I don’t know if you’ve heard the news or not, but the Associated Press recently reported the Jamaican 4-man bobsled failed to qualify for the Winter Olympics at Vancouver.

That’s just sad.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve always like rooting for the underdog (the Hoosiers and the Pacers), and a bobsled team from a country that’s a tropical paradise certainly fills that bill. “Cool Runnings,” a movie loosely based on the exploits of the country’s first 4-man bobsled sparked a lot of interest in the team. It was a funny move and well worth of watching more than once.

If you’re not familiar with the team’s history, Jamaican first fielded a bobsled team for the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. They didn’t fare well that year or in the 1992 Olympics at Albertsville, France, but two years later in the Winter Olympics at Lillehammer, Norway, the Jamaicans improved enough to finish 14th ahead of the Americans, French, Russian and Italian teams. How embarrassing.

The Jamaicans also managed to make the Olympics in 1998 and 2002, but didn’t qualify in 2006. And now they’ve missed the boat again.

Too bad.
I’ve never been all that excited about watching the Winter Olympics, but I like the any of the events with skis as well as skates. I also watch bobsled races every winter.

There’s is some good news for Americans in that event.

Back in 2002, Americans earned Olympic gold, two silvers and one bronze medal and this past year, driver Steve Holcomb and his crew won the World Championship, the first American victory in half a century. Last month, they added the World Cup title. The U.S. is one of only three country to qualify three bobsled teams for the men’s competition to be held Feb. 27-28 at Vancouver.

I think former NASCAR driver Geoff Bodine and designer Bob Cuneo deserve a lot of credit for the U.S. success in recent years. Back in 1992, Bodine watched a poor American effort in the event and decided to work with Cuneo to design a faster sled. Their efforts produced the Bo-Dyn, which has become the envy of many nations.
And there’s even hope that the U.S. men can bring home an Olympic gold medal in the event for the first time since 1948. That would be nice, wouldn’t it?

I’m not going to make any predictions about the Colts-Saints’ Super Bowl match up on Sunday.

Oh sure I hope the Colts win, but I’m not about to go out on any limbs on this one.

It’s easy to say the Colts will win. For one thing, they’ve have a certain quarterback that doesn’t need a last name. In the future, when there’s talk about great quarterbacks discussions will include Johnny, Bart, Bret, Dan, Tom and Joe and others, but Peyton will be in there as well. The great ones don’t need last names.

And if the Colts can play as good as defense as they did against both the Jets and the Ravens (even with an injured Dwight Freeney), they should be a shoo-in for their second Superbowl title in four years and third in team history.

But I’m not writing off the Saints that easily. The former Aints have a lot going for them as a team. They’ve got a pretty good offense and a good defense to boot. This one’s likely to come down to special teams. The city of New Orleans also has that terrible tragedy, Hurricane Katrina, to fall back on when it comes to picking up support from across the nation.

My record for predicting a Colts’ Superbowl also stinks, just asked my oldest son Mike. When the Colts beat the Bears back in 2007, he called me right after the game and reminded me that I told him when he was little that the Colts would never win a Superbowl because they powers that be wouldn’t allow it. I told him everything in the world revolves around money and there wasn’t enough money in Indianapolis to buy a Superbowl title.

I had to swallow my pride that night and admit I was wrong. That hardly ever happens. I don’t mean being wrong, I just mean apologizing for it. My children, just like my wife, always love it when they can prove me wrong.

I still believe money drives everything, especially major leagues sports and NASCAR, and that being good and lucky is rarely enough to win the big one. There’s just too much money involved. It also helps drive interest if several story lines can be tacked onto a big game or race. The Colts have several this time, including Peyton and Freeney, but the Saints also have there’s in Peyton’s father, former Saint Archie Manning, and Katrina.

Maybe the Colts can prove me wrong about that again Sunday. If they do, I’m sure I’ll get another call from my oldest son to remind I was wrong.

