Tampa

NIT 1st Round - Mississippi State vs South Florida – ESPNU

Ahhhh … I can feel the antibiotics fast at work!

Crew call wasn’t until 1:30, so I hit the treadmill and then attempted to sit in the sun for a while. Unfortunately, it was just too windy & chilly. I only sat in the sun for about 20 minutes.

Headed to work. Was excited because I was working with my NHRA friends again.

This was my first time doing hoops at USF.

Talked to mom on my dinner break. She had made it to the hotel just fine.

After the game I headed back and had a few glasses of wine with mom and went to bed.

Nashville > Tampa

Watched the NIT Selection show last night to get an idea of where I would be sent.
I knew I was doing a Tuesday game on ESPNU.
USF was an ESPNU site, so I had a feeling that’s where I would end up.

Today, I woke up with a sinus infection so called my doctor and had a Z-pack called in to the CVS a few blocks away.

Showered, got ready, packed and just before I was going to CVS, I got the word I was indeed going to Tampa. So I sent in my flight request and walked to get my Rx.

While out, crewing called to tell me one of the flights I picked was sold out. So we had to scramble for something else.

We found a direct flight on Southwest. Ugh. Nothing like booking a Southwest flight 3 hours before departure!

Got back to the hotel and emailed mom. She felt like she might be "sick" on Wednesday since I was going to spend my day off in Tampa.

My flight to Tampa wasn’t as bad as it could have been. I managed to NOT get a middle seat, which was a miracle in itself!

Still not feeling the greatest, I got settled in Tampa and went to bed.

Nashville

SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament – SEC Network and ABC on ESPN

I can see the arena from my hotel room.

It’s where the Nashville Predators play.








They did a really nice job transforming it from a hockey arena to make it seem as if it were the home of SEC Basketball. Even wrapped the player hallway walls with a SEC timeline.

Had the Championship game today. Was nice to only have to do one game!

This is where I have been working for the past few days…

Afterwards, I walked around Nashville to see what all the fuss was about.

Still don’t get it.

It just seems like a lot of people sitting on the sidewalks performing and lots of bars.

Not impressed.







Went to dinner at a place that was recommended.

Ugh!





Went to bed relatively early. I am exhausted beyond belief. Plus I am traveling somewhere tomorrow for NIT. Just don’t know where.

Nashville: March 11-13th

March 11-13th


SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament – SEC Network and ABC on ESPN

Finally got the logos finished on the glass.






Still “living the dream” ….

A phrase that is said over and over by freelancers across the country, when asked “How are you”.

That’s where I find myself today.

But really, what does that mean?

Cause I never dreamed of a life like this. And I am pretty sure, not any sane person would.

Thursday and Friday were a total blur. Double headers both days. Stayed after the morning games to start building for the next day and came in early before the morning games to finish prepping.
Every millimeter of my body aches from sitting for 10+ hours for the past 10 days

But I did take a break long enough to go out on the floor during the Kentucky game on Friday – it was insane!

A certain prominent Kentucky fan, who is an actress with a first name of Ashley and has a famous race car driver for a husband (as if you needed that clue) - her father is a freelancer for ESPN and was working this event.  So all the boys on the crew were giddy because Ashley was hanging out in our catering room. 

Apparently she forgot to lock the door when she used our bathroom and one of the APs walked in on her.
Not sure who was more at fault - her not locking the door - or him for using the ladies room ?

Friday night was the worst. Had a 6 hour turnaround. Which means when I left on Friday night, I had to be back in my seat 6 hours later for yet another double header! Not to mention the fact that there are about a million Kentucky fans at our hotel and the streets are crawling with them at 6 am – already drinking! (or still)

They are EVERYWHERE!

Okay, in all fairness, there were a lot of Tennessee fans in this shot too!







Saturday evening I treated myself to Morton’s. I thought I would be able to find a respite from drunk Kentucky fans there. Or they would be at least civilized UK fans.

Wrong! Just rich UK fans!

I sat at the bar.

A man in his late 70s starting chatting with me. I was cordial but not inviting. He was there rooting from Arkansas with some friends of his. His wife was dead, but he still hangs out with their friends.

He literally said that – “My wife is dead”

Which was fine, I just though he would of said it differently

Well, the conversation continued and next thing I know, I am being asked to join him and his friends for dinner, as his date.

