Tag Seasons

Ad Wars – Holiday edition

Michael 7 Comments

I am so looking forward to tomorrow, it is palpable! Feel it in the air! Capture its essence on the wind! Yes, I’m talking about Holiday Advertisement Armistice! We can all breathe a sigh of relief!! For a day or two.

I know I’m not the only one who can tell the season by the ads on TV and now on line too. Fragrances? If it’s snowing outside we must be coming up on Christmas. If there are birds singing it’s getting close to Mothers Day. Otherwise, you better have a good deodorant if you want to smell good. Televisions, really big televisions and power tools? Fathers Day will soon be here with the tools needed to build a world class man cave and the electronics to fill it. Caribbean resorts flooding the airways? We must getting close to Thanksgiving so we can plan for some warm sunny days on white sand and leave the white snow behind. And jewelry? Clearly Valentine’s Day approaches. Oh there might be some token pieces in May for Moms Day, and Christmas is always good for a nice necklace, but they pale to the brilliance of the gems you find on air during the first two weeks of February.

Personally, I’m getting sick of finding pictures on diamonds the size of baby heads mounted on rings of the shiniest metals retouching can allow in my Instagram feed. Maybe I’m in the minority but I wouldn’t even consider proposing, or want to be proposed to, on February 14, January 1, December 25, or my intended’s birthday. Show a little originality! Make it a moment that will always be remembered for the special occasion that it is. It should be a special day only those two share. In 40 years when she turns to he and says, “Do you remember when you asked me to marry you?” the answer shouldn’t be, “Duh, yeah…Valentine’s Day. I remember cuz it was right after the Super Bowl. That reminds me. We’re out of beer. [Burp!].”

But then what do I know. I’ll be the one spending Valentine’s Day with my therapist and then going to the neighborhood pub for the Tuesday hamburger lunch special before heading home to check and make sure the ring I bought back then is still in its case, in the back of the sock drawer, just in case someday (but not Valentine’s Day) she changes her mind.

And I’m looking forward to a few days of respite before images of green milkshakes clog up Instagram.

We all owe something to someone for our existence. We explore how we repay them in Uplift! On ROAMcare.org.

C4DA0FC0-0C30-41CA-B3D7-F4BC0AD4A125

No, not yet

Michael Leave a comment

Across the USA and Canada, billions of people are celebrating Labor and or Labour Day. So there are probably millions of bloggers publishing the collective histories of the holidays. (Do you suppose there was some collusion that two countries came up with the same holiday within months of each other? It couldn’t have been coincidence, could it?) The few who don’t believe in organized labor but are more than happy to take the extra day off – with pay even – are celebrating the last day of summer. Now you see, that’s the one I don’t believe in.

Blog ArtFor as long as I can remember, which stretches back almost to halfway through the last century, Memorial Day has always been the “unofficial start of summer” and Labor Day its “unofficial ” end. Even the meteorologists get in on it, calling September 1 the start of Meteorologic Fall. According to my calendar, Fall doesn’t happen until the 22d day of this month and September 1 was National Tofu Day.

Yes I firmly believe Labor Day is NOT the end of summer. We might have furniture sales, we may frown on wearing white, and the pools might be closed, but the sun is still high in the sky, leaves are still high in the trees, and daytime temperatures are high enough to threaten heat stroke. That last point will be made several times, no, several thousand times over as high school and college athletes fall to the ground under the stifling weight and closeness of helmets and other protective gear in heat related injuries requiring no opponent contact, and marching band musicians and performers will do likewise in their often plumage featured uniforms designed for the coolness of autumn and the coldness of winter, football being a fall sport that often stretches into the still next season. We may not wear white but delivery and parcel service drivers everywhere will still be wearing short pants, and female TV news anchors won’t be giving up their sleeveless tops just yet. The pools and water parks might close but the lakes and swimming holes are still in business.

No, Labor Day is NOT the end of summer. We might be inundated with pumpkin spice everything and the food magazines may be featuring desserts with the classic fall warming spices, but in the backyard gardens the pumpkins are still only softball size on their vines next to the ripening tomato plants, loaded pepper plants, and never ending zucchini vines. Yard care still requires a lawn mower while the leaf rake and blowers stay hung on their hooks in the backyard garden sheds. Apple cider flavored donut holes may be featured in bakeries but cider presses are still idle waiting for the featured ingredient to ripen naturally.

