Reporting from Iowa City, IA
First off, allow me to apologize for skipping last week’s
blog; I was working night shifts that weekend and that tends to play Hell with
one’s diurnal productivity. Inspired by
the start of my favorite season, I tried to get my Facebook friends to
contribute some seasonal poetry but ran into an epic fail. Here’s my summary from last weekend: fall is
here, slow cooked brats are awesome, USC bounced back against Cal, I am embarrassed
for the 17 points I got at the expense of the Hawkeyes, and I predict the hail
mary fiasco on Monday Night Football will encourage a settlement between the league and
the refs. (Good call, that last one)
This weekend, I have a rare quiet couple days at home. Good thing, too, because tonight is the
Harvest Moon and the weather in Iowa is often beautiful this time of year. Sure enough, we have robin’s egg blue skies,
cool clear nights, warm sunny afternoons, and the leaves are just starting to
change, filling our forest with blazes of fire and gold. I headed out to work on Saturday morning into
the crisp Midwestern air, riding my bike through the maze of tailgaters,
soaking in the scent of grilling bacon, roasted burgers, and gallons of spilled
beer. I worked the first-aid station for
the Iowa – Minnesota game, a rivalry match played each year for Floyd of
Rosedale, a bronze pig. Floyd has
resided north of the border for two years and we were eager to get him
back. After their epic collapse last
week, Iowa finally woke up and played great on both sides of the ball, winning
convincingly 31 – 13.
The first-aid station was busier than usual, thanks to the
warm sunny weather as the game started.
The heat in the stadium caught everyone by surprise; this morning it was
a brisk 47, but quickly shot up to over 80 by the second half. The patient census at the first aid station
is directly correlated to the ambient temperature; the hotter it is, the more
patients we see. Another trend we see is
that underage persons are the ones most likely to have trouble with
alcohol. As expected, the only
intoxicated patients we had to deal with today were under 21. After the game, I went for a long bike ride
in the warm sun, basking in the perfect weather.
The rest of the afternoon and evening was spent enjoying
football from around the nation. There
were some great games (‘cmon South Florida! Too bad- close only counts in
horseshoes and hand grenades), but the big story of the day has to be Geno
Smith, the West Virginia QB who triumphed in a ridiculous 70-63 shootout over
Baylor. He went 45 for 51 (yes, a 88%
completion percentage) with 8 TD’s, no INT’s, and 656 yards. Had he been in my fantasy football league, he
would have scored an unbelievable 62 points!
No one has previously won the Heisman in September, but Smith might have
just pulled off the feat. Apparently, Smith is also a rather gifted artist. Here's a great biography from the New York Times: GenoSmithNewYorkTimes
After watching highlights of Geno Smith throwing for
touchdown after touchdown, I soothed my sore throat with a delightful hot
toddy* and fell asleep on my couch, bathed in the blue glow of the harvest moon
and dreaming of lounging on a beach in Hawaii.
43 days, 4 hours, and 4 minutes . . .
Fight On,
Hans
*PS: my favorite recipe:
put 1 – 2 oz of good scotch into a mug. Laphroaig works great due to its smoky aroma, but any decent scotch will
do. You could substitute rye whiskey
instead, but Templeton Rye is just too rare to be mixed this way. Add 1 – 2 teaspoons of sugar and mix. Fill the mug with hot water and enjoy. It is best paired with a cold weather, a soft
blanket, a leather chair, and the company of a West Highland White Terrier.
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