After an amazing first two weeks of April, we had the inevitable backslide. I shouldn’t be surprised.
Last week was back-and-forth until Thursday night, when a cold front rolled through and sucked all the warm weather away with it. Monday morning it was 28. We had several chilly, gloomy days where it felt more like mid-November than mid-April. Although the sun is out right now – and will roast you if you are sitting in your car waiting for you kid to get dismissed from school – the thermometer barely made it to 60 this afternoon. Tomorrow is supposed to be 67, but that will bring another crash with more nights in the 30s and days in the 50s. It looks like we will be several days into May before we reach normal temps again.
The real pisser to all of this is that we opened the pool a week ago. When we were in the midst of those two weeks of way warmer-than-usual weather, the girls begged me to open it. I put them off at first, knowing the warmth wouldn’t last. M told me, “I literally don’t care about school anymore so I will swim every day.” So I sent our pool guy a message asking him to come by if he was in our area.
He said there was a chance he could make it Friday, April 14, but if not then he would be out the next week.
By last Thursday night he hadn’t arrived so I texted him saying that it looked like the good weather was done for awhile, could he slide us to the first week of May.
He shot a message right back saying he would be at our house the next day.
So they opened the pool on a day when it was in the low 50s.
The water temp was 59 when they kicked the pump on. I ran the heater all weekend until I got it into the 70s, then backed it off and am letting it sit in the high 60s until the girls tell me they want to swim. Nope, M has not been in the pool yet.
Anyway, pool is open, and we’re back to lighting money on fire until it gets too warm to run the heater. I had to turn on the deck jets on for a few minutes last thing Sunday night and first thing Monday morning to make sure those pipes didn’t freeze. Almost as much fun as owning a boat…
Back to tournament action for L and her travel teammates.
Her ankle is still recovering from the sprain she suffered over a month ago. In our games Saturday that showed. She seemed sluggish and a step slow.
We lost the first game by 18 to a very good team. They were long, athletic, took and hit 3’s, and were just a tough all-around matchup. We killed ourselves by missing at least 10 free throws and not stopping them in transition on several baskets. They were better than us, but those things were the difference between an easy win and a tight game late.
In the second game we played a flat-out bad team. We won by 41 and it wasn’t even that close. There was a running clock the entire second half so we only scored 10 points in those 13 minutes. It was one of those games where you wondered why these girls are still playing. I guess to give teams like ours someone to beat?
L had a single bucket in each game. In the second game I could tell she was getting frustrated. She made a sweet move on one drive, lost her defender, got to the hoop, and then short-armed the layup. A few possessions later she badly missed an open shot. I thought an invisible player fouled her because it looked like she got pushed from behind even though there was no one around her. Just terrible form, in other words.
On our walk to the car after she was pissed. “I am so bad!” She didn’t say anything else so I let her stew all the way home, figuring whatever I said would be the wrong thing.
We had an early departure Sunday as the bracket games were an hour from home. She still wasn’t saying much so I didn’t either.
We played a bad, but not as bad as game two Saturday bad, team in our opener. We crushed them by 40. And L was awesome. 10 points on 4–4 from the field, 2–2 from 3. A bunch of assists and rebounds. Solid D. And that was all after she got absolutely wiped out on an illegal screen and did a half flip that landed her on her shoulder. She popped right back up, though. I guess I need to start hitting her in the shoulder before every game.
We had a three-hour break so headed to lunch as a team. In the car we finally talked about Saturday. I told her I understood her frustration, but that she needed to focus on process not result. That missed layup? That stunk. But she needed to realize she made a really nice move that beat her defender, attacked hard, and did 80% of the shooting right. Do the same thing next time, just hit the shot. Four of her missed jumpers were fine: open shot, within the offense, good form, and got the ball to the rim. Don’t sweat those. Sweat the shot when she rushed things, ruined her form, and had no chance of making it because of her process.
She told me that she feels like if she only scores two points a game, she’s not contributing. I told her that’s not true; she can score zero points but if she gets a bunch of assists, plays good D and gets some steals or keeps her girl from scoring, she’s doing a ton to help win. And I reminded her that our best shooter has a lot of 1–10 games, but she keeps shooting.
She agreed and then whipped out a list of things she came up with that she can do everyday to get better.
That night I told S that was the best example of how L is our daughter. When she messes up she gets pissed and won’t talk for awhile, which is a very me thing to do. But then she sits down and makes a list of ways to change her path, the way S would react.
After lunch we played another team from our program. These girls were really tough on D, had a great rebounder, but didn’t have much going on offense. We pulled away late in the first half to lead by nine at the break. We stretched it out to as many as 20, which was the final margin.
L wasn’t as good scoring – just knocking in four on 2–5 shooting – but was really good in every other aspect of the game.
On to the championship game, against the team that beat us in our opener Saturday.
