Don’t forget the reader’s poll I’m conducting this week. Seven easy questions – you can fill it out in a couple of minutes, or maybe even fewer. Click on the link to take part.

I think I mentioned at some point that I gave up my season tickets to the Ottawa RedBlacks of the Canadian Football League. I’m not superstitious, but I had noted that the team had not won a game I had attended since 2017. Maybe I was the stumbling block to their success.

The team seems more successful in 2023, though it still has a losing record. At least they managed to win a game at home. (They did win home games in recent years too, but only when I wasn’t there.)

Watching on television, the biggest difference I saw was that the team was trying. Last year it seemed that there was a defeatist mentality. Even when leading at the start of the fourth quarter, the team would find a way to lose. All too often it seemed like the players weren’t trying.

Which is unlikely when you think of it. A professional athlete who doesn’t try soon finds himself or herself replaced. But they were losing games they should have won, and from where I was sitting the effort looked questionable.

This past weekend I took in my first in-person game in almost a year. It felt like I was caught in a time warp. Just like so many games in 2022 and 2023 the team jumped to a third quarter lead, then managed to fritter it away, giving up the winning touchdown late in the game.

Particularly annoying was the three tries from the one yard line to score a touchdown, three dismal failures. Crossing the line would have given the team the points it needed to win. I’m an old man, but I think I could probably have managed to get that yard, though admittedly I might have died doing it given the shape I’m in.

When I entered the stadium I was thinking how much I have missed going to the games this season. Maybe, I thought, I should renew my season tickets for next year.

By the end of the game I remembered the frustrations that come with watching the team lose games they should have won. I enjoy watching football, and I support the local team, but I think going to all the games would give me an ulcer. I don’t need that.

Maybe I should just learn to lower my expectations. Do you think I should?