It has been quite the ride in Kansas City this week. Sleep has been in short supply. Trivia, rain and indigestion haven’t been–the latter is all on me for eating too much.

I’m a happy camper. I got to see everyone I hoped to see on the trip, continued to rid myself of my unsightly body hair and got my hair cut nice and short. I must admit I love Heather cutting my hair and shaving my face with a straight razor at The Gents Place in Leawood. I do feel very bad for Amber, though. Kind of guilty.

I went 36 days without a haircut, the longest I have gone in almost 23 years. It was the longest it has been since I was in high school–it had to be because Brother Martin bans haircuts shorter than a #2 guard, fearing the shorter looks would be suuportive of the Skinheads. I haven’t gone shorter than #1 since 1996.

One of my favorite teachers, Joanne, showed up Wednesday. This time she came with her friend Kelsey. I don’t want to date Joanne; I have too many issues in my life, not to mention the distance, but it is very nice to have someone friendly to see on these trips. There have been too many where I’ve felt completely alone–that happened in late June when Larry was out of town and most of the people I know at Buffalo Wild Wings took vacation.

I told Tina to (again) put Joanne and Kelsey’s tab on mine. Again, they were surprised when their total was zero. Again, the ladies were very grateful. I told Joanne I don’t have a signifcant other, so I like to do nice things for those I care about, which explains the trip to St. Louis three weeks ago.

Joanne was very happy when the Cardinals went on their binge Wednesday in Atlanta. She’s a huge fan. At one point, three-fifths of the National League Central were represented at B-Dubs: Joanne for the Cardinals, Kelsey for the Cubs and me for the Brewers. I wonder if there are any Reds or Pirates fans in Kansas City.

Joanne can’t crack the top five of my favorite teachers, but she has moved into the top 10.

The top six are pretty much set in stone. In no order, they are Peggy, Brenda, Stacie (Dauterive) Seube, Rosemarie (Renz) Huguet, Janine Koenig and Rebecca Hale.

Only two actually taught me: Janine eighth grade science, and Rebecca English during the first semester of 11th grade.

I am blessed that I’ve reconnected with Rebecca. I sent her a Christmas card and we’ve been e-mailing one another ever since. Rebecca is a huge Tulane fan. I tell her I will root for Tulane playing anyone except LSU. She understands and loves me more for it. Rebecca also has a Ph.D in theater from New York University. She was the drama club director at Brother Martin for six years; sadly, she was fired at the end of my senior year. I found out three weeks before my graduation. There was a play that night which I attended; afterwards, she found me and thanked me for showing up to support her. Brings a tear to my eye whenever I think about it.

I have been trying in vain to reach Janine. I have not heard from her in 22 years.

Janine Jacques was a four-year member of the Varsity Quiz Bowl team at Dominican High in /New Orleans. VQB was a popular show from the early 1970s through 1992 pitting high schools against one another in a test of knowledge. It was aired by WYES, New Orlean’s Public Broadcasting System affiliate. For someone to be a member of a VQB team for four years–the last two as captain–was mighty impressive. She graduated a year early from Dominican and went on to earn a degree in biology from LSU. However, she had her eye on another college prior to going to Baton Rouge.

Watch this clip of Janine and Dominican in action on VQB in 1981 and you’ll find out what college it was (HINT: the school in question hired a new basketball coach a few months prior to this show airing. He’s still coaching at the same school).

https://youtu.be/ngMJRAVzI-E

Rosemarie is the person I have known longer than anyone outside my family (38 years), and Stacie was the beautiful and intelligent young lady I had a crush on in middle school.

Brenda and Peggy need no introduction. Two of the people I’m closest to, and if I lost either, my life would be utterly miserable.

Cailtyn will join the list if she follows in Chelsea’s footsteps. Chelsea is in her first season as volleyball coach at Oakley. The Plainsmen are struggling, but they will benefit from Chelsea’s knowledge of the sport.

I saw Larry today and we played trivia for three hours. I knew absolutely NOBODY working at Zona Rosa, although someone remembered me. I’m still trying to remember her. My memory is slipping.

I haven’t seen Rhonda and Kim, two ladies I met last time. Hopefully it will happen, if not this time, sometime later.

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My computer shut down THREE times Wednesday, twice within an hour. Therefore, I decided to disable all startup items to see if I could find the source of the problem.

HUGE MISTAKE.

It turns out that once I did that, I could not use my PIN to log in to Windows. I had no idea what my password was, since I hadn’t used it in over three years. And I wasn’t allowed to change the password.

Therefore, I had to erase the boot drive. That also erased many files on that drive. Lucky for me, many of my files are on cloud drives, and I could download most of the other programs from the Internet. The exception is the one I use to lay out pages for the newspapers. I have to wait until I get back to Russell. Luckily I have the CD to install, or I would have been up the creek.