Unfortunately I had to leave for another event (see below), but got updates. We were up by one late in the first half but gave up a run to go down by nine. Our girls played their asses off in the second half, or so the texts I got said. We lost by one. Later in the evening our coach said there were three or four possessions where we played great D, got a stop, then couldn’t control the rebound and gave up a put-back. Rebounding will always be our Achilles heel for a lot of reasons, and sounds like it was the difference.[1]
Still I think everyone was pleased with how the girls played. They looked like they hadn’t played in three weeks in that first game Saturday. Over the next four games they shook off that rust.
By the time I got home Sunday evening L was in bed, nearly passed out. She was exhausted, sore, and her ankle pain was in pain. She claimed to have scored “six or eight” in the championship game, which wasn’t a bad finish to a pretty solid day. If I give her credit for eight, that means she averaged 7.3 points for the three games. Quite an improvement from Saturday.
NHS
I had to leave basketball because it was National Honor Society induction night at CHS, which meant the seniors who had earned enough points got the cords they will wear over their graduation gowns. M obviously got those points, otherwise I wouldn’t be skipping a championship game.
It was interesting seeing the number of seniors getting their cords compared to the juniors who were being inducted. It looked like a good third of the kids who got into NHS a year ago did not earn their cords.
How you earn your NHS points at CHS is kind of a bullshit process. No, strike that. It’s totally a bullshit process. The teacher who runs the program has been doing it since S was in school and plays all these BS, power trip, mind games with kids and forces them to jump through hoops to get the 10 points they need. I think some kids, once they’ve been accepted to the colleges they want to attend, decide to check out on all that nonsense.
One of M’s classmates is going to Notre Dame and is almost literally a perfect student: she earned a full ride to Cathedral, the first girl from St P’s to ever be awarded that scholarship. One of just three class of 2023 CHS kids to get into Notre Dame. But she didn’t get her cord. We joked that she was probably too busy applying for scholarships to worry about showing up at exactly the right time to get her name on a list of limited spots for whatever points the NHS sponsor was throwing out each week. Or, more likely, she figured, “Fuck that.” Although she would never say fuck.
But M got hers, and it will look very nice over her graduation gown in – checks calendar – one month. Holy shit! She has 20 days of high school left!
We also planned on taking some graduation invitation pics afterward. She and two of her friends are doing a party/open house together. The other two girls are going to Miami (OH) and brought red shirts. M was going to put on her black UC shirt. I was tasked with taking some super cute pics of them that S would turn into super cute invitations for the party.
Only problem is the weather changed Sunday and it was cold, windy, and rainy. Which made M pout. I told her she needed to knock it off, we can’t control the weather, and we could still find a way to take a nice pic. Then she told me she was tired because she only got four hours of sleep and I told her it wasn’t my fault she and her buddies stayed up until 4:00 AM when she had to be at work at 9:00.
Things were going swimmingly.
Then a miracle occurred: the rain stopped, the sun popped out, and the parents grabbed the girls and hustled outside. Of course it was like 40 degrees and windy, so there was much complaining. But I was able to snap a few pics and one of them turned into a perfect one for the invitation.
Two more pre-graduation jobs checked off.
Weather
It had to end. One of the very best weeks of weather I can recall in my nearly 20 years in Indy ended Sunday morning when a cold front blew threw. After over a week where the temps were in the 70s and 80s with almost no humidity or clouds, we got a nasty reminder that there’s still plenty of time for shitty weather in the Midwest. It felt more like mid-December with wind-whipped rain that soaked you even in the quickest run between car and building. We heard there was snow at the middle school track meet. As I type this Sunday night there is a chance of snow over the next few hours until daybreak.
Then it’s going to be back into the 70s Wednesday, 80s Thursday, then another cold blast for next weekend.
The girls were begging me to open the pool last weekend. I actually texted our guy Tuesday and he said there was a chance he could be here Thursday, but that feel through. I think he’s going to swing by sometime this week, so maybe the girls will be able to get in one of those warm days. Otherwise it might be a few weeks before they get a chance again. I probably should have stuck with our traditional second week of May open date.
Size, ability, “want to.” We are short, have bad technique, and tend to watch the ball rather than go after it. My theory is our girls are too nice to be good rebounders, because you have to be a little mean to be successful. ↩
I’ll save most of my thoughts for a post later in the week. It is always a bit of a relief when we reach this point in the season and have a few days off.
November and December are usually a mix of big games and ones that KU should win easily. I’m always left wanting more from that part of the schedule, as the Jayhawks often have week-long gaps between games.
The Big 12 schedule wears me down. I don’t know if it is just getting older and it’s harder for me to stay up for a late start and then have my normal struggles to come down afterward, or it’s still some remaining DNA from my youth when the Big 8 only played on Wednesdays and Saturdays, but two months of Saturday-Monday/Tuesday turnarounds make me feel like I’m playing and not watching. I want more time to savor those Saturday wins, or recover from the losses.
