eeyore-style grumping ahead
Sep. 15th, 2014 09:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sarea
I'm sorry to say that I'm in a general state of blah. I shall go through why that is, one by one.
1) The Seahawks losing. I, unlike every other fan in Washington state, knew that it was a distinct possibility the Seahawks were going to lose to the Chargers. I tried to stay positive and upbeat about our chances, but I just had this sinking feeling about the game. It didn't matter that the Chargers were going to play without a number of players on their team, or that every fan -- of both teams! -- seemed convinced that the Seahawks would beat them, and beat them badly. Guys on the radio here were saying things like, "On Sunday, when the Chargers get their asses kicked..." There was ZERO humility, and no one, even the most objective of sports writers, even gave the Chargers a chance.
But I knew the Chargers were a dangerous team. They were in the playoffs last year, and they have a history of being giant killers (beating good teams while losing to bad ones... it's odd). Plus any time a team has everyone convinced they're invincible, they have to be brought down to earth. That's the laws of nature. Hubris will get you every time. (And I knew the Seahawks weren't invincible. I found tons of problems with the Green Bay game that other people just brushed off. They got lucky a couple of times, and that luck finally caught up with them in this game.) I also remembered preseason. The Seahawks won that game 41-14 or something, but I remembered, unlike most people, that Philip Rivers and the first-team offense were only on the field for one series, and they did well during that time.
The Seahawks lost 30-21, but actually it wasn't even as close as the score indicates. It's already demoralizing enough that for the first time in 2 years, the Seahawks lost by more than a touchdown, but I have to be honest here. They actually lost by more than 2 touchdowns in this game, not 9 points. The Percy Harvin TD shouldn't have been ruled a TD. Maybe the Hawks would have eventually turned it into one, but we'll never know now. All we do know is that Percy stepped out of bounds, so it wasn't a TD. (Yes, on the other side of the coin, it's even possible that would have helped us, because it would have kept our offense on the field longer, giving our D more time to rest, which they really needed.)
The Seahawks really aren't as dominant as people like to say they are. I love them, yet I recognize that. They're a good team, but they did not look good yesterday. I realize it was nearly 120°F on the field. That is insane. I can barely do anything when it's 85°F, much less 120°F. It's even crazier that some of our players had to have IV treatment right there on the field. Maybe the NFL shouldn't have players out playing in that kind of heat for safety reasons, the same way they stop games when there's lightning. I'm not trying to use this as an excuse for the Seahawks' performance, though. The Chargers had to play in the same heat, and they made it work. (Of course, they did sort of pull off a diabolical move. In the NFL, home teams typically wear their colors instead of whites, but as the home team, they get to choose. And in the blistering heat, they chose to wear their whites, which meant the Seahawks had to wear their dark blues. I don't blame the Chargers for doing it, at the same time I also kind of feel like under those kinds of circumstances, it's rather an unfair advantage.)
I'm disappointed that our D did not live up even remotely to their billing. They gave up over 30 points!! WTF? Still, I have to recognize that they were out there for the majority of the game (OVER 42 MINUTES -- THAT'S 70% OF THE GAME), as the Chargers offense OWNED the time of possession battle. I can only imagine that it must have been torturous for the Seahawks D.
Really, I'm most disappointed in our O. They looked so good in the preseason, I really thought this was going to be Russell Wilson's breakthrough year, where he'd enter the ranks of the elite and prove all his doubters wrong. Instead, I think he's proving all his doubters right. He's still a good player, but he's not elite. He can't put the team on his back and win games. The D can't always be there to bail him out, as yesterday proved. Yesterday was his chance to prove that he could carry a game even when the D wasn't playing as well as they normally do. The D needed him to stay on that field longer, so that they could get some much-needed rest. Instead, the offense was anemic. Marshawn Lynch and Percy Harvin were nowhere to be found. And Doug Baldwin? Come on, ADB. You say you're not pedestrian, but you left tons of catches on the field.
It was the first time I was glad that I didn't have the Seahawks D on my "real" fantasy team. It netted my coworker -1 points. I didn't even think negative points were possible in fantasy. And I hate that they made me feel that way. So confusing emotionally!
