Zzzzzzzz. NBA Action Is Not Always Fantastic

As excited as I was for the NBA draft and to see who the Trail Blazers would select, I found it mostly and incredibly unwatchable. 

Lame interview questions and the perception of the ESPN talking heads panel who were handling the program, all just showing up at the last minute and having no time, or willingness, to prepare.

I eventually had to turn it off and tune into the local radio voices. 

They should just scrap the player/parent interviews. Nothing useful is said or revealed and I'm not sure that there's even any possibility of that happening. It's just not the time or place and besides, ESPN apparently doesn't have the personalities to create interest.

I've appreciated Jay Bilas and his opinions over the years but his takes just seem recycled tonight. 

It doesn't need to be a glitzy, made-for-television event. 

We don't need to see the commish, stroll to the podium every five minutes to reveal each pick. 

I'd rather see all the GM's, sitting together at one long table, rubbing their temples, scribbling on note pads, intensely whispering with their assistants and scouts and announcing their own selections.

Or I'd rather see cutting to televised feeds from each city with all involved parties in a room, (maybe even an interested player or two), sharing opinions and agonizing over their selections and follow-up selections and moves.

Maybe it's my age showing, but I don't really care to hear the immediate and mostly inane thoughts of 18- and 19-year-olds and their parents. But what else can they say when asked the same inane questions that each kid before them, this year, last year and ten years ago, was asked?

I don't care to see some hyped up, cowboy hat wearing freak from San Antonio proclaiming to the world, the number one overall pick to be the "savior." Seems like a lot of pressure to put on a kid.

Bizarre Dream Number 11,346 or A Plethora of Typos or The Bears, The Bears!!

Just awoke from one of my bizarre world dreams. 

It was the final day of ninth grade and I found myself in a verbal altercation with some guest speaker in the final class of the day who two years prior had laughed at and mocked an art piece I had presented while praising every other submission from classmates.

Then upon departing with two friends, one who in reality went to a different school for ninth grade, finding a card in a box of belongings, that a girl I didn't know had given me on Valentines Day .... a well done and very detailed card where she had included photos and graphics and asked if we could get together ..... and then never showed up at the proposed place and time.

And upon waking, it struck me that part two of the dream had really happened though now that I've been awake for a few moments and cleared out a bit of the fog, I realize that it never took place, but I'm still groggy enough that I'm only 99.5% sure of that. There's a lingering doubt that it just might have taken place or perhaps was dreamed of previously. 

And another little detail ..... we drove away in a friend's car ..... it was clear that the dream was a flashback to ninth grade while in fact, none of us were old enough to drive without a parent present (learners permits) at that point in our lives. 

And this all comes with a lesson ..... Never type up details of dreams shortly after waking up ..... or be prepared for correcting a plethora of typos.

And I'm wondering if this was all brought on by just discovering and watching several Alaska 'bear cam' live streams where hopefully brown bears will be viewed while patiently waiting, as they do, for salmon passing by? I have learned that while all grizzly bears are brown bears, not all brown bears are grizzly bears. 

Shift In Priorities

So for a while, for a retirement present to myself, I was thinking about these headphones that I initially assumed to be in the several hundred-dollar range and turned out to be in the $6000 range. 

Now I've shifted to having my eyes on a $40 vegetable chopper. 

It just kinda popped to mind after several days of not being able to come up with a single thing I wanted ..... or needed. 

It suddenly seems like the perfect gift for a guy like me who wants to make my own simple soups and salads.

A Few Seconds of Timing

So I'm returning to work from a lunch time getaway for a milkshake and there coming towards me as I drive across the I-5 overpass, a speeding car, passing another car, half in my lane, followed by six police cars with sirens blaring. It all happened so quickly that it didn't register how close he came to hitting me head on, until they were all fading from view in the rear view mirror. 

It seems the driver robbed a bank and made it several miles into Salem before finally being stopped and arrested. 

And it's a reminder of how only a few seconds of good or bad timing are often all that separates one from life altering circumstances. 

Old Man

It was tough but I kept my thoughts to myself .......

Two teenage girls navigating the aisles of Target in a shopping cart. The older one pushing, the one that appeared to be thirteen going on three, sitting in the cart. 

As they passed by I hear: "Don't hit the old man."

I wanted so badly to say something in response. Most old men probably would have. Maybe had I been with an old lady, she would have said something. 

I don't understand the thought process ..... how regardless of age, when you make a stupid and asinine comment, you can laugh and feel good about yourself at any point after? 

There used to be a saying that parents of kids from my generation would threaten, and I heard of an occasion or two where it actually happened .... Getting ones mouth washed out with soap. Is that still a thing?