What happened?  I don’t know.  I didn’t get to watch the game.  I live in Tampa, Florida and I had to watch either Tampa or Miami.  So, I called my friend in Maryland who loves Washington and I asked him to keep me updated.

Well, he had fun calling me and telling me about the Washington touchdowns and field goals.  But, the one thing he said that really cracked me up, “Don’t worry Mike.  Washington always finds a way to lose.”

Well, it was close.  Down to the last minute behind 23-30, until finally I saw the highlight on the Tampa game my friends and I were watching.  30-30.  Overtime.  Saints win the toss.  Saints get the ball and they capitalize.  33-30.  12-0.

Marching toward an undefeated season is not at all unreasonable to think at this point.  We see Atlanta next week.  Then, we see Dallas, Tampa and finish off the season with Carolina.  Either one of these games could jump up to bite us on the bum.  But, it is feasible that we could win them all too.

Trivia:  The other team that is undefeated at this point is Indianapolis, whose star quarterback is Peyton Manning.  No, that’s not the trivia part.  But, this is.  Peyton’s father, Archie was quarterback for the Saints.

I learned typing on a typewriter.  Are there any that still exist?

We walked around listening to radios through our headphones until the tape player came out?

We had to buy an artist’s entire album.

I played Space Invaders and Donkey Kong on my Atari 2600.  It came with Pong and Asteroids.  I don’t think any other games existed at the time.

I wrote letters and called people on the phone.  I got tangled up in the phone chord every once in awhile.  The first phone I ever made a phone call on had a rotary dial that took two minutes to dial a number. click click click click click

We had to wait for a movie to come out in the video store and we had to sit through commercials on the television.  That was the bathroom break.  I’m not saying video stores and commercials don’t exist today.  I’m just saying that’s what we had to do.  There are other options available now.

We had to look things up in encyclopedias and dictionaries.  Or read a book.

I have mixed emotions about it.  I mean, I would rather sit in front of the computer and type in a search that comes up with a million and one sites that I can begin exploring and finding my answer.  I love being able to correct my work before I print it.  I love being able to put together a CD with only the music I enjoy.  It does seem as if we live in a world that in many ways, has a lot less waste.

But, I think children of today are missing a rich education because they are handed the easy way and they never learn the foundation from which teachers can build.  When a teenager is on the internet instant messaging her friends and using abbreviations like omg and lmao, she then starts writing like that in other areas of her life.  She writes her term papers with abbreviations and misspellings like “u” and “b.”

“Win u get 2 b da prez, dats win u own da world.”

OMG!!!

So, in many ways it’s a far better world.  I just don’t want anyone to lose sight of where we came and how far we’ve come.  Our history is an important part of our future.