10/25/09

There are 119 teams that play Division 1-A college football. I have differing levels of respect and admiration for various programs around the country but I have intense animosity toward only one. I absolutely hate Boston College. How a group of people can manage to behave as such low-rent douchebags year after year, even during what had been a lengthy winning streak over the Irish, is beyond me. Their piss drunk fans would show up in their rented RV's every year and swear incessantly at the little old ladies around the Notre Dame campus. Their players have torn up the turf at Notre Dame stadium on more than one occasion. Their coaches (prior to these last two) have always been good for brushing off the Notre Dame head coach during the postgame handshake. That university and its fans are forever cursed with 'little brother' syndrome, on account of being the other Catholic school in America and (even more so) on account of enjoying a level of popularity somewhere behind the Patriots, Red Sox, Celtics, Bruins, Quincy Youth Hockey, and whatever other teams exist in Massachusetts. Thus, this comes as no surprise...




Say what you will about Jimmy Clausen and his perceived arrogance. The kid just watched that #18 dipshit put up a bunch of receiving yards against the Irish defense and tried to congratulate him on a good game. The response, well, that's why you're Boston College. No winning streak or losing streak will ever change this fact.

Okay, off the soap box now. Hmm, anything else to say? Well, I did get my first run-in with a scalemaster today, so I guess that counts for something. I didn't feel like stopping at a CAT scale when I picked up this load in Florida. Probably should have stopped anyway. I can usually judge the weight on my drive axles by virtue of my suspension gauge and then do the math to estimate whatever is left on the trailer axles. For a 45,000 pound load I look for the needle to be just on the low side of the 60psi line. That's where this one was. I was pulled into the scales on I-10 in Florida on Friday and given a green light after they made me stop and weigh, so I assumed that all was well. The Louisiana dude thought otherwise this afternoon. He was very polite and friendly though, asking me to shift some weight off of the drive axles and re-weigh. After swinging back around and weighing for the second time, I got a green light and he sent me on my way. Beauty.

I had somewhere around 575 miles left to finish the trip to Austin when I started this morning. I figured that leaving something around 200 miles for tomorrow would work out okay, so 375 would have been today's target. Unbeknownst to me, that would have left me right on the eastern outskirts of Houston. Not a big deal per se, but I decided that I would be better off scooting through Houston this evening. You never really know how much of a disaster that town will be on a Monday morning. I stopped off at the Love's on the west side of Katy to call it a night, leaving roughly 130 miles for tomorrow. With an afternoon delivery appointment tomorrow it sure sounds like I won't be setting an alarm tonight. Beauty.

We'll wrap up with a little advance notice for some of you football fans with teams hanging around the top 15. My Irish are #23 in the BCS right now. Their biggest remaining obstacle will be the game against Pitt, who will likely be in the top 10 by the time my brothers and I invade the Steel City on November 14th. If the lads can crack the top 14, you can rest assured that they will be invited to a BCS game and they will displace a more highly rated program. I'm not saying that I expect them to win out. More likely they'll lose another close game along the way and none of this will matter. But, if they do run the table, you might as well practice your bitching nice and early. Some second-tier Big Ten, Pac 10, or ACC team will be getting snubbed.