Well, after a morning and afternoon filled with all sorts of fun and excitement, it's time to take a break for a bit. So, with that, here's an open thread for everyone to talk about whatever. It doesn't have to be football-related. . .in this case, it's probably better that it's not. . .so feel free to let the conversations take you where they will.
Yours truly has some charity work to attend to this afternoon. . .some of my co-workers and I are going to get local families registered for the local Toys for Tots drive in one of the towns just down the road. Not giving the actual gifts yet or anything. . .that doesn't come until the week before Christmas. This is making sure that families are qualified for Toys for Tots and things of that nature.
It sounds like it should be a fairly straight-forward process, but at the orientation thing the other day, we got a couple of stories of families with over $100,000 in combined income that tried to sign their families up for Toys for Tots. That's kind of messed up, but that's the mindset some people have, I guess.
I do wish I could have pulled myself out of my self-pity over last night a bit sooner than I did, because something like Toys for Tots kind of puts things like football into the proper perspective. Yes, as football fans, we're down at the moment, and getting kicked on a fairly regular basis. (It's amazing how many people just show up out of the woodwork when things are going poorly. I guess the saying isn't "kick 'em while they're up." But I digress.) These families are down, not because of football, but because of real life stuff, and things like Toys for Tots are really a huge deal. Yeah, in this age of PlayStations and iPods and what not, a $10 or $15 toy (which is the recommended donation for Toys for Tots, if you were planning on making a donation to your local chapter) may not seem like that big a deal to a lot of us, but it means a lot to these kids.
Sometimes we. . .and by "we" I mean "I". . .have issues with keeping things in the proper perspective. That's obviously not the reason to do things like Toys for Tots. . .the main reason is the kids, after all. . .but it is a nice side benefit.
So, that's your open thread for this Tuesday afternoon. . .again, go ahead and get into video games, movies, TV, cars, whatever the case may be. I'm not sure if I'll be posting anything today, but by tomorrow hopefully I (and anyone else that needs it) will be refreshed and ready to go again to deal with the Oakland Raiders.