Tuesday, September 25, 2012

I missed Dancing with the Stars for this!?

Honestly, it was an exciting game to watch. Despite Seattle totally dominating the first half. Pushed the Packers around like it was nothing. I seriously got sick of how gleefully the announcers talked about how awesome Seattle is and this is what we can expect from them all year and isn't it great how they can demonstrate it against the Pack that was supposed to be so good. At least the Packer D played well enough to limit Seattle to a single TD. Did the announcers bother to point that out? How despite the Seattle Defense manhandling GB so thoroughly, they were held to only 7 points in the half? Ha!


Then the Packers came out with a revised game plan second half. Instead of passing every down, they mixed in a healthy dose of run plays. Maintained forward progress, got a first down every few plays. No big plays. Nope, none. But more important than anything else, kept our offense on the field. Turns out it's a lot easier to see how good Green Bay's defense is when the opposing offense never hits the field. 3 and out 75% of the time has a bigger impact when you take the field 4 times than it does when you take the field 16.

Or something like that. Point is, Green Bay controlled the game indisputably the second half. Held the ball, like, 25 minutes. Scored two field goals. Then a TD. Missed the 2 point conversion, but took a 12-7 lead.

Intense, exciting come back. Especially, remember, after Seattle had spent the first half demonstrating what a great team they were. And they were still ground down by Green Bay in the long game.

Then came the final drive. Less than 2 mins left on the clock. Green Bay had just kicked the ball back far enough that Seattle had a long field in front of them. And they began marching down it. Moved the ball further that drive than they had the whole 2nd half. Got a couple first downs. Got as far as their own 40 yard line before Green Bay stuffed them. Hard. Forced a long pass on 3rd and 32(!). Seattle put the ball up, heading straight for a receiver being dogged closely by a GB defender. The defender won the fight to get between the ball and the receiver, had a great chance to intercept it, so the receiver wrapped up the GB defender and the ball bounced off his hands, pass broken up. The officials could have, and looking at the replays should have, called offensive pass interference on Seattle. But OPI is rarely called, right? No one really expects it, even when the foul is that blatant.

But what no one really expected was when the official called pass interference against Green Bay! Seriously?! Seattle's player had Green Bay's wrapped up in a bear hug? And the Packers get the pass interference penalty? Yep. A 38 yard penalty for a Seattle first down. Bringing them into field goal range.

Now . . the game had been plagued by bad calls. I understand all the games have been so far this year. And probably both teams had benefitted from bad calls over the course of the game. It would probably be pointless to try and figure out who benefitted most. You just laugh, shrug and play on, right? What was clear, painfully clear, was that no call in the game had been that absurdly wrong.

Not yet anyway.

Green Bay held Seattle again. With 8 seconds left in the game they were still over 30 yards out of the end zone needing a TD to win. Last play of the game, a few players from both teams skirmish around the QB, but most of both teams sprinted to the end zone and waited for the Hail Mary. It came to the back left corner, two Seattle receivers in the area, four Packers. The defenders surrounded one receiver, totally cutting the second off from the ball. The surrounded receiver hauls off with a violent shove of one defender. I mean, not even remotely defensible as "bumping", but blantantly violent enough to legitimately disqualify him as a legal receiver. Everyone jumped for the ball. Green Bay intercepted it. As the intercepting player came down, Seattle's receiver reached in and tried to rip the ball out of his hands. Both players hit the ground hanging on to the ball, a scrum ensued, when it cleared, Green Bay still had the ball. Two officials were standing right there. One signaled an interception for Green Bay, the other (senior) official a fair catch and touchdown for Seattle.

The play was reviewed. Watching the replay, maybe you could the make the case that as fast as everything happened, maybe it looked like both players simultaneously got hands on the ball, in which case it would go to Seattle.. In slow motion, it becomes apparent that is not really the case, though. And yet they let call on the field stand.

