Dead Day

Good evening folks.  I apologize to my loyal followers who checked in today and didn't find a post earlier.  Last night was a rare very busy Monday night at work - we hosted a party for one of the local residential establishments on the last day of regular classes for the local university, one which walk-ups from off the street were allowed into.  Well, eventually the word spread, and at the peak of the festivities our venue resembled what it does on a Thursday night.  I'm basically saying that I was too tired to type anything when I got home from work last night, and I spent a good portion of today on some long overdue cleaning of my apartment.  Now I'm waking up from the three-hour nap that I took.  The good news about being up until 3 or 4 in the morning is that I will be matching my normal work hours, which should make me good to go for the rest of the week.  The 'dead day' title of this post refers to the day off that our local university gives its students before final exams officially start.  Graduation weekend in San Marcos, America starts in about ten days, and the result of that weekend is the ghost town that our fair city will become for the month afterward.  It wasn't until my last year of school here when I moved off-campus that I learned how dead San Marcos really becomes during this time period.  A huge chunk of humanity is absent from town between semesters, much more so than in the summer when the university offers a bunch of various camps to kids in addition to summer classes.  I am looking forward to making the predictions for the comprehensive football article that I will be doing on the 15th for this blog, although I am not thrilled with many of the matchups.  It's great to hear so many people stating how blatently ridiculous the BCS is this year.  On ESPN's 'Mike and Mike' earlier this morning, they were relentlessly attacking a system that includes a 'coaches poll' as one of its segments.  Both Alabama and Missouri had Oklahoma State ranked #4 on this most recent ballot.  Alabama obviously did this because it helps their cause, and Missouri did this to stick it to the Big 12 since they will be departing for the SEC next year.  Again, what a ludicrous system we have in the BCS...  As you probably figured out from what I've typed so far, I stayed close to home today, and there is good reason for that.  For those of you from around various parts of the country, and different parts of the world to be more exact, this is probably one of the coldest weeks of the year that we will experience in south Texas.  The forecast low for tonight is 27 degrees, and while the high for tomorrow is supposed to reach 55 degrees, it will be followed up by another low of 28 degrees.  It is not enough to make a person long for the drought-stricken 100-plus degree days of this past summer, but it makes you think about it.  We had about three days of rain preceding this cold front, so the cold that we are experiencing is that wet, damp, miserable chill that reminds a certain person of why they live in Texas, the reason being that this is NOT the norm...  My itch to live in Las Vegas, America has really been coming on once again, with the bowl season starting, the NFL playoff-chase hitting its stretch run, the tipoff of the college hoops season, and just the simple itch to go out and play some poker whenever the urge hits me.  It wouldn't surprise me if the title of this blog becomes 'The View From (Somewhere In Las Vegas)' during the next year if I can find a way to swing it financially.  For all of the complaining that I did while living in the desert about the fact that it seemingly never rained, that it what we had last summer here in Texas.  The unemployment rate is so high in the desert right now that it makes you think twice about making any decision to move too hastily.  That is about all that I have for you right now.  On Thursday I should be coming back at you with an entry aimed at a specific topic, and on Friday I will give you some football predictions (maybe more than three NFL picks this week since the college teams will be resting for a while).  I hope that everything is well where you are, and I'll see you in a couple of days.