Work Sucks Even More Now

Oh, man ... I haven't blog posted till now because last/Wednesday night I ate out, came home and, because I had woken up at 4:30 yesterday/Wednesday morning, fell asleep at 10:30 at night and didn't wake up till the alarm sounded at 7 this/Thursday morning.  Fell asleep so hard that I didn't even sleep with my clothes on.  Gosh, it felt good.

Anyway, work sucked, big time.  Worse, even.  I'm not sure if the snowstorm down south, which delayed a shipment from last week that we are still trying to catch up on, was the reason for all the crap I had to go through today or if it's just a bump up in workload compared to recent months, but there was a lot.  So much, in fact, that I have left work after spending my self-imposed two extra hours with work left over.  I'll be honest: I now track the specific number of forms I get in The Fourth Department, and number-wise, I have had "worse" days than today.  It might be the type of form or I might be out of practice (I last worked in The Fourth Department last week), but I was not close to finishing everything I should've done.

It's not a good feeling.  Sure, I can say that I did all I could, and I did do all I could.  But not since I started off on my own in The Fourth Department have I left so much to do till the next day, and back then I had the excuse that I was figuring stuff out.  Yeah, I have a lot to do, but I wonder if my higher-ups are going to come in in the morning, look at everything I still have to do, and wonder about me.

The worst thing about this all is the cascading effect.  Again, I don't exactly know why the work has been so much when until not too long ago I was afraid the company would shut down due to lack of work, but assuming there will be as much work as there has been recently, I am behind on finishing up the work I usually do in the afternoon.  That means the stuff I usually do in the morning has to be pushed back until the afternoon, and if there is a lot of new stuff, my God, there will be even more forms that will be left unfinished by the time I have to get my butt out of work.  And since tomorrow/Friday is my last workday of the week, I am leaving it for someone else to clean up.  Which might not be a bad thing for me personally, but probably not good when it comes to karma.

The Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey

#-1: Gopher women's hockey (Last Week: -2).  Swept St. Thomas at Ridder Arena over the weekend by scores of 4-2 and 5-1.  But still, how in the fuck did they lose at home to Penn St. the Week before?

Nothing else to say.  Well, besides that the team is playing the second of three straight in-state schools, Minnesota State-Mankato, in a home-and-away (here Friday, there Saturday).

#-2: Wild (Last Week: Positive Numbers).  Got whacked at home to The Bastard Quebec Nordiques and at Team Privilege, aka The (Las) Vegas Golden Knights.  In between they defeated San Jose.  They continue to have so many of their best players hurt, yet they somehow remain second in The Central Division, and still there are only three teams that have more Points than the Wild.  How in the hell are they still keeping their heads above water like this?  Have to see what happens in the playoffs, reaching which seems more and more likely (and I didn't see that coming), but there are good vibes surrounding this squad, and for good reason.

Home to Edmonton, then at Nashville and Colorado.

#-3: Gopher men's hockey (Last Week: -1).  The third-ranked Gophers split a pair at Ohio St. (ranked eleventh at the time, ranked eighth now) over the weekend, and what's notable is that both Games were routs -- the Buckeyes keelhauled the U. 5-1 on Friday, and Minnesota returned the favor (and then some) Saturday by a score of 6-1.  Getting their asses beat on the road to a very good team isn't great; kicking ass at the same arena is pretty good.

Host Notre Dame for two this weekend.

#-4: Gopher women's basketball (Last Week: 0).  So after routing Rutgers at Williams last Wednesday by 26, they reached the Associated Press Top 25 for the first time since before the pandemic (2019 to be specific) at #24.  Fantastic!  At 16-1 at the time, bracketologist Charlie Creme seems to think they are moving closer to safely being in the NCAA Tournament.  And not the stupid-ass Play-In Games, I'm talking about the actual tournament of 64.

But we fans also know that the trip to Maryland, ranked eighth in the AP Poll, last/Tuesday night was going to be a gut check.  How good is this team really?  Well, they lost, 99-92, but yes, you can call this a moral victory.  Previous Golden Gopher iterations would've been blasted out the gym by the Terrapins, but this club won the First and Fourth Quarters.  They won't be winning it all, but these women can ball, and they can hang against some good opponents.  Northwestern is not one of them, but they get to visit the Wildcats Sunday afternoon, so that should be a Win for them.

