Monday Random

It was pretty nice this morning – 43 degrees when I woke up at 3:20 AM. Didn’t take much convincing to get myself out the door for a lap around the lake. But I was on the cusp. I was, like, “Should I? It’s 43, but still, that’s pretty cold. Can my knees handle it?”

Shut up, you pansy, and ride.

How’s this for random: I dislike the term “therapy.” I think the whole act is such a poor substitute for something that could – no, should – be so much deeper. Sure, it’s a way to overcome the stresses of the world…because I think we’ve lost the true way. I see the term thrown around far too much, like it’s the Hollywood thing to do. I think at the root of it is that we really don’t have friends that understand us anymore. Everyone thinks they need “professional-grade” help. They need perfect strangers to tell them they’re alright. No friends. No God. Just “therapy.” One big alternative outlet that serves as a replacement for friendships and a God in whom we may have hope beyond anything we face.

What a mess.

I don’t say this flippantly. I’ve known people who’ve actually needed the help. It’s just that I don’t like how the term is bandied about in some circles as something that looks like a front-line solution. It’s not. And it shouldn’t be the “in” thing to do – to show people you’re damaged and coming through it somehow. How brave.

I’m still harping on the “broken windows” theory – that is, that if the small stuff is out of order, the big stuff follows – and my biggest target is still parking. Yeah. A tiny thing like that. But when no one will enforce the standard of parking – and it gets worse, believe me – no one will think that the more important standards matter either. I remain flabbergasted (using that word a lot lately) that no one has done anything about the line of cars that regularly parks on the area marked with stripes as a fire lane down the street from where I work. It’s really simple. As one car parks there and gets away with it, now, five or six or seven cars do. And this breeds incredulity among the population as a whole that anyone would call someone out for blowing off the standards in other things. “I didn’t secure that bolt properly and the jet crashed…and you’re mad at me?”

I had a real “oh crap” moment yesterday. Our hi-pass (Korean toll system) card was down under 5,000 won, so while I was out on the road, I pulled into a rest stop to charge it up. I hate doing it because it never seems to work for me (and Micha stays in the car), but I usually pull it off after a few attempts. Not so yesterday. It was giving me problems with her check card, so I went out to get her credit card and, surprisingly, she just said “let’s go in” and came along to help me. Great. We got it worked out. I went off to the restroom, and Micha bought a few snacks (to include a couple of hand-made choco-pies), and we were good to go.

I get out on the road and realize I haven’t put the card back into the hi-pass device on my dash, which, in itself is a bit of a jolt because I’m thinking “Whew, nothing worse than cruising through the toll gate and having all of the beeps and whistles and sirens going off because the reader doesn’t find your card.”

Well, it turns out there is something worse. That moment when you’re out on the expressway and you reach into your pocket – the pocket in which you’re positive you placed the hi-pass card – and it isn’t there. And it isn’t in any of the other pockets on your person. Five times it isn’t. And then traffic slows down to a crawl right in front of you and it turns out there’s a fresh, three-car accident…which actually worked out for us because it slowed us down. But that still didn’t help me find the card.

We were coming up on our exit and I still hadn’t had a chance to even pull over. I’m thinking of buying a bit more time by skipping the exit and going to the next one. If anything, it would let me rehearse what I have to do – pull over to the far-right gate and explain to the booth-worker what happened. She’d call someone with my plate number, and they’d confirm where I got on and I’d be charged the amount it would take to get through the gate (all the while, angry drivers piling up behind). But I sure was muttering under my breath.

And as we approached the exit, there it was – a rest-stop pullout (restroom only). One last chance. If I didn’t come up with something there, I may as well just take my medicine…which, unfortunately, included giving up on a card on which we’d just loaded 100,000 won.

So I pull in, find a spot, get out of the car and recheck my entire person. Nothing. Check the seat. Nothing. Next to the seat. Nothing. Look in the back window. There it is, on the floor behind the driver’s seat.

Everyone should get to feel such relief in their lives, at least once. Builds character.

So I plug the card into the device and happily get out on the road again. Happy enough to ask Micha for one of those choco-pies. “No. You’re bad.”

Oh well. On the bright side, I did get her PIN out of it…which is good.

I really haven’t had anything to say about the Green Bay Packers – certainly not enough for a full blog post. Still don’t. They’re out of it, and there are a few glaring issues. But then again, what do I know. Although, as an owner, I certainly have thoughts.

First and foremost, I think the team lacks discipline. Especially on the defense. I’ve seen two things in particular – some sloppy and undisciplined play leading to long penalties (hits out of bounds, pushing people on the sidelines (that one garnered an ejection), that kind of stuff). I’ve also seen soft defense on third and long situations. It seems the defensive backs just sit back on the first down line and wait for receivers to get there unchallenged. I’m sure that’s a huge reason for opponents’ high conversion rate on long downs.

Secondly – yeah, I know the receivers are kind of young, but really, some of them (Lazard) are just into taking plays off. Your quarterback is getting demolished and you’re just jogging around. Watch them sometime. You’ll see a lot of “not-getting-open-when-it-counts” kind of work.

And then, of course, there’s Aaron Rodgers, who’s having an awful year (for him). Sure, I think he’s hurt (thumb), but that’s part of having an old guy at quarterback. Old guys get hurt more easily. They lose a step. They can’t finesse the ball like they used to. They certainly can’t put the ball down the field as far as they used to. Add to that a group of receivers lolly-gagging and a line playing “Ole!” with the pass rushers, and it’s bound to be a bad year.

So here’s the definitive list of what the Packers need to do: fire the Defensive Coordinator, the Cornerbacks Coach and the Receivers Coach. Bench Rodgers, especially for the scrub games – not because he’s the problem, but he needs to recuperate and there are nothing but pretty rough winter miles ahead. The Packers have to leave some in the tank with him for next year when it really will be their last chance. It’ll give us a chance to see what Love really has, because face it – he’s the future.

I was born in the 60’s. The Packers were dominant through half of that decade, ending that dominance with victories in the first two Super Bowls. For nearly 30 years after that last Super Bowl victory, I heard about the glory days, but never thought I’d see them personally (face it, at just under 4 years old in 1968, I don’t remember much about that victory over the Raiders). I have a grandson that’s coming up on 2 in a few months. If he gets to live the life I’ve lived, perhaps somewhere around 2052 we’ll be seeing that 5th Lombardi Trophy. Until then, I guess his father and I can regale him with stories of the good old days…