How could I be wrong??

 As dawn fell on the 2022 football season, I listened to oh so many experts on the radio saying how bad the Bears are, how they didn't do anything to put weapons around Fields and that they are destined to have a top 5 pick while Vegas put their over/under win total at 6 games. Six games??? They were 6-11 last year with Foles and Dalton starting games and with a universally admonished offensive line and Matt Nagy as the coach and play caller doing just a terrible, terrible job. But they had Mack and Hicks and Goldman on defense and Allen Robinson on offense. Well, Mack was hurt half the season as was Hicks and Goldman hasn't been even below average since before Covid. Robinson was just cashing a paycheck and offered nothing to the offense. So how could the Bears not be AT LEAST as good as the year before with: two top 60 defensive draft picks, three new offensive linemen, surely some FA WR pickups by Ryan Poles and what should still be a top 15 defense?  

But the uneducated masses were talking about how the Bears would have a horrible season and be able to take a top flight WR in the first 5 picks and turn it around next year. Well I have news for ya: if the Bears were going to be picking in the top 5, that means Justin Fields was not the guy and they'd be taking a QB. There's no other way for that to playout. 

Enter Ryan Poles.

His FA pickups were less than stellar. Let's look at WR pickups: N'Keal Harry (hurt the first half of the season), Byron Pringle (also hurt most of the first half of the season and then couldn't figure out many plays), Dante Pettis and ESB have been below average, Smith-Marsette cost us the Vikings game. On the line, his big acquisition was Lucas Patrick to start at center, but he was hurt and only played parts of the first 7 games and Dakota Dozier who didn't play at all. He also acquired Reiff and Schofield, who have been below average subs. Alex Leatherwood hasn't contributed at all until this last week and that was minimal. So Poles spent little and got the same in return. 

Then, the trade deadline came. 

Off went Quinn, our only pass rush threat and Roquan Smith, probably our best defensive player. Now our defense had no talent at all in the front 7 when three of the back 4 got hurt (Jackson, Brisker, and Gordon), they had no chance of stopping anyone. Johnson was also hurt on and off during the season. So the Bears quickly started giving up 30+ a game. Tough to win that way. 

And they didn't. BUT, they were in games until the end, mostly due to Justin Fields (and play calling by Luke Getsy). Fields set all sorts of records for running: most yards in a game by a QB, most consecutive games with 50 yard rushing touchdown and I'm forgetting others. Going into last week, he was top 10 and I think top 7 in rushing in the league. 

Unfortunately, the lack of talent at WR and OL really, really hurts you if you're in the two minute drill and need to score. The defense doesn't care about stopping the run anymore and just pins their ears back and comes after the QB. So the Bears are 1-9 in games where they have a chance to win in the last 6 minutes. Just awful. 

And THAT's how the Bears took a 6 win team and made it a 3 win team despite better coaching and while still having their QB of the future. 

Roe Reversal

Not the usual update today as instead of what's going on with me or the family, I thought I'd comment on what's going on with the country. It's Monday today and on Friday the supreme court reversed the constitutional protection provided to women wanting an abortion and threw it back to the states to decide. The vote was along party lines, which usually means it's bad legislation or in this case, a bad reversal of legislation. Now, there are many things about this that pisses me off, but in general here are a few. 

Sen. Collins and Manchin were COMPLETELY SURPRISED that Gorsuch and Kavanaugh lied to them about their desire to overturn Roe V. Wade. Really?!?! You didn't think they were lying to get your vote so they could get a lifetime appointment to a prestigious position??  Unfuckingbelievable. OF COURSE THEY FUCKING LIED YOU DUMB FUCKS!!! They were presented by Trump who lied, on average, 12.5 times a day for 4 years!!! Why the fuck do you think they WOULDN'T lie??? You're the only two dumb assholes who believed them. Just unbelievable. 

Clarence Thomas....I mean, what a fucking piece of work this ass clown is. He doesn't say shit for 30 years (literally he rarely commented at all on cases) and now that he's in the significant majority, he's all "Bring me fucking anything and I'll get it overturned!!"  Contraception, gun laws and protective gay legislation are next. What a prick. And his Nazi wife is no better. She's all in support of the January 6th insurrection and somehow is not having to answer for it. Hopefully the commission includes her in recommendations to the DOJ for prosecution. 

Illinois fortunately, is still a safe place for women. Unfortunately, there aren't many places in the Midwest that are. Minnesota is, Iowa currently is but that could change quickly and Indiana is expected to change. Can you even imagine being raped, impregnated and having to give birth? And then, because of parental rights, you'd have to share custody with your rapist. This is NOT a wild, out there idea. This exact scenario would play out today in about a dozen states. Unbelievable. Way to go SCOTUS. Oh, it's different for incest though right? Nope. Same shit, different asshole. 

