Pennyrile Pick and Roll Headquarters Partially Destroyed

I had planned to see Warren Central at Franklin-Simpson on Tuesday night. I assume that the game was canceled, but I don't know for certain.

At 8:30 Tuesday morning a massive oak tree fell and destroyed a substantial portion of my house. It did serious structural damage, and as the day went on we figured out that more and more of my home was uninhabitable. My insurance company dispatched a contractor that cut the tree off and out of the house and secured the structure so that it will not suffer any additional water damage. A large portion of the house will have to be rebuilt, and I had to abandon my home office, which is where I also work my regular job when I'm not on the road.

We've landed at a Drury Inn in Bowling Green, and it may end up being our home for a couple of months.

I'm still going to try to blog some games, but I don't know how consistent I'll be. I might do more. I figure I'll get real bored sitting around a hotel room. I may become the official blogger of the Greenwood Gators since I'm practically within walking distance of the school.

I'm hoping all this crappy weather clears out of here so I can go to more basketball games. I'll be at the Warren Central-Bowling Green game on Friday night and at the State Farm Shootout at Bowling Green High on Saturday.

I might post some of the photos I took of the damage to Pick and Roll HQ.

Last year we bought my little boy a real basketball goal. He loves it. His sister loves it. My kids and the neighborhood kids play basketball throughout the spring and summer on it. Last spring as I worked in my office with the windows open I could hear my little boy pretending he was Ty Rogers and hitting last second shots to win NCAA ballgames. It was a touching moment because I remember pretending to be certain basketball players and winning big ballgames. I guess the torch is passed.

When I surveyed the damage to my house I walked around to where the basketball goal is. It was unharmed by the massive branches that seemed to embrace it. I quietly said, "Thank God!" Yeah, that's what I did. I thought about how upset my kids would be if their basketball goal was mangled or destroyed. Sure, it could be replaced. Sure, I was standing in the midst of destruction. I guess that basketball goal was just a small victory in what was quickly becoming a major set-back. I don't sweat the material things. My house can be repaired. We lost none of our heirlooms or irreplaceable belongings. None of us were hurt (it could've been fatal if it happened a few minutes earlier).

I nearly cried thinking about those warm days in the spring when Bowling Green was washed in the euphoria of Ty Rogers' heroics in Tampa and my little boy pretending to be a hero and winning game after game on his very own basketball goal.

Thank God.