Come ON, Brett! What in the hell are you doing? You brought your team to the NFC Championship Game last year, then held one of the more emotional press conferences of late and announced your retirement. You were lauded as one of the elite quarterbacks in the history of the game, a champion and a competitor unlike any other. That was a hell of a way to go out.
But then you started making inroads about coming back. Not immediately, mind you...rather, over the summer: just as Packers faithful and the team itself was becoming adjusted to the idea of Aaron Rodgers as the starter. You gotta understand what that did for the front office. If they welcomed you back, they would be doing nothing less than yanking the rug out from under the young quarterback drafted four years ago as your heir apparent, at the exact moment that he needed the confidence of the team and the office. If, on the other hand, they told you that they were set, they risked the wrath of the millions of fans that absolutely love you.
For good or ill, they chose the second route. I can't say whether or not the 2008 season will prove them as prideful or incredibly foresight-ful, but I have no idea why you are trying to get traded to the Jets or Buccaneers. Don't get me wrong, neither team has a secure quarterback situation at the moment and both would absolutely love to have you, the original gunslinger, under center for them...but how wrong is it going to be seeing you in the Jets' white and green or the Bucs' red and white? You are the absolute epitome of the Green Bay franchise, and have been since 1992. I wrote an earlier article about just such a travesty, hoping against hope it won't come true.
Unfortunately, I was wrong. There are few things I would like to see more than you taking the field again this year...in the Packers #4. Here's hoping, Brett.
25 July 2008
23 July 2008
Isolation
July 23, 2008
Copper Harbor, MI
It seems like the towns get smaller with every project we are sent on:
Those last two hobbies are why we are here. Our team is working with the Copper Harbor Trail Club to cut and refine two and a half miles of trail through the woods, a mile and a half of which will climb the 2500’
And fuck me if it ain’t hard work. To be honest, it’s the most physically demanding work I’ve ever done in my life. Construction doesn’t hold a candle to this. We use pick-mattocks and Pulaski tools (combination axe and mattock) as well as sharpened MacLeod rakes to cut flowing trails through thick forests and steep hills, contending with 6” roots and massive rocks in the process. It’s exhausting and dirty work…but oddly satisfying. There’s something affirming about looking back at dozens of yards of trail that you tore through earlier that day.
Tent camping is a different matter. Now, I love camping. I am an Eagle Scout and have spent many nights in various tents and shelters around western
15 July 2008
Once Again...
Rock Island, IL
For the life of me, I cannot understand why travel makes people so tired. I do nothing but sit in a van for eight hours, occasionally driving a shift or two, but for some reason I have a ton of trouble staying awake. Obviously this is slightly more difficult to deal with when I'm actually driving; spending a half-hour jabbing myself with a pen to keep me from falling asleep at the wheel gets old quickly. Oh well.
So here I am, in another nondescript hotel in another nondescript town in the Midwest. We're a day and a half of driving time away from Copper Harbor, whereupon I will spend about a month working long days to build trails and living in a town of 81 people. Brilliant. I don't know, Americorps is a great project and all, but I'm not terribly excited about this particular project. That's the breaks, I suppose.
After tomorrow night I will not have access to the internet and I will be out of cellphone range for almost the entirety of the project, so I hope nobody has anything important to tell me. I will check my email and messages as often as I can...which might be about once every three weeks or so. With any luck, however, I will be returning to the 'Burgh for a brief fall break at the conclusion of the project, so who knows.
Fare thee well, everybody.
For the life of me, I cannot understand why travel makes people so tired. I do nothing but sit in a van for eight hours, occasionally driving a shift or two, but for some reason I have a ton of trouble staying awake. Obviously this is slightly more difficult to deal with when I'm actually driving; spending a half-hour jabbing myself with a pen to keep me from falling asleep at the wheel gets old quickly. Oh well.
So here I am, in another nondescript hotel in another nondescript town in the Midwest. We're a day and a half of driving time away from Copper Harbor, whereupon I will spend about a month working long days to build trails and living in a town of 81 people. Brilliant. I don't know, Americorps is a great project and all, but I'm not terribly excited about this particular project. That's the breaks, I suppose.
After tomorrow night I will not have access to the internet and I will be out of cellphone range for almost the entirety of the project, so I hope nobody has anything important to tell me. I will check my email and messages as often as I can...which might be about once every three weeks or so. With any luck, however, I will be returning to the 'Burgh for a brief fall break at the conclusion of the project, so who knows.
Fare thee well, everybody.
07 July 2008
Come Fly Our Crowded, Overpriced Skies
Gate B-25
Denver International Airport
Okay, okay, I admit it: the sole purpose of this post is to demonstrate to all 2 of the people that read this thing that I can indeed make entries from cool locations...in this case, Denver International. Since, however, I took the trouble to snake my way onto the airport's Wi-Fi, I suppose I have to actually find a topic to discuss.
HOLY SHIT, is airfare expensive. I mean, Jesus. I know the skyrocketing gas prices have caused the airlines to boost fares in order to not get demolished. The problem is that along with these massive price hikes have come service that, even compared to a couple years ago, is terrible. Planes are late more often now than at any other time in history (something that I can relate to: the plane that I am waiting to board is currently a half-hour late) and passengers increasingly find themselves bumped off flights, waiting in a terminal for hours at a time, and dealing with lost or damaged luggage. The problem is that there is not a whole lot that the airlines can do. They have had to scale back their operations and lay off staff in order to avoid raising their fares even higher. They have had to resort to charging passengers for just about anything, including American's $25 fee for a SINGLE checked bag, and United's $30 "service fee" if a reservation is made over the phone as opposed to online.
