End of the world

Or not. Let’s just say that there were a few things that happened this weekend to make me wonder if our days are numbered going into the future. First of all that weird Chinese balloon the size of three school buses that hovered over Montana and several other states is a little bizarre. There were a few very observant people that noticed this thing in the air. I’m not sure who first saw it but I think it is a little strange that when the government talked about it they called it a Chinese weather balloon. How did they know and were they in communication with Beijing about why it was here?

Everyone wanted to know why it wasn’t brought down sooner than Saturday after meandering through the heartland since at least Wednesday and sooner than that if it was over Alaska. It’s kind of scary when you think about it. I imagine that some computer gurus with gamer skills are in command of steering this big balloon. Since the government waited until it was over the ocean before it was brought down, trying to find it became an issue. Bizarre.

The next thing of note is college basketball. This is one of those years where there may not be a true dominant team. Purdue is certainly a great team but they lost on Saturday to Indiana in a close one. Defending National Champion Kansas also had a loss against Iowa State only scoring 53 points. Gonzaga lost on Saturday as well to a very good St. Mary’s team in Moraga, California in overtime. That is their second conference loss in just over two weeks.

The Zags aren’t used to losing two games in a conference season much less in a span of 16 days. The Bulldogs played as well defensively than they have in a while but a young Gael freshman made some impressive drives to the basket and even more impressive finishes. St. Mary’s is defensively very aggressive and contact is a big part of their game and they would much rather foul than give up and easy score. And we all know that Gonzaga has trouble making all of their free throws or at least a very high percentage and a lot of points get left out at the free throw line. Going into the NCAA tournament they will need to change that or be met with some bruisers with more football or wrestling skills than basketball prowess.

This season we have witnessed a lot of great basketball matchups which has shown more parity in the college game in a long time. For Gonzaga they should be happy that the WCC has gotten a lot better and each night out it’s scratch and claw out victories. I just wish these other schools would sell out their venues for every game instead of only when Gonzaga is in town.

The last thing I noticed that led me to think the world is on the brink is when I started watching the Pro Bowl games. What was once a tackle football game became more of a noncontact hold em up quick whistle affair so that no one would get injured. People joked that they should be playing flag football for as much as they hit each other.

So that’s what they did. They played flag football with the Manning brothers as the coaches, Eli for the NFC and Peyton for the NFC. Now as much as this game became unwatchable for me it was a party atmosphere in Las Vegas. Now these guys aren’t playing for chump change. The losers get $42,000 and the winners $84,000. Interestingly enough the Super Bowl losing team gets $82,000. Hard to imagine that the losers of the most watched sporting event in America is going to get $2,000 less than the winners of something unwatchable. That is my personal opinion in case you are a huge flag football fan. Maybe I quit watching because one of the announcers is not a fan favorite of yours truly. The other announcer doesn’t bother me as much.

So there were a few signs this week that the world as we know it is in jeopardy but it has been there before and we survived so I guess we are tough enough to not let it bother us.