Weather in the Tries:
   This coming weekend it’s gonna dip back down into the teens for lows and below freezing for high. But, oh this coming week, while most of the lows will be under freezing a couple of degrees we’re scheduled for 50 on Friday. Can you see Auntie Lenora doing her happy dance with Sammy Brave Dog? Close your eyes and look! 😉

Are You A Fan of Football, Professional or Otherwise?
   I’m talking about American Football, not European Football that we call soccer. I used to enjoy watching football, I was very excited when the Seahawks started in Seattle, I’ve seen Joe Namath play when I lived in the South. True, we had nosebleed seats, but I still got to see him. I was never quite as rabid about football as those in the South seemed to be, except when the Crimson Tide played. I did have other interests.
   The first time I attended a college game in Alabama, it was cold, and we had cheap standing on the back side of the field ‘seats’, so I dressed in a warm sweater, jeans, wool socks, and tenny runners along with a warm hat and windbreaker jacket. Except for dearly beloved ex, who was dressed similarly, everyone else who stood on the grass wore dress clothes. The women wore high heels, fur coats, fancy clothe to wear to a restaurant that had white cloth on all their tables. Boy Howdy, were we underdressed—and did they let us know it! But we surely enjoyed that game. 
   If you think I’m joking about the South and football, I assure you I am not. My brother-in-law was born without eyeballs. Two things he could not imagine were photos/TV and colors. I had a postcard of Bear Bryant walking on water and took it when I visited. I gave him the postcard and asked if he knew what it was. He gently touched all over it. Put the card down, and definitively announced to all in the room that it was, “The Bear, walking on water.” I still don’t know how he did it. No one knew I was bringing it, and no one told him. 
   And what is New Year’s day without Football, and what red-blooded American would miss the Super Bowl? Of course, most people watch it for the new commercials and half-time entertainment, right? Yeah, sure. Let’s be honest about that. 
   I don’t remember the year I stopped watching football, sometime after 2002, when it began to be known that concussions contribute to or cause chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), and that football players are very susceptible to it.  It just wasn’t fun to watch grown men concuss one another knowing they may go into an early, and sometimes violent, dementia because of CTE. 
   Boxing, wrestling, ice hockey, mixed martial arts, rugby, and soccer are also on the list of risk factors, including the military, prior domestic violence, and repeated head banging. According to our good friend Mr. Google, more than 320 football players who were autopsied after death (I certainly hope it was after death) were diagnosed with CTE. (bolding mine)
   There is no way, at this time, to definitively diagnose CTE before death, though doctors can make an educated diagnosis based on history and symptoms. I no longer enjoy boxing, but then, since Muhammad Ali retired from boxing, why bother? 
   The doctor I had in Albuquerque, and I were discussing ALS one time, and she said there is a correlation between professional soccer players and ALS. The mean age of ALS onset in the general population is 65.2 years, but for former soccer players it’s 20 years sooner. According to what she read, the medical professionals think it is caused by repeated head butting of the ball, not concussions.
   So, I am no longer a fan of anything in any sport upon which the head is beat. And, yes, that includes the Pee Wee games. If I may paraphrase Waylon & Willie, Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow up to Be…Football or Soccer players, Boxers or Wrestlers. 
   
 Photos of the Week:  

Entertainment:
Books Read:  If I finish it, I review it:  https://lenoragood.blogspot.com
    I’m now 80% of the way through Meru. Hope to have it finished in a couple three days;-)

Movies/TV:
   Am finally on Season Five of Babylon 5.
   Also watched Kiki’s Delivery Service, third of the Studio Ghibli movies. Review posted above, in Movies & TV.
   Also, I found something that said The Old Guard 2 will be released in July this year. I think it was July. I wrote it down and lost it. Sigh. Growing old is such hard work.

Sammy Brave Dog:
   Is liking the slightly warmer weather, especially the sunshine. He’s gone on a couple of what his human calls, “real walks” around the complex. His human is delighted to get a bit more walking in. She just wishes he’d walk for the pleasure of walking instead of reading and leaving messages at every third blade of grass. Sammy and his human both wish you a fantastically mahvelous week!