bevedog

Squirrels

Monday morning around 7am I went outside with our dog, Rickert. Our backyard faces east, and in the light of the sunrise I could see two trees above our garage, bare of leaves. In one tree were three squirrels, having a heated discussion. Just as I noticed them, one of them leapt, silhouetted, from one tree to the other, twenty feet above the ground.

Soccer

Since the World Cup, I have been watching a lot of soccer, mostly the English Premier League. On Sunday I checked the listing of all the games for the day and learned that there was a fourth-division team called Stevenage and of course I immediately became a fan. They were playing Premier League team Aston Villa, so I assumed they would be beaten badly (Villa being three leagues above them in the professional ranks) but I watched the game anyway.

As expected, Villa controlled the game from the start, but only got a single goal through 80+ minutes. Very late in the game Stevenage earned a penalty kick and scored. Then, only about two minutes later, Stevenage had a corner kick and this happened:

(Please click through if the video doesn’t embed—it’s only 21 seconds.)

This is a perfect sports moment. The corner kick is right in front of the away fans from Stevenage changing “come on Boro!” (for “Stevenage Borough”). The chant ends as the play begins, then after the shot the stadium goes completely quiet. Once the ball is in the goal, the fans lose their minds.

Stevenage 2-1 Aston Villa. Apparently one of the greatest moments in club history.