Notes from the Hall Closet

Did you ever have one of those days? My day got off to a great start when the alarm clock did not go off. The time was right, the alarm was set...it just didn't go off! I tested it and it worked fine,,,THEN! I am never late, except for today. I've been running behind ever since.

Man, I thought I was going to die the other day. I had eaten some nuts that were brought into the radio station. I started sneezing at first, then my sinuses got congested, my throat started to close up, my gums swelled and I had some chest pains. Obviously I was having some sort of allergic reaction. I have eaten nuts before but never had this type of reaction. Perhaps it was a coating or shell that caused the problem, but I was in some serious trouble. I managed to take some allergy pills and after a walk in the brisk air, I started to be able breathe a little easier. I had hot and cold chills as well. After soaking in a hot tub, I started to feel much better. Within a couple of hours, I was back to normal. I have never had to watch what I eat before, but I plan to be much more careful in the future.

Talk about weird things, later that same night, the turn signals on my car stopped working. I checked the turn signal fuse and it was fine, so I figured the electrical unit had stopped working. After tearing the thing apart looking for any other solution, I called the dealership and made an appointment for a prefessional to diagnose the problem. I was figuring $200-$300 in repair cost. The fellow at the repair shop looked it over for about a half hour and came to the conclusion the the fuse for the flasher alarm was gone.....not blown...GONE! It seemed to have disappeared all of a sudden because it had been working fine. The repairman said he had never seen that happen before. It ended up costing me $31 in labor and 70 cents in parts! Welcome to my crazy life!

Get ready for what should be a great week. The forecast right now calls for sunshine all week long with temperatures warming today and tomorrow, reaching the mid to upper 70's by mid week. Let's hope the cold and snow are gone for good. My neighbor had the lawn mower out over the weekend working on his lawn. That is always one of the first signs of spring.

Of course, Thursday is April 1st. April Fool's Day. Be on your toes, you don't want to get pranked. I have never been one to pull pranks, but I am always concious of one being done to me. Don't let it sneak up on you!

It was another grteat weekend of basketball. Saturday went just as I would have liked....Butler advancing to its first ever Final Four and Kentucky booted out of the tourney by West Virginia. Yesterday's games were not quite as satisfying, with Michigan State going back to the Final Four with a win over Tennessee and Duke outlasting Baylor. Butler plays Michigan State Saturday and Duke plays West Virigina with the championship game next Monday.

There was no Nascar race over the weekend. The race at Martinsville was postponed because of rain. They will run it later today. I may have to skip out of work early. I need my weekly dose of Nascar and the boys are off again this weekend for Easter.

How abou those Butler Bulldogs. They have advanced to the Elite Eight in the NCAA basketball tournament after downing the #1 seed Syracuse last night. One more victory and Butler would play in the Final Four in Indianapolis...just a stone's throw from their campus. Can you say home crowd advantage? Go Butler!

There were a bunch of great games last night, especially the Kansas State-Xavier contest where K-State won in double overtime. Xavier's Jordan Craford put on another incredible show. The former IU recruit had an amazing run and I'm guessing will go pro and probably be a high draft pick. Elsewhere my pick to wiun the championship, west Virginia stayed alive by topping Washington.

I didn't get to watch as much basketball as I would have liked last night as we had some technical problems at the radio station due to the storms and high winds. I was here until after midnight trying to keep us on the air. Needless to say I am one tired puppy today. I may need more money....and a nap.

It's going to be a chilly day today, but the weekend looks great. Take advantage of it. Take a walk and enjoy the promised sunshine....I'd like to take my walk on the golf course...How about you? 

I have had several run-ins over the past couple of days with people walking, jogging and biking. I think they're teaming up on me. Last night I was coming back to work to finish up a few details and at one intersection a jogger ran right in front of me. He didn't even slow down. He went from the dark, into my headlights and back into the dark. He's lucky I didn't give him the chrome horn. Maybe that would have knocked some sense into him! Then this morning before the sun came up, I came upon someone walking in the road even though there was a perfectly good sidewalk not five feet away. I have seen this especially with young people. They'll walk two or three abreast down the middle of the road and then be upset when a vehicle wants to get through, One good case of road rage could reduce the excess population in no time! And finally not two minutes after that incident I saw a guy riding his bicycle the wrong way down a one way street in the dark! These people must have a death wish!

Have you got spring fever yet? The weather is getting warmer, with rumors of 70 degree temperatures next week! I have noticed some plant life starting to stir at my house. There is this one plant that regenerates itself every year and it is starting to sprout again. I haven't heard a lawn mower yet, but if the weather is decent this weekend, I bet I will.