#-5: Timberwolves (Last Week: -3).  Road victories over Orlando and Washington bookend an extremely frustrating 127-125 loss to The Bastard Vancouver Grizzlies at Target Center Saturday.  The Woofie Dogs led by four with 1:41 left and allowed Memphis to score the final six Points to steal it, the last two of which started with a Steal of Julius Randle.

This club is mired in eighth in the West.  And instead of maturing as a leader, Anthony Edwards continues to get fined for obscenities.  There's a bad vibe surrounding this franchise right now, and every screening Week that passes without a string of Wins that comes from this unit locking in on both ends of the court only increases the toxicity.  It's not getting better, and time is running out.

This Week: Home to The Bastard Philadelphia Warriors, at MSG, home to red-hot Cleveland (Cleveland??), at Memphis.

#-6: Gopher wrestling (Re-Entry!).  I don't remember Nebraska ever being a power in wrestling (even though they are in a part of the country where you would think wrestling is popular), but they were ranked sixth in the nation as they hosted the U. Saturday and, lo and behold, the Goofers (ranked eighth at least at the time) lost, 21-13.  Minnesota won only three of the ten Matches, but after Gable Steveson (ranked #1 in Heavyweight again) technically fell the Cornhuskers' Harley Andrews, the Goofs were leading, 13-9 ... only for Nebraska to win the final four Matches comprising of the lightest weights (125, 133, 141 and 149 lbs.) to take the Dual.  Host Michigan Sunday afternoon.

#-7: Gopher men's basketball (Last Week: -5).  It gets sadder, and yet more predictable.  Got annihilated in Wisconsin by 21 Friday, then lost at Maryland Monday by six.  Yep, by only six, and the Gopher men's b-ball Twitter account said, "Fought to the end."  Sure, they fought, but they are also winless in conference play at 0-6.  Now, they get Michigan at The Barn Thursday and visit Iowa on Tuesday.  Could they win one of those two?  Yeah, no.

#-Infinity: Vikings (Last Week: -4).  I don't know what to say, or else anything different from what I say when the Vikings or, to be honest, any Minnesota team that looks like they might have a chance of winning it all and finally freeing this goddamned state of its misery of loserdom lets us down again.  I don't think this is worse than any of the NFC Championship Game Losses, but Monday night's beatdown by The Bastard Cleveland Rams (in the home of The Bastard Chicago-by-way-of-St. Louis Cardinals because of the L. A. wildfires) is particularly disappointing because in these last two defeats that have ended their season, to Detroit and the Rams, they looked absolutely nothing like the juggernaut that went 14-3 in the regular season and had many Vikes fans (me included) that they had a chance, small but real, that this would be The Year.

It wasn't.  The Offensive Line, which I thought held up really well (especially after the season-ending injury to blindside Tackle Christian Darrisaw), was absolutely fucking shredded by the Rams, who sacked Sam Darnold nine goddamn times.  I don't know how prime Tom Brady could produce at all when you're being battered like that, but apparently Darnold didn't hold up his end by missing receivers all over the place.  (I say "apparently" because I turned off the TV shortly after the Second Quarter started and Will Reichard put Minnesota on the board, making the score 10-3.  I didn't like the vibe of the Game, and I was tired, so I took an hour-long nap, and then when I woke up, I still didn't turn on the TV.  I made the right choice.)  He was so good because, according to what I read on The Athletic, his timing was impeccable.  The incessant pass rush by the Lions and Rams destroyed Darnold's timing and thus his game.  We saw none of this over the previous 16 Games, but it reared its ugly head when the Games mattered most.

It was more than two Weeks ago that Darnold was thrown into the air by his teammates in the Vikings locker room after they beat Green Bay at U. S. Bank Stadium.  There was a crescendo of talk from Purple Faithful asking whether Darnold actually is The One, and that the squad should actually trade J. J. McCarthy and keep Darnold.  You are hearing none of that talk now, which I find funny; we toxic fans would treat a player like #1 one week, then #2 the next.  Maybe we should not get too high or too low until the season's over, huh?

