The endless winter.

Is it just me or does this seem like the longest winter you can remember?  I'm not trying to get into any pissing matches about this whole global warming controversy.  I realize that a 3 month period means nothing in the grand scheme of things.  But this has been a winter like I remember from when I was a kid.  When I got back from my vacation I found 10 inches of ice in my driveway.  Mercifully, since we got back on New Years eve, it kept me busy instead of watching my Tigers play their bowl game. 
Ok, I expect to see some winter in December or January living in Kansas City, but we're right at the end of February now and I've rarely seen the temperatures rise above freezing.  We almost always have a few days hit the 60's at this time of year but not a damn thing so far.  This is when I'm supposed to get excited about baseball starting in 6 weeks and the possibility that the Royals will finish the year with a winning record, but this year; nothing.

This kind of reminds me of the winters we had waaaay back when I was a kid.  It seemed like we had a lot more snow back then.  I suppose part of that is because I'm a little bit taller now than I was when I was 6 or 7 years old.  I feel bad for the kids today since with all the snow days it looks like they'll be attending classes until about June 10th or so.  I imagine a few family vacation plans will be re-thought now.
I really never have cared much for winter.  Even though I've sort of taken up skiing as a sort of past time, I'm damn sure ready to hop on my bike and get out and hit a few trails.  I'd like to go to the spring game in Columbia without having to wear a pair of coveralls.  Hell, I'd like to be able to watch the Royals on a nice warm May evening and have a beer while shooting the breeze with one or both of my sons.

I know that this is Missouri and things can change quickly.  I fully realize that by the middle of March, (March 21st according to my buddy Dave) we'll be outside doing what we love to do and I'll be scaring the neighborhood children by wearing my short pants again, but hey, this is America and I'm still part of the baby boom generation.  I want it now.   Have a great week folks and try to stay warm.  No idea what to talk about next time but I'm sitting here watching "Young Frankenstein" as I was working on this and I'm thinking about something along the lines of hot young actresses.  Teri Garr was simply smoking in that movie.   

Bowl week. Now what do I do?

This is the saddest time of the year for me.  Bowl season is over.  I watch almost no college basketball and baseball season, at least spring training, coming in a month doesn't mean much to me anymore.  What we're, or at least I am left with is getting back to the grind after my annual vacation, which really wasn't long enough.

I confess that I really didn't watch as many of the bowl games this year as in the past.  We had much going on at work when I came back and most of my free time has been spent shoveling the approximately 10 inches of snow that was in my driveway when I got back home.  Hard to believe, but I saw more snow here than I did anywhere in Colorado or Utah at an elevation below 10,000 feet.  Oh well, I knew that sooner or later we were going to pay for the mild winters and summers we've had for the past couple of years.
We got back to town on New Years eve, in time for the Missouri game vs the Naval Academy.  After watching the first half, I confess I missed much of the 2nd.  Missouri looked confused, uninspired and really left us no reason for optimism coming into next year.  If I had one wish it would be for Coach Pinkel to send defensive coordinator Dave Steckel down to Tuscaloosa to spend a few weeks with his old buddy Nick Saban and his staff.  A few days trips for OC Dave Yost might be in order also.  Note: when they are dropping 9 into coverage coach, you might try running the ball a bit.
But keeping things in perspective, it wasn't a bad year when you remember that Missouri was one of the youngest teams in Division 1 football, 2 first year coordinators, and a quarterback that was pretty much playing a good portion of the season on one leg.  Throw in a recruiting class full of playmakers and road graders and I think I'll have no problem renewing my season tickets.
For the bowl season I finished 5-3 on my picks both straight up and vs the spread.  For the year I was 93-33 straight up and managed to go 62-59 against the point spread.  Not bad for me at all.
All spring and summer I expect to see hick nation out in full force on all of the Missouri message boards proclaiming that now, order has been restored, following their 33-0 thumping of Bob Stoops and his Arizona Wildcats and their last second loss to Texas in the Big XII title game.  If you venture onto any sports message boards, then I imagine that you, like I realize the perception of Nebraska fans as "classy" is something that may have been true at one time, but certainly isn't the case now with their new generation of fans.  We've seen one of their long time fans fired from his job and sued with his little stunt of placing a fake newpaper article about an Oklahoma player being arrested for drug dealing.  It's just so much easier being a good fan when your team was consistantly winning wasn't it?  Besides which, there is that pesky little rumor concerning figurehead defensive coordinator Carl Pelini tagging a few of the boosters wives.  Now while I realize most Nebraska women would be just as at home with a yoke around their neck and pulling a plow I still have my doubts about this one.  I mean, I realize that Nebraska women aren't much to look at, but have you seen Carl?  It isn't easy to make Bo look like the attractive brother, but he managed to do it.
We'll also get an opportunity to listen to kansas fans touting their new coach, Turner Gill as he tries to turn around a program that absolutely collapsed the final 7 weeks of the season.  TG has his hands full as his first job will be trying to decide what to do with offensive lineman Darius Parish who was arrested and charged with criminal threat. 
And also, on a sad note, the conference is poorer, in my opinion at the loss of the pirate; Mike Leach from the Texas Tech Red Raiders.  Seems Leach was mistreating the son of former SMU paid running back Craig James and Craig wasn't about to let that happen.  At least the James family can now boast that they've helped run 2 programs into the ground.