All I wanted for Christmas was our kids together with us at the same time, which is getting harder and harder as time goes by. Here we are at First Methodist of Clearwater on Christmas Eve. Glorious!
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Friday, December 19, 2008
kitchen update, revised (again)
Here's an update as of tonight (Friday): The plumber came in (two of them) and they installed the kitchen sink and connected the line to the ice maker. The new kitchen window is now installed. We now have the flooring installed, the cabinets installed (still missing a couple of doors), the granite countertops installed, all the tiles for the backsplash installed (still needs grout), and all of the appliances except the oven and microwave. The electrician still has a few odd jobs. The island in the middle of the kitchen and the window sill will be installed Monday. I replaced the rack in the hall closet. Tomorrow (Saturday) or Sunday I will put a second coat of paint in the dining area and parts of the kitchen, hang a shelf back on the wall, attach a new duct to the clothes dryer, and replace a shower head, and then I may as well mow the front and back yards. THEN I'm going to sit back and eat grapes while my wife moves everything that was in the kitchen back in the kitchen.
To appreciate how far this project has gone since it started, scroll down to see earlier photos. At the bottom, click on "older posts."
To appreciate how far this project has gone since it started, scroll down to see earlier photos. At the bottom, click on "older posts."
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Phase 6
Starting today, this is the last photo I'm going to upload until our kids come home and see the final project completed, although I might slip in a small detail here or there. I mean, we have to save something to surprise them for Christmas!
Friday, December 12, 2008
light at the end of the tunnel
The cabinet man began installing the cabinets today. He is a perfectionist. I like perfectionists!
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Phase 6 begins
The cabinets have arrived! With any luck they will be installed on Friday, or at least the lower cabinets will be, so the counter man can get started.
Monday, December 08, 2008
Thursday, December 04, 2008
more progress
The progress may seem slow judging from this photo, but we now have a ceiling and walls with the gaps filled in.
Wednesday, December 03, 2008
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
the demo phase continues!
Slo-o-o-o-w progress. What's hard to see here is the new ductwork for the heating and air-conditioning, and the electrician's wiring, outlets, and "cans" for the overhead lighting.
Friday, November 21, 2008
end of the demo phase
What was once a kitchen is now just empty space, waiting for the electrician, the HVAC man, and the guys to install the flooring, the cabinets, the counters, the appliances . . . not to mention the ceiling . . .
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
it's time for a new kitchen
Our kitchen is just plain worn out. Time for a new one! Here, the demolition crew merrily attacks the shelving.
Monday, November 17, 2008
well, one more
I know I said I'd stop writing political entries for the rest of this year, but I can't help myself.
Senator John McCain, appearing on Jay Leno's show, said he has been "sleeping like a baby" since the election: " . . . out for two hours . . . wake up, cry . . . out for two hours . . . wake up, cry . . ."
Memo to the Republican Party: Fire the vicious meatheads who have been orchestrating your campaigns lately, and let your candidates be themselves. With a little more humor like Senator McCain is capable of demonstrating, and with the kind of class and dignity he exhibited in his concession speech, he could be the President-Elect today.
I know you won't do that, and as a Democrat it pleases me to know you will continue to run the sort of no-class hatchet jobs you've been running, but as an American I deplore the divisive, cutthroat campaigns that play into the hands of certain talk show hosts but otherwise prevent us from uniting to solve problems.
Speaking of divisiveness, consider this: A Catholic priest in South Carolina has told his parishioners that, if they voted for Obama, they should repent or stay away from communion. Do we need any more evidence as to why certain branches of organized religion, and in particular the Roman Catholic Church, have become not only irrelevant but counterproductive to the needs of the world?
Senator John McCain, appearing on Jay Leno's show, said he has been "sleeping like a baby" since the election: " . . . out for two hours . . . wake up, cry . . . out for two hours . . . wake up, cry . . ."
Memo to the Republican Party: Fire the vicious meatheads who have been orchestrating your campaigns lately, and let your candidates be themselves. With a little more humor like Senator McCain is capable of demonstrating, and with the kind of class and dignity he exhibited in his concession speech, he could be the President-Elect today.
I know you won't do that, and as a Democrat it pleases me to know you will continue to run the sort of no-class hatchet jobs you've been running, but as an American I deplore the divisive, cutthroat campaigns that play into the hands of certain talk show hosts but otherwise prevent us from uniting to solve problems.
