Fantasy is for me (at least it used to be)

I love playing fantasy football. I’ve been playing for almost 10 years now. Most of the time I’ve managed 1 team at a time, but have had as many as 4. The basics of fantasy football are simple at their core, you get points based on the performance of the players on your roster. The most important part of the fantasy season is your pre-draft preparation. I usually start sorting through statistics and injury reports in May or June and add in mini-camp info and pre-season performances before finally settling on the players that I want to draft. The league has a commissioner that sets the date of the draft and handles all of the league transactions. Typically, the draft takes place late in August.

Those of you that know me, know that I’ve been really busy with work and what-not this year, so you know where this is heading, right? Well, I’m in a league with my brother-in-law where he is the commish. I asked him last week Monday when the draft was and he said that it would be in a couple weeks. Great, I thought to myself, I have a couple weeks to cram 3 months worth of prep work into. I got a text message from him at 9:00 last Wednesday that the draft was to be that Friday. He has a habit of pulling my leg when it comes to this type of thing so I took him at his first statement that the draft was in a couple weeks. I WAS WRONG! He called me Friday at 4:00, while I was still working, to tell me that my sister would be over at 6:15 to watch the kids. Great, I thought, I have 2 hours to finish fixing the elevator, rush to find a fantasy football magazine and drive the hour to his house.

Well, I made it to the draft and I was only 1/2 hour late. When I got there I found out that our league almost doubled in size and more importantly, I wasn’t prepared at all. I felt like I showed up to a final exam without having payed attention all year long. I have a feeling that this is going to be a bad year. I now know, more than ever, how important preparation is.

New philosophy

That’s it, I’ve had it!!! Just when I thought everything was slowing down, WHACK the levee burst. For those of you that don’t know, I repair/maintain elevators for a living. I currently have about 55 units that I maintain each month, not alot by anyone’s standard. I’m supposed to visit each one once a month, so that means I have to see at least 14 a week to be done each month. They are spread out from Portage, Indiana all the way to Gurnee, Illinois. Notice that I said I have to repair them also. If a unit shuts down, I have to finish what I’m doing and go fix that one. Well today is August 8th and I have a whopping 4 units done. The last 2 weeks the trolls have been playing games with me. Seriously, I feel like someone is going around messing with my elevators. I was up by Gurnee when I got a call that a unit in downtown Chicago was down, so I turned around and drove there. I got that one fixed and was headed back up north when I got a call in Oak Lawn, again I turned around and went there. Some of my accounts require appointments to be set up in advance. Needless to say, I’ve had to break the same appointments twice this week alone. Frustrating I tell Ya!! OK I feel better now.

While I’m on a ranting rampage, I shall continue. In addition to being an “elevator guy”, I’m also an avid bass fisherman and I have a degree in biology.

In one of my previous posts, I mentioned that I would talk about the effects of fertilizer on lakes, rivers and ponds later. Well it is later now, so here goes. I know we all love to have a beautiful lawn, but did you ever stop to think about the effects of the lawn products you use on our environment? Last month we had a tournament at Lake Wisconsin in Wisconsin. When we pulled up to the launch on Friday morning we were greeted by a layer of stinky green goo on the water. We launched the boat and went to have a look around the lake. The green goo was everywhere. It was in fact a blue-green algae bloom. Algae blooms are perpetuated by phosphorus and nitrogen that get carried into bodies of water by rain. To humans, algae blooms are just annoying at first, but can become rather destructive to an environment. As the algae reproduce, the layer gets thicker and the bottom layer begins to die off. When this algae dies, it gives off a toxin that kills fish and makes the water inhospitable to life. The algae layer blocks sunlight which kills other plants that produce oxygen for the water. The result, a stinky mess that smells like rotting flesh and stains everything it comes in contact with. These blooms can’t be controlled by algaecides either, as the addition of those chemicals may actually make matters worse. I can’t make anybody stop using fertilizers, all I can do is ask that you stop and think before you use them. You are right, one house won’t make a difference, but look around and spread the word.

Good Night and God Bless!