7

 I've now officially entered the last four weeks of my four-plus decade teaching career. I keep waiting for the nostalgia and bittersweet feelings to emerge. Mainly, I just want it over. Part of it is my own personality. As anyone who knows me will testify, I brood over things, but once I make a decision then the decision is made. I brooded over retiring for a couple years, and then, for several reasons, decided to retire, and after that there was no true regret, just a desire to get on to retirement and a different lifestyle. I'm still grinding away, including throwing my early morning Monday class out for not doing any work - and considering doing the same thing that night in my Fascism class. Maybe I'm just grouchy, but I guess I'm also just refusing to quit trying to teach these lunkheads something.

Thanks for Saskatchewan Roughriders quarterback and Grey Cup champion Trevor Harris for loaning me his number 7 this week. It was hard to not feel happy for him winning the Grey Cup last year as a starting quarterback (he had been on two Grey Cup winning teams in the past as a backup QB) because his career is a classic CFL story. Harris was born in Waldo, Ohio, and played his college ball at Division II Edinboro. And then his odyssey began, which began with not being drafted by an NFL team. He signed with the NFL Jackson Jaguars, but was then cut after the preseason. He then signed with the Arizona Rattlers of the Arena Football League and then the Hartford Colonials of the United Football League the next year. In 2011 he signed with the NFL Buffalo Bills, but for labor reasons (not the only time in his career) his contract was rescinded after, literally, a day and a half. After that he signed with the Sacramento Mountain Lions, although the league folded before he could get into a game. Later in 2011 he signed with the AFL's Orlando Predators, but the entire roster was let go (another labor problem) and replaced with, well, replacement players. Finally, in 2012, he turned his attention northward to the far superior (as all right-thinking individuals know) Canadian Football League (and this was usually interrupted with Harris getting into the dynamics of the team having an older and established veteran QB who was on his last legs), and played for the Toronto Argonauts, Ottawa Redblacks, Edmonton Eskimos/Elks (and, of course, this would be the time when Edmonton would change team names), Montreal Alouettes, and finally the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Hopefully, we'll see him play this summer as part of July's Trip of Excellence.