When my sister told me she was buying Dad a cell phone for Christmas, I thought she was nuts.
In fact, I told her as much.
That’s because I didn’t think there was any way a man who is almost 83 years old would know how to use a cell phone.
I must admit, however, that I’ve never been more wrong in my life. Well maybe there have been a few times when I was more mistaken, but you’d better ask my wife about that. I’m sure she can enlighten you.
But Dad has amazed with his ability to know if he’s receiving a call and answering it. I’ve called him five or six times. He always answers generally within the second ring.
He wouldn’t do that with his home phone.
Sorry Mom, but Dad’s a lot better about answering his cell phone. In fact, he’s a lot better than me and many others I know when it comes to answering a cell phone call.
I guess you can teach and old dog new tricks.

Do you remember what you were doing on Dec. 31, 1999?
I do because I was covering a New Year’s Eve party in downtown Seymour, and at work, afterwards we had some of the same concerns about Y2K that others had. Was everything going to work on Jan. 1 or was the computer-filled world we loved and sometimes despised coming to an end?
As you know everything turned out fine.
In fact, there’s been a lot of changes since the Y2K scare.
I never would have thought that 10 years later I would be carrying a cellphone and thinking about getting rid of my home telephone. It’s probably going to be gone real soon.
And I never thought my 82-year-old father would have a cellphone at this point in his life. But guess what? He does and unlike me, he actually answers it when someone calls him.
I also wouldn’t have thought I would be setting up a wireless network up at home and getting rid of my desktop computer. But I’m halfway there. The network is in place, I have a laptop and considering a second one (don’t tell my wife), and I’m just waiting on the old clunker (bought in 2002) to take it’s last breath.
I also never thought I would hear from people I attended high school with more than 30 years ago. Facebook, however, has made that and a lot of other things possible.
It’s amazing how far we’ve come in terms of technology in just the past five years let alone the past decade. Where will be in 10 years from now? Or at the end of 2019? Who knows?
On a personal note, I’ve watch my son grow into a teenager whose almost finished with high school and already talking about college, and my older children have given me six grandchildren.
I’ve also refinanced my home at least four times, if not five, in the past 10 years with the most recent one being completed Tuesday.
Most of the decade was good with the exception of the past year or two when I’ve watched my 401K dwindle. But at least I still have a job unlikely many.
Where does the time go?

I’ve always enjoyed talking with those men and women of journalist Tom Brokaw’s Greatest Generation.
And Leonard Trimpe of Seymour is one of my favorites.
That’s because he was along with first wave of soldiers to hit Omaha Beach in Normandy on D-Day.
Over the years, I’ve had to talk with Leonard and wrote his story several times.
At 89, Trimpe can still recall vividly the details of June 6, 1944, and his thoughts on what was one of the bloodiest days in American history.
It’s easy to hear the pain in his voice when he talks about the 10,000 to 12,000 soldiers who didn’t live through that day.
It’s also easy to understand why he expresses such pride in what was accomplished that day and during the drive to end Hitler’s reign over Fortress Europe.
I learn more and more about that day every time I talk to Leonard.
He and other veterans, not only of those WWII, but every vet, brings history alive for me and anyone willing to take the time to listen to what they have to say.
That doesn’t mean I think I’m any better than anyone else because I get paid to listen to vets like Leonard talk about the sacrifices they’ve made for every American.
And I’m as guilty as everyone else when it comes to thanking vets for those sacrifices. So I’m going to do it now.
“Thank you” Leonard, and thanks to the rest of the men and women who have served and sometimes given their lives so that we can enjoy the freedoms we often take for granted.

My son, a sophomore, spent the last year and a half talking about going to Panama City, Fla., with his buddies, all high school seniors, for spring break.

I think he honestly thought my wife and I were going to let him go to Florida on his own with a bunch other teenagers. I, on the other hand, always thought the trip would never happen.

As the Friday for spring break neared, however, it became obvious that my son’s friends were on the ball and trip was going to happen.

The only problem was none of the parents showed a willingness to go.

That’s where I entered the picture because I told my son that he wasn’t going unless an adult (someone with a little more life experience than a bunch of boys with raging hormones) was going.

Can you guess who that person wound up being? That’s right, it was me.

I was more than little surprised that my wife was so willing to let me go off with a bunch of boys and spend a lot of money going to Florida without her.

I should have known something was wrong with the whole picture and there was.

For one thing, no one had a vehicle big enough or in good enough shape to haul seven people to Panama City so we decided to rent a van. That, however, meant I was the only one old enough to drive.

So I wound up driving the 700-plus miles to Panama City and the 700-plus miles back seven days later. That was an adventure on its own and better saved for another time.

