Fourth Grade Football & Other Musings

It has been a while since any Browns have blogged, and I apologize for that. Our excuse? School and sports, and the activity that has taken up the most time has been football. When we first moved to Jackson, I wondered whether Sam would become a true Mississippi boy and play football, and it only took a year to get my answer. Whether I want it or not, Sam is a football player. His fate was sealed at the last game when he intercepted a handoff and ran in for the touchdown. It was an incredible heads-up play! The week before Sam's team had faced a team made up of "country boys" that wanted to beat the city boys of Jackson. And beat them they did, 30-0, sending our quarterback to the hospital after the second play of the game and leaving our remaining players crying in the huddle. They were big and scary ("corn-fed" is what the city Moms called these boys!) My son survived that game with a bruise the size of a dinner plate on his arm. Coached by two fathers that were former NFL players and a former Mississippi congressman, fourth grade football has been an authentic Mississippi experience!

Football has taken hold of our whole family and we enjoyed a trip down to New Orleans recently to the Superdome to see the Saints play. It was a lot of fun and very comfortable in the climate controlled indoor arena. However, as I sit here and type, Will and I are watching a pre-season NBA game so I know football fever cannot last; basketball is about to arrive and that's the true sport of the Brown family. Go Duke!

So what am I reading lately? Nothing, really--I have had a hard time sticking with a book. My next blog will get me back on track with my reading life.

Sam's Movie Recommendations

I have recently seen three new movies: Ghost town,What Happens in Vegas, and The Love Guru. Let's start with Ghost Town. I thought this movie was really good. Ricky Gervais and Greg Kinnear were really good. On the scale: 8. Next, What Happens in Vegas. This movie was not very good. I didn't think the idea for the movie was very good and they didn't make it work. On the scale: 4. Last but not least, The Love Guru. I thought this movie was very funny. It was a little stupid at the beginning, but it got better and better. On the scale: 6. More reviews to come. Sam

Presidential Elections

Sure, McCain and Obama are running for President, but the most important election just happened this week on the campus of Jackson Academy in Jackson, MS. Will Brown ran for President of the 7th Grade. It was a hard fought race (seven students battled it out), and unfortunately, Brown was not the winner. His remarks following the results of the election proved to me he is handling his defeat just fine: "Mom, none of my friends won their races either so I would not of had the staff I wanted," and "Mrs. Keenan (faculty adviser to the 7th grade) said after the results were announced that she wanted to see all new student council members in her classroom during break on Monday morning because quote "We have a lot of work to do." Maybe it is good I didn't win." Words of wisdom if I have ever heard any (whoever loses on the first Tuesday in Nov. may not be as upset about it as we may think because the winner is going to have a lot of work to do and the loser can just kick back and have break!

On the reading front: I had stalled out as I attempted to read Skinny Bitch and The Duchess. Both were unreadable for me: The Duchess was a dissertation in a pretty cover (sleeper!) and the bad language in Skinny Bitch, which is its distinguishing trademark, is simply gratuitous. Both were terrible. So I moved on Richard Yates' Revolutionary Road, a beautifully written novel about a marriage in the 1950s and I am currently rereading Pride & Prejudice because I am teaching it and it never gets old!

Sam's Movie Recommendations

Sorry I have not blogged in a while but I have 5 new movie reviews for you. I have seen Men in Black 2, The Lord of the rings The Two towers , Jumper , The Rocker and The Mummy Returns. Lets start with Men In Black 2. I thought the movie could have been a lot better. I thought the idea was stupid and the movie was not funny. From now on I will rate The movie a review on a scale from 1 - 10 Men in Black 2 is a 3.Well next let's do The Lord of the Rings The two Towers. My word for that movie is Brilliant on a scale of 1-10 I'll give that movie a 8. Next let's do Jumper. I actually just watched Jumper last night. I thought it was a real good movie. I thought the story was good and so was the acting. On a scale of 1-10 I'll give it a 9. Next The Rocker. The main character played by Rainn Wilson from The Office. I thought Rainn Wilson played the part really good and the movie was Hilarious. I would not say it was better then Jumper but on the scale I'll give it a 7. And last but not least The Mummy Returns after seeing the first and the last Mummy movie I wanted to see the 2 one. I thought Brendan Fraser was good and Dwayne Johnson played a good villiain in the movie. But I thought the first one was best then the second then then the third. On the scale 8. More reviews to come. Sam

Bike Ride on the Trace

9/6/08
I took a ride on the Natchez Trace this morning. All my fellow biking friends in Greensboro were supposed to be riding the Tour to Tanglewood, but I read where the Saturday ride (the fun part of the event) was cancelled due to Hanna. So, I put on my Tour to Tanglewood jersey and drove out to the Trace Overlook Park to do what I used to do in Greensboro....ride a bike in the dark.

