Kaimusailing

I had another evening at the Legion and drank enough to crash the bike on my way back. I made it OK to the marina but made a bad move and went down on the pavement. Road rash. Back aboard SUNSPLASH I mopped up oozing blood with baby wipes. The next morning I was very sore and stiff. There was a patch of blood on the sleeping bag. In daylight I could see my injuries were real, normal bike crash sort of stuff.
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I spent some time with Roughrider Lynn and a problem she was having on her new phone and not being able to download and open messaging attachments. It seemed like anything sent as MMS wouldn’t open. Advice on the internet about this problem didn’t help. Setting her messaging settings identical to mine didn’t help. She and Helicopter Dave are set to leave Crisfield and bring their boat up the Rappahannock River to haul out for the winter.
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While we were playing with her phone I was watching the NFL Now program which provides updates of the games in progress. There were teases of plays from the Jets Dolphins game and the Dolphins’ backup quarterback, Teddy Bridgewater, was tackled in the end zone and left the game with a concussion. The new concussion protocol will have a player removed from a game if the player exhibits any sort of wobbly behavior after a severe hit. This resulted in 3rd string quarterback Skylar Thomson to enter the game. He played well considering he was not expected to play and hadn’t had practice with the starting lineup. The Jets shocked the Dolphins winning 40-17. Now both teams are 3-2 within their division.
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Eve the artist returned from Pasadena and we gathered at the Legion, the remnants of the Bad Crowd, just four of us now. I cycled along at a moderate pace, I didn’t want another spill on the pavement. I of course celebrated too much and had my NY Jets ballcap blow off my head into the drink at the marina when I returned. I couldn’t get a boathook fast enough to grab it and it sunk quickly. I hope it is not a bad omen.
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I have to continue a bit more about the NFL, so if you are not interested you can skip, but how can you not be interested. The YouTube airwaves are aclutter with speculation about the next Jets game, against the Packers up in Green Bay, Wisc.. The Packers are coming home from London with their tails between their legs after being humiliated by the NY Giants in an upset. The stage is now set for a very strange game. Matt LeFleur, the Packers head coach, and Robert Saleh, the Jets head coach, are the very best of friends, each attending the others wedding as groomsmen. They were roommates and work mates from as early as when they were college football interns. Bill Belichick started out that way, too. Matt and Robert were offensive and defensive coordinators together for several years. Both became head coaches. Robert hired Matt’s brother, Mike, as offensive coordinator for the Jets. Both teams practiced together during the preseason. Both teams are at 3-2 and need to win this game. The Packers are the most desperate, falling to 3-3 would definitely set off the alarm bells in Green Bay, while the Jets are ecstatic at 3-2, and while they would love to be at 4-2, losing to the Packers and only being at .500, 3-3, would not be a great calamity.
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Wait, I’m not done, it takes a while for my obsessions to subside. The game will be nationally televised. The Packers quarterback, Aaron Rogers, is 38 years young. He is older than the Jets backup quarterback, Joe Flacco, who is a SuperBowl MVP, and is considered one of the two most respected older quarterbacks in the league, the other being Tom Brady. With all the hype surrounding this game, I wanted to do some of my own research, it was just bugging me like that. The Jets are kind of like the Bengals, young quarterback and offensive front line that is kind of patched together, some good pass catchers, good running back, good defense, the Bengals went all the way to the Super Bowl last year. If I wanted to see how the Jets would do against the Packers, I should just go back and watch the 2021 meeting of the Packers and the Bengals. Both teams were meeting with a 3-1 record, similar to this meeting now of the Packers and Jets. The Packers last year had Devonte Adams, a pass catching threat similar to Tyreek Hill, of the Dolphins, who the Jets had just faced and beaten. This year the Packers don’t have a pass receiver of that capability. The game against the Bengals in 2021 was tied up and went into overtime. Each team had multiple chances to win the game with a field goal, but they both missed. Remarkable. Green Bay eventually won on a field goal as overtime was running out.
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I checked the local TV schedule and the game will be on, it has all the earmarks of significance. Family Feud, upstarts against the old guard, prime tv football time of the Jets’ rookie stars, each winning Rookie of the Week, and it happened 3 weeks in a row. Garrett Wilson, wide receiver pass catcher, “Sauce” Gardner, defensive back, and Breece Hall, running back, all won that honor, but some exuberant Jets fan suggested that they should all share the honor at the same time, together. But they are rookies and have veterans on the team to compete against for their right to be on the field and play. The problem is the veterans were rookies last season, but there is a lot of raw talent and skill on the young Jets team.
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I haven’t had Chinese food in a long time and found today that my dinner plans were limited if I didn’t cook it myself, so I ordered roast pork in garlic sauce with fried rice. I creaked my bike up to the Chinese restaurant, the pedals need oiling, and on the way back purchased a box of Black Box Pinot Noir. Back on board SUNSPLASH I received a text from Cornelia Marie that the special at the Legion would be fried oysters and french fries. While sitting on board with my food and drink, would it be better to be biking across town in the chilly weather to a venue I know will be crowded with slow service, I mean there is no service, you have to go to the bar and order, if you can’t make it you are cut off. But I am alone on the boat and it looks like that is going to continue, the critical mass in our social group, the Bad Crowd, has fallen below the minimum, it has weighed upon me.
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Yes, I have enough wine to write, that should be obvious. I have to remember it isn’t these other people who create my demeanor, it is a mistake to think they do. It all comes from within. I say you have to find your inner peace.
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It is now a day or two later and my Jets have defeated the Green Bay Packers in a huge upset. It’s impact has slowly dawned on me. It has also dawned on the pro football writers. A power ranking system that had the Jets down in the lower third of the league now has them in the top 10. They face the Denver Broncos next and my delayed blog posting allows me to post the results of the Broncos playing the Chargers on Monday Night Football. The Broncos lost in overtime, but the score was down in the teens. So, the Broncos, 2-4, are coming off a hard fought overtime loss on Monday night to face the Jets on Sunday, short preparation week for the Broncos. The Jets could come out of this at 5-2 and the Broncos at 2-5.
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I neglected to mention the Crisfield Heritage event which was mainly centered at the J.M.Tawes Museum at the North end of the marina. It included a lot of family type of events, then transitioned to the area of the marina reserved for larger events. There are bleachers there and I stopped at a food truck that was selling fried oyster sandwiches for $15 cash. I bought one and returned to SUNSPLASH for an early dinner. Although the marina didn’t seem crowded, more cars arrived and the event was music and dancing on the tarmac.
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The image is of a sunset at the entrance to the Small Boat Harbor near Cuddily’s waterfront home.