March 15, 2011

One time my Uncle Mike Hardin woke up to his ex-wife firing a shotgun in his house. She was drunk again. He stopped her from harming anyone, but boy that's scary.

Whitney's maniacal great uncle woke up in jail after stabbing his wife to death in her sleep. He had no memory, only grief, so he hung himself in the prison cell.

Julius Caesar was stabbed by Brutus, who also went on to commit suicide. But at least these guys were awake and conscious.

Grandma once told me about how Sue Wiseman's kids and grandkids were murdered in the night by an intruder. Scared me so bad I used to say "mom" as my last word before I went to sleep each night. Just in case I never got to say anything else.

March 13, 2011

Wow, today was a change of pace. I got out twice today. Once to pick up some potting soil. And once to play some ball.

Over at Fayette St court, I got in a run with some of the kids from the hood. Games to 16 ran at a rate of about 1 per hour because shots were made at a rate of about 1 in 12.

Not to say that these ballers didn't know what they were about. In fact, the mestizo kid with a ponytail avidly coached his teammates on shot selection while firing his own long range airballs. And the homie curiously wearing three layers of long sleeves knew just how to free up his teammates by drawing the double, and occasional triple, team. And the friendly 300 lb. guy had a midrange shot that fell every time he took it. Too bad he more often opted for stiff, ill-timed chest passes to closely guarded teammates.

Tell you what, the thug wearing headphones enjoyed me guarding him. Whereas he hadn't scored in the previous game, he quickly buried two 30-footers on me. He did little else after that. His only other contribution today came during a smoke break between games when he said, "I told y'all this was bout to get segregated."

He was referring to the 3 white guys walking onto the court. One was Fake Euro Hip, one was Real Euro Stooge, and one was Edward, a normal dude. Euro Hip told me all three had played high school ball, but out here, man, he personally just couldn't go hard. "It gets ugly" when he goes hard and "people wouldn't like it." Apparently he'd been in an altercation or three and wasn't out to make a new memory today.

I guess. One possession he missed 3 straight bunnies. Then his man went on to score half his teams' points. I was happy when he picked up his white-frame, sepia-tint wayfarers and walked on home. Time to get back to going hard with real ballers.

March 12, 2011

The basketball season came to a sour end, as most do. We lost 26 to 14 in the championship game at The Garden.

Now, Ian's insistent right-hand-only, head-down dribbling is a habit he can kick with practice. And surely with a little more conditioning, Kelsey and co. can get back on defense before the opponent gets off three shot attempts and, finally, scores an easy bucket.

But going opher on our free throws and having our 6'4" center airball a couple perimeter shots kicked the hell out of the coach's pride. And Alex aka Puma aka Gardell unwittingly committing a lane violation for standing inside the arc, directly behind the foul shooter, really stung. Those problems are mine.

Nonetheless, after the game, they handed me the runner-up trophy. I told Yohannes aka Johnny aka Reaps to have it and consider it the Most Improved award. After all, he did have 3 rebounds and a couple pass deflections today. He also bombed an ugly three from the top of the key that crashed off the backboard and glanced off the front of the rim, altering it's trajectory just enough to prevent a simple putback by our high scorer.

Hey, it was all fanfare and best wishes afterward, so you can't really complain.

March 9, 2011

Shoot, you know what makes a fella cry? Watching old sentimental movies again. Over the past few months, I shed a few when everyone chipped in for George Baily, when ghost kid told his Mom Grandma's proud of her, and even when Rudy's parents made his one game. Something about that song in A League of Their Own gave me the wells, too. And nothing did it quite like when Kevin Costner asked his dad for some catch. I know watching Forrest tell Jenny that if she needs anything he's right here would work me over, so skip that for now...

I've been hiding the tears from my roommate, so don't tell her please.

March 8, 2011

Wow, today was a pretty good day. I thought a lot about whether "every person is unique" or whether "people are all the same." You've heard both expressed, no doubt.

In any case, I remember the trasfer student Fatima from Azerbaijan. She had bright eyes, long eyelashes, and wore a lot of jewelry. Anna Cox said she was so unique. Wheeler said bullshit.

March 7, 2011

Here's a construction update:

• Under the Wilson bridge, in Jones Point Park, they look to be putting in a paved trail. They added a lot of dirt and have a crane and generator back by the old boathouse. They also have torn up about 1/8 mile of trail that runs north of the park.
• The on and off ramps for the Telegraph Rd exit are mostly complete. They are, however, still adding a lane on the Telegraph Rd bridge. They have the pillars poured but have yet to lay anything across them.
• Over on the SE corner of Carlyle, they've dug a perhaps 3-story hole. Nice size crane on that site too. I think it's more apartments and condos going in. That's over by where The Boss lives.
• Up by Bryce, off Henderson St, they've thrown up the plywood for the first condo building of what could turn out to be 5 or 6. Jess says it's more of the same as is two neighborhoods away from them now.

Can't say I know much else enough to give good info right now, but they're always busy up here.

March 6, 2011

On fire with two alright days in a row. Today it rained upwards of an inch and nothing much good was happening on TV. So I read The Fall of the House of Usher. It would probably be fun to recreate the story as a short film, but you'd have to put in a lot of work.

Speaking of, Mayor of Franklin Fred Paris recently delivered the State of the City Address. The transcipt is posted on the Daily Journal's site and indicates Fred and his staff have worked hard to open up Franklin, Indiana for commercial "investment." They're also doing their level best to allocate government funds toward the flood damages. A lot of the spend is also preventative. A nice place, Franklin.

March 5, 2011

Finally, an alright day. Finished reading The Killer Inside Me and vacuumed the carpet. Rediscovered my taste for Rice Krispies. Forgot to leave the dog on the porch for good luck during the Boilers' game.