I was totally depressed the rest of the day. The only thing that made me feel remotely better was late in the evening, when the 49ers self destructed and somehow lost to the Bears, despite having held a 17-0 lead at one point. So thanks toakscully's Bears, we are now all 1-1 for the season. (Which totally fucked up one of my fantasy football team matchups, because originally I'd been heavily favored. Then Jay Cutler went waaaaay over his projection and I was beaten by less than 5 points. Still... worth it.) Arizona sits on top of the NFC West, being the only undefeated team in the division, lol. Of course, my concern about the 49ers is that they're without several of their key players, so they're going to be stronger later in the season. Yet the Seahawks have been playing with all their important players, so they have no excuse. The exception is Jeremy Lane... but seriously, one player shouldn't make that much difference, not when everyone else in the league is playing with injuries also.
2) Plumbing issues. I think I've mentioned this before, but I've had a couple of plumbing issues that have been problematic for the last year or so. They're a pain, but obviously not so much of a pain that I've prioritized them. One was that the master bathtub didn't drain well, and the other was that in the guest bathroom, you have to hold down the handle to make the toilet flush. I had some plumbers come by a couple months ago, but they wanted $1,200 to fix these problems ($500 to deal with the tub, $700 to replace the toilet). That seemed incredibly high to me, so I sent them on their way and lived with the issues a little longer.
Then the other day, the kitchen sink began to have problems draining. Well, that was a big enough problem that necessitated my getting on it right away, so I looked on Yelp and contacted Zesbro Plumbing, which had a ton of great reviews. They came out and fixed all 3 problems for $400. I was thrilled. However, the next morning, the sink had another backup. When I called to let them know, they gave me the bad news that they thought there was some bigger problem. I spent another $400 power hosing the pipe to clear out all the debris, but in the process of doing that, they felt what they thought might be a broken pipe. If that's indeed the case, I've only put a Band-Aid on the problem and it'll return in time. :/ So now I'm going to have to have them send a camera down there to see what's up, and if there's really a broken pipe, then it's probably going to cost a fortune to ID where exactly on the grounds it is, and fix. UGH.
3) Problems with my right thumb. For the last 6 months or so, I've had some pain in my thumb, in the joint closest to my palm. When it first started happening I just figured I had tweaked it in some way, and it would heal on its own. It didn't actively hurt, just when I used it in certain ways, like grasping things (especially heavy things like laptops or board games). Then a few weeks ago I overused it or something and it started aching all the time. I finally made an appointment to see my GP, who referred me to an arthritis specialist because she thought it could be that or maybe tendonitis or something.
So I went to see the specialist, who reviewed my x-rays with me and said that it did not appear that I had arthritis, that my joints looked really good (whew! I really felt like I WAS FAR TOO YOUNG to be suffering from arthritis already!). She did some exercises with my hand and moved it this way and that, and also ruled out tendonitis, explaining that if I had it, I would be feeling pain on the soft part of my palm near my thumb, but I wasn't. Finally she said that there was probably some lingering inflammation in the joint area from something I'd done to it, so she would put me on a course of prescription-strength NSAIDs. If after 10 days it felt fine, then great... if not, I was to go back and see her, and likely get a cortisone injection in the area. Since I am not the biggest fan of needles, I'd like to avoid that if at all possible. That said, how amazing is it that we live in a time where that would be possible? If I were in the stone age I'd just have to live with this random pain forever, even though there's no reason for it. (Well actually most likely I would have died 16 years ago after giving birth to a passel of children, but you know.)
Anyway, I'm on day 8 of medication and I've had mixed results so far. The actual pain that I was experiencing before, in that specific location, seems to be mostly gone -- a twinge here and there and still some weakness, but much improved from before. I'm a little afraid that if I stop taking the meds that it'll come back, but for the most part I can do all the stuff now that I couldn't before, pain free. BUT now, in the same thumb, I seem to have a new pain that is not in the joint, but in the area between my two thumb joints. I might have overdone it one day... but not in some totally weird, abusive way that I wouldn't use my left hand for! And also, if the meds are working for the joint, then why do I feel the other pain? Just WTF in general.
So I'm not really sure what I should do, whether I should go back and say that it's mostly but not all gone, or if I should just take the meds a few more days than prescribed (say 14 days instead of 10), or just wait it out after going off the meds. I'm just tired of not being able to use one of my body parts like normal. :/ This is like when I had the sore shoulder issue awhile back... it eventually got better, but I tried waiting this one out and it just wasn't going away.
