On my mind...

Well, I got an email this morning from my mom, letting me know that my uncle was in a car accident Wednesday night. He's been having health problems for a while now (really for about 20 years) and was essentially told that he was slowly killing himself. As for the accident, they believe that he fell asleep at the wheel. He hit a parked car (no one inside, thankfully) and flipped his truck. He's now in intensive care.

With all of this, all I can feel is angry. Seems like I should feel sorry for him, or worried about him, or something. All I can be is pissed off that he didn't bother to take care of himself. What if someone HAD been in that car? What if he had hurt someone else, instead of just continuing to hurt himself? All he's ever been in his whole life is angry -- would he have any different emotions if he hurt someone???

I admit, I feel bad for my aunt. As much as she's a bit nutty in her own way, she's the one who's been dealing with his crap for all these years, and she's the one who'll have to deal with the aftermath. And that's sort of the point. After all of the crap with him over the years, it'll always be other people who have to deal with it.

Remember those years gone by? When the time between football and baseball was filled in by hockey, glorious hockey? When a young girl could happily watch grown men beat the crap out of each other, sticks, skates and (occasionally) teeth sliding across the ice?

This time is officially gone. Okay, so officially as of 1pm tomorrow when the NHL officially announces the inevitable -- hockey, at least as far as this year is concerned, will not exist.

I blame both sides because they forgot something very very important -- most of the fans are not making $50,000 per year, much less multi-millions. We are rightfully offended when those who make hundreds of thousands of dollars for a 1/2 year of work complain about being badly treated, misunderstood, etc.

The worst part is when athletes comment that they have to make enough in the short time of their career to support themselves for when they physically cannot play anymore. This is a huge crock. There are plenty of physical jobs (delivery people, maintenance folks, etc) that may have limited life spans, but we don't pay them for the years when they might not work. If they haven't saved, they do what the athletes seem to think is unthinkable -- they get another job!!!

I'm really just sick of it all -- the baseball players with their steroids, the football players with their attitudes and running mouths, suggesting we should give a crap about what they say, and the hockey players with their ridiculous "woe is me" attitude.

How about this? -- Cancel hockey all together, and go get a real job. Now see how painful it is to not make the millions.