Acknowledging the rather large caveat that October isn’t here yet and could be anywhere weather and temp wise, it was 38 this morning when we came down to let the dogs out, making it very October-like. Yesterday the temp didn’t get out of the 60’s and it’s more of the same today, despite sunny skies.
Have to admit, I like it.
Back in the Spring, I recall the boy arguing about his bedtime. With the days getting longer and their bedtime of 8, he argued that he should be allowed to stay up later because it was still light out when he was going to bed. I recall being impressed because he was not just whining for a later bedtime- he was actually making an argument. For the record, we relaxed the bedtime thing when Summer vacation started.
What I didn’t, and likely couldn’t, realize at the time was that his new found ability was just going to be the tip of the ice berg. He has changed a great deal in a short amount of time. Those changes continue and the Wife and I are working to guide him along his way.
There’s really only 1 thing you need to know at this point: half the league is undefeated and half the league is winless. Being Week 1, speculation much beyond that is silly.
I will say, however, that I hope Rex Ryan’s portion of crow was tasty.
Couldn’t Calvin Johnson’s non-touchdown-catch been ruled, in fact, a catch by virtue of his being tackled immediately while in possession of the ball in the endzone?
The ball didn’t come out until well after he was down. In any other circumstance I can think of a play is ruled a touchdown and the play is over immediately. So if the ball crosses the goal line while in an offensive players possession, it’s a touchdown and their can be no fumble- even if there is no tackle. If the player is going out of bounds but is able to get the ball across the goal line prior to touching down out of bounds, it is a touchdown.
Some may object on “football move” grounds, which is the standard for field-of-play catches. But I don’t see how this can apply in the endzone since there is no football move- the offensive player is in the endzone with the ball which is a touchdown. Period. And anyways, in this case, Johnson was tackled immediately after catching it- so even if this was the normal field-of-play, there was no opportunity for a football move. He was down by contact.
Seems like an arbitrary change from the standard end zone possession rule interpretations.
I caught a little of TWC’s new Storm Riders show. My impression is that it will be a short lived show. Obviously, the whole premise for viewership is adrenaline. The two tornado chasers get as close as they possibly can to the storms and start taking pictures. The problem is, how does this not become “if you see one show, you’ve seen them all?” Sure, it’s different for the two of them every time, but they’re actually doing the chasing.
The other comment I wanted to make was about the editing. They had some incredible pictures and video of tornadoes. But they way the show is edited together, it isn’t possible to actually see anything. The pictures are constantly changing and switching views and angles. They even show still shots taken, but only leave them on screen for a second.
I’m sure the intent is drama. But the effect is frustration. It would be nice, since these two guys are getting phenomenal video of tornadoes, to be able to actually see the storm as they see it- how the debris moves, how the clouds spin around the funnel. Instead, we get at most a few seconds of footage, followed by fancy editing and shot sequences that make it impossible to really see anything of interest.
They probably could have done these guys more justice by giving them a 2 hour show where they narrate their video and explain what they’re doing and feeling. As it is, there just isn’t much to get excited about.
I remember that day with clarity. It was a beautiful sunny day.
I was at work and browsing the web (on a dial-up connection, remember those? HAH!). At that time, I would check the various news sites looking for the latest bit of inanity. I wasn’t a news junkie (I’m still not) but I paid attention to events.
I remember bringing up MSNBC’s site and at that time they would have a single picture and headline to try and grab your attention for a new story. The picture here was an aerial shot of the Twin Towers, and the headline said simply “Plane crashes into World Trade Center.”
I remember my first thought being “Great, some idiot flew into the building.” The picture and headline made it sound like it had been a small private plane. I didn’t even bother mentioning it to anyone else in the office.
Then facts started flowing in and word spread through the company- we’d been attacked by terrorists. A plane had crashed into the Pentagon as well, another plane crashed in Pennsylvania. I remember a TV was setup in the company’s conference room and for the rest of the day, we milled in and out of the room, watching and waiting for the latest bit of news. When we left the room, it wasn’t to work but to talk quietly about what was going on. Little work was done after 10AM that morning.
