Not As Drawn Up

 

1)Not remotely as beautiful or delicious as anything Susan makes.
2) At least I didn't dump it like Kevin on "The Office."

I planned to be on Zolz's Poughkeepsie Nissan Sunday Sports Show today on Z93. I promised I'd be there but, of course, life throws us curve balls occasionally.

Still, with an egg and cheese sandwich and a cup of coffee, I began the drive from Mahopac (or Guam, per Zolz) to Poughkeepsie.

Oh, and if I do say so myself, we had a really good show, despite the absence of Frank Pomarico. I'm usually the third wheel with those two (me? Third wheel on a broadcast?) but I have a blast with those guys.

We did our playoff predictions. The thing to know is that I had a one-game lead on Zolz heading into today but I just pick games without worrying about losing. Don't get me wrong, I want to win but I'm comfortable.

I picked Tampa Bay to beat the LA Rams. Well, that didn't come true. Zolz -- wanting to catch me -- picked the Rams. I've picked the Kansas City Chiefs in the nightcap. He wants to take the lead again, so he picked the Buffalo Bills.

The Chiefs just won the most insane game. I'm back up by one.

All good. All fun.

My day went nothing like that after. At one point I was supposed to see my sister but that plan fell apart for her. I was also supposed to work another overnight tonight and that also went pfft.

The thing is, it was a good reason. The technology tonight being used was different and the last thing I want to do is poorly represent our group. At the same time, Dan and Craig didn't want to put me in a bad spot. It's not a reflection on me. Instead, they'll take the bullet and teach me for the future.

I would have taken the ball and am bummed to lose the income but they'll take care of me.

On the other hand, I made plans based on that job tonight, including moving a podcast recording session I had scheduled for tomorrow morning. I didn't want to risk going to be at 4:30 tomorrow morning to be wiped out when we recorded. 

We'll do it Tuesday.

So instead I spent the afternoon working my way down US route 9 from Po'town to Fishkill. 

For Shawn Sailer: US 9 goes from Laurel, DE to Lewes where it crosses Delaware Bay via ferry to Cape May, NJ. Then it comes up through New Jersey, crosses the George Washington Bridge, and proceeds through New York to Champlain at the Canadian border. Technically, it dead ends at the border but in reality, it ends before that near Interstate 87. You're welcome.

I'm traveling to London in April with the Hunt Scanlon crew so I decided to look for a few things. Chief among them is comfortable pants to travel in, so I walked around Marshall's and TJ Maxx as well as a nearby Burlington store.

I walked out empty-handed.

I went down the road to the Poughkeepsie Galleria mall. It occurred to me that the mall opened right after I graduated from high school so I've been going to that place for over 34 years but I digress.

I looked at shoes and some other goodies, including noise-canceling headphones. The thing is, I want to knock myself out on the flights and listen to music or podcasts or whatever. So I'm fact-finding, I guess because, again, I left without buying.

Onto Wal Mart in Fishkill where I looked at Wild Mike's frozen pizza. Sean introduced me to that last summer and we both really liked it (as frozen pizzas go). Much like Rice Krispies, the pizzas are hard to find these days.

I walked around and, again, swung and missed. I couldn't even find some ground beef to make chili.

Sigh. That would involve a grocery store trip.

All was not lost as my pursuit took me up into Hopewell Jct. Admittedly, if you don't know, that took me out of the way towards home but we needed milk in the house for my fake Rice Krispies.

So I got my milk and ground beef and some yellow rice.

I could salvage things after all. I'd have chili, watch football, and hang with the cat.

Oh, remember the Facebook thing I mentioned yesterday? Well, the thing is it's too cumbersome to try to explain but the gist of it was that there are two play-by-play groups. One was created because the originator was thrown out of the first one (long story). Self-promotion is the hallmark of that second group (not the one run by Mike Hirn, Shawn Sailer, and me). Well someone questioned that constant self-promotion and that led to him being ejected. From there, the story gets frankly really bad and I just wasn't going to sit idly by while it went on. I'm astounded at the behavior of some, especially when the person who was thrown out is mourning a family tragedy. No compassion and a lot of hypocrisy. I couldn't watch it happen.

But I was told, "I have talent." Thanks a bunch.

Jeez. The latest edition of "Broadcasters Behaving Badly."

The thing is, one of them says they self-promote because they're looking for work. But, let's be real. What potential employer or sponsor is going to look at that behavior and say, "THAT'S OUR GUY!"?

Anyway, that's more time than I should have spent on that, but I felt you deserved a little more context.