Happy Birthday to me, I'm now 53

(sorry - this is the youngest baby picture I have of me)

How Much things cost in 1955

- Average Cost of new house ==== $10.950.00
- Average Monthly Rent ==== $87.00
- Average Yearly Wages ==== $4.130.00
- Minumum Hourly Rate ==== $1.00
- Average Cost of a new car ==== $1,900.00
- Cost of a gallon of Gas ==== 23 cents
- Black and White TV ==== $99.95

Popular Culture 1955
- Ray Kroc starts the McDonald's fast food restaurant chain.
- First riot at an Elvis Presley concert takes place in Jacksonville, FL
- James Dean’s stars in the movie East of Eden
- James Dean killed in car accident near Cholame, California

Popular Films
- Oklahoma
- The Quatermass Xperiment
- Rebel without a Cause
- To Catch A Thief
- The seven year itch

Popular Singers
- Elvis Presley
- Bill Haley and the Comets
- Chuck Berry
- Fats Domino.
- The Platters

What Events Happened in 1955
· US military intervention in Iran
· Hurricane Diane hits the northeast United States, killing 200 and causing over $1 billion in damage
· Disneyland opens in California
· 52 Die in a disaster at 24hr Le Mans Race
· African American Rosa Parks is arrested after refusing to give up her bus seat to a white person in Montgomery Alabama

Technology 1955
· First pocket transistor radios available
· Fish Fingers are marketed by Bird's Eye
· The first Atomically generated power is used in the US

I share my birthday today with my brother David, Step-father Henry, and the guy who is the voice of the AFLAC duck.

Exercising my patience - OR - stupid department stores

Happy Birthday me!
Sue and I were wishing we could afford to rejoin the Y, but alas it is beyond our current reach. Sue thought that getting a home gym machine would be a great birthday present. We had seen a neat one at Walmart a while ago but it had no price on it. When we EVENTUALLY found a clerk willing to speak to us, he too couldn’t find the pricing and said we needed to come back during the day when a department manager could help us. Well yesterday, Sue was there – and a price was listed on it ($189.99) and it seemed like a good deal. After I got home from work, we all went back to WalMart to purchase it. Again, we have to seek out someone to help us. The first clerk we found couldn’t but went to find somebody who could. Three times he returned to apologize and say it should just be a few more minutes. A lady came, scanned the price tag/bar code, and told us that two were on order and should be in within 14 days or less. No, they were not ordered for somebody else – no, we could not reserve one – we could check in later. After pushing lots of buttons on her scanner, she informed us that Braintree and Weymouth had them in stock. Because Julie and friend had to be picked up in an hour, we had to pass. After returning home, we search for the specific machine online to see who else might carry it (and compare pricing). Apparently, that particular unit is proprietary to Walmart as nobody else in the free world carries it. BUT – Kmart has a similar but clearly superior unit by a different manufacturer at 30% off ($195.00) and Brockton has them in stock. Because they close at 10 and it was already after 9, I decided to wait until today – I could zip over there on my lunch break.
And I did - $200 cash in hand – walked in, found the machine, didn’t find a clerk (way too heavy for a carriage and one person to lift), found the service desk, asked for help, waited for help, waited as she paged again, waited some more, met the clerk who said he’d meet me back in sporting goods as soon as he finished helping the other two customers ahead of me, waited, waited, waited until I was 45 minutes into my ½ hour lunch break. (starting to sound a bit like the “Alice’s Restaurant” song) And I left – without the machine. But we want it. Sue and I will certainly get good use out of it, the little kids will initially be intrigued enough to use it at first, Julie can work out prior to Discus competition season. The 30% off sale ends March 1st so I guess I’ll try one more time. Why doesn’t anybody want my $200 dollars? If I could I would get it and move it myself, except – if I could, I wouldn’t need the machine in the first place!

Ruth McDonnell

Ruthie McDonnell - upper left in photo

In 1979 the Hanson Girls Softball 13-17 yr old team had a 6-8 record playing in the North River Girls Fastpitch Softball League. I was the head coach of this wild and crazy and diverse collection of teenage softball players. Many of the girls had unmistakable and strong personalities of various types. Some were shy or quiet and just sort of blended in without being particularly noteworthy, which is how I had tended to be as a teenager and young adult. But after getting talked into helping coach this team, and then becoming the head coach – I was forced to learn to interact in a more vocal and demonstrative way. These girls were the best thing to happen to me at that point in my life.