When the Towers finally fell, there was an audible gasp in the room followed by silence. One of my fellow engineers just put his head down. Talking about it later, I remember him saying simply “It was already bad before that, but when the buildings collapsed … Man, that just made it a lot worse.”
Since that day, we re-elected George Bush and subsequently elected our current President. We’ve warred on 2 countries. I got married on a beautiful Spring day that following April. I’ve now got 2 kids, 2 dogs and a cat. I’ve got 2 birds too- but I remember they were already with me that day nine years ago.
9 years later, I still remember.
The boy returned home today with 3 pennies.
“Where’d you get the pennies from?” the Wife asked.
“I traded them for a quarter” he replied.
I think that means he’s got the same econ acumen as most congressman.
Let the record show that the Saints won last night for the 2010 opener. However, they did it in lackluster fashion. Which probably means we’ll be treated to brilliant opinions about what’s wrong with the Saints and everything they had better get straightened out before it’s too late and the usual post-Super Bowl malaise type stories.
As for Favre, he had a rough night so now everyone will pronounce him too old to play anymore and that the Vikings made a huge mistake going to the lengths they did to get him back.
Until the story changes next week.
One of the gifts the kids got me for my birthday was an RC helicopter:
You see those little missile thingies on the bottom of the ‘copter? They actually fire and are controlled by the remote handset. Both kids have been extremely intrigued by those missiles and want “their turn.” Naturally, I have to wonder if they got the toy with me in mind, or themselves.
Last week ended with a whimper. Friday was a half-day of school and both kids really needed the long weekend. It was obvious, especially for the boy, that the days had taken their toll and they had basically “had it” by week’s end.
This week, the lass has been quite content with going to school. I daresay she even seems to look forward to getting to her class and her teacher. She still has a smile when she gets off the bus at lunch time.
The boy has no compunction voicing his displeasure at going to school. He repeatedly states “I don’t want to go to school.” Initially, I thought he was trying to start an argument. But the way he continues to say it, I now think that it’s a sort of prayer for deliverance. The Wife and I both do our best to ignore him.
He seems to be heading for a showdown. It’s possible that he’s working up the courage for an all out act of defiance one morning where he refuses to go out the door and get in the car. I say this because he’s dragged his feet a little more each day on the way out- like he’s testing the waters so as to measure our reaction. Though whether he’ll take it another step remains to be seen.
We’ve attempted the usual sorts of persuasion to help his attitude, but without much success. The funny thing is he seems to enjoy school once he’s there- it’s just the “getting to there” that’s the issue. It’s possible that he’s just surly in the mornings. But his morning attitude during summer vacation wasn’t this poor.
It’s also possible that it’s part of the process of being a six-year old. But that’s a topic for another post.
That’s the best word for the lass at this point. Once she sets her mind to something, there is absolutely, positively no reasoning her out of it or convincing her otherwise.
This morning she refused to eat her oatmeal breakfast. Why? Not because she doesn’t like oatmeal. But because she wanted waffles. It was protest fast, apparently.
But it’s not limited to food, though that’s a target rich environment. Clothing, shoes, toys, games and other things I’m sure I’ve forgotten to mention all fall prey to her whims. For instance, for most of the Summer, she refused to wear anything on her feet, despite repeated requests and warnings about splinters from our deck. After the first splinter was pulled out, we figured she’d start wearing them. Seems logical, right?
Not the lass. Instead, she now refuses to let anyone but herself remove splinters from her feet. Not only that, but she insists on a very particular set of tweezers for the task.
How can she be stubborn about clothing, you ask?
Certain tops have to be worn with certain bottoms. Don’t dare try to mess with that order, lest ye receive a tantrum and scolding about what shirt she can wear with that bottom.
And she’s only 4.
I’ve tried yet again to create a sourdough starter. Yet again, what appeared to be a decent attempt has utterly failed to yield a starter capable of raising bread dough. My unleavened dough, 4 hours in, sits on the counter as a testament to it’s lack of potency.
At this point, I’ve tried using bottled water, organic flower, and bread flour. I’ve tried using rye flour and leaving it out. I’ve tried seeding the starter with instant yeast. I’ve done all of the above in various combinations with nothing to show for it.
