Status Oh No

Tonight, my eldest daughter, who is nine, was in her first talent show ever, at her school. She sang "America the Beautiful" alone in front of a couple of hundred people. As I work a long way away from where I live, it takes about 100 minutes to commute, assuming things go well. The show began at 7, and my day job doesn't usually end until 5:30. It was also something of a hair pull of a day, really... but by working through lunch and just hustling, I was able to get out early enough to catch the earlier train.

Things were looking good until about 6:30, when the train began to crawl... and a trip that's supposed to take 40 minutes wound up taking 70, which meant that not only did I miss her big moment, but so did my wife, who was waiting to pick me up at the station. I'm told that the Shooter Kid did well, and we'll see the videotape later, but she was in tears afterward, because her parents weren't there for her.

So I'd like to really thank New Jersey Transit for their performance today. With a pair of pliers, and some imagination.

Since my daughter led off the show, there was still an hour-plus of elementary school acts to sit through (yes, I did check my Blackberry for the mobile Web game updates, because I'm just that kind of jerk during your kid's act) until I could track her down and tell her she was great and help her get her over the disappointment. Ice cream and flowers helped. I think. I did the usual bedtime reading in front of the television with half an eye watching the end of the Sixers season. All in all, not a good night, really.

So here we are again with my team, a first round loser in 6 games despite the absence in Game Six of 2/5ths of the starting lineup for the visiting Orlando Magic. The end came tonight in a game where they trailed for most of the way by double digits, were gashed by one of the very worst players in the NBA (JJ Redick), got next to nothing from starting center Samuel Dalembert (when the team is much better off with Theo Ratliff on the floor, you shouldn't have a job, really), and more or less insulted anyone who paid money to see them not force Game Seven...

(A few brief and bitter words about the Magic. They should win the next round against the staggering survivor of the Bulls-Celtics Jihad, considering that they are going to have a huge advantage in rest, and if the Bulls pull off the upset, home court advantage. They got healthier and better as this series went on, with Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu both getting up to full speed. But I'm not seeing it, because the bench is pretty bad (the reason why they kept blowing big leads), they miss too many free throws, Rafer Alston is going to get eaten alive by either Rajon Rondo or Derrick Rose, and Stan van Gundy is a loathsome piece of crap who has, over the course of this series, managed to bump off Geoge Karl and Phil Jackson from my list of coaches I'd like to throw a brick at. Moving on.)

Well, next year they presumably get Elton Brand back, and have the promise of more development from Marresse Speights, Thaddeus Young and Louis Williams. Maybe that's enough to make them go further. I don't think it's going to help to blow the squad up, and since head coach Tony DiLeo didn't even get a full year, I can't seem them committing radical surgery. But when you lose like this, at home, in the same pattern as last year... well, I'd like to see Dalembert gone by now, of nothing else. You can call him a fall guy; I call him a cancer. Let's see what life is like without him, please. Or see how he does fixing wire problems in Metuchen. That'd help, too.