This morning, across the length and breadth of this great country, in likely very many households, male spouses are busily figuring out how to watch yet another full day of football without royally ticking off the old lady. But this doesn't usually concern me. First of all, you see, I am a formerly married person who, thanks to my one extraordinarily wretched marriage, has been left with a probably permanent aversion to wedded bliss. Or anything vaguely resembling it. Secondly, while I am an admitted college football junkie, in any other year, I'd normally suffice with a couple of games on Saturday, having of course whetted my appetite on Thursday night, in preparation for the weekend's fare. Unfortunately, I have yet to observe a Friday-night college football game that amounted to much, and having no athletic offspring for whom to root rabidly, I am left to find some other way to while away those Friday nights in Fall. And unless the Falcons are on a tear, pro ball on Sunday holds little attraction for me.
By the time the autumnal equinox rolls around (and it's actually equilux- I looked it up... I love Wikipedia), one has a general idea whether or not one's favorite team is going to be worth a flip. (Note here: In the South, the notion of being "worth a flip", when referring to one's alma mater or one's chosen favorite, denotes nothing less than an undefeated season and a national, nay, WORLD Championship.) By the first weekend in October, one starts to realize whether or not those suspicions are valid. I am proud to say that my Clemson Tigers, normally perpetual paragons of underachievement, proceded this past weekend to bolster growing notions that they are this year for real, for the first time since thirty-one years ago, when they won their last (well, only, so far...) National Championship.
Fall is my favorite time of year, for a number of reasons. I think I'll go out for a walk now and savor the cool Indian Summer morning. In Atlanta, they aren't there yet, but soon the leaves will be turning orange. Go Tigers!