I would be less annoyed by all of this if not for the fact that a couple of years ago I was able to create fantastic sourdough starters that yielded great loaves of bread. Now, it appears that the only starter I can get to successfully work is a rye sourdough.
I’m of the opinion that the flour is to blame. Since sourdough starters essentially activate dormant yeast in flour, my thinking is the flour I’ve been using must not have yeast suitable for creating sourdough. It’s not a particularly satisfying conclusion. For one, King Arthur is the brand that yielded those great starters a couple years ago. For another, it implies that there is nothing to be done to fix the problem, save switching brands for the purpose of creating a starter.
If I’m able to get something useful out of it, I wonder if switching back to KA flour would cause it to go bad? I’d hope not. Of course, first I’ve got to create something worth using.
While reading this QB ranking column from Bill Simmons (which is leagues better than the silly one John Clayton wrote up. For starters, he’s got 14 different categories and he actually makes the list interesting. But I digress…) he mentions that David Tyree hasn’t caught another ball in professional football since his famous “helmet catch” in SB XLII.
For whatever reason, I found this unbelievable. My recollection was that Tyree was an annoyingly effective receiver that year- especially down the stretch where he suddenly became Pro Bowl caliber. Even if he wasn’t on the Giants now, surely he must be somewhere else, right? So I checked it out and sure enough, it’s true- injured in the 2008 pre-season and never played again.
So the final catch of his career is a “football lore” moment, immortalized and over analyzed for the rest of time. The flipside is that, he was a young receiver and it was basically his final play as a professional.
The football Gods are an interesting bunch.
All things considered, it was a most unusual world I stepped into when I came up from the basement.
The guardian sits and protects the treasure chest. It’s an odd sort of treasure chest. One typically conjures an image of an old strap-style chest with metal patches on the corners for reinforcement and a large lock taking some kind of special key. But not this treasure chest. It has no straps or locks or metal patches. It is perfectly smooth with no lid and it is a translucent lime-green color.
As unusual as the treasure chest is, so to is it’s protector. He is wearing a suit of armor. As with the treasure chest, this is not a normal suit of armor. The first striking thing is its color- dark green. The markings on it give its wearer the appearance of enormous muscles in the chest and arms. The bottoms look like a tattered pair of pants, as though they were bursting at the seams because the wearer was so large. He is armed with a gun and fires off the occasional shot to ward off the enemy. POP!
Inside the treasure chest is a solitary item. A battered magic wand, black with colorful streamers flowing from its starry tip. It belongs to the huntress and she is out fighting the forces of darkness.
She has her trusty gun. POP! POP! POP! She blasts away at her foes. She is wearing a blue gown, more suited to going to the ball than fighting beasties. Upon her head rests a matching tiara. She navigates through a landscape filled with giant trees(but not bigger than a giant) with volcanoes and mountains. The volcanoes must be destroyed so they don’t explode.
And what are they protecting the treasure from?
Bad animals.
More specifically, all animals except African Greys, lizards and one elephant. Everything else is bad. The lizards are their allies. They change color and sneak up on the bad elephants, climbing onto their backs and scratching them.
But now the huntress has returned from her patrol. She seems perplexed- something is bothering her. She and the guardian begin an intense conversation about the elephants. She does not think they are bad, but he is not convinced. Finally, he relents and nows agrees that all elephants are good, except for the one dark one. The huntress resumes here hunt for a brief time.
Abruptly, she sits down. She’s tired of the hunt. So to, I notice, is the guardian, who hasn’t moved from his seat next to the treasure chest nor has he fired a shot in some time. There are a few moments of silence and stillness and then the lass gets up and takes off her tiara and her gown declaring “I don’t want to do this anymore.” The boy’s silence speaks his agreement.
The lass comes over and sits next to me on the couch. I feel as though my intrusion disturbed their world. That, had I not come in and sat down, they would still be defending the magic wand in that other world. There’s a slight nagging guilt and I hope that if I’m quiet and still their world will return. But once left, there is no going back.
And then we’re sitting in the family room. An ordinary family room.
