Making A New Friend On A Monday Morning

You know how TigerBlog knew it was raining really, really hard this morning?

Well, first, he was getting soaked in the five seconds from front door to car. Then, after he backed his car up, he noticed there was something underneath it. At first he wasn't sure what it was, and he figured it was garbage or something that had blown underneath.

Then he saw it move. And then he realized it was a turtle.

Not just any little turtle. A big nasty looking one.

Unlike geese, TB is not afraid of turtles. Or spiders, who eat the other bugs.

This turtle, though, was a bit freaky. He was sort of bigger than the average turtle, and he had a long tail sticking out the back of the shell.

TB's favorite turtle is Cecil, the one who ran against Bugs Bunny. Now Cecil had a cool shell.

Anyway, the turtle on the driveway couldn't come close to beating Bugs Bunny, or even a less accomplished athletic rabbit. Nope. The un-Cecil moved really, really slowly, exactly as you'd expect a turtle to move.

It was that kind of morning, the kind that inspired Paul Williams to write a song once that TB knows 1) you love and 2) you'd never admit to loving. In fact, TB once devoted considerable space to that particular dynamic.

Of course, it was more than just a rainy day and a Monday.

It's the first business day after the conclusion of the 2012-13 athletic year here at Princeton.

It's somewhat dreary around here right now, with the rain pouring down and the many people who aren't here today.

It's June 10. This past weekend was nine months removed from wins by the field hockey team over Richmond and women's soccer team over Temple, six months removed from tough losses by the men's basketball team (Drexel) and women's basketball team (Delaware) and three months removed from the toughest loss TB saw this year, Princeton's 16-15 loss at North Carolina in men's lacrosse.

In other words, once again, time flew. An entire academic year, come and gone.

It's how it works around here. Maybe there are a lot of other professions that are as seasonal as this one. Maybe not.

Either way, TB knows that his calendar dictates what is going on, how busy it is, how radically different his job is at any given point of the year.

And now Princeton Athletics has entered into one of its slowest times of the year.

December isn't very busy, since there aren't many events or teams that play throughout that month. Maybe that time is the slowest, with the holidays and all.

If it's not then, then it's now.

There are still things to total up before the end of the fiscal year, people who need to be paid and such, like stat crew workers and PA announcers and people who do the clock and all.

And there are other parts of the previous year that need to be wrapped up, along with things for next year that are already ongoing. And there are summer camps, lots and lots of them, that will be starting shortly.

Camp season, in fact, will stretch from this month through early August, and that will end just in time for the fall athletes to start to come in, after which time it will all start over again.

For now, though, there is the big exhale after another year has ended. From the last day of August through the first weekend in June, the 2012-13 year as seen a steady crush of teams, athletes, events.

And now it's just quiet around here.

TB is often asked if he has to work in the summer, and the answer is yes. It's just not nearly as nutty as it is during the year.

Nope.

Now it's quiet. Just a rainy Monday morning, with nothing all that pressing right now.

Things slow down.

Maybe not to a crawl like they do for TB's new friend from the driveway, but slow nonetheless.