It's Almost Christmas

We're now a mere days from Christmas, and I'm not in any shape to be ready for it. Due to my lack of employment, and bills needing to be paid, I'm either going to have to be creative withany gifts for my family, or tell them their gifts are onthe way. The "gifts are on the way" is becoming way toocommon, but they understand that I'm trying. I just wish there would be some snow on the ground. I mean it's Christmas, and I live in the Midwest, there should be SNOW for Christmas, even if a lot of people here would be made at me for saying the "S-word". Snow is something you get used to, and if you don't like snow, then move somewhere that it doesn't fall. If some people around here thought about it, snow is a JOB CREATOR, because it gives men and women with snow blowers and snow plows, or kids looking for a little spending money, a job to help those who can't remove it all, or a "sub-contract" to remove the snow to help local communities that can't meet the demand from the small snow removal staff they might have. Honestly, if you don't want snow, MOVE, otherwise you're not allowing some people to make some extra money to help with the bills, or a little extra cash to use for Christmas purposes.

I hope everyone has a very nice holiday, spends a lot of time with loving family, and remembers the season is about being with family, not about the Stuff you received, because in a few months, all that stuff is going to be the stuff you move over to the corner of the bedroom closet or off in some other corner because you don't use it, or it broke.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

The Weather...It Is A-Changin'

Thank God the weather is starting to change here in Northern Illinois. After getting 14 inches of snow a week ago, we fell into temperatures where the wind chill did more than chill some of us. In fact, it downright hurt some peoples' ability to go anywhere or do anything. Now we're just surviving yesterday, where the overnight low temperature broke records. We hit -20 degrees here, before we reached a hit of 17. Currently, we're seeing a soft blanket of light snow that is just dusting the sidewalks and roads, with a high of 19 degrees. The snow should subside soon, but I want a little warmer weather. I've lost all motivation to do what I was intending to do today, and that's not good. I hope this weekend will do something to change this. BRING ON SOME NICE WEATHER!!

February Fadness-College Basketball Style

In a matter of a few weeks, the college basketball and ESPN world will be going full bore explosion with coverage and talk of College Basketball, March Madness, and Bracketology. If it doesn't make your headspin, don't worry, I've got you covered. My head is spinning just waiting to see which teams and players will break out, and be the teams or players that bust brackets, and shock the world with their appearance in the blown out of proportion NCAA bracket of 68 teams!! I'm not a huge fan of adding 3 more teams, but I wasn't a fan of adding that eery 65th team either.

From a fan's perspective, I just didn't think that a single play-in game was worth it. It mad

e it worse when the two teams playing in for that open 16 seed were two teams that might never have been in the tournament before, or was one of the teams that made the tournament before, but came from one of the dreaded conferences doomed to "WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?" status. We'd commonly see teams from the mid-major, more commonly low-major, ranks, like your teams from the MEAC, SWAC, Mid-Con/Summit, NEC, and those smaller conferences that might make a scare in their conference tourney, but never in the NCAAs.

Now we add in three more teams, and according to Joe Lunardi, ESPN's resident bracketologist, he's projecting that the four play-in games will include two playing for a 16 seed, and two playing for maybe a 10 or 11 seed, depending on how the committee wants to break that down. I've always believed that the play-in game should be for the bubble teams to prove they really belong in the Thursday/Saturday or Friday/Sunda

y bracket set. Yes, this would mean tampering with not-so basketball BCS conferences. Dear God, I should ever want to see a bad Alabama team make it in over an Iona, Valparaiso, San Francisco, and the many mid-major schools that can only get into the NCAA tourney by winning their co

nference tournament. Am I right, folks?

I'll keep updating as we get closer, maybe have some solid picks of some of the smaller conferences, as I dislike all the talk of

the money conferences. In the meantime, go check out a local college game in the coming weeks. I don't care what

NCAA/NAIA/NJCAA level or division, men or women, just go check out a game. Maybe it's a way to have something to do on a

cold night in your town. Most schools make it really inexpensive family fun, and even if the basketball is bad, it's family time. What family doesn't need some family time this time of year?