With all that said, I don't think Darnold should come back unless he accepts a contract that underplays his performance this season, to be honest.  I really thought the savings from his contract as opposed to Kirk Cousins's contract bolstered a Defense that really needed it, and was really good (well, until the past two Games, but still).  But the O-Line still needs work, it turns out, and there's a bevy of Free Agents, and who knows how many will come back?  Why not punt on next season, start McCarthy, and save the money you would usually funnel to the QB position and instead spread it out amongst a team that still needs talent and depth?

Yeah, I understand that we were supposed to punt on 2024.  Yes, this is a surprising season.  But my fundamental point still stands: Any team's season that ends short of a title is a failure.  You can say that this team overachieved.  But that means that expectations change during the season.  I can be upset that a surprising team loses in a postseason very few people thought they would even reach before the  regular season began.  And I certainly be mad that the Vikings organization will go another year without winning the Super Bowl.

I Get Distracted By Other Things To Worry/Be Depressed About

The cold and the furnace breaking down worried me last night, but that was quickly replaced by the windshield not being defrosted for a good 45 minutes this morning.  I was 15 minutes late because I simply had to wait for the ice to clear.  It didn't.  I literally had to crouch while driving all the way to work because the very bottom of the windshield was the only speck clear of ice.  I've never had that happen before, but I guess that's what happens when I park my car just as it's snowing and just before the temperature starts to plunge.  That ice finally melted away under the radiation of the sun's rays, but I wished that happened before, like when I had to drive to work.

That was bugging me at work, but then some asshole hung up on me as I was asking for some information.  Fine, whatever, your loss.  But I had to go home and talk to Mother about mail, so I was worried about that.  And then the Vikings shit the bed, so I forgot about Mother.  And so I'm stewing about how the Vikes failed again.

I guess I have to always dote and/or agonize over something or else I'll die.  Not a great way to live, tbh.

Worried About The Cold

So yeah, the cold is worrying me.  I wonder how the appliances in the house I use to combat the cold is going to hold up as it has begun getting real cold and will be like this through about Wednesday.  The noises I hear scare me.  For example, while the heating is working like clockwork, I hear some extra, like, whirring or buzzing that makes me think the furnace is about to conk out.  Also, I was just at the dining room table reconciling my expense list for December and, for some reason, I heard tapping against the wall.  Now this is pretty much kitty-corner (and a floor) from the furnace, so I have no idea why there would be a sound coming from the other corner of the house when the heat's on.  That makes me scared to think that somehow there's another thing breaking down in the house.  And that's not even getting into the creaking of the wood that comes when it gets really cold.  That hasn't happened -- yet.

I really won't know what to do if the heat goes out.  I always relied on Father making sure the house would hold up this time of year, but I think he just looks at the furnace for a minute, checks to make sure there's nothing leaking or noises he thinks is bad and says to himself, "Yeah, that's fine."  Of course, he doesn't have to worry about the house because he's not here.

Yeah, I'm spiralling into playing the blame game.  I'll just not worry until I have to ... I guess.

No, I Will Not Shovel The Snow

So yeah, maybe an inch or two fell last/Saturday night.  Maybe.  Combined with the trace of snow that fell during the week and there is some snow that is on the ground.

I have seen this morning my neighbor across the street clearing his driveway.  I have also heard my neighbors to the left clear their driveway.  Will I clear my driveway?  Hell no!  For one it's a Stay-In Day.  And for two, the snow is low enough for me to drive through it.  Why expend energy when I don't have to?  It'll be above freezing later in the week anyway; it'll melt then.

I'm glad I don't live in a homeowners' association.  I think I would be hounded into shoveling even though it's completely unnecessary.  Still, I harbor bad dreams that someone will knock on my door telling me to shovel because it's "good for the neighborhood" or some shit like that.  That knock probably won't come, but still I worry, and still I am mentally preparing myself for a fight should it ever come to that extreme -- whether the fight be verbal or physical.

My Plan Was. ...