One of the best players and strongest personalities on any of the teams I coached over eight years was “Ruthie”. She was a big strong girl who could hit for power, had a cannon of an arm, and would gladly run over the opposing catcher if she tried to block home plate. AND, she would laugh about it the whole way – as if to say “I can’t believe you thought you were going to stop me”. In any moment of competition, Ruthie had a determined scowl which instantly gave way to a proud and beaming smile. She LOVED doing her job well. As a shortstop, she would throw so hard to first base that Nancy (our 1st baseman) would complain that she was throwing too hard. Ruthie hated pitching because she couldn’t throw as hard underhand as she could overhand. What she excelled at was being the catcher.
Stereotypically big and slow moving, and happily bossy, Ruthie at 16 and 17 years old was the field general. She would pump up the pitcher, wake up the infielders, joke with the umpire and batter, and let me know that I wasn’t really needed here – she had it all under control. Our pitchers quickly learned that their own head was directly in the line of fire when Ruthie tried to throw a runner out stealing second base. She would sternly remind them of that fact and warn them to be ready to duck – not to save their own lives, but so their head wouldn’t interfere with her throw. This public and confident announcement was sometimes enough to convince a baserunner NOT to try stealing second. On plays at home plate, she KNEW she had a size advantage over most girls and would practically DARE anyone to try to run through her to score. She knew she was big and strong and relished in being able to take advantage of her “physical talent”.

At bat she was fearless and always grinned at the opposing pitcher – her way of trying to psych out the opponent, no matter how fast the girl could pitch. In batting practice, she was murder. When Ruthie stepped into the batters box, most of our own pitchers were too scared (or too smart) to pitch to her, and because we didn’t have many girls who threw real fastballs (but many of the opponents did) I would throw a lot of batting practice so our own batters could practice hitting against speed. Ruthie had an uncanny knack of hitting line drives back through the pitchers circle – anywhere from head high to “just-below-belt-high”. She would have me ducking and leaping throughout her whole BP session, with the rest of the team laughing at my predicament and rooting her on. Every body loved Ruthie – you couldn’t help it, unless you were on the other team. She learned that her power zone was hitting towards right-center field, and that most teams weakest players were in right field. She needed to hit the ball into that gap, because Ruthie didn’t particularly run around the bases – she thundered around them. Team-mates good naturedly complained about earthquakes and thunder, and joked about the 3rd baseman running for cover as she huffed and puffed into 3rd base. She just smiled and laughed with them. Playing down in Plympton, the opposing star player was also their catcher. Ruthie was on 2nd base and a ball was hit to the outfield. She rounded 3rd and headed for home –ready for a close play. The throw was high causing the catcher to leap. Ruthie – not one to be polite or to avoid a collision - went low and took the girls legs out from under her, and they landed in a heap. The umpire called “Safe”, the catcher got up looking for a fight, but Ruthie just casually got up and triumphantly walked away – beaming as always, and to a chorus of cheering from her impressed team-mates.

That was Ruthie in all of her glory. Never to be a prom queen, she held court on 95 degree hot July afternoons, full catchers gear on, dirty, sweaty, and personally victorious no matter what the final score was. She was the hero of all the pretty girls who wished they were “ballplayers”, the shy girls who wished they were outgoing, and any other girl who simply marveled at the person who was “Ruthie”. She was a joy to coach.

The reason this story is on my “current events” blog instead of my “growing up a long time ago” blog?

Ruthie McDonnell – now 45 years old - passed away this weekend after succumbing to cancer. Apparently, her adult life was not easy and she did not fare as well against real life’s opponents off the playing field.

Although I have not seen her since the early 1980’s, I feel somewhat like a father who has lost a child. In my minds eye, she will always be 17, laughing, wearing her Hanson Girls Softball shirt, ready to drill a line drive at my head, and telling Sue that she has that one more strike in her that she needs to get this batter out.

I think I will make a recommendation to the Hanson Recreation Committee to rename the LZ Thomas School softball field to the Ruth McDonnell Memorial Field. It would be a fitting honor.

..the 123 page book Meme.

Here are the rules:
1. Pick up the nearest book ( of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.

=======================

Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks
page 123 sentences 6,7,8

Transposing a piece of music, for someone with absolute pitch, can be analogous to painting a picture with all the wrong colors. Another difficulty was mentioned to me by the neurologist and musician Steven Frucht, who himself has absolute pitch. He sometimes experiences a certain difficulty in hearing intervals or harmonies because he is so conciouse of the chroma of the notes that compose them.

