March Madness by Liz Flaherty

Congratulations to all county basketball teams for the skill, sportsmanship, and spirit of competition they've shown this season. 

The term March Madness means different things to different people, doesn't it?

To a lot of people, it has to do with basketball. While the NCAA uses the phrase, I will always prefer high school. Although the tournaments don't start in March, they end then, so I'm good with calling it March Madness. I remember sectional time from when I was in elementary school, when the schools in what became the North Miami district were still separate. It always snowed. 

Always. 

I can still feel, even 55 years later, the excitement at our school when the Warriors went to the semi-state. I don't think we used the term awesome in those days, but it most certainly was that. 

I remember when our kids played high school sports--game nights were set aside. If anything else happened on those nights, we didn't know about it. We were on the bleachers. It didn't all happen in March, of course, and it wasn't just basketball, but it was one of the most fun parts of the madness that is parenting. 

But there's more to March Madness than fun and excitement, slushy roads, and sump pumps working away in basements. More than planning the garden and flowerbeds and bemoaning the approach of mowing season. This March, there are train derailments added to the mix, deepening of our country's political morass, and shootings. Always shootings--we hardly even flinch when we read about them or hear about them in the news. Maybe they're not madness anymore; maybe they're the status quo. 

And then there's tonight. Or, actually, 2:00 tomorrow morning. When we will change times yet again. 

The real madness, for me, starts when I get up tomorrow morning and it's an hour later than it actually is. And goodness knows when I'll want to go to bed. As a retired person, I will admit that it should not matter what time it is. I don't have to set an alarm clock, I go to bed whenever I please, and I eat when I'm hungry. (Yes, way too often and too much, but we're not going there today.)

The autumn change is supposed to keep kids from getting on buses or walking or driving to school in the dark. Frankly, I don't know why it's okay for them to drive, walk, or board buses in the dark in March, but apparently it's safe then. 

I don't have a good windup here, since there is no solution to the time change issue until the members of the morass I mentioned above decide it matters enough to do something about it. I hope you don't mind it as much as I do and that your March Madness has more to do with basketball and flowers than things to complain about. 

Stay safe. Have a good week. Be nice to somebody.

The Farmhouse Cafe offers home cooking, good coffee, and pleasant conversation. It's located at 97 W. Harrison St. in Denver--on the main drag, catty corner from A Li'l off the Top. They have specials every day and are open from 6:00 AM till 2:00 PM Monday through Saturday.