* The Crappys — including my parents — will in the Mon Wharf lot by 8:30. As we’ve done the past two years, we’re going to park on the side closer to the Point, so head down that way when you arrive and look for the red Element.

* Haven’t been to the Wharf before? Best way is to approach from Wood Street at Fort Pitt Boulevard and look for the yellow sign, as seen in the pic below:

* Make an effort to get there early. We lost some swimmers last year when they got stuck in traffic.

* Swimming usually starts after 9. We’ll go around 9:15 or something.

* The weather’s going to suck. Expect rain and temps around 40 when it’s time to swim.

* Bring: Towels, warm clothes, cameras, shoes you can wear in the water and others to change into after.

* Tip: It might sound counter-intuitive, but I’ve found it’s easier to make the plunge in just a bathing suit. You’ll have much less cold, wet clothing to remove once you get out — and trust me, you’ll be in a hurry to get the wet, cold stuff off.

* When we’re done? We’re heading to Piper’s Pub, 1828 E. Carson St., for beer and Irish boxty (or maybe that’s just me).

* Watch Twitter tomorrow morning for any updates. I’ll use the #yinzteamplunge hashtag for easy searching.

See y’all there.

Yes, I’m going to do it again.

Yes, we’ll be in the Mon Wharf parking lot, on the side closer to the Point, by 9 a.m. Sunday.

Yes, I still think this is the best way possible to start the new year.

No, it’s not going to be as warm as it was last Jan. 1.

Yes, I still think you should join me.

Yes?

I had a great week. There’s been plenty to write about.

But all that stuff meant I’ve also been a little busy. And the post-a-day thing has been a little hard to keep up with as a result.

And then, I got sick. That’s not much of an excuse, either — it’s really meant that I’ve been lying around the house for two days feeling shitty. And not writing blog posts.

I fully intend to finish October with 31 posts here. And as long-time readers know, I’m certainly not above cheating to get there. So here we go.

Since we moved to Pittsburgh in 2008, I’ve looked up at this hill and thought: “I could ski that.”

It’s easy to see from I-279, especially as you head south towards the city. And you probably already know that there’s a Target and a Sam’s Club up there.

These thoughts have plagued me even before February 2010, when a record snowfall buried everything in the region — including this hill. I actually didn’t get to ski much that month — just getting around town was a chore for a while, much less getting up to Seven Springs — but someone did. When we finally made our way out to Target for the first time after the storm, I noticed ski and snowboard tracks snaking down the hill.

Jealous. Like. Whoa.

A couple days ago, I looked up there again. I really want to do it. I’m going to do it, if we get enough snow this winter.

Today, I saw this — Accuweather’s winter forecast:

All I’m saying is, if you happen to see tracks up there sometime in January or February, it totally wasn’t me. Ahem.

Have you stopped laughing yet? It’s OK — I haven’t either.

The unfunny part about that promise is how little I did to actually follow up on it. Yeah, I started Couch to 5K — uh, more than once — and there was that one time I made it three whole weeks into the program.

And then? Um. That winter was sort of cold and snowy. And while I was at one time young and in shape enough that I actually enjoyed running, that was a loooong time ago.

I would like to do that again.

I have no grand promises about marathons, other than I’d really like to sling water at Pittsburgh’s again next spring. The Great Race looks like fun, and with some cooperation from Ohio State’s football schedule, I’d like to try that next fall.

But no promises, except for this: I will be up a little early on Tuesday morning, and I will start C25K again. After that, we’ll see how it goes.

Here’s what’s going to be different this time. I’m asking you guys for help. I’m not going to turn this into an exercise blog — because, uh, you guys all know me, right? — but I will let you know once in a while how things are going. If you don’t get an update for a while, ask for one. I will be posting the C25K updates on Twitter. If you haven’t seen one for a few days, ask me why you haven’t. In either case, if you don’t get a satisfactory response, feel free to yell.

And if you feel like offering some encouragement when I complain about it — because I will — those comments will be most appreciated.

If you guys can make sure I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing — in other words, if I know you guys are watching — I will do this. It will work. And I might even get to the point where I enjoy running again.

And if anyone knows of any silly mid-winter 5Ks they’d recommend, please let me know. Especially if you plan on joining me.

I looked that night, even though it was almost midnight when I noticed it was gone. I looked for several days around the house. I even used a freaking metal detector to poke around in the yard.

It was gone. And I was crushed.

On a Monday night in late September, I was thrilled to open a small package that Mrs. Crappy gave me for our anniversary and find a new ring to occupy my left hand and ease the fretting I had done since May over the original.

As we did with the first one, we sort of picked this one out together. I didn’t know she had started poking around on Etsy until she sent me a few links to rings and jewelers several weeks ago — and I was immediately drawn to this one, a beautiful double-banded titanium ring made by titaniumknights in Utah. I offered to buy it, but Mrs. Crappy said no, she would take care of it.

And there it was, after we finished the anniversary dinner I made for us on Monday night.

