The last stretch

I'm in the middle of this hiatus, unlike most coaches who are in the middle of heading down to Atlanta for Emory. The closest I've ever gotten to the Georgia gala is when Toast and Speedy almost went, until they learned that they had Regents exams they couldn't miss, the blighters. I mean, I had never really wanted to go (the thing seems to take itself way too seriously for my taste), but I had finally given up the fight, and lo and behold, at the last minute, nothing happened. My feelings at being stymied were a mixture of joy and rapture that has bouyed me since in continuing to not go. I have plenty of other trips if I need to travel with the odd debater. For that matter, I have plenty of odd debaters, but you knew that already. And besides, now that Cruz has that new PCMIA card that plugs him directly into the Force, I don't have to go anywhere anymore. I can just stay home and have the tournament wash over me, or better yet, I can have it steam around me like a Finnish sauna as Cruz tosses hot news onto the cold rocks of my interest. Aaahhhhhh.......

So for me, as I say, it's a hiatus. And it is the beginning of the last stretch of the year. The younger team members are about done, except for those going to States. The older team members have a handful of qualifiers to fight through. And then there's TOCs, of course (for which I need to make reservations soon; I have no idea what I'm waiting for). So the tone of the meetings changes. There's still some general stuff to cover, of course, and the March-April topic (and, presumably, the CatNats topic). But the momentum is slowing. Not to put too fine a point on it, but one of my friends actually suggested that we head to the driving range yesterday. I fought off the temptation and worked instead on some MHL odds and ends, but if that wasn't a sign of spring, I don't know what is.