Blergh! ’30 Rock’ Is Ending
Tonight, I will lose some friends. "30 Rock" airs its final episode, an hour-long finale. I have had my ups and downs with the NBC comedy over the years, but…
Oriole Memories
Like with most things, I discovered the news from my friends online. I don’t know whether I first saw the announcement on Twitter or Facebook, but I learned Earl Weaver had died when I checked in to see if anyone had posted any funny pictures while I was busy.
I try not to get caught up in hero worship so I didn’t have an immediate visceral reaction to the news. Weaver was 82 years old. He lived a good, long life. I couldn’t get too sad over the death of someone I never met, but one other emotion did take over.
Nostalgia.
New Wheels Coming
Within the first week or so of buying my car, I had to fly to Ohio for a friend’s wedding. I drove to the Harrisburg airport for my departing flight, gripping my steering wheel as if my life depended on it as tractor-trailers moved by me in a pouring rain.
I wanted that car to last for ever. Not just because it cost me a bunch of money, but because I really liked it. I planned on taking care of it and making sure that it lasted for a long, long time.
That was almost six and a half years ago. I found out last week that some of the problems which I just considered a minor annoyance of having an older car had turned into serious issues that force me to do something I really dread.
I have to get a new car.
Wardrobe Malfunction
I knew the sound the moment I heard it. Unfortunately, I have experience in this area and started to think about the potential fallout.
The problem was, this all happened while I was in the midst of officiating a youth wrestling event, and I really had no chance to react or even fully assess the situation for a while. Finally, one of the young wrestlers watching the action from the sidelines alerted me to my plight.
“Hey, ref. You have a hole in your pants.”
From the mouths of babes. He was right. As I squatted down to start two little guys for one period, I heard the unmistakable sound of fabric ripping. I hoped I had not ripped too big a hole and pretty much put the problem out of my mind until the kid brought it to my attention.
Intelligence Test
Growing up. I had a conflicted vision of my own intelligence. I placed into the higher levels of classes in school, but felt really intimidated by my siblings’ academic accomplishments.
I guess that’s natural for the youngest in a big family. As I got older, I managed to feel comfortable with my smarts and realized I had a pretty good head on my shoulders.
One thing, however, continually makes me question that belief. Sudoku.
Hidden Presents
On Christmas morning, I tried to keep everything as normal as possible.
We get up, open presents and enjoy our annual treat of mini powdered donuts. But, at some point, I may have wanted to sneak off to each room in the house to see if I missed a special present.
My wife would never keep a present from me. But, as she knows all too well, I carry many scars from my younger days. One Christmas, my family tried to hide an awesome present from me.
Temp Check
Normally I don’t like to turn down a reason to spend a couple of days in my sweatpants watching television, but I could have done without the fever.
I needed to take a couple of days off from work recently when some virus knocked me down. The whole thing started as an annoying cough with sinus congestion. I never saw the fever and lethargy coming.
I hopped in the car to head for work one morning and realized I had made a tragic mistake about 15 minutes into my commute. Unfortunately, I had a project due that day and had no way of accessing the information from home.
Nobody like the person who comes into work when they should be resting at home, so I got in and out of the office as fast as I could. I really needed to just tie up a few loose ends, which made it possible for me to be home watching television in bed by noon.