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Thu.Dec.29.2005

3:47 am EST        41°F (5°C) in Berkshire, OH

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I should have seen it coming. The University of Michigan football team blew yet another two-score fourth-quarter lead to lose to 10½-point underdog Nebraska, 32-28, in the MasterCard Alamo Bowl. The Wolverines took a 28-17 lead on a seven-yard run by quarterback Chad Henne with 11:40 to play in the game, but then proceeded to let Nebraska get a big punt return and score in two plays later on in the fourth. After that, the next two Michigan possessions ended in fumbles (officially, at least), following the second of which (the one that the dumbfuck Sun Belt Conference officials were too fucking stupid to understand wasn’t a fumble — there’s a reason why they work for the Sun Belt and not a real conference) Nebraska scored its winning touchdown.

(Any moron who saw the replay could see that Henne was in the act of throwing, and that was an incomplete pass, not a fumble. The ball should have been dead when it hit the turf.)

In any case, the final play of the game evoked echoes of the infamous “Cal play” of 1982, with Michigan making eight laterals and eventually advancing the ball to the Nebraska 13-yard-line before tight end Tyler Ecker was shoved out of bounds — with both sidelines starting to empty onto the field! This time, however, it didn’t work, and as a result, Lloyd Carr has just finished his worst season as the head coach of the Wolverines. As far as I’m concerned, he damn well better at least be on the hot seat next year — another 7-5 season, and he must be fired.

Not a whole lot else, save a huge confrontation with a few of my company’s dispatchers Tuesday night and yesterday morning (which I will detail in a future update when I have some more time), has happened since my last update here on December 21. I got home for three days at Christmas; as far as gifts went, I ended up with gift cards and books for the most part. The most interesting of these is liberal satirist Al Franken’s new book The Truth (with jokes), his follow-up to Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right. Even though I have only read about half of The Truth so far, Franken has already challenged part of my beliefs about the fear-mongering tactics that wrong-wing extremists use to win elections by the narrowest of margins — such as what Dumbya did in November 2004. It is a fascinating book.

As far as the issues with dispatch, I am going to say this much tonight: I am very seriously looking into moving to another company at this point. I do need to go into detail when I get the time, but to summarize, they are attempting to lay 100% blame upon me for a problem that is probably more of their own doing — the thing is, though, I’m the expendable, easily replaceable driver with no right to make my case to them, so I’m pretty much fucked no matter what I do.

I have a few little tasks to finish up tonight, and then in the afternoon after I get some sleep, it’s off to downstate Illinois.