This column is mostly about this, that and the other thing.
Did you notice this past Easter weekend how Easter Sunday started out with the winter white stuff on the ground and then grass covered lawns by the end of the day? Compare that to this past Christmas.
If you remember, that day started out with brown grass everywhere only to be covered by the winter white stuff by day’s end.
I noticed another sign that our world is changing, and this isn’t a good sign. It seems to me that our nation’s flag has been flying at half-staff far too often in recent years.
Like many of you, I watched a lot of basketball over the weekend, and as far as I’m concerned, far and away the best game on television was the Augustana Vikings against Lincoln Memorial Railsplitters for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Division II National Championship. By the way, I really like the nickname the Railspliters
The final score was 90 to 81 with the Vikings coming away with the win.
Ellsworth High School standout Casey Schilling was a dominating force for the Augustana Vikings, pulling down 19 rebounds and scoring 20 points along with two steals and an assist. But what really stood out to me about Schilling was with less than four minutes to play and the outcome of the game still in doubt, the Railsplitter stole the ball and was heading for a layup. The only thing stopping that from happening was Schilling. He did the only thing he could do and that was foul the Railsplitter player. It was a good foul — Schilling prevented the Railsplitter player from making an easy two-point layup. In doing so, the Railspliter player ended up on the floor.
Schilling quickly ran over to the opposing player and extended his hand to assist the player to his feet. Sportsmanship — it’s good to see it’s still part of the game, at least out in this part of the country.
Mixed in with all the basketball this past weekend was a little hockey. No, I didn’t watch any hockey — I actually played it, kind of.
The 4-year-old grandson, Owen, was at our house for the Easter weekend and apparently he doesn’t travel without his hockey stick.
Because of the crappy weather on Saturday, grandpa’s garage was turned into a makeshift hockey rink.
After an hour or so of slap shots into the garage door, the older two grandkids decided they had had enough.
Now it was just me and Owen. I knew what was about to happen. Owen looked up at me and said, “Grandpa, will you play hockey with me?”
What could I say? Maybe I could persuade him it was time for a break, maybe it was time for a cookie, ice cream, candy bar — anything — but before I could say anything, he told me I was going to play goalie.
Again I asked myself what could I say? So I said the only thing I could say, “I would love to.” And truth be told, I did.