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Hey,
We've been cleaning out my parents' house and coming across dee dads and gee gaws they have saved over all these years and found -- wait, Mike, don't interrupt me here please -- an envelope with pictures of Eileen and my graduation from PA school and then, if I recall right, a party in your back yard.
--dammit, Mike, I'm trying to talk to you here and you keep trying to tell me about some stupid football game?! -- So, anyways there's a pic of you and Eileen on the cement bench in your back yard, and you two look....so, um....young. You're looking over, I think, at a card she is holding and you just have this archetypical Mike look of happiness and love on your face. Maybe I'll send it to you. Or scan it! (I learned how!).
No snow to speak of here and temps 10-15 deg. above normal for us--- Mike, you're weeping. Jeeze, it's just a stoopeed football game. Buck up, man.
Oh, who am I kidding? I worked til 5:30 yesterday, then sped home and tuned in. Both QB's looked sharp. Amazing how they zoom these passes into tight spots so precisely. Close knit play. Ahead of time I wasn't too psyched by Madonna, and then she put on a crazy spectacle. I was likening it to Busby Berkeley (sp) Hollywood extravaganzas from the 1930's. The commentators are saying at half the the game will go down to the last possession.
Third quarter starts. WTF?! I am not being allowed to watch the game in "MY HOUSE!" because Downton Abbey is on for Anne and Nick. Off I go 1.5 blocks south and .5 blocks west to Plums bar. I'm thinking the place will be packed and rocking. (A year ago Karl and Pete and I had a gas in a Sconnie bar watching the Pack win with a bunch of Packer backers). As I walk by the window it looks like it is closed. I see two guys by the window with Vikings jerseys on and that's it. I walk in and I am the 7th person in this fairly huge bar. This is good for a social introvert as I get one whole side of the bar to myself and my own TV and a row of keg pulls in front of me.
On the other side is a Pats fan. A woman next to him doing the smart phone thing. At the far end of the bar is a specter with a baseball cap on and a hoodie pulled up over the cap, looking straight down the bar, locked in, mesmerized, not looking at the TV's at all. Spooky. I could finally make out long blond hair coming out of one side of the cap. The barkeep fairly often would go talk to her, but she kept staring straight ahead. My scenario is that they were breaking up. The keep said he was pulling for the Giants and he looked like he could be a football fan, but he didn't really look at the game at all and he wasn't busy filling drinks up. He was too busy ?consoling this girl.
Another guy comes in and sits on the other side of the bar. He has a wedding band like me and he looks like his wife could have been watching Downton Abby too. Then another guy with the same M.O.
Then a guy with greasy hair comes in with his son who is about 9 (who is wearing a pork pie hat). He asked the barkeep something and hands over a greasy hand of dirty change that the keep promptly drops into the ice cube well and then starts picking the coins out (gross). The kid goes over and looks at the "Bag A Buck," video game. ?Homeless? Not likely in our hood. Very odd. Not there to watch the game. Why isn't this kid at home getting ready for bed on a school night?
Later a 30 something, dweeby guy with a guitar case (!) walks in and goes over to the small stage they have in there with mics and amps all set up.
What the? The Super Bowl is on and we're going to be treated to the Sunday night gig? All nine of us? Thankfully this did not materialize.
And then the fourth quarter. This must have been agonizing for you. Esp. that last drive for the Pats with two dropped passes in a row. But an entertaining match for those of us without any stake in it.
As you know I am tired of the success of these two teams. I think that is natural if, again, they are not your teams. The Yankees, again? I guess I liked that a team that lost 7 games (I believe) could win the big game. Interesting from a sports psychological point of a team peaking at the right time. Gives other cities hope that their team that lost 7 games could make it to the big game too. (The paper said today that the St. Louis Cardinals this year were 10 games back in Sept. and went on to the Series (I forgot).
But... I am guessing the Packer fans are distraught that their 15-1 team was sitting at home watching. Pats-Packers at their peaks would have been great.
(though each need stouter defenses). Reminds me of a certain other 15-1 team that should have gone to the big game all those years ago.
Hope you're doing okay today. Remember, it's just a stoopeed game. There are much more "real" things in life as you know.
r.
