while watching the eagles and the pats 11/25

Hey buds, it's been a while, welcome if you're with me though I doubt it.

Since last I wrote here, Peyton was beat again by Brady coupla weeks ago I guess, other bigger things have happened to me than keeping track of quarterbacks. Like one of my cats got run over in the street in front of the house, but beyond all that, the worst thing was my momma died at age 89. To think I was unprepared for her leaving life as we know it, is the understatement of my life!

Whenever I had a round with my mother, she would end it with "You'll be sorry when I'm dead and gone and lying in my coffin!" Well, you know, she was so totally right about that, and about a lot of other things as well. Not anything about football, no, she wasn't into sports, only the sport of flirting and catching a man, my Daddy, so one day I will have to write a book about their WWII romance, their contact only by letters to the field where Dad tried hard to survive the killing fields of Normandy, Belgium, Germany all the way to the Czech border with the 90th Division. He and his battalion hit Utah Beach first, and of course, he always thought himself extremely lucky to have landed there instead of Omaha Beach. But even MORE LUCKY, though than that, he thought was finding my mother, an Army Nurse, a Lieutenant at that, before he got his orders for the invasion. Mom had invaded his heart at Sweetwater, Texas where they met before they even knew where or when he would disembark.

They didn't marry until the war was over. Well all that is a really long story, and with their beautiful pictures and their touching letters which I must gather one day to share with whoever values their kind of experience, chiefly myself, my daughter, even my older brother is a possible reader of such a historical romance.

So she was right about many things. One was "Don't chase the man," but she definitely chased Dad with her sparkly blue eyes the night she met him when she was actually with another guy. Another thing she would tell me oodles of times was, "God gave you a brain, so it's up to you to use it!" So here am I in New York, after having seen Kermit the Frog in the Macys' Thanksgiving Day parade, Kermit who helped me raise my daughter, now 33 and living in Brooklyn, we are sitting here on the couch with one of her roommates watching the Pats and the Eagles. I am using my brain tonight to stay awake for the early flight back home to Florida and will miss my girl terribly, but to see her so content and sharing her interest in sports with her roommate, it is a relief for my brain just to know this, to hear them laugh at my remark that, "Wow, Brady's balls are so hard, it must hurt just to catch them!"

It makes me glad I have made this trip up here for Thanksgiving and my birthday, so much better than staying home alone with the dogs. So this year was a difficult one, but there is more to life than worrying about Peyton Manning, female surgery, and death in the family. Far more important to me is to keep humor and practice love for what is left of our little family.

People who can laugh with you, at you (she says my bangs now that I cut them look like Jim Carrey in Dumber and Dumber!) and watch the game with you, that makes a family for me! It makes life worth living even though there is so much else you wish wasn't there to deal with, but just to laugh and watch the game, astonished that the Pats perhaps might even lose, it makes it a great trip. I am usually called "a trip" myself, and it's a welcome change to not BE the trip, but to live and enjoy it with family!

So hope you had a Thanksgiving holiday that somehow resembled mine, with sports, good food, but best of all, someone in your family that could share it all with you. You never know, it may be the last time you are ever with them. So make it count!

Peyton Manning, Super Pensive or Petulant?

I know nothing of Peyton Manning except what I've seen of him on the field and after game interviews. Therefore, you are forewarned. I only know what I think of male behavior from my own horrible experiences in life. Just before the Pats/Colts game, Peyton was asked who he preferred to play in the final playoff for the AFC, he replied very pensively, "You have to be very careful what you wish for. The Pats are a different team in the playoffs than they are in the regular season." How well spoken, how mature, I thought. Peyton is so thoughtful, it's very appealing. HOWEVER, what else do I see in Peyton, a boyish, emotional, petulant pouter, who has been known to complain when he has essentially NO Time in the Pocket, "I CAN'T PLAY BOTH OFFENSE AND DEFENSE!" This is the Peyton I cannot trust, I find hard to respect, the Peyton Manning who fiddles with his thumb on camera to see that it is still there after crunching it into a helmet, probably a helmet of his own teammate from the way things were going in the Pats game. Beyond that, the constant pouting when his Hail Mary passes couldn't get through due to a fantastic Pats secondary, especially thanks to the constant batting down of Asante Samuel (sp?) And finally, what grates me most of all, is his boy/father relationship with wild eyed Tony Dungy who told reporters the reason the Colts came through and won the AFC was that GOD CAME TO THEIR AID in the second half. Oh, wow, that means by inference that Our Heavenly Father doesn't like the Pats, or the Pats are not God fearing football players as are the Colts. I was absolutely stunned that Dungy could not say that they won because they abandoned their long pass strategy because it wasn't working and once our petulant Peyton found his rhythm with the short passes, he proved he could operate more effectively than Tom Terrific in this particular tough one. I have always given God ample credit when he comes to our aide in difficult times, but to claim God is up there watching football games and determining who deserves to win is just more than I could stand. Therefore here I am on my own never before attempt at a "blog." Really, Peyton, stand up and be a man, not a boy, and say, Hey, I've learned from my competition. I no longer hate Tom Brady, but Tom is a 2 minute man, and he can't do in one minute what takes him two. Brady is a super quarterback, but where Peyton is doing commercials, Brady is dating supermodels and actresses, so which is more beneficial to his game? Well, that one is up to your own personal beliefs, as is your own version of religion. But here let me say, Peyton Manning is also a super quarterback, but in my mind he won't be a grown man until he remains more pensive than petulant, more thoughtful than boyishly emotional, and can admit out loud that it was his team's effort, and not God's preference for the Colts, that brought him and them to the SuperBowl. Grow up Peyton Manning so we can give you and your team credit, and let God just enjoy the game from on high, without determining who will win or lose. After all, God has far better things to concern himself with, like war and peace, and on Sunday, he is listening to the prayers of Church goers, so on Sunday games, let's just say, it just depends on God whether he even has a moment to care how it turns out.

Thanks for reading. Thanks for listening. May the best team effort really go for it. Let's not have another heart attack game like the AFC championship was, I was ready to call 911, I am that bad off.