And the rain came down

My daily blogging tends to be done around the same time each night. It's so reliable that you could almost set your watch by it. So allow me to explain what happened today that threw everything out of whack and why I'm writing this at 2 a.m. (I've altered the posting time and date so it appears to have been written on Saturday. I assure you that it's being written in the wee hours of Saturday night/Sunday morning.)

An entry may have popped up in Bloglines or Google Reader mid-afternoon on Saturday. If it did, there's a perfectly good reason why you won't find it here. I was getting a head start before leaving to keep football stats tonight, but I accidentally pressed the "publish post" button rather than "save now". I deleted the entry, but I'm betting the RSS feeds grabbed it before I removed it.

I didn't foresee any trouble in posting before the clock ran out on the day, but Mother Nature had other things in store. I arrived at the football stadium an hour and a half before game time. I wanted to make sure that the students I scheduled to tape the gridiron showdown were ready, and I needed a brush-up on the stats program. The rain started falling steadily after six. Lightning accompanied the precipitation. It also meant that the teams left the field and the game's start would be delayed. Every time lightning was seen, the game couldn't start for another thirty minutes minimum.

How long was it delayed? An interminable two hour and fifty-five minutes. Kick-off was pushed back to 9:55 p.m. Ordinarily the 7:00 p.m. game would have been done or almost finished by then. I'd say they were determined to play it come hell or high water, but the rain accumulation was slight despite it coming down in sheets. I was none to pleased about the delay or that they were going ahead with the game, but as essential personnel, I didn't have a choice but to stay.

The few of us in the press box were getting punchy as the game wore on. The public address announcer, who handles the same duties for Ohio State football, was wiped out and fell asleep sitting up during halftime. His day started before 6 a.m., so we cut him a break and let him doze until the second half was near. The penalty-plagued game wrapped with a total time of three hours twelve minutes. I didn't leave the stadium until 1:30 a.m. And my alma mater and employer lost too. I'm used to that--they won nine games in my four years as an undergraduate--but still...

Oh how I wished I had my knitting, even if I wouldn't have dared brought it out in front of this group. I had considered bringing a book because I expected I'd have some time to kill before the game. I could have used it.

After a quick drive home I woke up my computer and settled in for pounding out this post. But wait! Then Firefox started acting wiggy, adding further delays to what I intended to do.

I engaged in some more knitting in public earlier in the day. I walked to the newly opened Starbucks and did half a repeat while drinking my coffee. One of the employees took interest in the scarf but said she could never learn how to knit. She prefers to crochet, the intricacies of which have eluded me so far. Seriously, people, knitting isn't that hard. It takes patience and perseverance.

The photo at the top of the post is of the scarf in its current state while at the coffee shop. Doesn't it look nice?

Thanks for all of the birthday wishes left on my birthday post. I enjoyed getting them.

And now it's time for me to get to bed...