JamesAsh.com

I hate 9/11. I hate the annual renewal of the feelings from that day. I was buying Little Debbie cakes at a small grocery store when I heard a plane hit the first tower. We all thought it was an accident.

I hate going to work that day and hearing about the second plane hitting the tower. I had worked for a company that was headquartered there. It hit a little close to home. I hate going down the hall to the only TV in the building to watch the coverage. I hate seeing the first tower fall. I hate the old man who was practically giddy at this seemingly made for TV event. I wanted to punch him in the face.

I hate realizing that this had been a terrorist attack. I hate the excitement in my office that we were going to end up going to war over this. I hate that so many innocent people died that day. I hate that in the aftermath, so many people were willing to allow the passage of the Patriot Act to take away our freedoms. And while it is necessary to always remember this day, I hate the way it eats away inside me every time this date rolls around.

A boo bird is a person, usually a sports fan, that is just down on everything.  Around here, when it comes to LSU Boo Birds, they are simply called Nega-Tigers.  These are the people still complaining about the team’s performance against Washington 5 days after the game.  Suddenly, everything is doom and gloom.  The season is going into the tank.  The coaches need to be fired.  You get the idea.

One of my great joys is tuning into sports talk radio during football season and listening to the Nega-Tigers rain down complaints on anyone that could have messed up.

I haven’t made a post since Sunday.  How the heck did it get to be Wednesday?  Holy crap, where is the week going?  I’m already late today, big surprise.  Oh, and I am looking for a new volleyball player because one of the girls on my team quit because she broke up with her boyfriend.  We were finally showing improvement and were on our way to becoming a solid team, for the first time in 3 seasons.  Now, it’s all back to the drawing board.  Crap.

Sunday mornings typically start with me going to Target to get my grocery shopping done.  I can usually knock it out in under an hour and get back home to have the rest of the day doing other things.  Plus, Target annoys me because if you go after lunch on Sunday, there is no milk or bread.  How do you run out of 2 staples every Sunday?  Has no one thought to order more in the last 5 years?

Target is becoming an increasingly frustrating shopping destination for me because it is becoming more and more like Walmart with each passing trip, not just from a service perspective, but from the clientele also.  And I am not getting on Walmart shoppers.  I just find them annoying and I will gladly pay a few extra bucks to avoid them.  I don’t shop at Walmart because of their business practices, but I don’t feel like getting into the details of that.  Let’s just say that it is because of Walmart that your Radio Flyer wagon is now a plastic, Chinese product instead of metal, American craftsmanship.

First, the associates (or whatever Target calls them) were particularly helpful today.  I couldn’t walk more than 10 feet without having someone ask if they could help me find something.  No.  Let me nose around and make an impulse purchase.  I don’t like people talking to me in the morning.  When people at places I frequent start catching onto me and know what I order and feel the need to engage me in conversation about it, that’s when I start going somewhere else.  Ask the Subway a block from my office.

The people were also particularly bothersome today.  I mean, I didn’t know that they made XXXL NBA jerseys and I don’t know why someone would wear a J.R. Smith New Orleans Hornets jersey at this point in time.  Also, there was a guy with a mullet – wearing it in a pony tail.  Just wow.  I wanted to take a picture of it, but you never take a chance at angering a mullet, so I just went off in the other direction.

As I went in the other direction, I came across one of my favorite products and pondered a question: What flavor should peanut butter be?  Times up.  We were looking for peanut flavored.  But some people seem to think that other acceptable answers include raisin swirl, dark chocolate, cinnamon, chocolate chip cookie dough, or my favorite, vanilla cranberry.  Yeah, vanilla cranberry.  Then there was the company selling Better ‘N Butter, which is made by taking dehydrated peanut flour and mixing it with tapioca pudding, among other things.

At this point, I was done and went to the checkout.  That’s when I found the ultimate in creepy patrons.  It was a guy in his mid 50s with his hat on backwards.  He had a gray pencil moustache and sunglasses on.  His purchases were simple.  Nos Energy Drink, 5 Hour Power, and all of the laundry supplies you could think of – Tide, bleach, Bounce, Downy, Spray & Wash, Shout sticks.  I’m pretty sure he was up all night commiting a murder and now needed the energy drinks to stay awake while he tried to get the blood out of his clothes.