It looks like the economy may be starting a small recovery. I see that stocks are on the rise again, the Dow Jones Indusrial Average approaching 11,000 today. Like a lot of others, my 401k took a big hit a few years ago and it sure would be nice to get a little of that back. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

More basketball is on tap for tonight as the NCAA tourney continues. The Butler Bulldogs try to knock off one of the #1 seeds tonight...Syracuse. Syracuse will play without their center tonight, so maybe we'll see an upset. Speaking of upsets, one I would really like to see tonight is Cornell topping Kentucky. That would make my day. One of the other games featyres the team I picked to win the tournament, West Virginia. The Mountaineers will be without their point guard who broke his foot in practice earlier this week, so they will have ther hands full with a red-hot Washington team looking to make the Elite Eight for the first time ever. Four games tonight and four more tomorrow, let's get it on!

Well I am back from vacation. I know you've missed my blogs over the past week or so, so here we go again. I may never take another week of vacation....I'm sure you've been through the same thing I have just experienced. You work your tail off the week before you leave getting everything ready, then when you get back you have to do two weeks worth of work just to get back to where you were! Monday was brutal! I worked about 13 hours and I am just now getting things back in shape. I guess it's good to know i am irreplaceable!

While I was off I sure got my fill of basketball. One of the reasons I take a week this time of year is to watch the first weekend of the NCAA basketball tourney and it did not disappoint. There were plenty of great games all weekend long and some major upsets. I filled out a bracket and by the end of the first day, it was not looking too good. My pick for the champ is still alive, but I didn't see all the upsets coming. We still have Butler and Purdue alive form the Hoosier state and how about Northern Iowa knocking off Kansas! I wouild love to see the two high seeded teams go far...Both St. Mary's and Cornell were very impressive. I think this tourney could be won by just about anyone...but please NOT Kentucky!

One of few things I got accomplished other than watching basketball was getting a much needed haircut. I hate cutting my hair. I only do it two or three times a year, so when I visit the barber he has quite a task on his hands. I think this time he wore out three or four pairs of scissors! I thought as you got older your hair was supposed to thin out or fall out. Not his kid! It seems to get thicker all the time. That makes it a pain to maintain but wearing it longer makes me feel like an honorary Beatle! I have gotten a lot of nice rsponse to the new haircut, so maybe I'll keep it short.......NAH!

Can you believe the weather we had yesterday. Wow! Temps in the mid 60's and plenty of sunshine. Near perfect weather for early March. It'll give you a bad case of spring fever. It's a darn shame I couldn't have enjoyed it more. I was stuck inside the office from sun-up to sundown. Every now and then I would take a peek out the window to see what I was missing. I am vacationing next week, so look for snow and temps bak in the 20's!

Putting a damper of the beautiful weather yesterday was the IU basketball game. The Hoosiers lost in the first round of the Big Ten tournament to Northwestern, the team they had just beaten over the weekend. Too many turnovers and inability to put the ball in the basket doomed the Hoosiers. Mercifully the season has come to an end. It was tough to watch the team this year, making the same mistakes game after game. On the possitive side, things HAVE to get better next season...I think....

I finally have watched a couple episodes of American Idol. I wasn't impressed with many of the singers, but a couple stood out. My picks would be Crystal Bowersox for the ladies and "Big Mike" Lynche for the guys. That fellow did one heck of a performance this week. :Let's see if my picks pan out....

I was watching Animal Planet last night. They had a couple of interesting shows about elephants. They are truly fascinating animals. Animal Planet and the History Channel are becoming two of my favorites...... 

I took a good look at my car today as I walked out to head to work. IT IS DISGUSTING! I can't remember the last time I washed it and I know I haven't swept it out since last fall. You know, I used to make sure my vehicle was pristene back when I had a hunk of junk. But now that I have a pretty decent car, I can't be bothered to keep it clean! These days I would just as soon buy a new one as wash the old one. Maybe when then weather warms up, I'll get the inspiration to do the job.....or maybe when I look at the price tag on a new one! That will put things in aa all new perspective......

Quietly, Butler University has built quite a basketball program. The Bulldogs won their conference tournament again last night and are headed to the NCAA tournament. The program continues to excel in spite of the fact that the coach there gets taken by a higher echelon team about every three years. Butler has to be taken seriously as a championship contender this year with no dominant team in college basketball. Since IU is not going to be there, I may be a Butler fan during this year's NCAA tournament.

Did you see the NASCAR race over the weekend...especially where Carl Edwards intentionally wrecked Brad Keselowski. That was so blatant. Edwards tried for a couple of laps to crash Keselowski before finally getting it done. Edwards was black flaggged and had to leave the race. That wreck could have seriously injured Keselowski or even some fans, so you would figure NASCAR would come down pretty hard on him. Not the case. Edwards received only a three race suspension, so he will not miss a race. Now any other driver who gets a little upset on the track can feel free to wreck a competitor and know he will receive a fate no worse than the one given to Carl Edwards. I think that sets a bad precedent, but could make for some very exciting racing.

