This Day in History

Current Electoral College map of the United States.

I often like to look back to see what I was doing on a certain day. All my old scrapbook calendars are at home. Over the years David Hurt keeps reminding me of the one time he came to my Greenwood Avenue apartment back around 1984. He saw my calendar on the wall and where I had written “went to mall, bought gloves.” Earlier this year I was looking through one of my old calendars, and found that entry. I shared it with him. Then he talked about the time he and I were at the Buford Highway Taco Bell with Don and Debra Head, making up a silly song called “Born to Build Mobiles.” Gotta find that one on my calendar now.

Earlier this year when I was researching for my list of all the games I had attended (and who I went with), I discovered some I’d completely forgotten about. When I looked up my old spreadsheet, I also saw all the yearly spreadsheet calendars I kept as well. That’s one thing that I’ve stopped doing over the past year or two. Here’s what they say about November 4th – not a particularly exciting day.     

2002 we ate spaghetti. I wore my checked polo shirt, dark grey Polo khakis, and my cordovan loafers. Had attended Johnson Ferry that Sunday.

2003 ate BBQ chicken. Had a dentist appointment. Wore an orange striped dress shirt and tan Ducks Unlimited khakis. Timberland shoes. Attended North Point that Sunday.

2004 ate chicken & dumplings. W and M had violin lessons. Anna had ballet.

2005 we ate at Willys, perhaps with another family. It was the 115th time we had eaten out that year, on day 308 of the year. That included meals at work, at church, at games, with other people, etc.

2006 ate at Moes – the 110th time we had eaten out that year. Attended the Clemson football game.

2007 ate at McDonalds. Went to the Dekalb Farmer’s Market. Will had a party. Matthew was blue. 

Here’s the list of jobs I’ve worked:

1974 cut grass

1975 Vine Ingle Little League umpire

1975-1978 Baskin Robbins

1977 move furniture with Bill Jackson

1978 Anderson Little clothiers

1979 Betz Chemical summer help

1979-1982 GT BSU resident manager

1980 Chickfila Omni International

1983-1984 SPdL ECS

1984-1987 Sepco

1987-2020 JM Tull/Ryerson

To make sure of the dates, I dug out the old spreadsheet I’ve been keeping since 2001. It shows info from every year of my life. Hadn’t updated it in a while so I took time to do that.  

Tuesday: left at five and drove straight home. A little more traffic than usual, perhaps due to the election. Ceil was at her women’s ministry, so I cooked a frozen Trader Joes organic cheese pizza that had been in our freezer awhile. 

Didn’t want to watch the election so instead I watched several episodes of The Weakest Link. I might be able to do okay on that show answering questions, except the pop culture questions. I wouldn’t be good handling the abuse the host traditionally dishes out on the contestants. Seemed like the host was especially hostile to a stay at home mother, even after the mom had earlier impressed the host by correctly answering questions on two widely divergent topics. After her hostile comment, the host did think the mom had handled the hostility “rather well.” Did that mean the host really meant the ugly thing she had said? Sounds like the mom didn’t really care what the host thought of her.

Reading the novel Anxious People. Saw where Connie Morris had read it and decided to try to out. Not really crazy about it so far but won’t give up on it just yet. A good quote: “If the grass looks greener on the other side, maybe it’s because there’s a lot of manure over there.” You know, that quote is quite applicable today.

_{Current college football Total QB Rating}

_{1. 97.2 Justin Fields Ohio State (2 games) transfer}

_{2. 95.5 Mac Jones Alabama}

_{4. 90.4 Kyle Trask Florida}

_{7. 86.5 Trevor Lawrence Clemson junior}

_{10. 83.9 Stetson Bennett IV Georgia junior transfer}

_{41. 69.3 Sam Howell UNC changed commitment}

_{48. 65.3 Jordan Travis FSU}

_{59. 58.9 Jarrett Guarantano Tennessee}

_{60. 57.4 Cornelious Brown Georgia State}

_{75. 47.6 Charlie Brewer Baylor}

_{78. 45.9 Chase Brice Duke transfer}

_{90. 37.1 Jeff Sims Georgia Tech freshman changed commitment}

_{91. 35.5 Shai Werts Georgia Southern}

_{99. 18.8 Rex Culpepper Syracuse media darling, out of 100}

Does it say something about a player when he sticks to his original college choice, overcomes adversity, and performs well? Better than a player who transfers to greener pastures? Seems like more players these days are transferring than not. Just like more people are changing jobs, as opposed to working for one company in their career. Seems like the people who hop from job to job would have the least seniority when it came time for layoffs. Not sure if that’s high on their list of important things.

Nothing worse when one side gloats when their side wins, especially when the day before the same people were calling for peace and calm. 

TUG McGRAW [SABR Bio] was a bullpen stalwart for two separate National League franchises in their years when they won their first World Series - 1969 Mets & 1980 Phillies Willie Mays was pinch-hitting for him in Mays’s last MLB appearance - 1973 World Series game three 10th inning 16-Oct-1973 Son Tim McGraw (a country star himself) is married to Faith Hill.