SIGH. WHY DO WE HAVE TO GROW OLD AND WATCH/FEEL OUR BODIES BREAK DOWN. WHY.
1) The Seahawks losing. I, unlike every other fan in Washington state, knew that it was a distinct possibility the Seahawks were going to lose to the Chargers. I tried to stay positive and upbeat about our chances, but I just had this sinking feeling about the game. It didn't matter that the Chargers were going to play without a number of players on their team, or that every fan -- of both teams! -- seemed convinced that the Seahawks would beat them, and beat them badly. Guys on the radio here were saying things like, "On Sunday, when the Chargers get their asses kicked..." There was ZERO humility, and no one, even the most objective of sports writers, even gave the Chargers a chance.
But I knew the Chargers were a dangerous team. They were in the playoffs last year, and they have a history of being giant killers (beating good teams while losing to bad ones... it's odd). Plus any time a team has everyone convinced they're invincible, they have to be brought down to earth. That's the laws of nature. Hubris will get you every time. (And I knew the Seahawks weren't invincible. I found tons of problems with the Green Bay game that other people just brushed off. They got lucky a couple of times, and that luck finally caught up with them in this game.) I also remembered preseason. The Seahawks won that game 41-14 or something, but I remembered, unlike most people, that Philip Rivers and the first-team offense were only on the field for one series, and they did well during that time.
The Seahawks lost 30-21, but actually it wasn't even as close as the score indicates. It's already demoralizing enough that for the first time in 2 years, the Seahawks lost by more than a touchdown, but I have to be honest here. They actually lost by more than 2 touchdowns in this game, not 9 points. The Percy Harvin TD shouldn't have been ruled a TD. Maybe the Hawks would have eventually turned it into one, but we'll never know now. All we do know is that Percy stepped out of bounds, so it wasn't a TD. (Yes, on the other side of the coin, it's even possible that would have helped us, because it would have kept our offense on the field longer, giving our D more time to rest, which they really needed.)
The Seahawks really aren't as dominant as people like to say they are. I love them, yet I recognize that. They're a good team, but they did not look good yesterday. I realize it was nearly 120°F on the field. That is insane. I can barely do anything when it's 85°F, much less 120°F. It's even crazier that some of our players had to have IV treatment right there on the field. Maybe the NFL shouldn't have players out playing in that kind of heat for safety reasons, the same way they stop games when there's lightning. I'm not trying to use this as an excuse for the Seahawks' performance, though. The Chargers had to play in the same heat, and they made it work. (Of course, they did sort of pull off a diabolical move. In the NFL, home teams typically wear their colors instead of whites, but as the home team, they get to choose. And in the blistering heat, they chose to wear their whites, which meant the Seahawks had to wear their dark blues. I don't blame the Chargers for doing it, at the same time I also kind of feel like under those kinds of circumstances, it's rather an unfair advantage.)
I'm disappointed that our D did not live up even remotely to their billing. They gave up over 30 points!! WTF? Still, I have to recognize that they were out there for the majority of the game (OVER 42 MINUTES -- THAT'S 70% OF THE GAME), as the Chargers offense OWNED the time of possession battle. I can only imagine that it must have been torturous for the Seahawks D.
Really, I'm most disappointed in our O. They looked so good in the preseason, I really thought this was going to be Russell Wilson's breakthrough year, where he'd enter the ranks of the elite and prove all his doubters wrong. Instead, I think he's proving all his doubters right. He's still a good player, but he's not elite. He can't put the team on his back and win games. The D can't always be there to bail him out, as yesterday proved. Yesterday was his chance to prove that he could carry a game even when the D wasn't playing as well as they normally do. The D needed him to stay on that field longer, so that they could get some much-needed rest. Instead, the offense was anemic. Marshawn Lynch and Percy Harvin were nowhere to be found. And Doug Baldwin? Come on, ADB. You say you're not pedestrian, but you left tons of catches on the field.
It was the first time I was glad that I didn't have the Seahawks D on my "real" fantasy team. It netted my coworker -1 points. I didn't even think negative points were possible in fantasy. And I hate that they made me feel that way. So confusing emotionally!
