Ponderous thoughts I was pondering ...

The Patriots will see this view in Seattle on Sunday night.

 

Ponderous thoughts I was pondering while accepting the feel of fall but bemoaning the lack of high school football to cover:

** Yes, we're two weeks into what should have been a high school football season, but the COVID-19 pandemic has stood in its way. A shame, too. Tonight would have been perfect football weather, but wouldn't you know it, two of the local towns that comprise the King Philip Regional school district have suddenly become coronavirus hotspots because of outbreaks at nursing homes, so that would have put the kibosh on any games that Glen Farley and I might have wanted to cablecast from Macktaz Field in any event.

I don't get it. Nursing homes should be the most protected places aside from hospitals. Families are restricted from visiting their loved ones, so is it a case of the care-giving professionals bringing the virus into the premises and giving it to the vulnerable individuals within?

When I first started typing the word "coronavirus" back in March, I never envisioned it would still be a problem as we near October. Now I'm actually afraid that there may be no high school basketball to cover this year, and that football may have to be conducted before empty stands as well during the bastardized season in which it will be placed.

In case you all have forgotten, winter weather extends well into March. We could have 18-inch snowfalls at any time during that very volatile month. I don't want to be too much of a downer here, but I have a feeling that this will be the most miserable high school football in memory, with the word "pneumonia" replacing "coronavirus" on everyone's shit list.

But tonight would have been a glorious night for a game. No, I'm not suggesting that we should throw caution to the wind at a time when COVID-19 is still a palpable risk. But I do wish I could be behind the microphone calling a game tonight.

Another prototype deep-dish pizza.

** I made a pizza last night. I know that's no big deal, but I have spent most of the last 40 years trying to make the perfect homemade Chicago-style deep-dish pizza, and every now and then, I feel as if I take a quantum leap toward that goal. The process last night took a few new steps. 

First, I pre-baked my crust so I wouldn't be putting ingredients atop raw dough. Second, I chopped the mozzarella and mixed it with a home-made pizza sauce before putting it down into the pre-baked crust. Then I put the chunks of San Marzano tomatoes down atop that bed of cheese and sauce before adding the last few ingredients (oregano, grated Parmesan and Romano, olive oil) and baking it. The result looks good. Tasted good, too. But it wasn't perfect.

I found I needed to use less cheese and less sauce in the mix, and I had to bake it longer (probably more like 12-15 minutes) before turning on the broiler for the last four minutes for the browning. Now, you may think that it looks burned on top, but that was the result of brushing tomato sauce on the dough before the pre-bake to give it added flavor.

I think that with a few tweaks, I may have it down pat. We shall see ...

** I almost walked into a store without a mask on the other night. It wasn't intentional; I just jumped out of the car without grabbing one and realized just before I got to the door that I was un-masked. Yes, I went all the way back to the car to get one and put it on.

No big deal, you might say. You're right, but just remember, I'm still dealing with the rehabilitation of my surgically-repaired left knee, and it is still quite sore. But the rules say we wear masks, and so I wear a mask. So why is it that so many other Americans might want throw fists with me over wearing masks?

We have a lot of problems. Wearing a mask to prevent a deadly disease should not be one of them.

** I hope you've noticed that I'm expanding the world of "The Owner's Box" into video. The audio podcast has returned with Episode 27, featuring baseball writer Maureen Mullen, but now I can add video segments from those recordings to "The Owner's Box After Dark." I'm feeling really good about this innovation and I hope you'll all tune in via my links here, on Facebook and Twitter and on YouTube.

** That's all for today. Stay safe and wear a mask. And my apologies if some of the formatting in this entry is off-kilter; the folks at Blogger have changed their interface, and despite their claims, it's not as precise as what I used to use before the unwanted change. I'll try to get more comfortable in it.

And in case you're wondering, the Fearless Forecast for Sunday night's game in Seattle is 34-21, the Seahawks beating the Patriots. Cheers.