Out and about,...sort of!

Ohhh! Still recovering from the world cup final. The wife safely off to work for the day I ambled over to my local pub, decided to have a full lunch there before the Cup Final began, and then relax and enjoy the game.
So I ordered a Grouper sandwich, cole slaw, french fries (I was pulling for Italy,...damn I should have ordered a side of pasta!), and a pint o' plain (i.e. Guinness) to wash it all down. The pre-game show was only a half hour long (Hmmm! Maybe they should apply this to the Superbowl and get rid of the six hours of "pre-game" crap. I came for the game, not the History of sporting events from the first neolithic hopscotch world championship.)
The Grouper was ok, not great, but it filled a hole anmd gave me supreme confidence I was a good dooby, not just hanging out at the pub drinking on an empty stomach.
There was a nice young couple next ot me and about ten other people in the entire place watching the World Cup. However they were loaded with other fans, all watching NASCAR! (I won't go there, suffice it to say sitting on your butt, turning left for three hours at 175 miles an hour is not my idea of an athletic event!) Apologies to all the legions of NASCAR folks, but isn't it the only sport, other than the Gladiatorial events, borne out of illegal transgressions? In other words the original sport was developed out of dudes running "white lightning" illegally on old back roads trying to outrun the police and "revenuer's". So aside from no police presence on the track, and no "hootch" in the vehicles, where has the "progress" of the sport been? Oh, I said I wasn't going there,...sorry, back to the World Cup.
It was genuinely a good game, I really enjoyed it. The one thing I must say is that the referee was outstanding! He was right there when he needed top be, was recognizing true fouls from the "Oscar winning" performances, and overall did a great job. Zidane blew it with his head butt, and rightly so was evicted from the game. (Sure would have liked to have been a fly on the wall and heard what the Italian said to him to provoke such a violent response!). I honestly believe that was the pivitol moment for the French. From there on out it was Italy's game to lose.
Well, duty calls and I must go and referee aBoard of Directors meeting this morning in about an hour and a half so it's time to prepare, don my armor, sharpen my pen, polish my red cards and yellow cards, and do the fifteen minutes of "impartiality look" aerobics in front of the mirror in preparation.
Have a good day, and remember,.....it's always a good day when your name missed the obituaries!
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