Deep Fried Friday

I'm doing a little multi-tasking as I write this. I'm watching the Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auction from Las Vegas on Speed Channel. I put enough plugs in that sentence to sound like a NASCAR driver. I love to watch Barrett-Jackson. It combines two of my favorite things, auctions and old cars. My only problem is sitting in front of the TV for several hours. I'm getting up for popcorn in a minute.

I cooked my first Wednesday night fellowship dinner of the season at church on Wednesday. Everything went pretty well. "Whipped Cream Annie" arrived too late to help, but in time to complain about the whipped cream portion on her dessert. I dragged out the pastry bag and corrected the shortfall on her dessert. I passed up the opportunity to garnish her hairstyle with the whipped cream.

I received an explanation of benefits from the insurance company on my recent visit to the dermatologist. The doctor charged $940.00. The insurance company paid them $286.08 and they wrote off the rest. Can someone explain why doctors will charge someone without insurance three times as much and require payment up front while they will take much less from an insurance company thirty days later?? Shouldn't the person paying up front be getting a discount?? This is a system in need of  serious work. This won't be fixed by Obamacare.

I just saw an ad for a new television show called "Rocket City Rednecks". I am fascinated already. I have set the DVR for Wednesday.

There are those who read this blog who question my self-control and my ability to manage my temper. Here's an example of both of those things. After a four day string of 16 to 17 hour days, I was planning to sleep until 5:00 AM. on Thursday morning. Yeah, that's late for me! At 3:45 A.M., my wife woke me up to tell me that her dog was barking in the living room. I got up and to the best of my recollections, took the dog out. I'm not sure what I was wearing when I took the dog out, but I took the dog out. We were outside about ten minutes and then came back in. I went back to sleep quickly.  What this have to do with self control and temper management? The dog is still alive and I'm still married.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post that dealt mainly with sports topics. A friend and trusted advisor sent me an e-mail expressing a little surprise that I was that knowledgeable about sports. Are you serious? At age 13, I published a sports newsletter for family and friends. I bought an old AB Dick Ditto machine and printed it monthly. You didn't need to wait for the Web to get my opinion on sports (or anything else).

Growing up in Tampa, we used to go see the Reds play in the spring training season. We were Dodger fans. My mother would get me out of school to see the Dodgers play when they came to town. When I was fourteen, I started working as a vendor at Tampa Stadium. I watched the University of Tampa football team play lots of games. I have had plenty of experience watching sports.

Have I written much about sports? In the ninth grade, I was the sports editor for our junior high school newspaper. I once interviewed Rick Casares, who had played for the Bears and Redskins, for our school newspaper. He owned a nightclub in Tampa, where I interviewed him. At fourteen, when you get to go to a bar to interview a football player, you are the envy of all your male friends. Yes, Gil knows sports!!

So why don't I like about sports today? It's all changed. In baseball there are pitchers making $5 million a year who wouldn't have been given a jockstrap in the 1960's, much less a contract. How about showboating? This is a huge problem in football and basketball. Some guy making millions a year to play a game, finally makes a play, and jumps up and struts around like he has cured cancer. Watch those guys when they score a touchdown. Obama didn't react that way when a bunch of idiots elected him President. By the ways those guys act, you would think that they had solved the Arab-Israeli thing!!

Forget the NBA. Naismith would not recognize the game today. I gave up on the NBA more than twenty years ago. In a post game interview, it might have been Moses Malone, who said, "I mama-ed the ball over to Dominique so he could get his shot." They still don't have any players who speak English. We won't get into the "traveling" thing.

What would happen if we all acted like that at work? Can you picture everyone at T&S trading high fives every time an order of pancakes goes out? Will the waiters dance in the middle station every time they make a pot of coffee?  Let me know when your waitress starts high stepping to your table because she sold a glass of orange juice. Athletes are all making insane money for playing games. They need to act like they have done it before.

How about NASCAR? If you think that I am going to criticize a bunch of little guys and one girl driving rolling billboards around in circles and who cannot answer a question without the word "awesome", you're right. These guys all came out of a cookie cutter somewhere. Can we pay extra for different personalities?? The Random Moments of Lunacy car ran an awesome race tonight!! We had something for them when we needed it. The swill goes on and on..........

Here's my pick for sporting event of the week next week. It's Spirit Week at Grimsley. Representatives from several Grimsley High School sports teams will compete in a pancake eating contest at Tex & Shirley's at Friendly Center. Wednesday, 8:00 A.M., be there! I have an impartial referee lined up, The Queen. She's a graduate of Bessemer High School, so she won't care who wins from Grimsley. Go Whirlies!!! (Maybe next year, Page High School can find the time to compete)