Earl is out there, but not here. We’ve been dribbled on and that’s about it. No power outages, no wind. Nadda. Zip. Zero. Zilch. The last rainstorm that came through here was more impressive.
Of course, I’m not on the Cape. They’re supposed to be getting the nasty stuff. So on the whole, I’ll chalk this one up to good fortune that it went East.
Earl may have been a no show, but that doesn’t mean I want to deal with him.
Hurricane Earl isn’t supposed to hit us directly- but we’ll likely get whacked by the outer bands. So far, local forecasts are predicting tropical storm force winds for the coast, but nothing so bad where we are. Mainly rain- and I’ve taken some action on that front to help keep water out of the basement.
Assuming that Earl doesn’t just continue due North at this point, our prep is basically going to amount to assuming that the power will go out. We’ll be getting batteries for flashlights and I’ll be filling propane tanks as well. We’re also planning to wind-proof the place as best we can- umbrellas, lawn chairs and what not. I’ll be filling some jugs with water tomorrow morning and we have some bleach, but that shouldn’t be needed for at this point.
The kids are both aware of the hurricane and had been getting real agitated about it, so we’ve stopped watching weather forecasts when they’re around. That’s helped settle them down, though they still ask about it occasionally. We just keep assuring them that all will be well. Frankly, having them calm is the best help they can offer at this point.
All this is subject to change should the track forecast change. But the weather guys have been pretty consistent in predicting that Earl will head NorthEast and pass mostly to our South and East. So it doesn’t seem necessary to get too worked up about it.
For now.
AKA: The Desert Rose:
The boy just asked if he could play the Wii and I told him “No- it’s too nice outside.”
“No- it’s too hot outside and I’ll get all sweaty. I’ll do sports inside on the Wii and get exercise…” he replied, a touch of desperation in his voice.
I again replied “No.”
“That is SO NOT FAIR! Life is supposed to be FAIR!” he shot back.
When I calmly asked him who told him that, he muttered “No one, I just know.” Then he walked off. If there had been dirt to kick, he would have kicked it.
*Sigh.”
So much to learn, so little time to learn it.
Some quick background-
First, about 6 months ago or so one of my parents’ dogs passed away. It was a completely unexpected passing- she was a young and energetic Bernese Mountain Dog. Mom was upset enough to call me minutes after it happened. I remember being at swimming lesson with the kids and being shocked at the news. Later that evening I told the Wife, who was equally stunned, and the decision was made not to say anything to the kids.
Second, a couple of weeks ago we were down visiting my parents- the first visit since the dog had died. We finally told the kids about it prior to leaving. We didn’t want them obsessing about it down at their place, as is their (understandable) custom about such things. While we were visiting, the Red Lored Amazon Mom had rescued about 15 years ago had to be put to sleep due to the development of cancer. Unlike the dog, Mom had a suspicion the bird was failing because of it’s behavior prior to the vet visit. Still, it wasn’t an easy thing. The bird not returning home from the visit to the vet took a little for the kids to wrap their minds around. The boy most particularly, who disappeared for a bit to contemplate events on his own upon realizing what had transpired.
And that brings us to last night.
The Wife had the kids call Grandma to thank her for the recent gift of books she had sent. The lass went first and said her thanks and chatted for a few moments. Then she passed the phone to her brother so he could do his diligence.
The first words out of this mouth:
Hi Grandma, did anything else die?
The Wife and I just about fell on the floor. I sharply rebuked him and he changed the subject, a little confused. I’m not sure what Grandma’s reaction was on the other end, but I did hear the boy say “Hello? Grandma?” a couple of times prior to thankfully changing the subject. The Wife took the phone afterwards and apologized. Trying to make the most of it in my own inimitable way, I told the Wife to tell her she’d just made the blog.
I guess this is evidence that ‘tact’ is a learned behavior. Of course, upon reflection it’s an understandable sort of thing. From his perspective, both animals, which he was very much aware of, were just all of a sudden gone. No warning or chance to absorb what-was-to-be. The boy was defensive about it afterwards and I softened my stance. He wanted to understand why the question was inappropriate. I’m not sure that I was able to properly explain either.
After all, now it was my turn to process recent events.