Ululating on the sidelines

It's just me, checking in, taking a break from a very busy week here at the OK Corral. We're finishing up articles for a special section, plus I've got an all-day sportswriters meeting out of town on Thursday :( and then football playoff games on Friday. The volleyball district tournaments are next week. Slowly but surely, the fall season is winding down.

The meeting tomorrow is the one when they pick the all-U.P. football teams. I hate it. It's long and dull. Years ago, they held the meeting over two days, and on the night between meetings, they would gather at a strip bar called Orphan Annie's. Way before my time, but some of the old-timers (there are a [I]lot [/I]of old-timers there) still invoke Orphan Annie's memory once in a while.

If Orphan Annie's were still open, maybe I'd enjoy the experience more. As it is, I leave at 6:30 a.m., about an hour before sunrise, spend most the day in a never-ending meeting and get home after sunset. The most exotic place I'm likely to visit is ... Staples, the office supply store.

On Tuesday morning, I looked outside to see white. Not snow. But it was the first really heavy frost we've had so far, as temperatures got down to 24F (-5C). Today, while walking back from an interview, a few snowflakes seemed to be dancing in the air. So far, there hasn't been any snow around. That should change as soon as the temperature falls a few more degrees.

Slowly but surely, I am dragging out my warmer clothing. Today I wore a zip-front sweater for use at the office (except it got too warm, so I took it off). I'll need to dig out my gloves before I hit the road at 6:30 tomorrow morning.

I also have to "invest" in some new tires for the car. They have already been ordered--they get installed late this week or next week. Of course, we need the mud/snow rated tires up here for extra traction in winter.

My wife's birthday was Monday; she got flowers (carnations) and we went out for a pizza and watched a movie ("The Painted Veil") later. David went with me to the football game at Lake Linden (way up in the Copper Country, north of Houghton) last Saturday. His birthday is on Nov. 3. Gotta get something for him, too.

All of our birthdays are within two months of each other. My older son's b-day is Dec. 19, and mine is five days later. Both of the kids are grown and gone, but to me they are still part of "us."

Just for fun, I went to a Wisconsin high school playoff football game Tuesday night. Wisconsin has a goofy (to me) schedule: the final game of the regular season is on Thursday. The first playoff game is the following Tuesday. The second playoff game is that Saturday. So that's five days between the final game of the season and the first playoff game; and then four days between the first and second playoff games. In Michigan, all the games are a week apart (mostly Fridays, with a few on Thursdays and Saturdays).

Anyway ... this one was being played just 30 miles away, so I decided to go see the fun. I took the camera along, of course. A little light (and cold) rain fell during the game, but the oddest thing came from one of the fans.

It was a woman who walked up and down the sidelines behind her team's bench, cheering loudly. And ululating. It was one of the darndest things I've ever seen at a high school football game. She would yell, "Come on guys! You can do it! Woo-HOOOO! Ulululululluuuu!" She made this sound like you hear Arab women making at times of great emotion (joy or sadness), high pitched and wavering.

She was a smallish woman, younger than me, shortish hair, wearing her team's colors and carrying an umbrella. Nothing out of the ordinary. Except that she kept going "Woo-HOOO! Ulululululluuuu!"

I wish I could tell you that her team won, but they were the underdogs. Didn't matter to her, it seems. She kept on rooting for her team on and going "Ululululululluuuuu" even when her guys were down 27-0. The final score was 34-14.

Anyway, I feel myself getting tired despite it only being 9 p.m. Could it be that I'm subconsciously getting ready for my 6:30 departure tomorrow morning ... on the road to The Meeting That Never Ends?