Sunday, a Day of Rest

The Revised Good Book says in Chapter 2, Verse 2 of Genesis that "on the seventh day, God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made." Perhaps not the most eloquent of prose, but I'm sure the gist is there. I could quote the original in Welsh, Chapter and Verse, but as anyone reading this is unlikely to be able to follow it without suggesting that “Can I buy a vowel?” I will desist. Today being a Sunday has left me exhausted. It might be a Day of Rest for the Masses, but for the religion of 'Sport' it has been a busy day. First of all, as my daughter is an avid Arsenal fan - a soccer team in London, England where 90% of the players are not from said land - it was necessary to follow the fortunes of today's game against Reading. This is a town that I'm familiar with, having lived there for a while, and where Rik, my son, also enjoyed the twilight of his teenage years. He also had his first legal ‘pint’ with his Dad at a pub which I have unfortunately forgotten the name of. I do remember the Landlady though – her name was Joy. She certainly was. Her husband was a retired boxing referee, and decided in his mid 60s to abscond with Joy’s jewelry to live with a young man of 28. Anyway, I’ve digressed enough. The result of this game was that Arsenal beat Reading by 4 goals to nil. The game was televised live here in the US. Unfortunately (aka spelt thankfully), my cable provider wasn’t able to show me said game, and I had to resort to regular updates by the BBC on their web site. In the meantime, the final race of the Formula 1 Grand Prix season loomed from Brazil. Alonso, last year’s champion was leading the points table, but if Schumacher could finish first, and Alonso not score a point, Schumacher would become the World Champion. Schumacher has a history of being in similar situations in the past, and has been known to foil the race chances of others by dastardly deeds. The race was not televised in the US (well, nowhere that I could find on my remote thingy anyway). The race started at 1 p.m. (13:00 to our Over-The-Pond readers). Unfortunately, this coincided with the start of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ football match against the Philadelphia Eagles. This match was shown ‘live’ by Fox TV. The Formula 1 was given a running commentary by the BBC on their web site, until lap 58 of 71 when for some reason known only to them, they ignored the rest of the race. I must have walked many miles between my TV for the game, and the race on my PC. I finally learnt that the race was over, with Alonso becoming the World Champion. I was glad. I never liked Schumacher – he may be a great racing driver, but on a scale of 1 to 10, he scores an -11 as a cheat. He also scores a minus 11 in the sense of humor stakes. It has been frequently said that the Germans have no sense of humor. This is blatantly not true, but he epitomizes the myth. So, two good results so far. I was now able to relax to watch the remainder of the game. At one time, the Bucs were 17 – 0 up, but eventually ended up 20 – 14 up, with less than 2 minutes left to play. The Eagles scored. 21- 20 to the Eagles. With 4 seconds of the game remaining, the Bucs had a chance at a field goal (value 3 points). This was a 62 yard kick – the record is 63 yards. Even the Bucs’ Coach appeared to have given up. But the kicker made it, and the Bucs won 23 – 21. The atmosphere in the Tampa Bay area was electric! You could hear the roars outside. As an aside, the temperature at the Stadium was about 103. Many of the Eagles’ players were seen taking oxygen. We love our ‘cool fall days’ here in the Bay Area. I’m not sure how many more of these Days of Rest I can take! Three good results? Now if only I could win the Lottery too…. Here endeth today’s lesson.