It was just weird driving to work yesterday morning in that incredibly dense fog. I swear you couldn't see ten feet in front of you when I headed to work just before 6am. It was like driving with a blindfold on. I was driving down the same streets I always take, following the same route as always but it was in an all new perspective. Every small turn seemed new, every curve an experience. I was on the edge of my seat just waiting for something to jump out in front of me. What a way to start the day. Now I know how they feel in London!

Speaking of work, I have started a new work schedule. For the past year or so I had been arriving at work between three and four in the morning, but now I am getting here around six. What a difference! Yesterday noon was here before I knew it. Even though I am staying several jours later in the day, I sure felt a lot fresher at the end of the day. I think I'm gonna like the new hours....I may even try to push back my start time to seven or eight! Talk about banker's hours!

I don't whether you heard about this or not, but two of the oldest people in America died yesterday. A New Hampshire lady died at 114 and a Michigan lady at 113. Can you imagine living that long? It boggles my mind. think of the changes that have occurred over that time span. They were born before cars and planes when the country had barely recovered from the Civil War. What do you think the world will be when you turn 114? I'm not sure I want to know....... 

Well the snow is finally gone. While the temperatures were warming last week I was keeping careful watch on the snow cover. Most of the snow was gone early in the week, but there was one small patch just outside my back door that stubbornly refused to leave. Even with temps into the mid 40's Thursday and Friday that small patch of ice/snow was still there, though noticebly smaller. Saturday passed then Sunday and by now I was very intriqued to see just how long this could continue.....But alas when the rains came late Sunday afternoon, the snow patch, which was not much more than a speck, finally disappeared. I haven't had that much fun with snow since I was a kid.

Another sure sign of spring was sited over the weekend. I was driving home from work on Satrurday and spied a fellow working on his pontoon boat! We'll be hitting the water before you know it!

I checked out a new karaoke place over the weekend. My buddy Bam Bam was running the karaoke Saturday night at TomCats and wanted a friendly face in the crowd. I went down, helped him out a little and had a great time. It was a small but friendly crowd with some pretty good singers. The best part was that I got to belt out several songs. The crowd seemed to enjoy it and I sure did.

Well finally we got another win from the IU basketball team. They had lost a team record 11 straight before finally defeating Northwestern on Saturday. They had the game well in hand before reverting to what has been a year-long bugaboo...turnovers. They gave the ball back on 6 of their last 7 possessions and missed the front end of a 1 and 1 on the other, resulting in a blown 10 point lead and forcing overtime. Fortunately they dominated overtime to grab the win. That makes 1o wins overall this season , 4 in conference both a improvement from last season...but boy have they got a long way to go!

I am just looking out the window at what seems to be a beautiful day. The days are getting longer and the temperatures are getting warmer and I am getting a bad case of spring fever. I never get out of the office anymore as i am here 12-14 hours a day and I miss walking. I used to walk everywhere...miles and miles a day. I need to get back to that practice. It would do wonders for my body and my peace of mind. With temperatures going into the 50's this weekend, a good walk is going to be high on my priority list.

One of the things that may keep me inside over the next several weeks is college basketball. This is my favorite time of the year. The conference season is winding down...then it's conference tournaments and the big NCAA Championship....March Madness.....While the is no hope for my IU Hoosiers this year, there are plenty of teams to root against. This will be one of those years when I can really get behind one of the Cinderella teams because I hate most of the teams at the top of the polls.

I nearly got mowed down the other day. Some idiot blew right through a stop sign and almost T-Boned me! The guy never slowed down and didn't even look up! He was completely oblivious as to what was going on. Unfortunately there seems to be more and more of that going on these days. Why is there never a police officer close by when this happens....But when I go 31 in a 30 MPH zone at 3:30 in the morning on my way to work, there's Barney ready to run me in like I had stolen the royal jewels! Sometimes I just wonder........ 

Welcome to the month of March! I always feel better when we get February in the rear view mirror. Winter is almost over! You can feel spring creeping in. Warmer temps over the weekend has nearly melted all the snow we accummlated over the past several weeks and much better weather is coming later this weekend. It's time to start shining up the golf clubs!

What is with the weather around the world these days? Another big earthquake over the weekend took place in Chile. They say it was one of the largest quakes ever recorded. It caused Tsunami warnings in Hawaii and off the coast of California. Deaths and damage in Chile is massive. Please keep those folks in your thoughts and prayers. They were much more prepared for the quake than Haiti was, but they will still need much help and financial assisitance.

What a great win for the ISU Sycamores over the weekend. A last second three pointer from Harry Marshall propelled the Sycamores to an overtime win over Missouri State. The teams dropped in three trifectas in the last 11 seonds or so, so the drama was intense. That makes 17 wins for the ISU men, their best season in years. Good luck to the Sycamores in this week's conference tourney.

Well the 2010 Winter Olympics are history. They came to a bit of a disappointing end when the USA hockey team dropped the gold medal game to Canada in overtime, 3-2 in what was a great contest. But the American athletes brought home more gold than any other country, so it should be considered a success I guess. Oh, but it could have been so much better!