Oh man. I do understand that sometimes games are decided by bad officiating. And when it happens, we should consider that it's not just a bad call that won the game for Seattle. They played extremely well the first half and because of that were in a position where one touchdown would win them the game. But man, I have never seen any calls as bad as those last two of the game. I mean, this is a perfect example of why good officiating matters. The NFL needs to get its scabs off the field and put real officials back in charge.

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Pictures!

 
Last weekend was the Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival held in Cable, WI each year.  Becky's Dad has ridden in it every years since the beginning.  He has, in fact, become its poster boy.  Literally.
 
 

 
 
 
 
That picture of Bob taking the corner at the start of the race in 1983 was on a huge banner at the race, on towels, shirts, glasses.
 
Every year he rents a cabin on Lake Delta and takes his family up there.  Mike races with him.  Everyone else watches, spends the day shopping in Cable and plays on the Lake.  It's great fun.
 
Before I get to the pictures Becky took, though, I found a few I'd missed from our Labor Day visit to Sheboygan.
 
 



And there are a few I never got around to posting that Becky took of Ben.




And a nice one Becky took of the Bay.

 
The Cabin Bob rents is at a place called Delta Lodge.  It's on a very picturesque little lake with some nice docks and boats.



 
 
They have some Kayaks that are just a blast.



 
 
Tabby and I watched for fish in the lily pads.  And saw some!  We stayed out in the Kayaks until late one night to watch the bats come in over the lake.  Dozens of them diving all around the water.  No pictures, but it was pretty cool.

 
 Of course, the whole reason we go is the race right?  We were at the finish line to watch Bob come in.  Mike came in about 15 mins later, having gotten a 20-25 minute late start due to a mechanical problem at the starting line.

 
 
I've got to share a photo disappointment.
 
 
 
Becky and I went out driving looking for pictures.  She took some nice ones of scenery.  Then, coming around a corner, about 50 feet down the road, we saw a black bear in the road with her cub.  And the camery was still set up for the landscape/nature scenery photos Becky had been taking.  She quickly got the camera up anyway while the mama bear watched us for a second.  Then the bear dropped to all fours and continued across the road.  And 3 more cubs bounded out of the woods to join Mama and the first dashing into the woods.
 
Becky was kicking herself about not getting a good picture, but man, it was still awesome.
 
On the way home Sunday morning we stopped by Copper Falls and hiked a very nice trail along a river flowing through some cool rock formations making some pretty spectacular falls.









Thursday, September 6, 2012

DNC

Watched the DNC coverage tonight.  Saw Jill & Joe Biden and Barak Obama.  Fun times.  The best reason to give Obama a second term came from Joe Biden.  He's been saying it for months precisely because it captures it so well.

Osama Bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive.

Monday, September 3, 2012

Labor Day

Happy Labor Day! 

I've been reading Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, but it seemed like somewhat of a sacrilege to read that book on Labor Day.  So I took a break to catch up on the blogging . (1) I really do need to catch up because this has been an incredibly good weekend. So I am posting entries by day.  In fact, so everything shows up in the right order, I have already posted them.  Take a gander at the past few if you missed them.  (2) I also really need the break from Atlas Shrugged.  That book is a chore . 

I'm actually only reading it because it has been in the news recently related to Paul Ryan's political views.  I have not liked Paul Ryan since his "Road Map" budget and one of the criticisms I've levelled at him is having a political foundation based on being an asshole.  Now that he's in the national spotlight I figure as long as he's going to tell us the literary work which laid the first stones of that foundation, I should read it and know what I'm talking about.  I am glad to be doing that.  At the very least I have learned "asshole" is not an accurate adjective.  Heartless and immoral, sure , those are accurate.  But I suppose I should admit he could still be a decent guy.

The book is awful.  It is fictional entertainment comprised of 2 dimensional charicatures aimed at a very narrowly targetted audience.  It is comic book fodder and not even for a very good comic book.  It is Horatio Alger vs the Communists McCarthy era tripe.  The most accurate review I've read went something along the lines of "Never has an author assembled a larger cast of straw men nor thrashed them about as vigorously."

