Sunday, August 28, 2011

Come On Irene...!

Glad to hear (or not hear, as the case may be) that Irene didn't cause any major damage to any of you. I had the TV locked on the Weather Channel for the weekend, though I wasn't glued to it 24/7. I do think that the networks were playing it up pretty hard though. Maybe we were expecting damage like the tsunami in Japan or the hurricanes in Florida. Maybe we were hoping for something more than when the same tsunami hit Hawaii. Maybe we were hoping for the monster waves, something like "The Day After Tomorrow" (the one that wipes out the Statue of Liberty).

Regardless, I think it was better to be safe, than sorry, and I think most people were prepared. Hope the flooding doesn't cause any problems for any of you!

On Saturday the Little League team from Montana lost to the same California team that they'd beaten to get into the championship in the first place. I am not a fan of baseball. It ranks lower than just about anything other than the NBA in my book. But this truly was a David vs. Goliath story. The California team plays year-round in its balmy climate, while Montana's team is lucky to get in three months of baseball a year. California has paid coaches, and a coach for damned near each position. Montana's team is coached by a string of volunteers over the years, with no hitting coach or personal trainers. California's players have to "pay to play", generally running hundreds or thousands of dollars a year. The Montana kids have their parents fork out less than a hundred. These are two totally different approaches to Little League.

So there were flashbacks to the "Bad News Bears" (without the drunken manager), or the team from Hickory in "Hoosiers". In the end, the Montana team was soundly defeated, but could hold their heads high. Most bars in the state had the game playing on their TVs, and the entire state pulled together to root for these boys. Will they make it again next year? Probably not. But it doesn't matter. For one afternoon, the boys of Montana made us all proud!
Another thing I watched at some point this week was a wonderful special on the Discovery Channel about the rebuilding of the World Trade Center. It will run another episode on Thursday (maybe a couple of episodes). It's remarkable how the area has grown, and to see the architects' renderings (thanks to some incredibly realistic CGI!). This isn't a 9/11 retrospective (we'll be getting plenty of those in the next week or two). This is a just a great story about rebuilding the spirit of America!
Sometimes you just can't "unsee" what you've seen, either visually or in your mind. It's my own fault for clicking links, but once I get started...

It's no secret that I despise Twitter. I've had plenty of people try to get me to start, but I resolve to be the last person on earth to do so. But that doesn't mean that I won't check a friend's timeline from their sidebar if something catches my eye. And that's what I did. As I went down their timeline, I noticed a screenname that both included my state and implied a musical instrument. I had to check it out. Turns out that it's someone I know from town. I used to work with his wife about 20 years ago. They're both close to my age. He's a big guy, fairly bald and is a football ref during the fall. She's short and dumpy, not terribly attractive, and still works for the State in the same department I knew her from in the early 90s. And apparently they're swingers. At least that's the term he used. He posted a picture of his "girlfriend". He mentioned waiting at a bar for his wife to show up with a third for the night--he didn't have a preference if it was a guy or a girl. He posted a picture of him molesting one of the strippers at the "local" strip club (which is actually 60 miles out of town...). And he posted a couple of pictures of his wife's boobs (did I mention she's not terribly attractive?--being nekkid doesn't help, either). It's my own fault. Curiosity killing the cat, and all... Do they make bleach for the mind?
To end on a more positive note...FOOTBALL STARTS THIS WEEKEND!!! Actually, it's already started at the HS level here. Which means the chart with my teams makes its yearly appearance at the top of the sidebar. Note that the Grizzlie's first game is against Tennessee. In years past, I might have made some bets, but after the Griz' season last year, I won't be doing that. I do hope that all of you in TN will cheer them on for me!


6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Go Grizzlies!

KaziG said...

Lost power in my area when a tree took out a transformer during the storm... it'll be a couple days before we're restored, we're told. Other than that, just a lot of trees down around us but all's good!!

Twitter *is* dangerous!! LOL

MinorityReport said...

We were good here, minus basement issues with water. Another family member had major flooding with sewage backing up etc. It wasn't as bad as they originally predicted, but some areas really got nailed. My heart goes out to those that have a long way to go before everything is "normal" again.

And do you have to see those people you know from the link? Cuz I think that might be awkward. lol.

Britni TheVadgeWig said...

Actually, Vermont got hit pretty badly. Every highway in the state is closed, bridges are gone, railways are gone, people are missing. It was absolutely no joke there.

Cougar in Training said...

Let me know if you find some bleach for the brain...I'm sure we've all seen some scary stuff on the internet!

naughtyangel420247 said...

Nothing too horrible here;) Just wet/windy. We did lose power for 14 hours which is always a pleasure when it is accompanied by a wind that sounds like a train. So we did freak out grab the kids out of bed and spent a couple hours in the basement. Thank God for smart phones because we were under tornado warning. Man the flooding in some of the states is just horrible.