Speaking of divisiveness, consider this: A Catholic priest in South Carolina has told his parishioners that, if they voted for Obama, they should repent or stay away from communion. Do we need any more evidence as to why certain branches of organized religion, and in particular the Roman Catholic Church, have become not only irrelevant but counterproductive to the needs of the world?
Monday, November 10, 2008
notice to all you Red states
This will probably be my last political entry for the remainder of the year. It is not original with me but, now that I live in a Blue state, I just had to "borrow" it. This required some major modifications, notably because it was written before the election and the author expected another Republican victory. (Note to the humor-impaired: The statistics are probably flawed but they illustrate the point pretty well.)
Dear Red States:
We were afraid you would steal this election, too, and we seriously considered forming our own country. It still seems like a good idea now, particularly in view of the ugliness and hatred expressed during the long and nasty campaign.
We intend to form our own country, to be known as Neuvo California, and we're taking the other Blue States with us. We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation.
To sum up briefly: You get Texas, Oklahoma, West Virginia, and all the slave states. We get stem cell research, the best beaches, and most of the good ski resorts. We get the Statue of Liberty and the Golden Gate Bridge; you get Dollywood. We get M.I.T. and Harvard; you get Ole' Miss. We get 85% of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs; you get Alabama. We get two-thirds of the tax revenues; you get to make the Red states pay their fair share. Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22% lower than the Christian Coalition's, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a bunch of single moms.
Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro-choice and anti-war, and we're going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If you need people to fight, ask your evangelicals and your hockey moms. They have kids they're apparently willing to send overseas for no good purpose, and they don't care if you don't show pictures of their children's caskets coming home. We do wish you success in Iraq , and hope that the WMDs turn up, but we're not willing to spend any more of our resources in what began as a hunt for Osama bin Laden. (Whatever happened to him? How can a 6'4" man with poor health be hiding in the mountains for so long?)
With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of 80% of the country's fresh water, 90% of the pineapple and lettuce, 90% of the nation's fresh fruit, 95% of America's quality wines, 90% of all cheese, 90% of the high tech industry, 95% of the corn and soybeans (thanks Iowa!), most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools plus Stanford and Cal Tech, and all of the service academies. With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 65% of all old and obese Americans (and their projected health care costs), nearly 100% of the tornadoes, 80% of hurricanes that make landfall, and 65% of all the alligators and mosquitos. You get 80% of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100% of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia. We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you.
Additionally, 38% of those in the Red states believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale; 62% believe life is sacred unless we're discussing the war, the death penalty, or gun laws; 44% say that evolution is only a theory; 53% that Saddam was involved in 9/11; and 61% of you crazy nuts believe you are people with higher morals then we lefties.
Finally, we're taking the good pot, too. You can have that dirt weed they grow in Mexico
Peace out,
Blue States
Dear Red States:
We were afraid you would steal this election, too, and we seriously considered forming our own country. It still seems like a good idea now, particularly in view of the ugliness and hatred expressed during the long and nasty campaign.
We intend to form our own country, to be known as Neuvo California, and we're taking the other Blue States with us. We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation.
To sum up briefly: You get Texas, Oklahoma, West Virginia, and all the slave states. We get stem cell research, the best beaches, and most of the good ski resorts. We get the Statue of Liberty and the Golden Gate Bridge; you get Dollywood. We get M.I.T. and Harvard; you get Ole' Miss. We get 85% of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs; you get Alabama. We get two-thirds of the tax revenues; you get to make the Red states pay their fair share. Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22% lower than the Christian Coalition's, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a bunch of single moms.
Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro-choice and anti-war, and we're going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If you need people to fight, ask your evangelicals and your hockey moms. They have kids they're apparently willing to send overseas for no good purpose, and they don't care if you don't show pictures of their children's caskets coming home. We do wish you success in Iraq , and hope that the WMDs turn up, but we're not willing to spend any more of our resources in what began as a hunt for Osama bin Laden. (Whatever happened to him? How can a 6'4" man with poor health be hiding in the mountains for so long?)
With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of 80% of the country's fresh water, 90% of the pineapple and lettuce, 90% of the nation's fresh fruit, 95% of America's quality wines, 90% of all cheese, 90% of the high tech industry, 95% of the corn and soybeans (thanks Iowa!), most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools plus Stanford and Cal Tech, and all of the service academies. With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 65% of all old and obese Americans (and their projected health care costs), nearly 100% of the tornadoes, 80% of hurricanes that make landfall, and 65% of all the alligators and mosquitos. You get 80% of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100% of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia. We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you.
