San Diego Who?

Ok, you know you've been out the the U.S. for too long when you start forgetting what NFL Football ( as opposed to British Football, or what we call soccer in the U.S.) teams are in what locations.  For the most part here in China, sports news is gathered from Internet sites. Streaming video of NFL games are non-existent,  and for that matter, news coverage scarce.  The NFL hasn't caught on in China, although they are big fans of the NBA.

As it was, the movement of NFL teams was difficult to keep track of on a good memory day.  For example ChinaFubar was born and raised in St. Louis, which used to be home to the St. Louis Cardinals NFL franchise, before them moved to Arizona and became the Arizona Cardinals.  Then finally the Los Angeles Rams moved to St. Louis, and all was well,  until the officials would make a mistake and call a penalty against "Los Angeles"  during a home game in St. Louis.  

Then, after the Rams were in St. Louis for only one season, I moved to Los Angeles.  Sold my Ram's PSL's, and was again, with no NFL team to cheer.  Still cheered the Rams, especially to their 1999 Super Bowl Championship with Kurt Warner at QB!  Great stuff, unfortunately, I was traveling in China at the time and of course didn't see the game.  Does the NFL really know how many viewers it looses because of their rules?

Now I call Arizona my U.S. home, at least that's what it says on my driver's license, and I'm again calling the Cardinals my home team, except now they play in Tempe.  And once again, they seem to be playoff bound in no small part due to the efforts of the very capable Kurt Warner.  Does anyone see a pattern here?  Is Warner Canton bound?  Should be, and not Canton, China either. 

But I digress.

All this movement and lack of regular exposure to the NFL was brought home last night while watching NFL on Bensports satellite at the local British pub here in Dongguan, One for the Road.  Not quite the same as in U.S., lots of British accents, and the game was only on one TV, with British football (soccer) on the other, larger screens. Plus the game, being on delay, was time compressed, and that just screws up the normal rhythm of watching an NFL game, as they cut out all the goings on between the end of a play and the snap for next play.  Kind of like watching an hour and a half of a highlight reel.

So I'm watching the game, and through the Chinese subtitles I can see that the Balti---oops, Indiana Colts are playing...some team from SD with what looks like a yellow feather as a logo.  At least that's what it looked like on the bottom of the screen where they show the scores.  So I'm thinking   SD....South Dakota??  When did they get a team?  And what is it,  the Yellow Feathers?  That's what the logo looked like.  After all, teams aren't named after the cities they play in now, but the states they play in.  Tennessee Titans,  Indiana Colts,  Arizona Cardinals,  Minnesota Vikings, etc.

Then, they finally show a close up of the team,and I realize "Duh, San Diego!!!   CHARGERS!  Doh!!  That's not a feather, that's a bad drawing of a spark.

That's when it hit me, the old limited memory bug.  The theory that the human brain can only hold so much information, and as you get older, at a certain point your brain becomes saturated, and for every new bit of information you learn, you forget something.  So, I suspect that some bit of the vast amount of knowledge I've picked up in the last few months caused me to forget the San Diego Chargers actually existed, and were not in actuality a team called the South Dakota Yellow Feathers.

Problem solved.  Except now there's another problem.

What bit of information did I now forget because I've "re-learned" about the San Diego Chargers.

Maybe my wife, good old what's her name knows.

A Very Strange Day

It's never a good day when you look at obituaries, and see someone you know, but it's really a strange day when you look the home town obituary and see that your father passed away.  And that's the only way you knew, because you happened to look at the obits that day.

So it seems that my father, whom I haven't seen or heard from since, Uh, maybe 1958 or 1959, passed away last Friday, ad the ripe old age of 78 or maybe 79.   At least longevity runs in my family, which is good to know. 

I don't know much about the guy,  just what I've heard through limited stories.  Served in the military in the late 1940's or early 1950's, MOS projectionist/photographer.  At one time I had a copy of his  honorable discharge papers, not sure what happened to those documents.  What little I do remember of him revolves around him running a hobby shop and playing with gas model airplanes.  I don't remember much interaction other than that. 

After he and my mother divorced, he bailed, started a new life and broke contact with us.  Apparently he didn't want to be bothered with "old baggage"  we were told by his parents to stay away from his live and we weren't welcome.

So, how to process all this.  Feel sad, sort of angry at what I missed.  My wife told me I should try and find him to establish contact, but I felt that he was the one that was continually hiding.  Not hard to get in contact with me, bankers from Nigeria can seem to manage.

So far the obituary reads, "Szabolcsky, Robert A. Fri., Jan. 2, 2009. Visitation XXX., 3-8 p.m. Funeral XXX., 12 noon at xxxx So. County. Interment National Cemetery

No mention of family, relatives, survivors, etc.  Somehow I wonder if that's how he wanted it.

So long Pop's, I never knew ya.

Happy New Year!!

Already it's January 1st, 2009, geez, where did the millennium go?  For ChinaFubar it was a quiet New Year's Eve, spent snuggling with Mrs. ChinaFubar and watching the festivities on Hong Kong TV. 

Currently sitting at the local pub having a post new year's lunch, and catching up with the New Year's Eve happenings.  Apparently there was the usual antics,  foolishness in the bathrooms,  people drinking mass quantities, etc.  Seems, as in the U.S.  New Year's Eve is "amateur night" here in China also.   But, some expats tend to be professional drinkers, so those dedicated souls consumed much more than usual apparently.

The pub itself is still showing the affects of the party, bits of silver confetti on the floor, chairs, and cracks in the bar.  Currently the barmaid is trying to get the confetti from on top of the flat screen TV behind the bar using a pool cue.

For ChinaFubar, this year has held a strange mix of events.  New jobs, no jobs, and moving around the country.  Looks like next year will bring more of the same.

It's said that an optimist looks to the new year ahead, and from the sounds of things in the news, it's going to be an interesting year.