Sometimes, when you have to travel you end up in nice hotels that like to charge you for everything. Including wifi. Including access to their ‘courtesy’ business center computers. It continues to baffle me that you can get free internet in a Motel 6 but in higher end joints they gouge you mercilessly. So I missed a few days, including…
- Reminiscing on the 30th anniversary of U.S. Hockey’s Miracle on Ice. NBC and ESPN had plenty of retrospective programming, which (despite the inherent cheese factor) still manages to give me goosebumps when Al Michaels makes his famous call. The 80 Olympics were the first games I was old enough to pay attention to and, I remember how excited my Mom and Dad were with the hockey team, explaining how unlikely and difficult it all was. Those Olympics were also when I started to get interested in geography and history. All the maps and flags and the human interest stories detailing life in Finland or Switzerland for those athletes really piqued my interest and made me a lifelong Olympics fan.
- MLS is about 11 hours and counting to the end of their current collective bargaining agreement, which could lead to a strike. Both sides have valid points, but if you know anything about the player contracts and single-entity structure of Major League Soccer, you probably feel the players deserve more freedom and better wages (like I do). Hopefully both sides can figure something out, because a prolonged work stoppage would really hurt the momentum MLS has built the last few years (see Beckham, Blanco, yearly expansion, etc.). No it won’t be the end of pro soccer in this country, but it would be a damned shame and damaging to the sport in this World Cup year.
- The House of Mouse gets a lot of criticism for its heavy-handedness with creative rights and properties, but when you stay at a Disney outfit you can’t help but be impressed by two things: the cleanliness and the friendliness. I always used to get annoyed by my folks’ constant commentary on these two points when we’d head for Disney World, but they were right and still holds true. Excellent Customer Service is always pleasant (and it almost makes up for gouging over wifi and internet access).
- Global Warming Update: Had to wear my sweatshirt two of four days here in Central Florida and it will be in the 30s tonight.
- I am another year older, a little closer to middle age, and feeling more crotchety. This is also a big reunion and anniversary year. Maybe its time for some kind of prototypical nod to aging, like a motorcycle or a sports car or a half-marathon…
Beemsville 