======================

sorry, I have nobody to tag
(they've all be taken)

I would be curious to know what revelations this Meme suggests.
Why the 123rd page?
Why the 6th, 7th & 8th sentences?
Why 5 people? Why not 4 or 6?

Most Meme's are designed to offer insight to the person
(Fav color, cola, music, movie, etc...)
I don't understand how lines 6,7,& 8 of page 123 offer any psycological insight to me.

Dark Thoughts (part 2)

Still loving my site meter.
Still getting LOT's (literally dozens - check it yourself - go to the bottom of this page and click on the Site Meter box) of europeans searching for "dark dark town dark dark street" (it's a little freaky), lot's of americans searching for "helplessly hoping" and "I was born in the sign of water" meanings, and now I know that somebody in Manchester NH is looking for my cousin Joanne (or at least somebody with her same maiden name). I wonder if I should tell her?

I'm officially old (as if I wasn't already!)

My baby is 17! Almost too hard to comprehend.
Happy Birthday "Jubee"

broadening my Verizon's

We already had Verizon for our land line phone, cell phones, and DSL internet - but Comcast was our cable company. Well, until they decided to drop Sue's favorite chanels off of their basic package. So we went all out and dropped cable and added Direct TV satellite. The problem was we had been experiencing troubles with our internet connectivity. Calling the online tech help got us customer service agents from India or the Phillipines "pinging" our line and telling us to reverse our wires and that it must be in our house wiring. I meanwhile was convinced that the real issue was the Network Interface Box [NIB] on the outside of the house. The cover has been missing for the 15 years we have lived here, the wires and connectors exposed and rusting - which would easily explain why we had static on the phone line, volume would drop off and the internet would go out more often in rainy weather, and that I had a makeshift cover made out of an upside-down plastic gallon milk jug. I told this to numerous tech-help people but they only wanted to reset our connection remotely. After refusing to repeat all of the "service test" steps for the third time in two days, I got very aggrevated with the tech person on the phone and insisted that they send a repair person to the house. They connected me to the repair department - to whom I repeated every step I had already taken and every in-house wire that I had already replaced and re-explained the condition of the NIB and insisted that they come and replace it. They agreed and we scheduled them to come on tuesday between 12 and 3. They insisted that some responsible person over 18 years old had to be there, dogs had to be out of the way and access to the property available when they came. At 2:00 on tuesday, I called Verizon to find out if they were indeed coming. I was told that there was no work order for it. When i gave them the reference number given to me, they said that was from the online service department and switched me to them. They told me that the work order was closed already. I asked how that could possibly be as nobody had come yet. I was told that they ran a test on our line and we were getting a perfectly good signal so they closed the order (evidently they considered it a job well done!). OF COURSE THEY DID! THE SUN WAS SHINING I shouted! My children cowered in fear as I over the phone ripped the customer service technician, then his supervisor, and then the repair department- reminding them about the unpaid time off from work they cost me as well as the expense of all of the wiring that I had un-necessarily replaced and that I will cancel all of my services with them if they don't send someone out to replace the NIB. They agreed, and we made an appoinment for Monday between 1:00 - 4:00. Well today (Monday, MLK Day) the Verizon truck pulled up in front of the house. I greated the repair man who started to tell me that he would start by checking how much signal I was getting at the router. WRONG, I told him. In case he didn't get the background information, he was here to replace the NIB. To his credit he said "OK, if that's all it is that'll be easy".

And it was. In under 20 minutes he was done, but he admitted that Verizon would be better off if they would just send a repair man out instead of diddling with remote tests and all. He also admitted that this was the worst NIB that he had ever seen and wanted to know if I would mind if he took the box and the milk-jug cover with him to show off!

He fixed the problem, friendly and efficiently - it was the least I could do for him.

Dark Thoughts

I love my “Site meter”. If you click on the “Site Meter” label on this blog, you can see how many people viewed it, for how long, and from where in the world. You can also see how they found it – by linking from some one else’s blog, or from Googling certain search words.

In the past week I have had 9 foreign readers find my “Growing Up At Nenna’s House” blog – 6 from the UK, 1 each from Australia, Canada, and Germany. Most only view it for a second before moving on :-(

But what I found fascinating is that 8 of the 9 found me on separate days with virtually the same searches. They were looking for, with some variations to the wording of their searches, the old favorite scary story “in a dark dark city, there was a dark dark street and on this dark dark street was a dark dark house…..”

WTF? Six people in England, 1 in Canada, and 1 in Australia in a 1 weeks time want to know about that dark dark house? And thought to do a google search for it?

