Should have bought stock in Kleenex

Ahhh ... AHHH ... CHOOOOOO!!!!!!

Obviously I'm sick.  I've had a cold for about three weeks. Sniffy nose and miserable.  Now, I've caught another cold that includes huge sneezes every other minute.  Stuffy nose, watery eyes.  FUN.

This cold has left me even more unmotivated than I usually am--which is pretty pathetic.

In this haze of tissues, the one thing that drives me crazy is that people need to give an opinion about what's really wrong.  Because it's absolutely polite to say to someone who just told you they were miserable for the past two days that they really don't have a cold.  It's the flu.  Or, it's allergies.  Of course you know my body better than me.  I've only had it for 26 years.

But let me tell you, it's a cold--it feels like every other cold I've had.  And unless you have a medical degree and you have checked me over, you don't know. Come a little closer, tell me again, and I'll sneeze on you.

It's one of those colds that if I could remove my nose from my face until it was back to working order, I would.

A nice little touch to my cold today is the sudden dip in temperatures.  We received the first taste of fall today--complete with 40 mile-an-hour winds.   The weird thing about these winds is they are truly gusts.  It can be calm one moment and then, like right now, they bloom up out of nowhere and look like they could rip the trees out of ground.  Even those two ginormous pine trees in my backyard.  I think they may have even lost a couple of limbs.  I'd go out and look, but it's 47 degrees out, and I'm not that curious.

I just finished My Sister's Keeper.  Something you should try to avoid when you have a cold?  Crying.  Man. I did not see that coming.  Not the crying.  This book has been great and captivating, but hard.  It hits too close to home and it wasn't something I could breeze through without fighting serious bouts of depression.  But the ending.  Wow.

Get the book.  Read it.  Make sure you have tissues.  Then go hug your kids, and your parents.

Tingling all over

Kick off weekend was awesome.  So awesome, in fact, I think I was a little over-stimulated.

What a better way to start the season than a game that went into overtime?

See that red light? It means you shouldn't be moving.

The road construction is really pushing me to my limit.

It's not the detours, having to drive through an obstacle course of orange barrels and gravel.  I don't care that we've been playing the guess which road is closed today game since April.

What's driving me bonkers is that in dealing with all of this, people have decided that sacrifices they make because of this construction means that they do not have to obey traffic signals.

There's one area at a four way stop, if you have to make a left turn you should factor in another 15 minutes to your travel time.

Picture this: You're sitting in a line of cars as far as the eye can see, about six car lengths away from the left turn lane.  You can see that precious green turn arrow ahead in the distance pointing you towards the promised land.  The long line of cars vaguely begins to move.  When you are four car lengths away from merging into the turn lane, the arrow turns yellow.

And, then once you finally get in that lane, you lose right of passage.  That is, supposibly.

But the two cars ahead of you decide they are above the authority of that lighted arrow and continue to turn without it. This makes the oncoming cars (who, technically have the right of way) wait.  These cars decide they will continue on their way at the red light, because they were cheated out of their green light.

This sets off a cascade of vehicles traveling through the intersection whenever the hell they please only regarding the signals as a vague suggestions. 

This traffic sucks, I get it.  But because you needed to go at that very second, you just made the whole process five minutes longer.  It's a crap shoot people, and a wonder how there hasn't been an accident.

Oh, on a separate note, I was at a presentation for work at an elementary school yesterday and some parent backed into my car.  Then, she high tailed her pick up out of the parking lot.  The office personnel told me what happened and called the police.  I waited around for 25 minutes to file a report, he said it looked like over $1,000 damage.

I haven't gotten the estimate yet, but that's exactly what I needed.  Add my broken oven, and the other engine repairs the car needed anyway, looks like the fall bills will be hefty.

Let me count the ways ...

Ah, the start of the NFL Season, only topped by the thrill of the Super Bowl. Kickoff weekend brings all the things I love about football flooding back ...

1. Feats of brain over brawn (Denver WR-Brandon Stokley running parallel so that time ran off the clock or the Brian Westbrook play last year where he took a knee on the one yard line instead of scoring so the clock would run out and the other team wouldn't have a chance to score).
2. The chatter and cadence at the line of scrimmage before the snap.
3. The beauty of a pass rocketing straight down the field to a waiting receiver.
4. Sacking the other team's quarterback.
5. A defender appearing out of seemingly no where to swoop in, intercept the ball and run it in for a touchdown.
6. The winded D-lineman when he's the one running down the field trying to make a touchdown after a fumble recovery or tipped ball.
7. Whisper of a perfect completion.
8. Thwack of a batted away ball.
9. Comrade of the players and coaches.
10. Grace of the athletes.
11. Toeing in touchdowns.
12. One handed catches.
13. One handed over the shoulder catch between two defenders.
14. A pass that's floated into a receiver and caught without breaking stride.
15. Anticipation of the big game.
16. Celebrations.
17. Pre-game choreography.
18. The synchronicity of no-huddle offense.
19. Redirection at the line of scrimmage.
20. New commercials (practically better than famed super bowl ads).
21. Holding your breath at the big play, waiting to see the conclusion.
22. Ricocheted passes that are completions and touchdowns.
23. Perfectly executed blocks.
24. Making defenders miss.
25. Shrugging out of a sack.
26. Stiff-arming a player two times bigger.
27. Nail biting final moments that pay off.
28. Making something out of nothing.
29. When reviews go your team's way.
30.  Complicated formulas to get into the playoffs.
31. Third down defensive stands.
32.  Stretching for the first down.
33.  Big yards after the catch plays.
34. Booming kick off or punts.
35. Field goals that dink off the upright.
36. Eleven hours of football (with pregame/post game).
37. The really good color commentators & pregame shows.
38. Surprises as scores come up on the ticker.
39. Bad weather games.
40. High scoring games.
41. Broken plays that gain yards.
42. Fake plays.
43. Blocked field goals.
44. Triple digit fantasy points.
45. Ending the game with an interception.