Category Archives: football

football, mama kat, vain, writer's challenge

The Vain Blindsided Ego

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Time once more for Mama Kat’s Writer’s Challenge.

This week the prompts are:

1.) You’re so vain. You probably think this post is about you…don’t you?
2.) Tell us about your trip!
3.) A difficult conversation.
4.) Can you almost stop time with your words? Write about the fastest ride you ever had, but describe only a few seconds of it…as though it was happening to slow motion.
(writingfix.com)
5.) Who blind-sided you? Write about a time someone caught you totally off guard.
(writingfix.com)

I will cogitate and then scribe, scribble, set forth, type, etc. on #1 and #5 for the nonce.

#1 – I don’t think the post is about me, I know it is! After all, there could be no more interesting subject for a post than the illustrious trio of me, myself, and I.

Your post is about women’s feminine products – it is still about me. I just know it. Even if your post is about some horrible TV show I have never seen such as American Idol or Lost or The Bachelor or … I still know it is about me, if for no other reason than to annoy me.

Every since the moment of my birth, I’ve known that it is all about me. There was never the slightest doubt in my mind. But I am glad that you are finally catching on, it is tiring to keep reminding everyone to stay on topic -ME!!!

Now if you don’t mind, I have to get back to checking out what everyone is saying about me.

#5 – Blindside

Verb 1. blindside – catch unawares, especially with harmful consequences;
2. blindside – attack or hit on or from the side where the attacked person’s view is obstructed

So let’s go with a combination of definitions 1 and 2.

Way back in the time of the dinosaurs, I played football. It was so long ago that it was in the first years of allowing freshman to play on the varsity teams. I was one of the fortunate (or unfortunate) persons selected to play on the varsity during my freshman year. Given that it was the first year that frosh were allowed to play varsity, there was a certain amount of animosity from the upperclassmen about the intrusion onto their turf.

One fine day we were practicing kickoff coverage. You know, where you run like mad at each other from great distances with the goal of killing each other and then tackling the guy with the ball. The whistle blew signaling the end of the drill and I started to relax when I heard my name shouted from behind me. I turned just in time to be blindsided by the person whose place I had taken. He had a 30 yard run to get up to speed and imparted all of his momentum to me. I must have flown 20 feet through the air to land on my butt. Of course, the perpetrator was laughing his rear end off. He thought it was pretty funny.

I filed his poor behavior away under the revenge area of my mind and continued on. The chance for revenge came the very next day during practice, but I didn’t even get a chance to do anything. Seems that his behavior wasn’t well accepted by his classmates (and my teammates) and they took turns blindsiding him in every drill we did that day. He wasn’t real bright and didn’t catch on until near the end of practice and so suffered a number of trips through the air. I actually felt a bit sorry for him.

I never had another bit of trouble with him. It was a great lesson to me about the power of teammates.

Now I come prepared for all blindsides, for in politics and fund raising, everything is allowed. {*grin*}

football, weather

Cool at last …

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Cool at last, cool at last, good gosh almighty, cool at last  … (with apologies to Dr. Martin Luther King for paraphrasing and parodying)

Last night we got more rain, making a total of an inch and a half over two days. Understand that we normally get less that 12-14 inches a year our here. June was one of the wettest Junes on record here. July was pretty wet as well. August is getting up there now too. But that has nothing to do with today’s topic per se. The key is that the rains have been cold and so cooled it off. Today it barely got above 70 and after all the days in the 80-105 range, it is a real cause for celebration.

My friend T calls this time of year (although normally in September) when the nights get cool and the days are comfortably nice as “sleeping weather.” The days are perfect for getting things done; you feel energized with the ebbing of the heat. And the nights, oh my gosh the nights! They cool off and you can sleep the sleep of the dead and finally even use a *blanket*.

As you might guess, this is one of my favorite times of year. It signals the end of the drear heat of summer, but announces the beauty of the Indian summer that is now at hand. Maybe I am too close to the patterns of the weather, but I love the changes as the seasons pass. I especially love this season because it is associated in my mind with the start of football. The agony of practices and the joy of games, all of it. And it also means that we have only a while before frost  followed by real cold weather arrives

So what season is your favorite?

(L is still home and her brother and family are here visiting from Connecticut. L’s niece is preparing to head off to college in a few weeks and it’s fun to hear that excitement from a youngster. It’s also clear that girls and boys look at the process and what is important very differently. Boys seem to be concerned with who has the stereo and who has the xbox and … Girls seem to worry about things that most boys don’t think about – like what color themes for the room and which roomie is bring the iron and … 

Life will be returning to normal tomorrow and maybe I’ll even have a longer post. {*grin*})

football, misc

Monday, Monday, ….

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Today seemed like a Monday all day long. Which is pretty much normal since it was indeed Monday last time I checked. I could be wrong, but I really don’t think so.

Today was one of those funky days where it was unseasonably warm, but the continuous breeze still made it feel cool. But at least it *was* warm (and sunny at times). While we were walking in the park, Molly was very disappointed that she didn’t spot a single squirrel to bark at or try to sneak up on. I figure they were all up in the top branches of the bare trees sunbathing. Either that or they all mysteriously disappeared overnight.

