Once again, the best laid plans of mice and men were probably the mice's.

I had no plans to clean yesterday. But that all changed. Very near morning yesterday I decided to lay down and take a short nap. After all I had been up since shortly after midnight. I had left the bedroom door open and the hounds were moving about, especially with the neighborhood's new rogue hound barking throughout the night. Krl had wakened early and the hounds wanted to go out and inventory "their" yard. She got in her wheelchair and let them out. When she let them back in, she wasn't aware that the sprinklers had been on and three of the hounds had been on the back side of the pool, in the mud. By the time she realized the problem, it was Katie bar the door! I don't know how they could track in soo much mud, and they tracked everywhere, even places they normally don't go! Normally we meet them at the door and towel off their feet. I think they may have thought they had a freebie! By the time I got up, Krl was trying to clean the mess. Parts of the floor have been mopped three times already. And of course swept, vacuumed or swiftered. I think once more will get it right. We already had achieved that "clean" squeak when we would walk on it. I think we changed mop water twice. I think one more time with new water and it will be as clean as possible. Thank goodness for tile!

I broke our mop. Krl has never liked it, it is one of those twist and wring mops. Trc had purchased it last year while we were gone. I personally like the concept, but I would love to go to the janitorial supply and get an "industrial strength" mop and mop bucket. Complete with "wringer". Course then I would need some of those "slick when wet" signs. Hey if it's worth doing it's worth doing right!

I do know I have found nothing, absolutely nothing that bothers my back like a day long encounter with a mop.

Fact is, my back is what woke me this morning. Stiff and cracklety. Yuk.

I was channel surfing on the office television and couldn't find anything on that caught my fancy so I went to ESPN. This is the time of year I like college basketball on TV. March Madness! (By the way that term was first used in 1978).

The program on was called Knight School. It was about a boot camp that Bobby Knight had at Texas Tech. Fifty+ guys showed up to compete for one "walk-on" spot on the basketball team. It was pretty interesting. It went over the course of several days and included many workouts like what they would be required to do on the team. Conditioning, weight room, and on court. In addition to this they were put through other training like teamwork and trust training.

For teamwork training they had half tubes about three foot long and a marble. They had to transverse a distance while continually rotating, back to front with their tubes, keeping the ball rolling forward at all times. It was a lot like leap frog while maintaining forward motion of the marble. If they dropped the marble they had to begin over. They worked on it until they could maintain the roll of the marble and complete the distance.

The trust training involved ropes. The players wore protective head gear and had a climbing harness that was tethered through overhead pulleys. They climbed to the top of a telephone pole (it had steps bolted on it) and had to stand on top of the pole, balanced, and do a count down and jump out , grabbing a trapeze. Next step was to turn loose and allow the group on the ground to slowly and safely let them down.

Coach Knight may be hard. He may be volatile. He may demanding. But he develops more than basketball players.

For me, the most moving part of the program was when he was talking with them about sacrifice and perseverance. He had asked them to define persevere, and after that he gave them his own definition. He then told them the story of the Indiana Hoosier's 1981 run to the NCAA Championship. He spoke of the MVP of that team, Landon Turner. Coach Knight said without a doubt, Landon Turner was the best basketball player in the nation and also without a doubt he would be the number one draft pick for the NBA. Turner was looking to a future that would include money and fame. Before he achieved any of this, Turner was involved in an auto accident that left him paralyzed from the chest down. It was at this point Coach Knight brought out the Dallas Wheelchair Mavericks basketball team, who had won four of the last six national titles in the wheelchair league. The athletes trying out played wheelchair basketball against these guys. (The DWM's were good too!).

Coach Knight's talk ended with a story about a gathering at Indiana where he asked all the people who had participated in athletics there, to stand up. A large number of people stood, Coach Knight looked around and saw Landon Turner sitting in his wheelchair and Coach Knight asked Landon if he was not going to stand. Landon gave Coach Knight what the Coach considers to be the best line ever. When asked if he was going to stand, Landon replied, "I'm standing in my heart."

That really struck a note with me. "I'm standing in my heart". I can't fathom what it would be like to have been on the pinnacle of a sport and then be relegated to a wheelchair. I'm sure that in his mind Landon can do everything he use to do, and more. His body just refuses to obey.

It doesn't matter what I can do. It doesn't matter what my appearance might be. Because inside, in my heart of hearts, is what makes me what I am.

I want to be "standing in my heart" for what is right, what is true, what is important.

May our hearts be right today, and everyday!

FATHER, not me, but YOU in me.