Day Off Recognition Failure

My dotage is approaching at break neck speed if this past weekend is any indicator.  I woke up yesterday feeling a 100% better than I had in days.  I immediately launched into the variety of tasks prerequisite for work today.  I was about half way through the day before I realized that I have today off due to Presidents Day.  Like I said, getting older; I blame the absence of my social secretary for this calendar mishap.  I think as we get older life becomes more of a routine and we automatically assume days will pass as they should. 

Since I was feeling better I decided to continue my hunkered down status (after the obligatory driveway snowblowing exercise – an almost daily event).  Buddy thought the new snowfall called for one of our back yard adventures where I try to escape as he hunts me down mercilessly.  I wasn’t going to hazard my recovery (and the ire of wife and sisters) so he had to do his snow bounding solitarily.  He hates it when I sit down to write in this blog, just jumps up on the couch and looks P.O’d (he’s doing it now).  I snapped the picture below yesterday while I was writing.

Dad, I'm Bored

My wife’s radar for inappropriate domestic behavior is still in complete working order and has lost none of it’s long range detection capability or potency.  In one of our phone conversations yesterday she asked me, completely out of the blue, if Buddy was sitting on the couch (kind of scary that woman, at times).  Buddy is allowed on the couch but only in my designated seat.  He’s taken my wife’s absence as license to push the envelope.  He has a rather large awakening due in early March.  I fully expect a rather stern admonishment when she sees this picture (this is part of my campaign for her to come home by convincing her that we need her supervision again - standards are slipping without her – one must think strategically). 

I spent a good deal of time in the kitchen yesterday and achieved a new first.  I prepared a pot roast without setting off the house smoke alarms (and they said it couldn’t be done).  I’m getting pretty good at these things as I conduct experiments to learn if I can ever get sick of constantly eating pot roast (not so far – I’ll keep you advised).

I did spend a good deal of time watching the Winter Olympics yesterday.  Ice Dancing just wasn’t doing it for me although the announcer (a former skater named Weir, I think) got exceedingly excited about it.  I loved watching the cross country skiers.  These guys are just flat out studs; great athletes giving their all over a grueling course.  They don’t get the recognition world wide that the pampered buffoons of most major sports but they’re certainly worthy of it.  Apparently there are some Norwegian ski waxers in real trouble – they take the sport a lot more seriously in the fiords.  I really like this glimpse, every four years, into the neglected sports (where have you gone Wide World of Sports – thrill of victory and agony of defeat, don’t you know).

Class Act

Finally a big story out of Red Sox spring training where one of those pampered high profile athletes I was writing about above elevated himself.  Ryan Dempster, an aging but still effective pitcher, decided to sit out the year to spend more time with his family and because he couldn’t perform at the level he wanted due to some nagging injuries.  This is notable because all he had to do was show up and go on the disabled list to collect more than 13 million dollars in salary.  He chose to be honest, forgo the money and that tells you what kind of man he is, I guess there still are major sports stars to be admired.