Tag: #Fall

  • ODDS and ENDS: Autumn Traditions, Fantasy Football, and Facebook Knew

    “Odds and Ends” is my continuing series of random thoughts and follow ups…

    It’s Autumn, and not fake “I Want It to Be Autumn So I Put on A Sweater But It’s 80 Degrees Outside” Autumn. It is in the 60’s and leaves are starting to change. Which means in our home, we’re going apple picking soon! This is the cheesiest tradition we have in our house. I mean, I do love it, but it is cheesy. We drive way the hell upstate to find some out of the way farm that isn’t too crowded, and go crazy picking and eating apples. The kid can only take about an hour of it, but for the first thirty minutes, we all behave as if we are some sort of apple expert, deciding how many of each variety we want. But I love it. And this year, I promise I won’t make the same old line about how we’re paying the farmer to his job. No more of that Dad Joke.

    Just for the record, I have a pretty good team in my fantasy football league. Now, I admit that I had nothing to do with my teams’ selection, as I let the computer auto draft my players. But man! I’m like Stephen A. Smith around here! I do know everything!

    Yup, Facebook knew. We all know this. Facebook knew what it was doing; how awful social media could be to democracy, and mental health, and all of it. But we all still use social media. Will the whistleblower who will talk on 60 Minutes on Sunday, and Congress on Tuesday, change people’s behavior? Sadly, I doubt it.

  • ODDS and ENDS: Tottenham Confusion, Unruly Passengers, and I Am That Guy

    Man, what is up with Tottenham? I mean, they just got by Wolverhampton in their League Cup match on penalties, and in total, they haven’t won a match since August 29th. With the North London derby this Sunday, it would be a good opportunity for the Spurs to show up. Arsenal isn’t playing well either, as they are sitting at 13th on the table, so you’d think that Tottenham would have the advantage, but, I’m not confidant in this squad. After a great start of the season, Spurs seem to have just floundered. The attack is lacking, and giving up two 0-3 blowouts to Premier teams doesn’t say much about the defense either. I mean, I’ll watch the match on Sunday, but I don’t see myself in positive supporter mindset for it.

    I know I can’t prove this, but I think one of the contributing factors in all the unruly passengers on airlines is the fact that the seating is too damn small, and people are too damn close! Just look up “The Incredible Shrinking Airline Seat” and see how many stories you can find. When people are too close, they get angry. Remember personal space?

    I am wearing a sweatshirt today. Is it that cold? Sort of. Am I doing it because I want it to be Autumn? Yes. It was 56 degrees this morning, so the A/C is off, the windows are open, and I am pretending that the season has really changed. I am that guy. But at least I’m cozy.

  • Planning for Fall?

    Summer’s over. It was a fast ten weeks for us, as that’s what the wife and I were saying to each other last night. We do have one final week until the kid starts school on Monday, but let’s be honest, it’s not much of a Summer week, being that we will be spending our time preparing for the start of classes.

    And it wasn’t that great of a Summer. I give it two and a half stars. And I will blame it all on the Delta Variant, and the half of the country that didn’t get vaccinated, for whatever reason that I don’t agree with, but here we are. The ability to return back to normal never materialized. Having normal fun with people? Not so much. A return to unobstructed travel wasn’t really possible either.. And now we are left with an Autumn that looks like it will be filled with anxiety and stress.

    But still, last night on the sofa, as we mourned our lost Summer, we still found ourselves falling into our old positive ways. We talked about our plans for the rest of the year; patching and painting the apartment, hanging new shelves in the kid’s room to free up floor space, getting tickets for the Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze in October, making the kid’s Halloween costume, Thanksgiving, and the Granddaddy of all planning, Christmas! We even kidded about going back to Maine next Summer.

    With everything happening, and it is STILL HAPPENING, we find ourselves being optimistic, and trying to plan for a better tomorrow.

    I don’t think we are being delusional, just hopeful.