Funerals: My Aunt Carolyn's', and just a couple of days later my best friends father was taken in a fatal car crash.
Automotive woes: The fuel system on the truck and the arctic weather have sidelined one of our primary means of transportation; Alternator failures sidelined the 'Vert' for a week and a half too, and I've been forced to drive the Frankenstein in the salty winter muck even though it's not technically ready, body or mechanically to be a daily drive, (although the restoration project has been going well, there is so much yet to do).
December Retail: Another grueling December, the retail push, the lack of days off, and the over time all mixed with the gloomy grey days of sunlight shortened winter takes a physical and psychological tolls on the body and spirit, yet it is again survived.
Physical Tolls indeed: Jenni breaks her foot while walking and has surgery, and crutches and a cane and time off, though she is doing remarkably well considering. She was back to work in just a week, and the stitches come out this week.
Bowling: The winter league continues and our team languishes near the back; the Chatterbowling league ends and another starts in mid January and the first couple of weeks are tough.
Television: The holiday schedule s pre-empts much of the family mainstay programs, then the Late Night TV wars and their lunacy grabs the american psyche, meanwhile our "Pop-icon american Idol-style President" promises not to pre-empt or blackout "American Idol" or "Lost" in his upcoming State of the Union Address.
World Events: The devastating earthquakes in Haiti, the toll of human life and the astonishing compassion of the world communities, especially of the American People. The ongoing relief and rebuilding.
Sports: The Amazing Run the Indianapolis Colts are on and the NFL Championship parring of the two #1 seeds in the conferences to be played in less than two weeks.
All of this and other things like Terrorism (which is a dirty word to the administration, and is never spoken aloud), economic collapse, unwanted political intervention into our daily lives and suppressed news; the Political scene in turmoil and the will of the American people ignored in both houses, but not at the voting booths.
Yes, have been absent but not hiding, just surviving. I sit ready to get on the on-ramp and start driving my thoughts again, but the process may be slow and intermittent and the flows and rush-hours of reality dictate. Don't honk, I'm going as fast as the traffic will allow.
Chuck Pace ©2009
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With one arm out of a coat sleeve I took a call from my folks, my father was on the other end, "I have some bad news about your Aunt," he started and my mind immediately jumped to my Aunt Jo who has been ill and is over 80. So when he continued with, "Carolyn died this morning," I was unprepared for that statement. It was too unbelievable to be a shock moment, I still was processing the Jo thought so I only said, "What?" He repeated the news. He told me of some of the specifics. He told me Erika, her daughter, my cousin, was holding her hand as she passed. That the night before, Erika tried to cheer up her mom and Carol said don't joke Erika pray for me instead. I can hear that statement in her voice in my head as clear as a bell, that was Carolyn.
Carolyn was born on September 11th 1949, the youngest of the several children of Lloyd and Violet Martin, 10 years younger than her nearest sibling, my mother Madge.
I remember her room at my grandparents house in Marion. I remember the beads and bright decorations, the Bobby Sherman and David Cassidy posters, the Partridge family album and record player. I remember Carolyn as a teenager, as an older playmate and as a babysitter. Carolyn was less than eleven years older than me. Carolyn used to come and stay with us occasionally when we were in grade school and my parents were both working, she was our house and baby sitter. I remember cousin Cathy staying for a day or two as well and we all walked to the IGA in tiny Swayzee to get candy and treats, and Carolyn bought with her baby sitting money.
Both of her parents were gone before she was much more than twenty. After her parents passed she moved around between her older siblings Mona and Jim's places and took odd jobs and managed to care for herself.
At around her 25th or 26th year Carolyn met a man named John Vaughn, a man with a checkered past, and questionable moral fiber, a man who had spent a bit of time incarcerated. Carolyn , a woman of deep religious faith and belief, saw John as a man repented, as a man changed and in the true spirit of her Christian faith as a man redeemed.
John proposed, she fell in love and they married and moved to Delphi Indiana. John was driving delivery trucks for a seed company, making stops at grain elevators and farms and they head a nice little place in an old house near downtown Delphi. I spent a week there on summer break just after my 16th birthday.
Within a year Carolyn was pregnant and John was gone. Carolyn was back in Marion and on public assistance, and soon her daughter Erika was born. I don't believe Erika would have benefited from having her father around and he never attempted to see his child or supported either of them with any support or childcare money, John's absence may have been a blessing, and Erika was definitely a gift and blessing to Carolyn who, through struggle and hard times raised her daughter in a house full of love.
