2021 Life Logs, Day 192: Euro 2020 and Virgin Galactic
Date: Sunday, July 11, 2021
Weather: Mix of Sun and Clouds; High Temp 76, Low 66 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
What people in the United States call soccer is called football in much of the rest of the world. So the UEFA, the Union of European Football Association, is the European governing body of soccer. They host a European Championship each year commonly referred to as the Euro and the final game of Euro 2020 was today. Yes, I know it is 2021, but because there was no tournament last year due to Covid the championship was played this year. I’ve been following the games along with the Goldpebbles but had only watched one semi-final game that was won by England. This was the first time England has ever made the Euro championship games. In fact, they haven’t won a major tournament since the 1966 World Cup. Today they played Italy in the final. The last time Italy won the Euro was in 1968, so both teams really wanted this championship. But I wanted England to win.
So, after an early afternoon walk around the reclaimed cranberry bogs on John Parker Road with the Goldstones and Marti, I went home to watch the soccer game with Shadow. I tried to watch and do other things, but I just couldn’t. So, basically Shadow and I sat on the sofa for three straight hours which is rare occurrence. England scored right in the beginning of the game, and they held the lead until late in the game when Italy scored. The tied 1-1 game went into overtime. No one scored. Then it went to a penalty shootout and Italy won. You could see the heartbreak on the player’s faces, but they are a young team and I’ll just have to hope they make the finals next year and win the championship.
I felt so guilty for sitting and watching the game that I hustled afterwards to take down the wooden shelves in the living room that I use for starting plants in the springtime. I took them down to the basement and reassembled them. I want to start some cool weather crops now, but I am going to try doing that in the basement. The grow lights are quite bright in the front window and have to be on 14-16 hours a day. I worry about keeping my 102 year-old neighbor, Doris, awake at night since her bedroom faces by front window, so I’m going to give the basement a try.
Most Sunday mornings, I try to watch Meet the Press. When I tuned in late this morning, I found that NBC was covering billionaire Richard Branson’s flight into space aboard a Virgin Galactic test flight. Part of me feels like the money that is going into this project could be better spent, but another part of me believes the investment in the future is a good thing. Either way, I was impressed with today’s successful flight. Galactic looks like an airplane and takes off on a runway hanging between two other planes. When they got to a set altitude, Galactic was released and continued on into space. On the return, the wings were feathered until time for landing back on the runway. Today’s flight went without a hitch and was impressive to watch. If you have a quarter of million dollars hanging around, the plan is that you, too, can buy a ticket to space and back. If you have that kind of money, I hope you find a more benevolent way to spend it.
