Monday, January 22, 2007

Wreckreation

I dragged my feet (a dragging not only of reluctance, but of aging joints, stiffness, soreness), and then I succumbed to pressures to join a recreational basketball team for the next ten weeks. It's been almost a year since the strange pinch that blossomed into weeks and weeks of appointments, scans, and eventually a cortisone injection late last spring. I really don't know whether the cartilage ulceration will, yet again, ulcerate, but I also think of this as a last chance to play hoops. If not now, when?

I haven't ever played in many rec leagues. After high school, when I was seventeen and taking a freshman courseload at Central Michigan, I joined a team in the men's league in the old high school gymnasium every Sunday. We didn't win many games. The sponsor was one of the local saw mills, Maeder Bros., I think. And later, after I finished undergrad work and took my first post-bacc. gig around Saginaw, Mich., I joined up with a squad from Bay City sponsored by Green's Tavern. Kelly green tops. It was very much about the post-game beers back at Green's. And local lore had it that Bay City sported more bars per capita than any other U.S. city. That right? And it was with Green's Tavern that I regained my confidence after season-ending right shoulder surgery the year before, my final season at alma mater. Later on, in Kansas City, there were a couple of leagues, but nothing memorable--more pick-up and open gym gatherings than anything else.

Without going into the full details, I'm on a sponsored team again. Playing in a suburban Syracuse church league. No practices. Just games. Forty-minute running clock (the last two minutes of each half, it stops). And the best part: six fouls. Plenty for a running clock. The division we're in assumes the names of programs in the Big Ten, and because we're the new team, I'm told we'll be known as Penn State. When I said to the team captain, "Penn State?!," he said, "I can probably still change it to Minnesota." And then Penn State was back to sounding okay (a judgment applied exclusively in the domain of hoops). Tip-off tomorrow, in the name of once-a-week fun and decompression. May it go well enough that I'm able to mention it again.

Added: Game 1 was a 63-44 loss to one of stronger teams in the league. I was able to walk the stairs to get out of the gym afterward, so that's something. Ended with five fouls (three ticky-tacks in the first half, and one that should've been a charge to bring me to five).

Postied by at 11:00 PM | to Autoludography

Wednesday, November 8, 2006

What Mater's Most

I n a rare basketball exhibition last night between mater¹ and mater², mater¹ won, 103-99, in overtime.

Because they've never played, the significance of this result--even for an exhibition--is that a modest NAIA program won a dab of respect by outshining the only NCAA Div. I program between Columbia and Lawrence, even if the Roos are a low-mid major practically unknown to the world outside Kansas City. Park has a second-year coach, two transfers from CMU, and a few other guys I coached, knew as campers, or played with during my seven year stint working in athletics at mater¹. Of course, it'd be equally satisfying for mater¹ to bounce Wm. Jewell this weekend, now that my expectations for a good season have been piqued. Apparently that's what winning does, converting impassivity to alumni pressure overnight.

Postied by at 8:15 AM | Comments (1) | to Autoludography

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Bluffing

V isited the orthopedic doc today.  Sat down with a doctor's double...a helper, something or other like clinician's assistant, who reported that the knee problem won't require surgery.  You sure that's my file? The meniscus is intact.  Healthy.  The source of pain, which is quite real I'd add, happens to be a 5mm "cartilage ulceration" on the end of the leg bone (I can't remember which one...femur?). Beats the heck out of a cartilage uncertaination.  The asst. said it's a condition resembling arthritis, although "it's not arthritis."  Good.  Good.

In short I've been cleared for low-impact stuff to be moderated only by the pain (walking, naps, watching NCAAs).  And slighter (decreasing) pain lingers, but it's not as bad as it once was.  Swelling is the explanation--the same cause of the electickle nerve-shocks I get on the bottom of my foot when I stand up every now and then.  Long term outlook: four to six weeks and it'll be like nothing ever went wrong. Possible remainder: a tiny pock will remain in the cartilage, the memory of this ulceration. 

And so I feel like a jerk for crying foul to blogspace, for wallowing in the many em/sym/anti/pathies of you all.  But a relieved jerk, a delighted, grateful jerk, encouraged now that I can get some more action out of my basketball sneakers, return to the hardwoods before the end of the semester and not be forced to pass on the Native Vision camp in early June. And I did get to try on some of the wildest shorts ever for the MRI.  If a team was decked out in these duds for the NCAAs, I'd foresee them to the championship on style alone (reminds me of the bible college I watched play in KC a few years ago that wore warm-up pants for the game.  To the coach: You guys want to change off those warm-up pants?  Coach: We play in them. To the coach: Oh.)

Enough.  Got D.'s birthday to celebrate.

