Month: March 2020

At some point during the afternoon I forgot what day it was. I wasn’t alone. Later one of my kids approached me and swore it was Saturday, and as such we ought to be at my partners house hanging out instead of at our other house, chillin. He was, obviously, wrong. Still he was right in the sense that the days did not hold the same meaning. He lacked the responsibilities of school and practice and sporting events to ground his reality to a regularly scheduled calendar. We’ve existed as such for so long that it is odd to be any other way. Yet, here we are. It is the other way and I am struggling to find my balance, my mooring, and, occasionally, my drive.

This is not to say I have no drive. I have that drive I always get at home–which is to improve the home and to work on those ‘daddy do’ items that have stacked up in the far forgotten corners of my mind only to be awakened as the nightmares that exist in the shadows carved from the loss of light in children’s rooms and sometimes minds. My nightmares are carved from hard water and a lack of understanding of plumbing. Nightmarish indeed. Today I broke a sink trying to fix it.

Today I stared at a pile of unread books and considered a better tomorrow.

Some Thoughts:

1. In this nightmarish time I am awakened to the possibility of more time to do my taxes, to explore my home and figure out what few things I will take when I go.
2. I have time to prepare for my busy fall season.
3. I have a chance to write–both what is due and what I want to do.
4. I have a chance to pursue micro-fiction.
5. And video games.
6. And sip tea as I stare out across the empty streets and smile.
7. I wonder if people are watching the Walking Dead and gathering ideas?

There are a number of writers out there convinced that the time off will give them the time and space needed to write their book. While I wish them well, the only proclamation I fall into is, “I’m going to try and figure this all out for myself.” I cannot promise anything more than that. The situation is fluid and full of change. Nothing about my day to day work life remains intact, and my family life is equally impacted. I cannot say what the impact will be of full time work from home, because I am not set up for it, nor do I have a sense of how to get there.

I want to get there.

In a perfect world I work from home for the rest of my professional career, only going into the office when it is required for events. This reality requires preparations I have not made in either home. The weekend home (as we now call it) is set up better for that so far, but that is solely because I have a space with power and a workstation. That doesn’t mean my life is set up for that–for having everyone at home all the time and moving about and living their lives, which often include or at least desire my presence. I love that. I love that my life can often be compartmentalized in hang with family and work compartments, but the reality no longer allows that and I have no real ability to separate out those things on my home thus far–especially in terms of wanting to spend the majority of my time with my partner.

In short, I need to man up. Working from home can be excellent so long as I can structure my time and stick to that structure.

So… Brady is a Buc, Foles is a Bear, Teddy B is a Panther, and Rivers is a Colt. Things are crazy already and they are just getting going. Nobody knows what happens to the on-roster QBs in this situation, and absolutely nobody knows what things will look like with the Patriots. I am starting to see a bit of clarity with the Giants though. Turns out this Joe Judge guy might know player personnel.

Having been with the Patriots before (what will henceforth be known as) the purge, Judge learned a lot about evaluating talent and determining the best option for the money available. I get that. I coach special teams and even at the youth level I get a mix of the best and worst on the team. I get the top returner and top kicker and a bunch of kids who haven’t played the game all that much. I get to teach them to do one thing really well and hope that it is enough to get us points on the board. Judge did that and he did it well.

Now he has an entire roster to manage in that fashion and he keeps on bringing in pieces. He brought in a talented inside linebacker as well as a bargain chip backer with loads of talent. He brought a corner that is probably a 2 or 3 and set him as a man to man 1 guy, because that is what he does best. Now he has space to build around these pieces and maybe pursue an edge beast (please NOT Clowney–our injury team is not that good, obviously).

I am excited for what the draft offers, because that is where we can see the vision really come into focus. I am also excited about the way the man coaches. He delegates and lets people bring in the people they feel are best for the program and then he oversees the whole thing. I like it. I respect it and I want to operate in that paradigm in my own professional life. What makes it work is buy in. Everyone on the staff buys in to the plan, just like I buy in to my HC’s plan. Just like I need my own professional team to buy into mine.

A lot to be learned from sports, and a lot of fun to be had just enjoying the process and the outcomes.

Some Thoughts:

1. It just occurred to me that I will be making the 365 post in the time of the Coronavirus.

I’m listening to the NFL network while I write this. I’m gonna have a lot to talk about tomorrow on the waiver wire, but this ain’t that. Instead I want to think and reflect about the abundance of importance we place on sport and on the things we take for granted as Americans. We are in a major crisis. I won’t use hyperbole to describe the situation. I will say that we notice it more because of the cancellations. We notice it more because our daily lives are impacted at almost all financial levels.

When the restaurants close we all feel it. Not just from the perspective of the workers who no longer have jobs. We feel it from the standpoint of our hours of enjoyment. No going out, no sports, and everyone slowing the internet with their traffic. What we discover in all of this is that we are a nation sedated by shows and sports and activities. We are a nation that rarely looks up to take stock of the world we have created and, in fact, often make light of that pursuit or otherwise turn it into just another activity.

