Ah, fall in Middle Tennessee.
Now I love summer in Middle Tennessee. Coming from the lost tribe of Lizard People, I have a high tolerance for heat and even humidity, except when in dress clothes like a suit and tie and much better than most then.
And, spring in Middle Tennessee is just a series of delights, the first warm day, the first buttercups, the first dogwood blooms, the first spring dress, you get the picture.
Although I hate winter, Middle Tennessee winters the past few years have been pretty good winters because basically we haven’t had any winter.
Shoot, last January grumpy mosquitoes were walking around on our deck complaining about being sleepy but still waiting for a good freeze to knock them off.
The one night I wore my wool overcoat I found a Blue Raider basketball ticket stub with Randy Weil’s picture on it.
Personally, I like sports coat winters although I hear we may be getting more than that this season.
But, back to the subject at hand, fall is coming to Middle Tennessee.
Yeah, I know the calendar doesn’t say fall arrives for about a month (Sept. 22 officially) but Labor Day is the unofficial and clear autumn designator.
Even more officially unofficial is the first kickoff for the Blue Raiders and that’s next Thursday night right over in Floyd Stadium.
That’s fall, and that’s football.
And, I’m ALL IN as they say in Raiderland.
After a big old dose of Raiders and Troy Thursday night in what I anticipate to be a great game on a great evening, next weekend will be a Football Hog Heaven with three straight days of college games on the tube.
Not long after that the Titans will be finished with the glorified scrimmages in uniform they call pres-season games, an oxymoron, and ready to play some real pro football.
In the meantime, the grass will no longer require attention. Well, OK, due to the incredible lack of rain in the past several weeks, the grass doesn’t need any attention now except for maybe last rites.
But, homegrown tomatoes will still be available probably into October at least at Farmers’ Market.
And, as a friend noted Thursday night at the Blue Raider Blast on the Square, “This is the nicest August I can ever remember.’
Hey, he is as old as me and neither of us can remember an August with so many wonderfully mild days and nights.
This is supposed to be the time of the Dog Days where everyone sits on the porch with the tongue out, gasping in the heat.
Not in this strange weather year.
Hopefully, this portends a fall of just glorious weather, great football battles, beautiful leaves and, oh, economic rebounding.
Whatever the weather, fall is always an exciting time in this community with lots of sports; add fall baseball, soccer and volleyball for non-pigskin fans, and more activities than one person can hardly ponder.
Despite our occasional setbacks and local controversies, this community just gets better and more fun every year.
Right now I’m all about the football.
•••
You remember my disdain in this space last week for China being Olympics host.
Well, the fascists-passing-as-communists leaders there certainly made my words look on target.
In addition to making a couple of cute little girls pull a Milli Vanilli act in the opener, turns out they were using digital wizardry to enhance the supposed fireworks and who knows what else.
And, it’s pretty obvious to everyone except the IOC that China’s female gymnasts were still children, not 16-year-olds, as rules require.
Hopefully, the IOC will act before the Games end and let the rightful, by chance American gymnasts receive their rightful gold medals in a proper ceremony, and maybe even have a de-medaling ceremony of the Chinese coaches and administrators who cheated. Yeah, while the medals are being torn off their necks, Roseanne Barr could sing their national anthem.
These should go down as the Faux Olympics – except for the smog you can’t believe anything the Chinese put before your eyes.
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