And I thought I had too much spare time!


And now they can all discover THIS blog as well when they do the same search!

Dumb Hockey Coach (part II)

Sunday morning, on the ice for my 3rd game of the day, and there is my new favorite hockey coach. My partner is the same guy I worked with during my first encounter with “the coach”. My partner's son plays on this team, and apparently neither are impressed with “the coach”. Father referee even called a penalty on son player during the game without incident. But after one penalty I called, “the coach” became irate and among other things tried to tell me I don’t know the rule book because I called a slash on one of his players who tried to chop the puck out of the goalies glove, and because I didn’t call one when the opposition lifted the stick of one of his players (I would LOVE to see him ref any bantam C game - any game actually). My favorite one though was when he commented to one of his players that I was trying to control the game.

Well DUH!!!!

That IS my job – as opposed to allowing it to get out of control, which his games are always on the verge of.

2007 Birthday/FamilyReunion/Christmas Party

Starting with the two special guests of honor - Nenna and Aunt Edie, who's birthdays are December 16th (same as Beethoven, my piano-playing savant mother will inform you) lets see if I can remember who made it to the annual family party this year.

from the Blauss clan = Wes & Joanne, Donnie & Sue & Tim & Corey & Julie & Jamie & Nikki & Joe, David & Dawn & Dana & Caileigh, Laurie & Dick & Chris Bianci, Marlene & Thom & Ian (and girlfriend) & Emily (and boyfriend) Freidrich, Debbie & Scott & Stephanie and Al "Sayce/Blauss/Ripley", Mary & Matt Edwards, Yon Hanlon

from the Howland clan = Billy & girlfriend & daughter Shelbie & grand-daughter, Eilien & Russ & Sarah & Selina Burns, Heather & Jack & Jessica Weydt

from the Tobin clan = Skip & Robbie & Travis, Billy, Tommy, Garth, Kathy & Chuck & Sarah & Cameron Fuller, various Gilson's (aunt Edies husband and family who's names I know not)

from the McClellan clan = Aunt Maria, Aunt Shirley, Joanne & Fran & Sean Coyle, Jimmy & Maureen & Brendan &Connor & Kate Daley

from the Doyle clan = Aunt Sally, Mark & two children, Chrissy & husband & children, Julie & Husband and son (again - bad with names of cousins kids, who I see once per year)

random outsider = Amanda (college friend of Corey's who also knows Wes, Laurie, Nenna and others from around town)

*** somewhere around 73-75 if my memory and math are reasonably close ***

*** just a few people short of being one for each year of Nenna's life ***

*** 5 guitars, 2 fiddles, 1 mandolin, 1 Celtic bazouki, 1 bodhran ***

[ view the entire photo album here at http://picasaweb.google.com/don.sueblauss/ChristmasPartyReunion2007 ]

Beauty of Math!

1 x 8 + 1 = 9
12 x 8 + 2 = 98
123 x 8 + 3 = 987
1234 x 8 + 4 = 9876
12345 x 8 + 5 = 98765
123456 x 8 + 6 = 987654
1234567 x 8 + 7 = 9876543
12345678 x 8 + 8 = 98765432
123456789 x 8 + 9 = 987654321

1 x 9 + 2 = 11
12 x 9 + 3 = 111
123 x 9 + 4 = 1111
1234 x 9 + 5 = 11111
12345 x 9 + 6 = 111111
123456 x 9 + 7 = 1111111
1234567 x 9 + 8 = 11111111
12345678 x 9 + 9 = 111111111
123456789 x 9 +10= 1111111111

9 x 9 + 7 = 88
98 x 9 + 6 = 888
987 x 9 + 5 = 8888
9876 x 9 + 4 = 88888
98765 x 9 + 3 = 888888
987654 x 9 + 2 = 8888888
9876543 x 9 + 1 = 88888888
98765432 x 9 + 0 = 888888888

And look at this symmetry:

1 x 1 = 1
11 x 11 = 121
111 x 111 = 12321
1111 x 1111 = 1234321
11111 x 11111 = 123454321
111111 x 111111 = 12345654321
1111111 x 1111111 = 1234567654321
11111111 x 11111111 = 123456787654321
111111111 x 111111111=12345678987654321

Now, take a look at this...
101%
From a strictly mathematical viewpoint:
What Equals 100%?
What does it mean to give MORE than 100%?
Ever wonder about those people who say they are giving more than 100%?
We have all been in situations where someone wants you to GIVE OVER 100%.
How about ACHIEVING 101%?

