Bad Football, Bad Weather and Toilets

There is rain, there is football, there is wind, and there is late September, individually I love all four (well 3 of the 4. I hate wind, especially when I’m wet and cold sitting at the top of Rice Eccles stadium and I have a 7 year old who was wet and cold. I hate wind) but combine them and I hate them.  Saturday was a crappy day. Usually I try to stay positive on this blog but Saturday sucked.

It started out with me cleaning all three toilets in the house. Two young boys in the house, need I say more on why that sucked.

The whole day it rained. I mean rained. I thought the Utes were playing Noah and his family it rained so much. I mean Seattle doesn’t get this much (they do I know but this is the desert). I thought I was going to see vampires that glitter in the sun it rained so much (don’t get that joke ask Mandy she’ll tell you).  So usually on game day we get there early, grab some grub, and the watch the pageantry that is college football. This day we decided to get some dinner from a local sandwich/bakery shop on the way down. We were eating in the car when we discovered that of the four sandwiches we ordered were incorrect, Connor’s thankfully was the only one not affected. We were able to get our money back when Mandy made the phone call to said restaurant and calmly explain what had transpired. Downside our car smelled like the red onions that were supposed to have been held on those three sandwiches.

We then donned our rain gear (ark not included) and headed to the game. Did I mention that had been raining? The wind was howling? We were prepared for rain but not gale force winds whipping through the top of the stadium. Ok it was blowing throughout the whole place but our seats are so high up we pay extra money to the U for the oxygen tanks that are installed under our bleachers. The rain slowed to a steady drizzle for most of the game but we were all still wet and poor Connor was cold to the bone. At half-time we made our strategic exit. We were all cold and shivering and the hot chocolate for Alex didn’t help. We packed up and made our way back to our car.

On our way back to the car we have to cross 1400 East just in front of the theatre on 200 South. We arrived at the crosswalk, looked both ways, and started crossing the street. We were almost to the middle of the street when some headlights appeared heading south. We slowed down to make sure these people would stop, the car slowed and then inexplicably accelerated. Did I mention we still had our poncho’s on? I understand, its dark and slick, but the road is well lit, the rain had stopped and we were wearing BRIGHT RED AND YELLOW PONCHOS! See below:

Hard to see us in that picture isn't it. She was close enough to us that Mandy yanked back on Alex to be extra safe. I decided to hit her lovely new Corolla with our stadium seats to show my displeasure at her lack of driving courtesy. Editors note: The seats are soft cushion type, not the hard fold up ones. So no damage was done to her vehicle.
Should I have done that, probably not and I am sorry I wasn’t the best example of cool under pressure. However, the shear fear that the driver showed as I whacked her car was worth it and hopefully she is more careful in the future. 

We arrived back at the car, stripped off the brightly colored ponchos, got in the car, cranked the heater on high and headed home. Here is my rant on the game: Are you flipping kidding me? 24-7 lead at half and you cannot sustain it? Travis Wilson is not the best QB the U has ever had (Lance Rice anyone? I kid I kid) but the guy was running for his life every time he dropped back to pass. Not only that, but balls he was able to deliver without running around were promptly dropped. How many dropped passes were there in that game by wide open receivers? You win the turnover battle; have a RB that has almost 200 yards and you still lose the game? To Mike “I wanna be a Pirate” Leach of all people! The defense cannot do it all, especially when they spend most of the second half on the field. Worst of all I feel for the people who stayed for that entire fiasco. The ones in the stadium who say Anderson drop the sure go ahead for good touchdown. Oh well there is always next week to rebound……against #8 UCLA in Pasadena. Sigh……..

To summarize Saturday: cleaned toilets, bad food, bad weather, cold and shivering, almost hit by a car, and the U loses AGAIN in the Pac12.