At 5:18 PM EDT Fall 2009 officially arrived here in Indiana where we were slightly above our average temperature of 76 degrees for the day.  But don’t worry, those highs will quickly be falling by an average of one degree every two and a half days and that glorious three week string of 60-some degree October days will be here before you know it.

Some Fall items to chew on:

• The average first measurable snowfall in Indianapolis occurs on November 19th (right around Thanksgiving most years).
• The earliest first measurable snowfall in Indianapolis occurred on October 18th, 1989.
• The Halloween ZooBoo occurs on October 16-18, 22-25 & 29-30.
• The average high on Halloween is 59 degrees & the average low on Halloween is 39 degrees (bundle up kids).
• The Irvington Halloween Festival is on Halloween this year from 9am to 5pm. (You guys had an awesome website a few years ago…why, oh, why did you go with Blogspot?)
• Halloween occurs on October 31st. (I know you’re thinking, “duh”, but some communities set trick-or-treating for the weekend and/or multiple days, which isn’t an issue this year.)
• Thanksgiving Day is Thursday, November 26th.
• The 2009 Thanksgiving Day NFL Football schedule consists of:
  • Green Bay Packers @ Detroit Lions 12:30 PM on FOX
  • Oakland Raiders @ Dallas Cowboys 4:15 PM on CBS
  • New York Giants @ Denver Broncos 8:20 PM on NFL Network (This is the best game of the day which is unfortunate since the NFL (and Comcast in my case) has their heads up their back sides and hardly anyone has the channel. Not to mention their coverage is horrible and the online viewing option is even worse.)
• But don’t fear, ESPN has us covered with Texas at Texas A&M at 8 PM.

Anyway, enjoy the outdoors while you still can and break out the fire pits, for a month from now it could be snowing around these parts.

More proof that many athletes are paid too much…

One man was arrested and a second was sought Tuesday in a robbery and beating that left Oakland Raiders receiver Javon Walker unconscious on a side street after a long night of partying at Las Vegas nightclubs.

Lt. Clinton Nichols said (Javon) Walker lost about $3,000 in cash and $100,000 worth of jewelry in the robbery.

[via ESPN]

For a moment let’s put aside the thoughts that athletes are due their “piece of the pie”, as that’s a whole other series of posts.  And lets agree that Javon Walker getting mugged, or anyone for that matter, is a bad thing.

That said, why in the world do athletes (and not just Pacers players) insist on hanging out in nightclubs and flaunting their wealth? And for Javon, situations like this isn’t something new…”On New Year’s Day 2007, Broncos teammate Darrent Williams died in Walker’s arms in the back of a limousine after a drive-by shooting in downtown Denver.”

Come on guys, pull your heads out of your rears.  I’m not going to offer specific advice here on how you should handle yourself, you’re all adults, but I can think of numerous alternatives that don’t involve a high probability of eventually getting robbed, shot at or stabbed.  But if I were your employer, you can be guaranteed that putting yourself in these sort of situations wouldn’t be tolerated.

There I go thinking logically again…that works fine with computers, but apparently not with many people.