Hill-Topics
I used to think that people who own pickups were the lucky people. Then I realized that the luckier people have friends who own pickups. But when we heard the diesel engine revving outside the house Saturday morning, I saw for myself that the lucky-duckiest people have a friend who owns
Looking out the window, we saw someone shoveling big scoops of snow off our neighbor's driveway. I put on my coat, grabbed my camera, dashed out the door. Here's a guy making a ton of money, I thought. I bet he's shoveling it in.
The man at the controls was Todd Arnold of Hillsboro. His wife, Sandy, is librarian at Hillsboro Elementary School and coach of the high school volleyball team. Todd has been shoveling snow for people for as long as he's been in the construction business, about 15 years. And come to find out, he doesn't charge a dime for doing it.
"It's just kind of a thing we do for customers and friends and neighbors," said Arnold, who lives on Cedar Street, on the other side of town. "This is where my daughter goes to day-care, and they're just good friends of ours," he explained.
"It takes about 10 minutes."
I wanted to get a picture of this snow-shoveling Good Samaritan, but darned if my camera didn't start fogging up about that time. Sometimes it takes a few minutes to get it acclimated to the sub-freezing temperatures. But by then, Todd was done with his friend's driveway and was getting ready to leave. When I told him I hadn't gotten a picture yet. He said, "Well, why don't I do your drive?"
I said, "Well my wife won't like it much. She wants me to get some exercise." We laughed. He revved the diesel. Ten minutes later, my driveway was clear.
The camera lens was clear. But he was gone.
* * * * *
I remember the one time I tried shoveling snow for money when I was a kid. I remember going to the biggest driveway in the neighborhood, a zillion miles long. The owner of the house said, "Sure, kid! I'll pay you to shovel my drive!"
I was in business! And I went to town! In my mind, I spent the money on all sorts of age-appropriate items. Then I got cold. My fingers froze beneath my gloves, my toes went numb in my boots. After toiling like a child coal miner for hours, I finished.
I knocked on the door.
He said, "Thanks kid," and handed me a roll of money.
I was excited! I unrolled the wad!
I'd made three bucks.
* * * * *
Speaking of fruitless endeavors, the router on my computer at the Star-Journal office broke down last week. It just stopped working. For those of you who aren't as digitally savvy as your grandchildren, a router is like a thingamajig. And without a router, a computer will work but it won't route, so the stories and pictures we put in there during the week won't go out over the Internet like they normally do.
Without a router I was without a doubt ready to pout. In fact, I did more than pout. But this is a family newspaper, so we won't go there. What happened was a mess, I'll tell you.
We had to order a new router, but while it was in route, we had to find another route for our correspondents to route their articles and photos to us. So we converted our home computer for that use. E-mails were rerouted to my home e-mail. All of the photos and stories were written from the house. Suffice to say that from a production standpoint, last week's paper was the paper from hell-o?
Is that the FedEx truck?
No?
You mean we're going to have to do without a router again this week? Well, maybe we can go through it all again.
If you're reading this, we did.
* * * *
It's great to see someone's hard work pay off, isn't it? That's why I had so much fun watching Hillsboro High School senior JuliAnne Chisholm set an all-time scoring record this past Friday at the Trojan Classic Basketball Tournament. (See story on the sports page).
JuliAnne made the opening basket for her team, and just kept making them. She was clearly in the zone, which is that mystical place athletes go where everything that is so hard for most of us, like shooting a basketball, becomes so easy for them. To basketball players in this state of mind, the basketball hoop looks a lot bigger than it really is, and they can't seem to miss it.
Toward the end of the game, it was obvious that JuliAnne was having a sensational scoring night. The scorer got word to the Hillsboro bench somehow that she had 38 points. One more would tie the record at 39. Two more would break it.
With only a few seconds left in the game, JuliAnne was fouled in the act of shooting and was awarded two shots from the free-throw line. She bent her knees and pushed the ball. Swish! And then she did it again, easy as pie.
Her coaches and teammates were proud of her.
She got a big hug from her brothers, too.
It was a moment to remember. But knowing JuliAnne, I'm sure she would have traded some of those 40 points for a few more points the following night, when the Trojans came from behind but fell short in the championship game, losing by three.
JuliAnne is the kind of athlete who'd rather win a championship than set a scoring record, any day. With the way the Trojan girls are playing, the chances are good that she'll get another chance before the season ends.
* * * * *
Speaking of basketball, we now have a Bulldog cheerleader in the house.
Our youngest daughter, Jillian, cheered for the McPherson College basketball teams this past week as the newest member of the Bulldog cheerleading squad. She transferred to McPherson College, and is already cheering, even before classes begin.
Seeing our daughter doing what she loves to do was inspiring for my wife, Claire, and I. After getting her too-big cheerleading uniform perfectly altered by a Hillsboro High School teacher, she looked great.
We took pictures, of course, and sent them out to all our kin.
I'm not sure where I'll be sitting on Thursday night, when McPherson hosts Tabor College. Hopefully the Tabor folks will understand that, at least when the opponent is the Bulldogs, I'll be cheering for the cheerleaders cheering for the other side.
— GRANT OVERSTAKE
