Football season doesn’t really start for me until the first home game of the regular season.  A home game means tailgating.  Tailgating is awesome.  This is my 11th year of being a season ticket holder and I will never get sick of it.

Sam and I run the tailgate.  Tomorrow’s 1pm game means leaving the house at 7 am and getting home at about 7pm.  Drinking beer in the morning is a little silly, but bloody mary’s do the trick.  We like 4pm games.  Those feel about right.

Some of you remember that last year marked the creation of the tailgate box.  During the offseason there were numerous surgeries resulting in greatly enhanced capabilities.  We learned a lot last year because there were many 4pm games.  The best part of the later game is that when you get to the parking lot at 11:45, there are usually 2 nationally televised games.  So with my regular TV and Sam’s portable plugged into the box, we could watch both games.  But that wasn’t working, so I got a bigger TV.  For tomorrow, we will be watching pre-game on the little screen and an old SuperBowl on the big screen (32).

I also finally painted it, did some rewiring and added a lid that holds more stuff, including an espresso machine.  After all, we may be rednecks in the parking lot, but we aren’t heathens.  Here is the picture of the box folded up.

I really like having everything in one unit so I don’t have the mish-mash of setting up and lists to make sure I remember stuff.  Plus other groups love it, they all come over and ask if I am going to sell them.  Little do they realize I have at least 100 hours into this thing.  At some point I will build version 3 and it will be all powered by hydraulics and make sound effects like in the Transformers movie. Dad is sending me a battery meter, how cool is that.

Here is the unit opened up in the garage.  I will try to post video of the setup process from the parking lot tomorrow, so keep a look out.

There is something about tailgating with the guys that makes football so much more enjoyable.  I built regulation cornhole boards, and Meg bought me ladder golf.  We’ll have the table going for a pong tournament.  Most likely some other crews will come over and play in some games.  There is a genuine feeling of camaraderie in the parking lots.

We have other traditions.  Like our system for DJ’ing music.  Last year we came up with the approach that everyone gets to play 5 songs from their ipod/phone.  This year we had to cut it to 4, because CMAC kept getting skipped.  The only rules are that 1) no song can be longer than 5 minutes and 2) there is no crappy pop dance music.  Whatever ridicule comes your way, you gotta take it, but the song plays til completion.  We can get pretty rough.  I can’t wait for tomorrow.  I am playing a 4 song funk set.  Superstition, Jungle Boogie, Brickhouse, and of course Play that Funky Music.  Sam  is going to explode.  He can’t take anything but G&R or AC/DC.  Last year CMAC played a full set of Michael Jackson rock covers.  Spence mixed in Pink Floyd and Cake.  Awesome.   This season is going to be a blast.  Even if the Pats don’t win, we always know it’s a good day in the parking lots.  See you boys tomorrow.