So yeah, reading it is a chore.  I'll force myself to finish it, but it might take a while.

I am aware Ryan is distancing himself from the book.  He now claims something along the lines of, "Yeah, I was a fan back when I was young and first read it, but I'm more mature now."

Whatever. 

It's the work that inspired him to go into politics, he made it required reading for his interns, and his budget reeks of its influence.  Putting a disclaimer on that now smacks of political expedience.  Turns out Ms. Rand was also an ardent atheist and had some socially radical ideas about moral norms.  I'm sure Mr. Ryan wants merely wants to ensure that his views on those subject aren't miscontrued.

So there's my own disclaimer.   Duly noted:  Paul Ryan believes in God and disappoves of adultery.  However, I still say his socioeconomic views are heartless and immoral.

In any case, enough ranting.   I'm not reading it today.  I worked on our bathroom sink, which now not only drains slowly but leaks while it does so.  Becky painted flowers on Tabby's newly pink walls which are turning out beautifully.  Sam spent the day with a friend from Preble.  Tabby & Ben took turns playing on the computer.

For Family Home Evening we took the route Ben & Sam need to walk to school starting tomorrow(!).  Then went to Dairy Queen.  I guess the day ended pretty well.

Joe Biden

Joe Biden came to Green Bay and we skipped church to go see him.  I did anyway.  We left the kids home.  Becky skipped church to stand in burning sun and 80-something degree temps in a security line while they filed 500 of us through a single metal detector, stand in the waiting area of the Railroad Museum for another hour or so listening to a soundtrack of oldies the college kids behind us joked must have been piped in straight from Joe's iPod, then listened to a couple of people runnning for local offices (Dave Hansen, Tammy Baldwin), then go back to waiting for Biden.

That's when Becky got tired of waiting.  So she left.  Of course, she found out from security as she tried to leave that Biden was arriving right at that same time.  They couldn't allow her to be walking around the grounds unaccompanied while the VP was coming in, so she waited another few minutes with security.

I'm glad I stuck around for Biden's speech.  He is an incredibly good speaker.  Fun to listen to, dynamic, convincing.  The Green Bay Press Gazzette described it as, "Biden connected with the crowd."  That was a good way to put it.  He did.

He made a convincing argument to vote for Democrats, especially for he and President Obama.  I mean, he had a very receptive audience, right?  I was already convinced.  He still made a couple of really good arguments that were worth hearing.

He pointed out the absurdity of the current debate over which party was destroying Medicare.  The program is a Democratic party baby.  We made it, fought for it, and have kept it funded over Republican objections for 40 years.  And they now want to argue that we're just tossing it aside?  They want us to believe that after Republicans spent 40 years fighting to get rid of it, to defund it, shrink it to the size that they could drown it in a bathtub, this year they suddenly think its wonderful?  How stupid do they think we are?  Or maybe gullible is the better adjective.

Biden pointed out that Barak Obama brought home troops from Iraq with overwhelming support and it was the right thing to do.  Yet Mitt Romney says it was a mistake.  We are part of a UN coalition of 50 nations in Afghanistan which unanimously agreed it was time to set a date to turn over security to the Afghans.  Mitt Romney says the coalition is wrong.  President Obama is wrong to work with the coalition.  In both cases our Iraqi and Afghan allies have agreed that it was time for the US to step down and Mitt Romney believes we should stay there over their objections.

I understand part of that may simply be Romney can't admit the President is doing anything right.  It's just part of campaigning.  When I see him hiring on the same people who crafted Bush 43's Iraq policy, though, I worry about going back to the go it alone cowboy style he exemplified.  I am still absolutely horrified at the hubris and warmongering my country glorified during those years and I would hate to see it return.

