Rivalry Game

On Tuesday Night, the University of Alabama came to The Plains at Auburn for a basketball game. Auburn upset the number 12 ranked Alabama Crimson Tide by a score of 81-57. This is worthy of a blog post for two reasons: (1) Auburn is rarely if ever good at basketball and because of this has lost to Alabama the last 7 times they have played and (2) you cannot explain this heated rivalry in words.

As far as the actual team that Auburn puts on the court to play, they are young, they are fast, and they are not very smart. They love to run and they love to take bad shots. But if you run faster than your opponent you will get shots close to the basket.

I absolutely love how much Alabama is hated in Auburn. There were two chants that were consistent throughout the night, "Overrated!" (Which clearly Alabama is); and "Bring on Saban!" (in accordance with Alabama's new football coach Nick Saban). The other spectacle I loved was students painted their chest orange and had a dark navy hand print square in their chest. This is to symbolize the last five times that these two teams have meet on the football field in the Iron Bowl - where Auburn has won the last five.

WAR EAGLE - BEAT BAMA!

Ice in Southern California

I can only shake my head. I want to laugh but I know they are serious. On Sunday our Believe crew left Pomona, CA to drive back to Joplin, MO. On our way out of town we had to drop our truck drivers off at The Fairplex (our venue), and on the way I saw something I don't I have ever seen before.

Let me preface this: When we left there had been no rain or precipitation in the area for quite sometime. There was frost on the ground, and any ice on road had come from gutters.

I saw two large flashing signs reading, "ICE! CAUTION ICE AHEAD!" Not that big a deal - everyone across the nation would put out signs if there was ice. But then I saw it. There were 4 different cop cars at three different spots blocking small (and I mean very small) patches of ice on the road. When I say small, I mean 2 x 2. I mean smaller than my suitcase. The cops weren't just blocking these patches of ice, they were closing lanes to do it!

I can not claim I am from the Midwest (I will claim to be a Floridian till I die) but by living in Missouri the last 3 years and Tennessee the 4 before that you would not believe the difference the way people react to ice compared to California. People from Missouri and Oklahoma have an understanding of what to do when the snow/ice gets bad.

I also do agree that Southern California gets this way about every time the Bears win a playoff game, but I also know that cops in Pomona probably have something better to do with tax dollars that block off a patch of ice. Go catch some bad guys.

Our speaker, Nate Head, had his flight cancelled because LAX (only one of the largest airports this side of the world) because they did not have any deicer. How would like to be the 16-year-old sophomore working at Home Depot when you received that order? Nate said people were freaking out not knowing what to do because of the weather.

By no means do I consider myself to be an expert driving in/on ice, I am just amazed when something happens out of the ordinary to people, how they react as if the sky was falling is something to just sit back and watch.

I can say all of this after driving on 3 inches of ice up a hill with a trailer to get to our hotel last night in Oklahoma City.

I caught a shark

Over the Christmas break, I was able to spend a week with my parents down in Clearwater, FL. They live on the beach and you can walk out their back door onto the sand.

The second day I was there, my dad and I went fishing out in the ocean (we waded out about 50 feet) and although we did not catch much (my dad only caught one catfish), I did catch something I had never caught before in my life. I caught a shark.

It was a bonnethead shark (see picture) about 2 feet in length. Because we were standing out in the water, and the closest camera was back the condo, I am sad to say that I do not have a picture of "my shark." I will say though it was pretty stinkin' exciting.