So it should really come as no surprise that my assessment of the drive-time between home and the Metro station as “not too bad” was a trifle premature, as I was gauging the drive east in the morning, as opposed to the westward evening commute. What took 30 minutes in the a.m. took 50 minutes in the opposite direction at the end of the day. To which I can only say, “ugh”. Granted, my schedule yesterday was a bit uncharacteristic: usually I leave work either at 4, to pick up the little guy from daycare, or at 5, if he’s already home with his mom. Yesterday I got in very early and stayed until 4:30 with my shoulder to the big stone wheel of my project all day, which meant I got off the Metro and behind the wheel of my car just a few minutes after 5:00, in the thick of the deadliest concentration of rush hour’s bitch-brew. Today I’ll be leaving on the early schedule, and hopefully that means I’ll find a slightly easier drive making up the second half of the trip home. But for once, I’m not going to call it either way ahead of time.
Happily, when I did finally get home last night it was to a home tricked out with cable television and internet access, huzzah. I had discovered an unsecured wireless network in the neighborhood and was brazenly glomming onto it for a few days, but it’s nice to have a reliable full-speed connection again. Let the Saturday Grab Bag updates re-commence! After dinner my wife and I watched Top Gear on BBC America, which had been sadly missing from our lives lately due to the compulsory scheduling deference given to Monday Night Football. After a couple of weeks of total cable deprivation, the familiar rhythms of Top Gear were incredibly luxurious to sink into. So … relaxing …
But yeah, no more Monday Night Football for a while. I can’t recall when I last posted about football specifically, but the season did not end well for the fandoms of my household. The Giants shuffled off with back-to-back receiving end blowouts, about which the less said the better. The Steelers had back-to-back wins, at least, but of the too-little-too-late variety as all the various scenario equations they would have needed to reach the post-season failed to work out. The best part of NFL Week 17 was that my wife, Jaimie the Greek, won the football pick ‘em pool for the third time this season by going 11 and 5. (She would say that she only won twice, and another time she tied someone else to split the pot, but when you are in a tie for first among 39 people, I call that a “win”.) I finished the season with a .463 record myself, a few games behind my grandmother but a game or two ahead of my dad and Very little Bro. Jaimie for her part finished .516 which of course has me asking myself why we are not in Vegas right this very second to keep the hot streak going.
It sucks when your team’s season ends, but I find it easier to take in football, which is the one American sport I can enjoy watching even if I have no vested emotional interest in either team. I will never watch a Cubs-Brewers game on television just for the heck of it, even if it were the playoffs. (I might watch a Cubs World Series, but that’s a whole different kettle of improbable fish.) But Packers-Cardinals? I’ll watch the hell out of that, whether it’s the Week 4 Sunday night game or the wildcard round. And I’ll actually enjoy it more now that it’s the post-season and it in no way affects the fate of the Giants.
Plus, as I’ve said before, I got to watch the Yankees win the World Series just a few months ago, and the Steelers won the Super Bowl less than a year ago. I think we can spare some magnanimity for the championship this go-round. Personally, I’m hoping for a Colts-Saints Super Bowl because I like shootouts. I’d say the odds are pretty good for getting my way, too … but I wouldn’t want to speak too soon.
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