A Gift, a Tree and the Start of the 2020 Husky Football season

 

Sunday-Monday, Nov. 8-16, 2020

Lots of little things happened this past week that kept things interesting in the greater Camarillo megalopolis.

First there were the usual witty sayings from the internet.

I hit that age YEARS ago

Isn't that the truth

Our self-imposed pandemic lockdown has not helped on the diet front.

On Tuesday, I had a fun Zoom meeting

with Varese Skorpions coaches and players

Our topic was "The Lead Play in American Football."

Basic but interesting if you are into this sort of thing.

There is a new American football league that has just started playing called simply The Spring League. Of course they are playing in the Fall.

Due to the pandemic they are playing all of their games in a bubble around San Antonio, Texas' Alamo Dome.

The teams have only nicknames, no city names at all at this time.

Two of our former Europe Warriors who played for us in our Senior team game in Chihuahua, Mexico in 2018 are playing for The Spring League's Generals team!

Both of them are Spaniards.

Daniel Docal is a Generals DB

While Mario Flores is a Generals WR

What a GREAT adventure for both of these young men!

Again with my weight gaining issues

I took a long walk outside 

through the Camarillo Outlet 

Mall early one morning

What happened to Thanksgiving?

Christmas it is in the Mall

Italy, Sweet Italy

Speaking of which, I got a present from Italy this week thanks to Skorpion LB/DL turned OL, Ivan "Swito" Raso, and his wonderful significant other, Chiara Lodi Silvio.

He sent me this fun poster from

one of the best moments of the 2019

season when Swito won the Game Hammer

Chiara sent me this 

fun Lego key chain

Need a closer look?

COOL!

Laurie says that it is me but I don't see the resemblance.

Do you?

When we first moved into our home in Camarillo in 1976, there were three pine trees growing in the ivy in the front yard.

Over the years, two of them died and were summarily cut down.

The lone survivor was not looking good so we made the decision to have it chopped down as well.

Laurie called a professional landscaper to come and cut it down and haul it away for us.

One last look

They lassoed the top of the tree

on their first throw

PULLING HARD!

TIMBER!!!

They hauled away the chopped up

trunk and wood chipped the branches

It took them about 30 minutes from start to finish.

How old was that tree?

I offered to cut down the tree

myself but Laurie had this vision . . .

I still yearned for desserts after

a hard afternoon of watching

our lumberjacks at work

Even though I had my face mask,

I opted not to enter this store

Their attitude was a bit disconcerting.

I did get Laurie an almond

croissant the next morning

at Cafe Ficelle

It had a LOT of powdered sugar

Ah the weekend when this

becomes a reality

Mike and Mary on our Saturday

morning walk

Mary is a Dancing MACHINE!

At 8:00 p.m. Pacific time on Saturday

it was finally the start of the 2020

Season for our Washington Huskies

The Huskies (0-0) were at home against the Oregon State Beavers (0-1).

It was the first time that the Huskies opened a season against the Beavers since 1918 when the were known as the Oregon Agricultural College. That game was also played in mid-November due to, you guessed it, the Spanish flu pandemic.

In 1918, the Huskies won that game at home 6-0 on the way to a final 1-1 season record.

The Dawgs would lose in Seattle to te Oregon Ducks 0-7 the following weekend.

  

1-0!

It was 24-21 at the half when I finally fell asleep watching the game. I didn't miss much action in the Second Half it appears.

College Football Playoffs HERE WE COME!

I may be a bit premature on this though.

Mary giving me the Evil Eye

on Sunday morning

That's MUCH sweeter

As usual, we made pancakes

together Sunday

Mary sat with me while I broke

down practice video from Spain's

Pioners L'Hospitalet in Barcelona

Mary making goo-goo-googley eyes

Jacob at the park before the Rams game

Jacob as a Human Sacrifice

to the Great Gods of the NFL

for a Rams win?

Jacob donned my spectacles

to look more like his beloved

cousin Kevin in Las Vegas

BIG GAME!

Seattle Seahawks 6-2

at

Los Angeles Rams 5-3

We all rooted the Rams on to a . . .

HUGE VICTORY!

The tough NFC West now looks like this:

Los Angeles Rams 6-3

Arizona Cardinals 6-3

Seattle Seahawks 6-3

San Francisco 49ers 4-6

Next up for the Rams is yet another tough one on November 23rd at the Tom Brady led Tampa Bay Buccaneers (7-3).

As the Second Wave of the Pandemic continues to wreak havoc all over the USA and Europe, all of you STAY SAFE!

An AMAZING Week of Election Mania

 

Monday-Saturday, Nov. 2-7, 2020

What a truly amazing week in American history and what a new era of positive feelings was created worldwide in a short, exciting span!

It started off normally enough . . . 

Our old team in Guadalajara,

Spain got things going with a

cool Day of the Dead posting

Saturday was scheduled to finally be

the start of the PAC-12 football season

Our beloved Washington Huskies were scheduled to open the season on the road against the California Golden Bears.

Then Covid-19 hit the California squad and the game was cancelled and declared a "no contest." That means that it will not count as either a win or a loss on either team's record.

A day after this was announced, the Utah-Arizona game was similarly cancelled and called a "no contest" when the Coronavirus hit the Utah Utes team.