We left in the early morning hours of the Friday before spring break, which was just the first of eight days I would spend with a group of teenage boys who had just one thing on their mind — meeting girls.

At 51, I have not forgotten what it’s like to spend most of my time thinking about thinking about the opposite sex because I’m not dead and buried yet. I have, however, forgotten what it’s like to spend all my time and energy chasing girls (I put that one in there for my wife).

Our first full day in Panama City, I managed to hook the boys up with some girls from Bloomfield. I don’t think they thought I actually knew how to “talk the talk” anymore, but I showed them how it’s done.

I spent my mornings in Florida relaxing because none of the boys, especially my own son, woke up very early. I spent my afternoons in Florida sitting next to the pool, drinking a cold one, reading a book and getting a little sun because they were all off on some adventure on the beach.

I spent my early evenings wishing they would leave our condo so I could have some peace and quiet. And I spent the late night hours wishing they would come back so I could make sure I brought all six of them back home.

We started the week with a plan to purchase food jointly and share it across the board. That was my idea, but it wasn’t a very good one because if you teenage boys you know how much they can eat. By the end of the week, I was finding food hidden all over the condo including my bedroom. Talk about a bunch of hoarders.

I did managed to find a couple of other adults from home to talk with and that help eased some of my apprehensions about what the boys might be getting themselves into during their never-ending search for the next girl or party or wet T-shirt contest. I even spent one day watching a friend from Brownstown try his hand at catching some fish.

It was a memorable week. We eventually made it back in one piece although the remnants of my run in with a jellyfish in the 68-degree waters of the gulf can still be seen on my right arm.

My wife did it to me again on Valentines Day.
That’s right she tricked me with that old worn out talk about how we don’t have the money to be spending on gifts for special occasions such as birthdays and Valentines Day. It’s a story that I’ve heard (and fallen for) more than one time over our 20-plus years of marriage.
And you would think by now that I would have stopped falling for it, but she made a pretty convincing argument that since we just had to purchase a new washing machine, we weren’t buying anything for each other on Valentines Day.
So I didn’t get her anything. You know the rest of the story. That’s right, come Saturday morning she gave me a pair of slip-ons to wear around the house and money to purchase tokens for car washes.
She said it wasn’t much, but it was more than I gave her (insert nothing here).
I managed to salvage a little bit out of the day by agreeing to take her to a place that I have only ate at a couple of times since I moved to Jackson County back in the summer of 1986.
It’s amazing how some things just never change because the double cheeseburger (smothered in fried onions) I had at The Brick in Jonesville during our romantic getaway tasted just as good as the first one I had there.
If you’ve never been to The Brick you need to eat there one time unless you’re a vegetarian.
The menu is simple: hamburgers, cheeseburgers, chili, soup, potato chips and of course, beer.
I’ve been telling my wife for years that we need to simplify our lives more, leaving with less and all that good stuff.
You don’t have to put a lot of thought into what you’re going to eat at The Brick. You can’t say that about some restaurants.
The place was packed, however, and its not hard to see why. Both the food and the atmosphere were great.
Sometimes less really is more.

