One And Ten

One thing to cross off my WIP list. I finally finished this charity scarf.

I must say, this yarn was simply awful to work with. But this was for Scarves From The Heart, and somebody had donated a bunch of yarn for scarves. I volunteered to help and this is the lot that was chosen for me.

Another blog I read Carole Knits, does this weekly thing called Ten On Tuesday.  Every Tuesday, she posts a topic and participating blogs list 10 things pertaining to that topic.  I don't usually participate, because by the time I get around to compiling my list, it's Wednesday or Thursday.  This week's topic was pretty good, though, so I decided to do it.  Even though it is now Thursday, here is your Ten On Tuesday for this week.

Ten Reasons to Watch Football. 
(Anyone care to hazard a guess as to why I chose to participate?)



Almost everyone else who participated mentioned two things in common:  knitting time, and food.  You won't find those in my list, as you can knit just as well watching dumb shows like Desperate Housewives or 30 Rock.  And you can eat any time.  My list takes a slightly different tack than the others listed.  ( Notice that nowhere in my list will you find any mention of tight pants or butts.)

Ten reasons I like to watch football are:

1.  That bone crunching sound that they make when one player hits another really, really hard.  And the blood that sometimes accompanies such hits.

2.  The excitement, the anticipation--knowing that every play could be THE BIG PLAY.  Especially when someone like Felix Jones is on the field. 

3.  When that big play finally happens, like Dexter McCluster's 94 yard punt return Monday night.

4.  The excitement of a last second, come from behind touchdown for a win (unless it's your team on the losing end of that deal.)

5.  The fact that football is the ultimate team game.  You have 11 guys on the field, and if just one man doesn't do his job, it could cost you that game. It is an exercise in total cooperation and teamwork. 

6.  The 76  yard touchdown runs.

7.  The 50, 60, even the 90 yard touchdown passes.

8.  The circus catches, the one handed grabs, the impossible interceptions.

9.  The history and tradition of the game.  Football is a uniquely American game, and is the most popular sport in America.  More people watch PRE-SEASON football games, than watch the Stanley cup, the NBA finals, or the World Series.  It truly reflects the heart of American culture.  Football was developed here, and, though other countries are starting football leagues of their own, it still belongs here.

10.  That certain kind of crazy camaraderie that is found only among football fans.

So, there you have it. My top ten reasons to watch football. What are yours?

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Dear CoWorker

I'd like to get this work finished so we can go home.  Kindly shake your boobs at the garbage man on your own time.  Thank you.

Oh, and this also goes for shaking your boobs at the maintenance man.

and the quality man,

and the other maintenance man

and the prototype man

and the other maintenance man

and the man that runs the Newcor machine

and the test tank man


I could go on, but I think you get my drift...

Tuckered

I'm just too tired to blog tonight.  I'd even walked down to the cotton fields and taken some photos, but I don't feel like fooling with them.  I had it out with my boss again today.  He'd made some changes, and I told him that we don't need anything out there that would make our morale even lower.  He seemed surprised that I thought morale was so low.  I told him he'd have to dig down about 10 feet under the floor to find any morale in that place.  I said it's a whole different world out on the shop floor than it is in the front office. 

I know most people agree with me, but they're afraid to speak up.  They're afraid of losing their jobs.  But you know what?  I'm just so fed up I don't even care any more. 

They would be doing me a favor by firing me.  And I'd hug their necks for it. 

Can't Get A Break

When the Cowboys traded for Roy Williams in the 2008 season, he was supposed to come in and be the savior of the team.  A big play threat.  Someone to take the pressure off of Terrell Owens.  Someone to stretch the field.  Someone to make the team all but invincible.

After a lackluster finish to the 2008 season, followed by an even more disppointing 2009 season, much of his shine had tarnished.  Yet, here in this game, he had the chance to redeem himself.  He finally had the chance to be the hero.

He'd already shown flashes of brilliance, using his size and strength to snatch a seemingly uncatchable ball out of mid air, and converting a key third down.  Now, here he was, with 4 seconds left in the game.  All alone in the end zone.  In a position to score the game winning  touchdown. 

It had been a game riddled with mistakes.  The Redskins' defense had taken advantage of an offensive line plagued by injuries, bringing blitz after blitz.  Tony Romo, unsure of his pieced together protection tossed quick dump off passes and check downs to receivers who weren't always ready.  And there were penalties.  Too many penalties, and at the wrong times.  Penalties that stalled Cowboy drives, or extended  Redskin ones.  The biggest mistake came just seconds before the first half ended, when Tashard Choice fumbled the ball, which DeAngelo Hall recovered and returned for the Redskins' only touchdown of the day.  What would have been a 3-0 lead at halftime suddenly became 10-0.