What?

Thank God my dinner arrived at that moment so I had a nice way to decline.

Only me could get picked up by a man old enough to be my grandfather!

Back to the hotel...
One of our announcers is staying in the room next to mine. He stays up late talking (loudly) on his phone in his announcer voice and gets up crazy early and restarts the process. I am going to lose my mind pretty soon!

Hartford > Nashville

Got up at 3:45am – which meant I had slept for just about 3 hours.

Cab was late which freaked me out – I hadn’t allowed for much wiggle room on my departure time. Struggled to stay awake in the cab – which scares me. I will sleep just about anywhere, but to me, sleeping in a cab is too dangerous. You never know where you might wake up!

But we made it in time and got to Philly with no issues. I only had 40 minutes to connect – but it worked out just fine.

Got to Nashville, collected my luggage and headed out for a cab.

OMG! The cabbie had doused himself in some horrific cologne. Like some sort of fake reproduction of something. Whatever it was, there was just too much!

Plus, he had heat on! Which only made me feel like I was going to die from the baked fumes of bad cologne!
I smelled like him for the rest of the day!

Even though it was 10am, I was able to check in at the hotel (thankfully). So I dropped my bags, brushed my teeth and headed back out.

The arena was only a few blocks away. Crew call was at 9am, but they knew I was going to be late. Plus, there had been credential issues and the AP had texted me around 9:45a saying they had just then gotten to the truck. So truly, I wasn’t that late afterall.

Bridgestone Arena was being transformed from a NHL arena to a SEC hoops hotspot!

We went to lunch at Piranha’s – a knock off Primanti Brothers in Pittsburgh

The set day went well. I was beyond exhausted though!

After work, I went to my room and got unpacked/settled. Didn’t even attempt to find out what my friends were doing for dinner. I headed down to the hotel restaurant, which I knew was a bad option, but didn’t have the energy to go anywhere else.

I ate my soup, took about 4 bites of my sandwich and gave up. I couldn’t keep my eyes open.

Today was one of those days that makes you wonder…. What the hell am I doing?
But 10 days from now, when I get the check, I will remember why I had said yes to back-to-back tournaments! I will be able to afford taking 2 months off in the summer!

Hartford, CT: March 5th – 9th

Big East Women’s CBB Tournament

Friday thru Monday were pretty much a complete whirlwind!

Tournament time is always so busy.. such long hours… but this year we had the UConn record breaking season.

They were on pace to tie their own record of 70 consecutive wins in the Quarterfinal on Sunday vs Syracuse. Then break the record with their 71st win on Monday in the Semifinal vs Notre Dame.

What a frenzy it turned into!!

Of course, they did it, there was never any doubt. There was just A LOT of extra hype surrounding it (for us).

Outside of the tournament, nothing really happened. I spent 14 hours a day in the truck on Saturday and Sunday. Got it down to about 12 on Monday. It just wreaks such havoc on your body.

Columbus, GA > Atlanta > Hartford, CT

The drive to Columbus, GA was nice. Sunny spring day!

Got to the airport with no issues.

The issue upon arrival though was retrieving my luggage from the bed of that god forsaken truck! It was a scene man! I had to put the tailgate down and crawl up on my hands and knees and drag it back to the end of the bed.

After checking in with Delta, I went over to the TSA luggage drop. This airport is very tiny and they do not have x-ray machines for the checked luggage. So they have to hand inspect your bags.

Once it was my turn, the guy took my boarding pass and stamped it and wrote down my information in the log. Then hoisted my bag up on the table and riffled thru it. All the while his female co-worker was giving me the stink eye. Seriously, she either thought I was a terrorist or was mad that I was being nice to the man.

Once he was done inspecting my underwear, he zipped up the bag and said I was good to go. That’s when I told him he had never given me back my boarding pass.

This turned into a 15 minute ordeal. He couldn’t find it.

He was convinced he had put it in my luggage by mistake. I assured him he didn’t because I would of stopped him from doing so. Even so, he called Delta to bring back my luggage from the plane. (Oh dear God!)

He went thru every nook and cranny and what do ya know? He hadn’t put it in there.

I was very, very patient thru the entire ordeal. Even making jokes and being very lighthearted.

