First NFL Season Without My Familiar

For those who used to play D&D when they were kids you know that a Familiar is a cat, or bird, or monkey, lizard, rat, or little demon or other creature who keeps you company, hangs around, warns you of danger, can even help fight off anyone who is attacking you, or at least prevent the attacker from surprising or ambushing you.  Our cat who succumbed to cancer last May was my familiar for more than 2 decades.  Dr Desert Flower's familiar was our charcoal gray cat that died of pancreatic cancer in 2013.  She often slept in the bed with DDF when I was traveling, snuggled up to her on the couch, and hung out with her.  Her older sister, our home's very first pet in our very first FHA starter house in Bloomington after renting in apartments for 7 years, was my familiar.  She'd sleep on my chest when she was younger.  And as she got older, she'd sit on the chaise lounge part of the sofa, reserved for her, at my feet, so she could demand petting and be close to her alpha male as it pleased her to do so.

During NFL games, when Da Bears were losing and Grossman, or Cutler, Orton, Chandler, Miller, Krieg, Kramer (man, the Bears have had some terrible quarterbacks who perform remarkably erratic & inconsistently) were spiking the ball because they don't know how to call a play-action pass, or throwing interceptions, or calling time outs because they are not made of the same material that a Manning, Rodgers, Marino, Staubach, or Elway were made out of... I would sometimes (frequently) shout loudly (and often in a disgruntled manner) at the TV, making a comment about my dissatisfaction at the terrible play I had just witnessed.  Meanwhile, Robbie Gould would consistently kick points up on the board, no questions asked.

When I would make a vociferously indignant comment, my familiar would LOOK at me, with a "WTF?" look... "can't you see I was lounging peacefully here at your feet? Do that again...  and I'm leaving, so you won't be able to pet me or bask in my glorious presence."  Invariably, another QB sack later, I'd let out another exclamation, and sure enough, my cat would get up and leave the room, finding a quiet resting spot.  This is the first season in 21 seasons, that she's not here.  We have a little box of her ashes with a sweet little cast paw print of her front paw - the one she'd hold up and out-stretch to you if you were not petting her enough - on the lid.  But her physical presence is missed.


I actually found a posting here, back in 2009, about this same subject:  http://justjoep.blogspot.com/2009/11/feline-disdain-during-vocal-nfl-retorts.html
Funny...  I used to drink cheap beer back then....  huh?

I try not to think about it...  and if I do think about it, to focus on the positives, and what a long and comfortable life she had being part of our family for more than 2 decades.  Writing this post, I think, is an attempt at catharsis... so that I can perhaps make it though the Fall and Winter without going into another severe melancholy... I don't know.  It's not just as simple as "get another cat", since I've found out I am terribly allergic to cats (9 months of allergy shots in 2008 didn't work) and there's no such thing as an entirely hypoallergenic feline.  And I don't have the time or patience for a dog, to have to constantly walk them and pick up their waste after them and keep them safe from coyotes and raptors.  You can't keep a dog exclusively inside, it is cruel & difficult, and it is against a dog's nature to remain completely inside.  And picking up the fresh warm fecal matter of a mammal is incredibly repulsive to me. "You get used to it" ... no, I don't think I would, just as "2 girls one cup", Mr Garrison's "glass bottom boat", and finding all of my neglegent neighbors' dogs' excrement on the corner of my yard near the side walk have proven to me that mammalian fecal matter thoroughly nauseates me.  Cleaning a litter box, every other day, when the litter has masked the odor...  that's easy.  It never involved me having to pick up warm poop with a bag over my hand.

Thanks, sweet kitten, for all of the happy memories.

Thankful to Not Be Marc or Jay

This Thanksgiving, I am very happy & thankful to not be Marc Trestman or Jay Cutler.

I am not one of the 3% of brainwashed (irrationally devoted?) fans who think that Jay Cutler should be the "All Iron Thanksgiving MVP" … but then again, I've not suffered as many traumatic brain injuries as others have perhaps.

And I am also Thankful to not be a Minnesota Vikings fan, who are the only ones doing worse than the Bears in the NFC Central.  Of course, a 4-7 record in the Southern Division (aka the Atlanta Falcons) would still have you at the top of your division - pretty sad.  Next Sunday's match between Green Bay & New England will be the 2015 SuperBowl preview, and none of the rest of the games really matter.

As I said earlier this season (and last year, link here), I am no fan of Cutler, and with a 2 year losing record, not a fan of Trestman either.  He should go back to managing hedgefunds - at least that way the losses he manages in the world would not affect so many other people.

Seven More Years of This?

Seven more years of inconsistent, inaccurate, unreliable Jay Cutler, is enough to make me want to be a San Diego Chargers fan.   Sucks that LA cannot sustain a NFL franchise (2 Baseball, 2 NHL, 2 NBA teams...   but zero NFL?!?!?) ... they drove out the Raiders and the Rams over the last 3 decades....  so very sad.

Granted, today's Bears vs Packer's game Started beautifully, but after 1/2 time it degenerated rapidly into an embarrassing turn-over fest, run-up-the-middle with no time-outs fest, tremendously poor officiating phantom calling fest (on both sides).  The only bright spot is that I didn't waste $330 on NFL Sunday ticket this year and instead watched da Bears lose on network TV.

Packets got Favre and then Aaron Rodgers.  Bears have gone through a string of more than a dozen lack luster, intermittent, hit-and-miss QBs who demonstrated they cannot deliver over the last 30 years.  Going into today's game Aaron Rodgers was 9 and 1 against the Bears.  10 and 1 today, without breaking a sweat in the 2nd 1/2.  Ugh.

