I Feel Like A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court

Actually More Like An Alabama Redneck In A Sea Of Orange...


Have I mentioned that living in a "college town" pretty much sucks if you happen to not have attended the "town's college"?

Well...it does...at least until the team that's in season (as opposed to the game that's in hunting season like "wabbits" or ducks) loses three or four games.

Then things settle down and quieten up a good bit and you can stand to wander around in public without being assaulted.

Thus my situation here this morning on the banks of the mighty Tennessee River...in the middle of the 2009 College football season.

When you do go out for drinks or dinner or shopping here even with U of T's three losses to date we still see probably 50% of the people wearing orange or at least sporting a big orange T on their heads and breasts and backs and butt and feet and car bumpers.

The local newspaper--the Knoxville Sentinel--is equally difficult to stomach.

If the team is winning, the front page has a story and three quarters of the sports section is UT blaa blaaa blaaaaaa.

Likewise, if the team is losing, the front page has a story and three quarters of the sports section is UT boo hooo hooooo.

You can hardly EVER find any mention of anything except SEC sports...they'll instead print stories about the recruiting prospects of the UT Pick-up-sticks and bowling teams rather than write about anything going on in Atlanta or the ACC or in anywhere else in the country for that matter.

I guess I can understand, but still...the Oak Ridge National Lab and ranks of Tennessee Valley Authority offices are full of Auburn and Clemson and more importantly...

GEORGIA TECH ENGINEERS.

Yet God forbid they should ever mention GT's success thus far this season as UT faces being stomped by Alabama on Saturday.

And ME?

I'm faced knowing the Tech faces the University of Virginia at noon today in Charlottesville and I'm afraid that the Raycom broadcast won't be on our local moronic Comcast schedule.

So any way, I've been wandering around town in my GT shirts just for fun and last night at dinner I happened to end up sitting adjacent to an older Tech alum who was equally happy to find a fellow Rambling Wreck to talk to.

We spent a half hour swapping stories about the good old days down at the North Avenue Trade School, then I came home and went back to my new grind managing a new Website I'm developing and working on some proposals.

BTW...the company I incorporated just got it's first small order yesterday, so we're off and running and hopefully I'm no longer semi-retired/unemployed.

Of course it will take about twenty more orders like this to make some semblance of a living, but it's a start after a great deal of soul searching and planning and false starts over the past 10 months in limbo.

Time for a nap now...and wish me luck...if you will...