The boarding pass was never found.

I am convinced the female TSA agent had taken it while it was sitting on the counter, while I was watching the guy go thru my bag.

Anyway…. I had to go back to Delta to get a new boarding pass. Which was entertaining because they didn’t believe me when I said that the TSA agent had lost it.

Whew!

So now its time to go thru security. Just before it’s my turn, they do a rotation. Meaning all the screeners rotate positions and a few new people come and a few people take break.

Well the guy who had lost my boarding pass was now the guy at the walk thru body scanner – so being the smart ass that I am, when I handed him my boarding pass, I said, “Now don’t go loosing this one!” He looked at me as if I was totally insane.

Okay, whatever, he doesn’t think I am funny.

The man at the end of the Xray belt said to me, “Oh, I see Delta got you a new boarding pass with no issue. Sorry again.”

Oh no… did I really just do that?

At that moment the guy from the body scanner came up and said to other guy – “See we all look alike to her. It must be the uniforms”

I was BEYOND mortified!

I was so embarrassed, for obvious reasons, but also mad at myself. I am so observant about people and random things, I can not believe I didn’t realize they were 2 different people.

Whatever…. I have no qualms about admitting my hatred of TSA agents. They are quite possibly one of the worst wastes of our tax dollars. If they were actually effective, I would feel differently. But they are not.

I just feel bad because these guys were actually nice and I liked them for once. However, I committed quite the faux pas!

It’s safe to say, if there are TSA agents at the gates to heaven, I will not be admitted.

Moving on….

Got to Hartford in the mid afternoon and then settled at the Hilton. I went to my dinner spot – Morton’s and had a fabulous dinner. The bartender still remembers my order – which to me is worth the price. I eat there 2-4 times a year, and he knows what “the usual is for me”. Wow!

After dinner, I met my old friend and co-worker, Russ, in the concierge lounge at the hotel for drinks. We have known each other for years. I met him long ago when I did boxing. He is such a sweetie! We spent some time catching up and then parted as we knew we had a lot of work in the coming days.

On a side note, got word that my friend Paul passed away this evening.  So very, very sad.
My heart goes out to his family.

Auburn, AL

Mississippi State vs Auburn CBB – SEC Network

Daylight… we can now see the stupid truck I was forced to drive!

Worked with a great crew – some of my favs from the NHRA crew.

This was the last regular season game in Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum, as the team will be moving across the street next season to the new Auburn Arena

The Tigers defeated the Bulldogs 89-80.

Columbus, OH > Columbus, GA > Auburn, AL (well, sort of)

Delays out of Columbus, OH due to weather in Georgia.

Upon arriving they told me I would be missing my Atlanta to Columbus, GA flight and I should just rebook for tomorrow.

Nope!

I told them I wanted to at least get to Atlanta. If I made it there, I knew I could drive to Auburn.

Got to Atlanta eventually. Sure enough, the last flight to Columbus, GA had been cancelled. So I got a rental car and hit the road!

Well, I didn’t hit the road until I had a confrontation with National.

Because I needed a 1 way rental, they got to chose my vehicle…. Which is complete torture!

This jackasss thought it was hysterical when he assigned me a gi-normous pickup truck. To top it off, it was a Toyota!

He said to me, “It’s so safe and drives like a car!”
I laughed and said, “You really think I am that stupid? Plus it’s a Toyota - that’s not sweetening the deal!”

I couldn’t even get my luggage into the back. He had to help me.

The drive wasn’t too bad. As usual, talked on the phone for most of it.

Got settled at the Hilton Garden Inn, the ‘kids’ call it HGI.

Ordered a pizza and went to sleep.
Such an exciting life!!!

Columbus > College Station, TX > Columbus

Texas vs Texas A&M – Judgment Week – ESPN2 – 2 ET

Thursday afternoon I headed back to Houston again. Another trip to College Station.
Didn’t I just leave here?

Friday we had a set day. Upon arriving at the arena, I noticed there were already students camping out for tickets to the game.

When I went to lunch, I was greeted with a parking ticket.

Oh crap, they aren’t going to let me graduate!

Whatever. Gave it to the producer when I got back – his problem now. I was parked in the approved lot.



Saturday went well. Nothing special. Other than being “Judgment Week” and having in state rivals playing.

