Hey, just so you know ... this post is now about 15 years and 6 months old. Please keep that in mind as it very well may contain broken links and/or outdated information.

It’s early October, that wonderful time of year when temperatures (supposedly) get cooler and we have that wonderful confluence of the baseball, football, basketball, and hockey seasons. Well, it’s usually wonderful, except:

• even with the franchise’s second best season, the Rays missed out on the post-season
• the Indians’ season (and the Eric Wedge era) is mercifully over
• the Browns are 0-4
• the Buccaneers are also 0-4

I got a pair of free tickets to the Lightning home opener tonight so I took my daughter, hoping to get a lift from a hockey home ice win. The appearance Dwight Howard dropping the ceremonial puck was a not-so-nice reminder of how the Orlando Magic knocked the Cavs out of the playoffs last spring. 🙁

We left at 6 minutes to go in the third period with the Bolts holding the lead over the New Jersey Devils 3-2 (thanks to 2 goals in the first 5 minutes of the period). As we listened to the last minute of the game on the radio driving out of downtown Tampa, we couldn’t believe our ears as the Devils tied the game with 0.3 seconds to go! The Lightning ended up losing the shootout, which gives them a disappointing 0-1-2 start. sigh

Maybe Lebron and Shaq will give me something to believe in …

P.S. Props to my new sister-in-law for pointing me to waitingfornextyear.com!