Whirlwind, depressing ride, depressing game, deep thinking
Saturday morning I was a buzz saw cutting through my three major projects of replacing the mailbox, replacing the broken sprinkler head and fixing the mower deck all before lunch time. All of the jobs went as planned, hence the quick completion time. The rest of the day I kept busy doing various other small chores. I was able to get my one Roomba working again by swapping out the brush deck with a spare from the Roomba that has the fried circuit board.
Ali had a ballet rehearsal for her big show tonight during the afternoon. She came up with the great idea of stopping at Carraba’s on the way home for take out. Saturday night we got to enjoy Carraba’s in our living room while we watched Hancock, a movie I had wanted to see for awhile. Hancock was decent. It had some kick ass special effects and the story line was reasonably interesting. There was one scene in the movie where Ali commented that “it’s just stupid now” but the film actually got back on track after that. I enjoyed it. I’d give it a B+.
Sunday morning we decided to take a bike ride up around our area. We used to regularly go up and down our road by bike, roller blade and foot but we hadn’t done so in a long time, at least a year. We hadn’t used our bikes in so long that I had to pump up both tires on both bikes, they were as flat as they could be. It was quite windy so depending on the direction we were riding it was either very easy if the wind was pushing you or rather difficult if you were going head on into it.
It was nice to get out and ride I guess but the adjective I would use to sum up the ride was in a word, depressing. When we moved into our house in 2001 our street was a bee hive of activity, everywhere you looked there was a new home going up. The news of Ave Maria going in made our location all the more desirable, everyone wanted in. Well a ride down the street in 2008 left no doubt that those days are ancient history. It seemed that almost every other house was either for sale or outright abandoned.
It really struck home when we drove by the house of a woman we kind of befriended when we first moved there. She was sort of the community organizer and we attended several neighborhood meetings at her place. She was big into animals and her fenced in yard was filled with various pens and cages to accommodate them all. Well we rode by her house and hardly recognized it. The wooden slat fence that used to be along the front was gone, the mailbox was laying on it’s side and there was a big tube tv laying face down in the middle of the driveway. Her house was one of the abandoned ones.
We rode by a HUMUNGOUS house. It literally looked like it belonged on the water, it was that big and that fancy. However it was not finished. For years it was simply an unfinished shell of concrete blocks. We figured the perspective owners ran out of money. Well evidently they found some more money to get the place almost done but not quite. The lot it sits on is nothing fancy and in fact looks ratty. The front door is a piece of plywood with a large gap along the bottom. I walked around the back to take a look inside. The place looked like it was a palace. The rear deck was made of marble, the ceiling was intricately detailed, the railings looked like brushed copper. I took a look inside and saw more impressive architecture although the huge spaces were mostly empty except for construction materials scattered around. I had Ali join me in looking inside the glass, she was equally impressed. We were both sort of amazed that someone would be building such an extravagant, huge, beautiful home and stop just short of it being completed. I took a look at the permit board that was hanging open. Wedged in the bottom were a few weather worn papers, the latest dated February of 08 but most dating back to 2006.
I got the address of the place off of one of the papers so I could look up the tax information online when we got home. The place had not had it’s taxes paid since 2006 and the property is only appraised at 134,000, meaning the home has never been officially completed or sold. The house had to be close to a million dollar place. It looked incredible. Check out this link, click on the house on the corner, just below where the little arrow is at the corner of 47th ave NE and 18th St , it should pop a picture where you can see this monster under contruction.
We cut our ride a bit short because Ali’s knee started to bug her a bit. A little later in the day I realized that my knees felt a bit weird from the ride as well.
I’d rather not even talk about the Eagles game since it was so horrific but since a rather big deal happened during it, I need to mention it. Once again the Eagles started off like they were playing in quicksand. Once again Donovan killed the team with three turnovers in the first half. Once again he looked like he was more worried about playing in the cold weather than having his head in the game. The Eagles went into half time down 10-7. With the way the offense played they were fortunate to only be down three.
Well I was floored when the second half started and Donovan was on the sidelines wearing his coat. For the first time in his professional career he was being benched for bad play. I couldn’t believe it. I wasn’t really happy or sad about the move as much as I was just shocked. Just last week Andy was propping up McNabb, to pull the rug out like that in a three point game was really surprising. Deep down I knew that Kolb probably didn’t give the Eagles a much better shot to win but I was hopeful that I may be wrong. Kolb had one drive where he strung a few passes together before throwing an absolutely dreadful, boneheaded interception that was run back for a historic 108 yards the other way for a TD. After that he did absolutely nothing. To be fair, he was thrown into a horrible situation. Once the Birds got down by more than one score the Ravens just pinned their ears back and rushed the hell out of the 2nd year QB. His probability for success in that situation isn’t going to be high.
After the game I watched Andy’s press conference. You could tell he was angry and embarrassed as his decisions came into question. He basically said he hoped that inserting Kolb would provide a spark. It obviously didn’t work out. One thing that I thought was kind of lame was that Andy did not tell Donovan he was getting yanked. He had the QB coach do it. That was sort of a wimp move if you ask me.
I saw Donovan’s press conference later. I couldn’t help but feel a little bad for the guy. Obviously his pride was hurt. He has lead the Eagles to many victories over the years. To be yanked out of the game because your coach doesn’t think you can get it done has to be like having a bucket of cold water thrown in your face. He indicated that he didn’t agree with the decision but he respected the coach’s authority to make it. Through out the conference he said all the right things without stepping on too many toes.
I heard today that Andy has decided to put Donovan back behind center for Thursday night’s game against the Cardinals. I think it is the right decision, for now. If he lays another egg the Eagles can pretty much kiss this season goodbye. Then it might be time to see if the Birds have a true heir apparent in the wings. From what I saw yesterday , I’m not so sure we have our future franchise QB on the roster. I’m not all that upset that I can’t see the Thursday game since it is on NFL network.
I bought a book based on the recommendation of a former co-worker up north, called the Power of the Subconscious Mind. He read the book a few years back and has had a dramatic transformation in the quality of his life ever since. The book is about the power of your subconscious mind and how this power can be used for or against you. I have only gotten through four chapters but the Cliff Notes version of what I have read so far goes like this.
Your conscious thoughts are responsible for sowing the seeds that are cultivated in your subconscious mind. You subconscious mind has pretty amazing power but it is a blind servant to your conscious mind, it does what it is told. The book is about training your mind to help instead of hinder you. Doing so involves a technique that could go under various names such as prayer, visualization, positive reinforcement or even hypnosis. You affirm positive statements consciously and your subconscious mind will pick up the ball and run with these thoughts, doing whatever it can to manifest them.
It’s really a pretty simple concept that I have utilized before without even realizing I was doing it. I remember when I was a pitcher I would visualize what a perfect strike felt like. I could feel the ball leave my hand effortlessly as it zipped towards the catcher until it popped into his glove low and on the outside corner. I’ve done the same thing in volleyball visualizing what a clean, hard hit “feels” like. The mental exercise helped steer my body through the proper motions to accomplish what I pictured mentally.
This principal when applied on a large scope to your attitude about life is indeed powerful. I’m reading the book with an open mind and will do my best to apply the ideas presented there to my daily existence to see how things change. I figure I have nothing to lose and a lot to gain. Who doesn’t want to be happier?