Call me ENlightened, or at least something that's printable in mixed company. For the benefit of any readers who might happen to be my bosses, this is a for-free effort that in no way is meant to be representative of any views expressed in a certain South Texas newspaper. Thank you. For more on Texas football and my love of it, please check out my home page.

But I digress.

Last night, the football season officially began, as it always does for me, with the Official Viewing of the Fourth Quarter of the 1969 Texas-Arkansas game tape. This required serious digging through one of the approximately 2,719 boxes stacked in the garage, but it had to be done. The boxes were placed there over the weekend during a pizza-and-beer-inspired moving session that included MsENlightened, Mr. and Mrs. TornJock and a couple of good friends from work - a Memphis State (please; never just "Memphis") grad and, yes, an Aggie. But one of the good ones. C'mon, fess up - you all have Aggie friends lurking in the shadows. Aggies, to borrow from Mr. Gump, are like a box of chocolates. One or two at a time can be quite pleasant. Too many at once will make you physically ill.

But, again, I digress.

What culminated in the Great Move of 2001 began in June with a vacation trip to Colorado, where ENlightenedette saw snow for the first time in her 8-plus years and a good time was generally had by all. We spent a brief period of time in Boulder, which is a phrase with which Gary Barnett should begin familiarizing himself, and eventually, en route back to Texas, wound up in New Mexico. Like the vast majority of good football fans and players, we avoided Las Cruces.

Once returned to San Antonio, MsENlightened began to get the house-hunting bug in a big way. And after an exhaustive, thorough search that lasted perhaps a half-hour one afternoon, she zoned in on the house that, a mere two months later, we now occupy. The activities that occupied those two months were, of course, anything but mere. In addition to changed hours at work (for the better, but that's why those who give a damn have seen my posts grow less and less frequent), pretty much every waking non-work hour was spent packing, cleaning, trying to sell the home we were in, fixing things to improve the chances to sell the home we were in, packing, cleaning and randomly cursing.

While packing, I came across countless treasures of long-saved Longhorn football memorabilia - a program from the first Texas football game I can remember attending (Texas 31, Rice 0, 1969); countless other game programs; 1969 and 1970 media guides; a TEXAS 1977 No. 1 sticker; hundreds of copies of Longhorn Monthly, the one-time-only 1986 magazine for which I was managing editor and for which I am still owed money, dammit.

But, again, I digress.

All these things made me think that I oughta write something, but the time never proved to be right. More and more time passed, and by mid-August we were piling the approximately 2,719 boxes into storage sheds because the buyers of our old home decided we couldn't stay there for the five days between their closing date and our closing date on the new home. I suppose they will find out about the termites on their own time (kidding ... or am I?). By Aug. 24, a day before our 11th wedding anniversary, we were relocating into a gated community. Not the type with which such Sooner greats as Billy Sims and Charles Thompson are associated, mind you. Much nicer, although we don't live there at any taxpayers' expense other than our own.

So finally things settle down a bit, and I get a chance to read my preseason efforts from last season. I wonder if the program is headed in the 1969 direction or in the 1984 direction (too soon to tell; leaning toward the former). I figure that finishing at or around the preseason ranking of No. 7 bodes well (No. 12; reasonably close, but No. 7 was within grasp with a bowl win). I look at the four biggest trouble-spot games (lost the ones I ranked 1-2; had the two narrowest victories in 3-4). I wonder just how analytical I can be this time around, given the lack of time I've been able to spend on HornFans and other sites and given that I wasn't even able to attend the spring game, much less any practices or scrimmages.

Last year, I had plenty of time to think and worry, and much of what I thought and worried about proved worthy of thought and worry. This year ... no time to think. Consequently, no worries. And so that is why I believe Texas will play for the national championship in the Rose Bowl.

See y'all Saturday.