The week that was

Oh, what a week! But now it's over. The skies are clearing. I can breath again. I even got caught up with most of the blog alerts I had to skip until now. Spent several hours on that last night.

What are the ingredients of a manic week? Let me count the ways.

1. Off-year election coverage plus candidate interviews nobody else wants to help with.

2. Meetings with coaches to prepare for all-U.P. football meetings

3. Routine meeting news coverage that didn't have a prayer of getting written up for this week's issue.

4. The day-long football meeting, which takes place about two hours from home. It's a day-long session/ordeal that I have to leave for at 6:30 a.m., and it just goes on and on and on. Of all the things I do on my job, I think that's the day I enjoy the very least. A long, tiring day.

Let's get this straight. Watching football is fun. Covering football is fun. Arguing about the merits of one player over another is terribly dull stuff.

5. A girls basketball game. Just one last week, fortunately.

6. A glimpse or two of the World Series. I got to see a few innings after my meetings and games.

7. Two football playoff games, one on Friday night and the other on Saturday afternoon.

8. Writing everything up. (Except for those meetings, which didn't have a prayer of getting in due to all the election preview stuff I wrote.)

9. It was even my turn to write the editorial. Just my lucky week, I guess.

On top of all that, we had a big storm moving in late in the week. They had forecast mainly wind--areas south and east of us got all the rain--and that's all we got. We only got about a half inch of snow Saturday morning; it melted during the day.

I visited my mom for a short time before the Friday game--it was about 15 miles from the nursing home. Got her some stuff she needed. Saturday's game was way up in the Keweenaw Peninsula, north of Houghton. Just windy, and no snow on the ground. I saw a few flakes while driving home. Left home Saturday at 9 a.m. and got back about 5:30.

Our teams went 1-1, losing Friday night (expected) and winning Saturday (expected, but it was a very close game). They advance to play on Friday, and that, I'm sure, will end their season. The other team is too good.

That means for the first time in three years, I don't have to worry about driving downstate for the football finals in Detroit--about a 520-mile trip each way. True, I get to see my son, but it's just such a rush-rush thing that there's no time for relaxing. He'll be up here over Christmas, anyway.

So one football team is left, and they should be done after this Friday. Girls basketball has two weeks to go. One team is bad and will be eliminated quickly. The other could win its district tournament, but it's a tough distric--they may not.

In short, life this week is less hectic and much less tense. There soon will be a short break before winter sports begin. What will I do then?

I don't know. Early last December, I made that long, long trip to Ontario to visit S for a couple days. She's back in Wisconsin now, of course, but she's with her husband again. I'd love to see her--even if just for dinner--but that probably won't happen. My other friend, K, is in Madison--haven't seen her since my wife and I visited to see those crazy cows last June.

I'm guessing right now that most likely I'll stay close to home. Maybe, if I get nice weather, I'll go on a photo trip--just go out and look for interesting photos. Haven't done that for a long time. Most of the photos I've posted recently were taken while on the way to some assignment or to see my mom.

Anyway, I'm still here. Life goes on.

One other update: My poor battered car should be fixed up early next week.