I have grown to love riding on the trace early in morning and enjoy the quiet and the wildlife. MS is pretty rural, so you don't have to go far to be in the middle of nowhere. Typically, there are very few cars...maybe five in an hour' s work of riding. This morning, I missed three deer crossing the road about ten feet in front of me. Deer in MS usually die at that range from encounters with people, but I was armed only with a water bottle, and besides, the hunting season doesn't start for another month or two. They surprised me, I surprised them, and we parted company.

The trace is flat, and the road is smooth, so the ride is quite pleasant and fast unless the wind is from the north..not usually the case in the summer. It's a great time to think. Good investments, bad investments, yelling at the kids, not yelling enough at the kids...it all gets analyzed and re-analyzed until a moment of wisdom strikes me or I get distracted by something like..a snake!

Or an alligator, or a turtle, or wild turkeys....I have had encounters with all of these things in the early morning hours on the trace. Usually, they are dead from encounters with Fords and Chevys.

Early in the morning as the sun is coming up through the pine and oak trees, while the mist is clearing, the trace is like a diner for turkey vultures. Every mile has a gathering. I see them ahead...freshest food in town! I pass them; they have no interest in me. (When it's this fresh, you just have to eat.)

There's a place called Yakanookany (I think...never can actually remember the place) where I turn around. It's really, really in the middle of the most remote definition of nowhere possible. It's ten miles north of nowhere. I have never encountered another sign of man there, other than the road under me.

I have my snack, a drink, a quick stretch, then it's back through the woods, across the big field with the wild turkeys, under the two bridges, more woods, the hill (one of only two, and not steep), more woods, more turkeys, cypress swamps, past the reservoir and back to the car. I've ridden it enough to know how many miles I have to go when I cross under the second bridge, how long it will take me from the boat landing on the upper Pearl (if I'm going 17.5), and when I can expect to get pelted by dragonflies from the lake.

I've ridden about 2000 miles on this 30 mile stretch of the trace. I know it very well, as well as I used to know Yanceyville Road, and Highway 150, and Spring Garden, and Summerfield Road. I certainly miss those roads, but I will also miss this 30 mile stretch when I quit the bike or move somewhere else. I know that road well. I would be easy to assassinate.

So, I had a nice ride, and Hanna rained on Greensboro. My gain and a loss for the TTT. I may ride in the morning, or I may sleep late. Either way, the wild turkeys will be there, and there will be plenty of fresh kill for the vultures.

More Gator Tales

In the news yesterday . . . an alligator was found under a car in the Entergy parking lot. Apparently, at night alligators travel, and this 5-foot guy left his Pearl River home and decided to go to town. When the sun began to rise, he quickly looked for shade and found it under Ms. Entergy Employee's car. Fortunately, some co-workers spotted him before she did and the Dept. of Wild Life was quickly called in. My favorite part of the story is her comment upon discovering the gator: 'I don't have time for this!" A classic mother-response when her schedule is so rudely interrupted, even by a 5-foot gator!

A robbery, caught on videotape, was broadcast on the local news last night. Two men, both wearing helmets, pulled up and parked in front of a convenience store. The man riding in the rear jumps off and enters the store. He announces that this is a robbery and demands the money from the register. Then he demands money from all the customers in the store. He goes around, one by one, taking money, but pauses at a young girl, and says 'I like you . . . you can keep your money." She replies, "Thank you." Then he leaves. So girls, make sure you always look nice--it may save your wallet during a hold-up!

Mississippi Moment

I am communing with Nature again, but this time it is not snakes but frogs. Outside my kitchen window we have thick bushes and shrubs; it's where Buddy, our black lab, likes to hunker down in the dirt and stay cool. At night, attracted to our kitchen lights, all kinds of creatures gather, mostly insects of various types, but lizards and frogs as well. In August in Mississippi you hear the frogs; their chorus of croaking surrounds you as you drive into your driveway or take the garbage cans to the street in the evening. It's rare to actually see them, unless its splattered on the road, an unfortunate accident for many a frog crossing a street in our neighborhood. At our window, however, a couple of frogs have appeared regularly, one big, one small, and I am absolutely convinced that it is a father and son. Dad's teaching Junior the finer art of catch and grab. I can just hear him saying: "Son, be patient," or "Like this, Junior--just stay still and then make the leap." Lately the Browns have been greatly entertained by the show, which recently took a humorous turn last night. Junior appeared at the window sill looking straight into the kitchen at me so I decided to speak directly to him: '"How are you this evening?" "Going to eat?" "You sure do look handsome tonight." What do you say to a frog? Anyway, I think he enjoyed the conversation because he started opening his mouth right back at me and taking his froggy feet back and forth over his froggy head. Now, I am not familiar with frog mating rituals, but I think this frog was flirting with me. I know; it's pathetic, but I have recently entered that wondeful new phase of feminine life (Thanks, Emily, for the CD of Menopause the Musical) and have not been feeling too attractive lately. I will take any kind of attention, even from the green, bug-eyed froggy variety. Thanks, Kermit.