After the game, I did some shopping. Old Navy, Target, Kohl’s…. had nothing else to do!

Sunday morning I headed back to Houston.

On the way, I talked to my good friend Paul’s wife. Things are not looking good, doesn’t look like he is going to pull thru.

So very sad. He had gone into the hospital a couple weeks ago for something relatively minor. Which snowballed and he is now in a coma.

Life just sucks sometimes!

Florence, KY > Cincinnati, OH

DePaul vs Cincinnati – Big East Network – 7 ET

Woke up around 3am with a horrible migraine. Not again!
OMG!

We had only been asleep for a couple of hours.

One of us is super cranky about being disturbed while sleeping (I won’t mention any names)
So I sat on the bathroom floor for a while.

Believe me, this had nothing to do with drinking. I really didn’t have that much to drink. This was another wonderful migraine!

So discouraging! This mini-vaca was intended to be my respite before the madness of March set in.

After a while, I tried to throw up and had zero success. So I took more meds and went back to bed.

I attempted to put myself into my ‘migraine coma’ for about an hour – didn't work.

There were many times in that hour that I begged God to just put me out of my misery. I was done living with this pain. It’s just not worth it anymore.

Since God did not comply, around 5, I took a steaming hot shower. Then was finally able to throw up.

Crawled back in bed around 6a.

I had to get up at 9 to ensure we would be on the road by 10. By that point, I had the migraine under control It was now at least tolerable.

We headed to my Cincinnati “home” – the Marriott Kingsgate. Got checked in. I ordered room service and was able to take a few nibbles before heading to work. While someone else had a grand feast – in bed – das boot!

Dave had a special day planned. NOTHING!
He was skeptical about my grand plan for his vacation day… which included room service, napping, daytime tv, napping….

I headed to work.
Thankfully, I was working with Rich, who is awesome!
He understood that I was in pain and took it easy on me.

On my dinner break, I checked in with “vacation boy” – he was LOVING his day of NOTHING! At least something was working out on this trip!

College Station, TX > Houston > Columbus > Florence, IN

Headed to Houston a little early just to be safe.

About 30 minutes into the trip, on a 2 lane road, while talking to my friend Amy, I was struck by a rock the size of a softball. I screamed as it was headed straight for my head!

Thankfully, it struck the 2-3 inch ridge above the windshield.
That my friends, could have been deadly!

A while after I settled down from that one…. Traffic came to a screeching halt.
There was an accident on one of the roads and it was backed up for miles.

I couldn’t jeopardize missing my flight as Dave and I had plans to head to the lovely Belterra Casino and Resort tonight in beautiful Florence, Indiana.

As I sat in traffic, I asked Linda for a detour since it was evident traffic wasn’t going to move for a while.
She hooked me up with another route. I was still a little worried about making the flight.

I drove REALLY fast and made it!

When the National agent wasn’t looking, I took a quick photo of the new dent on the Patriot.

The photo does not do it justice.  Not that I was trying to pull a fast one or anything – I did NOTHING wrong.
It’s just that I have “heard” that reporting damage only results in a ton of time consuming paperwork. And that was not something I could afford – time!



Made it to my gate with a few moments to spare!


Caught a quick nap on the flight.

Upon landing – grabbed a rental car and went home where Dave was waiting. We hit the road within a few minutes.

Got down to the casino a little before 9. Had a few drinks in our room and then set out to gamble. I did pretty well on the slots, so I quit early.

We continued to gamble for a few hours and then headed back upstairs. I have a game tomorrow at UC – so can’t stay up too late!

College Station, TX

Baylor vs Texas A&M Women's CBB - Big Monday pres. by Bud Light/Judgment Week

Well the new power supply is not working.

I found a Radio Shack near campus – will go there on my lunch break.

Headed to work… was working with a group, that for the most part I didn’t know. Which is always fun.

At lunch, I headed to Radio Shack – which of course wasn’t easy. There was an accident, so traffic was messy!

Called the store en route to find out what entrance it was near. Literally ran thru the mall… I had all the pieces and parts – just not the box it had come in – due to space limitations in my luggage. I also had the receipt.

Well, they didn’t have the same model at this location.

Fine, give me a store credit and I will buy the next version up.

Easier said than done. (of course, because this is my life!)

