Chiefs: “I’ve Been Van Winkled”

Chiefs: “I’ve Been Van Winkled”

by David Bell | November 21, 2018

I think I have an Episodic Disorder

Before… uh… after… could have been during… the 51-54 loss to the Rams, I had a total tiredness descend upon me, so apparently enthusiastic about the upcoming game that some strange multidimensional “Affect” has taken place. When things in the game are going to result in a toilet trip, I fall asleep. It’s weird because the world doesn’t change, just the things on my plate change or something else goes wrong. I’m so completely sure of being unsure. Walter Mitty abandoned me in this “dream,” a ghost of football things that have passed.

It is possible I have not slept well since and developed a new disorder. The Fifteen Factor.

The Number Fifteen Factor

I was sitting in a meeting in which the subject matter was important and directly related to me and promptly fell asleep 3 or 40 times in my chair. Fortunately, I did not hit the floor… but that was four days after the big game. I think the resulting determination was that I had another “to do” on my plate but did not hear the reasons why this was the case… just that another issue had been put on my plate to solve. I think it was the Fifteenth Item on the Agenda so I am identifying it as… “Issue Fifteen.”

In another case, I was working through material relating to the current state of affairs with the “Arms Race,” and looking at video to sharpen my critique to match with what I recall about the game and why the Chiefs did not come away with a win. In any case, there are pieces of the memory of the game which are AWOL.

Minutes later, I awoke with a start, and continued my viewing game video, promptly fell asleep… this lasted for a period and I would be startled awake, view more stuff and fall asleep. A Groundhog daze. I was even aware that I was going to fall asleep but was unable to prevent doing so – woke with a start and found the result that occurred in the intervening moments.

Fear of Falling… or Fear of Flying

One of the points where I fell asleep was when PMII was stripped and the result was a TD. I didn’t witness it, I nodded off instead and found this out after the fact, like a dog licking his wounds and whining about what had occurred especially about some black and white striped creatures that were really cruel and stunk up the place.

Apparently I can’t stand to watch the Chiefs suffer bad plays. Is there a psychological name for that?

Still later there was an interception – and recall saying, “Patrick, that was about a stupid pass as you have made to date.” The Number 50 I recall. Not the TD. I was startled awake — again — and the score was 7 more points in the favor of the LAR.

Sometimes, I am standing on a precipice and about to take off and fly. Others, I am a broken figure dashed in the rocks below and trying in that case… I am trying to figure why I am all beat to hell with broken bones and a battered vision.

The Anti-Narcolepsy Antidote

I think you can see I have a serious problem… especially when it comes to this new disorder. I will advise the reader that pleasantly I have become aware of a way to ward-off harmful effects: I only want to see #15, Patrick Mahomes, make great passes, get beyond rookie type mistakes and find long TDs to Hill, Watkins, Mahomes and Kelce. Like that. It appears to work. Valhalla.

Although, a side effect is that there is a lot less swearing on my part. Note there is a temporary antidote: whenever Patrick Mahomes II threw a TD Pass or a completion in the game… I not only was awake but wide-eyed as a child opening his first Christmas present at age 5 or 7. Or just like my memories of Mom reading stories from books, such as about the headless phantom riding a horse. Or The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Or the Iliad and Odyssey. I and my brothers wide-eyed at the tales she read to us late at night (about 8 PM or so).

I’ve Been Van Winkle’d

The truth is though, that next game I will be on the road while listening to the Chiefs game on the radio. To be sure this causes me some degree of concern. I am not sure about this but perhaps I should wait for the recorded game video at my son’s home in Katy, Texas… rather than risk listening to the game on the radio. Well, it’s not the same as saying that seeing is believing, right? I am not seeing it so the narcoleptic behavior absolutely will not occur. Right?

On the other hand, I might wake up 20 years down the road, and finding a newspaper lying by me against a tree in upstate New York, the date is 2038 and Terez Paylor has written articles for years and this one is in a newspaper type publication but the publisher is something I have never heard about before. Huh. The article, as I read and inform you about is written as a historical about the Late Andy Reid and a 20 year institution of football that dominated competition season after season. In the piece I am reading, I see that the Chiefs won the division 16 times, with 13 AFC Championships, 11 Super Bowl Appearances and 9 rings.

I have been Van Winkled and missed it all. Dang it. As I read, I hear what I think is thunder in the mountains. It may be a giant up a bean vine using a giant’s commode or a group of old timers wearing old apparel playing nine-pins in the hollow of a mountain recess.

Maybe metaphors are for those who need them. So, if this fits then the story concludes and there is no reason to pray for mercy. This leaves one thing remaining in this tale and that is getting an answer to this question: do I listen to the game while driving through the Mountains? Or not?

David Bell – ArrowheadOne

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