My next post, hopefully, will be about the covid19 and how absolutely, incredibly wrong people were who followed tRump (and anti-vaxxers) regarding: how covid was a Democrat distraction, how he recommend hydroxychloriquine (which was proven useless as a treatment), how the anti-vaxxers recommended a horse medicine instead of a vaccine that's safe and effective. 

Memorial Day 2022

 

It’s been a while, again, since I’ve written, so maybe just a general update today.

M and T both wrapped up classes on Friday, 3^rd grade and 1^st respectively. M seemed more okay with it, probably because she’s finished two other grades already and knows that your enjoyment in the new school year will depend mostly on what you make of it. T does not have that experience, heck, he spent part of kindergarten at home! But he had a ton of fun, made friends and seemed to be well liked.

On that note, we went to his first grade art fair, not only to see his two pieces, but to get the contact info of two kids. However, several other kids saw him walking by on his way elsewhere and said “Hi T!!” very excitedly. That’s always great to see. He ended up having a play date with one the kids whose contact info we got and family we met.

With a trip to Florida upcoming, I’m going to get my second booster tomorrow. I qualify and people in Florida are nuts, so it’s at least a little more protection for me. Covid has been on the rise around the country for the last two months, but hospitals are not in danger of being overrun and that was always the main issue for me: contract Covid and die if you choose not to get the vaccine or use horse medicine instead, that’s fine, just stay out of the hospitals. People with  unpreventable problems need their services. Granted, there are breakthrough cases of Covid even for the vaccinated and those folks would get a pass to go the hospital because at least they tried.

Yesterday I started a window well project. First, I cleaned them and vacuumed them (and removed a mouse and a toad, both alive and both successfully). Next I’ll paint them white with Rustoleum. Finally, I’ll add new white marble stones to the base. Should really brighten them up!!

For Mother’s Day, I bought LL an elevated garden. It’s about 5’x 3’ and she opted to grow some veggies. The garden we had in the corner of the yard was just sooooo much work trying to keep the weeds down that we gave up last year. Now there is just a pine tree that we’ll have to move elsewhere in the yard soon before it gets too big. So far so good on the garden!

M has found a new love in swimming. At one point she was going four days a week! She was taking lessons once a week and then tried out for a swim team and made it and they meet three days a week. Once the lessons run out, she’ll just do the team. Or just do the lessons if the team takes off for the summer or whatever. We’re so happy for her!!!

T is back at martial arts and still really likes soccer. He keeps improving at both! He’ll continue with swim lessons during the summer like last year, but he’ll also have a baseball camp I believe and a chess camp again. He’s a well rounded young man. Like his father and grandfather, he’s smaller than some kids his age and is much better at math than reading/spelling. His grandfather developed a love of reading though, something that did not click with me.

Hitting the shot

 

While I’ve wanted to create an entry about Covid, what we know, where we are and where we’re going, the impetus for today’s post is a simple basket. Not a wicker basket, a basketball basket. Marissa played in a basketball league for the first time and without really any practice or experience. We were proud that she was doing something athletic and outside of her comfort zone. Then we watched all season long as she learned little things game after game: how to lose someone who is guarding you, how to set a pick, how to guard and keep an eye on the ball at the same time, how to dribble and protect the ball and being ready to rebound. Then, the last week, today, game 13, she not only did all of those things, she rolled around a pick set for her by the best player on the team (a reversal from the norm of Marissa setting the pick), dribbled from the top of the key, shot and scored!!! It was so awesome!! It turned out to be the last basket of the game for either team. I was so freaking proud of how far she’s come without us having access to an indoor court to practice at all.

The Lime Huskies!

Thomas is doing great in martial arts. Interestingly, we discussed doing pushups and how if he did them every day or even three times a week, by the end of the year he would have done XX thousands. He loved that idea, so he’s doing 20 pushups a day, three days a week. While his form is still not great, the hope is that he’ll get stronger and better at them over the course of a year. Kudos young man!!

Laura went to visit her sister and help her pick up a dog from a breeder, so I was on daddy duty for four days. Saturday morning, I decided to buy and cook Spam for the very first time! Diced Spam with scrambled eggs and cheese was the dish I chose and the kids loved it!! Marissa even had seconds. It was pretty tasty!!!

On a non-family note, Russia invaded Ukraine at the end of last week, as intelligence had predicted. Ukraine is fighting back, but of course they are massively outgunned. I say send them stingers and whatever we can to help them repel the Russian hordes led by Putin. It is good to see sporting events and such that were slated for or to include Russia are being cancelled. The Russian people probably don’t know what’s going on or if they do, why it’s happening, but once you take away their sporting events and concerts, questions will be asked. It’s a dictatorship, so they won’t be able to do anything about it, but maybe internal pressure will help stop Putin’s war.