Rivers from the Chargers is apparently not that much better... good thing that the weather is so pleasant in Southern California that I can always go out and do something else in the Fall and Winter than having to stay home and be miserable watching "my team" lose at football.

Another Lackluster Year For The Bears Offense

Confused Bear Offense

Dr Desert Flower and I were out looking at possible homes to buy on Sunday, so I missed the NFL Sunday Ticket to which I stupidly and Expensively subscribed last May for nearly $300.  When we got home around 3pm, I turned on the TV thinking I could watch the Bears game that I'd set the DVR to record earlier.  DirectTV had other plans for me though.  See, I did not hit the little "red button" hidden behind the sim card front door, to "reset" my box, since last May when I subscribed, so it recorded NOTHING.  This infuriated me, having paid so much for a season, and having planned to watch the game while frying up several pounds of maple cured bacon from Canada in my cast iron skillet, reserved exclusively for bacon frying.  I finally calmed down, put on the Green Bay / SF game, and tried to enjoy it.   Green Bay was not losing enough, so I turned it off, and watched some old Dr Who episodes that I'd not previously seen as I fried the bacon, salvaged all the bacon fat, and burnt up the afternoon.

I saw a show called "NFL Shortcut" and had no idea what it was, but I hoped it might have some or all of the Bear's game highlights.  It was set to play at 9:30pm Pacific time, so I set my newly reset DVR to "record" the little "$" show on NFLST, and hoped for the best.   I knew that Chicago beat the Cincinnati Bengals 24 to 21, but I had no idea about the details of the game.  DDF and I watched BReaking BAd, and I went to bed early, having a 5am call Monday morning.

Typical Bear Defense, Week 1 of the 2013 NFL Season

So this afternoon, when I finished my day of work, I began to cook myself breakfast at 3pm, and low and behold, there was the "NFL Shortcut".  It was commercial free, time-out free.  Just the plays that mattered.  In less than 30 minutes, at a frenetic pace, I was able to see every run, pass, fumble, kick, and turn-over.  It was a great game for the Chicago defense, in particular Tillman.  But sadly, again, another lackluster performance by the Bears offense.  The running backs tried, and made some progress.  Marshall caught several passes with amazing skill.  But QB Cutler could not organize his troops, and exhibited his typical inconsistencies.  Throwing on 30 yard pass, and getting a first down, and then squandering the next 3 downs to have to kick.  There as no cool steely finesse of Aaron Rodgers.  No 3-ringed bravado of Tom Brady.  No decades honed innate skills of the Manning brothers displayed.  No flair of a Colin Kaepernick, and even the Andy Dalton's losing performance was much better than Cutler's accidental, Defense produced winning performance.

I found myself cringing at punt after punt.  Again this year, once Cutler was sacked hard, the little birdies and stars flew around his head and he had trouble finding his targets, keeping his courage, and effectively scrambling.  It's sad that Chicago management thought it best to get rid of Lovie Smith but kept Jay Cutler.  Would have been better to cut Cutler, and begin grooming a young-and-up-coming rising star.  it'll be another "near 50% season" at this rate.  And I got to pay $300 to see it at home...  but I will not be yelling at my TV.  Just shaking my head, disgusted, wishing San Diego was a better team, and that Los Angeles still had the Rams.  At least the Glendale AZ Cardinals might do well... Fitzgerald is having a better year...   I still own underwater property in that state, and can be happy for them if they win next week.  I love a great defense in the NFL, but a defense needs at least a "pretty good" offense to be able to win games.  If the offense is lack luster, the defense gets burnt out, frustrated, and injured.  il faut voir.

Will da Bears Beat da Odds, MNF?

Da Bears play the Cheese Head Packers on Monday Night Football (link here).  I'll be watching, on DVR, an hour after the game begins (to avoid commercials), cooler of beer beside my couch, Trader Joe's Pollo Asada on the grill.  Packers are favored by the odds pickers.  With Cutler's inconsistency and sporadic running game performances in the pre-season and first game, I am sorry to say I have to agree with the bookies.

If you're in West Phoenix and a Bears fan, you're welcome to come on by and watch with me.  My buddy Matt and I used to go and eat copious amounts of wings, washed down with many buckets of beer, in Greenville on Monday nights, years ago... ahhh, good times.  =)

NFL + DVR = 80 minute game

Last night as I watched the Chicago Bears trounce the Denver Broncos on NBC, for the first time in my life, I watched a NFL game as it was being recorded on DVR. Commercials took about 4 seconds to fast forward through. Booth reviewed calls took all of 10 or 15 seconds. I did not have to listen at all to Chris Collinsworth droning on - except when he would NOT Shut Up in the 4th quarter. Finally, Madden is gone, and now we have to listen to Collinsworthless? Ah, but DVR to the rescue!

Paused to light the grill, recycle consumed beer, obtain more cold beer, grill wings, eat said wings, were an extra 30 or 40 minutes all-together, max. I could really get used to this. As Stephen Colbert says "it's like having a DVD player, a time machine, and friends, all in one!"

On a regional note, cry-baby Cutler did not do too badly. Finally da Bears have a QB who can do more than hand off to the running back! Hester did a nice 40 yard punt run back to help change momentum. It was a nice Sunday Night pre-season opener. It looks like it won't be a losing season for da Bears. =)