Thursday This n That

Ugh.  I slept late again.  Of course, late for me is after 6am.  But it throws off my morning, hence this post getting written after 7:30.  And posted after 8.  Derp.

I hit the Wallyworld yesterday.  Actually, I went down to get feed for the deer, but since I was in town, I figured it would be good to go to the store, too.  Meh.  Anyway, as I was walking from my car to the store, I heard someone shout 'Hey, where's your mask?  Put your mask on.'  It was in my hand so I held it up and waved it.  Then I noticed the person shouting was talking to a friend of his.  :shrug:  You never know.  I put the damned thing on before I got to the door, but I'll be damned if I'll walk out in the open air with the thing on.

Speaking of the 'rona, Missouri's governor and his wife tested positive.  I wish them both a speedy recovery.  Some people on FB were laughing about it, because he's been very 'anti-chaos crap', calling it Karma.  Assholes abound.  I expect both he and his wife will weather through it and come out the other side no worse for wear.  Sort of like Tom Hanks and his wife did.  

Yesterday was the anniversary of the release of George Strait's 'All My Exes Live in Texas'.  And now that song is stuck in my head.  You're welcome.  And sorry.

Having that song stuck in my head reminds me of the summer I spent hanging out at a country/western bar.  My brother and his wife were regulars and they took me there for my 21st birthday.  The rest of the summer just went along that route until I went back to college.  One of these days I should scan and post the photos of that summer, with my semi-mullet-esque hairstyle, drunk off my ass.  Unfortunately, I have a lot of 'drunk off my ass' photos from over the years.

Other than a couple sips of beer while I'm making bratwursts (and nine times out of ten, that was near-beer), I haven't had a drink since back in CO... Eight years?  For the life of me, I can't imagine why I ever drank.  

I feel the same way about football now.  For the life of me, I can't imagine why I was ever so into football.  Cold turkey now for... I think this is the third season I haven't watched.  Not even a sip or two.  ;o)

Oh, yeah, when I was at Wallyworld, I picked up a bag of Granny Smith apples.  Romanian Apple Cake, here I come!  You know, once I get off my butt and prep the apples.  ;o)

What's on your this n that today?

Sunday Update - Week 5

It's February!  How did that happen?

Anyway, I did stuff last week...

I'm finally back to writing, albeit in fits and starts.  As of last night when I scheduled this post, Evil Space Bunnies was at 8.5K.  Ron and Marcy are in the thick of it.  Stuff's happening.

The Once Upon a Djinn sale starts today (US and in the UK), so I've been busy working up to that marketing spree.  An acquaintance of mine will be putting it in her newsletter today.  I have an ad in Bargain Booksy on Tuesday for Wish in One Hand.  And I'll be pimping the FB groups throughout.  Oh, and I made a new banner for my Once Upon a Djinn FB page.  (If you haven't already followed it, shuffle on over.)

February means my spot with my cover artist came up.  This spot is for Cinder Ugly.  She gave me the option of putting it off, but I know if I put it off, it'll never get done, so I'm doing it.  Maybe that'll light a fire under my ass to write the damn books.  You know, once I'm done with ESB.

Reading was slow.  

Let's not talk about exercising and weight, shall we?  We walked the loop on Friday and I was so out of shape that I spent yesterday sore as hell.  I'm not letting that stop me, but I think I need to go back to babysteps until I'm back into shape enough to do the loop.  That last hill to the house is a killer.

Sore or not, I spent about an hour in the woods yesterday.  Mostly I was sawing dead limbs off cedar trees.  There's something wonderful about the smell of freshly sawed cedar.  Of course, most of the work was at the bottom of the hill and when I was done, I had to trudge back up the hill.  Ugh.  Then I had the bright idea to go for a walk. 

We were supposed to do the bedroom carpet yesterday, but by executive decision, I called it off.  It'll either happen today or next weekend.  If my leg muscles aren't so damn sore.

Thursday, Hubs made Thanksgiving Dinner - turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce.  Yummers.  But it totally messed up my time continuum.  You have a holiday dinner when it isn't a holiday and see how you fare.  =op

The Super Bowl is tonight, I guess.  I'm not watching.  I quit football cold turkey back in the sumemr of 2017 and haven't looked back.  I won't even sneak a peek for the commercials - because those will be on TV sooner or later.  Some of them are already on YouTube.  Someone did a poll and like 60+% of those polled don't care about the Super Bowl this year.  That's the free market at work there, folks.  You piss off enough customers and your income goes down.  Tada.

Alright, that's it for me.  How was your week?

Football Season is Over. Yay!

Yep, the season is over and I'm celebrating.  I told myself last summer sometime that I would not be watching football this season, not a single game - pro or college - and I did it. 

Sure, the kneeling crap was part of the reason, but I've had a tough time rationalizing watching football for a while now.  Between the criminals who get off with slaps to the wrist and then continue to be celebrated as 'heroes' and the bad behavior and the bad officiating and the increasingly asinine adjustment to the rules...  :harrumph:

Like I said before, it's like drinking.  I was a big fan of drinking, but now that I've stopped I can't understand why I ever thought it was fun.  Football meant sitting home on Saturdays and Sundays watching an endless stream of game after game.  Adjusting my schedule around when my favorite teams were playing.  'Want to go fishing?  Can't, the Michigan game is on or will be on or whatever.'  'Better get that writing done during the day because the Packers are playing tonight.' 

Football also meant getting wrapped up in the drama.  The highs, the lows, the shouting at the TV.  Ohio State beats Michigan and I'm bummed.  The Packers beat the Bears and I'm elated.  Why?  I have no skin in the game.  Whether anyone wins or loses doesn't make a damn bit of difference to my life.  :shrug:  

Now, sure, college football isn't as wrapped up in the political crap or so much of the criminal crap, but the universities are so totally into the political crap it makes me want to barf, and they're churning out the pro-players who turn into criminals.  Done with that, too.  I'm not spending any more of my time on them either.

