Dixie's Football Pride

We spent Thursday night in the company of Alabama football fans, and we had much food, fun and libation, also much to cheer about, in a 37-21 win over Texas. I got to root for the Tide and against Texas at the same time. This is the first time something like this has ever happened to me, being in a town that's celebrating a championship like this. It was close to midnight but we drove to campus anyway to survey the activities. The campus was pretty quiet, but a quarter-mile to the west, it was different. People already in line for national championship t-shirts, just seemingly orderly gatherings, albeit with temperatures in the teens. It made it pretty hard to believe that Friday was a workday, or, at least, not a holiday or a weekend. It's the 13th national championship for the Tide. I'm happy to be rooting for a winner, although I don't have nearly as much of an emotional investment as our friends did Thursday.

My big thing of the last several days has been practice. I've been drilling on Microsoft Excel and Word tutorials, since I have skills tests on both Monday, and to pass both is required to apply for staff-type jobs on campus. It'll be about the fifth time I've tried the Excel test, and I've alreay passed the Word exam, but a higher score is needed. My wife really likes working on campus, and I'd like to work there too.

I'm really wanting to contribute around here, and try to find out what this stretch of my life is gonna look like, since I've started to understand that radio won't be part of it anymore. There are a lot of things mentally and emotionally that I just don't have. Work and going to school seem like good possibilities right now.

My running continues... three miles Wednesday and three more Friday. 30 minutes each time. I used to spend a lot of time trying to load an ipod, but I've not done that yet. I know running on a treadmill is pretty tedious, but I've spent a lot of time in prayer, and I'm getting a little better at it. Next week, four runs at three miles a shot.

And oh yeah-- been pretty cold around here the last several days. Not Kansas cold, with double-digits below zero and buckets of snow... I think we've made it as far as the low teens, so it's still pretty chilly.

I've also started playing a little chess again, against the computer. I give as good as I get on low skill levels, but what I find myself learning is that I have to solve these problems. I can get into a bind pretty quickly on a chessboard, and there's nobody to bail me out. It's my problem, and I have to solve it. I can't run from it-- deal with it by not dealing with it, as it were-- I've got to do something about it. It's new for me, and quite useful.