Small Town Sacrifices....

No, this is not a post detailing Shirley Jackson's The Lottery.  Just a short post to tease what might be a more substantial treatise this weekend. 

This weekend is my birthday.  AND this weekend is the weekend where the undefeated Michigan State Spartans take to the grid-iron versus their paper-tiger, cross-state little sister rivals, the similarly undefeated University of Michigan Wolverines. I could not have asked for a better set-up.  My birthday and a football game for the ages with Spartans taking on the hated Wolverines and the Wolverines sporting perhaps the worst college football defense in the history of college football defense.  To top it all off, the weather is supposed to be spectacular.  It had every portent of being that rare confluence of weather, great football and birthday that makes me feel blessed to have an autumn birthday in Michigan.  Trust me, as a life long Spartan football fan, i can honestly say these weekends do not come along that often.

So I was at the kitchen table last night, greedily sketching out my schematic drawing measuring the angle of the sun against the placement of the TV and mapping out where I would place the crock-pot full of hot wings, the pizza. chips and dip, cooler - when my wife reminded me that the weather this weekend was going to be perfect for a campout.

I am sure I looked at her as if she was talking in some foreign tongue.

"Campout?" I said laughing.  "Honey, I think what you meant to say was "Tailgate" and no, I am not "Tailgating" silly.  I am parking my birthday celebrating backside here on the couch and watching the Spartans disassemble the Wolverines..."

"No," she said using that tone of voice that tells me she is right already, "I meant "CAMPOUT" as in Scouts Camporee which our son has to complete to advance to Boy Scouts. It's this weekend, silly, Saturday."

There was a slight edge to her voice that I am sure she thought was playful and cute and, though she did not use them, I also imagined her placing "air quotes" around the word "silly"; both of which I immediately resented.

"Well, uh....what do you mean?" I said stupidly -wishing for anything, perhaps another kidney stone or similar excuse, to come along that would excuse me for spending the entire weekend on the couch watching football.

Of course it was a lost cause.  I already knew what she meant.  I would be spending Saturday afternoon chasing after a pack of boys, shooting bb guns, bows and arrows, cooking over an open fire without the benefit of elecricity, heat, tv, hotwings or Sportscenter.

So, just a tease today for a perhaps more substantial post composed this weekend, in a tent, on my birthday, from my cot, without the benefit of cold beverage or hot food, in the absence of any football, but with my son - which will, I am certain, make all the difference.

So thanks for stopping by the blog.  Here's hoping that whatever your weekend plans, they are either blessed, or cursed entirely, by a Spartan win over the Wolverines.