So…Labor Day is the end of summer? Uh, no, not yet. Once again man makes up some oddball “rule”and then wonders why nature won’t follow suit. Well for me, I’m sticking with Mother Nature. Labor Day is NOT the end of summer. Stay tuned though. In a little less than a month you can consider having that tune up done on your snow blower. 

The grass in your side of the fence can be green too. The grass is reality, water is the motivation. Put enough motivation into a plan and you can accomplish anything. Let your motivation flow like water at www.roamcare.org. While you’re there, check out the rest of our site, then share us with your friends and family!

A change in the air

Michael 5 Comments

Once upon a time they lived happily ever after (1)Yesterday was first day of Autumn. Or today. Today is the first full day of Autumn.  The distinction is most likely only important to whichever weather person was on air yesterday versus who is on air today. Either yesterday or today you must have noticed the difference when you woke up? The trees are now covered with bright colorful leaves, pumpkins are lining all the by-ways, there’s a smell of warm apple cider in the air, and that air is decidedly cooler than it was yesterday with decidedly fewer daylight hours. Well, maybe not quite. In truth there isn’t much difference between summer and fall if yesterday and tomorrow are the comparisons. If you’re in the Southern Hemisphere, just read this paragraph backwards. There’s not much change between the last day of Winter and the first of Spring either. Seasons just don’t change that quickly.

In truth, any change seldom happens quickly, but it happens. And it happens inexorably. Things you barely notice from day to day add up so over time the change becomes monumental. Take yourself for example. You likely are not noticeably different than you were yesterday, maybe not from last week, perhaps even barely noticeably different from last year. But compared to five years ago, ten years, twenty years…the change is remarkable.

Something that rarely changes is our desire not to change. Almost everybody prefers the familiarity of now to the point they would choose a future to be no different than the now. Except now. Our “now” is taking a great toll on us. It is a hard now that we’d gladly change for calmer times. Unfortunately, those calmer times may come with their own set of peril. To me, Eden is the fictional town of Mayfield were the Cleavers raised their two sons, a few miles from Bryant Park where Uncle Charlie helped Steve Douglass raise his three sons, which isn’t so far from the Springfield were Jim Anderson knew best how he and Margaret would raise their two daughters bookended around their only son. Springfield barely changed from week to week yet somehow, it’s unrecognizable now when Homer and Marge struggle with their brood. I’d rather live in the Springfield of the fifties, the Mayfield or Bryant Park of the sixties, than the 21st century Springfield or any other model community even if it meant living in a politically incorrect time of two genders, people advancing on merit, family values, and inter-generational respect.

So, now you’re going to ask, what about segregation, marginalization, anti-Semitism, homophobia, the Cold War, and inner-city gangs? So, now I will ask you, why are all those still going on? Last week a young man in a Pittsburgh, PA suburb shot three people at a baby shower, for his expected child by the way, over an argument of who would transport the gifts from the venue to the home. Over 4500 Asian hate crimes were reported in the first seven months of 2021. In one week in May 2021, the Anti-Defamation League found more than 17,000 tweets using variations of the phrase “Hitler was right.” Violent crimes against the marginalized group of hearing, visually, and physically challenged persons are more than double for non-challenged males and over three times as prevalent against women versus their non-challenged counterpart. Just last month, the Associated Price reported that a parent barged into his daughter’s elementary school in Northern California and punched a teacher in the face, sending him to an emergency room, over mask rules. So, I ask those who say my idyll is a paradise for only the privileged white male, how they would like to respond to these.

Ah yes, there is a change in the air. If we could only tell which way the wind will blow next.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Michael 4 Comments
It’s that time again. Actually tomorrow is that time again. Technically tomorrow morning, around 9:30 give or take is that time again. Specifically tomorrow morning around 9:30 if you live in the northern hemisphere is that time again. It’s fall! Autumn. The end of summer. The autumnal equinox. All that stuff. And flu shot time!!!
 
Yes it’s time for me to harass the unsuspecting, cajole the semi-suspecting, preach to the choir, and harangue whoever is left. Whomever? Whatever, just go get your flu shot.
 
The only legitimate reason to not getting a flu shot is because you don’t want to get a flu shot. And that isn’t. But really, if you don’t want want to get a flu shot just say you don’t want one, you don’t care that you may potentially infect billions of others, that you might contribute to trillions of dollars of economic losses or that you may be single handedly responsible for a facial tissue/acetaminophen shortage. But don’t say you will get sick, it doesn’t work, it’s too expensive, your doctor advises against it, or you are allergic to it.
 
