Scaring myself (and others)

Just a normal morning. Had breakfast, got some stuff together for my fantasy football draft tomorrow (more on that below), and scared myself half to death. While I was holding Will and standing on Reese's bed doing the weather report (where we point at his huge wall map of the United States and make up the day's weather), I started feeling "weird"--kinda like my heart was moving too fast and kinda light-headed (though not with tunnel vision or stars). Kinda just uncomfortable. So I got off the bed, sat down in the living room recliner, and let Tammy know I was feeling "weird" (about the best way I know how to describe it).

[Backstory: On May 16, I was up in Ohio with Tammy and Will to go to my son Jonah's 6th birthday party. Instead, while I was at my brother's house, I ended up losing consciousness, quit breathing, and turned blue before Tammy saved my life (and my brain cells) by keeping it together enough to get me back breathing before the ambulance arrived. Spent 3 days in the hospital without figuring out what went wrong; did a bunch of follow-ups in Georgia with cardiologists and neurologists--again without figuring out what went wrong; and here we are.]

So now, I'm left wondering if this morning's "weird"-ness would've been an issue before May 16. Would've I have just felt a little uncomfortable and left it at that? Did I freak myself out too much? Am I like some volcano--just waiting for another episode?

As you can see, most of the recovery process from something like this is winning the mental battle.

*****

I feel fine now. Listening to Elliott Smith and trying to figure out my draft strategy for our keeper league fantasy football draft tomorrow. (If you don't care for football or fantasy football, I recommend skipping to the next set of asterisks.)

Our fantasy league has a salary cap that is determined by how many points each player scores the previous season compared to other players at his position. Each team can carry up to 35 players; starting rosters are QB, 2 RBs, 2 WRs, 1 RB/WR flex, TE, K, 2 DLs, 2 DBs, 2 LBs, 1 IDP flex.

Of course, most owners keep all their RBs with any value. For instance, the top five returning scorers available from last year are:

Jamal Lewis, Cle
Dominic Rhodes, Buf
Kevin Faulk, NE
Warrick Dunn, FA
Deuce McAllister, FA

Jamal was a surprise drop by a new owner, and he'll go in the first round. The other four are either free agents (who are near the end of their careers) or buried on their teams' depth charts.

So if you want RBs in this league, you have to go after the rookies. And with the 2nd overall selection in the draft, I'm not sure who to target:

Knowshon Moreno, Den
Donald Brown, Ind
Chris Wells, Ari
LeSean McCoy, Phi
Shonn Greene, NYJ
Glenn Coffee, SF

A few months ago, it seemed that the obvious answer would be: I'll take whoever is left between Moreno and Wells.

But Wells (who was dogged by injuries in college) sat out the first preseason game with an injury; Moreno (who has a lot of competition for the RB duties in Denver) left his game last night with an injury--and an MRI due today. So, the two solid headliners are now question marks.

Brown was taken in the first round and did great last night, but he's the back-up behind a good (and young) RB, which means he may not get many chances in the next couple years. McCoy and Greene (both who played great in their first preseason games) are backing up RBs who will be older than 30 (an important age for NFL RBs) starting this season. So both could be starters very soon. And Coffee (who also had a great first preseason showing) is backing up Frank Gore, who is very talented but has an injury history going all the way back to college.

So anyway, I've got decisions to make by noonish tomorrow. I'll probably share the results tomorrow afternoon.

*****

If you skipped past the fantasy football stuff, you only did so to learn that I'm about to watch (in like 5 minutes or so) the Atlanta Falcons play the Detroit Lions in a preseason game. Sorry to have to you skip over football-related stuff just to learn that I'm about to watch football.

Afterwards, I'll probably watch Tiger finish up the third round of the PGA; he's currently in the lead, and I'm rooting for him to get one more major championship closer to overtaking Nicklaus as the greatest golfer ever (a title many have already given Tiger).