Back to Life, Back to Reality

It's Sunday, but after more than a week off, we're back to the grind today.  I have to swim, iron, and get to the grocery store, and tomorrow I have to go into New York City and do actual work.  My phone tells me that I have more than a hundred sixty-five emails waiting for me, and that's after I've had my out-of-office assistant on all week telling people not to bother trying to contact me.

Sally took this picture yesterday at Pier A in Hoboken.

What can you do?  We've got to pay the bills.

I start my second job next week as well.  In truth, though, I hesitate to call it a job.  I'm teaching swimming to adults at the Stratford YMCA.  I suppose that this is what "following my passion" looks like.  Of course, following my passion doesn't pay as well as engineering, and in fact, I'm really doing it more out of a desire to serve my community than earn a second paycheck, but still...  I got my first paycheck from the YMCA last week, and it was--as always--a distinctly cool experience to receive money for doing something that I think of as basically a labor of love.  I feel that way about writing, too, a lot of times, but shit...  Writing doesn't even pay as well as teaching swimming.

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Kerry Wynn's touchdown against the Jets: ever so slightly less impressive/incredible than Victor Cruz's. #NYGvsNYJ pic.twitter.com/TDpb4Fz0pZ

— Neil Shulman (@IAKOWNeil) August 28, 2016

The Giants actually won one last night.   The back-ups came back in the fourth quarter and pulled out a late come-back.  That fact notwithstanding, they really suck.  The starting offense hasn't scored a point in something like ten quarters, and the entire O-Line can't block worth shit.  Last night, the Giants' starters gained all of 61 yards on 29 plays, and that reflects a distinct improvement in the second quarter.  Through the first quarter, they had just 8 yards and a blocked punt!

It's frustrating because the Giants should be good.  In fact, with a legitimate defense and two all-world receivers now that Victor Cruz is back, they should be very good.  But they can't block worth shit.  Their tight ends whiff on blocks with alarming regularity, they get no push in the running game, and their quarterback gets hit on almost every play.  Manning can't step into throws, and *spoiler alert* he's not very good when he doesn't get decent protection.

Ugh.  That is not the answer.

The battle of the big 🍎 is OVER.@Giants: 21@nyjets: 20

FINAL#NYGvsNYJ pic.twitter.com/15gKMQaHhg

— NFL Total Access (@NFLTotalAccess) August 28, 2016

Game respects game. #NYGvsNYJ pic.twitter.com/D6tQeKivmE

— New York Giants (@Giants) August 28, 2016

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Six days and counting. #GoArmy pic.twitter.com/fGz8pEmoHn

— ArmyWestPoint Sports (@GoArmyWestPoint) August 28, 2016

It's actually five now.  The game is Friday night!

I've convinced myself that Army has a chance this week.  Temple had a good season last year, but they lost a lot of talent on defense, and their offense is not actually a lot better than Army's.  Letting myself think that way might not be the best decision long-term, but I'm going to go with it for now.  As of this writing, the line is Army +16.

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Also coming soon: Luke Cage!

September 30th, according to the video.

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I guess I'm done.  I'll have real work to do soon enough.