 ... to do all the chores I wanted to do between waking up today/Saturday and before the Houston-Los Angeles Chargers Wild Card NFL Playoff Game -- namely send off a piece of mail for Mother, dropping off metal drip pans at a recycling center close by, placing the old eggs my parents left for me in a compost bin at a park in Minneapolis, go grocery shopping, get a haircut, then eat Taco Bell (OK, this is not a chore) -- and have enough time to take a nap before the Game.

Nope, didn't happen.  I didn't leave the house till 11:30, which is about an hour after my ambitious dream time of leaving at 10:30, so that hampered me.  Also didn't help that I chose to stay and wait 45 minutes to get my haircut, but I really wanted to do it today.  Finally, I did stay up till around 5:30 this morning, so when my body got tired shortly after the start of the Game, it shut me down.  I think I woke up some time in the Second Quarter, when the Texans took a lead they never relinquished, but I woke up a bit past 7, missing the entire Game.  I guess I can comfort myself in knowing Houston routed the Chargers (which is a surprise, as was Justin Herbert throwing four Interceptions), so the Game would've been boring to stay up for.  But I wanted to stay up for it, and I didn't.  Hrmph.

Work Has Been Really Much Lately

So since my co-worker retired, we have had to fill in for her.  We have, or at least I have, realized I need to refresh my memory on how to do things, and there are new things I either haven't done in ages, haven't done at all even though I was trained to do it, or have not been taught how to do.  On top of that, there has been primarily only one person assigned to The Third Department every day, and the work is not manageable enough for only person to do all day.  Well, it can.  I've done it a few days a week this past work week.  It's just that I have had to stay an extra hour, or two.

I used to call The Third Department my favorite department because it was a difference in both task and environment from the first two positions I got trained in.  But with no one who's been at the job for years to lean on anymore, we are fending for ourselves, and even though I guess I am getting by, it's been overwhelming, particularly this week.  I cannot call this department my favorite anymore.

Yesterday/Friday was an indication of how bonkers it gets.  We get our shipment of forms every morning flown in from the South.  As usually happens once in January, a snowstorm down south prevents the shipment for that day.  That happened yesterday/Friday: A flight was cancelled, and we got a third of the forms we were supposed to get.  That meant that all the people out in data entry (My Main Department, although I think I might have to change that designation because I work in the back a little more often nowadays) got done very early.  (They might have to make up for it, by the way; the shipment that got delayed might come as early as today/Saturday, in which case they will have two days' worth of work to do over the course of one day.  I am on call in case that delayed shipment comes in, and yes, I might be doing data entry for several hours this afternoon if need be.)  But, and maybe I should have realized this earlier than I did, the work they get does not come from the same sources from which I get work in The Third Department.  While all the keyers left, I got flooded with things I needed to do -- so much so that I stayed an extra 1:45 minutes yesterday/Friday.  That was on top of the extra 1:15 or so Thursday.

Work so far in 2025 has been so stressful, and has me so strung out, that after work both Thursday and yesterday/Friday, once I came home, I eventually got really groggy and conked off to take naps deep in the evening -- about 90 minutes Thursday night, maybe a half-hour just this past evening.  I wanted to stay up to listen to both College Football Playoff Semifinals on SiriusXM, but I just couldn't.  I fell asleep to both Games and woke up after they both got done, even though I may have woken up just long enough to listen to Drew Allar throwing that Game-losing Interception for Penn St. and Jack Sawyer's scoop-and-score for Ohio St. to seal their Win before I fell back asleep.  Or maybe not.  I don't remember the last time work has physically beaten me into unconsciousness.

Now, a part of the general weariness I have leaving work is that this lab closing continues to flood the company with work I have had to deal with in The Fourth Department, which is also not a picnic.  That is supposed to subside at some point this month.  The work in The Third Department will not.  The workload that has been will continue to be.  The big problem, and I don't know if my supervisor or boss sees this, is that The Third Department is not a one-person job.  It may not be a two-person job -- I still wonder whether my co-worker back there was simply laid off over the summer in a cost-cutting move -- but it sure as hell is not a one-person job.  I should add that yesterday/Friday, the person holding down The Fourth Department helped me with an important task I should have gotten to well before the mid-afternoon but simply couldn't.  Without her coming to rescue me like an angel from on high, I would not have been able to finish all the work I absolutely had to do before I had to leave ten hours after I bleepin' started work.  She said that she was busy with work too, and she was surprised she put in a full day when many other departments scrammed after only a half-day.  I'm still shocked she still had time t help me.  And if she can get through her day of work in that position faster than I can ... well, my higher-ups might have questions as to why she can get done faster with her stuff faster than I can.