My luck held out until the end of January - almost - and that has to be some kind of record for someone like me who generally doesn’t have much in the way of good luck.
But in case you haven’t noticed, it snowed last week and that means my wife and son finally had a chance to try out the “monogrammed ” snow shovels I gave them for Christmas.
I earlier wrote that I purchased to shovels for them and because I was prepared for snow it wouldn’t snow this winter. As usual I was wrong.
Something went terribly wrong when it did snow, because on that day I couldn’t find my son anywhere despite the fact that school had been cancelled.
So guess who spent part of his morning shoveling out the driveway? That’s right it was me. You knew all along that I would be the one on the working end of one of those shovels if by chance it did snow enough to be used this winter.
But to my wife’s credit, she was on the working end of the other shovel.
When I first wrote about the two new shovels I bought for my wife and son, my wife wanted a chance for a rebuttal and she wanted me to write it for her in this space.
I said she could do all the rebutting she wanted, but she had to do it without my help. There’s ways to answer these blogs and she needed to figure that out without my help.
She claims she has always supported me over the years, but that she and my son always get a “bad rap” when I write about them, and she’s right. I can’t pick on them at home, so I have to do it somewhere and work just seems like the right place to do it.
She also claims I always have unrealistic goals such as making a list at Christmas time and then expecting to go out and buy all the presents in one day’s time. She may be right about that for the most part, but I still don’t see what’s unrealistic about that goal.
She also said I shouldn’t complain about the crowded aisles and people refusing to move when I spend part of my time “shopping” watching the Colts or Pacers playing in the entertainment department.
She also says she can’t understand why I complain about the kids being in the toy department and how they shouldn’t be allowed there during Christmas. She thinks if that’s true the same rule should apply to me, and I shouldn’t be allowed in the sports, electronics, books or any department containing food.
Do I have to say it again? She’s right, I shouldn’t be allowed in any store at Christmas or at any other time of the year for that matter. It’s something I’ve been advocating for years.
She said I did get some things right including the part about my son always taking his mom’s side especially around Christmas time (which means he knows he’s more likely to get whatever he’s really after from her rather than from me).
But she also says I’ve never been prepared for anything, and she’s not even sure I ever was a Boy Scout. She’s right about the first part, I’ve never been prepared for much of anything, but wrong about the Boy Scout deal because I did learn about tracking in scouts.
And that’s how I found my son, snuggled up in bed with our other child, Rookie, our three-year Bischon. They sure had the right idea that day.
PS: I lost one of the shovels when one of my son’s buddies broke it on the second day we received snow. So much for being prepared.

I saw the Harlem Globetrotters perform in person for the first time Wednesday night.
They put on a great show.

A lot of the tricks were predictable especially to those of us old enough to remember watching Meadowlark Lemon, Fred Curly Neal, Bobby Joe Mason and Reece Goose Tatum decades ago.

I mean who hasn’t seen the old water in the bucket trick? And who hasn’t seen the debate between the Globetrotters’ clown prince and the coach of the Generals about who was going to win the game?
The Generals, however, haven’t beat the Globetrotters in 38 years and everyone knew it wasn’t going to happen at Lloyd Barney Scott Gymnasium on Wednesday night.

But the Globetrotters have been entertaining fans for more than 80 years, and it’s easy to see why. If nothing else, the younger children seem to get a kick out of the amazing ball handling skills shown by the players and the tricks they pull on each other, the coaches and the fans.

And every once in a while even those of us who have been around for a while see something new.
Although aren’t new tricks, I enjoyed the radio-controlled basketball and the Plexiglas placed over the Globetrotters basket.

And Globie the team mascot brings a home other level of entertainment to the experience of watching the Globetrotters perform.

I have to admit some of his antics had me almost in tears from laughing so much.

It’s easy to see why people like spending a relaxing winter night watching the Magicians of Basketball perform. They are truly timeless.

The Globetrotters are more than just a basketball team to many. They’re an experience and a positive one at that. It was a show worth remembering.

I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of hearing about the never-ending Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
I’ve been listening to it for my entire life, and I’m over it.
It seems to me there’s plenty of blame to go around over there. It also seems to me that plenty of what’s been going on there for decades has to do with myths perpetuated by both sides and others around the world including some of our country’s leaders.
What it really boils down to is something called “face saving.”
That means to me that you can do what you want to me as long as I come out looking good as well.
There’s nothing wrong with that because that’s how most of tend to operate anyway.
Let the chips fall where they may as long as I come out smelling like a rose as well. Want an example of that; take a look at that now famous or infamous governor who lives next door to us. One of his early tactics has been to try to divert attention away from himself by appointing a senator for his state when everyone else justs wants him to go away.
But every once in a while, it would be good for someone to step up and plainly say, “I made a mistake.”
It sure would save a lot of time, money and grief for everyone else involved and even those watching from the sidelines.
I once had a boss who would say, “Help me understand” whenever a mistake was made. I hated to hear that so I always tried to give him the short, honest answer “I screwed up.” It generally didn’t work because he was looking for ways to make sure it didn’t happen again, but it sure made me feel better because I told the truth.
I’m not trying to say I’m perfect or anything because God knows I should be using that strategy at home a little more. But it’s human nature to try to put the best face on everything.
Maybe it’s time for the Palestinians and the Israelis to be a lot more honest about what’s going on there and set about trying to fix some of the problems.
I’m betting that will never happen.