Oh, I Think So

There have been three pre-season games for my team, the Chicago Bears.  Here is what I have gleaned from the little attention I've been paying: 1.  Pre-season play is foolhardy! How many players have been injured in these three games, including Jimmy Clausen, the second string quarterback.  (Insert sigh of relief here:  he did not suffer a concussion.)  Also injured in this game were cornerback Tracy Porter, defensive tackle Jeremiah Ratliff, nose tackle Eddie Goldman, and running back Senorise Perry.  How is any of this okay?  Just have lots and lots of practices -- hard practices on the actual field against the practice team -- but don't risk the season for games that don't count.  Injuries that count and can affect someone's future are not worth sustaining in pre-season play. 2.  Jay Cutler is not just a non-top-tier QB he really dances below the middle tier and down around the bottom.  He is not going to improve enough to be a to...

In preparation for my vacation in 2 weeks and 2 days, I am taking a vacation today. Do you miss me?  Nah, probably not.

I began writing this post on August 2, 2011.  I consider the time I've spent thinking about it, writing it, and rewriting it to be time well spent.  In fact, I didn't realize it had been four years; it felt like two years.  That makes no sense since it took almost a year to write She Is Where . I began working at my present job on August 15, 1995.  The cumulative time went by like a shot but that's what happens when you're not a young person.  Time might seem to drag on a daily basis and yet you can almost watch the clock whirring forward.  I will not be getting these 20 years back. That's as much philosophy as you're getting from me today except toe say that the Bears are back and those years Jay has been the quarterback?  We fans of the Chicago Bears won't be getting those back either. So I close by telling you what I've been saying at work, "It's my anniversoire."  (Yeah, I know it's not a word.)

Yesterday I went downtown to take a tap class.  I left at the usual time but didn't count on the addition of tourists being on the train, not acting right, standing in everyone's way and they were not the worst thing about the train ride.  There was this one guy... Everyone knows someone like this one guy.  He has decided that he is going to have a beautiful body.  He is going to go to the gym every day.  No matter where he is or what he's doing, he will get to the gym.  He is focused.  He is determined.  He is one of the most ignorant and selfish people around. He has to be able to have a drink -- something like Monster or Red Bull -- and he has to have it as he rides the train.  He has to have his phone in his hand in case someone tries to contact him.  It might be important and he believes he's an important guy.  He wears the briefest of sleeveless t-shirts to show off his body.  He stands in such a way as to pose and al...

Exciting!  Inviting!  But not for me... Lollapalooza is the summer blockbuster of summer blockbuster music festivals in a city where you can't swing a bag of festering garbage without hitting a music festival.  Riotfest!  Pitchfork!  Some other fests that just don't come to mind!  They are three-day music festivals like Lollapalooza but they just are not Lolla.  Yeah, we call it Lolla because no one has time for saying it every single time. Look at the Lolla acts closing each night this year.  Sir Paul McCartney -- in case you've been dead for 50 years, he was in an ineffectual band called The Beatles, a group that did nothing except change Rock and Roll (and there are those who say almost ruined it but that's a different discussion); Metallica -- one of the greatest heavy metal bands of all time; Florence and the Machine -- this year's biggest of the new stars.  I work in the multipurpose building that is called the Olgilvie Transpor...

I went to the post office one day after work last week to see if I had mail in my box.  I do this almost every day and the results of late are the same:  No mail as Alvin, our carrier, will be out for five months and they haven't hired someone to fill his spot in his absence.  There is the same disappointment as the day before. This day was different.  There were tourists taking pictures on the letter box side of the post office.  They were excitedly taking pictures of everything -- the boxes, the counters, the light fixtures, the granite floors -- and they were pleased as punch to be able to get these pictures.  From my pictures you can't tell, but there were at least 10 of them.  No, I didn't think they were a terror cell because a terror cell would not draw this much attention to themselves and members of a cell probably don't giggle and let their voices get so high pitched.  They would take a picture and then race in front of the other and t...

Last week I saw two of my oldest and dearest friends.  We talked about many things and when the topic turned to sports, one of them said, "After you've gotten into hockey, does anything really compare?"  It's true.  For skill, speed, seemingly-impossible shots, and amazing accuracy, nothing beats hockey. Football is a snooze in comparison.  It takes at least three dull hours to play a game of football, with or without commercial interruptions.  Snorting, pushing men who are snorting on and pushing other snorting, pushing men, one thin man with a very good kicking leg, and one guy who can hypothetically throw with great accuracy.  (I say hypothetically because a certain Bears QB has talent that is only hypothetical.)  "Wasn't that game exciting?"  No, it probably wasn't as it took so long for anything to happen.  This doesn't mean I now dislike it, so forget about that. Basketball is a bunch of really tall men running back ...