And, well, that's my saving grace in all this.  I might be inundated with all this work, but the company wants the work to get done, so I am racking up the overtime.  Yeah, I don't know if I have mentioned this, but my boss has not bitched at me about OT since around Easter.  I think my co-worker getting let go (or fired) has resulted in a paucity of workers to do all the work that has to be done.  Maybe others can do their job at 40 hours a week, but I can't, I haven't, and I haven't heard any crap for it.  Maybe I will hear more blowback now that the holidays are over and overtime is priced at time-and-a-half and not time.  (By the way, that might change now that That Fucking Guy will be installed as President again.  I think he and Republicans are proposing a change that allows companies to spread overtime thresholds over a whole month instead of a week.  Stupid damn MAGAts).

My boss is going to have a meeting late in the month about how The Third Department is working out now that there is no one full-time back there.  I don't want to lose work per se, but I really don't want to be overworked and abandoned back there, so I am going to tell him that it's too much for one person.  That might bring about meaningful change ... or it might bring about me losing my job.  Who knows?

In Fear Of What's About To Happen

I don't want to pussyfoot too gingerly around everything, but I think that when I say I've been in a state of unease since November, you know what I mean.  I think most of my unexplainable anxieties and fears since then has been this existential dread over how delusional and evil other people really are, and how I'm supposed to live once this incompetence and selfishness comes into power in about ten days from now.

I truly, truly believe that there will be a new ... let's just say toxicity that will become a new way of life in America not too far from now.  People will be emboldened now that their guy is the putative leader of the free world, and so I can see assholes drive 100 mph and cut people off on the highway, insult people based on their race and sex and orientation, and make decisions nakedly driven on self-interest.  Not as if they can't already do that now, which only speaks to their fundamental stupidity: They're acting like nice boys and girls now, but once he has the power to pardon them for anything they do, fuckin' watch out!

Because of that, I'm seriously thinking of visiting ******a at My Favorite Stripclub (Cover Division) next week.  If I see her after that, I might run into people who, uh, don't think I have a right to be left alone.  And as for the day itself, I think I will keep to myself -- just go to work, then go home and stay home.  I have to venture out at some point, but not on that day.  Seriously, too dangerous.

I Got Two TVs, And I Might Buy One More

So my friends -- well, they're friends with my friend, but since we are Facebook friends together, I think we could be called friends, and what I did last/Wednesday night is a sign that we're now first-degree friends -- posted on Facebook that they have a bunch of old stuff they're willing to give away.  All anyone needs to do is pick it up from their place.  One of them was a flat-screen TV, I think 31 inches diagonal.  After I said I was interested, one of them said they had lost the remote.

That's fine.  I said I could pick it up.  That's when one of the couple said they had another TV, one that was 55", it does have a remote, but it has these discolorations on the screen as a result of branding by gaming.  Eh, I'll take that, too.  So yesterday/Wednesday, after a long and stressful day (and night) of work, I drove out past the loop and grabbed both TV sets.  Well, one of the two helped me lug the 55-incher through the trunk of my car while the other one put the 31" set on my passenger seat.  I didn't think how I would carry the 55" TV flat-screen into the house by myself, but I finally thought it best to carry it vertically.

And now I have two TV sets.  They are both used, and I haven't even tried turning them on yet.  If they're old or otherwise beaten up, I don't see why I can't dump them with help from the city.  If they work, though, hey, I've got two more televisions.

The thing is, I might need to buy one more.  Before my parents left, Father wanted a new TV ... and he wanted one at least 65 inches diagonally.  I told him that might be too expensive for me.  But I just got on Best Buy's website and I'm seeing the generic (meaning the Best Buy) brand of flat screens that size going for $300.  That's not too expensive.  I just hope they're still at that price when I finally bite the bullet.  Also, after going through what I went through to just get the used 55-incher up the stairs, I am hoping (assuming?) that the 65-incher will come in a box with handles, or at least holes through the box so I can at least clutch and drag the thing upstairs.