By the time the second half started, the Cowboys had settled down some, looking more like themselves.  But it was to be no cakewalk.  It is always tough to play the Redskins, especially at Fed Ex Field.  This game, this one game each year when they play the Cowboys at home, this game is their Super Bowl.  They weren't going to just give it away.  When Miles Austin scored a touchdown, the Redskins answered with a field goal (assisted by three Cowboys penalties).  All seemed to be lost, but then...

The Cowboys got the ball back with less than two minutes in the game.  Tony Romo did what Tony Romo does best.
 

He drove them down the field, and with just 4 seconds left on the game clock, threw the game winning touchdown to none other than, that's right, Roy Williams.

Roy stood tall and proud in the Redskins endzone.  Marion Barber jumped on his back.  Miles Austin came running over to join the celebration, and over on the sideline, Tashard Choice breathed a sigh of relief.  But the celebration would be short lived, for there on the field, like a discarded handkerchief, lay

a little scrap of yellow cloth.

A holding penalty.  A clock reading 00:00.  And Roy Williams watched his chance to be a hero slip ignominiously through the fingers of one Alex Barron.

Even when he does it right, the poor guy just can't seem to get a break.

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Music Monday

If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you will know that I absolutely LOVE football. And what could be better than football but a song about football. I absolutely, absolutely LOVE this song:

September Saturday

Today was our town's annual Downtown Jubilee. I didn't go last year, but this year I wanted to go because they were going to have a September 11 memorial thing.  It started raining early, and I almost didn't go, but the rain passed pretty quickly.

I got there just in time for the entertainment to start.  The first thing they did was, we pledged allegiance to the flag.  Then someone got up and sang our National Anthem.  The someone led a prayer.  Yes, we had a prayer.  We still pray before football games, too.

Anyway, after the prayer, they recognized firefighters, then policemen, and finally veterans and military personnel.  I eschewed my normal practice of flying incognito and actually went up there with the vets.  Once all the speechifying was done, the community choir got up and sang patriotic songs.

By that time, I was walking around perusing the craft booths.  They really didn't have a whole lot to offer, but the guy with the sports stuff was back.  He makes plaque type things with mostly football cards.  I'd bought some in years past.  He was heavy on the Manning brothers, but did have some Tony Romo and Jason Witten cards.  In the end, however, I made just one purchase.  
 

After that, I came home.  The sky would cloud over, then clear up,

 then cloud over again and even rain a bit.  No matter, I had plenty of football to watch.  Florida easily defeated South Florida 38-14, then I watched Oklahoma pulverize Florida State 47-17.  Bummer, though, that Texas and LSU played at the same time, and neither one on my TV.  No matter.  I watched LSU defeat Vanderbilt on the computer, and followed Texas on Yahoo sports. 

LSU definitely has some problems.  Last week, they led 30-10 at halftime, and didn't score another point during the game.  Moreover, they let North Carolina 14 points, and get within one play of scoring the game winning touchdown.  This week looked to be almost the same.  At the end of the third, the score was 10-3.

(Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

Then Les Miles took Jordan Jefferson out of the game and put in Jarrett Lee.  The whole offense seemed to pick up then, and they scored 17 points in the 4th quarter to put the game away.  Still, they're going to have to do better if they want to win in the SEC. 

I stayed up last night until 12:30 AM.  That's something I haven't done in a long, long time.  I think it's time for me to head for bed.

Got Cowboys/Redskins tomorrow.  I want to be ready for it.

Never Forget

Ever.

Dogs On Thursday

A couple of weeks ago, I bought this toy

for the neighbor's dog.  You put treats inside it and it is supposed to keep the dog occupied for hours trying to get the treats out.  Well, Indy (I've finally decided to give him a name), hasn't quite got the hang of it yet.

Rylea, on the other hand...

I see you in there, you food you!

Hmmm, maybe if I roll it on its side.

No, then I'll just chew a hole it this thing.

Grrrr, come out you food so I can eat you!

I was watching Rylea come up the front steps, and she looked like a seal waddling across the ground.  Yes, she is that fat.  I don't understand it.  We walk nearly every day, and they're long walks, too.  Not piddling little 15 minute walks, but usually between 45 minutes and an hour.  I have her on fat dog dog food, but she is still a little blubber ball.  She should be up for shots soon, so I'm going to ask the vet about her weight and what else I can do to help her get fit.


