Bring on the fall

With each passing year, I come to love summer less and less. It’s too hot, I don’t have anything resembling a beach body, I can’t find the time or the money to go on a real vacation and with a host of festivals and fairs, it feels like most of my work here is done at night or on the weekends. So, unsurprisingly, Labor Day is anything but a mournful affair: Kellie and I find ourselves excitedly checking the weather forecasts and game schedules as we anxiously await our favorite season of all.
           
Football is already back in full swing—except if you’re an Iowa State fan, I guess, sorry about that—and it couldn’t be more welcome. Besides whichever TV show I’m binging at the moment (“The Wire,” currently), it’s one of the only things I can truly get excited about. The Hawkeyes are probably on pace for a vintage 8-4 season (perhaps 9-3 if Riverboat Kirk can pull out one of his patented upsets), and expectations in Ames have never been higher.
           
Of course, this sets the stage for what could be a barnburner on Saturday in Iowa City, and if you’re a Cyclone fan, the only silver lining I can think of from last week’s non-result is that the opponents don’t have much game film to work with. I wish I could spin that more favorably.
           
In the NFL, the Vikings (Kellie’s team, not mine) could be contenders if Kirk Cousins can settle in and play like the quarterback he sometimes showed he could be in Washington—although, if nothing else, he’ll certainly be happier in Minneapolis than he was playing for real-life Bond villain Dan Snyder. The defense is still incredible, and Stefon Diggs is one of the best young receivers in the game. Even if Aaron Rodgers stays healthy, as crazy as it is to say this, Minnesota is still probably the favorite in the NFC North. That sounds too good to be true, and as Vikes fans have learned, an injury like the ones that hobbled Adrian Peterson and Teddy Bridgewater can change the whole trajectory of a season in a heartbeat.
 
The Chiefs (my team) are a big question mark: from everything we’ve heard, new signal caller Patrick Mahomes has a cannon like we’ve never seen before—possibly the biggest arm ever—but does that translate to winning on the field? I hope so. The AFC West is one of the most wide open divisions this year, with an aging but still good quarterback in Los Angeles (I have to keep reminding myself the Chargers play here now), a Raiders squad coming off a huge disappointment with retired Hooters and Corona spokesman Jon Gruden back at the helm and a Denver team taking a chance on Case Keenum after a magical season with the Vikings he may never repeat.
 
The Jaguars and Rams are hot picks for the Super Bowl, which I’m not sure anyone would’ve predicted two years ago, and the Patriots are still in the hunt because Tom Brady and Bill Belichick will never retire. Here’s to hoping they never get six championships.
           
And at the high school level, it’s a year full of uncertainty. The Spartans are young, the Rebels are joining the Cougars in the eight-man ranks, the Comets and the Wolverines are coming off of big momentum boosting wins, and a handful of alums from the Grundy County schools are showing off their skills at the big time college level for Iowa State, Iowa and UNI this fall. As I prep for the Grundy Center-BCLUW game this week (and the short walk to the field in Conrad), I’m excited that the border rivals are playing for the first time since 2015 and are back in the same district. It’s good for the players and the fans to be in a district with teams you know and have history with, and it makes covering the games a heck of a lot more exciting.
           
And most importantly of all, Wyllo is in first grade—hard to believe—and learning something new every day. Watching her grow over the last two years has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life, and although she hates it when I embarrass her, she’s a natural in school. She says she’s going to be a surgeon and live in either Paris or Los Angeles, so I’m just hoping she doesn’t forget about Kellie and me when that happens.

           
What’s not to love about fall?
 
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One bit of hard news I found over the Labor Day weekend hit home as a person who has a job and lives in Iowa: according to the latest statistics, our unemployment rate is among the lowest in the nation and is lower than it’s been in a long, long time.
           
Nevertheless, wages remain stagnant, and no one seems to have a good explanation why. If I were running for political office, regardless of the party I represented, I’d probably address that.
           
That’s the kind of thing people actually care about.