So far this winter, there has been nothing to do but read, think, plan, clean, cook, or sit huddled under a blanket watching NCIS or one of the ballgames that is on the tube.

This winter my husband and I even know the teams who are unbeaten and the ones who have been beaten by non ranked teams. However, we still turn a game on to see what the score is. If it is close, we watch the game. If it isn’t close, we find something else to entertain us. So far, there have been some really good games that have been decided at the buzzer.

If you don’t really care who wins, these are the best kind of games to watch. However, we have a controversy. My husband likes the game muted. I like to hear the commentators because they give bits and pieces about the players. For instance, last night they were talking about one guy from Uganda (I think) and noted that his family had never been able to see him play. I felt sorry for him, so I “rooted” for his team.

There is one commentator, though, that even I mute. I don’t know his name, but I sure know his voice. He is the most irritating speaker I have ever heard, so “mute” he goes. He could never give enough interesting facts about the teams or the players to make me listen to him.

Other irritating commentators are the women who find the way down to the playing floor and try to interview players and coaches over the din of the stadium. Most of the time their voices aren’t strong enough to be heard, and if the mike is turned up, so is the background noise.

• There is a bill in Congress to make texting while behind the wheel a crime for truckers. This, to me, is a no brainer. Why does anyone have to be told not to text while trying to operate a big machine that has the power to kill people if driven incorrectly? If a person is dumb enough to text while driving, he or she shouldn’t have a driver’s license in the first place.

Drivers never cease to amaze me. When I think of doing something else while driving, I remember the girl I was behind on I 64 going into Huntington one morning about 8:30. I saw her right hand come up and shake something. At first, I thought she was shaking it at me.

We were in the left lane passing traffic and were clipping along at around 65. I wasn’t very close to her, so I didn’t have any idea why she would shake her fist at me.

Then I realized, her other hand was fluffing her hair. Unless she had three arms, there was no hand left over to control the wheel. The hand I thought was shaking at me was spraying hair spray. I said a prayer for her, slowed down, got into the right lane, and let that lady go on her merry little way.

• Well, President Obama gave his first State of the Union speech this past week. I think the problem people have with him is that they thought because he is the first black President, he is young, he is intelligent, he is charismatic, and he is optimistic that he would come into office and sweep everything clean.

That would have been nice, but that is not the way politics work. He is doing the best he can do which is better than most have done lately. Maybe someone could have done the job better, but who would we choose? John Edwards.

That man is someone I have totally marked off my “admiration list.” Needless to say, Tiger Woods tumbled off right behind him into the same pile of disappointment.

• My husband bought me the best Christmas present ever for a reader. I agree with my daughter that nothing beats a book in the hand, but a Kindle is pretty good, too.

For those not in the know, a Kindle is a (I don’t know what to call it) thing that is about the size of half a sheet of paper and about 1⁄4 of an inch thick. This little “machine” will hold around 1500 books, and the owner can carry them around all the time.

Of course, the Kindle will not keep me from going to the library because I could never afford all the books I want to read, but for a person who takes a big bag of books on vacation, it is wonderful.

It came with an unabridged dictionary. I have added a Bible for $3.99 and two novels that are just out. Usually I have to wait for these novels to come out in paperback. I have also added three books that are free, and there are thousands more free ones from which to choose.

If I lived where there is cell phone service, I would have the books in 60 seconds after I order them. As it is, I have to put them on my computer and then transfer them to my Kindle.

• In watching all the basketball games we have, I have realized two things. One is that someone should make basketball uniforms one of two ways: either with snaps that hold the bottoms to the tops or one piece uniforms that have elastic in the waist.

This is true of high school and college basketball. When I see a player going out on the floor “fixing” his top so it goes down in the bottoms, I just want to yell, “Fix it before you get out there!”

The second thing is the mouth guard a player wears. I’m sure they are a necessary thing to have, but players need to keep them in their mouths. It is one of the most revolting things to have to watch when a player sticks his mouth guard out, chews or sucks on it awhile, and sucks it back in. I turn the channel to another station.

• People are really upset about their electric bills. Some of the excuses that are being given to them by the electric company are as follows: the rates went up, there are more days in the billing period, and you didn’t live in that house last year. It just seems funny to me that after 10 days with no electricity, some bills have more than doubled.

• Of course, no one checked to see if his electric box was working throughout the blackout. Everyone just assumed that, since the electric was off, the box didn’t register any kilowatt hours.

• Next weekend, millions of people will be watching the Super Bowl. Some will be rooting for a team, and some will just tune in to watch the commercials one of which is being criticized because it tells what would have happened if Pam Tebow had followed her doctor’s advice and had an abortion. Her son Tim would not have been playing in the Super Bowl.

There isn’t as much controversy over an ad submitted by a gay dating site that shows two men who start necking during the game.

• To end on a good note, I would like to say this is the first time in my life that I really care who wins the Super Bowl. I am rooting for the Saints.

Part of this has to do with our daughter who has caught the Saints’ Fever which is spreading rampantly throughout New Orleans. I don’t think there is but one cure for the disease. That is to win the Bowl.

Part of this has to do with the fact that I have a tendency to cheer for the underdogs, and if anyone has ever been an underdog, it is the Saint’s football team.

The last part of this has to do with a man named George who lives in New Orleans. I have never met George, but he is the father of a friend of mine. He is 83 years old and has been a Saints’ fan as long as the Saints have been a football team. He has been a fan in good times of which there haven’t been many and in bad times of which there were quite a few. For no other reason, I would like for the Saints to win for George.

To put the importance of football into perspective, Erma Bombeck perhaps said it best: “Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in 12 minutes. Half-times last twelve minutes. This is not coincidence.”