Fall arrived yesterday afternoon -- a family roundup

News, Weather & Sports

We'll do today's essay in the format of the late news broadcast: News, Weather, and then Sports.... First the news....
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News

The Curmudgeon faces some anxious times personally. The disability money has come and gone and the cash flow from his practice has not yet restarted. No whining here -- there's plenty of it in the Archives if you feel the need. Things are too serious for mere hand wringing.

However, there are signs that things are picking up. If we can get through the next couple of months... maybe... hopefully... things will be at least OK again. In the meantime, charge card companies, not realizing how great is their peril, are thrilled to receive minimum payments and cash "convenience checks."

So I'm not spending as much time reading as I have in the past -- some of that time is actually devoted to working -- and now that there is work, work which at least holds out the prospect of eventual compensation, this does not strike me as unreasonable.

Some time also is being devoted to my other blog. The one with my real, actual name on it. I've figured out a strategy to build traffic on that -- traffic that can, potentially at least, turn into business for me -- and, in the meantime, build my web presence even as I throttle back, in cost-cutting measures, on paid listings that haven't developed the kind of leads I need in my practice.

And it's working, too, which is kind of exciting. But that blog and this must remain entirely separate. The other one is rather dry, anyway....
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Weather

The air conditioner was on yesterday morning at the Curmudgeon home in Chicago because it has been unseasonably warm here. But, looking at the weather forecast yesterday, we switched it off before leaving the house.

I returned early for a doctor's appointment yesterday afternoon and Long Suffering Spouse and I found the house cool... but a tad stuffy. So we threw open the windows and let the beautiful Autumn air inside.

By the time we returned from the doctor, it was time to close the windows a bit: It was too cool. And when Long Suffering Spouse retired last evening, she closed the last of the windows and pulled out the extra blanket.

It doesn't take long for the seasons to change in Chicago. People were fainting in the heat at this past weekend's Chicago Marathon; today the predicted high is 53° -- a difference of some 34° from Sunday.

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Sports

Youngest Son is playing freshman football at his high school and, until this past weekend, he was assigned the position that even football-wary mothers (and that's most of them) can appreciate: Second-string quarterback.

That means he practiced with the first team (and the moms don't see the hitting that goes on in practice, so they can pretend it never happens) and stood on the sidelines during the games, helmet on, looking grim and determined -- and very safe.

He had seen the field in only limited circumstances this season because the kid playing in front of him is very, very good.

There was a hint in the middle of last week that things might change. The freshmen scrimmage the sophomores every week on Wednesday; during last week's scrimmage the starting QB's hand got hurt when he was tackled. Youngest Son got additional reps in practice on Thursday and Friday but it was expected that the starter would be able to play on Saturday morning.

Older Daughter and Middle Son came out for the game; Oldest Son had talked about coming out, but he had come to last week's game, and he found something to do on Friday night that apparently left him somewhat sluggish on Saturday morning.

We had actually tried to talk Older Daughter out of visiting, especially when she had threatened to bring the Boyfriend.

Older Daughter's Boyfriend (or ODB, if you will) is a good sport -- but to travel two or three hours to watch a high school freshman work on his posture while standing on the sidelines? Was ODB, now a graduate student at the University of Illinois, really to be expected to forgo the opportunity to attend the Illinois-Wisconsin game? We didn't think so either -- and Older Daughter, thankfully, did not insist. (And Illinois beat No. 5 Wisconsin, which presumably means that an NCAA investigation is underway....)

Older Daughter and Younger Daughter went to pick up Middle Son at his school on Saturday morning. Long Suffering Spouse and I went directly to the game -- and arrived much sooner.

So we saw the starting QB grimace through the first half. After every play, as he jogged to the sideline to pick up the next call, he favored his right hand. Toward the end of the first half, he threw a 30 yard strike to his favorite receiver. Peyton Manning could have done no better -- but we saw the QB's face after he released the ball and gripped his hand.

Youngest Son began warming up immediately thereafter. He played the entire second half and his siblings saw it.

That's a good thing. But he's now the starting QB -- the other fellow does have a broken hand. Now Youngest Son shoulders the responsibility for keeping his team unbeaten in the final two games of the season.

I am anxious for him; I am trying not to let it show.

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So that's the news from here. If this had been a real newscast, you would have been subject to a number of commercials as well....