Too early.

It’s getting lonely out here, no comments but for the spambots. Don’t be afraid to leave a comment… please.

My wife is in Mexico, but I’m not lonely.
I have a very talkative cat and the ghost of some rock station
 that’s haunting my computer speakers.

I thought it was supposed to be spring. Instead nature played a joke to the tune of 9.5 inches of snow overnight. Blah.

Snow that is. March gives us hope and then smacks us down. Shows us who’s boss. March also brings the high school tournaments, which have become synonymous with “blizzard,” as in “State Tournament Blizzard. Last night a pal of mine and I went down to the Target Center to watch a class 3A boys quarterfinal. Patrick Henry an inner city school with a big basketball tradition versus St. Michael-Albertville near in rural town that’s one of the fastest growing in the state. Pretty much all white against all black. The head coach of the Patrick Henry (what else) Patriots, was Jerry Williams Jr. known far and wide as Buggy. I guess he doesn’t go by Buggy anymore, but that’s what everyone called him when he was about 10 years old and shooting hoops in my driveway when I lived in the city. That makes me feel kind of old. It was a great game to watch, both teams were very good and the score was up and down. SMA got up by twelve early on, Henry fought back, closing in at halftime, took the lead early in the second and then went down by 5 with about six minutes left. But I think SMA was exhausted from playing as hard as they did all game, faded at the end and the Pats won by 12, dominating the last 5 minutes of the game.

And the snowstorm predicted for last night and today never happened!

During the last week of February I had a business meeting in Denver and decided to fly from Denver to Portland to visit my old college pal Bill Benson and his wife Laurey. Empty nesters like us, they’ve settled in Bend in central Oregon where she works for a small ad agency and Bill works with ESL kids at the local high schools.

The route from Portland to Bend took us right past Mt. Hood and it was a clear day, so the view was spectacular. Bend is in the high desert, just east of the Cascades, you have very interesting diversity in climate and landscape.

They got lots of snow this year and access to some of the steams was just about impossible for a gimp like me.

I saw gorgeous gorges and amazing vistas. As well as some dangerous terrain, can you find the bike in the picture below?

And some not very good places to play frisbee with fido. This gorge is amazing, photos don’t do justice to the sense of space you get when you’re standing above it. Although the bike does give you a little perspective. I’ve been pretty much a flatlander all my life except for the summer I spent in Idaho, right after college, where I fell in love with the west and the mountains. Looking back, I wish I’d spent more time in the mountains when I was younger. It makes it a little harder to enjoy when you’re as lame as I am. I’m determined to get back my legs so I can get out in the woods again, Something I really miss. I’ll be posting a few more pics over the next few days. If you want to see more of my Oregon pics go to:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/eisengrim/sets/72157604159343435

It was one of those perfectly clear winter days. Shadows were crisp and blue and perfectly focused on the snow. Clear and windy, flags were flapping straight out. It was -17 when I woke up. By mid morning it had warmed up to -11. At two when I went to the basketball game at the the U of M, it was -7 and still windy. Steam was billowing horizontally out of industrial chimneys, the snow making that brittle crunching sound when you walked. I parked on the far side of Mariucci Arena where the hockey team plays and went between it and the Tennis Center, across Fourth Street and down half the Length of the Barn to the nearest entrance. By the time I got inside I had an ice cream headache.

It’s 17 below