A former player of mine -- I coached for 10 years, largely throughout college. But a former player of mine died recently. Dropped dead about five months before his wedding. He was engaged to be married. He was healthy, or appeared to be, and he just dropped dead. Age 31, he was gone. And of course, it's brutal. It's all of the things. But one of the silver linings, I guess, was having the chance to reconnect with so many people that I hadn't seen for many many years for his funeral. Which, it just -- it feels weird to say, like, "Yeah, the good news about his funeral is..." Um, but you know, it really was something that like -- it made me think, like, I'm sure that wasn't a unique experience. I haven't lost a lot of people in my age range at this point. And of course 31 is even, uh, before my age range. But I know it's not a unique story, but, uh -- and maybe that's what funerals are supposed to do, to bring us all together and remember that we have each other while paying respects to those we have lost. And so being able to see so many familiar faces from all my years in, in basketball in my, in my home town -- people I hadn't seen in over 10 years, in some cases 15, and some I hadn't even spoken to on the internet even, through social media or otherwise, in almost just as long -- it was, um, good. It was healing. It was a lot of things. And you know, it certainly helped, uh, helped me cope with the loss of someone special.

All summer, I've been working on this farm that's just this older couple that opened up some acres. And I met them through like a gal that I buy my meats from, at -- from her ranch. She said that these people needed some help, and, uh, they're really nice, but they're just like, uh, doomsday preppers. Like, like think the rapture is coming type thing, and I don't know. It just feels kind of like a -- it just feels so ridiculous to me. You know, I'm talking to them, and we were talking about Helene, and she's like, "I just can't believe that the government would do this."And I'm like, "What?" And she was like, "Create these storms." And I'm -- and she was like, "Do you really think that they're, they're creating these storms big enough? Like, do you think they have that power?" And I was just like, "What? No. What --" I don't know, like, what's -- like -- [sigh]. Things are changing. The world is changing. Like, why is it so absurd to like, believe in climate change?

Also I noticed this morning on the news that they were talking about Bone Heads Barbecue in Ypsi being one of the most haunted places in lower Michigan, and I think it's kinda funny that they put that on there every year. But it is interesting to me that they do, because I've been there and I have seen the ghost. Well, I think I've seen the ghost. The -- one of the places that's supposed to be the most haunted in that house is the, uh, ladies room, and back in the 1980s when it was called, uh, something else, the restaurant had a different name, um, we went there for dinner. And, uh, I went to the ladies room and I was washing my hands. And I looked up and there was a lady in the mirror. But there was nobody else with me in the ladies room before, but there was a lady in the mirror and the lady was dressed in, like, turn of the century from the 1900s to -- from the 1800s to the 1900s, turn of the century clothes, which goes along with that building. And she was just there for a second and then she disappeared and that's all I -- and I do think that that place is probably haunted. It's always interesting to me because nobody ever stays in that ladies room very long. You go, you do what you gotta do, and you get out.