Cue the harangue! 
 
Excuse 1. You won’t get sick from the shot. You might get sick at the same time you get the shot and if that happens you would have gotten sick had you not gotten the shot anyway. The other thing that might happen is you’ll have a slight reaction to it. Your arm will be sore because they are sticking a small neeedle in it. Yes, that will hurt. Get over it! You might feel chills a few hours after. That’s because you’re body is getting ready to make the antibodies. That will go away in an hour or two if you get it at all. You might be tired for 2 or 3 days. Again, that’s normal. Your body is working hard bulking up for the onslaught of flu viruses and that takes work. Don’t be a wimp! You won’t be any more tired than after a hard day at the gym or a hard night at the bar back in the day.
 
Number 2. It does work. With a few caveats. It is not a miracle cure. No vaccine is. (Keep that in mind when a COVID vaccine eventually reaches the public.) The flu virus changes and the folks making the vaccine have to think like a virus and decide what form it will take this year. (Keep that in mind at COVID vaccine time also.) Sometimes they hit the nail on the head and all ends up right in the world. Sometimes they are close and you might not completely escape the little buggers but what you get is much less severe than had you not gotten the shot and don’t ever forget the worst that could happen is death. Slow, fevered, shaking, quaking death.
 
fluNon-reason the Third. Even if you don’t have insurance you can get a free flu shot. Many hospital systems and county and state health departments have free flu shot days because it’s cheaper to give away a vaccine that to treat the disease. Some retail pharmacies give free flu shots and some give you a shopping coupon equal to your cost. If you have insurance you are covered. All insurance plans must cover vaccines. You might have to go to a doctor or clinic of your carrier’s choice and/or you may have a co-pay but you are covered.
 
Harangue Paragraph Four. If for some reason your doctor advises against a flu shot and you are certain he or she is a real doctor and didn’t just print a diploma down at Kinko’s, get a new doctor. You aren’t long for this world trusting your health to that person and not getting a flu shot is not increasing your odds.
 
Excuse the Fifth. There once was a time when egg allergies posed a serious limitation to the universal recommendation for flu shots. Likewise with gelatin and latex. Today’s flu shots are safe for almost all allergic patients. There are very very very very very very very very few exceptions. You may be one. You may also have won the Powerball. That does happen. If you are, you know you are and probably came close to death at some time and don’t want to do that again. 
 
Epilogue: Nothing is perfect. There are two groups of people who should not get the flu shot in addition to the analogous lucky lottery winner. Group 1 – If you are not yet six years old don’t get the flu shot. If you are not yet six years old and you are reading this immediately ask somebody to play the Powerball numbers you are thinking of right now! The second group of people who should not get the flu shot are a subgroup of those with Guillian-Barre Syndrome. If you have a history of Guillain-Barre Syndrome talk to your doctor specifically about the flu shot. (Doctors advising against the flu shot under these circumstances are exempt from Harangue Paragraph Four.)
 
A special word about immunosuppressed individuals (like me) and pregnant women (not like me). We know some vaccines for us can be as dangerous as getting the disease. These are the live virus vaccines. Some vaccines actually contain weakened strains of the virus and these can overrun the weakened immune system in these individuals. An example of this is the early form of the shingles vaccine. But the flu shot is not a live virus. All FDA approved injectable flu vaccines are inactivated vaccines with no live virus. However, the nasal form of the flu vaccine contains weakened strains of live virus and these should not be used by immunocompromised individuals or pregnant women whose immune systems are already working double time. But there is no reason for an immunosuppressed or immunocompromised person not to get an injectable form of the vaccine. The shot’s mild side effects may be exaggerated or prolonged but it is still very safe. I had my vaccine Friday and Friday night I had some chills and in Saturday I didn’t feel like doing much but by Sunday afternoon I was my old self. One of these days I’m going to feel like my young self and when that happens, look out world! Oh. Sorry. I digress.
 
A special word for everyone. If you are already sick don’t get your flu shot now. Wait until your cold or infection passes then get the flu shot. 
 
Now that all of that nonsense is out of the way, back to the business at hand. Do you remember when Fall would start on September 21? Fall was September 21, winter on December 21, Spring started March 21, and Summer came on June 21. Maybe the 22nd. None of this “Autumn begins at 9:31:27am September 22 when the sun is somewhere over the edge of the flat side of the world not visible by those perched on the pole pointing away from Venus while drinking a pumpkin latte on a horse drawn hay wagon.” Those were the good old days.
 
