Nobody picked them. No one gave them a chance. Both pre-game shows said they would lose. At the end of the game, they proved everyone wrong. The Chargers are in the AFC Championship for the first time since 1995 when they beat the Pittsburgh Steelers to advance to their first Super Bowl. Now they are one win away from returning to it. In their way now are the New England Patriots. Nobody will pick them and no one will give them a chance. That’s ok by me. They beat New England at home to break a big winning streak before. They can do it again. Go Chargers!!
Chargers win, Chargers win!!
After over a decade of playoff losses, San Diego has finally won a game in the post-season. Not be greedy, but I want to see them continue to win in the post-season. I remember the miraculous run in 1994 and the miserable showing against the 49ers so I would like a championship. One down, three to go.
12 days before Christmas…and no shopping done yet.
Some people really get their shopping done early. I guess I am a classic procrastinator as I have yet to buy a present. Some years we have things pretty well done before Christmas and other years we are waiting and getting it done at the last minute. Looks like this will be one of “those” years. To all of you that have your shopping done already, “Good on ya!” To the rest of us, may the shopping be done as quickly and painlessly as possible.
Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath. Ephesians 4:26
This is a very ironic story about a guy’s last act on earth. 
Blood Drive Health Scare
OK. I have been donating blood since I was 17 and a junior in high school. On Tuesday, I was turned down for the first time ever. Needless to say, I was a bit bummed out. I had a blood pressure reading of 176/110 and they turned me away. I immediately called my doctor to see about getting in and of course they can’t get me in until sometime in December. Why is it that doctors schedule you so far out when you are calling for something you think is important? Oh well, I digress. I went out last night after worrying all day about having high blood pressure and bought a digital testing machine to keep track of my blood pressure until I am able to get in to see the doctor. I tested it several times last night and then again this morning and could not get a reading near the one they gave me at the blood drive. Either I was just freaking out at the blood drive for some unknown reason or the girl doing it made a mistake. Either way, this mornings reading was 110/79 well within the normal 120/80 range. I will keep testing it until I see my doctor, but it seems the blood drive was an anomaly rather than a decisive “You have High Blood Pressure” reading.
Funny thing about the blood drive, even after being declined for donating that day, the lady in the cantina still gave me a coupon for two free tacos from Del Taco. You give blood or not, here are some artery clogging tacos. Or maybe they are just for lubricating your veins.
Now with real, smoke flavor!!
Eye-watering, lung choking goodness has arrived in Apple Valley. The Santa Ana winds are gone and now the smoke lays down perfectly in our valley. Visibility was less than a mile when I left the house today. Mountains, who needs to see mountains when you can enjoy life inside a smoker. I know the lack of winds is great for the guys fighting the fires and I do wish them the best at the difficult work they do. However, the inundation of smoke in the valley is something I don’t wish to continue for too long. Our towns new motto: “Apple Valley, now with real smoke flavor!“
SoCal is burning!
What do you get when you combine the driest year on record with strong Santa Ana winds? Southern California on fire. When we went to bed last night, there were 10 reported fires in the LA area alone. The canyon where we went to Cornerstone music festival is ablaze near Irvine. Driving in this morning I could see the smoke just over the mountains from our place in Lake Arrowhead. We have avoided being inundated with smoke as the winds are blowing from the deserts into the LA basin, but that can all change before they extinguish all the blazes. I guess we will just pray and see where it goes. It’s always interesting in Southern California. I imagine we will see torrential rains now since these fires are usually followed by mudslides in the burn areas. Such is life in Southern California.
Cheers and Tears
Pardon the banging noise!
That is the sound of me hitting my head after the disgraceful play of my Chargers last night. After the first two games, I have a “it’s one of those years” feelings. I will remain a fan regardless, but if they continue to look as poorly as they did last night, I will certainly be banging my head more. At least the Angels are looking good for post-season play.
RANT WARNING!! – Ok, so it wasn’t as easy as I thought…
It turned out it wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be to get DSL up and going at our place. I had to spend 2 1/2 hours on the phone with Verizon tech support in Manila trying to get the DSL modem to communicate with their servers. It had been shipped in the wrong configuration to communicate with their network. My next challenge was trying to get Jesse’s PC to connect. It took two days of my uninstalling and reinstalling drivers and updates on his PC before his PSP helped me discover that the problem was the modem. I rebooted it and viola it works. Lastly, there was the issue of canceling my dial-up service with Verizon. When I called, I made sure to tell them my e-mail address would remain with my DSL, but it was canceled anyway. I then spent 1 1/2 hours arguing with their tech support in India that the problem was on their end. The idiot “tech”(using the term very loosely) kept wanting to screen share and I had to explain to him it was an issue with their database and that I was only using a web client to access my e-mail. I literally had to walk him through what needed to happen before he was able to fix it. Then the guy had the nerve to say “if you had told me this in the beginning” after I repeatedly stated what the issue was over a dozen times. I am glad I have DSL, but I really dread ever having to call Verizon tech support as they are not the best. Like all other major companies, they farm out their tech support to guys with binders who cannot deviate from what is in front of them and engage logic to solve a problem. Ok, I now return you to your rant free lives.