Its been a long time since I have had the motivation to write here on AverageAndy.  Have been hunkered down at home due to the ongoing Covid 19 Pandemic, doing the social distancing thing.   I have been keeping busy during the days (I am lucky to have a job that allows me to work at home) and at nights have tried to get out for a walk.   Been doing take out now and then to help the local businesses, and usually take a trip to the bagel shop on Saturdays to stock up for the week.   Been doing some weekly Zoom meetings with Family and Friends which have been really nice.   Also been trying to reach out and keep in touch with family and friends (text, e-mail) to see how everybody else has been handling these strange times.

I want to take some time to thank all the radio stations that have stayed on the air during this crisis and kept me entertained and lifted my spirits day after day

Terrestrial:  105.5 WDHA,  99.9 The Hawk,  Sports Radio WFAN
SiriusXM – Nik Carter and Lori Majewski in the mornings,  Eddie Trunk midday,  and Alan Light and Mark Goodman in the afternoon

This leads me to Survivor

The current season Survivor (Winners at War) premiered on Wednesday, February 12th and brought back 20 past winners to compete against each other for the title Sole Survivor and a 2 Million Dollar grand prize.   It was great to see some of my all time favorite players returning to try to become the 2nd Two Time Survivor Winner (Or in the case of Sandra Diaz-Twine, a 3 time winner and the undisputed greatest Survivor Champion)

Despite the problems with Extinction Island in the past, and the fact that is was a necessity to get some of the contestants to come back, I enjoyed it for the most part this season.   I still don’t like the fact that you get rewarded for the longer you are on Extinction Island.  While the living is tough, you have lots of time to bond with others before getting the chance to get back in the game,  all while you never having to worry about being voted out.

As far as the contestants, being a fan since Season 1, I was rooting for the older players, and it was tough to see all the players I was rooting for get voted out early – Amber, Ethan (who is a friend of my cousins),  Boston Rob, Parvati, and Yul  were all voted off before the merge.   (For a while I was more interested in what was happening at Extinction Island then the real game).   As for the players who made it farther, some I liked (Tony, Sophie, Michele) while others I did not really care for (Adam, Ben, Kim).

As the season wound down, I will admit I was rooting for Tony to win, and thought he was playing the best game.   He was good at all aspects (Physical, Mental and Strategic and managed not to get a single vote cast against him the entire time.

Once Natalie won the chance to come back to the game, I became very nervous as I did not think it was fair for her to possibly win the game despite not being part of the real game for 33 days.  The more I thought about it,  the more of a disaster it seemed it would be if she won.   I held out hope that the this jury would not reward somebody who spent the entire time away from the main game with the 2 Million Dollars.

Once Tony won the fire challenge and made the final 3, I thought there was no way he was not going to win, and was relieved when the jury voted him the winner by a 12 – 4 count.  I think they got it right as he played one of the best games anybody had played.  He now joins  Sandra as the only 2 time winners.

Also want to give a shout out to New Jersey (Where I live).  We have been well represented in Survivor and were again last night with all 3 finalists from the Garden State.  Way to Go and makes me proud.

I want to thank everybody involved with Survivor (The contestants, Jeff Probst, the Producers and all the crews) for another great season.   It continues to be the best Reality Show on TV, and especially during these tough and crazy times, it has been something to look forward to each Wednesday night which kept my spirits high.

Felt good to write some stuff after such a long time, and I will try to find some time to write some more about my thoughts about the world during these crazy times.

Stay Inside if you can, Self Distance and Stay Safe

AverageAndy