It’s almost game time, UK vs Illinois, playing for a spot in the Sweet 16. Win or lose it’s been a great year. I’m sure thankful for Coach Mark Pope.

Every interview I see with him and his players is a gem. I hope the good guys win this one.

******

Update – Holy shit, what a great game. Mark Pope can be the UK coach for the rest of my days. Now, on to beating TN for the third time this year!

I created a couple of NCAA Tourney brackets, and neither of them are doing well. I had great hopes for my All-SEC bracket, where I picked every SEC team as the winner in every contest, using the theory that the 2025 SEC was the best conference in the country. That didn’t work so well.

Today is the anniversary of my Mother’s death 43 years ago. She would have been 89 today, turning 90 this fall, had she lived. So much missed time, so many missed experiences. Somewhere there’s a timeline where she got to have all those experiences. Though she did get to skip Trump, the eastern KY opioid disaster, and COVID – kind of a win there.

Somewhere among all the basketball watching and a golf outing, I managed to finish The Way. It’s easily the best book I’ve read in a decade (apologies to my writer friends, that statement doesn’t diminish your great work), and maybe an all-time Top 10. As someone who has read thousands of books, a Top 10 is a big deal (Rough estimate: 60 years x 12 months x 2 books/month = 1440 books. And two per month is on the low side – I’ve had long periods where I burn through two per week.)

The Way is such a good book I’m looking forward to re-reading it, soonish. And while I have no illusions about writing something a good as The Way, it makes me want to dive back in and write, like every day. I miss writing. A lot, in fact. It’s the thing that fills (filled) in all the extra time I have now that I’m truly retired. Even after time with the grandkids, golf, minor chores around the house(s), the occasional trip or concert event, there’s still a LOT of time left to fill. In my working life I averaged about two hours a day commuting and 9-10 hours at work. That’s twelve hours a day that I’ve gotten back since my last consulting project in 2022. Turns out you can do quite a bit with twelve hours a day, and I’m feeling a little lost without a purpose.

Call it writer’s block, call it laziness or lack of discipline – the result is that the only writing I’m doing is this little blog. My novel-in-progress has become a boring chore – I’ve restarted it too many times, and the story no longer inspires me. I do have a few other ideas, and I need to pick one of them up and run with it.