kyrgios beating Daniil Medvedev Sunday was also entertaining. Not sure I’ve ever switched my opinion on an athlete as quickly as I have about Kyrgios. I thought he was a lunatic who needed to be shut down at Wimbledon. Now I think he’s one of the most entertaining, compelling, and interesting players on the tour. Not sure I necessarily love him, but I do root for him to stay in tournaments because they are a lot more fun with him on the court.)

I read a lot, we did some shopping as we prep for our next big trip, and we did some cleaning around the house.

Otherwise a pretty chill holiday weekend.

This morning we were socked in by low, thick clouds. When my alarm went off at 6:50 and it was still pitch black my first thought was, “Did I sleep through a month and it’s October 6?” Just a tangible reminder that summer is over.

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