As my friend Jason Revill mentioned and I had thought just a little while before I talked to him, it seems that nothing could go right for Duke this season. First and foremost you have a less than stellar season (by Duke standards), they lost the current record of consecutive weeks in the 25, lost the most games in a row in a decade, swept by Carolina, a first-round loss in the ACC tournament and a first-round loss in the NCAA tournament. To follow that up, Carolina makes it to the Elite Eight and then last night, Florida supplanted Duke as the last team to win consecutive NCAA championships.
Yeah, Florida won. Ohio State never really threatened, although (50-year-old-looking) Greg Oden had a killer night. Florida just couldn’t seem to miss a shot.
So that marked the end of basketball season. I took down my Duke flag this afternoon. I figured as long as I had something to root for (or, in this case, against) I’d keep it up. Here’s to next year.
About a week ago I finished reading 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America by Bernard Goldberg. I like the fact that, while he certainly has a conservative slant, he bashed both sides in the book. In fact, he would have a chapter about someone being too far left on a subject, then follow it up with someone who is too far right on the very same thing. Since I finished that book, which I borrowed from Amanda’s grandfather, Earl Lemons (it had actually been a gift to him from us), I’ve been reading David McCullough’s 1776. I just realized I already mentioned that. Whatever, I’ve been enjoying it. Last night in fact, I couldn’t put it down after I went to the bathroom (where I do much of my reading) and sat on the floor of our bedroom reading it by the light of the bathroom.
That reminded me of the last apartment I was in in Greensboro. Sometimes right before we were going to bed, my roommate, Charlie Collicutt, and I would hang out in the hallway, me sitting in the doorway to my room, and just chat about things. I haven’t talked to Charlie in a long time. I should send him a message or something.
The weather, as it has been lately, was nice today. I thought of working outside for a bit, or even going to the beach to work, but the glare of the sun makes reading laptop screens rather difficult.
My boss, Scott Hendrix, had a conference call with me and Tim Henrich, the production manager or project manager, depending on which terminology I remember to use. It’s taken Scott a while to settle into his new home in Clayton, what with the move and rampant sicknesses in his family. (Okay, not rampant, but he and his younger daughter Ava both had a bout of pneumonia, and Ava had gotten sick again today.) He wanted to catch up with us about how things were going as of late, what new things we thought were working well, what things we thought need improvement and the like. The call lasted about an hour and a half. I think we should get back into doing that on a monthly basis.
Amanda came home bearing a salad from the salad bar at Lowe’s Food for me for dinner. She decided while she was there to not get one herself, but to make herself an egg and cheese bagel. We ate and watched last week’s Smallville, which was okay but nothing too special aside from having some darker overtones and a decent brawl. After that we sat out on the porch for a bit while Michael cleaned the inside of Amanda’s car. Amanda was sitting on one of our new Adirondack chairs reading a People Magazine while I swung on the porch swing reading 1776. Michael said he felt like a slave with him working and us relaxing, although Amanda had paid him for his services. (He didn’t say it in a complaining manner.)
Oh, speaking of Michael, it’s his former girlfriend’s birthday today. Happy birthday, Sarah Denning!
Our across-the-street neighbor Bonnie Narron came by this afternoon. We had asked her to let Bruce out on Sunday while we were in Raleigh and she had planned on taking Bruce over to her house for a bit to play with her dog, Cream. Bonnie told us that she’d come over and tried to put his collar and leash on him, but that he kept running away and growling at her! She tried again while we were there and while he didn’t growl this time, he did keep running away from her. It was a little funny, because when I picked his collar up he ran up to me and got all excited. Even then though, he wouldn’t let Bonnie put the leash on him. I put it on him and let Bonnie take him over to her house, and he followed her just fine.
Bruce stayed over at Bonnie’s for a while. We were wondering if she was ever going to bring him back, but during an American Idol commercial break (pretty solid performances all-round, in general) I walked over to get him, and at that exact same time Bonnie was walking out her door carrying Bruce. She said he had had a good time pestering her cats, but a minute before he had been whining by the door. She figured he either had to pee or was ready to go home, but even then he wouldn’t let her put the leash on him!
After American Idol we watched a new episode of House. It was pretty decent, about a woman whose unborn baby was killing her. I actually stayed awake the whole time. When it was over Amanda went to bed and I played a few rounds of Gears of War with Michael. Chris Flowers was on too, so he joined the game we were playing. Since Michael’s Xbox 360 is still broken he was playing as a guest on my machine. He could have downloaded his Xbox Live account onto my Xbox, but it’s a pain in the ass and takes forever. He’s kept it on his hard drive because that’s easy to switch out and it keeps all of his information updated. He didn’t like not being able to talk and hear people though, so my guess is that next time he’ll put his profile on my Xbox before we play. Split screen playing does suck though.
Speaking of nothing going right for Duke this season, I’m not informed that their women’s basketball coach (thought I don’t follow it, Duke has had a very successful women’s basketball team over the past few years) has taken a position at Texas, and on top of that, a guy on the diving team was found dead in his dorm room. (No foul play suspected.) Thoughts and prayers go out to the kid’s family. His name was Chris Sanders and he was twenty years old.
Zach Dotsey