October is here. There are certainties as… certain… as… death and taxes for me.
It’s attrition season in fall sports. Postseason tournament draws have started rolling with soccer. Golf is already in its state finals phase, and tennis sectionals will be settled.
Volleyballers (tomorrow), and gridders (Sunday, October 13) will see what opponents will try to stop them from launching a deep postseason run.
Best wishes to each of the area schools among all sports for postseason success. I hope each Monday hereafter affords you another week to keep winning or going at least 1-0.
Another certainty is defoliating trees.
The drying, dying leaves turn my voice into something sounding like Sam Elliott, Harvey Fierstein, Elmer Fudd, and Barry White morphed into one adult male.
This fall, however, while this begins in October’s first full week and lasts until the end of Warsaw’s fall break, I have little announcing on my dance card. The Tigers first shot for a postseason football home game will be Friday, November 1.
I have four events after this morning’s all-day Unified Flag Football sectional at Fisher Field, and I’m in undamaged shape dodging next week’s defoliation bullets.
My fall break won’t be days home from work, but it will open up as the natural attrition of high school fall sports seasons continues through the month.
I don’t bet on football, so the parity and unpredictable outcomes in NFL action have been entertaining for me.
I’ve moved from watching the same handful of teams on my NFL+ replay throughout the past seasons to just looking at final scores, asking myself, “how the heck did THAT happen?” and selecting certain games whose unexpected outcomes are something I want to see for myself.
Defense was not on the menu in Thursday night’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers-Atlanta Falcons clash, but it sounded exciting when I tuned into the NFL Network to listen to/ occasionally take my eyes of my computer screen to see.
I am, however, challenged with other things to do so I’ll continue my condensed replay cadence instead of watching live action. I’m actually falling further behind including a complete week (NFL week 4) in the replay pile as we head into NFL week 5.
I’ll eventually catch up, but there are other tasks and matters I cannot delay attending to… in live action.
Additionally, I see how some politicians in their rants like to talk about falling/failing NFL TV ratings coincidentally in the presidential election years. I also bear in mind, however, this dip in ratings happens each four-year election cycle and does not bounce back until after the election.
The sound bites are more annoying than they are alarming because I know what the natural facts are.
I have my eyes on lots of other areas of the news, too, and there are times where among all the news channels’ “car wash” Sunday offerings (on each side of the aisle), it’s easy to focus on what’s happening in other current events via reading and viewing than it is to watch a ballgame I know I can replay in condensed time.
Millions of other people are doing the same thing. Bear this in mind when you hear rants about falling/failing NFL TV ratings, and also bear in mind the conveyances available to watch the action are abundant.
Throw in a couple unexpected personal events, and things are getting pretty interesting and exciting in my life already.
Even high school sports can be seen on archived broadcasts along with Big Ten football games offered in 60-minute condensed replay tranches.
It’s a great sports media world we live in today.
People tell me I do too much, and this just exacerbates the issue of packing more stuff into my day. I don’t feel like I do. I just trade sleep for action when almost all the dragons I’m feeding are facing me at or around the same time.
I’m not going to live in the “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” mode, but I know there is a time later in the month of October that I shall have more time to myself after feeding all my vocational and avocational lions.
The natural attrition on fall high school sports seasons gives me solace that in the later part of the month at least one part of my life will eventually afford me a nice, tight break.