Every now and then, you hear people use that expression....especially at sporting events where one team obliterates the other one...let's be realistic...a "valiant effort" is usually reserved for the party that got their butts handed to them...it's the dignified version of "bless his heart"....in other words..."you poor loser....you tried, there's no denying that, but you're still a loser...."
I'm typing this in a Hardees restaurant parking lot at 6:30 am in Chatanooga, the Tennessee dawn has not yet broken....after driving all day from Miami yesterday, last night at about 11:30 am, I pulled over at a rest stop and turned in for the night....I had slept very little the night before and I was wiped out...I've done this a million times....but not too many times in subfreezing temperatures...I have a really good quality sleeping bag...
I was scared to leave the engine running for 2 reasons, the main one was the fact that the gas tank was pretty low and I was afraid of waking up to being out of gas in the bitter cold....the other reason, truthfully, gas has gotten too damned expensive!!
so I made my bed in the back of the Durango...I was pretty comfortable while the residual heater atmosphere lasted...
then the temperature dropped....I slept (probably out of sheer exhaustion) for about 4 hours...at 5:00 am I woke up FREEZING!, I looked at the digital thermometer on the car.... 14 DEGREES!!! I tried to reshuffle, put on my sweatshirt, pulled the hoodie over my head, just when I was about to go for an extra set of socks I thought....."get up and keep driving to Nashville fool...."
Needless to say, I was in a really cranky mood....(you know, the one where you're actually talking to yourself, and mocking you very words from about a week ago...."I'll just drive this time...and then I'll just sleep at a rest stop")
As I sat back up in the front seat and turned on the vehicle and waited for the10 minutes that it takes the heat in 15 degree weather to kick in, shivering (literally), cranky, and sleepy, I looked at my profile pic and saw Bill Belichick and I heard his voice in my head saying, "Rudy....It was a valiant effort!"....the only thing that came out of my mouth was........"G-G-God I hate the Patriots!"
