Actually I saw some robins a couple of days ago but today was the first they have been hopping around on our lawn.
Only problem is that we are in the midst of a N’Easter that is supposed to drop 8 to 11 inches of snow on us by noon tomorrow. Nobody ever said robins were smart.
Like a lot of people in Central NY, I’m disappointed as well as mystified that SU wasn’t included in the NCAA tournament. While I understand that the selection committee had only 64 positions to fill and had to draw the line someplace, I just question their inclusion of Texas Tech, Stanford, Illinois and Arkansas ahead of SU—both in terms of quantity and quality of wins. (I’m of a mind that the Pac-10 is a weak conference which only gets high rankings because the West Coast sportswriters push it. Likewise the Big-12, Big-10 and the SEC, once one gets to the middle-of-the-pack teams, are not as tough as the middle Big East.)
Of course too, each year there are questions in re to at-large teams selected and teams left off; this year is just a continuation of these arguments. As long as the final selection is going to be done by men there are bound to be discrepancies. Maybe they should go back to having each Division I conference hold a final league tournament with the winner of that tournament going to the NCAA’s, the rest stay home. There are enough conferences now that this would give the tournament a full field. If not, make provisions for filling out the remaining spots with those teams who won their regular season conference title but did not win the league’s tournament.
At any rate, March Madness is upon us and time to fill out the brackets—bet your money and take your choice. BTW, if you want a good technique, if you aren’t sure of who will win any game, pick the team whose campus or league is further east. Check it our, it works about 75% of the time.
One other note: Mike Lopresti makes a great observation in final two paragraphs of this morning’s column to the effect that if you think picking 65 teams for the basketball tournament is tough, imagine what it would be like to select 8 for a college football playoff.
Life is good and position isn’t everything in life. (BTW, we think she likes to sleep like this because, with her long hair, she stays cooler.)
I’m pretty proud of this–after growing this Bird of Paradise for two years it has finally bloomed. Not only that, but there is going to be a second flower.
Also, I told about this brunfelsia the other day. Here is a photo that shows the 3 color phases of the bloom: left to right and oldest to newest: white, blue and purple.
This last week was one of the better ones for college basketball in that many teams were attempting to play into the NCAA’s. If anything, I enjoy it more than the actual March Madness because there are more winners–only problem is I have to endure Billy Packer and Dick Vital.
Some observations:
When will some Muslim group protest the Holy Cross mascot? Since the Native Americans have successfully gotten rid of all the college references to them, I expect the next thing will be to get rid of the Crusader and Knight images. (I’m mad about the use of the Vikings to represent the Minnesota football team since the way they have been playing and as well as acting off the field reflects badly on my ancestry.)
Don’t basketball coaches know how to do math? I’d say that if a team scores less than 234 points during the first 39 minutes of play they aren’t going to make up 6 or more points in the last minute. Yet coaches insist in calling for fouling and time outs in an attempt to make up these kinds of deficits. It didn’t work in all the games I watched.
Speaking of fouling, when are the refs gonna call deliberate fouls in the last minute? It seems everyone but the guys with the whistles know these fouls are on purpose. Give the player two shots and his/her team the ball and the games will be over faster.
As far as the refs are concerned, I’ve seen a lot of blown calls, usually because the ref was out of position and anticipated what was going to happen rather that actually see it. I just wonder if the officials are so overworked at this time of year that they are tired–I noted one who did a game in MSG one night and in Indy the next, this may be just too much. The refs are trying to keep up with kids half their age and it is wearing them down.
Speaking of wearing down, it would seem that, with games on 3 and 4 consecutive nights, some of the players are tiring. Interesting that some of the first year players who are considering turning pro are having this kind of problem. What are they going to do when they have to play every night in the pros where the games are half again longer and played back to back to back? Maybe they should consider stay in college for a few more years to build up their stamina.
As far as the NCAA’s are concerned, again it is going to be a crap shoot primarily because most of the better teams are so young. Unless a team has veterans to bolster their lineup, these freshmen can disappear in big games. It is going to be an interesting tournament but I wouldn’t be the farm on any team.
Nothing like spending one of the coldest March days on record in the green house where the aroma of blooming plants fills the air.
These are some blossoms of a Key Lime that could produce enough fruit for a pie later this summer. Its unmistable citrus perfume greets one as soon as they walk through the door from outside.
This Brunfelesia is way back in the corner furtherst from the door so in order to get close enough to smell it you have to get passed a couple of dwarf bananas and dodge the spines of an overgrown bougainvillea. It’s worth it though as the scent is delicate and, if you can get back there, there are a lot more blossoms to see and smell. In fact, I almost missed the fact that this shrub was in blossom but once I spotted the flower in the photo, I moved a couple of things and found there were more blossoms in the back where it gets more sun.
Today is what the weatherman is calling the coldest March day on record with temperatures below zero last night and only up to 1 at 8 am despite sunny skies–expect high will be about 10. The wind is straight out of the Northwest and wind chills are down so low that many schools in the area–but not here–are closed for the day. (Of course this won’t deter the kids from going outside to play in the snow if they are so inclined or if their parents push them out.) This with only two weeks to go until the spring equinox.