Monday Meanderings - 11.18.2013

Big weekend in Austin. The geniuses that brought Formula One racing to Austin weren't smart enough to schedule it on a weekend that the Longhorns did NOT play here in town. Turns out this town is big enough for both of them; if you block off 12 city blocks downtown for the festivities and charge $1000 a night for a motel room. Who knew?

All the treadmills at Silver's Gym have little TVs on each console; I normally turn the TV off when I walk, but the other day there was a soccer game on, so I watched for a while. Did I mention that the TVs are little? Most camera perspectives during a soccer game are wide-angled, encompassing large swaths of the pitch, as we futbol aficionados call it. As a result, on a fuzzy little 9 or 10 inch screen, unless the action is on the sideline nearest the camera, YOU CAN'T SEE THE BALL!

This leads to some interesting observations about watching an invisible-ball soccer match. For one thing, you often have to guess where the action is. Sometimes it is obvious; see that one guy streaking like mad down the sideline? Or that clump of players gathered in front of the goal, waiting for a corner kick? Other times it is anybody's guess - you just have to wait until somebody knocks somebody else over to bring things into focus.

I did notice that every time a foul was called, the camera focused on the referee. And you can be pretty sure which team the foul was called on because they would then show a bunch of disgusted coaches. I also noticed, while searching for the ball, that much of the time most of the players just kind of wander around out there. I could see the score, however, and it was 5 to 1, so I finally turned the TV off and concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other.

If it is popularity and attention you seek, I have a suggestion for you. Retire. When you get our age everybody wants to talk to you, or send you something in the mail. You get calls and mailings about hearing aids, burglar alarms, credit card debt, reverse mortgage plans, replacement windows, walk-in bathtubs, financial seminars, and cruises (cruises to Alaska, cruises to the Mediterranean, cruises up the Mississippi, cruises on the Volga River) to mention just a few.

And then there's the Medicare-related contacts. If it is not our actual provider calling daily with "important medical information," or calling to see if we are checking our blood pressure regularly, or asking for Barb's log of blood sugar readings, or mailing each of us Prescription Drug Summaries and Explanations of Benefits, it's other providers wanting us to switch to their plans, so they can call us daily, etc.

At the Learning Ally studios, I am currently reading a 900 page volume entitled Blood and Soil: A World History of Genocide and Extermination from Sparta to Darfur. Talk about depressing! I tell the other readers to periodically peek through the window and check on me, just to make sure I haven't hung myself from the microphone cord or something! I've only just reached the late 1400's when the Spanish decimated the Indian population in the Caribbean, so there's a lot of mayhem to go.