As expected, Biden addressed the recent GOP convention.  He mentioned the talking point flying through the liberal web-o-sphere about Paul Ryan condemning President Obama for not acting on the recomendations of the Simpson Bowles commission.  Of course Ryan left out that he sat on that commission and was among the Republicans who sucessfully blocked sending its suggestions to the President to be acted on!

Biden talked about Ryan's claim that people should be judged by what they do for those who stand most in need.  Biden's comment was that his own father had a policy:  "Don't tell me your values.  Show me your budget and I'll tell you your values."  So he talked about the budget Ryan had authored, its tax cuts and its cuts to social programs.  He contrasted that with the Office of Budget Management's suggestion that for every $3 of cuts we ought to increase revenue by $1 and Romneys claim that he wouldnt even raise $1 for every $10 in cuts.

It is true that the budget Biden criticized was Ryan's, and Romney has said his will be different.  However, Romney doesn't say how it will differ, has said his basic principles are the same, and will be working with a House which has already approved that budget.  At the very least it's a good guide for the type of policy to expect.

Finally, I have to admit I got a kick out of Biden's description of the Republican party.  "It's changed, man.  It's not your father's Republican party.  It's not even Mitt Romney's father's Republican party."

Kicking Off Labor Day Weekend

Batting around ideas for what to do for Labor Day weekend, we kept coming back to going to the beach as the best option.  What beach, though?  There are just so many good options within decent day trip range and I've missed enough trips everyone else went on that they all sounded good.

Then we realized, "Hey, if we pick a beach in Sheboygan, Jackson can join us!"   So we settled on Deland park because it also has a nice playground Tabby might like.

Saturday morning we drove down to Jack's place.  We grilled up brats and hot dogs for lunch.  Then we drove down to the beach.  Sure enough, Tabby liked the playground.  And the kite.  It was perfect kite flying weather.  We passed the kite around, but i think Ben seemed to like it most.  The water was cold.  Holy cow was it cold.  That didn't stop the kids from going in.  Sam spent enough time in to go numb.  Which is to say, not very long, but longer than the rest of us.

About 3:00 Jack had to go get ready for work.  He has been getting a lot hours, which is mostly good.  He's excited to start school Tuesday and only seemed a little nervous.  It was good to see him. 

We had a very nice, relaxing day.

Date Night

Becky has been itching to get out and take some pictures.  So for our date night we decided to just go out walking with a camera and see what she could find. 

We started at Pamperin park, a nice park with a playground, disc golf course, hiking trail and stream through the middle of it all.  It was beautiful.  There was a white heron type of bird in the stream that was kind of skittish.  It flew away upstream just far enough that we could still get pictures.  Even better, it landed near a second bluish bird that seemed to be the same type which we had totally missed because of how well it blended in with the rocks.  It was really cool watching the two of them pluck fish out of the stream.  They got enough used to us that Becky was able to sneak in pretty close.





After a good while watching the herons we decided to drive on home.  Even just driving out of the park was cool.  We saw another white heron and two more blue ones further down the water.  Over a copse of trees near the park exit there were another three herons flying graceful circles low over the treetops.

Then as we pulled out onto the road to leave, Becky gasped excitedly and pointed off to the eastern horizon where a large, pale pink, full moon was just climbing into the sky.  We drove quickly downtown to the Neville Museum parking lot on the Fox River to try and capture the moon rise over the Green Bay skyline.  Turns out its tough to capture a good photo of the moon.




Of course, that didn't stop Becky from taking pictures.  It was absolutely gorgeous by the river.  A cool breeze blew off the water.  The sunset behind us reflected like brilliant flames off the windows across the Fox.  The only sounds nearby were the wind in leaves overead and fish splashing in the river at our feet.  In the distance we could hear the hum of traffic crossing the Main and Walnut street bridges just up and down river from us.  On the opposite bank the downtown club district was just starting to life, the energetic joy carrying faintly over the distance.








We hung out until the sun went down and it was really a beautiful, beautiful evening.