Sunday Morning Visitors

Birds who visited our east window feeder yesterday morning.

March Madness: Marty in the lead

With the weekend's play, Marty vaulted to the top of the group but, alas, it will be the last one for him. Eric or I will take the lead with the winner of the Nova-Tarheel game, Eric if the NC squad wins, me if Nova wins. And if the Tarheels go on to win the final game, then a fourth player in the group, heretofore not mentioned, cjhankison, leapfrogs all of us and takes the brass ring. He's the only one of the five of us who picked North Carolina to take it all.

Graceful Approach

One of our young golfers out the other day just putzing around. A monochrome maniac moment. Go here for more b&w's from around the world.

March Madness: It has to be Nova and Louisville

Cause that's all I have left. And the two of them in the final with Louisville winning it all. Could happen, especially with Nova's last ten seconds 'Oh no, Oh yes' win yesterday afternoon. Marty still leads the group by nine points and needs Nova to lose it's next game to beat me. Eric meanwhile has Louisville playing North Carolina meeting in the final - and if they do, he overtakes Marty and me and wins. The three of us picked Louisville to win the whole thing. March Madness indeed.

My March Madness - tumble, tumble, tumble

Lots of misery last night with the Zags losing to NC, and three of the four games being blowouts. Glad the Spartans pulled off the come from behind win. That dropped me to second in the Little Birdie group - Marty ascendant. The only way I catch him now is if Villanova meets Louisville in the final. He and I have two of our final four still in; Eric still has three - better watch out for him though he stands a distant third in the group right now. My tumble saw me go from a rank of around 2000 in the overall to well over 6000.

39th anniversary of...

...his 2nd birthday. Eric turning 41 tomorrow. Happy Birthday, Eric. Hope there's more chocolate cake in your future.

On a tip from Jim...

Jim Bateman called and suggested the following as a way to further understand the economic crisis we find ourselves in: from rollingstone.com, The Big Takeover by Matt Taibbi. It's a substantial essay with a subtitle that says:

The global economic crisis isn't about money - it's about power. How Wall Street insiders are using the bailout to stage a revolution.

Worth reading with lots of new financial terms and stories of intentional malfeasance leading to the enrichment of a few and the collapse of our financial structure. I think those few should be brought to trial and given the option of personal hari-kari or a public beheading. You know, China does that to guys who use their power and position to cause bad things.

Sign of Spring?

The little fellow was on my collar tickling the back of my neck out at the golf course earlier today. Cute, right?

Four decades and then some

On board the USS Washtenaw County (LST1166) somewhere in the Far East in 1964 (pictured: me).

Newspaper clipping out of the Boise paper. Diane's a Boise girl.

If you were three foot tall...

...then this would be arout what you would be seeing at eye level. Of course, you might be a photographer sitting at court side, in which case you would have a similar view. Photo for a slow Wednesday.

William Strange's The Lead Dog

Dave E. Strange, our local hole-in-one guru (he has three of them out at Lakeview), was out playing golf and then telling stories yesterday. He let me know along the way that his brother wrote a book, a piece of fiction, called The Lead Dog. Said it was pretty good and that he recognized a lot of the fictional characters in it. It's down at the local library and also available at amazon.com. Best be picking it up one of these days, maybe after I finish John Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany. Dave also gave me his own wrap on life: told me that it's is a joke; you can tell just by listening to people. From google and Becky Alunan: "Life is a joke. The only way to survive it is to find the right punchline." Wonder if Dave has found his punchline yet; bet he has.

End of the Game

More photos from the semi state game can be found in previous postings as well at webshots. It's been a lot of fun following the girls and the boys as they made their way through the year ending tournaments. Now on to track, golf and, of course, Spring and all its glories. (And other stuff along the way...)

Laura

Laura Tarr - young lady who was part of our lives some twenty years ago - over this evening with a couple of boxes of books from her mother's place.

More Seymour Photos

Ian and Colleen after the final horn in last Saturday's game.

Eric caught me pointing my camera at him...

Two Greensburg Pirate fans.

A couple of Princeton Tiger supporters.

