Beautiful day in the neighborhood

Frost remains on the trees from foggy days earlier in the week, but the sun is shining, and it's a beautiful winter day in Vermillion, S.D. Oliver and I returned an hour ago from a walk up to and through the USD campus. With everyone gone for the holidays, it's quiet solitude up there, so Oliver could run free. Not even any squirrels for him to spy and chase!

A marathon day of six college basketball games on ESPN2 just started with Wisconsin stunning #9 Texas in Austin on a 3-pointer with five seconds left. Take that, 'Horns! Then those silly Texans stand there with their "hook 'em, Horns" fingers in the air, singing "The Eyes of Texas Are Upon You." Yeah, man, but those Eyes of Texas just saw a loss! I hate Texas. Same with Oklahoma teams. There's reason to cheer for Wisconsin because one of our South Dakota boys, Joe Krabbenhoft from Sioux Falls Roosevelt, is a starter with them. We South Dakotans always cheer for our own once they leave the borders---Mike Miller of the Grizzlies, Adam Vinatieri of the Colts, Chad Greenway and Ben Leber of the Vikings, Matt Martin of Montana, Zach Finley of Princeton, etc. (unless of course they become Green Bay Packers).

It's also a day of three college bowl games, but the big football game is tonight. The world hates the Patriots, but they're my team, even if their personality-free coach Belichick is a cheat. So I hope Tom Brady and the boys make it a perfect 16-0 regular season tonight. Have to get my popcorn and munchies ready to watch all 60 minutes of that one.

Christmas was a fun time up in Pierre with three of the four kids and two of the three grandkids there. Next year hopefully we can get the whole clan together in one spot at least for a day. Holly had to work at Mayo Clinic on Christmas Eve/Day this year, so she and her family couldn't come west to South Dakota.

We learned again it takes adults to help kids open their presents. It's not so much ripping the wrapping paper from the gifts but in getting the gifts removed from their boxes/containers, etc. It takes pliers and wirecutters to get those trucks and dolls and clothes and toys removed! It was also a good thing the garbage man came to Dianna's house the day after Christmas to help clear away the clutter.

As I drove back to Vermillion from Pierre on the day after Christmas, all was smooth sailing until reaching the fog zone at Sioux Falls and beyond. South of there on southbound I-29, traffic became bumper-to-bumper like Los Angeles at rush hour, due to earlier accidents in the fog farther south. We all had to exit the interstate and fend for ourselves, so I headed across country on rural roads to Vermillion. Though the sun was shining, it was still scary daring to cross rural intersections. One couldn't see for sure that oncoming drivers from left or right were going to stop at stop signs if they couldn't see them, so there were a couple of corners where I held my breath while I stepped hard on the accelerator and burst across the cross-highway.

Oliver, who had spent two nights in the kennel, was glad to see me, and for the past three days he has been following my every move around the house. Since Dylan has been gone from here for a week and a half and won't be back until Jan. 4, Oliver will have to get used to our little guy all over again.

Happy new year! Resolutions? Maybe that's a topic for an upcoming blog. I'll ponder it while I absorb all of the basketball and football today. Go, Patriots!