The sku # on the receipt didn’t match anything they had in the store.

The manager said, “this didn’t come from a Radio Shack”

I was outraged at that insult!
And promptly whipped out my camera and showed him the shot I took of the front of the store on Saturday night.

HA!

Apparently, it was a third party store. It was actually something like “Bob’s Electronics” that was a Radio Shack authorized dealer. However, from the signage, you would of never known that.

I refused to back down. I stood strong on “the customer is always right” theory and nagged until he figured out a way to give me a store credit. Magic!

Got the new charger, ran to the car.

Stopped at a Quizno’s and ate as I drove back to the arena.

Oh yah… there’s a game to do!

Oh my…. Baylor Head Coach Kim Mulkey’s suit!
She is known for her insanely tight pleather suits. Ugh!
Not to mention her tall and teased hair!

I couldn’t find one of the really special ones on the internet, but here is something that will give you an idea.

Nashville, TN > Houston, TX > College Station, TX

Migraine hit in the night.

At some point, I got out of bed to go throw up, but didn’t make it to the bathroom in time. All over my PJs.

Eventually, I was able to change and take my PJs to the laundry room and wash them. Showered and got ready to leave.

As usual, throwing up helps a lot and I was able to function somewhat – but it’s still always hazy.

Flew from Nashville to Houston on Continental, which is a GREAT airline, I just never fly them, so I have zero status, which makes me cranky.

Got my rental car – some sort of Jeep… a Patriot I believe. Told Linda I needed to go to College Station. Just shy of 2 hours. And it’s thru the back roads of Texas! 

Made it to College Station and was STARVING! Hadn’t eaten since last night… and we all now know what happened to that meal!

Stopped and ate before even getting to the hotel.

Eventually made it over to the hotel, got checked in and settled.

Hmmm… what did I do with my PJs? I wore them last night…

(envision light bulb above my head here)
NOOOOO!
I left them in the dyer of the Nashville Hilton Garden Inn guest laundry room!
And these weren’t just “any” PJs – they were my official road PJs!
XXL Michigan State long sleeve T and my sage green Tommy Hilfiger PJ pants with brown leaves. Aghhh the horror!!!!

I immediately called the hotel. I was informed I would have to wait until morning to speak to housekeeping. Oh no, what if someone steals them!? I mean come on, they are indeed, the best PJs ever!

Meanwhile, I had heard from the Director from yesterday’s game. He had left his coat in the truck in Murray and the engineer had told him he had both the coat AND my laptop power supply. Good news!

So I again emailed the truck company – this time with my FedEx account number so eventually I could get my power supply back.

Hmm… what’s going on with the new power supply? It seems to now be sending power intermittently. Whatever, I am too tired. I am going to bed.

Due to my lack of PJs, I had to sleep in regular clothes. Ugh!

Murray, KY > Nashville, TN

I realized last night that I didn’t bring my cell charger on this trip. What angers me is that as I was leaving the house, I looked at it and said to myself, “I have two, that one stays here”

WRONG!

I have 2 camera chargers!

See, three weeks of not traveling ruins my brain.

Our portion of BracketBuster Saturday went well. Graphically, it was a struggle with my newbie AP, but she was sweet, so that made up for all she didn’t know about basketball.

I had looked up a Sprint Store online and there was allegedly one only a couple miles away. So after the game I put the address in Linda and set out on my quest.

Never found the place, but found a Radio Shack – they had one of those universal ones that has a changeable tip so it works with almost any phone. I got the car version since I don’t have one of those.

Made it back to Nashville in the late afternoon. Got settled in my room, put a load of laundry in and then sat down to work on the blog…. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! No power supply for my laptop! I left it on the TV truck! This is not my weekend!

Went down to the front desk inquiring about a Radio Shack. They showed me on a map that there were several within 10 miles. The closest one was at Opryland – when I asked what it was, you would of thought I had asked what the White House was. The guy working the desk almost fainted – “It’s a destination!....” He rattled off all the things to do there in his southern accent – he reminded me a lot of that American Idol guy – Clay Aiken.

Anyway, the reason I asked was because I had a lot to do and didn’t want to try to find a Radio Shack in a mall that had hundreds of stores.

And good thing I didn’t plan on it because the exit for Opryland was backed up for a good mile.