I was totally depressed the rest of the day. The only thing that made me feel remotely better was late in the evening, when the 49ers self destructed and somehow lost to the Bears, despite having held a 17-0 lead at one point. So thanks to
akscully's Bears, we are now all 1-1 for the season. (Which totally fucked up one of my fantasy football team matchups, because originally I'd been heavily favored. Then Jay Cutler went waaaaay over his projection and I was beaten by less than 5 points. Still... worth it.) Arizona sits on top of the NFC West, being the only undefeated team in the division, lol. Of course, my concern about the 49ers is that they're without several of their key players, so they're going to be stronger later in the season. Yet the Seahawks have been playing with all their important players, so they have no excuse. The exception is Jeremy Lane... but seriously, one player shouldn't make that much difference, not when everyone else in the league is playing with injuries also.2) Plumbing issues. I think I've mentioned this before, but I've had a couple of plumbing issues that have been problematic for the last year or so. They're a pain, but obviously not so much of a pain that I've prioritized them. One was that the master bathtub didn't drain well, and the other was that in the guest bathroom, you have to hold down the handle to make the toilet flush. I had some plumbers come by a couple months ago, but they wanted $1,200 to fix these problems ($500 to deal with the tub, $700 to replace the toilet). That seemed incredibly high to me, so I sent them on their way and lived with the issues a little longer.
Then the other day, the kitchen sink began to have problems draining. Well, that was a big enough problem that necessitated my getting on it right away, so I looked on Yelp and contacted Zesbro Plumbing, which had a ton of great reviews. They came out and fixed all 3 problems for $400. I was thrilled. However, the next morning, the sink had another backup. When I called to let them know, they gave me the bad news that they thought there was some bigger problem. I spent another $400 power hosing the pipe to clear out all the debris, but in the process of doing that, they felt what they thought might be a broken pipe. If that's indeed the case, I've only put a Band-Aid on the problem and it'll return in time. :/ So now I'm going to have to have them send a camera down there to see what's up, and if there's really a broken pipe, then it's probably going to cost a fortune to ID where exactly on the grounds it is, and fix. UGH.
3) Problems with my right thumb. For the last 6 months or so, I've had some pain in my thumb, in the joint closest to my palm. When it first started happening I just figured I had tweaked it in some way, and it would heal on its own. It didn't actively hurt, just when I used it in certain ways, like grasping things (especially heavy things like laptops or board games). Then a few weeks ago I overused it or something and it started aching all the time. I finally made an appointment to see my GP, who referred me to an arthritis specialist because she thought it could be that or maybe tendonitis or something.
So I went to see the specialist, who reviewed my x-rays with me and said that it did not appear that I had arthritis, that my joints looked really good (whew! I really felt like I WAS FAR TOO YOUNG to be suffering from arthritis already!). She did some exercises with my hand and moved it this way and that, and also ruled out tendonitis, explaining that if I had it, I would be feeling pain on the soft part of my palm near my thumb, but I wasn't. Finally she said that there was probably some lingering inflammation in the joint area from something I'd done to it, so she would put me on a course of prescription-strength NSAIDs. If after 10 days it felt fine, then great... if not, I was to go back and see her, and likely get a cortisone injection in the area. Since I am not the biggest fan of needles, I'd like to avoid that if at all possible. That said, how amazing is it that we live in a time where that would be possible? If I were in the stone age I'd just have to live with this random pain forever, even though there's no reason for it. (Well actually most likely I would have died 16 years ago after giving birth to a passel of children, but you know.)
Anyway, I'm on day 8 of medication and I've had mixed results so far. The actual pain that I was experiencing before, in that specific location, seems to be mostly gone -- a twinge here and there and still some weakness, but much improved from before. I'm a little afraid that if I stop taking the meds that it'll come back, but for the most part I can do all the stuff now that I couldn't before, pain free. BUT now, in the same thumb, I seem to have a new pain that is not in the joint, but in the area between my two thumb joints. I might have overdone it one day... but not in some totally weird, abusive way that I wouldn't use my left hand for! And also, if the meds are working for the joint, then why do I feel the other pain? Just WTF in general.
So I'm not really sure what I should do, whether I should go back and say that it's mostly but not all gone, or if I should just take the meds a few more days than prescribed (say 14 days instead of 10), or just wait it out after going off the meds. I'm just tired of not being able to use one of my body parts like normal. :/ This is like when I had the sore shoulder issue awhile back... it eventually got better, but I tried waiting this one out and it just wasn't going away.
SIGH. WHY DO WE HAVE TO GROW OLD AND WATCH/FEEL OUR BODIES BREAK DOWN. WHY.
