Reason for a Change-Mitch’s Blog

We went to see the hometown crew, the Bleeding Heartland Flatliners, in their match with Louisville this Saturday nite, what a hoot. I know 3 members of the team, X Libras, Truly F Obvious, and Unicoroner, but had never made it to a match.

The match was held at the Sportsplex on West Second St., what an enormous building. We arrived on time, but the parking lot was filled and we had to park at Twin Lakes. Now I expected this to be the rough and ready tattoo and piercing crew, and they were there, but the mix was much broader. To my surprise the first two people I ran into while parking were Michael Hoff and John Fernandez. so I knew something was going. Later I learned that a leading jammer (don’t ask) and soccer star, is related to Steve Fergeson. So the home town crowd was there in full force, the people you see in Bloomington in the summer are the real homers.

Tony Brewer was one of the three announcers, and he explained the rules before the start, but it went over my head, I guess, because once the match started, I couldn’t stop laughing, I just did not understand what was going on, but it was fast and furious, with each two minute “race” starting just half a minute after the end of the previous one, with a new batch of rollergirls off the bench, and new blocker and jammer. (Blockers are self-explanatory, but the Jammers are the one that the team tries to put out front (they start back from the crowd.) Here is a video of a lap or two, you can hear the crowd and feel the bumps. The gym was rocking for 2.5 hours, they even had a halftime show (with $2.00 beer!)

This event is recommended to one and all, there were plenty of families with kids, oldsters, youngster, and everyone in between. This is bread and circuses for the homies, with a very feminist feel to it, quite the show, I felt proud to be a Hoosier, when I could finally stop laughing.

Eileen, Tim and I went to Nick’s for a benefit for Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard on Thursday night. Raggs has done a great job with the menu, really making their food some of the best in town. The profit from the food and bar, as well as the tips from the waitresses went to the Hubb, they do this each week for one group or another, quite amazing. We filled the back room, folks came and went, and we all had a great time.

On Wednesday, June 4, we had 4 inches of rain in less than an hour, and guess what, the Big Dig did not accomplish its main goal of ending flooding downtown. Apparently the box culvert did not improve the flow, at least not enough to avoid the worst flooding in decades. Cars were floating in the street, people were playing in the street (in the water), and the pace of life slowed just a bit, just for a while.

I put my videos of the flooding on YouTube, here is one:

Here is a slideshow of my pictures of the flood, bigger versions are here

Last night, Eileen and I attended the Changing Gears presentation at the MCPL, and the Green Drink sendoff party at Nick’s. Melissa and Andy are on a great adventure with this ride, I wish the very best for them.

As I was riding home past Ballantine Hall, and I saw the first firefly/lightening bug of the season, so the official first sighting of 2008 is May 29.

I was at work on the Friday before Easter, when peace broke out in front of the army recruiting office on Kirkwood Ave. The people sang, and laid done in front of the door, all in the pouring rain. The 2 police officers there finally walked across the street to Noodles to get a cup of coffee, and then like the rain, it was done.

I serve on the Board of Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard, our community food pantry.

Our philosophy falls some where between the Diggers and Mom. It was founded by single mothers trying help each other and they wanted whole nutritious foods for their families. The cupboard now distributes free food, often organic and locally grown, to anyone in need, no paperwork, authentication, tax forms; nothing but your signature affirming compliance with our guidelines. Like Mom, we want everyone in our family (our community) to be well fed and healthy. We run with minimal staff, our volunteers are the heart of the organization, people helping each other.

We have three parts to the organization’s outreach, our food pantry at 1010S. Walnut, our nutrition education classes, and our community gardens programs.

The vibe at MHC is like a cooperative, people helping each other, we are not a charity. Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard needs to grow, we are the largest distributer using the Hoosier Hills Food Bank, and our customer numbers have grown by 20% in the last year.

At our last board meeting, Sophia Travis came to pick up her husband Greg (who is on the board), and got to hold Rebecca’s son Donovan, I got this great snapshot.

Our next big event is the Harvest Team Breakfast on March 6, 2008, where we ask you to come to an early breakfast, and then ask you for money. I will be contacting you soon to see if you can attend!

We had a light snow in December, and when we came back from North Carolina, it snowed again here in Indiana on New Year’s Day. We woke up late after a great party and Sue and Katie’s, the food and company were great as usual. I went out after lunch time, the snow was big and fluffy, you can see it in many of the pictures on my Picasa album here.

Eileen and I had breakfast at Roots, it was packed and we had to sit at the juice bar to eat. Russel bent our ears for a while, but he had his chef’s coat on, and had to get to the kitchen.

We went to Griffey and walked up and back the north fork of the creek, avoiding the climb up the ridge, as we weren’t really sure where we were going, but we walked about 2 miles or so. I put an album of photos on here.

This is just amazing, compared to a few phone calls Coach Sampson, well, this is funnier!

Bobby Knight (adults only) video

I got a lesson in naroclepsy yesterday, I was walking to the Optometry School, and had just come out of the forest near Jean-Paul’s “Adam and Eve” sculpture, and I saw two people walking, a woman and her grown son. I heard the man say “oh-oh”, and she turned around and caught him as he went limp. She was standing there holding him, and that time I and another guy asked if she needed help. She seemed ok, but then admitted that she did. Her son weighed about 250 pounds, and the three of us were able to get him to the ground safely.

She told us he had narcolepsy, and that they were headed to the doctor for a checkup. He soon woke up, and while sitting on the ground for a moment, he gave us the details of what it is like, and why it happens. His body was not secreting hpyocretins, horomones which are made in the hypothalamus.

Here is what Wikipedia says about the newly discovered relationship of hypocretins to naroclepsy: “Orexin/hypocretin neurons strongly excite various brain nuclei with important roles in wakefulness including the dopamine, norepinephrine, histamine and acetylcholine systems and appear to play an important role in stabilizing wakefulness and sleep.”

He can tell when it is coming on, but only by a few seconds; he’s had quite a few concussions. He also said he is fully conscious during the spell. All his muscle tone leaves his body, and he falls, the body is asleep, but his mind is awake.