What equals 100% in life?

Here's a little mathematical formula that might help answer these questions:

If:

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Is represented as:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26.

Then:

K-N-O-W-L-E-D-G-E

11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5 = 96%

And:
H-A-R-D-W-O-R- K

8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11 = 98%

But:
A-T-T-I-T-U-D-E
1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5 = 100%

NOW, look how far the love of God will take you:
L-O-V-E-O-F-G-O-D
12+15+22+5+15+6+7+15+4 = 101%

Therefore, one can conclude with mathematical certainty
that: While Knowledge and Hard Work will get you close,
and Attitude will get you there ,
It's the Love of God that will put you over the top!

I don’t sound jealous do I?

I have heard the saying that “Money attracts money” but this was overkill.

Rob – the keyboard player from the band I am no longer in – seems to have money. BIG boat ($$$), BMW ($$$), lots of pianos ($$$), takes lots of trips ($$$), etc, etc….

I emailed him yesterday – “Happy Holiday’s, how’s things going” stuff.
He replied that the band is making slow progress, but he bought a new electric spinet piano ($$$) and is playing every Friday night – decent and easy money “($$$) not that I need the money” ($$$) he says. Then he tells me that he and his girlfriend are going to Jamaica ($$$) for a vacation.

And then he remembers to tell me “Oh Yeah, I won $10,000 on a scratch ticket” ($$$$$$$$)

Jason is alive and well

http://youtube.com/watch?v=IF_J14GJpkM

Thanksgiving Jam

Thanksgiving Vegetables

I Love Stupid Hockey Coaches

Seriously, I do!
Just when things on the ice are getting sloppy and the kids are hacking foolishly and it’s just turning into a frustrating game to referee , a coach will usually come through with some STUPID remark or question – so dumb that it makes me chuckle for the rest of the day. The best part is when it’s a coach who’s whole demeanor has been “I’m Mr. Bigshot Coach”.

So Sunday I had my “Stupid Coach of the Day” experience during my 3rd & last game of the day. This was a game between the "two best teams in the division" (so OK, it’s the “C” league – which if you can figure out from the normal hierarchy of things, means it’s not the “A” league or even the “B” league – so being the two best is a relative issue). The teams were indeed better than most “C” teams – faster, better stickhandlers, more aggressive and harder hitting. The problem is that “C” players usually haven’t learned to “hit” correctly, and these guys were proving it as fast and often as they could. As I whistled my 6th penalty of the first period and was explaining to the player that you can’t legally check an opposing player who does not have the puck. Coach A of the home team overhead this statement and started in.

(Coach A) “WHADDAYOUMEAN they can’t check someone without the puck?”
(me) “Coach, your player was the puck carrier. The only person who can be legally checked IS the puck carrier. Therefore, your player can’t go and throw a check at the opponent.”
(Coach A) “WHAT? You mean to say if I have the puck and someone is about to hit me that I can’t hit him first?”
(Me) “That is correct”
(Coach A) “That’s BULLSHIT”
(Me) “That’s a bench minor penalty. Now you need to put another player into the penalty box.”

You can probably infer that by my labeling him as “Coach A”, there is going to be a “Coach B” (see how much smarter than hockey coach you are!)

Now about half way through the 2nd period and a dozen penalties and twice as many verbal warning to players during the course of action, I’ve had enough and resort to a stunt that I haven’t used in 10 years. I stop the game (but not the time clock) and tell the coaches of both teams that I want to speak to the team captains. As a courtesy (and because 14 year old “C” hockey players occasionally aren’t too bright either) I speak loud enough so that the coaches (and the parents who are now 80 feet away and behind me) can hear what I have to say. I tell them that they WILL NOT continue to play with their hands and sticks up around the head. I tell them that they WILL NOT continue to chase opponents half way across the ice to hit them. They WILL NOT crash into the crowd in front of the goalie after the whistle has blown. From this point on they are going to keep their sticks down and their hands close to the body.

(Coach B) “So your not gonna let them play hockey?”
(Me) “Not this kind of hockey. I encourage them to play the kind of hockey where they don’t try to remove somebodies head.”
(Coach B repeats, because these things apparently sink in slowly) “So your not gonna let them play?”
(Me) “That’s right Coach. I will not allow them to play they way they have been playing.”

