Trees, both from our Village and real ones in front yard, are coming down!

Happy New Year one last time as 2014 is now well underway.  Let's all hope it will be a good year.

I don't have much to offer this Thursday morning as wife Sandra is home today and she's already busy at the Village.  It will be down by weekend's end.  However, with her now working, and it's only shortly after 8 AM, the signal is strong for me to get into the living room to join her.  All the trees are already packed away.

Just a couple quickie observations.  First, in the sports world, it seems like the National sports orgs are running into some difficulty lately, and much of it is because of the instant replay and officials' calls challenges.  I've lost count of the number of NFL games that the powers have declared had end of game calls that were contrary to the rules or what actually happened.  Well, it's too darn bad that games had to end that way, but telling us the officials screwed up with no ability to make any changes doesn't seem to accomplish too much.

There have been problems in the NBA as well.

In my other life a long, long time ago I was a sports official in two different sports, baseball and swimming.  Did I ever make a mistake in my calls in either sport?  Of course not!  As my dad, one of the better known umpires way back in the 40s, used to say, "I always call 'em as I see 'em so they are simply the correct calls."  I do remember a ball crossing second base in Falmouth once that I called "Foul Ball."  I'll never forget it.  I was very happy that it didn't affect the outcome of the game.

Getting back to today, the instant replays and official challenges have dramatically change the all sports, though.  Do they improve the game?  Well, they do take the human element out of games, at least the officiating part.  Games are played by humans and officiated by humans; and humans are simply humans subject to trying the best they can. 

It is snowing outside right now.  we are expecting a return today of a tree removal crew to finish taking down a couple trees in our front yard.  They began the project yesterday, yes, New Year's Day, and my front area is filled with snorkel trucks, chippers, tractors, etc.  Even with the snow, I expect they will be here so they don't have to leave their equipment behind.  I'd guess they only have a couple hours left in the project.

I'm getting the "evil eye" from the other room so I'd better be a good boy and head in their to help with the dismantling of the village.  I'll be back this weekend, possibly with some new storm pictures.

Hey!  Look what's just now coming up the long driveway.  I knew that crew would be here today!!

Dave