Tag: Navy

Texas Trip; Day 2 (Armed Forces Bowl)

I am on day 4 (second night in Austin) What a trip it has been!

Christmas: left about 3:30 and made it to Fort Leonard Wood, in Missouri. Few problems. Hampton Inn was price but, IMHO, worth it in terms of services, comfort; just a great room.

Day after: this was the drive to Fort Worth. Got advice about a large rain storm from a friend, so I drove to Oklahoma City and picked up 35 down to Fort Worth. The only rough part of the drive was some of the rain in northern Texas; it was dark and there was a lot of construction on I-35. But the toll ways in Fort Worth was worth it; took me directly to the Hampton Inn off 820. Saw some young Sooners fans there and more during breakfast.

27 December: Bowl day. Once again, I went to the Armed Forces Bowl. Amon G. Carter stadium has aged a bit; seat numbers were worn off. And the bowl didn’t have a solid fan block; there were OU fans all around me (and some Navy fans); got some “class of 8x didn’t have a real plebe year” joking in.
Parking: got there 2 hours early (saw the Oklahoma team busses arrive). Parked in the lots on campus. Got to the stadium ok; OU fans were lined up 90 minutes ahead of time!

When I was in line, I was behind a Coast Guard and Navy Captain (both female)

After the game: I got turned around and probably walked 1.5 miles to get back to my car which was 0.7 miles away; then I went to a Korean fried chicken place for dinner; got lost going there and started back by walking the wrong way.

The game itself:

My goodness. Though OU was depleted, they still had a ton of size and speed on the field. Opening drive: right down the field with no sweat at all. Navy: missed a wide open TD pass and had to punt. Next OU drive: again, no sweat. Navy: nothing. It was 14-0 and looking ugly. Again, Navy missed open passes.
There was a stop; but OU pulled off a fake punt and was threatening …but turned it over on downs.

Navy: finally, got a drive and scored and it was 14-7, which it was at the half.

3’rd quarter: spectacular 90+ QB keeper for a touchdown; Navy was now tied! Momentum had shifted but Navy missed a field goal after a turn over.

4’th quarter: Oklahoma missed a field goal (and dropped a couple of passes). Finally, Navy drives for the go ahead score to lead 21-14. And Navy forced a punt with 3 minutes to go.

But the Sooners defense stiffened, forced a punt and they got decent field position. Then with 6 seconds left, they score to cut it to 21-20. But they went for 2 and Navy sacked the quarterback, and then recovered the onside kick.

Phew! What an exciting game!

Now to Austin Kind of dark, lots of traffic (which moved) but I made it to the Austin SouthPark and I had a great day with my daughter.

Graduation exercises

And I did my exercises before walking over.

Usual PT plus some knee stuff. Pull ups: 10, 5, 5, 10, 5, 5, 5, 5 (got kind of sloppy toward the end)

downstairs: bench: 10 x 134, 6 x 150, 7 x 150, 6 x 150
High incline: 3 sets of 10 x 84 with short rests; 2 sets of 10 curls in between.

trap bar deadlift (super set with bench)
8 x 94 pinch grip, 10 x 134, 10 x 184, 10 x 234

Note: NO KNEE PAIN last night. No swelling either.

Football: watched Army-Navy on TV. Navy won 31-13 and dominated the game from the get-go; up 14-0 and 14-7 at the half. Army had a long drive ending up with a field goal; Navy responded with a TD drive.

Key play: Army drove it but missed a wide open receiver for a TD and had to kick a field goal to cut the lead to 21-13. Navy was stopped; momentum appeared to have shifted but a fake punt moved Navy deep and to a 28-13 lead.

Interceptions stopped the Black Knights and another field goal put Navy up 31-13 with under 4 minutes to go. Great ball game.

I think that Army, while better on paper, was still celebrating their Tulane win and were not prepared for how intensely Navy attacked them.

Some late May politics and social issues…

Will the House impeach President Trump?
I still think that Fareed Zakaria raises some good points. But as the Muller Report gets digested and summarized..

More and more Democrats (and a Republican) in the House are clamoring for impeachment. I had wondered if there were enough votes, given that there are about 30 moderates representing reddish CDs. Fivethirtyeight thinks that there *probably* are.

Note: Nancy Pelosi is probably wise to slow-walk this.

I’ll be interested to see how this plays out. Note that Trump admitted (albeit, probably unwittingly) that Russia helped him win.

What I find interesting is that so many conservatives are fine with Trump praising a ruthless dictator who executes even his own officials. One was just recently executed.

And I admit that I am disgusted with Trump’s relationship with the military and how there seems to be little push-back (this is about the Navy, at least at first, trying to ensure that Trump didn’t see the ship name “John McCain”. Talk about a “triggered snowflake.”

Other issues

Thank you, Meryl Streep, for pushing back on this “toxic masculinity” nonsense.

Political correctness on campus: yes, some students ..AND FACULTY..will reject science if they think that the science in question runs counter to what they think “ought” to be true. Biology catches this from several angles: religious nutters can’t deal with evolution, and the woke can’t deal with the fact that humans aren’t blank slates.

I think that online discussions aren’t helping matters. I wonder if overuse of Twitter is leading me to stat thinking in slogans and catch phrases. There is some research that suggests that Twitter could make you dumber.