Dog Days

Apparently, the arrival of August in Southern California means that the earth is so positioned that this region is about 11 feet away from the surface of the sun.

I'm much more of a rainy day kind of guy anyway, so this degree of heat isn't really my preferred climate. I mean, it could definitely be worse, on both sides of the temperature spectrum, but it's hard to even be motivated to accomplish the simplest of tasks when your energy is melting away.

But there is a light at the end of the tunnel: football season.



I'm starting to shift my mind back into football gear by re-familiarizing myself with the names and places of the players I'll be watching leading up to the annual fantasy football draft. Obviously, people are big on running backs like Adrian Peterson, Michael Turner and Matt Forte, while there are some guys who are flying a little bit under the radar that I'm curious about (and whose names I'm not mentioning on purpose because of all the scavengers out there looking for any scrap of information they can get). I'm going to share my thoughts on fantasy football in some greater detail later this month, so I'll refrain from anything more for the time being.

Football season also means Valley Center High School football, and I'm excited/curious to see the team this year. Beau Reilly takes over at quarterback, and after Tyler Bernard and James Johnson lit up the competition last year, it will be interesting to see how the team looks with Reilly under center. This is also the first time I'll be covering the Jaguars without Bernard and Johnson on the field, so I'm looking forward to finding out who will be the next big playmaker. Running back Stanton Upson will be the guy to watch after an amazing junior year last season, and the offensive line is almost completely intact from last year. The defense should also be solid, but without Johnson playing centerfield and picking off passes like Deion Sanders in his prime, I don't know how well the Jags will play against passing teams like Westview and Oceanside (Valley Center's only two losses last year, coincidentally).

But with still a good three or four weeks of August (and unrelenting sunshine) left before that, I suppose I'll have to content myself with softball twice a week, with G.I. Joe coming out this weekend, and wearing as little as possible in my heavily air-conditioned apartment until it's safe to go outside before 8 p.m. again.