Today was so bad I had to take timeout. That was the best thing I could have done. I probably should have done this on many days previously.

First, maybe I shouldn’t have left Russell so darn early. 5:45 to be exact. I slept a mere two hours and then made the drive east. I stopped for gas in Salina and Starbucks in Junction City.

Fatigue was not the problem on the drive over. Mother Nature was. First, I expected the sun glare to be bad, and it was awful from Chapman all the way to Lawrence, worst in the Flint Hills east of the K-18 exit to K-99 near Alma.

I did not expect the pea soup fog near the Ellsworth exit. It got so bad just past the K-14 south exit that I could barely see in front of me. I was down to 45 miles per hour, five over the minimum. Thank God it was 6:15 a.m. on a Saturday, or it could have been far worse. It was some of the worst fog I’ve witnessed since living in Louisiana, where it was almost a daily occurrence during the winter, since there is hardly any wind in that part of the country, and the warm air at the surface encounters cold air aloft and causes the still air to rise.

I got to town way too early. I went to Hy-Vee to get six-packs of Abita Strawberry Harvest for Lisa Toebben and Brittany Mathenia-Tucker, but I still had an hour to kill. I probably should have walked around Zona Rosa since it was such a gorgeous morning after parking at Buffalo Wild Wings, but silly me, I thought they would let me in early.

Instead, Michael Pinkerton (“Pink”) asked me to wait until 11 a.m., since a group of Nebraska fans had tried to get in early too. I wasn’t happy about it. At 10:45, I sat on the curb outside trying to make sure I would get in first before the Kansas State and Missouri fans rushed the place, since both of those schools had games which kicked off at 11 a.m., as did Nebraska.

When I got inside, Claire, the hostess, had a table for me with Lisa as my server, but I was not happy from having to wait until 11. I took out my frustrations on Pink and screamed there was no way I wanted to watch Nebraska, blaming those fans for making me wait. Lisa was not happy to hear what transpired. She should not have been. I embarrassed her, and if she wanted to slap me or something along those lines, I would not have objected.

I wanted to leave right then and there, but Lisa convinced me to stay, although she caught me trying to fall asleep a few minutes later. I then decided after I ordered food, I would check in at the Courtyard Briarcliff and take a nap before returning later. I left Buffalo Wild Wings at 1:20, got to the hotel 10 minutes later, and for almost two hours, I rested. It was 3:45 when I woke up, and I made it back for 4.

I’m probably going to stay late because Lisa is working a double, she has to close, and her back is hurting. Trivia is okay, except EPICUR, the idiot with the fiendish avatar, is here. I don’t like him. Rondo was here earlier and I avoided him.