Oh Sad Day

I’m depressed.

It’s not only because the Red Sox lost last night and got swept out of the playoffs, though that is definitely part of it. And it’s not that the Lightning lost to the Stinkin’ Panthers last night either. No, my depression comes from the fact that I’m home, typing up this blog, when I should be on my way to Blacksburg to see the Hokies play.

This will mark the first home game that Sage and I haven’t been to since 1998. We first got season tickets in 1999, and we haven’t missed a home game until today. Even when Hurricane Isabel swept through Virginia in 2003, and over 10 inches of rain and 50 MPH winds hit Blacksburg, we were in Lane Stadium cheering on the Hokies against Texas A&M.

But today I just couldn’t do it. We tried though. Normally on a Saturday game at Noon we go down “half-way” to Blacksburg on Friday night. Hotel rooms were completely booked all the way down I-81, however, and we decided to do a down-and-back in the same day trip. (I’m guessing all the Super 8’s and Days Inns were sold out because of it being a holiday weekend, good foliage, etc., but usually we can get any of those places all to ourselves on a Friday night.) Yesterday it didn’t seem like such a bad idea, as it rained hard all day on Friday, and the weather report showed clearing skies for Saturday. So we got up this morning at 5:30 and was on the road by 6. The rain, however, hadn’t stopped. After about 30 minutes of driving in a pouring rain on the highways and not being able to see the lanes, I had these thoughts: 1) It was supposed to rain like this the entire way to Blacksburg. 2) Even if the rain let up a little bit, we’d probably just make it in time for the opening kick off. 3) With the heavy rain and water pooling on the road, using cruise control was not going to work. 4) My knees wouldn’t be able to take 9 hours of driving today in weather like this.

So we got as far as Vienna before turning around. We both are really miserable, but considering I was at my rope’s end from stress from less than an hour of driving in that mess, I know we made the right decision. The only (ONLY) good thing about the Sox losing last night was that if they won, ESPN2 would have shown Game 4 today. Now they’re free to show VT/Marshall instead.

Ed Viesturs, probably the greatest American mountain climber, once said about climbing, "you've got to listen to what the mountain is telling you and know when it's the right time to go up and when it's time to go down.” Today we had to turn back before reaching our summit. While I’m sure we could have made it to the game and back tonight without incident, this was the safe play.

I hope the Hokie Bird forgives me.