 

Summer Eve

Michael 2 Comments

Friday is the first day of summer here. Actually it’s the first day of summer everywhere north of 0° latitude and points south of there will see the first day of winter. Either way the day will usher in a change of seasons. If you are reading this while standing on the equator please step one way or the other and join us. Thank you.

Okay, from this point I’d written another few hundred words on how like the seasons my life has changed. I couldn’t post that. It was depressing. Even to me. You know what? I’m not the only one who has changed. In some fashion we’ve all changed – some planned, some expected, some surprisingly, some shockingly, some barely. But change we have and like the seasons we will get about 3 months to acclimate to our new normal just in time for the next big (or little) change and we’ll deal with it and wait another few months and do it again.

If we got everything we wanted we would never have a reason to try for something better, we’d never try for more, we’d never wish for something else. Getting what we want is good and fun and satisfying but do we want to be just satisfactory?

So yes, Friday is the first day of summer, or winter, but don’t get too used to it. Like everything else in life the only thing you can count on it to do is change. In a way, that’s actually pretty refreshing.

summer-tag-copy

 

Groundhog Day. Again.

Michael 2 Comments

With Groundhog Day approaching I was certain I could count on welcoming an early spring. Gobbler’s Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, home of the master prognosticator Punxsutawney Phil, is just a hair over 90 miles from my front door so the weather isn’t much different. I don’t have Phil’s innate forecasting power but I could do a reasonable imitation of him by crawling out of my home and looking for a shadow and we would be working under the same sun. Well, naturally it would be the same sun but you know what I mean.

Anyway … I was certain I could count on Phil not casting a shadow because I am certain he is smart enough to stay inside in weather like this. For the past two days I woke up to -5° temperatures. Not fit weather for man (that would be me) or beast (Phil, of course). Then this morning I heard on the morning weather guess (they like to call it a “forecast” but we know better) this Saturday we will be waking to temperatures in the 30s. That’s above freezing! In fact, if you are to believe the amateur prognosticators, Sunday temperatures might be in the 50s, Monday close to 60, then the back the teens and 20s by Tuesday. This is a week after days that never got out of single digits followed by a couple 60° afternoons then this latest foray into sub-zero land.

freezerI think everybody in the world (except San Diego) can honestly say “if you don’t like the weather just wait a day, it will change!” but this is ridiculous. It’s also not uncommon. Without trying to annoy the climate change crowd or those who feel climate change is a socialist plot, the world is not made for stable weather patterns. It’s a not quite spherical orb spinning at a not quite constant speed on a tilted axis while revolving around a not consistent heat source on a not quite regular ovoid orbit. If you don’t believe me I give you from prehistory the Sahara Forest, from modem tourism the Great Lakes, and from calendar makers’ nightmares throughout time leap year.

But forget the long range consequences of our planet hurtling through space with the surefootedness of a vertiginous ballroom dancer. We feel earth’s uncertainty every day. Every single day sunrise and sunset happen at a different time. And not even consistently. Every. Single. Day. Seasons “officially” change on a different day every year. We can’t even figure out how to divide a year into even proportions. We say there are 12 months in a year but they are of three different lengths. We say there are 52 weeks in a year but then ever year starts on a different day of the week. We say there are 365 days in a year yet there’s that leap year thing going on.

So in the midst of all this terrestrial and celestial turmoil we put our trust in a furry woodland creature to tell us if we should plant the corn early this year. Eh, he has a better track record than the guys getting paid to do it so why not?  But if those hotshot weather forecasters are wrong about Saturday morning and we wake up to -5° again and Phil wants to stay in, let him take the day off. Spring will get here even without him. Eventually. We’ll just not be sure exactly when but then why should this year be any different? It’s already different enough anyway.

 

 

Fall Fetched Ideas

Michael 5 Comments

Fall arrived two days ago. Up here, north of the Equator fall arrived. In the Southern Hemisphere you’re just getting to spring so you might want to bookmark this and come back to it in 6 months. Yeah, there are a few brave souls south of zero degrees that read this. I was amazed also but thank you my Southern friends.

Anyway, fall rolled in here a little after 9:30 pm (2130 hours to those with 24 hour clocks) (just in case) and that should have been the end of it. “It” could be summer but in this case “it” is the question, “When does fall begin?” Apparently it’s not at the end of summer. Who knew?

