NKU Basketball, Cincinnati Museum Center, Visit To BSA Troop

NKU Basketball

We visited Truist Arena to see NKU Men’s Basketball Team play after a nice lunch at Cracker Barrel. My niece sang the National Anthem with her school choir. It was a good time. It is a nice arena and a great asset to our area. The boys also wanted to see a real basketball game after we saw the Harlem Globetrotters not long ago and the price per tickets was very affordable. Both boys did pay attention to the game, and Teddy thought it was cool seeing the band play (he wants to play saxophone in high school). Ben is the ball player of the family and loves to hoop more than any other sport. We also took a selfie with the mascot and visited the trophy room, which the boys thought was cool to see.

It would be great for this team to become more competitive one day. Perhaps some time from now that will happen. Perhaps they will join a larger conference, or their conference will mature. You don’t really know any more honestly. It does seem like NIL money and the Transfer Portal will pull talent up from these conferences into the more competitive ones and all of this is such a black box that nobody knows what will be next. We are not far off from the first million dollar athlete signing and I am curious how that is going to be viewed. I am of course, as I’ve said in this blog, a proponent of athletes being paid. I used to be in the “they’re getting scholarships” camp but then became shocked when I saw that the NCAA March Madness Tournament received a billion dollar plus offer for broadcasting rights. Not to mention some football coaches, like Dabo Swinney, being against the payments while at the same time bringing home multi-million dollar contacts makes you realize he’s more about protecting his slice than protecting the game.

Visit To Cincinnati Museum Center

We like the CMC quite a bit. There wasn’t anything new that we saw here. We came here just to get out of the house, and since it was still snowing, we didn’t have too many other options. We decided to just go to a few parts of the museum and really spend time there. Ted wanted to see the engineering/applied science portion of the natural history museum so we spent most of our time there. There are only a few things available there but with enough tenacity one can find plenty to do with them. Unfortunately Graeter’s was closed so we didn’t get our ice cream. Ultimately I would like to see more exhibits be introduced here. There is room to expand and it would be nice to see this become a nationally recognized museum like Indianapolis Children’s, which is one of our favorites also.

I am curious what else CMC could add to its exhibits to make it more unique? I thought about this some and came up with a great solution. Why not build a massive play area under the rotunda? Every museum or zoo we’ve visited always has a play area for the kids (we’ve been to quite a few so far). It is an enormous space that could house an exceptionally large, multi level Jungle Gym. There is the tree house in the kids space which they all love but this would be much larger. Of course, given the acoustics this may make the area the loudest public space in the country but I still think it would be a cool use of the space.

Visit To BSA Troop

Our first visit to a BSA troop. We did camp with them this past summer but beyond that we’ve not done much with them. The Scouts went around different stations learning some skills with the older Troop members, forming into their own patrols. The parents went and talked to the leaders about what to expect in the BSA. I am really excited. This transition for Ted should be great. I look forward to him learning independence and self reliance. I also look forward to transitioning to a leader here and being able to step back from my normal duties. Don’t get me wrong, it was an amazing six years leading Cub Scouts but it is an intense effort.

Focuses

I recently visited a doctor and received blood-work. I switched offices to be closer to home so this was a new patient orientation. I decided to take full advantage of it. I wrote down everything I wanted to discuss on an index card and reviewed it with the doctor. She was impressed I actually wanted to take this serious and improve my health. I really want a healthy aging strategy and I think we came up with it. I have some work to do but I do have a plan. Luckily I have access to plenty of exercise opportunities and nutritious food so I think I can get on track with her suggestions.