So when we hit conference tournament week and everyone takes a few days off, it is a nice break before the real stress of March kicks in.
Naturally in a few weeks I’ll be missing basketball. Such is life as a sports fan.
Kid Hoops
L’s winter league team wrapped up their season Sunday. They were supposed to play a semifinal Thursday and would have likely lost. But that team was unavailable for the weekend’s championship, so they forfeited.
Which left us playing a team that beat us by 41 three weeks ago. Fun.
The championship game got moved to Sunday morning. We were the only game in the building, which was weird. It gave our girls an opportunity to go through a real warmup instead of the three minutes of rushed layup lines on normal game day. I think that pregame shooting paid off.
We lost by 8 but played tough the entire game. We had the lead until just before halftime, dug a 12-point hole in the second half, and trimmed that down to four late.
It helped us that they were missing one good player and another girl who sucks but is super physical and fouls all the time and scares our girls.
Also L played her ass off.
She had a season-high 16 points, a couple assists, more rebounds than she’s had all season, and a couple steals. Those points didn’t come from just getting to the rim. She hit one 3, another just inside the arc, and two baseline jumpers.
Several of her teammates played their best games of the year as well. It wasn’t enough, but it sure was better than getting embarrassed.
We went straight from there to a meeting for her travel team. The program director brought in all the 7th–8th grade teams to talk about organization-wide goals, show them some sets they want all teams to run, and then watch the high level high school teams go through a workout. Not sure they got much out of it, but L was happy to see most of her teammates again. They begin practice next week with their first tournament the weekend of the 18th.
HS Hoops
Both Cathedral sectional games were on TV, and we watched each of them. Friday they played their typical sloppy ball and nearly blew an 11-point lead in the last 90 seconds, but held on to win by 4.
Then Saturday they took on one of the two Indiana teams they lost to during the regular season, a 10-point loss in the City championship game in January.
The Irish were ready for revenge. They jumped out to a 14–2 lead before play was stopped for 45 minutes because of a rim malfunction. After play resumed they didn’t lose any of their momentum and led by 25 at half, gave ten of that back early in the third, then went on a 16–0 run and cruised to a 43 point win. FORTY-THREE!!! Crazily it was the school’s first back-to-back sectional titles in 25 years.
They advance to regionals where they will face the other Indiana team that beat them this year: undefeated, #1 Ben Davis. BD beat them by 12 in December. Revenge game #2? If Cathedral takes care of the ball they can beat anyone. But they love to throw it/kick it/hand it away.
More Faux Spring
It was nearly 80 one day last week. It’s been in the low 60s several other days. We had heavy, spring-like rains Friday. A cold snap is coming, but it’s been nice to pretend it is spring for a few days.
We got all our spring garden trimmings done Saturday. Some years I’m all bundled up and taking regular breaks to get those knocked out. This year I was sweating.
An Old Friend
For the first time in several years, I found Boulevard’s Irish Ale at a local liquor store. It bums me out that Boulevard has scaled back their national distribution and eliminated a couple of my favorite beers in recent years. I wondered if it would take a trip back to KC this time of year to ever drink Irish Ale, my very favorite BLVD beer, again.
But I found two six packs and bought them both. I’m going to run back to that store later and see if they got any more that I can nab before it disappears for the season.
An early weekend roundup, as M and I are headed to Cincinnati early Monday for an admitted students orientation. We will likely do the same at IU in March as she continues to gather information before she makes a final decision.
Kid Hoops
L’s team played a sixth grade squad Saturday. That always worries me because if a sixth grade team is playing up they are usually pretty good. Checking scores, they had beat a team that beat us by 20 by 32, so it seemed a little bleak.
Our girls played their best game of the year from the opening tip and earned a 50–45 win. We lead by double-digits for a good stretch of the game and only let it get close because we were sloppy in the final three minutes.
L had a great first half, scoring eight and getting a couple straight steals off the other team’s best player. She didn’t score in the second half – she only took one shot – but still played great D and had a few nice assists. Her best friend took advantage of being the tallest kid on the court and scored 21.
It also helped that we had a girl who hadn’t played with us all year. She’s a really good athlete and has a decent hoops IQ, although she’s a little raw. L played with her at summer camp last year and they got along really well, so was excited she finally showed up. They look like they could be a really good guard duo together at CHS next year.
Those sixth graders were good. I think they’re a team that locks people up on D then hits a bunch of 3’s. We were lucky that we could handle their pressure, guard them on the perimeter, and when they did take 3’s, they only hit a few. Our size advantage meant we owned the boards as well.
One more week left in the regular season before the tournament and then a return to travel ball.
Jayhawk Talk
LET’S GOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! WHAT A GAME!!!!!!