This morning I read an article about the upcoming harvest moon, that being the full moon closest to the Autumnal Equinox, which you recall from 3 sentences ago was Saturday evening. Or night depending on your interpretation of a day’s divisions. The full moon closest to that day and time happens tonight, which according to the article signals the start of fall. Hmm.

Three weeks ago Americans celebrated Labor Day which not only commemorates violent confrontation between labor and management but also rocking hot, year-end deals on leftover 2018 model cars and trucks. And…the “unofficial end of summer” and darned if not then by extrapolation, the “unofficial start of fall.” That’s three down.

Starbucks, AKA If We Say So It Must Be So, Inc., released their Pumpkin Spice Latte (PSL to those under 35), which according to Business Insider, “has become an iconic marker of the beginning of autumn.” That’s four.

FloridaFallTo meteorologists, also known as weather guys (or weather people to the more inclusive (which is the more inclusive term for politically correct)), “Meteorological Fall” begins September 1. To football fans (American Football naturally) fall begins with the first high school, college or NFL game of the year, to horse racing enthusiasts the summer ends after the Breeders Cup and by that same extrapolation used above, fall will start the day after (November 4 this year), and to residents of South Florida, fall never comes. We’re up to 5 through 8 if you’re still counting.

And then there are those who mark the change of season with the changing of time as Daylight Saving Time morphs into regular, old, ordinary Time, which itself keeps moving around. The last time I checked, and when I’m planning on changing my clocks, that is the first Sunday of November which is November 4 in 2018. Hey, that’s the same day as the beginning of the Fall of the Horse People. Should it count twice? My post, my rules, I say yes. Number 9.

Personally for me, fall begins the last Sunday of October (this October that’s the 28th) when I pull the battery on the Miata and consign it to the garage until spring (my spring, but that’s a different post).

Ten ways to figure out when fall starts. And in a few months, nobody will think twice about winter other than to question will it never end. Well, give me six months and I’ll see if I can figure out when the first day of spring arrives for 2019. Except for the Southern Hemisphere.

Sorry, you’re still on your own down there, but thanks for reading!

Leafed by the Side of the Road

Michael 2 Comments

Yesterday, for the fourth time this month I took the little car out of the garage, dropped the top, donned a pair of polarizing sunglasses (one lens Democrat, the other Republican), grabbed the real camera, and set out in search of autumnal magic, fall leaves. And for the fourth time I was disappointed.

The first time, which happened to be the 1st, I wasn’t surprised that not many trees had shifted from their summery green foliage. On the second Sunday I saw some yellowing and was given hope that the following week would be more colorful. Last week’s attempt fell in the middle of what the TV weather forecasters predicted to be the peak for color. The only red I saw was the car’s paint job. (In fairness I should have expected no colored leaves since I was going on a weather person’s prediction. After all, these were the same people who brought us “partly cloudy.”)

But yesterday’s disappointment hit a little on the hard side. There’s only one Sunday left to October. If the foliage is still as dull then as it had been I fear I may not see another leaf as pretty as on a fall tree, given that my medical history and its corresponding future are as uncertain as weather forecasting. (My long range plan is to live to at least 100. I tell my daughter that every chance I get so she won’t get to thinking that she’ll be able to live into her golden years off her inheritance. Of course only I know it’s really because if I were to drop dead tomorrow she’d only be able to live comfortably until next Thursday, so my only chance of not disappointing her in that regard is to grow so old that she herself will be old enough that she forgets that she has anything coming to her.)

It’s been an exceptionally warm fall so far this year. If you are to believe the Farmer’s Almanac (and why shouldn’t you?) it will stay above average in temperature until the week before Thanksgiving, much too late for fall foliage festivities. I don’t know if it’s the extended warm weather causing the poor color spectacle. Those pesky weather people who two weeks ago said it wouldn’t are now saying it is. But then in the past, they have said disappointing color was because it got too cold too soon. Other years it was too dry. During still others, too much rain was the cause for a dull fall.

Leaves100909

Last good color I shot, October 2009

To be perfectly honest, I haven’t seen a really vibrant fall for some years now. I suppose the easy thing to blame it on would be climate change. That seems to be a good reason for just about anything we aren’t happy with climatically speaking. Which makes perfect sense since in the truest sense of it, any change in the air can be defined as climate change. Unfortunately we actually believe we can do something about it.

