Hey, except for a shower during the wee hours, it hasn't rained today! Woo-woo! And not only that, there were times of actual sunlight during the course of the day. Not a lot of them, and they didn't last very long, but it's a start. Those nutbags in the weather service are claiming that tomorrow will be sunnier with temperatures in the upper 70s. They even claim the temperature will be sliding up into the 80s by Thursday. We'll see. (Grumble, grumble.)
The absence of rain during the daylight hours meant the ground dried out enough that I could drag myself outside and cut some grass (which grew this last week like it's been raining steroids, not water). Which meant I got to spend some time out in this amazing northern Vermont country, the blackflies far less oppressive then they've been for the past month. Not gone completely, but down in numbers. It's mid-June, the time their season usually peters out. I have hopes that liberation is at hand.
But enough about blackflies and steroids. I want to talk about the World Cup for a moment.
I've spent far too much time in front of the television since the Cup started a couple of weeks back, and have seen some strange games. For instance, yesterday's U.S. v. Mexico game -- not a pretty match -- and this morning's Italy/S. Korea game. I could be wrong (god knows, it's happened before), but there seems to be a huge amount of outlandishly physical play going on, a huge amount of fouling that seems emblematic of poor sportsmanship to me. But maybe I just don't have enough exposure to top level play -- maybe this is par. Maybe it's just a sign of high adrenalin, of high tension and keyed-up nerves. I don't know. But even in the Ireland/Spain game, there seemed to be a huge amount of unnecessary, unintelligent conduct of that sort. For instance, if it hadn't been for Hierro's (a Spanish defender, the team captain) foul at the end of regulation time -- the bizarre, highly-visible two-handed holding of an Irish player's shirt, a blatant foul committed in the middle of action right in front of the Spanish goal -- there would have been no free kick and very possibly no equalizing goal for the Irish team. A little restraint, a little cleaner play would have served the Spanish team much better, wouldn't it? Or am I being naive?
And about the Ireland/Spain game -- Spain has the deeper team, I think, and the Spanish team may be superior to the Irish team, but the Irish took the Spanish out of their game, transforming them from a group of virtuosi into a plodding group of players -- a real triumph for the Irish players. I watched the game on a hispanic channel (Univision), and you should have heard the commentators laying into the Spanish team near the end of the event, talking about a lack of desire and will -- the product of Ireland taking Spain out of their game. They also loved when the Irish team lined up, arms around each other, during the tie-breaker.
Anyway, that's enough of that. If you haven't watched a game or two of the Cup, you're missing some great entertainment. The quarterfinals start in two days. Get out your VCR, tape a match or two. They're worth checking out.