I have half a mind to get rid of all my football related clothing, but that would leave me with one sweatshirt.  One sweatshirt that doesn't have a logo on it.  So, I'll just keep the ones I have and pet them nicely, remembering what football used to be before all the BS started.

So, yeah, like an alcoholic who's been dry for a year, I'm celebrating.  Football season is over and I won.  Next year will be totally easier to ignore. 

Now, on to baseball!  And golf.  No issues there. Not yet anyway.  And if issues come up, well, I know now I can quit them cold turkey, too.  (But don't get me started on Tiger Woods.  Ugh.)

Cold Turkey

I quit football cold turkey this year.

I can't watch it anymore.  I can't watch a game where I don't respect the players or their institutions.

It's not just the whole kneeling for the national anthem thing - although that's part of it.  It's the outright criminals who have played and are allowed to play.  The wife beaters and the animal abusers and the thieves and the addicts... Ugh.  It's the universities that are so leftist I want to gag.  It's the college athletes I loved who go pro and turn into thugs.  It's the cheaters who are allowed to get away with it and the fans who celebrate the cheating...  Anything to win, right?

Meh.  I'm done.

That first weekend of college ball, which has always been my favorite, was hard.  Me, the gal who would jump between several games all day long on Saturdays and watch the U of M games with abandon, didn't watch a minute of any of it.  And I got a little twitchy.  This was the third weekend and it does get better.  Although, missing Sunday night's Packer game was still hard.

Like any addiction, I didn't expect quitting to be easy.  I still look at the scores sometimes, but I'm weaning myself off that stuff, too.  (Although, seeing that OU had beaten the crap out of the Buckeyes did brighten my day.)  I still follow the Packers on FB, because it's the PACKERS for petesakes.  And the Packers organization hasn't done anything to make me want to gag - as far as I know.* I still wear my U of M sweatshirts.  Think of those as hearkening back to the days of Bo, when the university didn't suck and football was pure.  Kind of an 'in memorium' thing.

I don't know if I'll ever go back to being a rabid fan of football again.  Maybe someday if it ever gets back to where it was.  I don't see that happening.  For now, I'll say no and find something else to do with my fall weekends.  Let's hope I'm over the whole thing before this year's bowl games, or I may need a rubber room and a pile of chocolate to combat the DTs.  ;o)

Update: Yeah, the Packers are out, too.  Bastards.

College Football Disappointment

I don't know how many of my followers here follow football.  I don't know how many of those follow college ball, but I have to get something off my chest.

Yesterday in college football was depressing to say the least.

I'm a University of Michigan fan.  The best thing I can say about their showing versus tiny UConn was 'they won'.  It was an ugly game.  Sure, they got the first touchdown.  Then UConn handed them their asses by getting the next three touchdowns - all unanswered by my beloved Wolverines.  They looked awful out there - and I didn't even get to see the game because the BTN was showing Missouri and apparently here in Missouri when Missouri is playing, no other Big Ten games get shown.  Well, =op.  Anyway, from all reports, Michigan looked like doodoo.

But for me, that wasn't the worst of the weekend. 

I wanted to watch football.  I wanted to see the competition between two teams.  I wanted to see teams fight it out to win.  Instead I saw, again and again as I surfed through the games, a huge school beating the crap out of a small school...

#4 Ohio State played little Florida A&M, whomping them 76 to nothing.  #7 Louisville kicked the crap out of tiny Florida International, scoring 72 to nothing.  #16 Miami slaughtered itty-bitty Savannah State (I don't even know where the hell that is) 77 to 7. 

What in the hell?  If you're scoring 70+ points against your opponent, what in the hell are you even doing playing that opponent?  It's like Arnold Schwarzenegger setting up a steel cage death match against Gilbert Gottfried.  Somebody's gonna get pounded, and it ain't the big guy.

And who really wants to watch that?  Sure, I love it when my teams win, but I want to see a good game.  I want to be able to say my team is 4-0 because they came out ahead of some really awesome other teams.  Not 'my team is unbeaten because it played teams that couldn't possibly beat them'.  If that's satisfying, why not just have the whole season be against teams like Morgan Community College and Goodrich High School and Pawtucket School for Girls?


Oh, because playing against those teams would be unfair.  Well, duh.

And don't give me the answer that without playing those big teams, the small schools would never get television coverage or their names in front of potential students or players... Does anyone really choose their college because they once saw the place get their asses handed to them by a big name school?  "Oh, Bethune-Cook?  I saw them get whooped by Florida State, so yeah, I definitely want to go there."  Riiight.  As for television coverage?  Yeah, I never get to watch my alma mater, Northern Michigan University's football games on TV - and I don't want to if the only way I could means watching them get creamed. 

Of course, there are also the people who believe these early games are like pre-season NFL.  Just practice for the real games that occur later in the season.  Well, if that's the case, then these games against small school shouldn't count toward the rankings.  They shouldn't count for anything.  They're just scrimmages. 

But no.  The number 1 school in the nation (Alabama) plays an unranked team (Colorado State) - and that game wasn't even a blowout - and they get to stay #1 because they won.  Woo...hoo. 

Bleh.

There are probably those out there who are thinking I wouldn't be all pissy about any of this if Michigan had rolled over UConn yesterday.  Nope.  If Michigan had ended up with a score of 70 something to nothing, I still would be crying foul.  Because Michigan should be better than that.  They should be bigger than a bully kicking sand in the face of a weakling.  (Even if the weakling schools asked for it by setting up this obscene schedule.)

It's just good sportsmanship.  It's just good football.  And hell, it's way more fun to watch.