As we walked around the park, there were a number of other dogs and their people out walking as well. (Note that I have told it as it really is for dogs and their followers.) Some dogs were taking their owners for a run, some were just ambling around hoping to meet other dogs, and one was jogging her off-for-the-break college student mistress in circles. That was the best pair to watch because they would jog for a bit and then one or the other would spot something interesting and stop dead in their tracks. That of course yanked the partner on the other end of the leash around in short order. Then the jog would begin again. I suspect that both the dog and mistress are going to be sore tomorrow.

It seemed to be a day when everyone was out to get some sun before winter gets serious again. Contrast that with the other day when it was cold and dark and dreary and the the wind was blowing all day. The only other people L, Molly, and I saw during our walk that day were the kids that moms drove up to the playground and shoved out of the car. The moms then remained inside on their cell phones. It was funny since there were at least three cars with a chattering mom in each and a dozen kids out playing. The ironic thing is that as small as this town is and as many parks as we have, none of them live more than 10 blocks from a park. Why not walk to the park with the kids and kill several birds with one stone. You could even talk on the cell phone if that was your desire. Sometimes I just scratch my head over the behavior I see every day.

This period of the year is nirvana to college football fanatics like myself. One or more bowl games every day for a week a time. I don’t know that it gets any better than this. Contrast that with the ugly performances by the pro football players on Sunday and you can understand why I like the college game better. College football is one part skill and nine parts emotion. It all depends on which team gets emotionally up for the game who will win. And it also means that one emotional play can turn the whole game around.

L heads back to the mountains in the morning and I’m already missing her before she has gone. It is amazing how much you come to miss being able to just walk down the hall and share a thought after 33+ years of marriage. Somehow phones and emails just aren’t the same. I have a college buddy who is a traveling salesman. I don’t think he has spent more than a week at a time at home for years. In fact, I’m not sure he has spent more than a month without being out of the country in that time period. I don’t know how he and his spouse do it. Now that their daughter is in graduate school, I suspect they will travel together on at least some of his trips.

Well, time to get back to reality. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do. (I know that doesn’t leave out much, but like I keep telling the reporter for the local paper – if you find me nude in front of the bar at 2am, I’ve probably decided that I am done being mayor.)

football, reporter, son, weather

Yo Ho Ho

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I am contemplating just making my titles be something like Monday, Tuesday, etc. It seems that no matter what my intent is when I write the title, the actual blog entry morphs into something else in the process of writing it down. Does that ever happen to you?

Today was a day to enjoy the warm weather before the storm. The adiabatic heating got it up to near 60 today as the cold front pressed in. The forecast for tomorrow has it getting up to a glorious 10 degrees before falling into the minus numbers by 6pm. Quite a change from the 60 of this afternoon. (BTW, the link to a definition of adiabatic heating and cooling is for my wife and others that are curious what it means when I babble on and on.)

I fixed the front yard light, put up some Christmas ornaments, and went walking with Molly the wonder dog. It was a fun way to spend the day outdoors in the sun and warmth. I suspect even the squirrels know the weather is changing. They were all out sunning in the park today as we walked. Of course Molly wanted desperately to go say hi to each and every one of them. And of course they stayed just out of dog reach and chattered. The first dog that learns how to fly is going to be a real surprise for the squirrels.

The son rolled into town yesterday to see some friends. We talked on the phone for a bit in the evening and the next I heard from him was when got here to the house at 5:30 am this morning. He got up and took a shower at 1:30 this afternoon and left. I suspect I’ll see him at early in the morning tomorrow when he gets back in and then tomorrow afternoon when he gets up to head back to college for finals on Monday. Such is the life of a college sophomore sneaking home before finals. Brings back memories doesn’t it?

In other odds and ends, I haven’t heard again from the AP reporter who was down here the other day. I suspect that when she gets the story done or if she has questions will be the next time I hear from her. It’ll be interesting to see what she makes of it. The driving factoid that is behind the interest is that our sales tax revenues and other economic indicators here in the city are within .2% of last year. This is as opposed to the 30-80% drops in many urban cities. I have my own beliefs as to the reasons, but I’ll wait a bit to expound on them.

Let me close by lamenting the lull in college football games. Other than the I-AA (as it used to be called) semi-finals, I’m suffering from withdrawal. I can’t wait for bowl season to start!

football, meeting, weather

Sometimes you win …

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 … and sometimes you lose. Meeting tonight was canceled when one of the other committee members could not make it. So we put it off a week and adjourned to go watch football.

Speaking of football, does anyone else find this year uninspiring with the possible exception of three teams. Even the Broncos are so inconsistent that one is never sure which team will show up in any given game. Fortunately they play in a division where the other teams seem to have self-destructed early and often. So barring a really odd occurrence, they are in the playoffs. The three teams I find interesting this year? The Giants, the Jets, and the Titans. Oh well.

I love the odd weather this time of year around here. Today breezy and overcast, tomorrow up to the mid 60’s, followed by Wednesday when it is not supposed to exceed 30 degrees all day. It could be worse, we could already be buried in snow and the temperature could be in the teens.

Back to the salt mines. The Monday Night Football game is not interesting enough to waste the time watching.