Jason's Untimely Thoughts

The final home contest of the year is upon us, sad to say, with our beloved Tigers taking on the Iowa State University Cyclones.  USClones has officially been added to the approved list of making fun of them nicknames, once they copied their uniforms directly from USC.   There also appears to be some USC uniform equilibrium act, as USC has gotten worse since that time while the USClones have seemingly improved.

Kickoff is at 1:07 pm, we’ll be at the tailgate by 10:30 or so.  I think food will be extremely limited this week, as we’ll encourage everyone to go inside early to send off the seniors on their final home game.  The full list of 15 Tiger Seniors is listed below.  Danario and SPOOOOOOOOOON are the highlights, of course, but great contributors on the entire list.  Most importantly, for the second year in a row, all the seniors have either already graduated (3) or are scheduled to by May 2010.   That will make 39 of the last 39 seniors, which stands in quite a contrast to some (cough: ku.  Cough: academic fraud).

Speaking of making fun, I much appreciate opposing fans and teams making it easy on me, as I’ve been lacking this year.   First it was the video of A&M yell leaders scarring the poor name of ice cream truck drivers everywhere with this performance.   Shortly thereafter, Sooner fans showed their, um, selves, with a highly choreographed youtube sensation.   Beakerville has also provided plenty of targets.  Literally, with one of their basketball players shooting people with a pellet gun last year.  The previously mentioned fights between ku football and basketball players were also entertaining.

However, there is no bigger target than ku football and their main Mangino.  The big (big big) dude evidently poked one of their football players in the chest, causing quite a stir.  Huge amounts of whining have commenced, most seemingly at the invitation of their athletic director, who is seeking out players to tell him how awful Mangino is.   Fun, fun times.   Especially when considering the athletic director now seemingly intent on firing the MAN gave him a fat raise on the same week it was announced the football coaches had committed academic fraud.

Here are the seniors, go inside early and cheer for them.  On a side note, screw ku.

81          Danario Alexander        WR         Marlin, Tx
96          Jaron Baston               DT         Blue Springs, Mo
2            Brian Coulter               DE         Baker, La
43          Jon Gissinger               TE         San Diego, Cal
78          Kurtis Gregory              OL         Blackburn, Mo
33          Levi Hamilton               TE         Rolla, Mo
36          Jake Harry IV               P          Cardiff-by-the-Sea, Cal.
15          Del Howard                  S          Dallas, Tx
92          Andy Maples                DT        Lester, Ala
91          Tanner Mills                 PK        Columbia, Mo
4            Jared Perry                 WR        La Marque, Tx
4            Hardy Ricks                 S          St. Louis, Mo
63          Ryan Schleusner           OL        Maryville, Mo
6            Shawn Scott               TB        St. Louis, Mo
12          Sean Weatherspoon      LB        Jasper, Tx

Sarah’s monument was installed on Saturday.  Early indications are everyone is pleased.  Below are pics for those not in Columbia. A video of the monument and area is here.

Sarah’s monument is scheduled to be installed Saturday morning.  The folks from the monument company will drive from Memphis on Friday afternoon, then start working first thing Saturday morning.  Since it’s a football weekend, my tailgating routine will also be going.  I’ll get up about 7:00, go to the store and pick up whatever else I need, then go set up the tailgate.

Since I can see Sarah’s grave from our house and backyard, I’m guessing the first thing I’ll see Saturday morning when I get up is them starting to work.  Whether that’s true or not, I’ll certainly go out there Saturday morning in the brief period between setting up the tailgate and going back to the tailgate.  So, I should be a ball of fun for the game.  Throw in that it’s a work tailgate, which I generally don’t enjoy any where near as much and yay football.

I’m also surprisingly ambivalent about the monument being put in place.  I have a solid 100 emails on the subject over the past 16 months.  I’ve drawn and revised and approved and nodded and signed on all of it.  I was anxious to have it done this time a year ago, but now I’m mostly of the opinion that it doesn’t matter.  I already know there are things I’d do differently, even before I’ve seen it.  I’m worried that it’s so big that it’ll look obnoxious.   Mostly, though, I’m sure, is just that it’s a very obvious reminder of the situation and the permanence of it.

We’ve also long known that the fence in our backyard is set too far into the cemetery, meaning they own some of “our” backyard.  Unfortunately, they’ve decided now is a good time to move that fence.  I don’t blame them and they’re doing nothing wrong, but it still sucks to lose part of what’s effectively been the backyard of our property for the past 70 years or better.  And then of course I’d underestimated how much was actually their property.  And they’re going to put the same old ugly fence back up.  Yay cemetery.

Lack of transition, we had a great trip to Colorado last weekend.  The kids went snow sledding for the first time, which made me realize how awful it was that I’d never taken them sledding before.  Stupid things like that hit me harder than they should, as it seems we’re not able to just have random fun very often.  Every day is a schedule, a routine that leads to bed time, which doesn’t leave much time for art projects, playing with moon sand, riding bikes, or going snow sledding.  I know they each have fun at school, so they’re doing OK, I’d just also like them to have fun at home.  I’m able to plan fun, but spontaneous fun doesn’t happen much for them, I’m sad to say.

Further randomness, when we first moved back to Columbia from San Antonio, my office at Columbia College was the only one in the entire building I was in.  So, I’d go for hours on end, days occasionally, without seeing or talking to anyone other than saying hello.  It was weird and after a few weeks I felt like I was losing my ability to function in social settings.   The past year has felt much the same way on a personal level, as most of my time is either spent discussing work, talking to the kids, or sitting in silence.  It’s made stupid things, like writing my unfunny tailgate emails, harder to do.  And the sitting in silence provides way too much time for thinking, to the point where I feel numb much of the time when I’m home and the kids are in bed.  So I turn on the TV or play stupid games on my phone (or check facebook and twitter), all things that clearly improve communication and awaken from numbness.

Positive closing, I’m thankful for those in Denver that helped us take that trip, for the Tigers winning football games again, and the things that make me laugh — stupidity-proof helmets, pole dancers, idiotic direct deposit questions, purple things, and the majority of the state to our west, for example.

Mizzou takes on the Baylor Bears this Saturday at 1:00 p.m.  It’s a work tailgate again this week, with Hoss’s Market again providing the food.  Adelaide’s favorite meal, brunch, is the fair.  Food will be served beginning at 10:30, hope to see you and yours there.  I’m not sure why I scheduled the food to arrive at 10:30, except that I knew I’d be there by then I guess.

Baylor gave the Tigers considerably more of a fight than expected in Waco last year, but unfortunately their best player is out for the season with an injury.  We shall beat them badly as a result, moving to 2-0 in the new winning part of the season, another small step toward the 5-0 finish before heading to the Big 12 Champeenship game at Jerryworld in Dallas.

I’m headed to the dentist momentarily, so humor will be limited to beaker antics.  After earlier reports of beakers hating each other (football and basketball teams fighting), the love pendulum may have swung a bit too far the other direction with the beaker basketball stars.   Not that there’s anything wrong with that.  Um, screw ku.