The hardest thing for us to accept is recognizing that yes, people do things that aren’t good for the environment but that the environment is going to change anyway. That’s not to say that we shouldn’t be respectful of the environment and do what is good and healthy for it and for us. It is to say though that eventually, the world’s history is going to catch up with it and there are going to be changes that we aren’t responsible for and that we can’t do anything about.

As hard as it is for us and our egos to accept, we aren’t in charge here. The world came before us and had its routine well established before we propelled our first ozones into the ozone. It’s been hot, it’s been cold, it was covered in ice and covered in water. We are here at its invitation and are welcomed to ride the rides while we are here but that’s as far as it is willing to go.

This year’s colors might not be to my liking and that’s going to have to be ok. Colorful or not, the leaves will drop, spring will be back and new ones will bud on the trees. Next fall I’ll again look forward to a day when I can aim my camera at the beauty of the fall foliage.

Until then, like yesterday, I’ll just enjoy the ride.

 

In Labor

Michael Leave a comment

If you are reading this from outside the United States, boy, are you lucky! Here it is Labor Day. Oh, there’s nothing wrong with the holiday. I just hate its placement in the calendar. It’s so close to the actual end of summer that everybody wants to make it the end of the season. When they started doing that a month ago I expressed my displeasure at rushing through summer. (See “Strike Up the Grill,” Aug. 27, 2017.) Well, they’re at it again!

Yesterday, a whole day before this fictitious end of summer, I received 7 e-mails, 4 tweets, and a text message touting extra special, lowest prices of the year, super savings packed “End of Summer Sales!” But, as much as I want to criticize the marketing world for keeping us 4 to 6 weeks ahead of any actual event you can think of, I have to admit that this weekend, even I was doing some preparation for the arrival of autumn.

Although I would never think of putting it into storage this early, I did some fall prep work on the little convertible. I conditioned its top and got a good wax to cover its paint, taking advantage of the coolish weekend weather knowing neither conditioner nor wax would dry prematurely in blazing sun and heat making me work less enthusiastically on an already heartbreaking time when the garage door will be closed for good. Or at least for 4 or 5 months.

And even though I didn’t put the walking shorts and the tropical print shirts away, they got shuffled to the back of the closet and the more cool weather practical khakis and polos took their spots on the lower closet bar. Save for one pair that I hope to use later today during the pool’s last operating hours of the year, the swimwear has been laundered and folded and stowed in their bin, hoisted onto the top shelf where room was made in the space formerly occupied by [shudder] sweaters.

In the dining room, the baby blue and yellow and white napery was swapped for navy and orange and ivory linens. The tablescape now sports sunflowers instead of pansies.

So there you have it. A share of my shame. As much as I decry hastening the loss of the season, I too was swept up in the American fixation of making Labor Day the end of summer. Now I don’t know what I’ll do in three weeks when fall actually makes its entrance.

Sept2017

Whatball?

Michael 3 Comments

Only 40 more days until hockey season. Forty days. If Noah could make it, I can. The problem I have that our intrepid Biblical sailor never had to overcome is that football is in its preseason and will start some 30 days before hockey. Around here (here seemingly being anywhere bordered by the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and Mexico and Canada) football dominates.

As soon as the NFL entered their preseason activities sometime back at the beginning of summer with “OTAs” whatever they are, football highlighted the sports pages. When the colleges and high schools entered their “preseasons,” it took over. Baseball, golf, tennis, auto racing, horse racing, and any other summer sport went on the inside pages. Yesterday’s email of “headline stories!” from the local paper mentioned 9 can’t miss articles to read, 7 of them football related.

Football has a place. For the young kid crowd, the peewee set, it’s a terrific outlet. It doesn’t require much skill, no physical agility, and little intelligence, while still offering the immature male an opportunity to run amok, yell and scream, and hit each other with abandoned. But by the time they reach 16 you’d think they would be out of that stage preparing to terrorize everybody else when they are awarded drivers licenses.

FootBallI don’t even understand how the sport got its name. Baseball employs bases. Basketballs are aimed at baskets. Ice hockey is played on ice. Soccer players sock each other. A football is a …. What? A local sports writer who is a voter in the football hall of fame selection process has often said that he would never vote for a kicker to be enshrined in that hall. Yet the football kicker is the only football player on the football team who actually uses his foot in the play of the game.

Just forty more days. Forty days. Time to gather two centers, two left wings, two right wings, two left defense, two right defense, two goalies, two coaches, two pucks, two Zambonis, two….