I'm not sure, but I think this last weekend was the first time My Dear Sweet Sainted Wife ever abandoned me to go off on one of her trips to the realm of granddaughters and took the dogs with her as well. That's because she was going to stay with my sister, Karen, who lives out in the sticks near Fulton, Mo., and has room not only for dogs but horses and a few other animals as well.
The dogs don't fit in too well in the urban environment inhabited by the granddaughters.
I guess part of it was the extra rainy and gloomy weather last weekend and then the cloudy, cold nastiness of the first part of the week.
Both dogs share a fairly equal amount of general uselessness and stupidity, but just having them underfoot and complaining all the time gives me something to do.
I never thought I'd say this, but I've missed those worthless dogs a pretty good bit. I'm a little more used to My Dear Sweet Sainted Wife being gone than I am the dogs being gone at the same time, I guess.
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As it turned out, later in the week, the dogs didn't get along all that great with my sister's dogs (or horses, either, for that matter) so My Dear Sweet Sainted Wife came home a few days ahead of schedule and the dogs are already underfoot and complaining and things are back to normal, I guess.
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Anyway, my favorite NFL Sunday is coming up with AFC and NFC conference finals to determine the Super Bowl teams for this year.
I've already lost one pair of bets to that lucky bucket Robby Minyard, when I picked Seattle over Atlanta and Green Bay over San Francisco. I figured I'd get one of them right and break even, but no, I struck out on both because Seattle made some really bad decisions and clock management mistakes on top of some non-existent "prevent" defense to blow the game at the end. And Green Bay's defense was made a complete fool of from the start by Collin Kaepernick's scrambling and pistol offense runs.
For Sunday's picks (warning to all, I'm really unlucky at this) I've got San Francisco over Atlanta and New England over Baltimore.
Surely I can't lose both ways on that pair of picks.
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January is more than half-gone and I can't say I'll miss it too much.
Business is always rotten in January, along with the weather, and it just seems like the most depressing month of the year. Coming right on the heels of Thanksgiving and Christmas, which seem to lighten the load of the oncoming winter weather a little bit, January just doesn't have much going for it.
February can be just as bad, but one thing about February, it comes right before March, and in March the bermuda grass starts to turn and spring is just around the corner ... so I can tolerate February.
I guess I could be living in Minnesota or someplace where it definitely won't be 56 and sunny Saturday like it's supposed to be here.
Problem is, I've seen some of those 56 and sunny forecasts turn into 46 and cloudy and windy, and that would kill the first opportunity to get on the golf course in over a month.
I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
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The Grizzlies have lost three in a row now since beating San Antonio in Memphis last Friday night ... a game I was thinking about attending 'til a bunch of commercial presswork ran off whack and kept me at the office 'til way past game time. I guess I didn't have it too bad -- my poor struggling press crew was at it several hours after that. But the Grizzlies have cooled off after a hot start, mostly because their bench players have been playing like bench players lately, instead of like starters. Maybe 6 games in 9 days was a bit much.
I still have trouble finding Memphis Tiger games on TV -- they pop up once in a while down in the Direct TV 650s range, but nothing consistent. Even though they're not so hot this year, they're still my favorite college team ... that goes back to the spring of '73 and all that old-timey stuff.
Everybody knows that your favorite sports teams and popular music from your college years are what stick with you for a lifetime.
dtennyson@blythevillecourier.com