The thrill is going, going, gone ...

I feel like I've reached my limit on reading and listening about the Mike Leach firing by the Raiders of Red. And I've been pretty much listening and reading about it since noon. Yesterday.

Anyway, as I'm bored with the arguments as to why he got canned, I've been thinking about why I'll miss the guy. Dale Hanson, channel 8 sports personality/quasi-journalist, opined during the evening news about the numerous Tech fans who were throwing up their hands and saying they would never have anything to do with the program ever again. Never ever.

Hanson rightly called this a bunch of B.S., saying the fans will still be there, especially if Texas Tech can keep winning, keep getting better. And he's right. I even spent part the day thinking about who the next head coach would be and who would be a good choice. Time keeps moving forward.

But Hanson also misses something pretty obvious. Anytime you get rid of a personality within the organization, the organization changes.

And there were a lot of reasons I loved having Mike Leach within the organization:

• His overall craziness combined with success brought more attention to Tech than ever before.
• He had a great image: Combative, eccentric, intelligent, innovative, tenacious. That image reflected on Tech.
• His style of offense and aggressive play just made the game fun to watch.
  
• He said what he thought, and was frequently hilarious while doing so.
• He seemed to get A&M's goat for no other reason than he could do so. That was fun.
  

All that goes away with Leach, no matter who replaces him. Some personalities are irreplaceable, and the Texas Tech administration just threw that away, bringing the end to a great time to be a Red Raider fan.

That's the biggest disappointment for me in this dang deal.

Basic thoughts on basic training

So, after having a week to recover, and now going through a week to build myself back up, here's what's in my head after all of two-and-a-half weeks of Army training.

• Easily the most ignorant and stupid thing I've said in the last decade, and I've said a lot of ignorant and stupid things: "All right! I train in the winter! It won't be hot!"
• I guess I've lived through to many north Texas winters to consider that fact that a 9-degree windchill is not a fun thing to stand in formation. Unlike heat, you can't really get away from the cold. It permeates everything, all the time, and it's a living thing with the sole purpose of making me sick.
• Beyond that, training is very doable. Even for a 39 year old, so long as the 39 year old isn't sick. Damn cold.
  
• Half of basic training is sitting in a big classroom, listening to a lecture, struggling to stay awake. They don't show that in the movies.
• Drill Sergeants act the way that you've always seen them portrayed. The main difference is that the anger and the yelling isn't personal. It's really motivated by professionalism. They have to train you to act like a professional under fire, and they have all of nine weeks to do it. It's not an easy thing to do.
  
• Food: Generally not really good. Very monotonous. But not without its high points.
• The level of misery brought on simply by not being able to see your family: Orange. The crap thing is that, after the Christmas break, I'll have a little less than a week before shipping off again. Sucks. But it's the deal you volunteer for. And I get a lot of satisfaction out of finally adding a paycheck to the family kitty.
  
• Six hours of sleep a night. Uhhngghh.
• The fun stuff -- shooting, camping, obstacle course -- begins when I go back. Looking forward to that. So long as I don't get sick. Damn cold.
  
• Why Texas Tech? Why?
  

Favorite new toy

Me and Meredith felt kinda bad this Christmas, not having a video camera. The boy's talking a storm and running around all over the place, and we haven't really captured that.

So, thanks to me finally having a job and us finally getting some financial breathing space, we went out today and spent a wad of cash on a video recorder, camera bag, and DVD burner. We had to have a lesson in how to do it. The last time either of us were recording videos, we had to shoot on those huge cameras that recorded directly to the VHS tape. We were in kind of a culture shock.

So, here's the first thing we got. Sam enjoys appearing on-screen.