Joking Jeremy, Epic Phail
Our weekend started at 4:30 Saturday morning as we drug ourselves out of bed for a race. It was a 5mile race in Marco Island. It’s the first race we timed since late October. I wasn’t sure what to expect since we had nearly a 10% miss rate the last time out. This wasn’t a huge race with a total of a little more than 200 runners participating.
This time I took some advice I heard regarding the DAG systems sensitivity to metallic objects by locating the timing lines outside of the aluminum ladders. In my testing I noticed my detection height was much better. The timing of the race went better than last time. We had one chip that completely died and a couple others that didn’t read for some reason, possibly being attached incorrectly. We also had the normal few people that for some one reason or another did not have a chip at all. However all in all, it went pretty smooth.
It seems that the biggest obstacle we face is getting runners to properly attach the chip to the sneaker. I would have never thought it would be that much of a struggle. I constantly see people attaching them wrong. Part of it is race staff’s fault. There needs to be more hand holding in the process. I hear far too often “here is your chip, do you know how to put it on?” Of course most people don’t want to admit they need help so they take their chip and then go and struggle with it for 5 minutes and many times still wind up attaching it wrong. I’m not quite sure how to overcome that besides having the SAME people handing out chips every race and have those people give each and every person explicit instructions and/or help the runners attach the chip. I really would like to go to some product that allows the device to be strapped to the ankle. That is harder to mess up.
When we got back Ali was exhausted. I was pretty tired too but I had grass cutting on my mind. While she took a nap I headed out to tend to the grass. We probably have not mowed for well over a month. The grass didn’t look bad but was rough around the edges. I wanted it to look nice and uniform for our visitors. I mowed and weed whacked everything myself which took upwards of three hours. I was very conscious of my forearm during the process since I knew that weed whacking is one of the primary culprits behind my forearm issues.
Saturday night Ali, me, my mom and two of our friends went out to Carraba’s to do a joint birthday dinner for Ali and I. We got there right around 6. I expected it to be full but not packed. Well there were cars parked on the grass and not a spot to be found in their parking lot. I wound up parking next door in front of a small strip mall. Ali did the “call ahead seating” thing so we hoped it would cut down on the wait.
It was weird, even though the parking was so tight, inside the place didn’t seem all that full. We were easily able to get to the bar. I’ve been there when the bar is surrounded by a wall of people three or four deep. One good part of getting there early is the opportunity to participate in the 2 for 1 happy hour. I decided I was going to drink, something I do very rarely. Before the night was over I had six beers, albeit the light variety.
Our waiter sort of looked like Gary from the Stern show, His name was Jeremy. It seemed like he was a stand up comedian who was moonlighting as a waiter. He was filled with funny one liners that he dropped rapid fire all night long. He was really funny and added tremendously to the enjoyment of the meal. Although I have always loved Carraba’s, in recent years our trips there have been less than spectacular because the wait staff was just average. They were polite and prompt but not very interesting. Jeremy rocked. He was good enough that I would feel inclined to ask to be seated in Jeremy’s section the next time I go there.
When we got home I had ideas of watching the season finale of Celebrity Rehab. I laid down in bed and closed my eyes for just a second. The next thing I knew it was 1am and I was in bed with all of my clothes on. Evidently the combo of getting up at 4:30 with the six beers proved to be a powerful sleeping pill. I got up, took of my clothes, brushed my teeth, went to the bathroom and went back to bed.
Sunday morning I got up feeling a bit hazy but not full blown hung over. While Ali went to spinning class I started on more chores. I finished up steam cleaning the carpet shortly after noon. I thought the Eagles played at one. I soon discovered they didn’t play till 4. I watched a portion of several 1 o’clock games, mostly because I was interested in the teams playing in the frigid, arctic conditions. It was very odd. In several cases teams racked up huge offense despite the conditions. The Patriots game was incredible. They marched up and down the snow covered field like it was nothing, destroying the Cardinals. The Dolphins and Chiefs also put up huge offensive numbers despite wind chills that dipped sub-zero. I love bad weather games.
