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I am unaware of that tactic around here. But we do have an oregon school that is so far removed from every other oregon school that it is part of the WA HS sports. It is just south of the border from Walla Walla. I’ve been there and they are isolated from the rest of Oregon for sure.
mspart
The game tonight should be a good one. Indiana has had a magical season. It’s amazing to watch this coach take the worst team in the B1G to the national championship in just 2 years. He was basically an unknown coach when Indiana hired him. He didn’t pick up much in the portal when he was hired, most players were already at Indiana. Now he’s a magnet for the top tier transfers. I guess the overnight turnaround from chumps to champs may become more common with the transfer portal.
The game was outstanding. I’m glad UI won. But it was not easy. Both teams had great defense and offense. It was awesome!
My wife and I spent the weekend at Mt Rainier National Park. We stayed in a cute little cottage that had ineffective heat (we did not know that) and a low hearth and I cut my head on it as I was trying to get the wood stove going and got up too fast. Overall it was a really nice trip. We walked around quite a bit, found great food, lots of blackberry stuff like pie and jam. I love blackberries. We can walk in the neighborhood and get almost as much as we can handle. We didn’t get any this year, got too busy but will next year.
The transfer portal is a killer for a lot of programs. But it is nice for those players who are stuck in supporting roles looking for better opportunities. Generally, I don’t like NIL and the portal. If they are going to do a portal it should happen after the Nat champ game. Same with coaching changes. But, the UI, Miami, Ole Miss QBs got into great roles through the portal. Well, the Miami guy was the guy at Georgia but wasn’t happy there apparently. I don’t like him, he looks like a thug. He looks asleep the whole time. But boy what a game last night. Both teams were outstanding. I was surprised Miami was that good. They really surprised me.
mspart
Teah, the game was everything a championship game should be. The Canes blitzed the heck out of the Indiana front line on the first two sets and Mendoza couldn’t get the ball close to a receiver. zi was thinking that if Miami keeps it up for the game, Indiana won’t be unable to move the ball. Then Miami shut it down. I’m with you, not a fan of Palmer the Miami QB. it’s just an incredible story for Indiana, school with the worst historical record for D1 football. 2-10 three seasons ago. There’s hope for Rutgers yet.
Nah, not even Rutgers has hope!!!!
I’m an Alabama fan and was glad they made it in the playoffs. But when UI crushed them, I had to believe in UI. I did not expect Bama to win necessarily, but to make a fair showing. The NCAA div 1 is getting interesting.
mspart
I suspect Indiana is going to be near the top of the pack for quite a while. The school found their angel in Mark Cuban who has funded most of the football NIL the past 2 years. He an alum that has given millions to the athletic program in the past including $6 million to endow the UI rugby program. Rugby ! The HC Cignetti had a great reputation when Indiana hired him, but for Cuban to bankroll the program off that hire was a bit of a gamble, but it paid off. Someone inside the UI athletic program reported Cuban doubled his donation in 2025 from that of 2024 and is the source of NIL for the latest transfers into the program. Miami’s head coach expressed some sour apples post game criticizing IU’s NIL funding. LOL Miami shells out more in NIL than IU. The gave their QB $3.1 mil while IU gave Mendoza $2.1. This NIL game is going to get worse real fast as boosters fund bidding wars for the top tier players.
I went to a financial planner yesterday. They have CPAs (actually our CPA coincidentally) and access to lawyers etc. I gave them our numbers and financial situation and they made me feel quite optimistic about retiring fairly soon. I’ll find out in a few weeks I think. So I may not be working too much longer. Maybe.
Yeah Cuban has made a difference at UI for sure. Perhaps Bama won’t be what they have always been under NIL. I don’t mind the portal, just the timing of when it happens. But NIL is really changing the situation.
mspart
Now that they’ve seen the kind of money it takes to compete, the boosters at biggest football houses will be loading up the till. First it will go to coaches, for stealing and retaining the perceived best. Cignetti was paid under $700,000 at James Madison. Now he gets +$11,000,000 with a top end of $15,000,000 with all of his bonuses. Tom Allen was paid under $5,000,000 at IU before he was canned, so we are talking a tripling of pay just for the head coach. On top of that they’ve tripled the assist coach pay and added +$25,000,000 to pay the athletes. That’s more than $50,000,000 in new football money annually.
The weather is going to get ugly over here this weekend. A major storm is moving in from Texas. It’ll start as snow but then turn to freezing rain. To top it off, the temps are forecast to remain below freezing over the next 10 days which means whatever comes down will remain ice for quite a while. The utilities are already prepping for major power outages. I sure do hope those weather guessers get this one wrong.
