With my apologies to those of you who work late, haven't the rest of us had enough of this 7:30 start time on Friday night?

Haven't we?

The only people who I can make any sense of benefitting from the delayed start are those of you who get off work at 7 and need the extra half hour to get to where your team is on a particular Friday night.

I thought for a second that maybe I was just being selfish, that us media types were the only ones the later start affected. But I don't think so. I can't imagine the players and coaches like the extra wait, especially when you've already practiced all week and waited all day Friday to hit the field. Then they make us wait another half hour?

Since I know my side of the argument, it's the side I'll now share. So, MHSAA, if you're listening, enough already. There's no difference in the temperature at 7 and at 7:30 p.m., not enough of a noticeable difference anyway.

Enough already.

Now, to the fire that was under my butt this past Friday, all thanks to our wonderful new start time.

Internet signals aren't always reliable. I don't care how much Cingular...pardon me, ATamp&T preaches its perfection, sometimes things happen. Friday night, my handy, and may I say 99 percent reliable broadband laptop card, decided to take a break in Aberdeen. With 30 fewer minutes to spare, that dilemma couldn't have been much worse.

Beginning at halftime, I tried to send pictures to the Daily Journal.

With a fading signal, nothing worked. My connection was in and out, on and off, nowhere near in or on long enough to attach photos to an email.

By the time 10:15 rolled around and the final horn sounded, no picture nor box score had been sent.

By the time I caught up with both coaches and back Jamerson Love for their thoughts and comments, the clock was past 10:30. For a writer on Friday night, 10:30 with nothing sent in is the equivalent to half a bridge completed with traffic less than half a mile away, not a good situation.

With what turned out to be false hope, I switched sides of the Lester Miley Stadium press box, hoping it was just a bad side. Not so.

As 10:45 hit, thankfully none of Aberdeen's finest eyed me speeding down Main Street to the Monroe Journal office, almost frantically trying to get to a computer with Internet capabilities.

Long story short, my connection was fine by that time, so I sat in my gas guzzling SUV, air conditioning running nonetheless, and finished my work.

Saturday's paper had the game.

What it didn't have was the unnecessary headache and stress that went into getting it there.

We have three more weeks of the delayed start time.

And while I'm sure the MHSAA got someone off of its backs by enforcing the new time, what they don't have are the unnecessary headaches and stresses the new time brings, especially 210 minutes later.

Brandon Speck is the sports editor of the Monroe Journal. He can be reached at (662) 256-5647 or brandon.speck@monroe360.com.