Just as the fog is lifting

Made the ride down Corridor X last weekend to catch the Johnnys play the 'Dores and now getting to place where all the events of the past week can be accounted for. In retrospect this trip was fraught with signs that things were not going to go our way, the first bad omen being trying to find gas at three different exits in the greater Oxford/Anniston metroplex. Every station we came to had those wonderful black bags on every pump. It was so bad that we were checking to see who Jacksonville State and Ryan Periloser were playing so we could at least catch a tackle football game while we waited for the effects of Hurricane Ike to wear off. Bad omen number 2... a bad rack of ribs once we arrived in Memphis. I have been talking dry ribs up with my buddy every since we got this trip on the calendar. Spouting off about how wonderful the ribs are at Central BBQ.... just juicy, tender, fall of the bone ribs. What did we get? Glorified jerky. I couldn't believe it. With the arrival of friday we had a glimmer of hope restored. BBQ redemption was theme for the day. We went to the one place where I knew disappointment wasn't on the menu and we finally had the taste of bad ribs out of our mouth. Belly and flask full we headed downtown to take in the atmosphere in the Peabody Lobby. My grandmother was convinced that the bloody marys created in the lobby bar are by far the best on the planet. I always try to take new guests to Memphis down there for at least one cocktail. We ended up hanging out for a bit then met my brother at another spot for an after work drink and bad omen number 3... locked keys in the car. Took us a little while but it is good to know we could boost a car if we had to! We decided to take it to the house for dinner and drove back out east. While at the store buying some steaks my buddy realized that bad omen number 4 had taken residence in his wallet in the very spot where is credit card usually resided. So back downtown we went to retrieve said card... we hoped. Card back in hand we headed home to put the past two days behind us. Awoke to a beautiful saturday morning that just tasted like football season. Cool. Light breeze. We couldn't wait to head for the grove. Trip down was good. Parking? No problem. Tent? All set up. Long time friends? Reunited! Girls? A fall fashion show in the grove! Bad Omen 5? Rain... just a little bit... enough to remind us that we are Ole Miss and there are greater forces working against us. Game starts and things look great for the first quarter. Then the final bad omen rears its ugly head in the form of the final three quarters of the game. Apparently, we had crawled pretty deeply into the bottom of a bottle because things are pretty blurry until the end of the game. A thick haze covered my mind and my mouth on sunday. I didn't want to think about football anymore. Monday? The haze was gone but my disdain for football was still present. I couldn't even begin to think about Florida this weekend. Tuesday I started to rally. I actually thought about what could be in store for us this weekend. The fog lifted last night as I caught the replay on CSS. I couldn't watch past halftime. Now, there is talk of canceling the debate? We Are Ole Miss! Do the omens continue?