As I wrote back in May, I was concerned that a replacement ring — one that wasn’t the one that Mrs. Crappy put on my finger on Sept. 25, 1999 — would somehow be diminished, that it wouldn’t adequately represent either that day or the life we’ve had together since. But in the few days I’ve had to get used to having a real ring back on my finger, I’m thinking that’s not the case at all.

There are things we’d both change about our wedding; I know I have a much better sense of who I am now — we both do — and one small representation of that is this ring.  It feels a lot more like me than the plain band I wore for eleven and a half years. More importantly — it’s still about us and what we share.

And that means my new ring is exactly what it should be.

OK. This not posting stuff is bullshit.

Not only does Saturday mark the start of Birthday Month — you knew I had to work that in there someplace, right? — it will mark the start of a month of daily blog posts.

See you Saturday morning.

Filed under: I Have No Idea Tagged: grumpy old guy, i'm an idiot, internet fun ]]> http://unclecrappy.com/2011/09/28/coming-soon/feed/ 4 uncle crappy 223923 http://unclecrappy.com/2011/06/11/the-universe-didnt-explode/ http://unclecrappy.com/2011/06/11/the-universe-didnt-explode/#comments Sat, 11 Jun 2011 16:33:14 +0000 Uncle Crappy http://unclecrappy.com/?p=4678 ]]> This started back in December, when my friends Jacob and Dr. Yohe showed up in my Twitter stream right next to each other:

I had one question, and I posed it on Twitter: “Can we figure out a way that @thejqs and @cjyohe can meet each other? So I’ll know they’re not the same guy?”

Jacob and Chris both seemed a little skeptical at the time, but they’re both open-minded guys, and a couple weeks ago they agreed to meet me at the Penn Brewery on a Friday night — mostly, I think, so I would stop bugging them about it.

A bonus: in the time that elapsed, I discovered that my friends Dave and Alyson lived just a block over from our house in Brighton Heights; Dave fits the Jacob/Yohe profile as well, and he and Alyson agreed to join us.

We had a great night. And I accomplished the one thing I really wanted to out of the evening:

Ladies and gentlemen, may I please present: @DConMan, @cjyohe and @thejqs. Thanks for humoring me, yinz guys.

And no, the universe didn’t explode.

I am not alone in my bracket-related frustration, though. An informal count this morning reveals that something like 20 of us have lost our pick for the championship. Carnage, doom, disaster, etc.

But as is typically the case when this kind of thing happens, the wreckage can open some doors for people who might have thought they were out of the running before. Kansas picks are looking particularly good right now, and I think we have a handful of people who still have their championship games intact.

We start awarding points with today’s games, as team reach the Final Four; I’ll try to do a post outlining our progress tonight and I’ll definitely have one ready after the Sunday games.

Good luck, y’all. If the tournament thus far has demonstrated anything, it’s that you’re going to need it.

I had a Moment of Weakness on Friday, and it led to ask a question that had never hit me in the 16 years I’ve lived in western Pennsylvania. I also asked you guys for advice about how to handle this question about my pro football identity, and most of you came through with honest, thoughtful responses.

Before I get to those, though, I should tell you about my test on Saturday. After I finished up a work assignment in the morning, Mrs. Crappy and I headed to the Strip, to get some lunch and find some Aloha kitsch for our upcoming Groundhog weekend. To further set the scene:

• My lifelong commitment to Cleveland Browns football is apparently wavering.
• I live in Pittsburgh — not just the area, mind you, but I own a house in the freaking City of Pittsburgh — and it would be awfully easy, convenient and fun to jump on the Stillers’ bandwagon.
• I’m in the Strip on the day before the AFC championship game. There is cheap Stillers gear everywhere — everywhere — and if I were to ever make the leap, I could have outfitted myself right then, head to toe, for less than 40 bucks.

And you know what happened?

Nothing.

I helped Mrs. Crappy look for a black and gold scarf. We stopped at many of the tables set up along Penn to check out the new stuff. Although I had plenty of opportunities, I wasn’t tempted to buy a single fucking thing.

- – - -

The comments I got on Friday’s post — here and on Facebook — were somewhat predictable, but also helpful. Most of the Stiller fans said they were ready to welcome me to the fold. The people who have a more thorough idea of my football past said I should know better than to even consider changing my mind.

But the one comment that resonated the most came from Kim, a lifelong Red Sox fan who A) knows a little bit about suffering for your team and B) knows how good the payoff is when it comes. Her point? Jumping on that black-and-gold bandwagon would be fun; it would also inevitably become hollow, because that’s not where my heart is.

- – - -

I also found this. That’s the front and back of my old Pittsburgh Browns Backers T-shirt. Between regular Sunday shifts for several years and our travel to Columbus for those other football games, I haven’t been able to watch a game with the club for years; the two seasons I was able to hang out with those folks were among the most fun I’ve had as a pro football fan (and yes, those were after the team returned to the league). The team was probably even worse back then, but being with like-minded people helped a bunch; it also made those rare wins even better.

That is who I am. I may still be pissed about the current state of the team, but it is still my team. And it always will be.

On Friday I asked you guys if I was loyal or stupid.

The answer? Yes.

And if you don’t like it, you can kiss my brown-and-orange ass.