There were just three television sets in the house: One in the dining room, one in my parents' bedroom, and one in my bedroom.  Pretty soon, there will be double that in the house.  Huh.

The Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey

A reminder that for 2025, Weekly Minnesota Sports Surveys will be published on Wednesdays, the Day of the Week January 8, 2025 falls:

Positive Numbers: Wild (Last Week: -1).  Well, look at what the Wild are doing in the New Year!  They had a perfect Week-plus, sandwiching home Wins over a pair of not-good clubs (Nashville and St. Louis, the latter in which Minnesota and then Blues blew multi-Goal leads before the Wild won, 6-4) with victories on the road over a pair of really good squads, Washington (in a Shootout) and The Bastard Hartford Whalers, whom they destroyed, 4-0.

The team's still suffering under an injury bug, and they still have the $15 million-plus millstone around its neck, but they are tied with three teams for the third-most Points in the NHL.  And Kirill Kaprizov is starting to really state his case for The Hart Trophy.  The name "Wild" sucks, but this team doesn't.  Pray that continues.

Host The Bastard Quebec Nordiques, then visit San Jose and Las Vegas.

#0: Gopher women's basketball (Last Week: -2).  OK, this is the kind of fight I want to see from this program in its second Year under Dawn Plitzuweit.  On New Year's Eve they traveled to Madison and came away with a 59-50 victory over Wisconsin.  Then on Sunday afternoon, after visiting Illinois turned a tie at Halftime to an eight-Point lead after three Quarters, the Golden Gophers ran roughshod over the Fighting Illini in the Fourth Quarter, 28-13, to win by seven, giving Plitzuweit her 400th Win in her coaching career.  Illinois isn't ranked, but they received votes, so getting a victory over a team like that, and to do so in comeback fashion when they needed a comeback, is a sign of a good club.

This screening Week: Home to Rutgers tonight/Wednesday night, who may or may not have its best player playing after she put her Head Coach on blast Sunday.  Then a sterner test comes Tuesday: A tilt at Maryland.

#-1: Gopher men's hockey (Re-Entry!).  Swept Mercyhurst at Mariucci last weekend.  Went for Friday's series opener.  Good to see the crowd back filling up the place, as they have done for the past few seasons, to be fair.  Odd to hear only recordings of The Rouser because the band wasn't there.  Sure, it technically was Winter Break, but couldn't any student who lives in the area just drive from home, plop his clarinet or trombone in the marching band section, and play?  Anyway, the Lakers made it 3-2 in the Second Period before pulling away with three Goals to triple up Mercyhurst.

They keep chugging along, safely ensconced close to the top of the PairWise.  But this weekend comes a trip to 11th-ranked Ohio St. for a two-Game series.  This should be a fight.

#-2: Gopher women's hockey (Re-Entry!).  Opened 2025 defeating Bemidji St. on New Year's Day in The U. S. Hockey Hall Of Fame Museum Face-Off Classic in Lakeville, then started the East/West Showcase at Ridder Arena over the weekend trouncing Brown, 9-1, on Friday.  (By the way, this tournament involved four teams, and Bemidji St. was the fourth team but did not play the Gophers in this tourney because, of course, they played New Year's Day in Lakeville.)  I am quite, quite concerned, however, that Penn St. blew the doors off the U. Saturday afternoon by a score of 6-2.  The Nittany Lions are ranked, but Minnesota is ranked higher.  To get their asses kicked like this and at home?  I continue to insist that this program is a clear cut below Ohio St. and Wisconsin, and bad results like this is just more proof.

Two at home against St. Thomas this weekend.

#-3: Timberwolves (Last Week: -3).  This is now a walking headcase of a team.  If I were a sports team, the 2024-5 Wolves club would be it.  They began the screening Week-plus losing three in a row.  The last of those three, a 119-105 Loss in Detroit, came despite Anthony Edwards popping off for a career-high 53.  Afterwards, he was popping off about how he's doing everything and his squad is still losing.  The big picture issue of this team not jelling is bad enough; the maturation (or lack thereof) of the putative Face Of The Franchise is an unnecessary distraction.

