Once a week, for the last few weeks, I have been making ice cream for my kid. She likes cookies and cream, she likes butter pecan but she loves vanilla. I wake my happy meal ass up on Sunday because I know I need more vanilla and unrelated I know I need bread flour and APF.
The bucket was in the freezer for about 30 hours so I know it is ready. Get the agitator and the clip that makes it go. Then, this is where your boy fucked up. I only had a cup of cream in the already opened cream, so I dump that in the bucket. I go to the fridge to get the other, un-opened cream, fumble around with that and then add it.
Then the sugar and the vanilla and in that time the agitator and first cream addition have frozen to the sides of the bucket. Agitator can’t move, it just clicks and splashes the second round of cream all over me and the floor, so I had to stop down, pour the mixture into a bowl then thaw out all the frozen, useless cream to get the agitator to spin.
You learn a lesson and put bucket back in the freezer a few hours and then you have to eyeball your sugar and cream that existed originally. Wait overnight in the freezer and then you have ice cream.
So, speaking of learning, let’s go ahead and SPOT THE BALL!!!
1st Down: Maybe I Can Write?
First and foremost, thank all of you subscribers for supporting what I do. This is all done with a self-edit, which I am bad at, as I’ve been repeatedly told by my wife; she pulls no punches.
Over the last few weeks I was back in the lab writing a piece for the Turfman’s College Foot-Ball Almanac, go buy it. Shout out to the gang at Shutdown Fullcast and Channel 6 for thinking of me to be a part of a greater project. I’ve got two pieces in there and it is up against a stacked lineup where I was thankful to be included.
The coolest part of this, for me, is they let me write in my own voice and had my back as far as the editors working on it were handling my piece. With the exception of the now defunct, Michael and others in a lawsuit for backpay, “The Messenger” most of my editorial feedback has been incessantly negative. Largely because it was from teachers (my wife) or newspaper people during my time at B/R.
I didn’t go to J-school. I didn’t go to school to teach kids how to read and write. I don’t write like that, as you can tell, as a subscriber. So thanks to Spencer and Holly for just letting me be me, outside of this space, it doesn’t happen often.
Also shout out to the editors who didn’t make me feel like shit which so many have over the course of my career.
Go pick it up y’all.
2nd Down: Install Is The Hardest Part
I have told pieces of my camp story on this substack, I also got into it on a show with DPalm. Long days. Long practices. Long lifts.
And even longer meetings.
Seriously, the worst part of camp is the endless slew of meetings for install and review to adjust. Now, I do not know what offensive install looks like from a meeting standpoint; never been in one. I do know what defensive install session(s) look like.
First a defensive team meeting where you get the install for the day, let’s say it is Cover-2. Team defense meeting about fronts, checks, and everyone’s responsibilities as the full 11-man unit. Then position group meetings, DL, LB, DB; but also some teams are DE/OLB either way, think of it like being in the big meeting room at a work conference and then going to specific break out rooms.
I just came up with that as something most folks would understand.
You break out and then you drill down into where to align; 5 yards off, not 4 or 6. Your outside foot to the WR’s outside foot. Pre-snap where do your eyes belong? Post-snap who are you reading through. How far do you carry vertical before passing off.
I’ve never thought about this but you have to be a hell of a navigator to realize when you’re at 10 yards vs 12 yards to pass off a WR and accept another late threat. You can’t look at the ground and count, you have to just know where you are, we’ll talk about that another day, back to install.
If you have the mental bandwith to get through, understand and respond to the questions in this 73 page install, you probably played, at least, college football. If this is all nonsense to you, and you’re asking, “what about the blank ones” you’re not alone.
The blank ones are for you to draw things on your own or things your coach adds from the original install (mostly because he thinks the DC or HC are idiots and his way is better).
You need to have a grip on this is a day or two or you will be left behind. This is why guys sleep with their notebooks and iPads at the facility. Don’t waste time walking up a hill to dorms, study and do note so you’re ready for the next meeting and my only favorite part of camp, “Whiteboard Battles.”
Essentially it is like if your Calc teacher asked you and another kid to run through a proof racing against each other, but with football. That’s what I was good at. Learning page after page after page everyday, Keep in mind that 73 page document is just Cover-2. Doesn’t include Cover-0, 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 8, among other combos that come with blitz packages.
3rd Down: Seriously Get Turfman
Great almanac and something a lot of people should be proud of and with one mistake I made, I am proud of too.
4th Down: Your Boy Did Something!!
Yes, Turfman is doing something that I am proud to be a part of; but I did more this week. I setup a 3 (maybe 4) family hangout so we can kick it with kid’s movie time and adults hanging out upstairs. First and foremost, contacting the dads directly takes shit off the moms’ plate, which I am firmly in favor of doing.
Secondly, parameters are set because I am hosting, I will make the popcorn and order the pizza for the 6-8 kids who will be here and pizza, from a different spot, for the adults,. For everyone who says I don’t want to spend family time, I don’t like anything; jokes on you, I am excited.
What I don’t like is going to the pool.
This get-together comes on the heels of a 3 day drip to eastern South Carolina, which includes a beach day. Feels like a lot of family time to me being in a car, staying together in a cabin on your friends farm and going to a beach plus cooking dinner with your best friend from middle school.
Fun looks different for everyone and sitting in the sun for hours isn’t fun. Pool. Camping. Fall Camp. Any of it, no thanks. Being in my air conditioned box of a house? Elite.
Cheers!!!
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