Tagged with weather freak boy

1. playtime.

October is my favorite month of the year.

That has a lot to do with the fact that it’s my birthday month (WOOOOO BIRTHDAY MONTH!), but that doesn’t account for it all. Even if I didn’t celebrate my birthday in October, this is a great time of year for me.

It’s time to play.

October is the prettiest month on the calendar. This is the month that fall peaks around here, and I take full advantage. We’ll make time this October, as we always do, to take a walk, in Riverview Park, up at McConnell’s Mill, anywhere. Fall is a rare gift, and we don’t let it go by unnoticed.

We’re getting into the meat of football season. The non-conference games — the ones where we bake in the unrelenting sun and the sneaky September heat — are over. With a little luck, we’ll have sunny days accompanied by cooler temperatures. And we’ll have even better tailgate refreshments — hotter, thicker, spicier, more filling meals; darker, stronger, spicier beer. That’s the kind of stuff I live for.

There’s always more stuff going on outside my little football world, too. This month: Haunted houses? Yep. Concerts? At least a couple. Taking advantage of our weekends that we’re not traveling to Columbus? Oh yes. It’s busy, sure, but it’s the good kind of busy.

There’s something else, too. It’s not as tangible, but it’s very real. It’s the cooler weather, it’s how the air smells. It’s the leaves crunching under my feet. It’s longer nights and sharp temperatures in the morning. This month is good for my soul. I feel refreshed and alive.

There’s plenty of work to do, in the office and at home. And, as usual, not every day is going to be sunshine and rainbows. But I plan on enjoying the hell out of this October, and I plan on sharing it here. I always do National Blog Posting Month in November, the original NaBloPoMo Mo. But when I saw that this month’s theme is Play I knew I couldn’t pass it up.

So. Two months of NaBloPoMo. It sounds daunting, but because I’m starting with my favorite month of the year, I think it’ll be easy.

I think it’ll be a walk in the park.

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insane. in a good way.

Once the college football consolidation fever subsided earlier this summer, the next step for the Big Ten was, naturally, a discussion about a “potential” championship game (in quotes because Jim Delaney continues to lie maintain that a championship game isn’t a given) and where it might be held.

We have indoor stadiums in the region that would work just fine. Detroit’s Ford Field has hosted the Super Bowl. They’ve had then in Indy and, I think, Minneapolis as well.

But indoors isn’t right for the Big Ten. What we need is this:

Soldier Field, Chicago.

Lambeau Field, Green Bay.

Cleveland Browns Stadium, Cleveland.

If we have to have a title game, can we please play it outside? No domes, no climate-controlled nonsense? The bowl game can still be the reward, a trip to someplace sunny and warm on New Year’s Day. But the conference title game is about us, about the Midwest and about the playing in the weather we get here.

If we’re playing for the Big Ten Football Championship, in December, can it at least feel that way?

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barelytimetowait.

So the repair guy didn’t show up this morning, apparently because the customer service rep I spoke with told me “Wednesday” when what she meant to say was “Thursday.” If the guy shows up on Thursday he’s going to have a rough time because no one will be there to let him in except the cat, who will be too busy hiding under the futon when he hears the doorbell ring.

That actually made for a relaxing morning: watched the World Cup match — holycraplandondonovan — and not having to rush to work because I was assigned today’s scanner shift.

Which means I’m responsible for the breaking news that goes in tomorrow’s paper.

And then:

Whaddayameantheresanearthquakeyeahanearthquakeholycrapanearthquake

ishouldgetnewsbreakdoneearlyohwaittheresawreckat51andleopardlanethatican

walktoexceptthatsnotwherethedamnwreckisheylookseverethunderstorms

ohrightiforgotaboutnewsbreakcompletelymolesterwhatmolesterohthatmolester

certainlyillcheckonstormdamageandthatpermitforthenewdumpmaybe

weshouldscrapthatduquesnelightstoryforanotherduquesnelightstory

thinkicantakeaminutetoeatdinnerwhaddayameannookwritingthemolester

storyfirstandthencheckingonstormdamageandpoweroutages

andgoddamnimgoingtobereadyforabeerwhen

IFINALLYGETDONEWITHALLTHISCRAP.

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15. right freaking now.

Right now…

  • I am reminded that I’ve kinda gotten away from this month’s theme.
  • I’m not especially worried about that.
  • I am full of turkey tacos.
  • I am not so full of turkey tacos that a Klondike Bar doesn’t sound good.
  • I am finishing a bottle of Abita’s Andygator helles bock.
  • I am extremely happy with the progress of my chili peppers — the plants we got at May Market are starting to flower, and the jalapeno seeds have already started sprouting.
  • I need to decide what beer I’m having next.
  • I think we need to clip Miles’ claws, so he doesn’t click on the floor like the Simpsons’ cat.
  • I think we need to have grilled pizza very soon.
  • I also think cabbage latkes sound a lot better than you might expect.
  • I’m wondering what The Weather Channel did with their old hurricane guy.
  • I think The Weather Channel should use Pink Floyd as local forecast music more often.
  • I’ve thought enough about college football recently that I’m already getting excited for the coming season.
  • I am really looking forward to Friday morning.
  • I am awaiting the arrival of the coolest World Cup shirt ever.
  • I am not so much looking forward to Friday afternoon, when we load up that damn storage locker and haul all that crap back here.
  • I have decided on a Troegs Dreamweaver.
  • I am thrilled that my overused bullet-post idea fits with this theme so well.
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5. monsoon.

Right now…

…I am reminding myself to call the National Weather Service when I’m at work tomorrow to ask about this pattern of severe weather we’ve been stuck in.

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3. baffled.

Right now…

…I am still perplexed about the chandelier in our dining room. About six months ago, it just decided to quit working. No bad bulbs, no problems with the circuit breaker it’s on — it just wouldn’t turn on. We added it to the list of stuff we couldn’t afford to fix right now and moved on.

Until last night. We were at Bocktown for Wednesday’s big storm, but when we got home, we found no problems — power was on, just the usually teeny leak in the basement, cat cowering under furniture, light in the dining room was on…

Wait. What?

“…light in the dining room was on.”

I actually did that double-take when I walked in the door, stepped into the living room after taking off my soggy shoes and saw light coming from the dining room. Mrs. Crappy had actually gone upstairs without noticing the glow.

I’m not sure how I feel about this. We turned it off again almost immediately, thinking that it wasn’t the electrical fairies who magically made the light work again and that instead we have a short that decided to un-short itself last night and no, you know, burn the house down.

I’m glad to have the option to use it again, kind of. But the dining room light is still on the list of stuff we can’t afford to fix — it’s just a higher priority now.

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