Note I said I like bad WEATHER games, not BAD games like the Eagles/Skins game. Where do I start? Ok the gods apparently seemed to be smiling on the Eagles. Thanks to the Buccaneers losing to the Chargers, the Eagles actually were in control of their own destiny. If they won their last two games they were in the playoffs, no more help needed. The Eagles have looked borderline unstoppable the last three games, rolling up tons of points on the Cardinals, Giants and Browns. They were facing a Redskin team that has been in free fall with a 7-7 record after starting 6-2. The Skins just have not been able to beat anyone lately, including the Bengals.
Well from the get go it seemed to me that the Eagles were starting to believe their own hype. I got the impression that they thought they should be able to just go out there and win, easily. There was no urgency or passion in their play on offense. It didn’t take very long for Andy Reid to panic and totally abandon the running game. Donovan, who had been playing with confidence and passion the last 3 games as a result of his benching seemed to take a step back once again. He once again made no plays with his legs and made some very erratic throws. His receivers let him down as well. There were a ton of dropped balls, some of which were crushing like the two that DeSean “I like to run backwards” Jackson dropped.
Brian Westbrook hurt himself again and was obviously gimpy but instead of putting in a healthy Buckholder, Fat Andy kept trotting Westbrook out there. The entire game the Eagles were working out of a hole thanks to bad punting by Sav Rocca and the Eagles inability to do ANYTHING on offense. They started behind their own 20 yard line a ridiculous amount of times.
The defense did a nice job of shutting down the Skins but they are not without blame either. A good team makes plays when they are presented to them more often than not. The defense had two golden opportunities to turn the game around. The skins threw into the end zone. The ball hit an Eagle defender in the arms. Instead of catching it, the ball bounces up into the air, like a perfect set in volleyball. There are three Eagles in the vicinity, not a single one could make the play and make the INT. Result, three points for the Skins instead of Eagle ball at the 20.
Then Asante Samuel, Mr multi-million dollar free agent, has a SURE interception floating his way. He is in perfect position to snag it and run it back. Instead, he lets the ball hit him right in the hands and bounce away. It was PATHETIC. When he dropped it I went ballistic. I started screaming obscenities at the tv. Nicki scampered back to the bedroom and Ali scolded me. Just as I finished, Troy Aikman said “that is the sort of play that the Eagles paid millions of dollars for Asante Samuel to make…” “EXACTLY!” I blurted out. I was so pissed off. So instead of it being Eagles ball, deep in Skins territory, they instead get pinned once again at their 3 yard line.
The entire game was like that, the Eagles being handed opportunity after opportunity and doing nothing with it. A good team doesn’t do that. The last play of the game was suitably crushing. With no time outs (since as usual the Birds had clock management problems) and 12 seconds on the clock, the Eagles run a play. They have time for two plays but the play has to be either into the end zone or out of bounds to stop the clock. Donovan fires a ball to Reggie Brown, who has been a huge non-factor this year. He went from being the Eagles next number one receiver to a healthy scratch the last few weeks. He just seems like a grumpy baby with no heart. Well anyway, the ball gets thrown to him. Instead of running the pattern into the end zone, he catches the ball at like the one yard line. There are two Redskins waiting for him and they drive him back immediately, mere inches away from scoring. Time expires, game is over, the Eagles have once again massively choked when the pressure was on.
I can’t tell you how disappointing that performance was. I am tired of the roller coaster. I want a coach that gets pissed off. I want a QB that doesn’t throw 20% of his balls in the dirt or behind receivers after 10 years in the league. I want the face of this team to express emotion and to knock heads. We’ve tried it Andy’s way for a decade. Yep it has gotten us a lot of wins. It also has brought a ton of heart ache as the team consistently fails when it matters the most. I would LOVE to see Bill Cowher on the sidelines. Philly fans would absolutely adore him.
I managed to develop yet another ailment that inhibits one of my few remaining exercises I can do. The palm of my left hand feels like it has a deep bruise of some sort. Applying pressure to it, such in the manner you do when performing a push up has become increasingly more painful recently. My positive attitude has been under assault by the negative troll in my head that likes to focus on everything wrong.