Thomas-centric

Quite the day yesterday! As usual, I met Thomas and Marissa at the end of the driveway when they got off the bus. Thomas said he wanted to talk to me about something. Turns out he traded some Pokemon cards for some sports cards, specifically a random ‘90’s Larry Bird card and a Frank Thomas baseball card from 1990, a Fleer, not the real rookie. While they were under plastic, they weren’t in great shape, though they could have been worse. Anyway, the cards led to a discussion about baseball cards and their value and what cards did I have and how much were they worth and HOLY COW that much!! Now he wants to know more about them and how to start collecting. Gotta tell ya (which is really just telling future me), that I’m pretty happy. He also wants to go through my boxes and boxes of memorabilia with me. Yay me!

 Earlier in the day, an email group I was on discussed the cheapness of the McCaskeys and that someone said Halas was so cheap, he still had his first communion money. That made me think about my first communion. I don't remember much from my first communion, but I remember my dad's dad passing me on the stairs of his house (my first communion was in Altoona PA during one of our trips to visit relatives) as I went up and he slowly hobbled down saying "Congratulations." in the gruff voice of a depression era elderly man who had been smoking and drinking seemingly all his life as he slipped me $5. I'm not sure if I got any money from anyone else, but that $5 meant the world to me, not because of the value, which certainly WAS substantial, but because Grandpa Sutton didn’t express feelings too often (other than anger!).

Today is a big day for Thomas with a spelling test, a sight word test, a math test and THEN testing for his yellow belt when he gets home. Thomas studies Jeet Kune Do, a Chinese martial art developed by Bruce Lee. He enjoys it and has really progressed well in the last two months!! 

*****Update on Friday's events: Thomas scored perfect on his spelling test, sight words and math test. Then he tested for and received his yellow belt! He was probably the second best white belt testing, surpassed only by a girl who is at least 3 years older than him. It was a good day!! 

2016 NFL Draft revisited

As I watched Dak Prescott play today on wildcard weekend, I harkened back to the 2016 NFL Draft. Dak was taken in the 4^th round that year. 4^th round!!! Amazing. And LATE in the fourth round, pick 28 in that round and 135^th overall. So everyone, including Dallas, passed on him at least three times. The thing that sticks in my craw though is that the recently fired Ryan Pace, GM of the Bears, passed on him three times in the fourth round alone!!! C’mon dude!!! You said we should draft a QB every year and you didn’t (except for one 6^th rounder and Mitch until this past year with Fields). This was the chance.

But what about the other teams and the draft in general? Interestingly, not many teams NEEDED a QB after the first round and some other fun stuff was going on.

At the top of the draft, Jared Goff was selected by the LA Rams and Philly spent the second pick on Wentz. Joey Bosa, Ezekiel Elliott, and Jalen Ramsey were the next three and all better than the first two. Laremy Tonsil, a hulking tackle out of Mississippi was dropping as a video of him smoking pot with a gas mask on was leaked. Cost the dude hundreds of thousands of dollars. The Bears went with the undersized Leonard Floyd out of Georgia and then proceeded to not coach him up at all. He became a pro bowler with the Rams.

At the bottom of the first round, #25, Pittsburgh took Artie Burns. Seattle picked 31 and took Germain Ifedi. Seemingly innocuous except they both ended up on the Bears under Pace. My guess is he scouted them and remembered, hell, probably enamored with them and brought them to the Bears when he could.

Denver drafted Paxton Lynch with #26 and he’s been no good. The Jets took Christian Hackenberg in the second round, also awful. The Bears took Cody Whitehair, who has been ok on the offensive line. Tampa really did a number by taking Roberto Aguayo, a kicker, with the 59^th pick overall. He didn’t make it, but did get a shot with the Bears, probably because Pace remembered him from the draft.

In the third round, Pace took Bullard who was only ever a special teamer at best. Not great for a third rounder. New England, with Tom Brady at QB, took Jacoby Brisset while the Browns took Cody Kessler and went to war with him and Josh McCown. Ugh. The Bears lost Cutler after 5 games and had to turn to Matt Barkley and Brian Hoyer. Double ugh. Imagine if, in the fourth round, with one of their three picks in that round, they took Dak Prescott. My oh my how their fortunes could have changed.

Instead though the Bears took Kwiatkowski, who turned into a baller at LB, Deon Bush and D’eondre Hall. Ugh. Kwiatkowski is with the Raiders, Bush is a sub safety and Hall is no longer in the league. Just God awful to miss on a QB of Dak’s caliber while having 6 picks ahead of his selection.