Football Time

Yesterday was our first “Game”. Actually, it was technically a scrimmage, but despite the too-hot weather (I got sunburned on exactly half of my body) and the fact that it was on a Saturday afternoon instead of Friday night, it felt like the actual start of football season for me.

Coach spent a week practicing w/ the players, getting home later each night, he left early on Saturday so he could be there to get the field and the players ready for the game and he’ll do his ritual, weekly film work with the other coaches later this evening. There’s also been a strange absence of Coach on many recent Sunday afternoons as he frequents the basement to watch his favorite NFL team (the Lions… don’t laugh), and the only reason I know he’s still in the house is the occasional yell coming from the depths of the house.

To me, it finally feels like football season has begun and that means that our household (at least until early November) is officially on Football Time. This means that when Coach said (as he did this past Friday), “I should be home around 5:30.” I (ever so gullible) translated that to… well… him being home at 5:30. So I had dinner ready… at 5:45 (at this point, I thought he was just running a few minutes late). At 6:00, I finally texted him (something along the lines of, I thought you said 5:30!!!). What I should have thought (this is after all my 9^th season as a coach’s wife) was, Oh, okay… I’ll expect him home around 6:30. So he walked in close to 6:30 and I was (I thought, understandably)... fuming. I think there may even have been smoke coming from my ears. He had all these explanations for why he was late, “Well, this coach had to talk to that player… blah blah blah.” Well… I’ve heard every “explanation” in the playbook.

This same phenomenon with given times happens with many other events during the Season, including when he says he’ll be done with something (like film work), when he says he’ll be leaving (from the field or an away game), and countless other things. It’s because we’re on Football Time.

So what is a wife (who becomes increasingly irritated each time the wrong times are communicated) to do when her household runs on Football Time? Unfortunately I don’t have magical formula, or I wouldn’t be in this predicament in the first place, but here is a formula for what I expect to happen with time frames this Season:

Time Coach gives me  +  1 hour  =  approximate time that Said Event will happen

So to save me all the headaches, this is what I’m going to try to do this Season. When Coach gives me a time for an Event (when he will be home, done, leaving, etc.), I will just add an hour to that time and if the Event happens before the projected time, according to above formula, it will be like he’s actually getting home (getting done, leaving) early! It’s not exactly genius (few things I come up with are), but at least it might save me a few frustrating minutes of waiting and maybe even prevent a few suppers from sitting on the table getting cold. At least it will save me some sanity during this Season.

How do you all handle your Coach's time misinformation?