The Wolves have won their last two.  Monday they had to survive a Three-Pointer miss to survive The Bastard Buffalo Braves/San Diego Clippers at Target Center, then they survived The Bastard Charlotte Hornets in New Orleans last/Tuesday night.  (By the way, besides the Pistons, they lost to The Bastard Seattle SuperSonics and Boston.  Wins over not good teams always makes a team feel good.)  They are in eighth place and only a Game back of sixth.  However, Chris Finch still has limited time and limited moves to finally lock this team into place.  In the Win over the Clippers, he benched Mike Conley, then brought him in and benched Julius Randle in the clutch.  Rudy Gobert's decline in play means the team can't score when he's in the lineup, but it's still not good enough to play great Defense when he's not in the lineup.  Finally, Rob Dillingham is banged up, and who knows if Conley can run the point for even half of a Game.  The West is wild, but they could still be roadkill by the time the season's over.

This Week: At Orlando, home to The Bastard Vancouver Grizzlies, at Washington.

#-4: Vikings (Last Week: 0).  It is neck-breaking, and yet predictable, how our hopes for this franchise -- or really any franchise, if we're being honest with ourselves -- can turn into fears on the basis of one Loss.  Leading up to Sunday night, we were talking about how Sam Darnold is a fringe MVP candidate and Vikes social media was lighting up with talk about whether he's the team's Quarterback going forward instead of J. J. McCarthy.

Then, in The Biggest Regular-Season Game In NFL History (no matchup heretofore had clubs with more Wins than the 28 both Minnesota and Detroit were sporting), the Lions took the NFC North, the #1 Seed in the NFC, and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs by making the Vikes look silly, 31-9.  And frankly, and unfortunately, a lot of the defeat can be put on the shoulders, or rather the arm, of Darnold.  Minnesota reached the Red Zone four times and did not score a Touchdown in any of them.  And Kevin O'Connell was able to scheme at least one receiver open pretty much every time, but the depleted Lions Defense just blitzed the fuck out of him (at the behest of Lions Defensive Coordinator Aaron Glenn -- credit to him; he risked sending what guys he has left to pressure Darnold, and the plan worked beautifully) and, well, scared him into throwing errantly, and usually high.  I'm not sure if the Vikings would've made it a Game if those passes connected, but it would've been a hell of a lot closer, that's for sure.

And because of all this, Minnesota sports pessimism has (rightfully) crept in.  Before Sunday, I would've been OK if the Vikings lost.  Sure, they would be the #5 Seed, but they're still a good team.  (Aside: NBC pointed out that only two #5 Seeds have ever reached the Super Bowl ... but both teams won.)  A victory over the Rams Monday would mean a rematch with the Lions in Detroit about two Weeks after this beatdown; resuscitate all the "it's hard to beat a team three times in one season" talk.  And remember that Minnesota only has lost to two teams, the Rams and the Lions.  They most likely will have to play the Rams and then the Lions to reach the NFC Championship Game.  How about a revenge tour?  It's like The Bride, Beatrix Kiddo in the Kill Bill films!!

Or the psyche of the squad has been shattered and they can't overcome a now-fully-back Rams team that had already defeated the Vikes (albeit on a Thursday night) in Los Angeles before.  Yeah, it's one Game.  But things can fall apart quickly.  All 14 remaining teams feel good about their chances, but 13 of them are going to end their season disappointed.  Based on the huge letdown on Sunday, this team probably is going to be one of the 13, and they might be ushered out of the postseason as soon as Monday.

#-5: Gopher men's basketball (Last Week: -4).  At this point it's just sad.  I am sure Ben Johnson is a good person, but his seat is scalding after his squad began the New Year and restarted conference play by losing a pair at home.  On Thursday they got walloped by Purdue, a team that made it to the title Game last season but is nowhere near that level now, by 20.  They played much better against Ohio St. Monday, but missing so many Free Throws (they missed 15 of their 27) was the main reason the U. couldn't put the Buckeyes away, and instead they fell in Double Overtime, 89-88.

This squad now goes on the road to play Wisconsin and Maryland.  They have started Big Ten play 0-4, and I'm afraid that "0" ain't going anywhere a Week from now.