A
non-stop schedule
The first week of November represents a lot of items for this sports guy.
First, I moved to Crawfordsville the first week of November a lot of years ago, and this year it is 35 trips around the sun since I packed up a different jalopy and moved here. It has been and continues to be an adventure.
Sometimes I think I’m driving around the sun, with all the games and places...
November also changes the sports calendar, as we don’t go outside as much (except for NFL and college football of course) and the indoor sports get going.
That has been the case here, as I was north to Chalmers for a North girls basketball game Tuesday and head to another game tonight.
There are a bunch of Pacers games on my schedule this season, as I am working at most of the home games this year with the Pacers production crew. This is going to cut back on a few high school games this winter and a few more college games, but the calendar has filled up quickly. I have already had to start turning games down.
So this week goes high school Tuesday and Thursday, Pacers Wednesday and Friday, and then Saturday I head to the airport for the first of what looks like three trips to New Orleans in the next five weeks for NFL.
Oh yes, there was a trip to Purdue, and then another trip, connected to college football.
I worked at the Boilers game last Saturday for national radio.
It was a noon game, which meant getting done in time to get to Indy for a Saturday night flight to Kansas City and NFL duties out there.
The game went well, the weather was nice, and for all Purdue fans, they won.
We packed up our gear and headed in different directions.
I was still getting our of game traffic Saturday when I got a phone call.
Then I got another one.
First, these were numbers that are not on my contact list, so I didn’t want to talk insurance or siding with a random caller. There were also too many cars to be distracted.
My surprise came when I got out of traffic on 231 and was heading south.
Both of those calls left messages, and it turned out that it was two of the guys on the radio crew I had just walked away from.
As they were packing up their gear, they discovered a power cord for a laptop – laying right where I was sitting!
My heart fell out of my chest as I returned the calls to acknowledge their helpful info. My work bag was in the back of the car, so I couldn’t check, but I was disappointed in myself that I had packed up my laptop but left the power cord.
So I had to make mental plans on the drive to borrow a cord at the truck in KC, and then had to call Purdue to have them hold on to the darn thing so I could go back and get it Monday, because I did not have time to turn around and go back. I had a flight to catch.
So, I found a guy in the football office that would hold on to the cable, and I kept going.
You can imagine my surprise when I got to the airport and opened the bag to find my power cord fine and dandy, sitting right where I stuffed it a couple hours back.
One problem solved, another mystery opened up.
I put the mystery on the back burner and went to my flight.
We had a great game and a great broadcast Sunday and except for a 90 minute delay in leaving, the trip home was uneventful.
Monday I drove back to Purdue to solve the mystery. I went back to the press box and tracked down the power cord, and the mystery still lives on. That power cord is a nearly perfect match to the one I already had!
I asked the Purdue guys if they were missing one — maybe it been left in that booth. No one wanted it.
I called the radio engineer back and asked if maybe he had come up short on a power cord, and he said no. He had checked closely before calling me.
So I ended up with an extra power cord.
I lost one last May at the track — maybe it found its way to West Lafayette.
Speaking of the track — how about the news Monday? The Hulman family sells the Speedway after owning it for 74 years. A huge change there. We shall see how that impacts next May...
So, if it’s not at a game, or another game, I’ll have to catch up with everyone at a game.
Safe travels.
Jeff Nelson works in national television. His column appears each Thursday in the Journal Review.
