It was the last basketball game of this season for my youngest grandson. 12 years old. Youth basketball, as well as football, and other sports, too, demands a constant parental, and in my case, a grandparent presence on Saturdays.
It’s a good way to touch base, to keep my face implanted in his brain, and to meet him on his territory.
But, now that I’m approaching the ripe old age of 59 years old, I LOVE my quiet Saturdays without the hullabaloo of rushing from one activity to another.
So I wasn’t sad to watch his team lose and slip out of the 14U (age bracket 14 and under) tournament. I don’t think he was either.
For some reason, my son (his dad) decided to put him on this thuggy team – a team of kids that come from some pretty rough home situations. The coaching was pretty bad; they’re volunteers after all, so my son took over the coaching. He played basketball in high school and was pretty good at it, making all conference twice.
So he took over, the team got better, and made it to the championship bracket.
All of a sudden, parents who never came to the games were there today. Kids who dropped out of practice weeks ago were on the bench. And my son, well, he was in Mexico on a long planned vacation. But I know he would have been disgusted about the sudden jumping on the bandwagon.
But the kids played hard and the Johnny-come-lately parents yelled and clapped support, but it wasn’t enough, and they lost by five points.
And, afterwards, I walked to my car and drove the icy drive home.
Yes, we’re buried in ice here in Minnesota. Like the rest of the country, we’ve had the crappiest winter ever.
First, it never gets warm. It seems like we’ve been below zero since December. Recently, we had a couple of days that were in the 30s, and everyone in Minnesota disrobed and displayed as much of skin as they could before we slid back into the deep freeze.
Second, it doesn’t stop snowing. However, we rarely get a large amount at one time, but we get these little one and two inches snows that have piled up over the winter, and because it never gets warm, we have snowbanks that we can’t see over because they are so high.
And the ice came in this past Thursday as finally we got a monster storm that fits right in with the cold weather. But first, just to remind us that spring is around the corner, we got rain, and then the temperatures hit the skids, and it started to snow and snow and snow on top of the wet pavement, and it froze under the snow.
I went to work on Friday, but I might as well have put runners on my car and slid into work. The freeways and streets were totally ice covered, but here in the north, we heed winter storm warnings and most people stay home, so the freeways weren’t overnight parking spots.
And since the temperature is remaining under 20 degrees, the streets are still ice covered. I just saw four salt trucks drive by my house as the city is battling the ice with all the force it can muster. And the sun is stronger now, so it aids by adding a bit of fire to unnerve the ice a bit.
The end of February doesn’t bring the promise of spring to Minnesota as March and April, and even last May, can produce some major snowstorms, but we feel like we’ve turned the corner on winter a bit and know we’re on a downward slope towards spring.
So as the snow melts and my Saturdays are empty of basketball, what am I going to do?
Well, I can get my taxes done. I’ve loaded Turbo Tax on my computer. I have all my paperwork. So I can get started anytime.
I bought paint last fall for my kitchen. Have I painted yet? No. Paint, brushes, rollers, and other miscellaneous supplies are in my office closet waiting to be released to serve the purpose of painting the kitchen. Maybe I’ll get it done by March. I think it’s a three day project. Ugh.
I have closets that need to be cleaned out. If the ice disappears, then walks can start. And nothing is better than spending a winter Saturday afternoon with a good book.
Well, I better get started on some sort of Saturday activity now that basketball is over and done.
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