I hope you all over there are ok. My son in DC is buried. I hope he is ok, but they had 20″ of snow and then turning to ice with a melt. Its a bad weather deal on the east coast for sure.
Seattle and New England are in the Super Bowl. Seattle’s gonna take it.
Take care, be safe, don’t shovel like you did in your 20s.
mspart
We got only 12″, but with it rain which left a 1/2″ of ice. The cars were ice blocks. I took 2.5 hours to thaw and clear them. The sidewalks had 3/8″ of ice. The kids up north got 16″but no rain/ice.
Yeah, that rain after the snow is killer. Provides a nice coating on the cars. It’s kind of nice looking until you try to open the door. 2.5 hours is a lot. Wow. That’s where you need one of those remote starters. Warm the car up and it thaws itself. First time I saw that was at Cub Foods in Apple Valley in MN. I was walking by a truck and it started and I jumped because I saw no one was in the truck just before it started. That parking lot had a pile of snow until Jun we had so much that year.
It got below freezing here for 4 nights. But now we are above freezing 24/7 for the next 10 days. I know in many parts of the east it won’t get above freezing for 10 days. So the ice stays, just brutal. I live on a hill and generally work from home. I can’t get down my driveway without sliding on those days. Getting to the big road is worse. The last time I barely rolled down the hill so when I had to stop I could. I got to the bottom and barely put on brakes and I slid almost into the road. Lucky no one was coming. Usually the main roads are a lot better than my neighborhood.
My son went spear fishing at Neah Bay (farthest point north west in WA) and got a 11 lb 33″ lingcod. He also got a few rock fish. That’s a big fish.
mspart
11 pounder is big particularly for spear. The ling are deeper water fish out here so unless you are quailed for deep dives to wrecks you are only bringing them on a rod. Same for the bass, they are in close for surf casting but not spear. and they spook easily.
We’ve seen 34 once in the past 10 days and it’s only getting colder. This weekend the high will be mid-teens. Nothing over 32 until the middle of February.
Both cars have a remote start which I used but the heater was on a high temp or defrost. So I ran them getting them warmed up but had to unfreeze the doors encased in ice. The water was locked in on all of the seams. I kept squirting warm water over the seams and door handle until the door popped. Once I got the windows and roof warmed up I able to knock on the ice to cracked it and lift off sheets of ice. The was soft snow underneath so the ice which was 3/4 – 1 ” thick was flex and crack it. Once the windows defrosted water ran down the sides and softened the ice on the sides to where I could peel it off. The ice was hard and if not careful it would easily scratch the paint.
I have ice seal the doors but nothing that thick. Wow.
It’s raining here again. Same old. Not cold, just typical winter weather here word.
mspart
Took wifey in for left eye cataract surgery. The right eye gets fixed in two weeks. Her sight really degraded over the past year. Her glasses were little value, so she went in for new and the doc flag for surgery. It only took 30 minutes. There’s very limited coverage under Medicare and the Advantage plans. We knew this was coming so I tried to find insurance for it last year but there’s nothing out three that makes financial sense. Between premium and deductible, you’re just trading $$$$$.
I’m sorry to hear that about your wife. That cannot be pleasant. Hopefully her eyes get fixed up. Here there are advertisements on the radio about RLE, refractive lens exchange. Insurance does not cover this I don’t think, but it gives far and close vision in focus and never cataracts. They remove your lens and replace it with a new lens that does not degrade over time. Supposedly. The Google says it is $3k-$8k per eye. I have been considering it for my right eye. I lost effective vision in my left eye due to a stroke so I would just do my right eye. But it sounds like a good deal. My left eye was my good eye, so my vision is ok but not great, better with glasses. My vision would have to get quite a bit worse before I would actually consider it but the question is more top of mind right now.
AI says, “Refractive Lens Exchange (RLE) (RLE) is generally not covered by insurance because it’s considered an elective vision correction procedure, similar to LASIK, rather than a medically necessary one. However, it might be covered if deemed medically necessary due to severe vision loss, complications from prior surgery, or severe limitations preventing glasses/contacts. Even then, coverage is inconsistent, and premium intraocular lenses (IOLs) are usually an extra out-of-pocket cost, though flexible spending/health savings accounts (FSA/HSA) and financing options can help pay for it.”
Best of luck to your wife and her vision. I hope that she comes out of this with a major increase in quality of vision.
mspart
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