Sisyphus

I only have two more nights to spend in the house before we move to the apartment.  I'm taking tomorrow and Friday off from work to be ready to pitch in wherever needed.

On Thursday, we finish signing the lease and get the keys to the apartment.  Thursday will be spent moving the necessities - food, clothing, etc. - over to the new apartment from the house.  Friday will be the actual move day, when the house itself is cleared of furniture.  Theoretically, that day will be the very last day we see the old house again, except for possible drive-bys when we're feeling nostalgic.

It's been rather stressful and to top it all off, I've not been taking some of my depression meds.  This morning, I made sure to remember.  Then I couldn't find any of the meds. I sent my wife an e-mail from work, and she said that the pharmacy had moved the meds into one of their printed bottles rather than the standard model.  So the meds were there, I just couldn't find them.  Looks like I'll be heading back home at lunchtime.

My plan for tonight is to take a nice relaxing bath in the bathtub after Atlanta @ Connecticut.  The new bathtub isn't as big, so I better enjoy my last bath while I still have a chance.

(* * *)

I didn't see any of Chicago @ Los Angeles.  Those 10:30 pm ET start times will kill you; that's when I went to bed.  I slept horribly on Monday night and I knew I wouldn't make it through the night.

Looking at the box score, it appears that I missed a great game, with 17 lead changes.  Carol Ross at LA moves up to 4-1 for the season in games decide by 5 points or less, Pokey Chatman falls back to 2-2.  Ross, Laimbeer, and Thibault are all legitimately great coaches; I have no idea who I'll vote for as Coach of the Year.

Sad to see that Elena Delle Donne injured her foot.  According to EDD, someone stepped on it and it doesn't seem to be broken, just sore.  Given Griner's injuries and the concussion that kept EDD out of the All-Star Game, I'm wondering if Griner and Delle Donne are being forced to carry greater loads than would be expected of a rookie.  There are Phoenix fans who still expect for Griner to be scoring every time she touches the ball, as if "Get it to Griner" is the winning strategy in a league where you have to face Candace Parker and Seimone Augustus on a regular basis.  Yeah, Phoenix can get it to Griner, but then Griner has to run over the center who was also All-Everything in college.

That's what people don't recognize - this league is a league full of college All-Stars, and it's a leap up from the college game.  Look at Skylar Diggins in Tulsa.  She averaged 17.1 ppg for the Fighting Irish in her senior year but at Tulsa she's averaging 8.0 and hasn't even started every game, whereas EDD and Griner haven't missed a start.  Diggins's performance is actually pretty good for your run-of-the-mill rookie point guard, but this is Skylar Diggins we're talking about.  People expected more, certainly in Tulsa.

I suspect that Diggins is going to be the Anna Kournikova of the WNBA, at least based on the 2013 season - she's the good looking woman whose publicity and attention strips her talent.

(* * *)

The Dream get the chance to play Connecticut in a couple of back to backs games.  In Connecticut on Wednesday, and at Philips on Friday.

Dream win both games?  All the negative talk shuts down.
Dream lose one?  Verily, that would truly sucketh.
Dream lose both?  People are going to start questioning Senor Fred's job security.   You don't lose two to the Sun, even if you've been playing like...well, what the Dream have been playing like.

Don't think the players don't feel it.  When waiting to ask Fred Williams questions, I wait outside the locker room.  When the Dream win, the players walk back to the locker room at their own speed, laughing, giggling, talking loudly.  After the New York game, they marched back to the locker room literally in single-file, like a bunch of schoolchildren caught in a prank gone horribly wrong.  They looked miserable.  They felt miserable.  So no, the players don't blow off these losses.

Senor Fred was surprisingly upbeat.  I suspect that's just his personality.  He was actually let go at USC because the parents (and players?) wanted more of a disciplinarian.  I could understand how it could get on someone's nerves, but I suspect that he hates losing as much as the rest of the Dream does.  You don't have to cry or scream to show that you hate losing.

Let's turn this game around tonight.  I'll be watching on Live Access, hope you will too.