AJC > Sports > Hawks > Blog > Archives > 2006 > August > 28
Monday, August 28, 2006
The joys of normalcy
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Just when you thought it was safe …
I wake up Sunday morning, the first in about two months without worrying about how much longer it would take for the Al Harrington affair to be in our past, and hear about the plane crash in Kentucky.
We don’t have enough fingers and toes to count how many times I’ve been on one of those planes - I’ve been on flights from Lexington to Atlanta before many times. So instead of waking up and enjoying our Sunday paper without worry, I spent much of Sunday Monday morning calming the fears of family members who are worried about all the flying I do for work.
That part of the job is something I made peace with years ago. I know all the statistics and I understand it remains the safest way to travel and all that. But I can’t say that my gut wasn’t in knots all day Sunday thinking about what so many people have lost.
As if the day wasn’t long enough already, I make my way to the movies to see Idlewild (much better than even I expected and I’m a longtime ATLien, so I was feeling good going in) thinking this is the one thing that will allow me to clear my head and try and enjoy this day somehow, and on my way home a seemingly kind old lady ended that dream.
While cutting through the Kroger parking lot I slow down and allow one car to go ahead of me to the exit, a common courtesy extended in parking lots everywhere, before proceeding to the exit myself. But the kind old lady showed her true colors by repeatedly calling me a word that rhymes with bigger but starts with the letter N. Of course, this made a long day seem that much longer, because I wasn’t sure how to respond to the insult.
Don’t worry, I didn’t let my militant side take over and put the car in park, get out and cause a disturbance. But for a split second I wanted to. And for the rest of the night I was fuming about the way she let me have it for something as inconsequential as having to wait two extra seconds to leave the Kroger. It was a sad scene, but true.
Luckily, Jack Bauer won an Emmy Sunday night and the Entourage finale was worth watching. Otherwise, my entire weekend might have been shot.
Truth be told, it was kind of good to get back to the day-to-day drama of our gloriously diverse city. For weeks now all I was doing was making calls and waiting on calls in regards to Al Harrington. I know all the people I was calling are glad they don’t have to take any more of my calls. And I’m more than happy not to be making them, at least most of them, anymore. While that was going on I had basically tuned out everything else. And I apologize for subjecting you all to so much back-and-forth.
Now we can all move on, though. And that includes the Hawks - who picked up the options on the rookie contracts of youngsters Josh Smith, Josh Childress and Marvin Williams during their sponsor trip last week and will finalize their signing of Lorenzen Wright sometime in the next week. And we can all watch as Joe Johnson continues his quest, along with the rest of the members of the national team, for gold at the World Championships.
Who knows, maybe we’ll just spend the next few weeks examining this roster as is, and offering our own predictions about what’s in store for this Hawks team come October, like normal, obsessed fans and observers of any sports team. Maybe.
