New Year

"Midway"; 12x24; oil on panel

I wasn't going to post today. Or --- horrors of horrors --- paint either. I told myself I would take two days off this season, New Years Day and.....Rose Bowl Day.

Okay, okay......now before anyone deletes me off their favorites list (hah,ha), let me explain. I suffered through the worst years of the Univ of Oregon football program. Before the wacky uniforms, before the state-of-the-art training facilities, before Nike stock turned on the movement of LaMichael James and Darron Thomas.....there was a large group of people who showed up every Saturday, rain, shine or polar ice on the Omniturf, to watch the Ducks get manhandled by (shudder) the likes of Fresno State and Colorado. I was part of that group.

I've also been part of the group that has watched them slowly ascend the ranks of the NCAA to be big enough that they now deserve to be investigated every time someone sneezes in front of the wrong booster. I've earned this year's game-watching moment -- especially after enduring the debacle last year at the hands of one of the shadiest individuals to emerge from college sports since the Fab 5 at Univ of Michigan (see Wikipedia: March Madness).

So Monday afternoon, I'll be guiltless-ly plunked down in front of the TV with an Oregon microbrew in one hand and some kind of homemade treat from my lovely (and reluctant college-football-loving) wife, praying that this will be the year that the Ducks not only make it to a BCS game...but win one.

Lord, please don't let us be the Minnesota Vikings of the NCAA --- sorry, Dad...it had to be said.

Happy New Year!

P.S. What about today? Today is a Star Wars marathon.....so.....you know.........