March Madness, Take 4

Still on top at 275 after yesterday's play in the Little Birdie Told Me group. Marty jumped to second with 264 points. Sure wish Marquette had come all the way back and beaten Missouri. Dang. I see that Marty and I agree on seven of the eight early games next week, the only difference being the North Carolina/Gonzaga game: he's going with NC and I picked Gonzaga. Oh oh. In the Bateman pool, my four teams (blind draw) have all been eliminated - Robert Morris, BYU, OK St, and Western Ky. I understand Don Bowling was out before the weekend.

Boys in the Balcony

The North Daviess Cougar boys' basketball team up in the balcony at the Seymour arena enjoying some of the 3A game between the undefeated Princeton Tigers and the Greensburg Pirates. This followed their earlier loss to the Jac-Cen-Del team in the 1A semi state game. This is my entry this week for Monochrome Maniacs. More b&w's from around the world can be found here.

More Seymour Scene Photos

Scottie with Jeff and Brent.

Hmmm. Which figure does not belong in this picture?

Young Jac-Cen-Del photo enthusiasts.

Seymour Scenes

Scottie Arthur, a Lakeview golfer, was one of the officials in the ND - Jac-Cen-Del game.

Horn guy with corn hat.

The tip off.

ND students doing the arm thing during a charity toss. Looks like Bob Bell has the start of a smile...

March Madness, Take 3

(Take Two was all set to be posted yesterday morning when Google had some sort of difficulty and everything was coming up error. And then I went off to the golf course and suddenly away to Seymour - Eric called from there to let me know that he had a ticket if I was still interested in going - I was - left Curt and Bryant after five holes of skins and flags (after settling my losses) - and drove east and arrived in plenty of time to enjoy the whole spectacle - Diane, who listened on the radio, even mentioned that Greg, the radio guy, spotted me on the floor and mentioned it on his broadcast, noting that I must have got a ticket.)

After three days of play in the NCAA tournament, I still stand atop the Little Birdie Told Me group with 215 points. Eric jumped from the cellar to 2nd place and has 197 points and is followed closely by Marty at 195 points. Overall, I stand at 3778 among all players.

Semi State Photos

A Cougar fan - grandson Ian.

Princeton Tiger fans.

The Cougars came up a little short today over in Seymour, losing to Jac-Cen-Del by a score of 38-32. Darn... More tomorrow.

Portrait Showcase

My showcase portrait over at the Portrait group at Picture Social. It's the one of those two charming Lionettes, Diane and Lindsey.

Silhouette Photography

My entry at the March themed contest (silhouette) at Picture Social.

March Madness

In the college Men's hoops, I have the lead in the Little Birdie Told Me group at the NYTimes pick em site. My score after yesterday's games: 65 points. That puts me in 26057th place overall, some 10897 spots ahead of the President (36954th place). Don't know how many people are participating in the guess work. A million? Butler, Illinois and Clemson let me down yesterday, or else I would have been perfect.

Dog walking young woman

In the neighborhood on a sunny afternoon, what could be better than taking a walk with a good friend? Well, could be better if we trusted each other enough to do it without the leash.

More Regional photos

On the Borden side of the arena during halftime. Additional photos uploaded to Webshots.

Stopped for emergency vehicle

On my way out to the golf course yesterday, a fire truck, the last of several emergency vehicles, was racing north on 231. Never did hear or see them return; never saw any billowing clouds of smoke. Woods fire? Conditions are ripe for such an event: dry and windy and people anxious to get out and clean up their yards.

Saturday night gladiator...

...talking with radio guy. More regional photos at Webshots.

Saturday Night Photos

Orange Surge as the North Daviess students start the victory celebration at the Regionals last Saturday night. Larry Hembree is getting the shot from the other side of the crowd.

Diane and I went down to the DQ and had a bit of a celebration as well.

Great Lady: Eleanor Roosevelt

Just finished Joesph P. Lash's Eleanor: The Years Alone. A very good book about a very great lady. Good to the very end and of course you hate to see her disappear after a life given to public service. A marvelous woman revered around the world, a reverence she earned in large part by what she did in the years after her husband, FDR, had died. Amazing life for an amazing woman. I'm reminded of Jimmy Carter setting the bar pretty high for ex-presidents; Eleanor Roosevelt in a very similar fashion has set the bar very high for ex-first ladies.

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