Still alive

I apologize for the recent lack of posts. Been feeling a bit small for the last week as my immune system battles the forces of darkness. I'll be seeing the surgeon again tomorrow and anticipate a surgical intervention in the near future.

Still getting IV antibiotics every morning and I'll be heading off for my daily dose in a few minutes.

Couple of random thoughts...

When Walt Garrison signed with the Cowboys in 1966, it was the custom for signees to receive an automobile as a signing bonus. Garrison, a real Texas cowboy who earned a pre-vet degree while playing football at Oklahoma State, asked for, and received, a horse trailer in lieu of an automobile.

When Cobi Hamilton signed with the Bengals in 2013, the automobile signing bonus was a thing of the distant past. These days signees receive cold, hard cash. Hamilton, another real Texas cowboy who played college ball at Arkansas, took his $93,000 bonus to the sale barn and bought cattle.

For most players, the NFL is a solid bitch of a career. For all but the very elite, the league chews its players up and spits them out in a year or two, essentially broke, and with few skills and little experience with which to face the rest of their lives. Well, that's life, they're big boys, and that's the breaks.

Hamilton was cut from numerous practice squads in '13 and '14, and was out of football entirely last year. He spent 2015 working on the family ranch.

This year he made the cut with the Steelers and seems to be doing quite well. But he also seems to be a well grounded farm kid at heart, and I suspect he'll be okay whichever way the ball bounces.

You gotta wonder why the media and government can only report on and stir up riots, and why no one seems to think of pointing out the countless American success stories, the countless American lives built one stone at a time on foundational American principles.