Weekend Notes

Another weekend that was brightened by visits from college kids and a few more signs that we are deep into fall.

Fall Break Part 1

M came home Wednesday evening. UC had a two-day fall break this year, but she had to go back Friday evening because her boyfriend’s fraternity had their annual trip to the horse races in Lexington, KY Saturday. She’s doing well. In fact, her life got even better while she was home.

She’s been scrambling to line up a co-op for the spring semester after her Portugal trip got nuked. She was having trouble since so many of the potential jobs had been snapped up already, so was leaning towards asking her boss at her job from last summer if he would hire her full-time for the spring. She’s currently working about 10 hours a week for him, and he seems to love her, so she thought that was a possibility.

Two weeks ago she landed an interview for a new opportunity. They called her back for interview number two last Tuesday. On Friday she got a job offer from them. Making really good money, too. It’s for a very small firm that does hospital redesigns, so I’m not really sure how marketing gets rolled into it, but I’ll guess they’ll figure that out.

She was very excited. As much as she enjoys the job she’s been doing part-time, and as confident as she is they will make her a full-time offer when she graduates, she wanted to get some different experience before she finishes school. Hopefully this spring job is as good as it seems.

I drove down to Bloomington to pick up C Thursday afternoon, as IU just had Friday off for fall break. For about 24 hours all three girls were in the house at the same time again. Unlike her last trip home, which was quick and impromptu, this time C was able to get her old high school crew together on Saturday night. S took her back Sunday evening after we had the in-laws over for dinner.

As has been a fall break tradition for years, we all got flu shots, M and C going Friday, L and I on Saturday. Unlike the old days there was no trip to Steak & Shake after, partially because most of the S&Ses around us have closed, partially because their CEO is pro-fascism.

L has just two days of school this week before CHS’ fall break covers Wednesday-through-Friday. Sure would be nice if they all had the same breaks and they were the same length.

Friday morning was the first morning it was below 40° when I woke up. I checked the pool and it was down to 71° after not being heated since last Sunday. Good timing, as our pool guys came later Friday to close it for the season.

And S’s sister in Denver and her family booked their flights for Christmas over the weekend. Now if it wasn’t going to be close to 80° the next two days, there would be no doubting where we are in the calendar.

On to football…

High School

Rough night for the Irish Friday. They went to Kentucky to play a team with a similar record to theirs. The first half was a slog with Cathedral missing two field goals, which left the teams tied 0–0 at halftime. Worse, CHS’ quarterback got hurt and left the game and did not return. The home team scored 17 straight points after halftime and I turned the broadcast off. The Irish made a little run but still lost 17–10 to end their winning streak. One more game left in the regular season.

Last night was the sectional draw and, amazingly, the blind draw didn’t have #3 CHS vs #1 New Pal in the first round. CHS gets a game against a 1–7 team while New Pal plays #6. Obviously in a state with a brain, those matchups would be flipped. And we’ll see if the Irish have their starting quarterback, or any of the other seven starters they were missing Friday, for any postseason games.

College

Who would have ever guessed the game I was looking forward to most this weekend involved IU? Early in the day we were taking advantage of the beautiful weather doing a few projects so I wasn’t able to watch very much of UC’s win over UCF. That game seemed closer than it should have been. Then I watched almost all of IU’s win over Oregon, which just might be the biggest win in school history.

I still maintain that Curt Cignetti is a complete kook, and might be on the spectrum. But that MFer can coach. It’s not like he has tons of talent, although having a very good quarterback goes a long way. He took a bunch of guys who were mildly regarded as recruits into Oregon and really controlled the entire game against the much more talented Ducks.

Looking at IU’s schedule, there’s really no reason they shouldn’t go undefeated now. Back-to-back games at Maryland and Penn State next month could be tricky, but Maryland has lost two straight to other mid-Big 10 teams and Penn State is literally falling apart. It would be very IU to be 11–0 and then lose to Purdue, but I really can’t see that happening. Cignetti gets two full months to build up that chip on his shoulder about Ohio State before the Big 10 title game.

I was not expecting much from KU’s visit to Texas Tech. The Red Raiders are the best team in the Big 12, apologies to M and her Bearcats, with a prolific offense that KU’s defense pretty much had no chance against. That was proven on the first Tech snap of the night, a run right up the middle for a 71-yard TD. Right about the time Tech went up 21–0 C and her friends came back after dinner. I set them up with a fire outside then went upstairs, figuring there was no need to watch KU lose by 60.

I missed the Tech quarterback getting hurt and then KU somehow ripping off 17 straight points before halftime. In one text thread a couple of my buddies and I were debating whether we should watch in the second half. I walked downstairs a few plays into the half. The TV was still on and as I was grabbing some water, Tech ripped off another long touchdown run. That’s all I needed to see. Back upstairs I went.

The good news is that was the best team KU will play this year and there is a bye week coming up so, hopefully, they can get a few injured guys back for resurgent Kansas State in two weeks. The bad news is the defense seems determined to give up 20-ish points each week before they figure out what they are doing. The Jayhawks D needs to figure their shit out to give the offense a chance.

Colts

If the playoffs started today, the Colts would have the #1 seed in the AFC! Not saying how they got to 5–1 on Sunday will inspire a lot of confidence, though.

It was another gorgeous day so I was bouncing around a bit. It seemed like the Colts were in control early but every time I sat down to watch a few minutes the game seemed far too close and they were punting way too often. A HUGE defensive stand late saved them and coupled with a Jacksonville loss, moved Indy into first place in the AFC South. Still, this was a super banged up Arizona team. I don’t think this game should have been close.

The next third of their schedule is much tougher, with games against the Chargers, Steelers, Chiefs, and the first matchup with the Texans in there. The defensive backfield has been decimated by injuries since training camp, and lost another starter yesterday when Charvarius Ward ran into a teammate during pregame warmups and suffered a concussion. The Colts struggled against the pass all day because they were basically running a bunch of walkons out as DBs. They could use a week off.

Oh, and under the Cursed Player file, add Anthony Richardson. Dude has had a weird career already. Sunday the backup QB was warming up in the locker room with an elastic band. Somehow the band failed/slipped/whatever and struck Richardson in the face, breaking an orbital bone. Who breaks their orbital bone warming up before a game they most likely would not have played in? Anthony Richardson, that’s who.

Anyway, the Colts weren’t super impressive but got another win that stays in the W column no matter how it looked.