Flatcats...

I told myself I wasn't going to watch the game. But, I kept going to check in. Of course, Kentucky just managed to tease me enough to keep me watching, but never really be in any position to win.

Billy Gillespie reminds me of the coach at Ballard Memorial when Jonathan and Josh played. He is going to run his particular offense no matter what the other team does on defense. He'll play the defense he wants to play no matter what the other team does. He'll use the most bizarre substitution patterns as if to say "I'm the coach and I'll do what I want, so there".

Random Points

• Coach, did you notice that defense Florida was playing? It's called a ZONE. Kentucky has been known to play that pretty successfully in the past to shut down penetration (which is the big problem Kentucky has this year on defense).
  
• I am really starting to think that 54 point game was a bad thing for Jodie Meeks. He's reached the point now where he will not pass the ball even when he has three guys on him.
  
• What happened to DeAndre Liggins? Think he'll be back next year?
  
• What about Darius Miller? He played a lot in the first half and we never saw him again.
  
• Looking over and seeing the UK coach laughing during a game is not encouraging.
  

My guess is UK will get put out in the first or second round of the SEC tournament. They'll get a home game in the NIT quite possibly against Tennessee Martin, Middle Tennessee or Murray State and lose. Perfect capper to the season.

I'll never forget my junior year at UK in 1982. They started out ranked second in the nation to North Carolina (who had some freshman named Jordan on the team along with James Worthy and Sam Perkins). By the end of the year, they were a six seed in the NCAA tournament. They had what was then a play-in game to meet Louisville for the first time in 25 years. Kentucky messed up those plans by losing to Middle Tennessee who had only got in by winning the OVC tournament (they weren't even the best team in the OVC that year). I heard from every Murray State person I knew when they said "We even beat those guys and you couldn't?". North Carolina went on to beat Patrick Ewing's Georgetown team to win the National Championship.

Westkentuckystar.com

I've found a web site that provides local news better than the other local media websites. Our local newspaper requires that you pay to access their site (one of the few I am aware of that still does this). The local TV station doesn't seem to update theirs with regularity. The site I use now is www.westkentuckystar.com. It is done by Bristol Broadcasting (who owns several radio stations in this area). I went to school with Donna Groves (the news director there) and have always found her to do a a really good job in getting information out quickly and most importantly accurately.

One feature of the site I especially like is the alerts section. You can be alerted via email on School Closings, Breaking News, Weather Alerts, and Traffic. The latter has already helped me to avoid a problem coming home via the Interstate on a business trip.

I'd recommend you take a look.

Two Tickets to Paradise..

I cannot bring myself to blog about the sad state of UK bball right now, so I'll go with a different topic.

I've been a Cardinals baseball fan since I was 12 years old. I remember that 1974 season vividly. Lou Brock stole 118 bases to shatter Maury Wills record of 104. The Cardinals came down to the last day and lost the NL East to the Pirates. The Cubs choked away a game with the Pirates that would have allowed the Cardinals to play for a tie (this started my long standing dislike of them of course).

I try to go to a game or two every year. The last few years I've resorted to Ebay to get any kind of decent tickets. A couple of days ago I got an email offering me the chance to buy tickets a day before others since I was member of the Cardinal email club. I've tried this before and the good seats are already gone. I took a shot at it today. I was amazed when I managed to get field boxes behind home plate for two games in June. Getting multiple field boxes for a game is usually almost impossible without buying on the resale market. I am not sure whether to attribute this to the lack of confidence of Cardinal fans about the upcoming season or the fear of the "weak" economy. The latter is my guess.

I also bought tickets to see the Yankees play at Kansas City next month. The things a dad has to do for his sons...

Doctor, Doctor, give me the news

In the past week, I ended up having to make two trips to the Western Baptist Emergency Room.

The first was on Thursday. I got a call from Donna saying the school had called her and Josh had cut his finger in Physics lab. I went to the school to get him. He was in the nurse's office lying down. Turned out, he had felt faint when coming to see the nurse, so he had to lie down. She showed me the finger and it was obvious he'd sliced it pretty good and it'd need stitches.