Now, because technically I’m speaking to the team captains, I ask them if they understand my instructions. They claim they do, and that they agree to play the game under my conditions. I tell them to go back to their benches and let their teammates know that if they don’t play better that we will play the rest of the game 3-on-3 with two players always in each penalty box ‘til the end.

Not too long later, and after a few more penalties by the home team (the visiting team appeared to have taken the hint),
(Coach B quietly asks me) “Are you gonna keep calling these for the rest of the game?”
(Me) “Coach, that’s up to you and your players.”
(Coach A – in a weak attempt at humor, offers) “I hope you don’t wear out your whistle”
(Me – in the most sincere and professional voice I can muster at the moment) “That’s OK. I always carry a spare.”

First Snowfall

Just saw the first snow that I've seen this season!

Supper with Joe

Last canoe trip of the season

Aunt Maria sent an email saying a couple of trees had come down at the pond, and although the canoe (that I had chained down there for the summer) was spared, I probably want to take it home now. Julie, Nikki, Yon, and Tim were the only people at home awake (Sue was in a heavily medicated sleep due to her bad back medicine). Julie was the only child to volunteer to go with me to get it. We decided that being a beautiful sunny albeit cool day, we should at least bring the life jackets and paddles (and warm coats and gloves) and take one last cruise for the year. The water in the pond was unusually low so Julie started by walking the shoreline to the left -over to the Rainbow Girls Camp looking for once-sunken treasure. Then we paddled out into a light breeze and explored around the Camp Kiwanee boat dock area. We could hear the sounds of men’s voices and hammering and sawing up around the camps main lodge. As we drifted past below, we spotted my brother David and another guy working on side slope between the lodge and the waterfront. After chatting from our floating vessel for a few minutes, we headed back to our own piece of beach and hoisted the canoe onto the roof racks of the car. While I strapped the canoe down, Julie now went to the right, through the Cranberry Cove swim area to explore the now accessible shore along the Kiwanee side of the pond. Ater catching up with her, we followed the long uphill path to the Kiwanee Lodge to see what David was indeed up to. David and his friend Joe were mildly surprised to have unexpected company – particularly David when he then realized “Oh, that was YOU GUYS in the canoe we were just talking too!”. We got the run-down about the “viewing platform” they were going to build, then we joked about getting out before they roped us into helping. Of course, within moments they did – realizing that the two extra sets of hands would indeed be handy in lifting, balancing, and nailing into place the rough platform supports and bracing. After about 15 minutes of manual labor and wisecracks about how they should have hired a professional carpenter (which of course Dave actually is) we were on our way again. Seeing that Aunt Maria was now home (she wasn’t when we came in) I figured we should take a few seconds to let her know we were indeed taking the canoe home. Of course this “few seconds” turned into a half hour, joined by cousin Maureen. On our way out we checked out the “split-in-half-but-not-yet-fallen” tree in Maureen’s yard that was potentially threatening to drop on her roof at the next good gust of wind.
All in all a very pleasant, unexpected, and rare stretch of relaxing middle-of-a-beautiful-day quality time for me and my Julie.

Happy Autumn!

Running Up Plenty (GO PAT'S)

(sung to the tune of RUNNING ON EMPTY by Jackson Browne)

Looking out at the turf rushing under Moss’s heals
Looking up at the ball in the sky, and the mismatch he’s revealed
He’s 6foot 5, and jumps 12 feet high, and they’re covering him three-on-one
And I know where he’s running now, he’s just running on
Running on – scoring a touchdown
Run it up – run it high
Running up – scoring ‘til the last gun, leave you so far behind

Gonna do what we can just to make it so you babies cry
Now don’t be confused, we can whoop you without the need to spy
Scores 69 to your 17 and we’re throwing to 81
Of course we could take a knee but that’s just no fun
Piling on – another touchdown
Run it up – run it high
Running up – scoring ‘til the last gun, leave you so far behind

Every team we beat, we beat them so complete
That they need some reason to believe that it must be that we just know how to cheat
If you stay and fight, that’ll be alright
We’ll just send 5 guys wide, and our dust you will eat

Looking out at Wes Welker and Randy and Stallworth and Watson and more
I don’t know how to tell you all just how easy it seems to score
Tom looks around for the pass rush but his offensive line won’t let them through
Just for a little surprise, well we can run it too
Running on – another touchdown
Run it up – run it high
Running up – scoring ‘til the last gun, leave you so far behind

Belichek’s really tempted To make opponents lose their mind
He’d love to stick it to them and make them kiss his behind
You know I don’t even know why they're wasting our time
Playing out the 4th quarter when they’re so far behind