OK. OK. I'M BACK

Jeremy in the Colorado foothills

I think I checked out for a few weeks. At least, it has been awhile since I've thought about this blog. My fans, clearly, are begging for something--anything--to be written: just a crumb from my table to end the loneliness and angst of blogger silence.

There. That oughta do it.


So, what's been up? Here's what's been up. I drove down to Indianapolis a bit over a week ago to watch the Big Ten Tournament. It was a lot of fun, I mean a lot of fun, except for the flu bug I got. So it was sleep all the time exept when I dragged myself down to the Conseco Center to watch the next game. The most fun of all, notwithstanding being tired and a bit wobbly, was having great conversations with total strangers--whoever sat down next to me in the stands. The fanbases of the eleven teams represented were completely mixed, so you had to mingle with the enemy. I loved it. There was of course the de rigeur small world episode that always happens to me. This time it was some Lutherans sitting behind me who had just called a pastor friend of mine--Aaron Koch to be exact. So we talked about Aaron--a very accomplished preacher and Kantor.
The other really fun thing was the great seat I scored for the Sunday final: twenty feet from the corner of the court--after having spent the earlier two days of the tournament in the hole-in-the-ozone-layer of the fieldhouse--and a good ten feet from Tom Oates the WSJ sports writer. The sports writers on Sunday looked blase, frowsy and hung over.



What else? Ok, the fam. Jeremy and I flew to Denver a few weeks ago for him to interview for a major scholarship at UColorado Denver. The word came back to him a few days ago that he got it! So the boy will probably be shipping out of here sometime in June for Colo. Robin gets her art table back(located in The Boy's bedroom), but we've got to go shopping for an automobile for the young man.

Colin was home for a brief spell three weeks ago, and is back in Korea now till June. He comes home; we head out to Miller Park for some Brewers baseball. When last heard from, he was sleeping in an all-night sauna, having spent his money partying with my sis Elizabeth in NYC on his way back to Seoul. Just grist for the grandpa mill: stories to tell the young 'uns around the winter fire. Sleeping in an all-night sauna.

Otherwise, we're enjoying a classic Wisconsin Winter, complete with a March six-inch snowfall after several promising days of temps in the forties. I remember Winters like this from childhood, when I would sleep with my baseball glove and dream of fields of glory, the crack of the bat, the long outfield run to haul in a left-center fly ball. Only to waken to four inches of new snow and heartbreak.


It is Holy week. It is March Madness weekend. The bills are mostly paid; the grass does not yet need mowing. The puppy is doomed to 4H dog obedience training with Robin soon. The world is once again spinning in greased grooves.