I believe it was yesterday when I talked about the system breaking down. I believe the experts see that and are struggling to find ways to prevent that from happening the way it did at the onset of the Obama presidency. I do not know that they will be successful. This is indeed a crisis, and I for one have not been taking it seriously. I’ve been walking around in public in close proximity to others. I’ve dined. I’ve complained that youth sports are cancelled. All of this points to me as part of the problem vs. solution.

It is very American of me to be that way, and until that behavior stops becoming synonymous with our nation, we are going to keep piling up problems.

It was just a week or so ago that I was listening to Jon Oliver remind me about Sheriffs being elected and often running unqualified and unopposed. It was little surprise then when I woke up to David A. Clarke being a complete asshat.

No, I give him too much credit. He is purposeful in his idiocy. He is an asshole.

Among the nonsense this man has been tweeting to his 917k followers is this gem: Not ONE media outlet has asked about George Soros’s involvement in this FLU panic. He is SOMEWHERE involved in this.

No, he isn’t. Stop treating Soros like a damn Bond villain and ignoring the reality that is settling upon us. The virus came from China. It migrated here through human contact. We weren’t ready in spite of numerous warnings and preparatory scenarios on which the president’s team was briefed. The White House did not want to take this as seriously as it was and still wants to compare this to h1n1. This ain’t that.

The lethality of this disease is 10x greater than swine flu and, beyond that, we have neither a vaccine in place or any real awareness of how many people have it or are spreading it asymptomatically. In truth, they are telling people who are healthy not to get tested so we can focus on the sick vs. the spreaders.

Covid-19 is a wrecking ball right now, and I’ve basically come to the conclusion that many of us already have i or have had it. These numbers in AZ seem unusually low (18? really?) and given that we were not testing a few weeks ago, suggest that we are not taking it as seriously as we should. Instead many people are listening to the idiots who tell them what they want to hear. Confirmation bias has become the backbone of the news media industry.

That is making us all less safe.

Surprisingly Uneasy. Uneasy on a Sunday Morning.

The words that have been floating through my mental wordle in big bold are Shelter in Place. Big fluffy word clouds surrounded by smaller words like surreal, effort, write, sing, sin, love, dance, responsibility, lonely, and the list goes on. It is impossible to discuss my state of mind without tackling the subject of being split between two homes and, by default, two families. I spent a ton of time on the road this weekend, as I do every weekend, but this time it was mostly late night drives home. The roads were full and aggressive as ever. I wonder if that is set to change following the daily announcements of increasing levels of lockdown? I wonder if Shelter in Place is set to become a reality, and what I need to do in order to keep my dispersed family together?

These are not the only thoughts coursing through my troubled little brain bag. There is joy in there too. I’m reading more and reading good stuff. I’ll be issuing book reports here again later this week. I am also writing more. I stopped dodging this gem of a story idea and actually put several thousand words on paper. It is just preliminary, but the story looks like it has a lot of potential. What worries me is that I’ve barely written a word since touching back down in Arizona. That always worries me.

In order to keep that engine from stalling I need to put some serious butt in chair time into action on the words. Now that I actually have time to sit my butt in the same chair without worrying about traveling back and forth to the workplace, I think I can definitely be more productive. Working from home feels like a small blessing in all of this.

I want to start by giving a shout out to President Trump. Not everything he does is horrible. Recently he had a decent press conference, said a lot of good things, and even admitted to being tested for the virus. Now, do I believe we will get the results of that test? Yes–I believe he already was tested and was found negative and that is why he publicized the test itself–that or he his ego said to do it. Regardless, he had a good few moments, and he really needed them. Here is what we as a nation need: To calm the f–k down.

Seriously. We are emptying supermarket shelves–throwing ourselves into direct contact with the people we are supposed to be maintaining social distance from. It is problematic and likely to create a shelter in place situation where the disease has already spread to most of those sheltering and, as a result, they’ll be incubating while in shelter. That means we need to be sheltering longer. Some estimates (cdc) suggest 8 weeks or longer. It is worth reviewing the plan I’ve linked to above, because it does make sense.

I am mainly concerned about the system of the economy and of the nation. We are a machine that is driven by people out working and started (fueled) by purchasing. Unfortunately there are several vulnerable links in the system that are at risk here. Let’s just focus on the schools for a minute. If you have a job and young kids (below the age of staying home alone) then you are screwed. You cannot work. If you cannot work, you cannot get paid. If you have sick time and can take it, the workplace will suffer and the functions of that will decrease. Obviously the best situation is to work from home, but not everyone–heck not most have that luxury of having a job set up for such a thing. So, the system breaks down for the 8+weeks of school closure, and if the teachers are not getting paid and forced to find other work, the system breaks down a lot longer.

Just ten minutes of speculation on what could be the problems. Maybe I will have some thoughts on solutions tomorrow.

