Tuesday, September 24 2019

Dear Journal,

Good morning, everyone! How are you feeling today? I'm feeling pretty good. The cool mornings make it a little easier to wake up. These days when I let the dogs out first thing in the morning, I don't mind waiting on the deck without any shoes on. The morning chill is kind of exhilarating.

Yesterday was a great day. I worked, heated up some leftovers for lunch, then went for a long walk in the afternoon. After work, Marissa, Rod, and I went to Hy-Vee. We made Philly cheese steaks, and finished eating just before the 7:15 kickoff.

The Bears played the Redskins yesterday, and I have some thoughts about the game. First off, Trubisky looked really good out there. It's no secret that our offense sucks, but I hope last night's game put to rest the notion that it's Trubisky's fault. I think he looked a lot more natural out there last night, especially when he was scrambling out of the pocket. I know everyone says he needs to work on planting his feet and being calm after the snap, but I personally enjoy watching him make throws while on the run. He's good at it, and to all of you Trubisky naysayers, ask yourselves this - if he's such a terrible quarterback, why isn't he throwing interceptions? Sure, he's kind of inaccurate when he throws for long, but you have to give him credit. He knows what he can do, and more importantly, what he can't do. I was pleased to seem him connect a few long passes - I think he could use the stats and the confidence - but if we keep scoring touchdowns with 5, 6, 7 yard passes, I'm not complaining.

What was clear last night is that our offensive line needs to figure things out. Trubisky must have been sacked a dozen times last night, and one of them almost resulted in a safety. I think if a quarterback keeps getting sacked, it probably has more to do with the coverage than with the play calling or where the QB is standing.

The game as a whole was a bit of a roller coaster. At first it was a blowout, then we gave up a field goal. Then we let the Redskins think they were making a comeback for almost a quarter and a half. I would have liked to see us keep the pressure up and just beat them by 72-0 (which from what I read, was an actual score of a Redskins v Bears game once), but I suppose it could have been worse.

During the game, I also hacked a bit on the chores website. I came across a blog post called "Think Before You Use NodePort", which to sum up, was part of a really hacky solution I was getting ready to slap together. Thanks to the quick research win, I got the final pieces together and deployed the little website at home. I set up an account for me and Marissa, then we entered our Tuesday chores. I'm looking forward to removing the sprawling "chores" section from my notes.

After the game, Marissa and I chatted a bit on the couch, then continued watching our movie of the week. It was my pick, and I went with Mr. Bean's Holiday, which is a pretty solid movie. I didn't have subtitles for the French dialog, but Marissa and I agreed that that wasn't a deal breaker for a movie about Mr. Bean. You could easily figure out what the French characters were saying just watching how Mr. Bean reacted to everything.

I forgot how good of a movie it was. I'm impressed that despite having lots of sketch material to work with, they didn't recycle any of it. Did you know Willem Defoe is in the movie too? He plays a pretty good angry, delusional movie director. And the whole thing comes together really nicely at the end. Can you imagine? A movie about Mr. Bean screwing around in France on vacation actually hands a touching, ironic ending. Not to mention some great characters. They really went above and beyond with this one.

Today should just be a regular Tuesday. I don't know what I'm going to do today, or what I'm making for dinner, or what I'm going to do after dinner. I'll probably do some chores, then work on my lesson plan for Kids Code this week. I don't have a plan. This morning I feel like Mitch Trubisky, I'm scrambling out of the pocket, and I'm going to try to make a throw on the run.

Have a great day readers.