Imperfect Perfect

Whoda thunk it? The only undefeated team in the National Conference of the NFL is our Chicago Bears. 3-0 after beating Green Bay 20-17. Actually, the Pack beat themselves with 18 penalties-way too many for what is supposed to be a contending team.

That the Bears are 3-0 is probably more of an indictment on the NFC being not very strong this year. In fact, I haven't seen ANY team in either conference look all that dominating. This might be a bit of a down year in the NFL. Perhaps they've accomplished the goal of parity in the league-or mediocrity.

As for the Bears themselves, there are still some of the problems from last year. The offensive line can't protect Jay Cutler. Cutler himself is still prone to trying to make a play happen that got busted at the start and tossing an interception. The tackling reminds me uncomfortably of a bunch playing school intramural flag football. They wrap around and the ball carrier bulls forward another five yards after the tackle.

On the other hand, teams that have successful seasons do get their share of breaks along the way. So we'll see. I need to see another couple of weeks before I start beating the drum big time for the Orange and Blue.

-------

Sad to hear about our Doc Yobbo having to deal with that which Lance Armstrong fought. Good luck, Doc. It's fairly easy to recover from that particular cancer, but still not great fun. First Al, then Tricia, now the Doc. No more maladies from anyone for a while! That's an order!

-------

A minor story here involves a possible pumpkin shortage here in Illinois. The weather around here was too wet for optimum pumpkin growth this summer, so the crop isn't what it has been in past years. The pumpkin, of course, is the symbol of Autumn and Halloween. Most people just buy one to carve a jack-o'-lantern for Halloween then after October 31 give it to their kids to toss in the street. Of course, most pumpkins are grown then made into pie filling (mmmm-pumpkin pie...drool). You can bake them like a squash, with brown sugar and bacon (bacon being the universal flavor enhancer), and roast the seeds for a snack.

I'll just bet as I get to the farm stands this fall, all of them have pumpkins stacked up in a great orange wall. There never really seems to be a shortage of the things, so I'll believe there's a shortage when I see it-or don't, as the case may be. It does seem to have been a good year for apples, at least so far. The orchards look to be full.

------

Finally, we finish with another episode of 'Pimp My Military Vehicle'.

This week, it's the BRDM-2, classic 4-wheel-drive Soviet built recon vehicle. It serves in a lot of the armies of the world as a scout car, anti-aircraft missile carrier, anti-tank vehicle, and (in incompetent hands) as a mobile target for your A-10 and helo jockies. For those of you not familiar, it looks like this:

Take one, strip it down to zero, give it a snappy repaint, some chrome, lights, and some tender loving funky, and you get this:

Sweet! The perfect vehicle to cruise the main drag, drive to the store or out on the town, and still robust enough to take up to Wisconsin to deer camp come hunting season! I'd have chromed the wheels as well. Maybe put in a kit to make it bounce, too.

But what about the interior, YD? Everyone knows Soviet vehicles aren't built for comfort!

Oh, yes, the inside has been redone as well.

The stock version, right out of the showroom:

You can't be representin' with some shit milspec interior! Little more chrome, some rewiring, and a DEE-luxe bucket seat-and it ends up like this:

Awesometown! We'd look great cruising around in in our whack BRDM! The owner probably put in a kickass sound system as well, with big speakers so the bass reverbs in your gut as you wheel around town-something like this blaring:




And the people in the next car over saying "I'll thump your bass, you bastard!"

yankeedog out.