Down 17, win by 16. I wasn’t even nervous at halftime, this is just what happens with this program right now.[1] Play like ass in the first half, then completely flip the script and come roaring back after halftime. The fact it turned into a blowout instead of a nail-biter and was against Scott Drew made it even better.
Ok, so I was a little pissed at halftime. But I figured Baylor wouldn’t keep shooting 81% from 3 and KU would shoot better than 9% behind the arc. Still, being down 13 to such a good team, even at home, seemed pretty bleak. With a trip to Ft. Worth on the schedule for Monday, it seemed doubly bleak.
So, for the first time this year, I switched seats. Yes, just as I did for the K-State game last January and for the national championship game in April, I moved from the couch to the chair next to the couch.
And it fucking worked again you naysayers.
In other superstitious notes, I hated the Sunflower uniforms that KU wore. I was advocating for burning them at halftime and taking a technical foul to switch into something else. I guess I have to support continuing to wear them since we came back and won? Shit.
Gameday was in town. Ochai, CB, Remy, and others from last year’s team were back in town. The sun was shining through the windows. The crowd was nuts. KU is in first place in the Big 12 with four games to play. It was a great fucking day in Allen Fieldhouse.
Rock Chalk, bitches.
Signs of Spring
It’s been warmer more often than it’s been colder the past couple weeks. The sun is coming up earlier and staying up later. I just scheduled our mulch delivery for May. Spring break is five weeks away.
But the biggest sign that winter is loosening its hold on us is that our bird friends are returning. We had our first two geese of the year in the yard this week. They always show up when our neighbors take their old-people spring break. Sure enough, the neighbors left on Saturday and the geese arrived two days later.
Then on Thursday we had two ducks splashing around in the pond that forms in our yard when we get rain.
It’s still mid-February and this is the Midwest, so we will get bitch-slapped by Mother Nature a few more times over the next 6–8 weeks. But spring, she is a coming.
We had the first snow day of the year yesterday. It was kind of a dud. The storm that was supposed to drop 5–8” of snow here could only muster about 2.5 inches. As the storm was expected to hit right at the morning rush, most area schools had either cancelled classes or jumped to e-learning well before bedtime Tuesday. M and C found out they would be home Wednesday while they were still in class Tuesday. St P’s didn’t call it until about 10:15 PM.
That was still probably the right move, as the roads were not great right when high schoolers would be driving and younger kids would be waiting for buses. But once the heavy snow ended, it was a letdown to still see grass poking through in our yard.
The real bummer was that the snow that fell was very wet and heavy, making it difficult to move. It was too thick for the snowblower and too heavy to pick up with a shovel. So L and I spent about 30 minutes struggling to shove it off the driveway. Even that was tough, since if you pushed snow for more than 10 feet it compacted into big lumps that didn’t want to roll any farther. But it was good for snowmen and snowballs! Once we were done L spent about two hours at a friend’s house playing in it.
She was upset she didn’t get to use the snowblower, though. Ours broke two years ago, then I gambled, and won, by not getting it fixed last year, a season we avoided any big snows. I got it fixed before Christmas and she was fired up to get a chance to use it.
After nearly a month of relatively mild weather, looks like it’s going to be more typical of winter here for the next few weeks. Not super cold, thankfully, but lots of chances for snow. So L may well get her chance to unleash mechanized fury on some snow.
She was done with her school assignments pretty early. Or maybe it’s because she’s been getting up at 5:30 AM lately that she was done so quickly. Her sisters slept much later but were still pretty much done with their work by mid-afternoon.
I spent most of the day and evening reading a very good book. I started it late morning and was done by 10:30. You’ll hear more about that soon.
Twitter
Twitter has been a huge part of my life for 12–13 years now. I can’t remember exactly when I signed up; my current account was not my first so its 2011 start date wasn’t my true introduction to the service. I just remember that was when I listened to a lot of tech podcasts, and they were all raving about the platform, so I logged on pretty early in its life.
My experience with Twitter was always through using some of the great Mac and iOS apps that were made for it. Tweetbot and Twitterific were the two I used most, although I know I dabbled with others over the years. These were great because they were much more user friendly than either the Twitter website or the official apps. As the company moved into areas like promoted tweets and advertising, these third party apps kept those out of my feed. Until two weeks ago, I had never seen an ad in my Twitter feed or Tweets the company thought I should see based on their algorithm. And I could completely avoid the For You feed.
When Tech Karen suddenly shut down access for third party apps two weeks ago,[1] I suddenly had to see how most Twitter users live. And it sucks. A hostile interface that is constantly pushing things on me I don’t want, and forgets changes I’ve made in my personal settings to reflect my interests. It’s pretty much the same way that Instagram has gone from one of the best and most enjoyable platforms to one that shows me more ads and Reels, which I never asked to see, than photos from people I choose to follow. Only Twitter has Nazis and people complaining about Furries and constant suggestions that I need to gamble on sports.
