Football Epilogue

Finally! A weekend as I enjoy them...almost. Let's say I'm 85% full relaxed and peaceful. Coffee, morning soccer and getting back to some writing. The 15% is due to the muffler on my car having rusted out. I'm pretty sure I just redid most of the exhaust within the last couple of years so I'm a little perplexed that this muffler (well really where the pipe attaches) went so fast. Oh well.  The car has 260k miles on it so in reality I've been looking for the next. I'm rather stubborn though. I really enjoy not having a car payment as well as a vehicle I know how to work on and gets better than 30 mpg. I also enjoy driving a stick shift :). Similar to writing in cursive, the manual transmission has become something of a novelty these days. This is too bad as they are fun to drive; with the exception of when sitting in traffic (the key is to leave lots of space). The stick "perk" is that, due to their rarity, no one really learns to drive them anymore; ma...

 Over the last year, with the pandemic in full effect, it's been difficult to maintain consistency in both diet and exercise. I do have my little workout space set up in the basement , have my little lake to walk around and have lots of little projects to work on. I also upgraded my work desks, both home and at work, to the sit-stand variety. Also, the first thoughts in my head are on exercising when I say to myself, "I need to get into better shape".  The trouble with those thoughts is they make the eating portion an afterthought. In reality, I'm more than capable of mindlessly grazing in my kitchen at the end of the day. It's a near trancelike state, my brain off while getting my fix on tortilla chips or anything else. I eventually snap out of it, but it is very much like chasing a fix.  It is a weird, although likely not uncommon, calorie laden meditation/ritual. I feel like I'm fine during most of the day. I try to choose healthy at work, especiall...

One of my relaxing-based life pleasures is getting to sit in my recliner with a cup of coffee, reading the paper, or The Economist or working on one writing project or another. A recent addition to this having the TV on in the background. I'm not a big fan of watching the talking heads (not to be confused with The Talking Heads ) on the networks and cable news. College and NFL "gameday" shows are just as annoying. Still, I like something live and light. Also, this fall my daughter played a lot of soccer. She was on two teams, so I've been attending a lot of her matches. Enter Premier League (PL) socce r, i.e. English professional soccer (football). England is six hours ahead of the US Central (my) timezone (CST). So 9:00 am CST is 3:00 pm in the UK. This is just in time for live broadcasting of the matches that correlates well with quiet weekend mornings. NBC is championing the PL broadcasts with at least four games on NBC-sports network (NBCSN) and the ma...