And I've just about broken my self imposed moratorium against casting on already.  I wanted to knit this yarn

up just to see how it did knit up.  I've decided to make a couple of little hats out of it.  I think I'm going to *looks around furtively* swatch first, since I've never knit with DK weight before. Swatching doesn't really count as casting on, does it?  No, of course not...

Now if you will excuse me, there is football to watch on TV...

It Worked Before

I have come to the realization that I have once again accumulated an inordinate amount of WIPS.  Once before, I challenged myself to complete every last one of my WIPS before casting on anything new.  I think I'm going to try that again.  I will need you, Gentle Reader, to keep me on course with this--as you did before.  To give myself a starting point, here are all the WIPS I have currently OTN.

1.  Conwy Socks, from Knitting On The Road by Nancy Bush  I'm still working on these, but unfortunately, they've fallen prey to the siren song of lace knitting.  But I'll get to that in a minute.

2. Pixie Dust Socks: The pattern is Bubble Wrap.  Yeah, these have fallen by the wayside.  They aren't hard, I'm just not feeling the love for this yarn.  It is Knit Picks Imagination, and it is very loosely spun.  It's totally not right for socks, but I've already finished one, so I'm determined to finish the pair.

3. Unnamed Scarf: Based on this pattern. I really should pick this back up. It was for charity and the yarn was donated.  I don't think I'd be knitting with it otherwise.  I cast on over a year ago.  Heck, it may be two years now.  I'd have to check back through the blog to see for sure. 

4.  Anniversary Mystery Shawl 10: The mojo for this one has gone on vacation, so I'm just going to let it marinate for a while.

5.  Orkney Pi Shawl:  The mojo for this one finally came home, and I picked it back up this week.  I really like this pattern so far.  The repeats are fairly short, making it easy to remember.  I don't have to keep looking at the chart while I knit.  Just one thing, though, the charts are difficult to follow and have some errors.  However, the written instructions are clear and so far, error free.

6.  Fruit of The Vine Scarf:  It's moving right along.  I was knitting quite well on it until the Orkney Pi mojo came a knockin at my door. 

I think that's all the active WIPS I have at the moment. I do have a couple of things in the planning stage, but I'm not counting those. I'm also not counting the two blankies, since they are more knit-when-I-get-yarn projects.

Speaking of getting yarn, Peaches and Cream cotton is coming out with some new colors.  I've picked up these two so far:

 They are Desert Sunset (left) and Yorktown (right).  They have another color called Coral Reef, which I absolutely love, but Wal-Mart only has it in a cone.  I don't really want that much of it.  Maybe when I head back up to Southaven, they'll have it at the Jo-Ann's there. 

One of the blogs I visit often--make that daily-- is Confessions of A Pioneer Woman.   She's got the kind of life I always wished I could have.  Except that she has more kids than I would ever want.  And she sits in the truck and watches all the fun...I'd be out there in the middle of it.  Calf nuts and all.

Anyway, in today's post, she shares some blogging tips.  I'm not going to repeat them all here.  You'll just have to go to her site and read the whole thing.  A couple of them stood out at me, though.  Her #1 tip:  Be Yourself-- write as if you are talking to your sister.  Little does she know that I couldn't do that.   Mainly because when one talks to my sister, one doesn't talk.  One just listens.  My sister talks.  So fast sometimes, I have to watch to make sure she's somehow taking breaths in all that chatter.  But when I first started blogging, I had blog buddies.  People who came by my blog, and who's blogs I visited every day.  When I sat down to write, I imagined that I was sitting with those people over a cup of coffee--or in my case Dr. Pepper, since I don't drink coffee --and just chatting about my day.  It's more difficult now.  Most of those people don't come around any more.  Many of them have quit blogging completely.  The rest, I guess, just found me boring and left for more interesting pastures.

The second point she makes is to blog often.  To consider your blog a precious bloom that requires daily nurturing.  I think this is where I began to go wrong.  Here lately, I've been spending more time on Facebook, and the blog has taken a back seat.  That is about to change.  Now that we're no longer working until the point of exhaustion, I'm going to make the blog a priority again.  I'm going to bring it forward from the back burner.  It will once again become a forethought, rather than an afterthought.  And if my Frontierville crops die, they just die.  That's a dumb game anyway.  I just can't stop playing it.

The final point that I'm going to repeat is to value every person who takes time out of her day to stop by the blog.  And I do value you.  Sus, who's been with me from the beginning, or nearly so.  Stephanie, who's been here nearly as long.  Ruth, who seldom comments, but I know you're out there.  And the rest of you who have me in your feed readers.  I value each and every one of you, whether you stop and leave a comment or not.

I love ya.  All of ya.

Squeaky says, "Hmmmm, what shall I blog about today?"