Because of all of this, I’ve been using Twitter less and less. I still check it a couple times a day. Where it was once my default time waster, I have reached the point where I often realize “Hey, I haven’t looked at Twitter in 12 hours.” Because my feed was so carefully curated, I got a lot of good info out of it without being weighed down by things I didn’t have time for. So that’s a loss. But I’m realizing it may not be as big of a loss as I feared it would be when Tech Karen took over and began tearing the company apart like the toddler he is.
I’m hoping that TK either bails and someone else saves Twitter, or some other service pops up to replace it as my favorite virtual water cooler. I’ve signed up for Mastodon, which a lot of techies are jumping to. But it seems very weird and not functionally ready to scale to the size of Twitter so I’m not spending any time there. I guess as long as the people I get the most value from on Twitter remain there, I’ll keep checking in occasionally and tolerating its many issues. And hope that if/when it is saved, rationality will return and third party apps will be allowed again.
Based on lies about violations of their policies and with no communication for nearly two weeks after the fact. ↩
Obviously the big issue the past several days has been the weather. We ended up only getting between 1–2” of snow Thursday, a far cry from that initial forecast of over a foot. But it was still enough, combined with the wind and cold, to make travel difficult and dangerous. Fortunately, for us, S was home before the roads got bad and the rest of us had no need to be outside of the house on Friday as the windchill dropped to over 30 below zero.
With fridges and freezers full of food and temps dangerously low I was super concerned about our power staying on. The weather people kept saying because it was supposed to rain all day Thursday and then quickly freeze, followed up by 48 hours of high winds, power lines would be in great danger.
Thank goodness our electricity never cut out. Well at least it didn’t until right in the middle of our Christmas morning brunch, when the power winked out for a couple seconds then came right back on. Thursday night, as the winds howled and shook our roof, I kept waking up, thinking the power had gone out and having panics about our food going bad or the pipes freezing. Luckily we didn’t have to deal with any of that.
We normally do a big family gathering on Christmas Eve, but because of the cold, the bad roads for a few locals, and one out-of-town group delaying their visit, we decided to postpone that until New Year’s Eve. We had a couple nephews over for an impromptu pizza party.
Christmas morning was nice. Our girls long ago figured out if they are only getting three things, they should only ask for three things. I think M even told S a couple nights ago, “I pretty much know what I’m getting…” They were still excited to open the gifts, though. A lot of clothes and beauty products. C got some Uggs that we were sweating the arrival of, but made it just in time. L is now into photography so got a new lens and tripod for her camera.
Then it was the annual family Christmas brunch. We were down a few people so it wasn’t as huge as it often is, but still two full tables of folks celebrating the holiday together.
Christmas night, after all the guests had left, we convinced M and C to watch Glass Onion with us. L was too busy reading the book that came in her stocking to join us. It’s been a long time since we watched a movie together. It took awhile for the girls to get into it, but eventually they were all-in and enjoyed it. I think C at least wants to go back and watch Knives Out.
By midday Christmas, the wind chills had finally crept above zero. Funny how that seems like a big change and then you take the trash outside and nearly freeze. S and I ran out this morning to check out a couple sales before the traffic got too heavy. Despite actually cracking 20° it was still not a very enjoyable walk from the car to the stores. Later this week it may push 60°. Typical Midwest weather bullshit.
We have out-of-towners coming in a couple waves later this week, so I imagine there will be some additional gatherings over the week heading into the New Year’s Eve family deal.
I hope all of your Christmas events were warm, safe, and joyful.
It’s been a crazy couple of days. That will happen when a massive winter storm is predicted to arrive just as the biggest holiday of the year arrives.
M and C finished finals Tuesday. They seemed pleased with their performances. We’ll find out in a few weeks.
L wrapped up school Wednesday. It was pretty much a useless week, as all tests and assignments were completed last week. She cracked me up by wearing a Santa hat to school each day, then again when we went to the gym on Tuesday.
I have been to grocery stories 150 times this week. OK, that’s not true.
I did the normal weekly shopping on Monday.
Tuesday I stopped into a store right after dropping off L to try to get a bunch of stuff for the holiday weekend before the storm-induced panic buying began. I made a decent dent in that list.
Wednesday was my big shopping day. I dropped L off at school and had a window of 8–8:30 to pick up our ham. So I popped into the store next to the ham place to see how well they were stocked. Turned out they were not stocked well but I did get a few things before it was Ham Time.
Next it was onto another big grocery store that was very well stocked. I got 90% of what I still needed there.
On the way home I wanted to stop at a liquor store, but it didn’t open for another 15 minutes, so I ran into the grocery store next to it to work on that last 10%, and maybe avoid a trip to Costco.
