North Carolina in Final Four

Today I was very happy to see my Tarheels beat the crap out of the Sooners. I have been telling people all year Oklahoma is overrated and today, they proved me right. Only one pleyer on their team showed up today and they were overmatched from the start. What makes me happy though is how thoroughly they dominated Oklahoma.

When I used to play basketball, I played to destroy the other teams I played against. I wanted to humiliate my opponent and to make sure that they knew I was better and that my team was better. Hitting a game winning shot is a great feeling, but it is an even better feeling to just dominate your opponent. To dominate someone so thoroughly, that it gets into their psyche, that’s what I aimed to do. I wanted to frustrate someone so badly that they couldn’t get their head in the game. A lot of times, I did. I talked nonstop to the people who were guarding me and I talked as I guarded them. I lifted me knee on lay-ups and stuck it in peoples chest. When I rebounded, I made sure my elbows were out and if someone got too close, they got stuck. If I fouled someone, I fouled them hard. For me, winning was the most important thing. It’s the reason why you play. If you are serious at playing any sport, you play that sport to win.

I know, the handful of people who read this will probably say “winning isn’t everything”. For me, that’s the wrong attitude. I loved basketball. I played it several hours a day for years and I was very good. I believe I came close to fulfilling 100% of my basketball potential. Part of this was due to my hatred of losing. Playing hard for 30 minutes and losing isn’t fun, it sucks. It is fun to play hard and win. That’s not to say I never enjoyed a game I lost. I can go and play with my friends for fun and enjoy it, win or lose. When you’re playing in a gym against a group of people you don’t know, you gotta bring it and you don’t bring it by accepting failure.

Now, I am not saying that my way is right. I certainly do not tell my children that winning is everything, BUT, I do teach them not to accept failure. If you accept failure, you will never succeed.

Peace Out Durango

This weekend I took my wife’s 2004 Dodge Durango to Les Schwab to get a realignment. What I got was a bit of a shock, the frame was bent. It apparently happened a couple weeks ago when I was forced off the road and I slid sideways into the curb. Although it only happened at around 15 miles an hour, apparently that was enough to bend the frame. Well, today I received the news, the Durango will be terminated.

I have mixed feelings about this. First, I think we paid way too much for the car. I am happy to get out of those payments. Then I realize that I didn’t have long left to pay until it was paid off. Now I will have to start new car payments again. Then again, I didn’t really love the car to begin with. It was big…. very big. Oh and it was fire engine red. But, when it was snowing, it got me around ok. Well, not as good as I thought it would, but I got around all the same. I would have preferred to pay it off and then a year or so later, trading it in for something new and not having to come up with a down payment. Now, my down payment will take up anything leftover from the insurance payout. I am just thankful that we are getting more than we owe.

So, with the death of our beloved……er somewhat liked 2004 Dodge Durango, fire engine red, I bid a peace out and leave with the following video.

The Sickness

This past Friday, I thought for sure I was going to die. You see, I got “the sickness”. You know that undefines illness that might be the flu, but it might be food poisoning…. well I got that. Looking back, it started on Wednesday night after dinner, when I had to hurry to the restroom while I was washing the dishes. Now, I didn’t think anything of it, but then Thursday Morning, it happened again. I went to work and was fine all day, then I came home and rushed to the restroom. Dropped my son off at basketball practice, drove home as quickly as possible to make it to the bathroom. Oh and to make matters worse, I started getting these burps that taste and smell like sulfur. They are so bad that every time I burped, I wanted to vomit.

Now, the idiot in me thought I should go ahead and have dinner. I love pork chops, so I ate my normal oversized dinner. At about 8, I was in full on Montezuma’s revenge mode. I had to run to the bathroom on average of every 20 minutes until around 11. I fell asleep for about an hour, then it happened again. About 3 times an hour until about 4:30am when I woke up due to the immense spasming of my calve muscles in both legs. It was intense pain and it lasted about 15 minutes at a time. I had to bite into my pillow to stop from screaming. My hamstrings would later decide to do the same, along with my toes and my abs, which I didn’t know were there.

My wife called the Dr in the AM and I as directed to start drinking more fluids and to come in later that afternoon. For the next 5 hours I did nothing but crawl to the restroom (if I stood, my calves seized on me and I started to black out), sleep and drink watered down Gatorade. I had a fever and tehn my temp dipped below normal. About an hour before I was to go to the Dr, I crawled to the bathroom and vomited 7 times. All the Gatorade and water I had been drinking, wasted.

So I went to the Dr and he told me to take around 3 sips of fluid every 10 minutes and if I wasn’t better on Saturday, to go to the hospital. I received a few prescriptions and I was off. I was feeling a bit better after puking, other than picking broccoli flourettes out of my nose (I forgot to mention that this was intensive out the nose and mouth vomit). I got back into my bed and had another seizing calf and hammy to deal with. From there, I pretty much slept and spasmed until Saturday Morning.

Come Saturday, I just laid in bed and watched TV all day and drank fluids. Had a bit of food and pretty much did my best to relax. My calves were still reall sore from the torture the day before, so I tried not to get up too much. I also managed to pee which I hadn’t done in about 30 hours, so I felt that was a positive sign.

Today, I am 90% better I would say. Still a bit sore and tired, but probably not enough to miss work on Monday. I am glad that I am still alive. For a while, it seemed touch and go. Now if I can just figure out exactly what caused all this..