Saturday, March 12, 2011

Big Ten tourney Saturday afternoon

Dragon Mood? -- hopeful, yet nervous

Gearing up for THE game. Ahem, at least THE game for today!

Ask anyone and they'll tell you the MSU Spartans have had a weird and disappointing season. Ranked #2 in the nation before the season began, they have struggled mightily and up until this past week, were even in danger of not making the NCAA selection for the Big Dance. Oh my gosh!

Thursday night, they handled Iowa pretty easily to move onto the quarterfinals and meet up with Purdue. Amazingly, they got an early lead, held onto it and beat the Boilermakers 74-56. As the headlines announced, they pounded Purdue.

Now, I'm watching as they play their third game in as many days, against Penn State in the semi-finals. If they win this, they will play Ohio State, ranked #1 in the nation, tomorrow afternoon.

Go State, beat the Nittany Lions!

UPDATE: Halftime, tied at 26.

FINAL SCORE: Spartans lost, 61-48. Damn! :-(

Sunday, March 06, 2011

Monochromatic

Dragon Mood? -- introspective

Yesterday, to avoid a long wait at a train crossing,I took some unexplored back roads to get home to the house in the woods.

The roads were powdered with snow, possibly slippery. I drove slowly, taking my time, focused on my passage over the unknown roads. In hindsight, I felt very much 'in the moment'.

The sky was overcast. I kept looking at the passing landscape as if I were going to (try to) paint it. Everything was grayed and flat, a matte filter over my eyes. The only shine I could see was the light bouncing off isolated wet, smooth areas on the asphalt road.

Everything in the landscape looked outlined in white, as if sugar-powdered with the lightest of Mother Nature's touch. All the bare foliage looked soft, in a multitude of shades of taupe, brown and gray, almost as if they were airbrushed. Soft, matte and monochromatic.

Other than the sound of my car, things were quiet. People's homes appeared dark and empty or more accurately, still. It was an hour or so before dusk and even then, I didn't see lights in people's windows. The stillness and quiet of those passing moments was almost palpable.

I felt an incredible sense of stillness and peace. An extra-ordinary experience ... simply driving home from errands.