I was unable to avoid the Costco trip so after taking C to ortho, we headed that way. When we arrived, at about 11:15, the parking lot was packed and there were literally dozens of people parked on the grass. I told C if it was really this crazy we were going to skip it. But we went down one aisle, immediately had three parking spots to choose from, and headed in. We just needed a few things, but the checkout lines were backed up through the entire store. I made sure to get into the one targeted for the self-check machines and we were out in 15 minutes.
Then Thursday morning I ran to our neighborhood store for a few more things.
So that’s six stops at grocery stores, plus Costco, liquor, and ham.
Ridiculous but had to be done as I think the entire city is going to shut down tonight into Saturday morning between the snow, wind, and cold. The windchill here is forecast to be 25 to 35 below zero Friday morning. That’s no good for anyone, especially people making last-minute grocery runs.
The girls are currently off having their annual Christmas breakfast/cookie-baking party with their grandmother. S is normally home on Thursdays but has to run into the office to help see some patients that were re-scheduled from Friday. Once everyone is home we’re going to hunker down, crank the heat up, and hope the power lines in our part of town survive the winds until our first family gathering Saturday evening.
I’ve enjoyed watching the forecast adjust over the past week. As with any winter storm there is all kinds of uncertainty. The weather app I use on my phone, Hello Weather, has a cool feature that allows you to pick between one of eight different sources for forecast information. In the winter I love toggling between them, as some make a very conservative calculation and others take the worst-case option. Last Sunday, when this storm first got pulled into the seven-day view, these forecasts varied from a prediction of two inches of snow to 22 inches. That’s quite a range! As it stands now, we are in the 3”–6” window, and it’s starting to look like the lower half is more likely.
Regardless, it appears that this will be our first truly white Christmas in at least four years. And that one was just because of a dusting of snow on Christmas morning.
I know this storm is affecting most of my readers, so I hope all of you get through it safely, with heat and power, and that you are able to make all the gatherings on your calendar.
Regional Friday in Indiana with teams fighting to make the final four in their respective classes.
For the second time this year Cathedral traveled out west to Brownsburg, where they lost their only game of the season, 42–35, back in August. They trailed by 21 much of that game and only a furious, fourth quarter comeback made it close.
The wind was blowing again Friday and that had a huge effect on the game. It also helped that both teams were dialed in on defense. Each side missed makable field goals in the first half because of the wind. Brownsburg capitalized on the CHS miss just before halftime and took a 7–0 lead into the break.
The Irish scored on their first possession of the second half. The teams traded punts. BHS missed another field goal. M’s boyfriend pounced on a loose ball, giving CHS a short field. M’s grade/middle school classmate, who is the starting running back, pounded it in from one yard out to complete the drive, and they led 14–7 going into the fourth quarter.
The Irish ran clock much of the fourth quarter but were stymied by going into that stiff breeze. But the defense held every time Brownsburg had the ball. The Bulldogs got their last chance near midfield with under 3:00 remaining, but without any timeouts. The drove, had fourth and goal with under 20 seconds left, but two Irish DBs knocked the potential tying pass down.
That gave Cathedral their first-ever regional title in class 6A. Their reward: a rematch with Center Grove next week in semi state. That game will be played at Cathedral’s “home” field, a field Center Grove still bitches about having to play on a year ago.[1]
I had to go pick up C and some of her friends who went to the game. I planned to get there in the fourth quarter and listen on the radio. Maybe I would walk over and sneak into the stadium if it was close. The windchills were down in the 20s so I kept my ass in the car with the heat on. Only problem with that plan was that, in the final minutes of the game, the radio feed kept cutting out. I missed multiple plays because the of broadcast going completely silent. Two of the plays I missed were fourth downs. That added to the stress of the listening experience. All the girls were completely frozen afterwards so I chose wisely.
A couple funny stories from the drive home.
While discussing the game they were talking about how bad the kickers were. I told them the wind was a big factor and that the radio guys said the CHS holder had saved his kicker once by taking a bad snap and getting it down in time for the PAT. I heard one of the girls mutter, “I don’t think the hold has much to do with the kick.”
Well ok then…
For some reason C and her friends started talking about an Elton John song. During the discussion one of the friends said, “I always get Elton John and Elon Musk mixed up. Elton’s the singer, but he also invented the rocket, right?”
If I had a drink in my mouth I would have spit it out. There was some discussion and finally C asked me who was who. I gently told them that Elton was indeed a singer, and he sang about a rocket, but was not, in fact, the man who invented the rocket. Then one of the girls piped up, “Oh, Elon Musk owns Space X, right?” They laughed which allowed me to laugh, too.
Kid Hoops
It was CYO tournament time Saturday. We opened play against St B’s, who beat us a week ago by two. They went undefeated in the regular season, but we felt like we cracked their code a little in that game. We were going to let them shoot from outside but take away the lane and then concentrate on not turning the ball over after rebounds.
