Haiti list to undergo some strangeness the next month

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

Folks, my normal patterns will be completely disrupted for the
next month.  Beginning tomorrow morning I will be rising at
5:15 AM St. Louis time to make tea before the opening of the
World Cup.

After that I will be sleeping at strange hours for me, and watching
another 63 games in addition to the one tomorrow morning.

I went out yesterday and spend $7.00 on an item a retired person
should not have to own:  an alarm clock.  But there are games
most days at 1:30 AM followed by another at 6:30 AM.

I've never owned a television set until now.  (Raised 7 kids to
successful adulthood without one ever entering the front door!)
I borrowed the TV for these games, and had minimum cable put in for the
month of June just to see these 64 games, and refused to make any
appointments during the month of June.  I only need three stations:
ESPN, ESPN 2 and ABC (just four games).

I'll run the list as I do every day, but it may not be "day," and
it may get sluggish when good games come along and there's lots to
talk with folks on-line about soccer rather than Haiti.
Any of you who also have this mental illness i have, don't hesitate
to e-mail me about games.  I'll get to those notes for sure!

Ah me, wish the two loves were being combined and Haiti were one
of the teams in the cup.  No matter, I'll be there for the 64 matches.

So, goodby normal world.  I'm retreating into my World Cup Cave and
will come out bleary-eyed, weary and sleep-deprived on July 1st!!!
I will eat a month's worth of junk food delivered by pizza servers
to my house, and I've purchased several cases of decent Pinot NOir
wine from the local Italian wine shop.  Today I will utterly fill
my freezer and refrigerator with food and I plan to seldom leave the
house in the next month.  Watch soccer, watch the reruns and highlights,
talk about it on-line and phone, and hibernate.

The exceptions to this are actually tomorrow night, when there is no
televised game and I will go to the St. Louis Soccer Park for the
semi-finals of the Missouri State Girls Soccer Tournament, and then
on Sunday afternoon (when my brother will tape the Ireland-Cameroon
game) and we will see the live final of the girls' tourney).  Live soccer
must go on even in this sacred time.

Nonetheless, the list will function in some fashion or other.

See you all again as a somewhat more normal person in July.

Bob Corbett