We got to the Western Baptist ER and I was shocked to see that no one was in the waiting room. I began to wonder if it was closed down. It wasn't though. We got in, the doctor looked at his finger, a young lady sewed up his finger (7 stitches), and we were out in an hour and half. That has to be a world record. Josh was even able to go back to school (his choice, not ours). He said the worst part of the experience was all the ribbing he took at school.

The second visit was more serious. I got a call at work Tuesday afternoon from Donna's mom from Donna's cel phone. I knew right then that something was wrong since her mother has probably used a cel phone less than five times in her life. She hold me Donna was having chest pains and an ambulance was coming to get her. I left work and headed to the ER. They took me right back, but she wasn't there yet. Dr. Tim Mabry was there (a friend of ours from church and fellow deacon). He went and found out that she was en route and kept giving me updates as to how close she was. It turned out they (the EMTs) had done some things at the house so that is why it took longer.

She got checked in and in one of the ER rooms for patients with suspected heart issues. They did tests and couldn't find any heart issues but decided to keep her overnight to monitor her. This was the first time she'd been in the hospital since Josh was born 17 years ago. They did multiple tests (including a stress test and ultrasound) and found no heart or blot clot issues. They finally decided to go down the route of acid reflux and are treating her for that.

Some random thoughts

• You should always wear the proper hand protection when cutting things.
  
• WBH was great. Everybody there was really nice. They even gave me a meal the evening Donna was checking out so I didn't have to forage out for food.
  
• Donna had been having pains, but kept putting off going to the doctor because she was "too busy". She (and my brother too) would tell you now that if you have symptoms, don't put off a doctor's visit.
  

Thanks to everybody for the prayers and the concern you've shown for us over the past week.

Home...

First, sorry about the lack of posts. Internet access hasn't been easy to come by..

We finally left the Drury Sunday morning. After church, the boys went to stay with my parents (they had power). Donna went with me to Nashville (I had a training class the first three days of the week).

I was able to stay in a very nice hotel (Doubletree Suites Airport) at a reasonable price. However, this marked more than seven days I'd been in a hotel which meant I was a bit tired of being in one. Jonathan and Josh made daily visits to our house to monitor things and feed the cats. We got a call from Josh Wednesday morning saying we finally had power!

Donna and I were talking while driving back from Nashville Wednesday afternoon. We'd stayed in a couple of of nice hotels and been treated very well at both. However, there is nothing like being able to be in your home. Of course, we thought of this song.

This world is not my home, I'm just a-passing through.
My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue.
The angels beckon me from Heaven's open door
And I can't feel at home in this world anymore.

We have many enjoyable experiences here on earth. But as Christians, we look forward to being able to be in our heavenly home. John 14.2 is a comfort when things seem bleak.

In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you

There are still a lot of people here without power. The Cherokee subdivision just got power and my in-laws finally got power last night. There is a lot of cleanup to be done. I've heard numerous visiting lineman say they've never seen anything to compare with what has happened here. Continue to keep us in your prayers.

UK Mildcats

I just watched UK lose their third game in a row and second on their home court. They just look like they have no fire and don't play defense. It's a rare occurrence to see them get an offensive rebound.

In the game tonight, they let Mississippi State hit 14 three point shots. A lot of them were long shots. However, you have to realize "Hey, they are hitting long threes, why don't we guard them". Against South Carolina, they let a 5 ft 9 guard eat them alive and hit the game winning shot. If Meeks and Patterson don't score 50 points between them, they simply cannot win.

Now they enter a stretch where they play Florida twice, Arkansas, LSU, and Tennessee. It isn't going to get any better.

I wonder if all those people screaming for Tubby Smith to leave regret that now.

The Super Bowl

Now that I look back at the Super Bowl, I still think the officiating was not good. How many of you knew that if you have two successful challenges you get a third one? I didn't because I have never seen that happen. That tells me things were a bit lopsided.

I also saw this article.

The Cardinals shot themselves in the foot with the half ending interception. It was bad enough to keep them from at least tying the game. But letting Harrison lumber 100 yards for a TD was unreal.

I am still happy about how well they did. I would certainly hope that sportswriters will give the "worst team ever in the playoffs" a rest. But I doubt it..