WLCALUM Entry 318

       (Subtitled:  "Thoughts on George Jones")

Heard country singer George Jones passed away last Friday. When he was on, he was awesome.

   (A Picture of Me Without You)

"Imagine a world where no music was playing

 Think of a church with nobody praying

  If you've ever looked up at a sky with no blue

  Then you've seen a picture of me without you."

George recorded that one back in 1972, and Lorrie Morgan covered it a few years later. I just saw an item on YouTube that had them do it in duet form. They don't make 'em like that anymore.

WLCALUM Entry 317

                (Subtitled:  "Bittersweet Ending for a One-Time Athletic Rival/Other")

Maranatha Baptist's women's basketball team had a great season on 2 levels this year. A) In its' last year in our conference, it qualified for the conference playoffs and got to the semi-finals before losing on the road. (2 seasons back, it won only 1 in-conference game) B) Then, in the NCCAA division, the squad took the national title last weekend by beating Manhattan Christian in a tight final. A parent of one of the better senior players also happens to be the school's volleyball coach, so I contacted her by phone and had a lot of friendly rivalry talk. (WLC is still on Maranatha's VB schedule for next year-though the Crusaders will be competing as an out-of conference independent).  

Maranatha's coach and WLC's coach both got "Co-Coach of the Year" award in our conference-- Maranatha for going 13-5 in conference and WLC for running the table (first time any conference team had done that since its' inception in '06-07).  Sad thing, I heard from an inside source that the Crusaders didn't want out of the conference, (a football related opt-out, -- but there are 4 or 5 other in-conference schools that don't field a football team.

A local AM station just switched to a "Swing/Lounge" format (anything from Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra to Harry Connick Jr and Norah Jones)  --must have heard about a dozen songs that I've performed on band arrangenents in Letter Carriers over the last 2 or 3 years. Nice "change-up" when you can find it, eh?

WLCALUM Entry 316

                  (Sub-titled:  "2013 NCAA D3 hoops update")

"My" women's squad got past Benedictine IL, and ended up having to face Concordia-WI in the conference final. Believe it or not, WLC came out of the gate hot, built up a 23-pt halftime leadin the final, and never looked back.

First round opponent in D3 equivalent of "The Big Dance"?  (drum roll, please. . . )   20th ranked UW-Whitewater--on their home floor. (still, that's better than where a mock projection had "my" team-- it could have ended up facing a much taller squad out of Cornell, IA. At any rate, one thing's for sure. The defense will show up-big time.        

WLCALUM Entry 315

                (Sub-titled:  Another long-overdue update:)

Where to begin-where to begin???

Last October I started having back trouble. It began after I did a quick leg whip around an L-bend in a hallway while vacuuming. Long story short, by the first week in Jan. it was "chiropractor, here I come, like it or not"  It's coming along slowly. 

Now we have an interim pastor at our home church. (previous pastor abruptly up and resigned.-- said he needed to spend more time with his family-- something tells me there was conflict between him and the church body. Since I don't know all the facts, there's no point in doing the ex-preacher roast.)

"My" WBB team ran the table in the regular season in conference. Tournament semi-final vs. Benedictine-IL at home tonight. Maranatha Baptist gets Concordia-WI in the other game.  Maranatha finished in 2nd place in the North division this year with a 13-5 record. That women's hoops program has improved its' NAthCon record by leaps and bounds (2 years ago, it won only 1 in-conference game). After this season, Maranatha is leaving the conference-to become an independent. At least the best is being saved for last.

WLCALUM Entry 314

               (Subtitled:   "The Passing of a Jazz Legend")

Heard jazz musician Dave Brubeck ("Take Five") passed away 1 day shy of his 92nd birthday. He was awesome.  "Take Five" is off of his classic 1959 album "Time Out" in which he does a lot of interesting things with rhythms and time signature changes. "Blue Rondo A la Turk" is great, too.

(Main sax solo line in "Take Five" was used in a "quit-smoking" commercial way back when I was a kid, there was a narrator in there also that repeatedly uttered:  "Like father, like son--" )

Dave Brubeck won't soon be forgotten.