We had two practice this week to prepare. In the first, as usual, some of the girls were messing around and L was not having it. When practice was over she took the players into the locker room and told them, “I’m not losing in the first round of the tournament again! Thursday everyone needs to pay attention and stop messing around. We can beat St B’s if we focus.”[2]
Damn, her first players-only meeting!
One of the coaches snuck in and reported she heard one of the other 8th graders say, “Everyone needs to turn their ADHD off!” Hard core!
Saturday we led 6–5 after one, 14–9 at halftime, and then really took off. We out-scored them 10–3 in the third quarter. In the fourth St B’s just chucked and chucked and chucked to try to get back in it. We got a couple runouts, hit a couple free throws, and closed it out 32–18. What a win! Our girls were composed (for the most part) and made St B’s panic instead of us.
The win was especially big for one major reason: L injured her knee in the second quarter and barely played in the second half. We’re not sure what she did. I heard the coach next to me say “Oh shit!” and looked up to see L wincing and grabbing her knee just before halftime. At the break we had S run over and take a look. L said it felt like it needed to pop but that she hadn’t gotten hit or landed funny. She started the half on the bench, went in for a few minutes, but asked to come out and never went back in.
The knee wasn’t immediately swollen, S couldn’t find anything structurally wrong, and L passed every ligament test S could whip up at home. So we are hoping it is just some tendinitis and it being a new sensation freaked her out. But it is worrying. Especially with (potentially) two more games this week.
The great news was that we handled St B’s pressure (for the most part) without L for nine minutes. We don’t have another true point guard so any kind of pressure is always an adventure when L is on the bench. It wasn’t always pretty, but we went from +10 when she sat down to winning by 14.
When L was still in, there was a dead ball where a referee called her and a St B’s girl together and talked to them for a moment. When they separated L had the strangest grin on her face, like “Why was he talking to me?” It was our ball so she dribbled up the court, that girl picked her up on D, L crossed her over, took her into a screen, and the St B’s girl ended up on her ass. I’m not sure if she tripped or if she just hit the screen weird, but it was hilarious that happened right after their conference. After an offensive rebound on that possession, L got the ball in the corner and drained a 3 over this girl, her only basket of the day. She had the biggest Eff You grin on her face as she got back into the defensive end.
Later she told us that girl wouldn’t let go of the ball after the whistle when L was trying to give it to the ref so we could inbound. L yanked it away, the girl fell down, and L tried to help her up. But she slapped L’s hand away. The ref was telling them to stop fighting for the ball when he blew the whistle.
Whatever happened to L’s knee happened shortly after that, so I’m hoping it wasn’t some kind of karma thing.
On to the final four. Monday we play a team we did not play in the regular season, St J. They also went 4–3 in the regular season, losing to St B’s by 12. They also beat a team we lost to. We beat them last year in a very close game. So hopefully an evenly matched game. And hopefully L is ready to go. We will accept all prayers and positive vibes for those willing to share them.
In the quarterfinal before us St L, who we crushed last week, was playing St N, who beat us in the first game of the year. We walked in at halftime and St L was up by 11; we heard they had been up by 16. But St N has the best player in CYO. And she WENT OFF in the second half. St N’s scored 30 points in those twelve minutes. She had 22 of them. She dished out two assists. The other four points came from the free throw line by girls who got fouled after that girl’s passes. She will be a problem if we are lucky enough to face them Thursday.
Update Monday morning L’s knee was swollen and sore. Not promising for tonight. 😬
KU Football
Well it had to happen: a dumb loss. Yes, Texas Tech beat KU 43–28, which seems comfortable. But it still felt like a game KU should have won and pissed away.
Another bad start on both sides of the ball, digging a hole they never quite climbed out of. Although the defense adjusted and played well in the middle quarters, they still struggled giving up big plays all night. I don’t know if that was an issue of scheme or personnel, but it killed KU. The tackling was often very poor; they missed more than twice as many tackles as they have averaged through the first nine games. On offense Jason Bean’s limitations were clear. He made some huge plays. But also missed some easy plays and made a couple horrible decisions that ruined KU’s chances. Throw in two missed field goals – both off the right upright! – and it was a thoroughly frustrating night.
Devin Neal had another huge game, which was cool. I get how you ride the hot hand but it’s a little concerning that no other RB got a carry until the final possession of the game. Someone else needs to be able to spell Neal for a play or two, as he was looking tired late. And that was before Bean nearly got him killed with a bad pass.
Two really tough matchups left for the Jayhawks. Ultra-talented but forever disappointing Texas next week. The Longhorns will no doubt be looking to avenge last year’s overtime loss, plus they lost a massive game to TCU Saturday. Then a trip to Manhattan for the regular season finale against K-State, who have the inside track for a Big 12 title game appearance. At this point I’m just hoping all the important players stay healthy so they are available for the bowl game. Another win would be cool but my confidence in getting one is pretty low.