All of that said, I’d still rather go to Target than run into THESE people.

Yesterday, my oldest son made his tackle football debut.  It was quite a nerve-racking experience for his mom, so much so, that she had to leave after the first scrimmage.  I don’t blame her.  He’s one of the smaller kids on the team and he was put on the offensive line because the coach was trying to get everyone in the game and that’s where they needed someone.

He hasn’t really figured out how leverage works yet, so he never got low like he was supposed to.  Not coincidentally, he got put on his butt play after play after play.  His mom couldn’t watch it at all.  Plus it was hot and our other two kids just wanted to hang on her.  But by leaving, she missed his second scrimmage game and him carrying the ball two times from the running back position.  I have to say, he looked pretty good at running back and ran fearlessly.  The only problem was that he didn’t have field awareness and lost a fumble on a pretty easy strip by the defense.

Fortunately, I was able to sneak in a little nap because I was sunburned and aching.  I also had my fantasy football draft last night.  As always, I never know what I am doing.  I read articles and scope out magazines, but I am always scrambling for selections because invariably, the people right before me take who I am picking.  I drafted Drew Brees with the 10th pick because I didn’t think he would be there at 15 when I picked again.  Plus, I wanted either Calvin Johnson, Andre Johnson, or Randy Moss or maybe Reggie Wayne – my top 4 WRs.  Wouldn’t you know that the 4 of them went with the next 4 picks, leaving me to take a Steve Smith that I think will have a bit of a down year?

No problem.  I’ll get another one coming into the next pick at 34.  Three picks to go, Anquan Boldin and Roddy White are sitting on the board.  They go with the next 2 picks and I end up with Dwayne Bowe and then Bernard Berrian at 39.  Willie Parker and Ochocinco go early in the next round, so I’ll take Roy Williams.  Nope.  Sniped from me.  I need a running back, so I grab Derrick Ward of Tampa Bay.  And so it went for the rest of the draft.  I did manage to grab a couple of my sleepers late.  James Davis of the Browns and Andre Caldwell of the Bengals.  Cincy always has loads of injuries so I imagine he will get a chance at some point, plus, he is their Wildcat QB, so he might be prime for a flex position on my team.  At the least, it gives me the fodder to cut some people and grab the guys that get hot the first week.

Then, I was up until 1am watching the LSU Tigers struggle to beat what might be an improving Washington Husky program.  That was the nightcap of a lot of good games yesterday.  OU lost to BYU.  Ohio State came within an eyelash of losing to Navy.  The ACC got the crap kicked out of it.  Michigan played well.  Northern Iowa gets back to back field goals blocked to lose to Iowa.  And my Nicholls State Fighting Comrades got 72 hung on them by Air Force.

A couple of weeks ago, I came up with this idea that I would post some links that I found interesting.  Here we go:

It was in the news yesterday, that a Utah school showed a propaganda video to its elementary students.  The thing is, this video wasn’t intended for kids.  It’s supposed to be for adults to encourage people to get active.  It’s kind of sad that a video that is largely promoting good would even be able to be political.  Why is it necessary to pledge your allegiance to Obama?  Why do you need to pledge to be of service to the President?  It’s creepy.  My allegiance is to my country, thank you.

All of that was to set up this.  It’s the video of things that didn’t quite make the cut on things to pledge.

While I was on YouTube, I also found this guy named Chris Crocker who thinks we should just Leave Britney Alone.  Poor thing.  I know it’s an old video, but it’s new to me.

As will happen with the Friday Find, everything isn’t fun and games.  This week, I would like to draw your attention to Operation Backpack.  Operation Backpack is a collaborative effort between schools and local food banks and community groups to send food home to low income children to make sure they get proper meals on the weekends.  With free lunches, the children get to eat a balanced meal at school.  On the weekends, however, many of these kids don’t get proper nourishment.

I know that some of you are thinking that it is the parents responsibility to provide the food, especially for the ones getting government assistance.  I don’t disagree with you.  But helping hungry kids is also the right thing to do.  They can’t control what their parents do with the funds.  The only problem with Operation Backpack is that my link is to a Google search.  You need to actually work to find a local effort.  It is not a national charity.

Have a great weekend.