Basketball and summer

It was 34 degrees this morning in Idaho Falls. As I desperately cling to the last vestiges of summer, I find a lot of joy in this video from Dude Perfect, an organization devoted to helping Africa and making crazy basketball shots.

I honestly can't think of a more fun way to spend June through August.

Fare thee well, temperatures above 40 degrees.

Rodeo thoughts

As part of my internship with the Post-Register, I'm covering the Idaho State High School Rodeo Finals this week. To be honest, I'd never even been to a rodeo before yesterday.

Unfortunately, like most outdoor sporting events so far this summer, it was freezing. Cold wind, overcast sky, everyone wearing heavy coats and many had gloves.

Good ridin' and ropin' weather, I suppose. :)

Anyway, watching the high school students get out there and try to tie up a goat in under five seconds or rope a calf in under 10, I realized how small the window is in rodeo.

A kid can spend weeks and months practicing and working on an event, and then he or she has one, maybe two shots, at getting it right in front of a couple thousand people against other kids who have worked as hard as they have.

Talk about stress. I doubt I could rope the hind legs of a calf in a hundred tries (much like my attempts at slacklining), and here these teenagers are getting it done in one shot. But at the same time, there were plenty of competitors who didn't get it done, and I can't imagine it was for lack of effort or preparation.

It's like if the NBA Finals consisted of Kobe Bryant shooting a single free throw... into a moving hoop. And then Ray Allen gets a single free throw attempt into the moving hoop. Whoever gets the ball into the hoop first, wins the whole deal.

Small window, indeed.

Anyway, fun times. I'm heading down again either Thursday or Friday to do an interview or two.