It was a good weekend until…..

Normally I go in more or less chronological order when I describe my weekend events.  Well not this time.  Let’s talk about the f’in Eagles game.  Week 1’s game against the Texans made the Eagles look good, real good and I even mentioned that it had to be measured appropriately since the Texans were the worst team in the league last year.  So I really had no idea what to expect when the Giants came to the Vet.

Well for 3 + quarters, it was awesome.  The Eagles dominated the Giants, their defense didn’t give Manning time to breath, sacking him 8 times.  They stuffed the run and other than the Giants opening drive for a TD the Birds D shut them down.  On the flip side, the offense was clicking as well, mixing in run and pass in almost a perfect balance.  They also ran a lot of hurry up offense that kept the Giants defense off balance and tired.  What a great game plan, what great execution, what a great way to perform in the home opener!  Maybe the Eagles actually are for real this year?? Then the 4th quarter happened.

They entered the quarter up 24 to 7 a huge, three score lead.  Even if the Eagles didn’t score again, all they had to do was make a few first downs, come up with a defensive stop or two and the game is wrapped up.  Well then it all started to unravel.  The Giants got a cheap TD when a fumble by them which should have been recovered by Michael Overrated Lewis, instead wound up getting booted around until it wound up being fallen on in the end zone by the Giants.  Even now I don’t quite get it, I thought you couldn’t advance a fumble?  Well evidently I don’t know the rules because the TD stood. 

Ok well still, the quarter was about halfway gone, the Eagles just need to take control and drive the ball with their offense like they did all game.   Well instead they adopt a new offensive strategy, run the ball into the huge pile and gain nothing.  On one of the runs, Westbrook, whose priority should have been to protect the ball first and foremost, decides to launch himself into a pile of Giants and has the ball knocked out.  A stupid, stupid play that puts the Giants deep in Eagles territory.  All of a sudden it is the Giants that can’t be stopped.  Eli Manning looks like Johnny Unitas as he completes pass after pass in front of an Eagles defense that all of a sudden decides to play soft instead of agressive.  And of course the Giants score another TD in short order.

The Eagles get the ball only up 3 but still, all they have to do is put a drive together to kill the clock.  Instead another weak 3 and out and punt.  The Giants immediately start driving again but then the Birds make a play and Trotter intercepts the ball and puts the Eagles in great field position at midfield!  Whew that was a close one, now all they have to do is make a couple first downs and the game is done.  Instead after making a first down and then executing some poorly thought out plays, they once again punt, giving the Giants the ball back with less than a minute to go. Ok it’s time for the D to stand up.

They fall down.  The continue to play soft, keep everything in front of you defense, allowing the Giants to drive into borderline field goal range in a matter of seconds. Then Trent Cole makes it easy for the Giants by drawing a 15 yard personal foul for KICKING another player.  What a f’in dumb ass, I mean come on….     They drive into comfortable field goal range and tie the game with 5 seconds to go.  I was besides myself with disbelief, screaming at the TV on several occasions.

 Overtime comes and after both teams have to punt, the Giants get the ball back and drive down the field and once again they are in long field goal range.  On a 3rd and long the Eagles went for broke and blitzed hard.  Manning throws a fluttering rainbow towards the endzone.  Once again Burress is matched up one on one with a CB a half foot shorter than him.  He shrugs him off like he is a child and snags the ball for the game winning TD.  My disgust was beyond words.

I have had a lot of hard Eagle losses over the years, losing all those Championship games and then the Super Bowl was tough for sure, but there is something about blowing a big lead that stings in a different, very lasting way.  Even today I am still bent out of shape about it.  It was an enbarrassment for the team and the fans.  The Eagles folded like a lawn chair when the pressure was on and there just is nothing worse in an Eagles fan book.  They took the win for granted and got soft.  I am so pissed off.  I would fill the Eagles message board with venom if it wasn’t so bogged down already with others already venting, it was soooooooooo bad.  All I can hope is they use this as a wake up call, as a reminider that when they have a lead, they need to pour it on, they need to grind the opponents face into the dirt until the game is over. They did exactly that against the Texans.  It was just a pathetic, embarrassing, unexcusable collapse.

Ok rewind to Friday.  Friday I was weak.  Normally I am pretty disciplined and motivated in most areas of my personality.  Friday I just felt wishy washy.  It first surfaced when I went to the gym on Friday.  I felt very unmotivated to be there.  I did my exercises but my intensity was absent.  I felt like I was going through the motions.  My gains in strength since beginning supplementation again have slid to a stop.  It feels like I am up against the limits of what my body wants to do.  My shoulders seem to be permanently sore and each time I throw heavy weight on the bench they get a little worse. 

