Songs in the key of life ... and sports

Nothing like starting the day before dawn. With shoveling ... And ending it long after dusk. With shoveling.

I hate winter. My back hates it too. And my knees.

I've never wanted a snow blower so badly.

... We got a solid couple inches of snow on Saturday, you may recall. And last night we got blasted with the second part of the storm. 10 inches. ... Kates woke me up at 6 this morning to go out and shovel; by then several inches had fallen and it was still coming. It took me about an hour to complete the job (we have a good sized two-car driveway and sidewalks on two sides of our house), before I went in to warm up and get myself ready for work -- only to see everything I cleared completely re-covered with snow by the time I came back out to leave for work. Grrrr!

And it proceeded to snow long and hard all morning ...

So when Kates and I finally arrived home about 7:30 tonight, I knew I had my work cutout for me again.

It wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the dang plows, either. This year, it seems, they're plowing even closer to the curb -- which means less snow left on the roadway and more of it blocking the edge of our driveway. Beginning with the weekend storm, it's taken me almost as much time to remove the gargantuan chunks of snow left by the plows as it's taken me to shovel the rest of the driveway ... and when we came home tonight, it was obvious the plows had come through again because there at the end of our driveway was another blockade of snow ...

No problem. My little Neon punched through it like a tank.

Good thing it's powdery snow.

* * *

I've been wanting to say something about that Patriots-Ravens game the other night ... I only caught the fourth quarter, but ...

Holy cow! The Patriots survived -- or the Ravens botched -- four fourth downs during that final New England drive. Geez, the Ravens had Tom Brady stopped! Stuffed! on a fourth-and-one, only to have whistles blown in the Ravens defense's faces because one of their coaches had called a timeout ... Then the Ravens had the Pats stopped again on a run, only to have a Pats lineman called for a false start and Brady got another chance, which they converted. And a fourth fourth down play resulted in a holding call, before the Pats finally found the end zone for the 27-24 win ...

It was an incredible thing to watch ... And I'm not gonna lie -- I want to see the Patriots go 16-0. They're a classy team to watch, and I want to be able to say I remember when ...

* * *

... I opened our mailbox tonight, and there it was -- the issue I'd been waiting for -- Brett Favre in all his green and gold, as Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year.

The cover is an instant classic.

I can hardly wait to read it ...

I was talking with a friend about the Packers over supper tonight, and he nailed it when he said it was hard for him to remember a more enjoyable Packers season. Sure the great seasons during the mid-to-late '90s were fun, but those were kind of expected. This year has been made even more spectacular by the fact that almost nobody forecasted Farve's and the Packers' success ... It's been a heckuva ride.

Speaking of nailing it, this read, sent to me this week by my friend Raechel, is a classic too ... If only there were more like Brett. Then again, perhaps it's a good thing there's not. We'd probably take Brett for granted too ...

* * *

Saving my favorite for last ...

The winter baseball meetings. While everyone else was obsessing over Johan Santana (Over-rated ...) The Tigers quietly were going after the guy I was looking at this offseason as the best player available or on the block -- and then they not only swiped Miguel Cabrera, they got Dontrelle Willis too!! (Read it from the Tigers here.)

Huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge.

Lordy, lordy. I'm still trying to catch my breath.

And I'd almost forgotten the wonderful Edgar Renteria deal ... I can smell a Tigers World Championship right now ... It could be sweet.

In the mean time ...

I like this Cubs deal ...