Peeking Through The Blinds

I am thinking that today is a good day not to be a young sports fan in New England.  Last night, the Boston Red Sox managed to lose their 20th game in the month of September, and in the process, relinquished what had been a 9-game lead in the American League Wild-Card Race on September 2nd.  I can remember when I was almost 9 years old, and watched Bucky Dent's 3-run homer land in the net behind the Green Monster from the television in my family's apartment in Virginia. The result was a one-run loss for the Sox to the New York Yankees in a one-game playoff for the American League East Title during another season in which my favorite baseball team had a similar late-season meltdown.  I don't take these letdowns to heart as much as I did when I was younger, surely not to the same extent as I did before I started my coaching career, and became much more invested in the successes and letdowns of my own players.  The people that I feel for today are the kids who are old enough to understand how much of a lead the Red Sox had in the playoff race, and who had the misfortune of watching most of the games that the team played this season, only to witness this collapse.  Of course they have a support group, their parents and other family members who are there for them, nodding and saying, "yeah, been there, done that"... 

One of the reasons that I am posting again so soon is that Texas has been blessed with more rain, which has been a rarity this summer.  I usually sleep throughout the afternoon on Thursdays in preparation of working until almost 4 a.m., but an actual THUNDERSTORM kept me awake.  The apartment complex that I call home is set up much like some hotels that I have seen, where the rooms (apartments, in this case) are set up in a rectangle which all face a swimming pool in the center.  I moved aside the thick blanket that is hanging over my front window to keep out the sunlight, and looked through the blinds to check out the rain, and across the way, saw a couple who was sitting outside, enjoying the rare rain.  Well, the couple saw me, so after a few seconds of surveying the situation, I closed the blinds.  I hadn't done anything wrong, and I wasn't spying, etc..., but I started wondering if that couple would keep looking at my window, to see if I would show back up behind the blinds (something to occupy my mind as I tried to go back to sleep).  After about another half-hour of unsuccessfully trying to sleep, I looked out the window again, having completely forgot about the couple, but there they were, and again, they saw me as I scoped out the rain situation - question answsered...  :)  Have you ever done something that wasn't wrong, but that might have looked bad because of how someone else perceived the situation?  We can get some t-shirts printed up or something...  Have a good one!  ;)