Refining my approach to heating the cabin, the first year I’ve had to do that, consumes me these days. I make no apologies for it. A string of overnights in the low 20s has a way of sharpening my focus even more.
Beyond that, I simply can’t overstate how magnificent it is here right now. The latest round of rain and gloom is gone, leaving the air crisp and clear.
Before Smudge and I ran out for provisions Sunday morning, I used the truck to move a rack’s worth of wood up to the cabin. Frost crystals framed the windshield, a harbinger of the light snow forecast for tonight into Tuesday.
Mundane? Not to me. I never thought I’d be doing ordinary work in such an extraordinary place. My face and gloved hands stung from the cold, and my joints ached under the weight I was tossing around, and yet I’ve never felt more alive.
I’m a fortunate man.
I used to devote autumn Sunday mornings to reading everything I could find about the previous afternoon’s Ohio State football game. It was a ritual, very nearly a rite. But that was years ago.
For some reason, I decided to do it yesterday.
I came across a photo gallery on The Columbus Dispatch website — 180 images in all, from pre-game calisthenics to post-game celebrations. Honestly, only a dozen-ish of the photos compelled me to stop and linger.
Here are two, capturing Carnell Tate’s reception of a Julian Sayin pass for a 50-yard touchdown in the third quarter:
Both of those are excellent images. The first one I’d consider a great shot.
The sequence, the work of two Dispatch photogs shooting from different angles, was familiar to me. And that set me looking for a Sports Illustrated cover from 57 years ago this month.
I found it:
Ohio State “split end” — remember when that’s what the position was called? — Bruce Jankowski is hauling in a long pass from quarterback Rex Kern against Michigan State on November 2nd, 1968. That Buckeyes team, led by the “super sophs,” would go on to win the national championship.
Head Coach Woody Hayes published Hot Line to Victory, essentially a playbook, after the season. He included those SI photos of Jankowski, describing how the All-American “builds a bankboard” and “looks the ball into his hands.”
Notice in the images from Saturday’s game that Tate is doing the same thing. Fundamentals never go out of style.
Take care of yourselves, Patriots. Stay calm. Stay sharp. Stay free.
#WiseUp #LibertyOrDeath #Ungovernable