Sitting, Waiting, Wishing...

I lifted weights for the first time in at least five years on Sunday, which caused untold amount of stiffness in my upper body today. Or maybe it was all the trees that I helped my dad and brother remove from their lodging from the near tropical storm that raged through the chicagoland area on Thursday. I'm not sure. But I do know that the soreness is a good thing and that I hope I can keep doing it. I'd like to be a lot stronger (not necessarily bigger) and I'd like to get back into something close to the shape I once was in. I'm not talking about running the mile in four and a half minutes, but more towards feeling good about myself when I do physical activity.

The other results from Sunday's activities were a ton of mosquito bites and a 30 foot long line of tree limbs piled six feet high in front of my parent's house. "So this is what it looks like to peer over an offensive line" I thought to myself as I dragged the tree limbs towards the road. I also got the opportunity to wander across my parent's roof with a leaf blower. How often can you say that?

Walking on the roof always makes me think of being a kid during the summer. Both of my parents worked, so we were always on our own and after watching Bob Barker, the summer midday could be a little tedious. We used to climb up onto the roof from my parent's bathroom with a pile of water balloons and wait for traffic to come down our street. There wasn't a whole lot of it, but when we saw it, we'd wing a balloon towards the road and hide behind the apex of the roof. Can't say that we hit much, but we did get a few people pretty pissed off when their cars got hit by a water balloon out of nowhere. Good times.

I Belong In the Service of the Queen

The title is a reference to the Counting Crow's Rain King from the August & Everything After album. It's been raining here every day for the last five days and the rain always makes me think of the Crows. There are lots of storm warnings running through the area, which looks like there's still going to be more rain.

I love the rain. I enjoy the way it sounds when it hits the window. I love the way a dark sky lites up as the thunder crashes across it, the booming of thunder that eventually follows. The starkness of it brings things into focus. There's no shading, no in between. Light and dark chase after each other...so symbolic.

The best part of the rain is by far the way it lends towards sleeping. It's so easy to find a deep sleep with the rhythm of the rain drumming on the window.

Here Comes Mr. Madden

With Caleb in town, it's a reminder that the NFL is almost here. With that in mind, here are the NFL's top stories this week.

- Michael Vick is a bad dude. He doesn't love animals. Unless they're attempting to kill other animals. Then it's ok. PETA isn't happy with this attitude.

- Denver Bronco offensive lineman are famous for not talking to the media whenever the Broncos play on Monday/Sunday Night Football. Which is a great tradition because it emphasizes their unity as a group. Unfortunately, it also means that the world will never know why they feel the need to break their opponent's knees while "blocking."

- The Chicago Bears traded away Thomas Jones in the offseason, finally giving Cedric Benson the opportunity to fumble away his professional dreams, just like his mentor Ricky Williams. We're all looking forward to Benson blowing his chance, without the drugs.

- The Bears are also relying on Rex Grossman to lead them back to the Super Bowl. Unfortunately, Rex is busy looking at his calendar so he knows how many days are left until new year's day. Teammates have considered buying him a different calendar, but decided against it after watching him become befuddled by the VCR in the video room.

- Chief's halfback Larry Johnson decided to hold out over the beginning of training camp, prompting Priest Holmes to rejoin the team and try to take over as the starting runningback. The Priester broke a hip while attempting to get up from the interview table after stating his intentions.

- Adam "Pac-Man" Jones was suspended for the entire season by the NFL for his repeated bad behavior in the public eye. So it was only natural when Jones joined the WWE team to wrestle. Here's hoping his career in the ring will lead to an opportunity to play football again, just like Bill Goldberg.

- Lastly, Tiki Barber retired from football so that he could announce football for the NFL network. Unfortunately for the NFL network, nobody knows if it will actually be Tiki in the booth, or if he and his twin Rhonde Barber will switch positions every other week. I'm sure they've done it before, so it's only a matter of time before Tiki goes on the record as saying the he's sick of playing for Tom Coughlin and he wants out of New York...

Enjoy the season everyone and good luck to your team.