The Biggest Loser

It's almost time for all the new TV seasons to begin. Some shows I'm looking forward to watching again. Others I am not.

I'm not a big fan of The Biggest *** TV show.  I know that sounds heretical, but it's true.  People think it is a wonderful show, doing a wonderful thing.  It's helping people get healthy.

But it's really not.

My problem with the concept is that it puts the contestants into an artificial environment in which everything around them is strictly controlled by outside forces.  Think about it.  They take them away from their families, isolate them on The Ranch, and for most of the 16 weeks they are there, the contestants are not allowed to leave.  They field trips they do take are closely supervised--as is their daily life on The Ranch.  They are told when to get up, what and how much to eat, where to go, when to go there, and what to do when they get there.  Not only that, they've got somebody standing over them all day making sure they get their 6-8 hours (yes, hours) of exercise each day.

What they don't get are skills on how to deal with real life situations.  They don't get instruction on how to maintain their health when they re-enter the real world.  When they no longer have time to work out those 6-8 hours.  And they don't receive counseling to deal with whatever pain they were trying to numb with food in the first place.  They don't receive practical instruction on maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

As a result, most of them end up gaining their weight back--or at least a good deal of it.  I was watching a few weeks back, because Tony Romo was supposed to be on the show.  Well, they had the guy who won season 3 come back and talk with the contestants of the season that was on then.  This wasn't a guy who got voted off in the first few weeks, mind you. This was the guy who won, and he had gained nearly every bit of his weight back.  He was already back up over 300 lbs, and was trying to lose it all again.  They also had the lady who'd won only two seasons ago.  She was starting to gain her weight back already.

I would like to see them do follow up shows on the contestants from the previous seasons, just to see who was able to maintain their weight loss, and who wasn't.  Maybe then, people could get some real weight loss help, instead of turning to a reality show.

Music Monday

Let Your Light So Shine

It was kind of strange watching Texas play yesterday, knowing that Colt McCoy was no longer there, or Jordan Shipley. But what with Garrett Gilbert and Tra Newton spearheading the offense, I think they'll do just fine. I tried to somehow work my way up to posting a Gratuitous Garrett Gilbert photo, but --alliteration notwithstanding-- it just didn't have the same ring.  Still, kids can't stay in college forever, and life must move on...

A few weeks back, I was listening to The Rick and Bubba show on Ustream, since our local radio affiliate dropped the show. I really hate that, because I loved listening to it while getting ready for work in the mornings. My guess is that the sex toys store and the abortion clinic threatened to pull their advertising if the station didn't drop the conservative, Christian show which promoted patriotism, common sense, and good moral values. So now, if I want to listen, I have to go to Ustream and watch the show archives.

Be that as it may, I was listening one morning, and Rick started telling a story about how he was flipping through the TV channels and found on one of the sports stations a program which caught his attention entitled Two Fathers, Two Sons, A Story Of Raising Champions.  The show was a documentary type thing in which they were interviewing the fathers of Greg McElroy and Colt McCoy.  For those of you who don't watch football, those were the two quarterbacks of Alabama and Texas, which played for the BCS National Championship last season.  I tried to find the show online, but couldn't.  I tried all the usual places-- YouTube, Hulu, Ustream, but no dice.  So, what you are about to read is my re-telling of Rick's retelling of what he watched.

The show was talking to the fathers about what it was like to raise these two little boys to be young men playing for the BCS National Championship.  Greg McElroy's father was saying how proud he was, and how after the game, Greg came up into the stands and gave him his helmet.  As he was leaving to go back into the locker room, Greg turned and tossed his father the game ball, and he dropped it.  His son had just won the National Championship, and he dropped the ball.  He said he couldn't help it.  He played guard in college.

The interview with Brad McCoy was much more poignant.  He described what it was like sitting in the stands and seeing his son go down like that.  How Colt was trying to play it off like it was nothing, but Brad knew right away something was wrong.  They took Colt back to the locker room, then a few minutes later, came and got Brad.  When he walked into the locker room, Colt was asking for his pads, wanting to get back into the game.  Behind him, the medical staff were shaking their heads, and saying, "It ain't happening."  They'd had to hide his helmet, they said, to keep him off the field. 

"This is all emotion talking," they told Brad McCoy.  "There's no way he's going back into the game."  So, Brad did what any good father would do in that situation.  He put on his Dad face and was strong for his son, even though his own heart was breaking.