The last few years Carolyn has been living in Arkansas near her niece Cathy's family and her sister Mona and her family. I have missed seeing all of them, and watching Erika's children growing up. I still remember all the Thanksgiving dinners and the Christmas gift exchanges, and will miss them. I will miss the humor and caring, I will miss, teasing and sharing, I will miss the affectionate hugs. I will miss my Aunt Carolyn very much.
Chuck Pace ©2009
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Meanwhile elsewhere in the NFL those very same Patriots were falling to the Dolphins in Miami by 1 point in a crucial AFC-East match-up. Making their records New England 7-5 and Miami 6-6. The Jets are also 6-6and still in the hunt in the AFC-East. Interesting side note: This is the 3rd game the Patriots have lost this season after having a lead of at least 10 points.
As I type these notes the Saints are trying to stay in the rarified air of undefeated bliss, with :18 seconds remaining in regulation in Washington the score is all knotted up at 30. Television coverage leaves and I have to go online to follow. Brees completes a pass and gets a first-down. Waiting for the painfully slow updates; the clock stands at :02 3rd down in Redskin territory at the 40, awaiting an impossibly long field goal kick attempt. The 58 yard attempt is short, and we're looking at overtime. I am one of 81,050 fans watching on-line as the quarter ends and overtime rules will be observed. Sudden death! 1st team to score wins. Brees and the Saints have first possession but fail to score, now the Skins are driving, but moving the ball poorly starting from their own 18 they reach their 39 with 3rd and 1. Great, the last play I described is under review...
The irony here would be a quarter played with neither team scoring and the Saints would still be technically undefeated, but Ties are extremely rare in the NFL.
Chuck Pace ©2009
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The defense of the Saints had Tommy Boy confused and flustered for nearly the entire game. I say 'nearly' not because The Brilliant Bill Belichik figured out the schemes and mastered the Saints, but because Bill pulled his starters with over 4 minutes left in the game. The Pats quit. They conceded defeat and they took their toys and sat them on the bench. They couldn't recognize the Saints schemes or out wit their pass coverage with their premier receivers, so in came the towel.
Then to New Orleans credit the Saints went into a clock controlling ground game. If the tables had been turned the Pats would have gone on a scoring feeding frenzy, like their march through their 16-0 season where Bill kept Tommy in long after opponents were toast. Kept his starters in against unprepared or undermanned teams week after week with the intent to humble and humiliate.
It was nice to see Billy and the Pats humbled by the better team, and the undefeated team...AGAIN.
The message Belichik was sending during that (nearly) super season has returned in it's bottle. Like some groundhog's day scenario I hope Bill just keeps re-opening it again and again.
It's 4th and 2, there's the bottle and cork. Go for it Bill. Go for it!
Congrats to the Saints for playing a good game and staying undefeated after 11 games.
Maybe my 11-0 Colts will see you in the Big Game!
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I've been a Colts fan for far too long now to start sweating a game in the first half, I've seen all 41, no make that 42 come back 4th quarter wins form Peyton and his receiving and rushing cadre. I've seen ineptitude and greatness in the same game before. I made it to at least one game every year until last year, and have averaged three home games a year over the history of the Colts in Indianapolis. I've refused to leave any game where the Colts were within 10 points in the last 2 or 3 minutes, I've been both rewarded and disappointed for my team loyalty, but mostly rewarded. Sunday's game against The Texans in Houston was a rewarding experience, even if it was from the love-seat across from a HD TV. I didn't get up for anything during that 4th quarter. Another 4th quarter comeback, another record. This time not a two or three point squeeker win on the final drive, but a 21 point Colts 4th quarter; with passing, rushing and defensive scores. The 35-27 score was not as close as the scoreboard would let on, the final drive by Houston was not so hotly contested by the Colts defense because only one team had Peyton Manning on it.
If there was going to be any 1st half cause for alarm it wasn't the Colts being shut out in the first quarter while Matt Schaub's execution was nearly perfect or the Texans passing or rushing touchdowns. The momentary panic trigger for some would have been Peyton's 1st play of the 2nd quarter, continuing a drive from the break, but being picked for the 1st turn over of the game. Houston was able to kick a field goal on the ensuing drive and led 17-0. The next drive got the Colts on the boards with a 9 yard Manning pass to Pierre Garçon, only to be countered by yet another Houston field goal. The Half ended with another Manning interception Houston 20, Indy 7. It was the best of times for The Texans, and a time of incredulity for Colts fans.