So I went to one of the other ones.

No longer there.

Then headed towards the next one. Hmm… this doesn’t seem to be the best neighborhood. Linda, where are you taking me?

Oooh – there it is!

The entire time I was inside, I was fearing for my life.

But was able to find a power supply and made the guy open it and confirm that it indeed powered my laptop.

I quickly got out of there and back to the hotel!

Put my laundry in the dryer and started another load.

What an eventful day!
It’s been years since I have been to a Radio Shack; today I went to two in 2 different states!

Am bummed about the laptop power supply though – all these years I have been so proud of myself for never leaving it behind.

I did a little research and sent an email to the truck company; hoping it would eventually be found.

Got my laundry out of the dryer and went to bed.

Columbus > Nashville, TN > Murray, KY

My 3 weeks of no flights are finally over! It’s so weird to go so long without flying.

Another one of these trips where you fly into one state and drive to another because it’s the closest airport. That’s usually a bad sign.

This is my 2nd trip to Murray - ironically, I was here about 4-5 years ago on this same weekend - BracketBuster Saturday.

The drive from Nashville to Murray is a little over 2 hours.

The first hour and a half is all I-24, so an easy drive. Then you exit onto SR 68 and life comes to a screeching halt! It takes forever and a day to get thru the Land Between the Lakes. It looks like it must be a nice area in the summer for camping and such – but today it was just frustrating. Plus there is this bridge that is terrifying! It is so freaking narrow! There is no way 2 trucks can pass on this bridge!

I rolled into Murray around 5pm. We had a partial set day – not until 6pm though. So I hit up “Linda” my trusty GPS, for a package store so I could have some post set-day beverages awaiting me later that evening. Hmm… she couldn’t find any. So I went to a gas station. Nothing. As I was paying for my water, I inquired. “Closest package store is 40 miles away. This area is all dry.”

My response – “This is a college town and it’s dry!?”

I passed like 100 package stores on the way – nope, I didn’t think to stop until now.

Moving on!

Checked into the hotel. Very nice and new Hampton Inn. My room was huge!

And it had a view of the truck – so I could tell when it was parked and powered das boot!

Set day was from 6-10p. Our game is at 11am local tomorrow and it’s BracketBuster Saturday – so they wanted us to get a head start. Which was good for me – my AP hadn’t done basketball before. So this was going to be an uphill battle.

At the end of the night, everyone was headed to some campus bars (only way to drink) – I chose to hit the Tumbleweed next to the hotel to make it a quick dinner and off to bed!

Columbus

4 Purdue vs 12 Ohio State Men’s CBB – BTN – 6:30p et

Tonight was a huge game for both teams!

The Boilermakers defeated the Buckeyes 60-57.
Which was Ohio State's first loss at home this season.

Columbus

Chicago vs Columbus – NHL – Visitor Feed

What an easy day!

The production team was late, then once they did arrive, I built about 10 graphics and then took a 2.5 hour lunch break!

Wow! Days like this are so rare.

The Blackhawaks won 5-4 in a shootout.

Columbus

Alaska vs Ohio State Men’s Hockey – BTN – 7pm et

Alaska (Fairbanks) Nanooks….
What is a Nanook anyway?
Nanook is a derivation of the Inupiaq Eskimo word for polar bear "nanuq."

Nanook’s defeated the Buckeyes 4-1.

Columbus

Purdue vs Ohio State Women’s CBB – BTN – 7:30pm et

Buckeyes win 75-45

Ohio State clinched a share of the Big Ten Title tonight.

They were the first (men’s or women’s team) to win 6 straight Big Ten Titles in team history.

Tonight’s win also improved their record to 18-0 at home; another record breaker.

Another nugget… the Boliermakers were held scoreless for the final 8:43 of the game.

Columbus

San Jose vs Columbus – NHL – Visitor Feed

Had the past 2 days off; but they were a whirlwind!

My first 2 days (in a row) at home in over 2 months. So needless to say, I had a lot to catch up on. Plus mom flies up tomorrow for the weekend – so needed to get the guest room ready for her.

Jackets win 3-0 !

Columbus

Smokey and Claude came to visit Auntie Nic for a couple days. 

Quite possibly some of the best photos to date.