Yesterday I decided to stop at Fry’s for a few things for dinner, breakfast, etc for the weekend as I generally do. I thought, I’ll pick up some toilet paper, because I don’t actually know if I have any extra rolls. The price for 4 rolls was $8.00. By then I’d heard all the jokes about places running out. Earlier I’d even driven by Costco where the gas lines were 10 cars deep at each pump, the longest I’d ever seen. Balking at the price of toilet toilet paper, and ignoring the fact that only 3 actual packages were left, I moved on to Walmart where I knew I would not be price gouged for a simple pack of toilet paper.

I was right. I was right because there was no toilet paper. No paper towels either. Walmart was cleaned out. Two empty aisles and a back wall were picked clean of product. In its place was a small crowd of customers complaining and milling about in hopes that they would be the first people to get new rolls if and when a shipment arrived. That, dear readers, is the full crazy in effect.

I cannot fully explain why toilet paper is a major panic buy, but this article does a good job getting you there. People overreact to things. In many cases the mindset is ‘better safe than sorry’ though that mentality triggers a wealth of problems of its own, including empty shelves. The real problem is that we as people–especially Americans–are sheep. What happens when you panic the herd? I think we are seeing a great deal of that right now.

Schools are closing. Businesses, as a result, are being heavily impacted. The financial toll for individuals who don’t have job security will be astounding. We are being taught to hide in corners. Yet all we can think about is gathering in empty aisles waiting for toilet paper that will never come.

Some Thoughts:

1. If you need any more evidence we are sheep, look no further than the dow futures. That predictor of tomorrows behavior is little more than a determinant of what we are supposed to do. How else would such a system be possible?

There’s this soundbyte wandering around the net that unconsciously captures the heart of our President. Here is a man who wants to look good and either raises a powerful defensive wall of self aggrandizement or, terrifyingly, believes his own bullshit. Either way, he is not that intelligent. Moreover, he is not a very good leader. Obviously this sounds like a subjective assault on the quality of his leadership, but the facts are facts and not alternative facts. The man had one job last night: to deliver a speech that calmed the American people. He bungled it epically.

To quote Newsday 1600, “The boldest-sounding move announced by President Donald Trump in a prime-time speech to the nation about the coronavirus crisis Wednesday night was a 30-day ban on travel from Europe, except for the United Kingdom. Then the Department of Homeland Security clarified that the restriction applies only to foreign nationals and that some two dozen European countries are exempt. Trump also said it would apply to trade and cargo, but the White House later and a presidential tweet said no, just people.”

Let’s not forget that we have done little more than point fingers thus far about the virus. Individual states and institutions are doing more and better work on this problem than the man we, as a nation, put in charge. Political rhetoric aside, he is bad at the game. Does that even matter? Yeah. It really does. This is a global pandemic according to the WHO, and the first thing our administration (consisting of him and the people he brought in) does is to lock down the exterior of the nation. There has been no discussions about the people–many of whom are sick–moving freely through the nation. What stops the virus from spreading inside our borders? Why are we acting like that is not already happening when early tests reveal that this is exactly the case?

The NBA shut down. NCAA is playing in empty stadiums thus far and may even wind up taking a step further. Many Universities are switching to online and work from home modes. Yet those at the very top are looking out the window and screaming ‘you can’t come in’.

We need change. I fear this entire thing is going to create a scenario where we don’t get that change and don’t get that election we need. If that happens, I worry for what happens next.

With the Franchise Tag designation looming this march 16th, and the draft not far off from that, it is time to visit the Waiver Wire. Here is a quick recap. In the first ever Beach Blanket Fantasy League I was able to take second as my team, led by Ravens QB Lamar Jackson, bottomed out in the finals as the man took a week off to let RGIII knock the rust off pre-playoffs. He should’ve left the rust on, because they got a bye week and found themselves dumped by the Titans soon after. Everybody lost on that one. The oldest boy in this tri-racial Brady Bunch took the W and the resulting $75 victory lap.

In the real world, my Giants continued to suck desperately. Eli Manning rode off into the sunset after winning his last start in typical Eli fashion. The Giants are left with a recovering Saquon, Danny Drops (most fumbles in the league), and a lot of holes on both sides of the rock.

Enter Free Agency. The chance to reboot your team with a wealth of talent or roll the dice and discover what worked well over there is not so nice on your roster… The Giants have traditionally shied away from Free Agent splash, but we will see what happens. I’ll fill you in once the Franchise tags drop.

Some Thoughts:

1. I did finally get word about the Youth Football 10u league and it goes a little something like this: Argos (us), AZ Suns, Raiders AZ, SW Stampede, WV Kingz, AZ Fire Dawgs, Valley Rattlers, Reapers Elite, Anthem Jaguars, Arcadia Titans, and the Tempe Buffs.
2. The Buffs won the D1 championship after we opted for D2, but rolled the other team in the championship game 24-0 (and yes, we held back). The Buffs, meanwhile, beat them 19-18. Now we get to play the Buffs week 1 right out the gate and settle that question that is on both teams’ minds. Problem is, we lost two key starters. we replaced them with some talent, but we will see how far that talent takes us.