The computer hasn’t shut down since. What’s strange is it NEVER shuts down randomly in Russell. It might be the power supply I use on the road is bad. I have always used a different power supply on the road so I can leave the one at home plugged in.

This happened at 2300 Wednesday. I was up until 0230 Thursday trying to figure it out. While I was in my conundrum, Howie Kendrick doomed the Dodgers.

I surprised myself by not screaming, not pounding anything and not throwing anything. I knew I had to keep quiet or else there would have been trouble, because other guests would have complained to the front desk.

If it weren’t for the program to lay out pages, I wouldn;’t need the laptop, period. But it is good to have because it frees up my iPad for other things.

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LSU hosts Florida tomorrow at 1900. The Bayou Bengals should win. If they don’t, then their playoff hopes are all but finished, because there’s no way I can see them winning in Tuscaloosa in four weeks.

I went to only one LSU-Florida game. It was 2001, the last time Steve Spurrier coached the Gators against the Bayou Bengals. Florida was ranked #1 at the time and won 44-15. It was more memorable for the tributes to the victims of September 11, since it was the first home game since the dastardly attacks. LSU’s band performed “Amazing Grace” at halftime, and there was nary a dry eye in the stadium.

Nick Saban wasn’t too angry after the loss. He was kind of glad, because it showed his team what a dominant team looks like.

LSU bounced back quite well. It lost to Ole Miss and Eli Manning three weeks later, but won its next four to reach the SEC championship game for the first time. From there, the Bayou Bengals shocked Tennessee for their first SEC championship since 1986, then overwhelmed Illinois in the Sugar Bowl 47-34.

Many at LSU, including athletic director Scott Woodward and president F. King Alexander, are not happy the Bayou Bengals and Gators play every year. They do because the SEC assigns each team one permanent cross-division opponent. It was two from 1992 through 2001. Florida and Kentucky were assigned to LSU as the permanents from the East in 1992, since LSU played the Wildcats yearly since 1949 and the Gators every year since 1971.

In 2002, enough schools bitched and moaned, so it was reduced to one permanent opponent from the other side. Kentucky kept Mississippi State, leaving LSU with Florida.

This didn’t change when Missouri and Texas A&M joined the SEC in 2012, even though Les Miles and then-athletic director Joe Alleva begged for a change. The obstacle? Nick Saban, who whined and moaned about Alabama losing its yearly game with Tennessee.

Saban is right on so many things. He is dead wrong here. These complaints are also the reason Missouri is in the EAST despite being farther west than every SEC school except A&M and Arkansas.

The SEC was ready to move Auburn to the East and let the Iron Bowl be the permanent cross-division game for both. But Saban’s bitching prevented it from happening.

There’s no rule stating Tennessee and Alabama can’t play a non-conference game in years which they aren’t scheduled to play in conference. Bear Bryant used to schedule non-conference games with Ole Miss for years after the Crimson Tide and Rebels were no longer yearly foes.

In 1972, the SEC adopted a more standardized schedule. Teams would play five opponents every year and rotate one. LSU’s five were Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Ole Miss and Mississippi State. This was good because there were long gaps where the Bayou Bengals never played Auburn, Georgia, Tennessee and Vanderbilt. For instance, LSU did not play Georgia from 1953 through 1977.

The SEC needs to (a) adopt a nine-game schedule and (b) discontinue permanent cross-division opponents. It’s ridiculous five teams from the same conference visit a particular stadium once every 12 years. When McNeese State, Louisiana-Lafayette and Louisiana-Monroe visit Tiger Stadium more often in a 12-year period than Vanderbilt or Missouri, there’s a serious problem.

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I am hoping hard for a Cardinals-Astros World Series. It would be nice for the Nationals to make it, but I can’t accept the fact that asshole Jeffrey Loria conspired with MLB to make sure the Montreal Expos couldn’t make it. Of course, I’m no Yankees fan, although I don’t have the vitriol towards the Bronx Bombers some have.

What’s silly is so many Royals fans see the Yankees as a rival. Come on.

The Yankees couldn’t care less about the Royals. The only times the Royals really mattered to the Yankees were the four American League Championship Series they played each other between 1976 and 1980, and the Pine Tar Game.

Fact is, the Royals don’t have a rival. The Cardinals have the Cubs. The Athletics once played in Kansas City and many Royals fans think there’s a rivalry, but Oakland is more concerned with the Giants and Angels. The Indians and Tigers have played each other since day one of the American League in 1901. The White Sox have the Cubs. The Twins had the Brewers until Milwaukee moved to the National League in 1998, and the two still play every year.

Besides, with the stupid unbalanced schedule, the Royals don’t play teams outside the AL Central enough for it to truly matter.

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I did it again tonight. I used one of my Buffalo Wild Wings $5 discount for another lady. At least this didn’t cost me anything, but I’m far from cheap. I didn’t want to seem over the top by buying everything. I’m just fortunate Joanne didn’t hold it against me in June.

Leaving Sunday. With the computer situation, I have to. Bye for now.