Football season is finally here. Last week we had a handful of high school contests in the area. We’ve had plenty of preseason pro football. But this week, college football begins just about everywhere, and I can’t wait.

Thursday, South Carolina will host Texas A&M in the Southeastern Conference opener. I am a little perplexed over this one. I grew up a South Carolina fan, but when I got to Clemson, I became a Tiger fan.

The moment that assured the deal was when I met a Clemson cheerleader at a convenience store on the Saturday morning of a ballgame. I knew then she was the person I wanted to bear my children. She smiled as we were waiting in line and asked if I was going to the game that day. I’m glad she did not ask if I was imagining our lives together, because the answer was the same. “Yes!”

As I never really got to know her, the part about her bearing my children never came true. But I pulled for the Tigers each week

Do you know a multi-tasker? You probably know someone who claims to be a multi-tasker. Anybody can lay claim to the title. And anybody can be one. As long as the tasks don’t have to be done right.

I can type, read, talk on the phone and watch television. And, yes, these tasks can be conducted simultaneously.

However, if anyone witnesses this, they may notice that my end of the phone conversation consists mostly of “UmHum,” If tested after the conversation has been completed, it might not be possible to tell you who I was talking to or what they said. Same goes for what happened on the program I was supposedly watching. Usually, if any writing is being done while on the phone or when the TV is on, the finished product turns out to be a transcript of whatever was being said.

And as far as reading at the same time goes, let’s just say a book may be open nearby. That doesn’t mean it’s being read.

Studies conducted on the subject show that human beings are incapable of effective multi-tasking. The brain has only so much capacity available for concentration, and much of what needs doing,

I have about a week or so to get ready for football season. Last year when it came time for football season, I had injured myself a week or so earlier, so Rocky had to find someone else to cover the games.

When I got better, the person who replaced me, Kerry, was doing a good job, so I simply took the season off.

Part of the sickness of this profession is that you somehow want to find yourself working all the time. But when you add up the time spent covering the game, the time spent interviewing the coaches, the time spent writing the story … well, it’s not that great of an opportunity.

Don’t get me wrong. If I am needed I will cover games and be dedicated to it. But not being able to cover games really is not the end of the world.

And I can choose what game I want to go to, since I won’t be covering the event. This Friday I will probably go see Pickens play Easley — my alma mater against the team I covered for about 20 years. Next week I am looking at the Easley-Daniel matchup, keeping it in the county. I need to include a Liberty game in there this season and meet up with my friends in Liberty.

Then Saturdays I will be following college football. Again, not having to cover any game is really an advantage. Of course, most games I will watch on television. My father taught me a long time ago that the advantage of watching a game on television is that little switch that says “off.”

Last week as I was sitting in the pharmacy waiting area at CVS, I found the gentleman at the register looking over at me trying to figure out why he recognized me. He studied me. I studied in response. It clicked.

“You used to write for the paper,” he half asked, half stated.

“Yes,” I replied.

“I miss reading your stories,” he said. “I keep hoping that you will make a guest appearance or come back.”

This exchange got me thinking about how much I have missed writing for The Courier. To the gentleman at CVS, this is for you. Thanks for inspiring me to make a comeback.

News of Robin Williams’ suicide really made me sad, and it also made me think about my life and mortality. Death has a way of doing this for the living. After news of his suicide circulated, what followed was information about a recent Parkinson’s diagnosis. While it isn’t a death sentence, the disease would certainly change one’s life dramatically. This

Pickens County Meals on Wheels is hitting the fall running. The Sam Wyche Food Fight Bowl, sponsored by Save-a-Lot Food Stores, is scheduled for Friday night, Aug. 23, when the Pickens Blue Flame host the Easley Green Wave. The game dates back to October 1923, when Easley beat Pickens 7-6 at Pickens’ home field.

This year all four Pickens County high schools will compete for the Ultimate Food Fight Bowl Trophy. The trophy goes to the school that collects the most money for Pickens County Meals on Wheels. This is the first year that all four county high schools will join hands to help PCMOW reach more shut-in residents by renovating the former Liberty Middle School kitchen and cafeteria.

This is a pivotal year for the future of PCMOW, which is renovating the former Liberty Middle School kitchen so meals can be prepared more effectively and services to other senior citizens can be extended.

OK, it’s time for me to do something about this weight problem.

I was down as thin as I’ve been since college. That’s not too thin, but its bearable. As I went through my long unemployment problem, I just kept adding and adding pounds. My bathroom scales finally gave up and said, “One person at a time” when I tried to weigh.

I suddenly found pants that I used to joke and say, “I’d better be careful or I will have to wear those,” were now too tight on me.

I need to get back to exercising every day, and that means more than walking to the bathroom twice a day.

I need to play basketball, which I did daily while growing up. I was the star then, dribbling the ball on our driveway.

There are times when I can’t believe what I’m reading. For example, did anybody see the headline saying, “Marijuana issue goes to joint committee”?

How about this one? “Homicide victims rarely talk to police.” And, from the Associated Press, “Missippi’s literacy program shows improvement.”

I always wonder if this kind of thing is done unknowingly or on purpose. Personal experience has taught me not to be smug about other’s mistakes. Even spellcheck won’t protect you if you write, “Lighting kills cows.” One of my very own, and not the only one. Often these things happen late at night before going to press, and everybody who should catch it just doesn’t. We sometimes read what we expect to see rather than what is actually on the page.

Why not look close to home to fill offices?

Dear Editor:

Now that I have retired, I have been paying attention more to the different paid officials we have in office, and also how proud we are supposed to be of our education system and how smart we are supposed to be after schooling.

We also have some pretty good colleges in the area, so what I’m getting at is this — why do we have to go out of state to get others to hold down highly paid positions in our communities? Do we not have employment problems too?

We have laying hens. They lay eggs. But when we refer to the act of actually laying the egg, we say the hen laid the egg. It’s confusing, but this is just the beginning.

We all hear people talking about laying out in the sun, but actually this can’t be done unless they are laying something out in the sun, such as their sun-damaged bodies. The person can correctly say they lay their body out in the sun or that they plan to lie out in the sun.

And to split hairs even further, it would be more accurate to say they plan to lie out in the sunshine or sunlight rather than sun. If you think about it, it would be rather difficult to literally lie in the sun.

When children pray, “Now I lay me down to sleep,” this is perfectly correct because they are laying themselves down. They can say “Now I lie down to sleep” if they like, but this doesn’t have the same

Newspapers and the media are often accused of only reporting the bad things that happen — and there’s some truth in this. And it’s particularly easy to fall into this trap in South Carolina, where it seems that there is a lot more bad news than good.

We all know the saying, “If it’s a list of bad things, S.C. is at the top, and on a list of good things, we’re at the bottom.”

As true as this may be, there are some good things that are happening in our state that have been generally overlooked by the media. Here are five of them, and though they may seem unrelated, I think there is a common message for us in all of these examples.

First, South Carolina ranks sixth in the country in the number of new businesses owned by women. In the last seven years, the number has increased a whopping 78 percent, a full 10 percent more than the national average. And, new businesses