March Madness, Swagger and Pass the Ammunition.

The best thing about Spring time in Texas is Spring Football. We’ve heard of basketball, but it appears to be mostly unknown to us, at least to the boys. The fact that not one Texas based men’s team made the NCAA Tournament says a lot about men’s basketball in the Lone Star State these days. Great high school basketball players go where great college basketball is played. And today, when it comes to the men’s game, that’s not in Texas. So the great Texas high school basketball players (and there are quite a few) end up playing elsewhere. As with most things which make us unhappy down here we choose to blame the exodus of native Texas basketball talent on Obama. (Just one more reason to secede.)

Men’s college basketball may be dead in Texas, but that doesn’t stop me from filling out a bracket. My final four consist of only one #1 seed: Louisville. Then I’ve got a #3, Marquette and two #2’s Georgetown and Ohio State. I’ve got Louisville beating Marquette for the National Championship. Marquette barely won their first round game vs Davidson, so that pick is looking pretty weak. But, I’m a Texan. What do I know about basketball?

We Texans also like guns better than basketball. Specifically we like shooting guns and as of late that joy has been somewhat restrained due to the lack of ammunition. Bullets are hard to come by. (And no surprise; folks around here blame the shortage on Obama).
I’m inclined to give the President a “pass” on this one. I know people who are in a panic; buying guns and ammo like crazy. I’m on the record supporting tighter guns controls and limits on magazine capacity. My friends and neighbors look at me suspiciously, but I just tell them that I am a good shot and don’t need all of that extra fire power. However, my patience has been tested as of late when I could not even find .22 magnum rounds. My weapons arsenal includes a .22 mag revolver and a .22 mag lever action rifle. Fun and inexpensive shooting with enough power to take down a ‘yote at short distance.
I’m not sure what’s driving a shortage of .22 magnum ammo. It’s not exactly your big boy “take-down-the-bad-guy” load. (Which I have more than covered with a .357 magnum, two 12-gauge shotguns and a couple of deer rifles, .243 and .30-06.) But someone has been buying up the .22 mag ammo and creating a shortage. So I finally found some on-line and purchased the seller’s limit per buyer which was 100 rounds. Then a few days later I get an email advising me that they could sell me 500 rounds. Sold, I’ll take them. So, I’m feeling pretty good about my volume ammo purchase when I realize that I have become the problem. I might shoot 50 rounds in a month’s time if I’m really bored and in the mood to shoot. Sometimes I don’t fire one shot for weeks. I now have over 600 rounds of .22 magnums. Anybody need some? I’ll cut you a deal.

Lastly, my Texas Tech Red Raiders start Spring Football Practice today and if you pay any attention at all to college football, you know that our new coach is “hotter than your coach”, or at least that’s what the pink t-shirts say. Kliff Kingsbury is 33 years old, single and not a bad looking guy. He is a Tech alum and was Mike Leach’s first uber-passer in Lubbock. He’s got swagger. (I for one think swagger is so 2012 and may not survive 2013…can’t wait to see what replaces that word. I wish we would go back to using “uber”. That’s it…uber-swagger. He’s got uber-swagger.). Our Coach K wears rolled up jeans, skinny ties, and Oakley sunglasses while sporting a two or three day old growth of facial hair that always looks perfect. He tweets and uses phrases like “street cred”. Last year, as an offensive coordinator, he coached Johnny Manziel, the Heisman Trophy winner over at the Texas pig farmers and sheep lovers agricultural and mechanical institute. We are glad that our Coach K did not lose his swagger by staying there too long and has returned to the cool school where kids drink and fornicate in the shadow of Buddy Holly’s statue. In a few months we’ll see if he really can coach football. And if wins 10 or more games, I may even wear one of those pink t-shirts.

Next time, I promise to organize my thoughts and produce something more worthwhile and relevant to our journey in this life … or maybe even headhunting.