Weekends, coffee and the beast within.

Today is Friday. It is kind of a big deal to me. Though, most days my job is so easy and I like it so much the only real difference is the alarm clock and the coffee maker. Even when I wake up early on the weekend, a disturbing event that happens with increasing regularity, it isn't to the braying, intrusive sound of the alarm clock. And I have more choices in coffee. It makes for a pleasant start to a day.

Neither are without danger, though. Right now, for example, I am being stalked by a wild animal. Oh, he is a wily one, that one.

One time, without warning, he took the cookie right out our shipping guy's hand. Unless you count the jumping, and bouncing and attempting to grab the cookie out of his hand as a warning.

Occasionally, without provocation he will just get up and move to a spot of the floor where the sun's rays are shining through, spreading warmth, and a feeling of well being. You really have to be on your toes.  It's a jungle around here.

And if you are a cardboard box you might as well not make any plans for the future.

So, today is my kind of day. Tomorrow is my kind of day, too. Both of them come complete with my kind of coffee, because I am not really all that fussy. About my days,or my coffee.

Saturday, at last.

After a week of constant interruptions, and painful work Saturday is finally here. Work has been so awful, so busy, so filled with work it was like having a real job. To top it off I have come down with a cold, and not just any cold, this is a life threatening cold, possibly the beginning of the pandemic cold foretold in ancient cave drawings found in Indonesia and just recently deciphered by the Life Explained Department of Archeology. The drawings foretell of a head cold that will cause such suffering, coughing and sneezing, disrupting sleep and consuming such an alarming consumption of tissues that the natural balance will be skewed, and mankind shall perish. If that is the case I would like to apologize for starting the end, so to speak.
 
Anyway, I decided to change things a little this morning. To start I downloaded the Facebook and Twitter app on my Surface PC/Tablet. This is an attempt to streamline my digital life, or try something different, I’m not sure. Of course, the problem is I have the internet browser “remember” my passwords for most sites. It saves me all of the difficulty of remembering my username and password. Life is filled with trouble, and pressing needs flying in from every direction. With all of this madness how can a person be expected to remember passwords.
 
Fortunately, there are contingencies. Unfortunately they involve resetting your password with a code
sent to you. You can choose email, text message, or psychic connection. I chose text, and after accessing my Facebook and Twitter accounts via freshly downloaded apps I felt pretty successful.
 
Then I realized my online life is still pretty uneventful, even when viewed through the prism of desktop apps. I thought “maybe I should find some important achievement accomplished during this trying, laborious week.” I couldn’t. So I decided to write a blog post about the success I had installing the apps this morning. Hooray.
 
If you should get a lethal head cold, I am sorry. And if you find yourself in need of an expert app installer, I am sorry. But, if you need anything else, I’m your guy, as long as it is not too difficult, it has been a long week.

Cornhuskers, Football, and Life.

There comes a time in every life when a person has to look at the decisions made, the paths followed. A time when the wealth of deeds needs to be measured, and expectations evaluated. A time when a real man, or woman (having no understanding of women I will leave that to women) will look at his, or her life and understand, almost instinctually if significant progress has been made toward the goals set. Or whether modifications are needed, whether it be to the goals, or to the tactics of life.

Given the state of my life, and my deep, uncompromised loathing for introspection, my mistrust of self examination, and the fact that it is Saturday, the greatest day of the week, the weather is beautiful, and I am feeling very peaceful we are not going to have none of that.

Note my signature finger in the photo!

Instead, we are going to talk about the coming football season, it is Saturday, after all.  I am an unapologetic Nebraska Cornhusker fan. Yes, they have had their troubles lately, and yes they are still in the midst of a rebuilding process that has taken years, and yes the new coaching staff will certainly need time to develop their team. But, I don't care. 

I forgot the finger,
please forgive me.

In the end there has to be something besides winning that drives a fan. You need to feel some kinship with the players, coaches and other fans. Some deep, communal bond that transcends the game. We, my family and I, are big Louisville Cardinal basketball fans (I have been for years, since before Dr. Dunkenstein) and we try to take in a game at the Yum Center in Louisville every year. When you walk around the arena before the game there is a friendly, family reunion feel. People are smiling, and the camaraderie is palpable. It is transcendent, and tonic. And sports needs that.

Of course I want the team to win every game, but, I still wear my Nebraska shirts with pride when they don't. After a loss, when, without fail, someone will ask "what happened?" I will say "they lost." and walk away smiling. These are young men, who work incredibly hard, and are coached by people who have made an obsession of learning the nuances of the sport. And sometimes that is not enough, but it would be a comedy of idiocy were I to try coaching the team, so I don't try to coach, post game. 

When people ask if I am "happy about winning only 8 games a season." I say "I am extremely happy when they win, and less happy when they lose. But, feel comfortable saying it wasn't because they weren't trying."

We have a new coach this year and that is always exciting. We are undefeated so far, and that is great. And, we have a whole season of ups and downs, and the roller coaster ride is what makes it worthwhile, so thank you Mike Riley, thank you Nebraska Cornhuskers, and fans, I am ready.  It will be a great season.

A Saturday Decision.

The weekend is over, and as much as I don't want to confess to this little crime, I am a big college football fan.  And my team won on Saturday.  Won in thrilling fashion, too.  Down by three, with less than two minutes left they got the ball at their own 18 yard line, and with 4 seconds left threw a huge prayer of pass into the end zone to score the winning touchdown.  It was amazing!  And I was delighted by their good fortune.

Now, if they somehow manage to win the rest of their games they will win a conference championship for the first time in many years.  And, I have started to let hope creep back into my thinking.

I should know better, because twice this year they have managed to fall completely apart and lose games leaving me sad and mourning, and a little angry that I have given so much importance to the performance of people I have never met, young men who are about the same age as my son.

Yet, here I am, again, moving the dial from casual indifference to hopeful optimism, and thinking of glory days in the very near future for young men who work so hard, and endure so much criticism and carry so much extra weight because so many people are counting on them to do so much every week.  Their talent is unbelievable, their burden is terrible, and I don't envy them the expectations, it would crush me.

And the risks they face are horrendous.  Football, played at that level is a violent sport filled with unimaginably vicious collisions, and every week someone gets hurt, and with almost every injury fans watching on television get to hear some version of the same mindless drivel.

"Well, Bob, that is could be huge, they can not afford to lose him."  Yep, here is some young man, writhing in agony, potentially facing long hours of surgery, and months of intense, often painful rehabilitation, and I am worried about how the team is going to deal with this tragedy, poor team, anyway.  Who does he think he is getting hurt like that?!!?!

But, if the game is lopsided, long since over, and there are players whose names never grace the sports page are in hoping for one, brief moment of glory, and to hear their number called out over the PA system just this once, gets hurt, then the tone is so different.  "What a tragedy, a fine young man, let's all hope for the best."  Of course, that sounds so much better than, "well, Bob, that is not much of a loss for the team,  he could change uniforms and play for the other team, and no one would even notice."

Somehow, sportscasters can make lessen both injuries, turning them into mundane talking points, sometimes I swear they get paid by the word, quantity as a virtue.

So, I have vowed to be a big fan, every week, and when they win I will celebrate their success, and when they lose, I will celebrate their effort, and then I will go back to whatever I was doing and hope nobody got hurt very bad.