Sick, Stress, Sandstorm, Sunset

Been busy. Been a bit under the weather. Got laid low by a migraine a few days ago and it took a day and a half to shake off the head pain and a few accompanying symptoms. I've risen out of my self made quagmire of feeling overwhelmed, ready to tackle my mess, only to be sideswiped by family obligations and tasks. The weekend has arrived and usually that's my best bet for unchallenged time. Maybe I'll have a chance to play catch up in the next couple of days. Knock on wood.

If I don't get sick with whatever William seems to be succumbing to - sore throat and general unease. Of course he might just be falling ill from being stretched thin with his own teen worries - "My English teacher just doesn't understand that football players don't have that much time!" Uhm, yeah. Obviously somebody has their priorities skewed. William? Or the English teacher? We'll have to work on putting this one into a bigger perspective now, won't we.

Today was committed to an out of town football game. The drive was two hours south and east of us and the traffic was insane all the way. Out here in the "middle of nowhere" and yet I haven't felt so stressed out by a drive since my last trip to Seattle or San Francisco. I'm not sure what it was but clearly something was "in the air". Even a couple of hours spent in Reno halfway through the drive, people were either confrontational or confuddled. It felt very odd - in a "what's going on here" sort of way. And not fun. Okay. It went way past not fun. It sucked. Is something going on astrologically? Solar flares? Alien transmissions on a frequency too high for human ears driving everyone insane?

The football game was exciting. We lost by one point in the last minute of the game, which was a bummer, but the kids played well. Surprisingly well considering that they played in a bitter cold wind and a sandstorm that was so strong that sometimes it looked like it was snowing! Even bundled up inside a hat and hood in the bleachers, my eyes stung and my teeth were gritty with sand. I can't even begin to imagine what it was like for the players down on the field. Adding insult to injury, the host school had turned off the hot water so the kids had the choice of no shower or an icy cold shower. It's something that happens more often than you'd think - petty "pranks" against the visiting team. Last week, traveling through the visitor's town in the school bus on the way to the game, the team got flipped off by people in the community. Come'n people, what ever happened to good sportsmanship!? One thing I appreciate about our coaches approach to the game, this sort of thing isn't tolerated by our kids and I don't think (at least I certainly hope) our community doesn't stoop to this sort of crap.

Moving past the negative - I managed to swing through Reno and run a few errands I couldn't manage in our small town. And the sunset at the football game was unbelievably fairy tale beautiful.



I wish I could have shown you more than just a small stretch of the painted sky. It was so pretty. And all over, from start to finish, in about a half hour.

Hopefully I'll be busy this weekend with my own projects. Wish me luck that I don't get waylaid by family - including myself.