Italy has reactivated their

nationwide Covid-19 lockdown

The Italian youth level American football seasons were cancelled as part of the government's plans.

The Varese Skorpions U-17 season thus ended with our club sporting a 2-0 record and in first place in their four team league. 

This has to be our attitude

going forward in the pandemic

And then, on Tuesday, America held a national . . . 

To elect a President for the

next four years among other offices

and issues

Democrat vs. Republican

During the last decade, America has become an increasingly divided country.

For many of us, the last four years under President Trump, have been a nightmare as we witnessed the normalization of rudeness, the decline of civility and the widespread acceptance of lying as a way of governmental life.

The push to get the vote out this year was something to behold in this battle for the soul of the nation. Approximately 159.8 million Americans voted, the most in USA history.

Usually in these elections always held on Tuesdays, the vote is counted to the point that the media can project who the winner will be in our goofy, outdated Electoral College system by Wednesday morning.

Not this year.

Due to the volume of the vote,

it was early Saturday morning

and we still did not know the winner

Thanks to the Electoral College system, Joe Biden, leading by over FOUR MILLION votes could still not be declared the winner as four key states (Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and Pennsylvania) were still up for grabs.

This led to four days and nights of

deliberate, transparent vote counting

Four days and nights of watching

CNN Electoral College map coverage

Finally, at about 8:20 a.m. Pacific

time in California CNN announced

the winner

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will

be our leaders for the next four years

As gratifying as this result was for many of us in the USA, I was equally happy to receive all sorts of well wishes from friends in Europe.

While I think that this is a good day for the world, we must still remember that over SEVENTY MILLION Americans voted for President Trump.

The job of reuniting our nation will not be an easy one.

The longest journey starts with but a single step . . .

Reading Is FUNdamental!

Not a novel but a fascinating

look at the 1920s Mafia in Sicily

Happy Halloween and Another Disappointing Rams Game

Saturday & Sunday, Oct. 31 & Nov. 1, 2020

A "Trick-or-Treat-less" Halloween it was thanks to our old humbug, the Coronavirus.

It would be a tough night for

children and parents everywhere

In these socially distanced times, going door-to-door asking for candy was just not a good idea. 

No one came to our door as we kept the outdoor lights off and we were not giving out treats as is the norm.

Similarly, for health issues our grandkids, Mary and Jacob, were not hitting the streets either.

Leave it to Laurie to successfully fill the void.

We started with a horror story . . .

. . . this one terrified me to no end!

Laurie had the house decked

out in her usual eerie style

Pumpkins are a MUST!

So are bat bones

Orange and black it was

EVERYWHERE!

Now, as for costumes . . .

Laurie was looking GOOD!

I HAVE to get more sleep!

Jacob had his backyard cemetery 

looking perfect before

donning his outfit for the night

Mary was a Disney Princess

No surprise there.

Mike was former AC Milan star . . .

 

"Rino" Gattuso

Jacob was a stylish Spiderman

A backyard brawl broke out

Spiderman was just too much for Gattuso turned faux-Spiderman.

Get near the Princess and

he'll throw a web on you

Good Contreras family photo

We took a break to dine on some

delicious eye balls swimming

in aqueous humor

While we took a 30 minute walk, Laurie and Vanessa hid 64 plastic orange eggs filled with coins, candy or small Halloween toys in the front and back yards to substitute for not being able to go out tonight.

Jacob was the first one to find 32 eggs and had to stop searching to allow Mary to find her half of the loot.

Amazingly, they cooperated.

Lots of sibling rivalry and

love with these two

Overall, it was a good Halloween

It was Jacob's weekend for

a sleepover, so we bowled

Thoughts from the net . . .

Somewhat true . . .

. . . truer . . .

. . . COMPLETELY true!

Sunday was NFL GAME DAY

Los Angeles Rams (5-2)

at

Miami Dolphins (3-3)

We were looking for a good game and a win today against a Dolphins team making a QB change to start this game.

I felt good about the Rams chances.

But then again, I always do before their games.

While we waited for kickoff, Mike went up into our attic to find some of his treasures in storage.

His best find was . . .

. . . his AWESOME

Barcelona Dragons jacket!

GREAT DRAGONS LOGO!

The Dragons played in the World League of American Football from 1991-92 and again from 1995-97 after the WLAF suspended operations in 1993-94.

They were also part of NFL Europe from 1998-2003.

The Barcelona club played in four World Bowls in 1991, 1997, 1999 and 2001.

They were World Bowl Champions in 1997.

Meanwhile, back in Miami . . .

The joys of being a Rams fan

The Dolphins scored a defensive TD on a 78 yard fumble return and had a Dolphins team record 88 yard punt return for a TD.

The Dolphins defense also returned another Rams turnover to the one yard line. Miami scored another TD on their next play.

While the Rams defense played well but it is hard to win when you have your opponents scoring 21 points via Special Teams and Defense.

Four Rams turnovers did not help nor did not scoring more TDs on a day when Los Angeles had 90 offensive plays (471 yards) to Miami's 47 (145 yards).

Next up for the 5-3 Rams is a bye week followed a November 15th game at home vs. the 6-1 Seattle Seahawks.

It's going to be a bumpy ride . . .