AUBREEVISION - Observations from the far side of the dial

Gearing up to go for a run. I've had my requisite carb-loading (cheesecake for breakfast, thanks
snowbawl!) and am working on a cup of coffee (Columbian/French Roast blend. Walking on the wild side!)

Johnny Damon of the Red Sox is a guest on Regis and Kelly. Eric, my New England honeybee, is grooming me to be a rabid Red Sox fan. He's got his work cut out for him. I have to say, though, that if I had to pick a sport to watch, baseball would be it. Long summer days, tight buns in tight pants...what's not to love?

I did watch last year's playoffs and World Series, and have to admit to getting a bit overcome when the Sox creamed the Yankees. I felt a bit silly -- after all, I hardly qualified as a real fan. Still, even the most clueless of viewers could feel the magic at work from the moment the tables turned in the playoffs. The whole thing was so improbable that once they reached the World Series there was no way they could lose -- the cosmos wouldn't dare to pull such a cruel joke. The fans' belief took on a life of its own -- it literally seemed as though it carried the Red Sox to victory. Even I, clueless insta-fan and professional pessimist, deep-down believed that the curse would be reversed. <requisite cheesy rhapsodizing>It was about more than baseball. It was about something bigger -- the triumph of the human spirit. </cheese>

All right, coffee's gone -- time to haul ass out the door and onto the pavement. I have a neat motivational trick to keep me running -- I'm running to southern New Hampshire. Not all at once, of course -- I've had Eric trace his Hampstead-Ottawa driving route on a map and will log my miles in an attempt to eventually cover that distance. I'm think I'm up to a whopping six miles so far. Woo hoo, or as gigglydragon's niece would say, "Whoo haw!"

As a footnote, I have to say nobody loves their sports as much as New Englanders. Bear in mind that my claim comes from a largely uninformed position, as I haven't travelled extensively. But when visiting Eric, I'm struck by the contrast with Canada. In New England, it seems everyone is a sports fan, even the most diehard armchair dwellers. Take Eric, for example. He's every inch the computer programmer, but completely obsessed with sports. In Canada, you don't see that duality so much. I can't think of a single self-proclaimed high-tech nerd -- and I know quite a few -- who gives a flying bleep about sports. Never the twain shall meet, it would seem.



The strangely attractive Johnny Damon