Gearing up for the week ahead

This might be one of the busier times of the year for the paper. We have winter sports ending, spring sports starting, election season is upon us, the world seems to be on fire, theater performances, an alumni tournament this upcoming weekend and more. What better time to go on vacation?

This weekend, for some God-awful reason, I decided to go ahead and come out of basketball retirement for the Colby alumni basketball tournament. I plan on running up and down the court twice then calling for a sub. I won’t give the team much but that 30 seconds I’m on the court, I’ll wreak havoc.

I didn’t play basketball in high school. I definitely played my fair share against my brothers in the driveway and as part of a college intramural team, but every alumni tournament, I’m astounded by how much basketball talent comes back for this event.

The last two alumni tournaments, my class has made it to the Division III (a kind term for toilet bowl) championship. We won it in 2018, in 2020 there was no alumni tournament due to the pandemic and in 2022, the guys lost in the championship game.

Some might be disappointed in a 0-2 bracket championship berth as it means you’re still worse than most of the other teams in the tournament. Not us. We have no business beating teams in this tournament as our grade was full of wrestlers, football players and virtually any other high school athlete besides basketball players.

It’s more a time to get together and use the weekend as a reunion with classmates you haven’t seen in years. I for example, missed the 2022 tournament. Combine that with the canceled 2020 tournament, and there are guys in my grade that I haven’t seen in six years.

As I saunter into work on Monday morning, I’ll have to pray my body gives me the strength to get up the stairs to my office. But there’s no rest for the wicked as they say. I’ll have two days of work before heading on a six-day vacation. It’ll be my first time on a cruise ship and assuming we don’t get captured by pirates or hit an iceberg in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, I’ll be back in the middle of city council and village board meetings right when I get back.

To me, it seems like a constant string of “go, go, go.” However, I look at my friends with two or three kids and quickly realize that my busy schedule is nothing compared to when parents are running three different directions with their kids. I guess I’ll just have to enjoy vacation, meeting up with old classmates and everything this job brings while I have the chance.

Speeding

Through

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