The Colts received the ball to start the 2nd half and quickly put the 1st half's age of foolishness behind them with an eleven play drive culminating in a 4 yard Manning to Reggie Wayne touchdown. On Houston's following drive Schaub was intercepted by Antoine Bethea, and the defense came awake and ready to play! The epoch of belief was beginning! The third quarter the Colt's defense pitched Houston a shut-out. Then came the 3 touchdown 4th quarter and a 15 point lead until The Texans mounted their final drive, after their score they attempted an onside kick and the Colts covered. Soon a knee was taken to end Houston's misery. Yes they were dispirited, we truly beat the Dickens out of them! Four hours later, with a nod to Fagin (and a little twist for Oliver) Jacksonville took a 14-3 drubbing at the "Stick" in San Francisco. The Colts are once again officially the AFC South Champions for the 6th time in 7 years and owners of the second longest winning streak with 20 straight, looking forward to Tennessee, another Division rival and another possible record at home next Sunday.
Chuck Pace ©2009
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The cycle and the circle are unbroken, everything is cyclical; morning, afternoon ,evening, night..., summer, fall, winter spring, summer..., climate..., birth, life, death..., the tides, the rotations of planets, stars, galaxies and the Cosmos. Truly what comes around goes around, and simple man is not in control or capable of controlling the forces of nature and time.
Have a great post Thanksgiving Holiday season, and we'll all meet here again after another 365 more rotations of the planet and another rotation of the sun and do it all over again. Really. I promise.
Chuck Pace ©2009
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-0It's a good start. A record breaking start. Also pseudo-typical Colts start. Of course I am talking about the Indianapolis Colts 2009 season up to and including Sundays squeaker in Baltimore. I also have to reference the other team that is making just as much noise. The New Orleans Saints under the steady arm of Drew Brees. This is the first time in the storied history of the NFL that two teams have been undefeated after 10 games in the same year. This is also the first time that New Orleans has ever been 10-0 to start a season. This is not the first time for the Indianapolis Colts though, the 2005 version of the team started their season with 13 straight wins, and finished with a 14-2 regular season record.
In 2006 the Indianapolis Colts again started hot with 9 straight and eventually finished 12-4. The Indianapolis Colts have also posted 9 or more straight wins in other seasons, just not always from the start. Last years 9 in a row to finish of the regular season wraps around nicely to this years start, 19 consecutive regular season wins.
What does worry me in spite of the regular season prowess we are exhibiting is that we have been less than stellar in post season for most of our Manning era years.
At the end of the 13-3, 99 season (1/20/00) we lost the Divisional game to Tennessee at home 16-19 after winning the AFC East division. The next year after posting a 10-6 record we lost to AFC -East rival Miami 17-23 after making the Wild Card berth. What followed in 2001 was Manning's only other non-winning season(his 3-13 1998 rookie year being the other losing season).
In 2002's post season Indy faced another AFC East rival the New York Jets who quickly dispatched the Colts with a crushing 0-41 drubbing in the Meadowlands.
The 2003 season saw the Colts make their first legitimate run at greatness, winning the Wild Card at home against Denver 41-10, then taking the divisional round from Kansas City 38-31 to finally make it to an AFC Championship game. Bill Belichick's Patriots game plan to keep the ball out of Manning's hands worked so well that a desperate Manning forced 4 interceptions and only 1 touchdown and the Pats went on to the Superbowl after delivering a 14-24 defeat (and a historic Rivalry was born).
In the 2004 post season the Colts again defeated Denver in the Wild Card, and again lost to New England, this time in the second round. 2005 brought the Steelers to Indy in the Divisional game where Pittsburgh won 18-21.
The 2006 post-season started to look a lot like 2003 all over again as the Colts had to go from Wild Card to Division to Championship games again.
This time Kansas City -in the Wild Card- fell to the Colts 28-3, then the Horseshoes were off to Baltimore. The Ravens where next with their 15-6 loss. So the Colts came back home for the Championship game. On January 21st 2007 the Colts finally got the Belichick Monkey off their backs defeating, no deflating Tom Brady and the Patriots 38-34 and earning plane tickets to Miami for the Superbowl.
Superbowl XLI was not as close as the score would lead one to believe and the Colts took home the trophy with a 29-17 victory.
The next two years the team sent down in one post season game again, losing the divisional game at home against San Diego in 2007 24-28, and again losing in San Diego in the Wild Card game to end all hopes in 2008.
So more important than the "streak" is when you streak, like all the way through the post season, like in 2006! Yes an undefeated run would be nice, bit it is not a necessity.
Chuck Pace ©2009
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