Postied by at 5:45 PM | Comments (3) | to Autoludography

Sunday, February 12, 2006

Darts

I 'm just back from Dick's Sporting Goods at the local shopping mall where I was attempting to exchange one dartboard for another (dang, this makes it sound like I've been en route for days, since my last blog entry even). Why the exchange? We'd been stringing along on half-commitments, shamelessly doling out one-of-these-dayses to Ph. as a way to defer the purchase of a dartboard for the basement. Finally, yesterday, I splurged on the board. It's nothing extravagant, but for the price one would think it would come with everything advertised on the box, including two sets of crappy darts. Got the package home, however, and tacked up the board before learning that the darts themselves had escaped the package. They were nowhere to be found. You can imagine our disappointment; gloom overflowed. I'd even picked up an open-patella knee sleeve at Dick's to keep my loose and slippery left knee-parts compacted while heaving the darts at the basement wall.

So back to Dick's I went late this afternoon. They had one other dartboard on the shelf like the one I bought yesterday. Perfect. Until I opened it and found that it, too, was missing the small bag of dart parts. No bag. No darts. No other boards like it (next closest, a thirty-dollar upgrade). So I went ahead and picked up a set of soft-tips, talked the asst. manager into giving me them at a significant discount. Completed: a dartboard and darts for the basement.

Postied by at 6:15 PM | to Autoludography

Sunday, November 27, 2005

Basement Cup 2006

B asement Cup 2006
Originally uploaded by ewidem.

It's been six years since we've had a basement space suited to indoor soccer. Don't worry; it's not the nicest part of the house. On second thought, maybe it is.

Ph. and I just battled through two grueling matches to seven.

Postied by at 5:30 PM | Comments (2) | to Autoludography

Monday, June 27, 2005

Slow Reader

N ever heard of competitive search-a-word?  Me neither.  Until today.  My sister-in-law--visiting from Colorado Springs--severely and thoroughly kicked my ass at the competitive search-a-word.  Get set.  Go.

She aced her puzzle in 3 minutes, 35 seconds.  Me with mine: 9 minutes, 22 seconds.  Pummeled me at the word search.  But I'm not so much disappointed as awe-filled (close to aw-ful).  Twenty-one words in just over three minutes is the sort of computer-like pattern-finding that proves a supremely trained eye (with a pinch o' luck).

In case you're in the mood for practicing, here's a search-a-word from the most common search terms at Earth Wide Moth in June. Yeah...enjoy?

Name ____________________ Date _____________________

June Search Terms

H P B I P R M D K Y R T G T E T S O A I D O C R S D P C K M I M R G T O U V D M T I P T N A O I A A I R R E C O M M H O N E A S T T M G E T A A O S I D I E S L E N E A N N R T T S P R O I P N R G W N H A L A L A O G I T E M M E I G A E T W T C A U S A M L B M R A T D R R C T L T O E R R H O I M Y R B G O G Y R E T T E T Y B C A E A T C R R N M C R T R H C E L S O O S O M O I E S M R B P S I K I P I L M I A B E O E P R A S V R I T M L A C A R G D G A E T E F L B M I F S F H M R D T D A A G E K C D C R A E I I S R V T D T K G A G C M A M H L R R R D M O R E A L A B E A A A O O R S R I A T E G S N R T P M E T G G O C D E G C B M O A L A I E L E P L R E G A Y R D K C C K A I A O R E E A D A B A E A P R C K K U A G A K M G R D N L S E E O M S P K R R L I P N T O E M T K P A H D G R R C A R A K L A I E E E E A A T R C O I N E R R T R K L M S R W L C S G D L E R R A E G E I A S F A D E S K O R O M Y A R T R A P B G A R D D P S A D G L B P E R S M I A L T K T R A A R N A I C C A K O R P V E C I P A N D C I K B T E A T E C F A P T G R I D S G O A D P L R I M S C I H M R S N C R W R P R K E P A C M E E L P A A O A L T M N A A O M R A S S E L M U N R D G L R N S V A N A E E M B P I T E M T L F R G A A A E B I M A P P E L E G E E

dream piaget cmap lost riverwalk genre self smart laser big trak matryoshka candied backdoor primp problem degradation moth theory gunnite camera

To Make FREE Word Search Sheets Visit: (www.teach-nology.com)

Postied by at 10:01 PM | to Autoludography

Wednesday, April 6, 2005

1/2 Grateness?

E ntered two pools this season.  One:

And the other:

Postied by at 10:07 PM | Comments (2) | to Autoludography

Saturday, December 4, 2004

You're Welcome, Coach S.

G ot my rear kicked at least six or seven times by this guy. First college game I ever broke into the starting lineup (at center..WTH?  You want me to play where?) was against the Bearcats--1993.  We got busted up, to be sure; was always that way when we traveled to Lebanon, Ill. They were running a sideline break in those days.  Only beat Statham & co. once as a player.  Took 'em down at home during my junior season when they were rated #17 nationally.  Vivid for lots of good reasons; nostalgia added now that he won praise on Sportscenter this week for being winningest coach. Just glad to contribute.

Always more to say, but I'm writing my bleary head off this week.

Postied by at 11:07 PM | Comments (2) | to Autoludography

"In a digital universe, word, sound, and image share a common notation. They are, at a fundamental level, convertible into one another" (465). Lanham, "Implications of Electronic Information"