After work I had several errands to run.  The first stop was WalMart to get parts for my prototype.  All the way over I was f’ing with the satellite radio, the shitty antenna connector was once again giving me fits, refusing to lock in place properly, frustrating the hell out of me.  I slammed it into the cradle time and again but kept getting the “No Antenna Detected” message on the display.  My last effort to jam it in bitched up the antenna connector and I had enough.  Even though I knew we didn’t need to spend the money, I grabbed a new receiver in Wal-Mart as well, an Exact Replay unit.  It took me a long time to get out of there, longer than expected.  I came back out to my truck and activated and hooked up the new unit on the spot.

I also had to stop at Sam’s and the grocery store on the way home.  I didn’t pull into the driveway until after 7:30.  I reluctantly told Ali of my satellite radio purchase.  It was only 70 bucks but still, zero bucks would have been better than 70.  I was just frustrated and sick of screwing with it.  The new radio has no piece of shit connectors to screw with.

First thing Saturday morning I dug deep into Half Life 2, I could tell I was getting close to the end so I wanted to push through.  The game has been great althogh not more than a little stressful.  The graphics are so good you really feel like you could reach through the monitor and touch things.  I heard the ending was lame, which it was, but getting to it was fun.  Towards the end your gravity gun gets mutated from a weapon that can pick up inanimate objects only into something that can pick up ANYTHING, including enemy bad guys.  It was quite fun snagging guys and then launching them into other bad guys, knocking them out.   Even when guys were dead, I would pick up their corpses and throw them around some more, just because it was fun. Like I said the ending was bad, it gave you no satisfaction.  You don’t get the girl, you don’t get accolades from the masses for saving mankind, you just get set up for the next release.  They really did f that up. It’s still a great game though.

I put together my prototype Saturday.  The secrecy is a mute point since it didn’t work well and there are other similar things out there.  My idea is a temporary block for a pool drain.  Pool vacuum cleaners have an annoying habit of getting stuck on the pool drain, staying there until you come out and pull it off.  It is a pain in the ass to be constantly monitoring the pool cleaner to see if it is stuck again.  My invention consists of a microwave plate cover with a 5 pound plate weight glued to the top.  I envisioned this contraption with big eyeloops attached that would allow the device to be placed and removed as needed on top of the pool drain.  The unit was supposed to block the pool cleaner from getting stuck on the drain.

I wanted to drill a few holes into the top of the plate cover to allow air to escape.  When I took the wood boring bit to the top, instead of drilling cleanly, it ripped a hole in the top and cracked it badly. The top was intact but looked like shit.  Oh well it is only a prototype, it doesn’t have to be pretty. So I took it into the hobby room and slapped some super glue on the 5 pound weight and let it set up.  On Sunday I went to test it.

I hopped in the end of the pool and grabbed my mutation.  The second it hit the water, the glue let loose and it came apart.  Hmm design flaw, well no problem I just want to test the functionality.  So I slap on some goggles and dive down and place the plate cover over the drain and dive a second time to place the 5 pound weight on top of it.  It took awhile for the vacuum to encounter the now covered drain but when it did the results were not good.  The vaccum still tried to go over the cover and wound up getting stranded at an angle stuck on it. Ugh.  Between the assembly problems, the fact that things are out there that do the same function and my failed test results, it’s put a serious damper on my enthusiasm.  However I do realize that with some design changes, namely a higher microwave plate cover, it would work.  The 5 pound weight was adequate to keep the vacuum from pushing the cover around.  I am not sure what my next move will be with it.  The more I look into the invention creation, patent obtaining processes it seems like a large pain in the ass.  An ideal situation would be me selling the concept to someone that could turn my prototype into reality and run with it.  Then they just give me a lot of money.  It’s not that simple. 🙁

Well anyway, Saturday continued with us knocking out the grass mowing and then we went to Home Depot.  I had been building a list of things I needed from Home Depot for a few weeks.  Ali just snagged a 50 dollar gift card for HD from doing mypoints.com surfing so it was a good time to go get it.  I snagged a bunch of little things to address several needs around the house.  When we got home, while Ali caught some zzz’s, I went whirlwind style around the house and performed most of the maintenance that the items required.  The only thing that was left for Sunday was caulking the pool cage.

The pool cage guys did a decent job of installing the cage but for some reason the did not caulk the part of the frame in contact with the cement pad.  There were several spots where the gap was as big as a quarter inch which was allowing all sorts of bugs and small frogs/toads to enter into the lanai area.  So on Sunday morning,armed with 2 tubes of caulk, I gooped up pretty much the entire outside perimeter of the cage, hopefully it will dramatically reduce the amount of critters we are seeing inside the cage.

On Saturday night we watched RV, sort of a 2006 version of National Lampoon Vacation.  Man it was funny.  I laughed as hard as I have at a movie in a looooong time.  I had no idea it would be that good.  Robin Williams did a great job.  It is a definite must rent/buy flick. (of course I did neither) It gets an A, loved it.

Ok well that’s it, damn what a long entry, sorry.