It is Saturday and it is snowing.  Yes, it is snowing again and, yes, I am saying that it is snowing again, again.  I am sick of snow and cold and winter.  I lived in southern Florida for a long time and then moved back here.  Why?  It’s getting harder to remember but I’m sure there was a reason back then when we decided to do it.

Oh yea; it was because we had the chance to get out of south Florida where we didn’t think it would be such a great environment to start and raise a family.  Here you have character- though in Illinois that may be a bit of a stretch.  Here you have good Midwestern stock- they are nice enough but somehow fatter and sloppier and with fewer manners than I remember when growing up.  Here you have the seasons- and also lots of road closures and repairs.  Here you have the winter which builds character- if this builds character in my sons then why am I the sole character outside shoveling all this damn snow?  I could use a few characters to get out there and help me.

I am getting older and my back hurts after removing the drifted piles, in the still-blowing chill of the morning, from the driveway down which my wife will need to get the SUV so she can go out with the kids, leaving me to watch the building blizzard through the family room window.  So I remain here, ready to shovel again, and worried about my family out there on the road somewhere.  Such is as things are today.  Such is my Saturday so far as it has gone.

This is the starting weekend of the NFL playoffs- we Americans always get excited about things like the NFL playoffs even if our team is not in it (and mine is not) and even if our country is struggling before and after the 49ers play the Packers tomorrow night.  Grab some beers, some cheeses and crackers, some mini-sandwiches and sit back and watch the great American pastime.  Or is that baseball?  Right now it’s football.

I have so much to do but I am feeling a bit under the weather and may try to rest for a bit.  I will check on my family, via the ubiquitous cell phone, and then maybe try to take a nap.  Funny, I never used to nap.  Always hated naps.  My grandmother took naps, not me.  But these days, well so much has changed.

Look around folks and see what you see and tell me do you like it?  A new year has begun and your team may win, it may go all the way.  My team is already out of it and I am concerned for the future.

It seems that some teams can never get it right while a few always manage to flourish.  The ones who do not seem always envious of those that do, at least their fans are that way, and often feel better, even vindicated, no longer by their own success but by the other’s failure.

Teams can be like that.  Fans and folks can be like that.   I guess that citizens and nations can be as well.  Of their own and of others.

What team are you on and where do you land in the greater scheme of things?  Are you sure?  Are you completely sure?  This is something that we all need to think deeply about and then decide.  And then let the contest begin to see who wins and who goes home.