Now, the good news. I'm in an aisle seat, I'm riding a (relatively) new Airbus A320, and I'm going home for a week of relaxation. I'll take it.
Denver International Airport
Okay, okay, I admit it: the sole purpose of this post is to demonstrate to all 2 of the people that read this thing that I can indeed make entries from cool locations...in this case, Denver International. Since, however, I took the trouble to snake my way onto the airport's Wi-Fi, I suppose I have to actually find a topic to discuss.
HOLY SHIT, is airfare expensive. I mean, Jesus. I know the skyrocketing gas prices have caused the airlines to boost fares in order to not get demolished. The problem is that along with these massive price hikes have come service that, even compared to a couple years ago, is terrible. Planes are late more often now than at any other time in history (something that I can relate to: the plane that I am waiting to board is currently a half-hour late) and passengers increasingly find themselves bumped off flights, waiting in a terminal for hours at a time, and dealing with lost or damaged luggage. The problem is that there is not a whole lot that the airlines can do. They have had to scale back their operations and lay off staff in order to avoid raising their fares even higher. They have had to resort to charging passengers for just about anything, including American's $25 fee for a SINGLE checked bag, and United's $30 "service fee" if a reservation is made over the phone as opposed to online.
Now, the good news. I'm in an aisle seat, I'm riding a (relatively) new Airbus A320, and I'm going home for a week of relaxation. I'll take it.
04 July 2008
Today We Celebrate Our Independence Day
A brief excerpt from the Declaration of Independence...
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security...
Let us not forget what this meant, and still continues to mean. Happy Independence Day.
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security...
Let us not forget what this meant, and still continues to mean. Happy Independence Day.
03 July 2008
Release
Ah, finally...good news from the government. After more than five months bumming around the country with little in the way of time off, we're finally being given a break. On Saturday morning, we will head out of Franklin...destination Denver. We will arrive back at campus on Monday morning, barring any major catastrophes en route (seriously, this is not the time for that shit to happen) and at 7 PM, Mountain Time...I will be on a United Airlines plane on my way back home to Pittsburgh for seven days off! I am beyond excited. Seven days back in my city, with its Primantis, O-fries, the best pizza on earth on Ardmore Boulevard in Forest Hills, my friends and fellows, my little Celica with its manual gearbox, my cats...god, I need this time off.
Right. Overzealous anticipation aside, some updates regarding the past week or so. The chaos of our first week and a half here has faded into...well, the only word to really describe it is boredom. The list of homeowners that needs volunteer help has receded to a half-dozen or so, from its peak of forty or fifty. That's good for two reasons. First, it shows that dozens of families are making progress on their rebuilding and recovery efforts. Second of all, our flow of volunteers has slowed to just about nothing; we sent a grand total of two people out to work today, not counting members of my team. It's good there are not many people depending on our efforts anymore. But christ if it ain't been exhausting.
By our (slightly fuzzy) count, my team and I...
-dispatched over 800 volunteers
-sent volunteers to or worked ourselves on 45-odd addresses
-unloaded and sorted 25-30 semi-trailers of furniture, appliances, and other donations
-sorted 300 pounds of food
-delivered 4 vanloads (around 300 gallons) of water to an isolated mobile home park
-conducted assessments on 125 houses
-made/received over 1000 phone calls in the operation of the volunteer center
-helped a couple desperately poor families move out of cramped hotel rooms or trailers on the edge of collapse and into decent, albeit temporary housing
(We know all this because NCCC teams are "encouraged" to keep track of quantifiable accomplishments; we keep concrete numerical records of the work performed).
All this in 21 days. It's been a long couple weeks.
Right. Overzealous anticipation aside, some updates regarding the past week or so. The chaos of our first week and a half here has faded into...well, the only word to really describe it is boredom. The list of homeowners that needs volunteer help has receded to a half-dozen or so, from its peak of forty or fifty. That's good for two reasons. First, it shows that dozens of families are making progress on their rebuilding and recovery efforts. Second of all, our flow of volunteers has slowed to just about nothing; we sent a grand total of two people out to work today, not counting members of my team. It's good there are not many people depending on our efforts anymore. But christ if it ain't been exhausting.
By our (slightly fuzzy) count, my team and I...
-dispatched over 800 volunteers
-sent volunteers to or worked ourselves on 45-odd addresses
-unloaded and sorted 25-30 semi-trailers of furniture, appliances, and other donations
-sorted 300 pounds of food
-delivered 4 vanloads (around 300 gallons) of water to an isolated mobile home park
-conducted assessments on 125 houses
-made/received over 1000 phone calls in the operation of the volunteer center
-helped a couple desperately poor families move out of cramped hotel rooms or trailers on the edge of collapse and into decent, albeit temporary housing
(We know all this because NCCC teams are "encouraged" to keep track of quantifiable accomplishments; we keep concrete numerical records of the work performed).
All this in 21 days. It's been a long couple weeks.
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