Later, back in the stands, watching the rest of the game, Brad had to admit that he was angry.  Colt had dreamed of this his whole life.  He'd worked so hard to get here.  He was a fine, Christian young man who'd stayed true to his faith. Yet, on only the fifth play of this game he'd worked his whole life to get to, he is knocked out, not to return.  Why?  Why would God do this to him?  Why would God allow this to happen?

When the game was over, and Colt was interviewed, Brad couldn't hear what he was saying because he was still in the stands.  As soon as the interview aired, Brad immediately began getting texts and messages about what a fantastic interview Colt had done, and what an impact his words had made.  When he was finally able to speak to him,  he told Colt that people had been telling him how honorably he'd handled the interview and asked him what he'd said.  Colt replied, "Dad, I don't even know.  I just hope I didn't make a fool of myself."  Of course, we know what he said.




As the days went by, Brad McCoy started thinking.  What a platform God had given to his son to make an impact for Christ.  Yes, he was still hurt by the loss, but his son had gotten to proclaim his faith in front of hundreds of thousands --perhaps millions-- of viewers on national TV.  He has been asked, "Well, wouldn't it have been an even bigger platform if he'd won?"  No, it wouldn't have been.  Everybody loves God when they win.  Everybody gives God the glory when they win.  It's expected.  But to love God when you lose, to give him glory in the face of crushing disappointment--that will truly make an impact.  

Brad McCoy is right. It's easy to give God glory when you win. It's a whole lot harder to say "I'm standing on the Rock" when you've just lost the biggest game of your career. It's a whole lot harder to say, "I don't question the will of God" when not only have you lost the biggest game of your career, but you didn't even get to play. It's a lot harder to say "I know God has a plan for my life" when your own plans were just completely and irrevocably shattered in an instant.

Colt McCoy will leave a legacy in the world of college football. Yet, his biggest legacy won't be the games he's won, or the records he's set, or all the awards he's received. It won't even be that he is the winningest college quarterback in history. No, his biggest legacy will point back to a game he lost.

To a night he stood with the eyes of a nation upon him, and with a voiced choked by emotion, he let his little light shine in a big, big way.

Autumn Saturday

I woke up this morning to a little bit of a nip, and a distinctive fall flavor to the air.  An eerie fog crept through the pastures,

 winding its tentacles through the hay bales.

 Off in the distance, repeated gunfire announced the opening of the first hunting season of the year.  It was chilly enough that this

hit the spot.  Instead of waiting for it to cool down enough to walk the dogs, today I had to wait for it to warm up enough. The temperature when I got up:  55'.   It was wonderful!

Last night was the first high school home football game.  I didn't go, but later on as the evening progressed, I wished that I had.  I missed it.  Next week, I just might go.  Who cares if the boy doesn't want me there?  Today is the first full day of college football. 

And, a sure sign that it's definitely fall:

Candy corn in the stores!

A few weeks ago, I'd bought Scarlett a new hide.  Well, she'd gone in and out of it, but still seemed to prefer hiding out under her water bowl.  Last night, I buried the hide and kind of sloped her substrate up until the entrance was right at ground level.  That seemed to do the trick.  When I came into the snake room this morning, there she was.  And she's hardly left it.

Thursday at work, we had some visitors.  I'm not sure who they were, but they were pretty important--as in high up in the Lennox organizations.  I mean really high up.  High up enough to give Greg (the Director of Operations) the jitters and have Jake (the Production Superintendent) positively soil his underpants.  They were all clustered around my brazing stand, when over on the assembly line, one of the line brazers lit her torch.  It made a little pop--not real loud--but loud enough to make one of those visitors nearly jump out of his skin.  I, of course, think such things are absolutely hilarious.  But this was an important person, so I tried not to laugh.  I really did, but I failed miserably. 

As I was standing there, about to blow my eardrums out trying to restrain my laughter, I looked up and the man was looking right at me.  I thought for a moment that I was in real trouble, but then he started laughing, too, and all was right with the world once again.

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An Narrowly Averted Disaster

I was headed out to the store to do my weekly shopping, when this happened.

Thankfully, it was the bottom step and not the top one.  That could have been a very nasty fall, indeed.

I really need to take some time this weekend and sort through all the photos I have stored on my computer and just delete all the no good ones.  That will be a monumental task, and not one I'm all that anxious to delve in to.   

Still, like cleaning the cat pan, it's something that has to be done.

Later.

I Called It

I said that peak season was almost over.  Well, I got to work this morning, and my supervisor came by and said, "I forgot to tell you yesterday not to come in early any more, so don't come in early any more."  Yep, the overtime is over.  We're back to 40 hours a week.  I'm kind of glad, because boy was I tired.  But I will miss the extra money.

Squeaky says, "I notice you didn't spend any of that extra money on me."