It is seven-and-a-half months until college basketball starts again. The off-season is much too long. I am so depressed.
I thought this was an unusual year with strange ups and downs. We watched bottom-dwelling teams beat ranked blue bloods and we saw amazing shots and dunks, many from the walk-ons and benchwarmers.
When it came to the NCAA tournament, brackets were shredded early. The analysts had a hard time keeping up. We all had a hard time keeping up. It is fitting the championship game ended with a last second buzzer-beater.
It was a fun season, even if upsets were the norm. Often the bad games did not seem like bad games, winners and losers changed places often in the rankings — it was unpredictable, but an awful lot of fun. Eventually the regular conference season ended and we all were looking at the championship tournament.
Again, my Kansas teams did not last as long as I had hoped, so certainly things did not go my way. However, as usual I loved it and, yup, it is only seven and a half months away until the beginning of the next season. I am ready to start the countdown.
In other good news, the “Faith in ACTION” folks from the Peabody United Methodist Church and a group representing Peabody Dreamers got after it Sunday morning in a volunteer effort to clean up some unsightly detritus in the community. Limbs, branches, and storm debris remained in yards and public areas since the Thanksgiving ice storm. Downtown gutters and sidewalks were filled with silt, sand, trash, and plant foliage deposited by wind, snow removal efforts, and careless residents and visitors. The two volunteer groups removed all of that.
By noon, enough storm debris had been picked up to fill a lot of truck beds and trailers — 83 loads, in fact, were hauled to the burn pit. About 45 church people and another dozen from Peabody Dreamers did the heavy lifting and hauling. They did a fine job and Peabody is a better-looking community for their efforts. It is my understanding that Peabody Dreamers want to continue general community cleanup and plan to devote the third Saturday morning of every month to the same kind of activity they did on Sunday.
Anyone who would like to help one time or every time should contact Linda Martinez at Manestreet Beautique, (620) 983-4040. She will be happy to give you details about upcoming community projects and the rest of the community thanks you.
Good news about a great effort.
—SUSAN MARSHALL