Weekend Notes
It was an interesting weekend in many ways. I’ll begin with the normal day-by-day accounting and then share the latest health issues in our house.
Friday
Friday was the end of CHS’ week of homecoming activities. The seniors claimed the Spirit Stick earlier in the day, sweeping every category. L was pretty proud of that. She dressed as Alexander Hamilton on USA day and organized her friend group for some pretty spectacular outfits on the other theme days, so she did her part in earning points. The seniors usually win, but not always, so they have to actually put in effort to get it.
She was less proud that she could not lead her powder puff football team to victory. She tossed three touchdown passes but her defense let her down, and they lost 28-21. She came home with big turf burns on her legs from when she decided to play D and attempt to right the ship.
Also worth noting, Thursday morning was her last ever 6:00 AM basketball practice. For the first time since we’ve had kids there, CHS is taking a full week for fall break. They will have gym time this week, but during normal hours. Next Monday is the first day of official practice.
The tackle football team did just fine. Despite missing their best defensive player, they squeezed out a tight 28-20 win over Covington Catholic, the #7 team from Kentucky.1 CCHS had a chance to tie the game with about two minutes left but muffed the PAT snap then the Irish smothered the emergency two-point attempt. But CCHS recovered an onside kick and seemed to be in great shape to steal the game before CHS forced a turnover, and then scored on a 60 yard TD run to clinch the game. Nice win.
Saturday
We avoided the hurricane rains, for the most part, but still had a dreary and ominous looking sky all day. A perfect excuse to sit on my ass and watch football! Well, I had another excuse I’ll get to momentarily.
IU damn near blew it in Lincoln. Nebraska looked really good for a half, and the stadium felt like back in their glory days when no one went there and won. But IU got their shit together, Nebraska’s defense decided to just not cover anyone on the two biggest plays of the game, and the Hoosiers escaped.
I take credit for a reverse jinx since I wondered in a text thread, when things did not look good for IU, what was the last time Curt Cignetti lost consecutive games. Lose to Nebraska with Ohio State coming in next week? Yeah, it seemed bleak. I’m sure my text message made a difference.
By the way, it is INSANE that Nebraska has the longest home losing streak to ranked teams in the country. Or maybe it was to top 10 teams? Regardless, you would think my Jayhawks or Vanderbilt or Northwestern or Wake Forest or Oregon State or someone like that would be the team that hadn’t beaten a ranked team at home in a decade. Not the once-mighty Huskers.
Speaking of the Jayhawks, I was kind of glad their game against #12 Utah was scheduled to start after 10 Eastern. That could be my excuse not to watch. I had read about Utah’s tricky offense and figured KU’s defense would have no chance.
Then the game got moved up two hours because of potential bad weather and I kind of had to watch. Only I was much more interested in the Georgia - Alabama game. I tried to multiview them, but since the KU game was also moved to a different channel, I couldn’t figure out how to override the YouTube TV suggestions and pull it in. So I put KU on the laptop and the top five matchup on the TV.
When KU quickly went down 14-0 I figured I didn’t need to watch any more.
Naturally the Jayhawks played pretty well in the second and third quarters, getting within 3 points in the third quarter. They were down 10 again when there was a break in the SEC game and I decided to take a peak. I promptly saw KU complete a 30 yard pass to set up first and goal from the four. This is KU football, so you know what happened next.
Three yard run on first down. Incompletion on second down. False start moving the ball back to the six. TOUCHDOWN…that was correctly overturned on review. Then a terrible play call or execution or both on fourth down that came up short.
Two plays later KU gave up a 90 yard touchdown run and that was that.
I guess it was good they fought hard, came back twice to make it a game, etc.
Georgia-Alabama was awesome. I yelled out loud several times.
Oh, and Horns down. A friend of mine asked why the hell Arch Manning was throwing the ball when he tossed his second interception of the second half, which set Oklahoma up to win the game. “Handing the ball off doesn’t win him the Heisman,” was my response.
Sunday
I never locked totally into NFL games Sunday. We were hosting a family dinner and I needed to both prep for that and take care of some stuff I had avoided Saturday. I barely watched the Colts game, so can’t say much about it. Figures that their D got picked apart. Figures that their offense could mostly just manage field goals. I did see Daniel Jones throw into triple coverage too many times. To be fair, I think the Colts have maybe one healthy receiver who belongs on an NFL field, so that’s not all on Jones.
I’ve been here for 23 years and it sure feels like the Colts never win in Pittsburgh. CBS flashed that they were 2-17 all time going into the game, so my brain wasn’t making shit up.
I barely watched any of the other games, either. While I was prepping for dinner I did see the disastrous end to the Washington - New York game. I yelled out loud about that one, too. One of the most bizarre endings I can recall to an NFL game. That made zero sense in every way.
Oh, and a shout out to Jalon Daniels for quarterbacking the winless Tampa Bay Buccaneers to victory at Dallas Thursday. He was steady and calm most of the night, and Dallas played poorly enough to give him a shot. He nearly pulled one of his patented “Horrific Fourth Quarter Interceptions” that he drove us crazy with for six years at KU. But, to be fair, I would have put the loss more on coach Todd Bowles who, for some insane reason, decided to not kick a field goal that would have put Tampa up by three scores. If Dallas hangs onto the pick and runs it in for a winning touchdown, I’m firing Bowles before the bus gets to the airport.
Some Health BS
OK, now for the not fun stuff.
I’ve been having some pretty serious back pain for several months. Actually the core pain has been there for years, but just after we got back from our Europe trip went to a new level. I was also having some leg numbness with the back pain. Classic sciatica!
I put off doing anything about it because my back always hurts and, eventually and usually, it either goes away or turns into a different pain.
But lately the pain has been waking me up at night and I realized it was time to do actually something about it.
I started going to a sports medicine chiropractor last week. He diagnosed me with piriformis syndrome: my left piriformis muscle was out of balance with the right and pressing onto my sciatic nerve. X-rays also showed my left hip was significantly lower than my right, and my tailbone tilted forward more than it should be.
To try to fix this, for the next six weeks I get to do traction therapy, adjustments, dry needling, and PT twice a week.
I’ve never been to a chiropractor. I was a little nervous. And a little leery about some of this stuff.
But, man, the first time he put those dry needles into the affected area,2 I immediately felt the muscles fire and relax. That was wild. He added the PT at my second session and the next day my back actually felt better, although the numbness in my leg was still present.
So I guess I’m optimistic that this will fix the glitch. I guess we’ll see.
Unfortunately that wasn’t my only health glitch of the moment.
Saturday I had the longest Afib episode I’ve ever experienced. I went nearly two years without having one and have now had three extended ones in four months, along with two shorter ones. I wore a cardiac event monitor for two weeks in September but, naturally, my heart behaved the entire time.
And, fortunately, I felt fine all day Sunday.
My cardiac specialist and I have discussed a procedure that could prevent these episodes in the past. It might be time to take that step. I have a message out to him and we’ll see what he thinks.