Colts
So maybe hiring Jeff Saturday was the right move? Or at least that’s what a few local were loudly proclaiming last night, after the Colts somehow managed to beat the “mighty” Raiders. I had to unfollow one local media personality because they were being so over-the-top in their blasting back at everyone who criticized the hire last week. If this person truly has this much passion about the subject they need to dial it back. I think it was, likely, more an effort to get in/stay in the good graces of Saturday and the Colts org. But I’m a cynic…
Anyway, not a great game, by any means. But it was enough. It sure helped to being playing the Raiders, who might have the worst defense in the league. And it was still a struggle. So let’s not all…insert Harvey Keitel quote from Pulp Fiction here.
Weather
We knew it was going to happen. But like this? This was unexpected.
Nearly three inches of snow in much of the area Saturday morning. Two days after it was 75. Ironically the last time we had this much snow this early was exactly three years ago to the day.
A reminder that Cathedral has no true home stadium. They’ve bounced around various public school fields for years, but lately have settled on a stadium about a mile from campus at a school that was once an IPS high school but is now a middle school. Even though Center Grove won that game last year, and finished as undefeated state champs, they have not stopped complaining about having to play on natural grass in the rain last year. Props to the Pope for calling in rain all week. It nearly worked! ↩
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.
I got second Covid booster as well. She was Covid positive about a month back so gets to avoid that jab a little longer. ↩
A pretty boring break for us, as we have trips ahead of us.
M went up to Ball State to hang out with a friend of hers. Apparently they went to a few parties Friday night, but I tried not to hear too much about that.
Normally we get our flu shots over fall break but I couldn’t wrangle all the girls together at the same time to knock that out efficiently. The Walgreen’s nearest our house, which is where our insurance works, has temporarily stopped doing shots, so that’s an added bummer.
KU Football
As has been the case so often this year, I missed the best part of the game because of basketball. The part I saw Saturday against Baylor was pretty stinky. Seemed like Same Old KU in the first half. Then, as soon as I left the house, the Jayhawks rallied to at least make it interesting.
I guess the good thing is this team does not seem to quit, no matter how poorly they play in the first half. The bad thing is these first half holes have been dug in nearly every game.
The bye week comes at a good time. Seems like there’s a chance Jalon Daniels could be back in two weeks. A couple of the other injured players could use the extra week of rest, too.
But with the strength of schedule left, finding that sixth win is getting harder-and-harder.
Kid Hoops
L started play with her Cathedral team this week. They had only practiced twice, and several girls – including L – missed last week’s practice. So I figured the first week would be rough.
The fall league schedule is two games every other Saturday. The first two opponents were 7th grade teams from L’s travel program.
In game one we were up 9 midway through the second half, but the other team threw a trapping press at our girls that they couldn’t handle and they gave it all up, losing by two. Worth noting L was not on the court when they were blowing the lead. I’m not saying we win if she plays. I am saying she’s a better pure point guard than the girls who were turning it over every possession.
Game two was against a better team. It was never really close and we lost by 19. I think the coach realized her error in not playing L for that long stretch of the first game, as she played the entire first half then deep into the second half before getting her first break. Didn’t help much on the scoreboard but at least we got the ball across the ten-second line.
No concerns about the play. They need more time to work together. They were also missing a couple girls Saturday. I don’t know how good those girls are but it would have been nice to have nine bodies instead of seven when playing back-to-back.
Of the girls that were there, L has played with four of them. Her best friend is on the team along with three girls they played with last winter. One of the new (to us) girls is big, pushing six-feet. She can really rebound and affect shots. But she’s like a lot of girls her size, her age: she’s very awkward and it’s a real mess when she tries to score. The offense, what there was of it, was not very focused on getting her the ball. I think the coach should find ways to set her up for easy looks as they get deeper into their time together.
Colts
Yep, shitty again. Or at least Matt Ryan is. I’m afraid he’s toast and the Colts were, once again, snookered into hitching their franchise’s fortunes onto the performance of a player who is well past his prime. Even when he gets time, his throws look weak and off-target. Maybe he’s just hurt and can be salvaged but it’s really hard to win in the NFL when you have a creaky QB playing behind a line that struggles to protect him.
Crazily the Colts only have one divisional game left on their schedule. If they get their shit together they are going to need lots of help to win the division.
Weather
Phenomenal weather the past few days. A little breezy, yes. But up near 80 during the day, not too chilly at night. These are the days you wish for this time of year. If only we could get a little rain. Indy is one big pile of blowing dirt, dust, and leaves, and everyone’s cars look disgusting. It’s not worth taking them to the carwash, because within five minutes they’ll be covered in a thick film of muck again.
