What do you think about the execution of the Bears' defense?

To quote former Tampa Bay Bucs coach Rich McKay in response to the question in the title:

"I'm for it."

The once-vaunted Bear defense gave up a whopping 538 yards of offense to Brett the Indecisive and the Vikings in a 36-10 loss. Lovie Smith has assumed the duties of defensive coordinator as well as head coach this season, and it's not helping. The Bears, though, are really thin on talent, thanks to some poor drafts over the past few years and a number of injuries this year. I'm not a big believer in a football team needing a fiery coach. Tom Landry used to stand stoically on the sidelines while his Dallas Cowboys were going to Super Bowls. And Lovie Smith took the Bears to the Super Bowl just four seasons ago. It's amazing how a coach or manager can go from genius to dumbass and back depending on the talent on the roster.

Still looks like the Orange And Blue are heading toward probably a 6-10 season. Yawn.

Bring on baseball. The Cubs finally have new ownership, and it's a family that sat out in the bleachers at Wrigley watching some pathetic Northside nines back in the 1980s. They claim to want to make the Cubs a world-class organization. And they're promising to work hard toward a World Series, possibly in my lifetime-just like in the book 1984 when the Party promised victory against Eurasia, or was it Eastasia?  Hmm. I'll believe it when I see it.

And that's SportsCenter for this week.

I spent two days of the four-day weekend at work trying to mop up the Big Green project. I've been using Pro/Engineer pretty heavily over the past few months, and in many ways it's like any other software that's been around a while and is the big kid on the block (Looking at you, Microsoft). They claim to be the best but in reality the program isn't-quite-as user friendly as might be liked. Pro/E is great for modeling assemblies but the drafting part of it leaves a lot to be desired. Picture a great theoretical mathematician that can't do basic arithmetic and you get the idea.

Well. It's what Big Green uses (and likes its vendors to use), so we're kind of stuck with it. They have this big idea that they can design in the virtual world and not have to prototype anything. Sure. And I've got a funky-looking house in Sydney Harbour to sell you. Doesn't work that way. There's always something that looks good on paper but doesn't work when the prototypes get built.

What else to cover? The Better Half's aunt is not doing so well. She knows that something is not right in her head, and the memory and eyesight are fading rapidly. That mass in her brain is probably growing. I shouldn't expect that she'll be around a lot longer-months, possibly weeks. What do you do with a 94-year-old? A biopsy on the brain mass could have been done, but the doctors felt it too risky. I'd agree. And for what? Another year? She has on numerous occasions said that four-score plus years is enough to be here. Why do a lot of surgeries and make that last bit of life miserable? And at that age, any surgery gets risky. If we lived to a healthy 120 years of age, that'd be one thing, but we don't.

Mom's eyesight seems to be improving decently. She can read regular print now. I'd bet that if we can maintain this level of eyesight, she'll be driving again next summer. She was a bit down- now that she can see, she can see the dirt that's accumulated in various places in the house. Ignorance is indeed bliss! Gives her something to do, though. The more independent she gets again, the better for her-and for me.

Alrighty. That Was The Week That Was. Much to do this week as well. Back to it.

yankeedog out.