Saturday, October 15, 2011

Aerie Report, October 15, 2011

Another 0.92 inches in the rain gauge this morning. More probably on the way. With 40 mph gusts. Every hour I can see further and further into the woods as the leaves are getting battered to the ground. There's still color on the hillsides, but it's rapidly disappearing.

Oh, and the temperature dropped to 40 degrees last night. Thanks a lot Canada!

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I watched a young deer apparently traveling alone as it fed just on the other side of the powerline yesterday afternoon. In the pouring rain. I felt sorry for the poor thing as I could see the water running off its fur. It walked slowly down hill plucking an occasional leaf from the low growth unaware of my presence on the deck since the wind was rattling the leaves and blowing towards me. Finally, however, a swirl of air must have carried my scent in that direction as its head came up and it bounded off downhill and into the protection of the thicket. Or, maybe, it was a straggling youngster who's ma had already passed beyond my sight and she (ma) gave a snort telling it to get a move on. It was too noisy for me to hear from my vantage point, but that young deer's ears are far better than mine.

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I think I'll bake some chocolate chip cookies today. The heat from the oven will be welcome.

Two problems with baking 5 dozen cookies:
1) Clean up. I hate washing the tools needed to produce the cookies.
2) Baking cookies leads to eating cookies. And with plenty of football on the tube over the next three days, probably ALL of the cookies will be eaten. (Which is why I picked up more milk this morning.)

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Speaking of football.... My Scarlet Knights of Rutgers are currently 4-1 and 2-0 in the Big East and facing Navy at Rutgers today with a good chance to be 5-1. (They could be undefeated IF 1) they had kicked a field goal at North Carolina instead of trying to score from the one--twice, and 2) the replay official had bothered to look at either of those one-yard scoring attempts as some say the runner was over the goal line BOTH times.)

Last year they were 4-2 (1-0) after this weekend, having just beaten Army. It would be the last game they won all season. They lost Eric LeGrand in that game. Paralyzed from the neck down while making a tackle on a kick return. Eric was a star defensive player and the heart and soul of that RU team. His current attitude toward his injury may well be what has RU playing so well this year. He believes he will one day be able to return to the Meadowlands, where he was injured, lay down on the field and be able to get up and walk off under his own power. He is working hard to make that happen and who is to say he won't do it someday. Believe!

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BCS rankings are out now as well as the other polls. ESPN will make a big thing of them tomorrow (Sunday) night. In the meantime, here are the BCS Top Ten:

1. Alabama
2. LSU
3. Oklahoma
4. Oklahoma State
5. Boise State
6. Wisconsin
7. Clemson
8. Stanford
9. Michigan
10. Georgia Tech

Every single one of these teams is currently undefeated, but that won't last. Down the line, during the course of their regular season, Alabama faces LSU, Oklahoma goes against Oklahoma State, and Georgia Tech must play Clemson. Should Wisconsin and Michigan make it through their regular season unbeaten, they would face each other in the Big Ten Championship game. Stanford has Washington, USC, Oregon, and Notre Dame yet to play. Only Boise State has what appears to be an easy road to an undefeated season.



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