911, Football, lazy weekend
911 snuck up on me. Yesterday I looked at a calendar and saw it was the 10th and realized today was 911. Wow I can’t believe it’s been 5 years already. If you asked me then what I thought the end result of 911 was going to be my answers would have been quite different than today. I would have told you that Osama Bin Laden would have been dead or captured within the first 6 months. I would have never imagined that we would have set foot in Iraq and certainly not involved in a conflict that has what seems to be an infinite timeline at this point. To be honest I would have told you that there would have been another major attack by this time so the fact that there hasn’t has to lend itself to at least one thing the Bush administration can take credit for. I certainly would have never predicted 3 dollar a gallon gas.
The biggest thing I remember about 911 was the sense of one that everyone felt. For the first time in my life it felt like I actually shared something with everyone that lives here. It was like we all took a collective punch to the gut and we all helped each other get through it. It was a a very sad but inspiring period of time. Unfortunately that feeling lasted at most a few months. The actions our government took in the name of 911 turned us into the bully of the planet in the opinion of our neighbors, mired us in the 21st century version of Vietnam and wound up turning all that emotion we felt against the enemy back upon our own leaders as it became apparent that they used the situation to carry out political and special interest agendas.
Putting all the post 911 bullshit aside, I’ll never forget that moment when I was watching tv, seeing the one building burning with a hole in it, thinking what a horrible accident for a plane to hit a building then seeing another plane, live, smash into the other building. The realization that it was no accident was like a hammer. That split second is one I will carry forever. They are replaying the Stern Show broadcast from 911 today, it is haunting.
This was opening weekend of the NFL and I had it set in my mind to enjoy it. On Saturday Ali and I did most of the housework by early afternoon Saturday. Then we went to a 4 o’clock showing of Invincible, the movie about the Philly guy that made the team out of an open tryout. The movie was great, probably enhanced by me being an Eagles fan. The idea of a down and out guy actually making a pro-sports team is every weekend warriors dream, including mine. My intense childhood desire to be a pro athlete really made this movie emotional for me. It’s just a feel good type of movie. My only criticism was they used a little too much slow mo footage in the flick, it was everywhere. It gets an A-.
After the movie we went out to dinner at a new place, the Roman Oven. It was a pleasant surprise. Even though we hit it at at 6pm on a Saturday night it wasn’t terrribly full and we sat right down. We were greeted by a personable old man that was the host and we sat down and immediately took notice of the nice surroundings, filled with earthy colors and intricate tile everywhere. They made all their own pasta which is pretty unheard of nowadays. I ordered the basic test for an italian restaurant, spaghetti and meatballs. It was quite good as was Ali’s meal. Our waitress was very nice as well, we really had no complaints. 35 bucks covered the bill and we were out of there.
Saturday night Ali and I did some work on the web site for the 6k run she is organizing. It’s nothing fancy but I like it. Check it out.
Sunday morning we did our 3rd week of Nicki walks. She really seems to look forward to them already. The walk got off on a bad start. Shortly after we started, we noticed behind us an actual live armadillo walking on the road. We never have seen a live one, just dead ones on the road. They are basically nocturnal animals. Well anyway he was just sort of wandering around on the road with no apparent destination. As we looked back, a fire engine with sirens blaring turned onto our road. As it came screaming up the road the armadillo kept farting around, oblivious to the oncoming danger. Ali was freaking, saying the truck was going to run over the poor thing. As she looked away, I watched as the engine approached, never slowing or diverting it’s path. The armadillo froze and the truck straddled the animal (without slowing), I watched in horror as the frozen animal decided to come to life and move just as the truck was going over it. Ali gasped “Did he kill it?” as we stared at the firetruck as it flew by with disgust on our faces. I said yep, as all I saw was the motionless figure on the road behind. I figured out why I see so many dead armadillos, they don’t get out of the way very well.
Well the whole incident put a very dark cloud on the walk. Ali was outraged the firemen made no effort to avoid the animal. She talked of letters to the editor about it. She was in a bad mood for pretty much the entire trip. Nicki on the other hand was having a great time, prancing along she was sniffing from side to side repeatedly. Ali’s mood was made worse by Nicki’s refusal to drink during the walk. She was panting heavily with her tongue hanging out wildly but absolutely had no interest in drinking. So since she wouldn’t drink the water we dumped some of it on her. I took a pic of her during the walk.
It seems each time we do the walk I see new things. One of the things that made me laugh was this mailbox. If you look quickly you may not notice what is so funny. It is installed backwards. Hey mailboxes don’t come with installation directions, maybe they should. 🙂
On the way back Ali was dreading walking by the dead armadillo. So you can imagine our amazement when we turned back onto our street and saw nothing on the road. As we got to the spot there was no blood, no signs of massacre. The armadillo lived! It must have balled up and just missed the tire of the truck. You could feel the weight lifted off of Ali’s mood.
Sunday afternoon was all about watching football. The Eagles had a strong start to the season after a bit of a shaky start. When they allowed the Texans to march down the field and score a TD on their first possession I was like “Oh shit” However in the 2nd quarter they started to roll and cruised to a 24-10 win. I was impressed that at the end of the game they totally controlled things, holding the ball for a long time to run out the clock as opposed to the normal 3 and out and then play sloppy prevent defense and give up cheap points. Granted it was the Texans, the worst team in the league last year but regardless the Birds looked good.
Next I watched a good chunk of the Cowboy/Jaguars game. I was hoping to see TO hurt himself. Instead he had a strong game and scored a TD. The good news is the Cowboys lost. My fantasy team started strong and then faded. I am down 81-80 with no players left to play and my opponents kicker plays tonight so I am toast, disappointing. Carson Palmer and Rueben Droughns let me down, scoring a shitty 5 points between them.
DirecTV has a great new feature this year. You are able to program in your starting fantasy team roster and then when any of them do anything that generates fantasy points a little alert pops up at the bottom of the screen, no matter what game you are watching. What an awesome little piece of tech! I love the Sunday Ticket.
I played no WoW this weekend at all, instead devoting my time to Half Life 2, probably too much time. In WoW the only time your adrenalin gets going normally is during an impromptu PvP encounter when you are up against a horde player one on one. In HL2 it is like that all the time and then some. You are constantly on guard as you round each corner, never knowing what is going to pop out and try to take you down. I can feel my blood pressure elevate as I play. By Sunday, my eyes were both bloodshot and hurt. Not from staying up late but from the constant darting eye movements that the game requires. They still hurt today. It’s a great game though, really, really good.