The New Year Provides Its Early Challenges – And Maybe Shows A Sense Of Humor
Good thing it’s only January.
Then again, maybe I’ve got 11 months more of this treatment.
The year 2017 has come in punching and I’ve been hammered as if I were in the ring with Muhammad Ali in his prime. All I can do is play rope-a-dope and hope the flurry ends soon.
Things actually started two days before 2017 even arrived. I got the flu.
This slowed me on New Year’s Eve Eve, and knocked me out completely on NYE night. At midnight, I was not whopping up at a singles-filled house party at the beach as I had planned, but was on the couch, unable to move.
I could not go to the Penn State pep rally for the Rose Bowl game on New Year’s Day because I could not muster the energy to get out of bed (I’m not a PSU alumni, mind you, but I always like to go to a festive gathering of people).
Two weeks have passed and I’m still hacking. And time is running short to get in shape for the Super Bowl 10K in Redondo Beach, CA, the start to one of the most fun party days of the year here in the Los Angeles South Bay.
And then, on Jan. 9, my team – going for its incredible 17th college football National Championship – lost with one second remaining to Clemson.
Speaking of Alabama athletics, I was hoping that 2017 would be a breakout year for the basketball team. Coach Avery Johnson – former NBA Coach of the Year – has assembled some talent and excitement and has just signed the nation’s #3 recruiting class.
But the basketball team is a dud. It can’t shoot (about 45% from the floor), can’t hit free throws (barely above 50%) and has untimely turnovers, the same ills that plagued this team the past 4-5 years.
It’s also been raining. A lot. Even here in Los Angeles.
And the other day, on one of our few nice days of the new year, I rode my bike to Trader Joe’s. As I got off the bike, the seat grabbed my pants and ripped a hole in my jeans. Right in the crotch!
At first, I looked at this as a cheap shot by 2017. A low blow, one literally below the belt.
But then, I began to laugh. Maybe that was the equivalent of a ray of sunshine peeking through the clouds. Perhaps 2017 was demonstrating that it has a sense of humor, that I should laugh along with it.
Then I coughed.
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