Waking Up

On Friday night I went straight from work to a pair of games (sophomore and varsity) in Decatur. It's about an hour south, which is fairly short considering the geography of central Illinois.

The bus rides are always a bit stiff. As most people know, big yellow school bus engineers work with the following design parameters in mind:

1. Maximum # of passengers possible
2. Minimum shock absorbers
3. Minimum seat padding
4. Six-foot tall men Four-foot tall children
5. Heaters concentrated entirely at the rear

It was, oh, 15 degrees or so with wind chill.

We lost both games, and got home at 11:30.

Came home, went to bed.

Got up at 6:00 to catch 7:00 on Big Yellow, for a three-hour wintry trip (north, naturally) to play some basketball in Rockton, Wisconsin... I mean, Rockton, Illinois.

11:00. Lost by one point. (sophomores)

12:30. Lost by 25 points. (sophomores)

2:00. Lost by 16 points. (varsity)

5:00. Lost by 10 points. (sophomores)

Did I mention that the sophomore games are played in one of those domes that looks like Paul Bunyan's camping tent? It relies pretty heavily on natural lighting and heating. Both are scarce at 5:00 in January. The fact that the game before ours went into overtime gave Mother Nature some extra time to turn down the thermostat. At least we couldn't see our breath. Thanks in part to the fact that we were playing the team hosting the tournament, which had plenty of warm bodies in the stands. It was their first game of the day, and our fourth in 24 hours. They were a little fresher. Under the circumstances we did well.

Got word that the varsity lost their 5:00 game too.

Three hours home on the bus, which drifted onto the shoulder enough times to make me think it was required by law. Fortunately, if we did sail into a cornfield and roll 13 times I could rest with the assurance of my tibias wedged between the seats holding me snugly in place rather than pinballing all about the cabin (a cartoonish picture that I imagine the engineers giggling about as they energetically erased the seatbelts from the bus blueprint).

Started scraping the frost off my car at 10:30.

Entered the house at 11:00.

Straight to bed. Popped on the T.V. and was out in 15 minutes.

Woke up at 8:00. I was pleased to realize that I'd had no dreams about basketball, school buses, or hurtling off a bridge at 70 miles an hour in a school bus full of basketball players.

My body, however, was still not ready to get up.

Crashed on the couch, turned on the T.V., and laid very still. Started ingesting some whole grains, fruits and water.

Stretched out some limbs. Dozed in and out of consciousness.

By 11:00, I felt ready to get up and come hang out with my Hidden Blog pals.

At least until our game on Monday in Rockton.