COULDN'T BELIEVE OUR EYES, TRANSCENDENCE, PRECIOUS WATER AND WHAT ARE THEY?

A TRANSCENDENT MOMENT

     Something extraordinary happened in an awful moment on Easter Sunday.

     Louisville player Kevin Ware who had jumped to block a shot, came down horribly wrong, splintering his leg in a compound fracture that is as bad as any sports injury most of us have ever seen.

     Players collapsed on the floor, nearby fans were sickened and the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis was silenced, stunned and of a single mind, worried about the young athlete writhing in pain.

     His coach, Rick Pitino, is quoted as saying he fought nausea, others have said so as well.

     Clark Kellogg, who is great guy and a caring compassionate man was barely able to compose himself as he performed his CBS Sports broadcast role.  His partner Jim Nantz, another class act, also battled back tears, as did the fiercely competitive Coach K, Mike Krzyzewski.  

      For almost ten minutes cultural icons like Pitino, Krzyzewski, Kellogg and Nantz, wiped tears and worked on. The broadcasters evinced great concern for Ware and for his team mates who were in shock.  Even as Pitino and Coach K looked shaken, ashen and blinked tears, they were concerned for their charges and their well being.  We look at Division 1 athletes as men, as competitive stallions, but they are young men, some just out of high school.

      You could see people pray, the broadcasters said they were praying, later even the colorful Charles Barkley said he too was praying for Ware.

      In a moment, a highly charged and superb athletic ritual is dashed.  A young man lay seriously injured, on a playing floor, not a battle field.  The uniform he wore was that of a basketball player, not a soldier, cop or firefighter.  A terrible and ugly reality crashed into a cultural celebration.

Fans, players, coaches, commentators, in this framed world of hyper play, responded to their shock and dismay with an almost automatic response of care, concern and prayer.

      Young Kevin Ware, his bone protruding from his skin, who dreams of playing professional ball, in excruciating pain, uncertain of his future, continued to tell his panic stricken team mates, "Don't worry about me.  Just win the game.  Win the game."

      The thousands in the stadium and the millions of us watching television, have never seen anything like that before.  In the midst of a game, a horrible event prompts an almost universal concern and thousands or millions of prayers.  Something extraordinary, in an awful moment, on an Easter Sunday.

      

CLAY PLAY
wherein a new ceramic project from Lana provides an
interesting photo opportunity.

SAN SIMEON CREEK

    Our rainy season has been almost 50% deficient this year.

We are experiencing a couple of days of light rain and hoping the system slows to deliver more.  

    The photos were shot last week on San Simeon Creek, one of the two primary water sources for municipal wells. In a good year, the creek runs with a swifter current and the gravel bars are not visible, until late in the summer.  

     Talk of lifting a building moratorium to permit a "few" new construction permits a year seems ill advised in a drought year and at a time when some climatologists say we are in a drought cycle.  I understand the frustration of property owners who have been waiting years to build, but still, water is a precious resource and this year it is even more precious.

    See you down the trail.

LETTERMAN ROCKS & ANGLES AND LINES

LETTERMAN LEADS THROUGH SANDY

    It was the sort of thing you may see only once in a lifetime.  David Letterman filling an empty Ed Sullivan Theatre, and an untold number of American homes with his unique humor and personality as nature did its worst to the East coast.

     Only a skeleton crew made it through the hurricane, and there was obviously no audience so the rhythm was pure Dave with input from Paul Shaffer and live reports from outside by  "I'm no weatherman" Biff Henderson.

     Production lacked all the niceties and slickness of graphics, bumps, voice overs and the usual stuff, but the spareness of it and Dave's demeanor demonstrated a kind of resilience and toughness in the face of the super storm.

      Denzel Washington appeared as a guest, and entered wearing a yellow slicker and walking as though through a gale as Shaffer and the band played "Hurricane"- Bob Dylan's tune.

     There was something classic in the unusual show.  Maybe  a bit like Fiorello La Guardia, the mayor of New York, reading the funny pages on the radio in the midst of a 1939 newspaper strike.  In those dark days, the funnies lifted people's spirits.  

     David makes people laugh as well and on a night when an unprecedented storm took aim at millions of Americans, he took up his place, and did what he does so well, made us laugh and lifted spirits.

     I've known Dave since our college days.  Those memories and his video tribute at my retirement, along with Biff's  "Hey Tom _ _ _ _ you!" are treasures.  But his personal and sparse performance last night is a moment that is exceedingly powerful and memorable. It was also courageous and encouraging. 

     Dave-as our old pals Bob and Don would say-"Here's a boy howdy for you!"  Well done!!! 

                                        day file

SHOOTING ANGLES

 Morning Drama

 Lots of Angles and Lines

A Spider's Patch

     See you down the trail.

SPAWNING & PRESIDENTIAL YAWNING

POST DEBATE BILGE

     We might be better off if we ignored all of the post debate analysis from the pundits and so called experts and simply held conversations with friends, family and associates, even those, maybe especially those, who hold an opposing view.

      Most of us don't need a television talking head to think for us. The traditional networks do a quick wrap up and analysis and then get back to their precious money making prime time schedule. But the cable nets and the bloggers go until the sun comes up. In this age of partisan networks there is more heat and gas than light and understanding.

     What do we gain?  It fills time and sells commercials, so the cable nets are not likely to change.  We can simply turn it off.

      For most of my life I watched it all, and for many years had multiple television sets in my office so I had as many as 5 or 6 sources of information simultaneously.  Since it is all spin, interpretation, and bombast, with very little genuine insight, what's the point? Unless for sport. 

      And you have probably noticed how the election media

is obsessed with polls, the horse race aspect, and seem to think it is all about how it plays on television and in the media. The media is A) self absorbed, B) does play a significant role but as I said first is C) self absorbed.  Again I am reminded we can switch it off.  Which is exactly what Lana suggested I do after ripping up and down the remote to monitor Fox, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, PBS, ABC and back.

       Do any of you suspend your own thoughts until one of the television yackers tell you what you just saw?

KOKANEE SALMON

    Kokanee Salmon were spawning in this mountain stream west of Lake Tahoe between Camp Richardson and Mount Tallac.

    They travel to lay their eggs and then expire.  They become more red as they mature.  

 

        See you down the trail.

HOOPS TO GO & WRITE ON + SPRING PINK & MOON

BETTER THAN IT USED TO BE

     If you enjoy March Madness as much as I do, you have to love the way you can now stay connected with your phone

or tablet. The NCAA and CBS provide mobile links to all of the action.

      Oh how that could have made life easier a few years ago!

When the girls were in school, we'd take an annual spring break tonic of sun and beach on beautiful Sanibel Island.  As its was, that day of air travel conflicted with key games in

the big dance.  Having a couple of Indiana teams, or more,

that I was passionate about, it was torture to be in the air or car and away from seeing the tourney. 

      There were many years I'd ask the ATA flight attendant to ask the pilot to keep us up to date on scores.  Since the Indianapolis based flight crew and the plane full of passengers, for the most part, had the same basketball jones, they did a great job.  Still nothing like being able to

watch it on your phone.  Somethings in the good old days

weren't so good as they are now eh?! 

LOTS OF COMPANY AS WE WRITE ON

      I caught an amazing statistic in this blog. What you are reading now is one of 181 million blogs in the world!  Mind boggling.  As we used to say in television news, "Thanks for tuning in here. We know you have choices." And the number keeps growing.

DAY BOOK

SPRING PINK

&

FULL MOON

       An afternoon glass of wine and picnic.

       Full moon rising over the Santa Lucias.
       See you down the trail.