Louisville, KY

UConn vs Louisville Women’s CBB – ESPNU – Noon ET
 









Best team in the Big East (and country) vs the worst team in the Big East.

You can predict the rest!

Drove home after the game.
Napped and watched the Super Bowl.

Louisville, KY

Rutgers vs Louisville Men’s CBB – Big East Network – 4pm et

Nearing the end of an era for L’Ville Hoops… this will be the last season in Freedom Hall.

It sees kinda silly – we are doing a men’s game today in a tiny truck..

…and tomorrow we are doing a women’s game in a very nice HD truck.

Go figure!

Columbus > Louisville, KY

Headed out earlier than planned…. There was quite the snow storm rolling in and I wanted to get a head start.

Ended up missing all of it! For once, I planned my travel right!

The drive was fine – just saw some bizarre signs.
The first one was “Break in Pavement”
Huh?
I never did find the break in the pavement.

The next one was a few miles into Kentucky

It intrigued me, so I Googled it Friday evening.





Here is what I found:
About 11:00 p.m. EDT on Saturday May 14, 1988, Larry Mahoney, a drunk driver in a pickup truck traveling in the wrong direction on an interstate highway in a rural, unincorporated area of Carroll County, Kentucky collided head-on with a gasoline-powered former school bus which was in use as a church bus. The initial crash was exacerbated when the gasoline from the ruptured fuel tank of the bus ignited immediately after impact, which also blocked the front loading door. Difficulties encountered by the victims attempting to evacuate the crowded bus quickly in the smoke and darkness through the only other designated exit, the rear emergency door, resulted in the death of 27 people and injured 34 of 67 passengers. Six passengers escaped without significant injury. Mahoney also sustained injuries.

In the aftermath of the disaster, several family members of victims became active leaders of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), and one became national president of the organization (Karolyn Nunnallee). The standards for both operation and equipment for school buses and similar buses were improved in Kentucky and many other states, notably increased emergency exits, better structural integrity, and less volatile fuel.

Other safety issues remain to be addressed. Flammability of materials used in bus seating must also be factored with cost, durability and performance of the foam in impact situations. Another unresolved issue is the lack of requirements for occupant restraints such as seat belts in larger capacity school buses. Some advocates find it ironic that use of the lap seat belts currently available would have likely reduced the number of the 40 occupants who managed to escape the bus in the short time available during the Carrollton incident.

On Interstate 71, the crash site is marked with a highway sign erected by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC). Even twenty years later, memorial items such as crosses and flower arrangements are placed at the site by families and friends. As of November 2007, the Carrollton crash remains the worst bus crash in U.S. history tied for fatalities with the Prestonsburg bus disaster which occurred 30 years earlier in Floyd County, Kentucky in 1958.

Columbus

Dallas vs Columbus – NHL – CBJ Vision

Jackets won 2-1 over the Stars.

Still recovering from January - I worked way too much!

Columbus

Penn State vs OSU Men’s CBB – BTN

Finally feeling a little more human-like.

Just have so much to do, with no time to do it!
I ran errands on my dinner break while eating a samich in the car.

Also got the news about Rizon on my dinner break.

At halftime, the football team was honored for their Rose Bowl victory over Oregon.
“Yah, Go Bucks”
(and I say the ‘yah’ empathetically, not with excitement – it’s a joke among my idiot friends… from “Game Day The Movie”)

Rizon

More sad news from Florida .... Rizon passed away this afternoon.

His health has been failing for the past few years, but steadily declined since Madison died in October. He never recovered from his broken heart.

But he now is happily chasing squirrels & stray cats with Madison & Ronnie (his sister from many years ago).

Rizon entered our lives on Easter 1995. He was part of litter that was born a few months prior at a neighbor of my grandparents. They were born while the owners were overseas and were not properly cared for. He was filthy and starving on the day we reached over the fence and took him home.

Rest assured, he never had another hungry day in his life again!

Most of you probably don't know this, but Rizon had a brief acting career in his early years... He co-starred in a commercial (with me) for "Eye On WINK Magazine". (Sorry - it's not on You Tube)



Family Vacation - June 2009


Christmas Morning - 2009


Best Friends!

"Animals are such agreeable friends - they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms."
George Eliot - "Mr. Gilfil's Love Story" - 1857


Rizon
January 1995 - February 3, 2010