Welcome to April. The month charged with providing showers to supply May with flowers. The transitional and temperamental conditions of April make for some miserable conditions for athletics in the Dakota’s. Track, baseball, softball, tennis, and golf in April are no fun to play, nor much fun to watch.

Fun or not, we play, and we watch. Is play without fun, really play? It has always miffed me a bit, as a competitor and as a spectator, when the objective of a competition was reduced to a matter of enduring it until it’s over, reduced to going through the motions rather than competing.

It’s akin to “killing time”. Time is not in need of killing, it dies much to readily on its own. So it goes.

Players, coaches, parents, spectators, bus drivers, concession workers, etc., all these people, putting all this time and effort into preparing for, and attending these competitions, in return for what? Frostbite? Windburn? Tepid slushburgers? Frozen licorice whips?

Meeting for the sake of meeting, also falls into this dastardly realm of blindly slaughtering time. In my line of work, the pandemic was useful in curtailing some of this senseless slaughter. Post-pandemic, we meet when we “need” to meet. Novel idea. Thank you COVID-19.

I recently attended a conference in Chicago, a conference consisting of a variety of educational and informational sessions. Meetings that I was pleasantly surprised to find were quite useful, thought-provoking, and interesting. A good use of my time.

I had passed through Chicago before, but had never had the chance to hangout and explore a bit. In comparison to New York City, I found Chicago to be “quaint” and easy to navigate.

Although, it was easy to navigate, whenever I’m in a big city, I always think about chase scenes in movies or television shows. Sadly, I’ve never been chased, or been the chaser, in a big city, but I have a suspicion that the onscreen depictions aren’t a very accurate portrayal of the actuality of the matter.

Cars don’t go very fast when they can’t move. I’ve never found car chase scenes all that interesting, but I suppose an onscreen car chase that consisted of someone leisurely strolling up to a car stuck in traffic wouldn’t be all that exciting for all involved?

Foot chases aren’t much more interesting than car chases, but they are equally improbable. It’s hard enough for two people that are trying to find one another in the hustle and bustle of big city sidewalks to do so, so I don’t understand how one couldn’t successfully evade their pursuer in such mix and mangle of folks?

Besides, either the chaser or the chased would either pull a hamstring or experience so much chafing from running in pants not designed to be ran in, that the chase would be over in about 2-blocks. On a side note, watching people run through airports is one of the greatest pleasures of air travel.

I suppose there’s only one way to answer these questions. Next trip should be exciting. I’m sure the police will understand…if they catch me.