Can’t Keep a Good Blog Down
Whenever someone I’ve lost touch with asks me if I’m still with the Journal, neither one of us can believe it’s true.
“It’s amazing they haven’t run me off by now,’’ I usually explain.
On Sunday, though, I had to wonder if my run was done and nobody had bothered to tell me.
My family gathered this weekend in Raleigh, and as always we had us a time, telling tale tells, laughing, railing about all there is to rail about these days, laughing some more, caterwauling maudlin country songs and generally enjoying each other’s company. Like Robert Earl said about the brothers in Corpus Christi Bay, we Collins boys are bad for one another, but we’re good at having fun.
But upon finally checking in with myself on line Sunday I found I wasn’t home. My cosmic connection had been broken and I was soon palpatating with the heebie-jeebies. You’re nobody anymore until somebody links you, and I couldn’t even get through to myself. It left me wondering, as Robert Earl poses in another song Is There Wireless in Heaven?
This story has a happy ending, at least for me and for those to whom I owe money. I found out by Monday morning that nobody with the Journal was dropping any broad hints, and instead there had been a server problem back in the home office in Richmond. So by yesterday afternoon I was back up and still running. Thanks to everyone who wondered about me. I truly appreciate it.
I did manage to swing by Wake’s second football practice of the day yesterday and as soon as I finish this I’m headed over to Joel Coliseum to watch coach Jeff Bzdelik put the hardwood Deacons through their paces.
No real scoops from football. Joey Ehrmann landed wrong in the morning practice and bruised up his knee, but neither coach Jim Grobe nor trainer Don Steelman expect it to have any bearing on Ehrmann’s availability for the Dec. 30th date with Mississippi State in the Music City Bowl. Chris Givens said he hadn’t gotten his evaluation from the NFL back and he wasn’t even going to ponder his future until he headed home to Wylie, Tx., to discuss his options with his family. He also said that even if he made a decision on whether to make himself available for the draft, he probably won’t tell anybody until after the Bowl. I asked Grobe if the issue had been a distraction, and he said that would only happen if Givens wasn’t into practicing for the bowl game—in which case he would tell him to go ahead and rest up for the spring combine. He hastened to add that he’s seen no sign of that being the case, stressing that Givens is still all in. And I’ve written a story that will run in Wednesday’s Journal in which Grobe still doesn’t expect to use more than two running backs, senior Brandon Pendergrass and freshman Orville Reynolds, against the Bulldogs of the SEC.