Additionally, 38% of those in the Red states believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale; 62% believe life is sacred unless we're discussing the war, the death penalty, or gun laws; 44% say that evolution is only a theory; 53% that Saddam was involved in 9/11; and 61% of you crazy nuts believe you are people with higher morals then we lefties.
Finally, we're taking the good pot, too. You can have that dirt weed they grow in Mexico
Peace out,
Blue States
Friday, November 07, 2008
a new day, for better or for worse
The election of the first black President this week is historic for many reasons, not the least of which is that the occupant of the White House will be an articulate man of substantial intelligence who wants to do right by the American people.
I commend Senator McCain for his classy, dignified concession speech. I wish his followers would pay heed to it.
I would like to say I am disheartened that so many of his followers, in venting their outrage at the results of the election, are demonstrating that their hostility towards Barack Obama is due to the color of his skin. I would like to say I am disheartened, but frankly I expected it. Their bigoted motives are illustrated by the first "joke" I heard after the results were announced. I won't repeat it, but the punch line included a reference to watermelons and collard greens. This came from someone I respected, and my wife heard the same "joke" from a woman who thought it was the "Christian thing to do" to oppose Obama.
I expected this reaction for several reasons, one of which is that racism is very much alive in this country. It is alive in the older generation more so than the younger generation, which is an optimistic sign, but it is alive. I can now say that racism was a huge factor among the McCain supporters without being accused of playing the race card. I have seen the race card, and it is the joker.
Another reason has less to due with Obama than it does with the history of the Democratic Party in the civil rights movement of the 1960's. It was President Eisenhower who federalized the National Guard in Arkansas in 1957, but it was JFK and LBJ who put the weight of the federal government behind the civil rights movement. It was LBJ who pushed the the Civil Rights Act through Congress in 1964. The Democratic Party has been at the forefront on human rights issues. This has alienated Republicans and Southern Democrats, who drifted away from the party. When I registered to vote in Tallahassee, you either registered Democratic or you had no party primary to vote in. Now the South is a two-party system, and Democratic candidates for every office have to defend themselves against negative campaigns from people opposed to the human rights positions that the Democratic Party is identified with.
Barack Obama represents one of the ultimate objectives of the civil rights movement, and he embodies a core belief of Democrats that a man, or woman, should be elected based upon merit and not race or religion. To illustrate how far we've come, remember that people died during the civil rights movement. Now we have the son of a black father and a white mother preparing to move into the White House.
The man has a daunting challenge ahead of him. He will be hounded every step of the way by the naysayers. I have confidence in him. To the McCain supporters who didn't hear the Senator's concession speech, I'll just paraphrase what the Republicans have been saying for eight years: Obama won. Get over it.
I commend Senator McCain for his classy, dignified concession speech. I wish his followers would pay heed to it.
I would like to say I am disheartened that so many of his followers, in venting their outrage at the results of the election, are demonstrating that their hostility towards Barack Obama is due to the color of his skin. I would like to say I am disheartened, but frankly I expected it. Their bigoted motives are illustrated by the first "joke" I heard after the results were announced. I won't repeat it, but the punch line included a reference to watermelons and collard greens. This came from someone I respected, and my wife heard the same "joke" from a woman who thought it was the "Christian thing to do" to oppose Obama.
I expected this reaction for several reasons, one of which is that racism is very much alive in this country. It is alive in the older generation more so than the younger generation, which is an optimistic sign, but it is alive. I can now say that racism was a huge factor among the McCain supporters without being accused of playing the race card. I have seen the race card, and it is the joker.
Another reason has less to due with Obama than it does with the history of the Democratic Party in the civil rights movement of the 1960's. It was President Eisenhower who federalized the National Guard in Arkansas in 1957, but it was JFK and LBJ who put the weight of the federal government behind the civil rights movement. It was LBJ who pushed the the Civil Rights Act through Congress in 1964. The Democratic Party has been at the forefront on human rights issues. This has alienated Republicans and Southern Democrats, who drifted away from the party. When I registered to vote in Tallahassee, you either registered Democratic or you had no party primary to vote in. Now the South is a two-party system, and Democratic candidates for every office have to defend themselves against negative campaigns from people opposed to the human rights positions that the Democratic Party is identified with.
Barack Obama represents one of the ultimate objectives of the civil rights movement, and he embodies a core belief of Democrats that a man, or woman, should be elected based upon merit and not race or religion. To illustrate how far we've come, remember that people died during the civil rights movement. Now we have the son of a black father and a white mother preparing to move into the White House.
The man has a daunting challenge ahead of him. He will be hounded every step of the way by the naysayers. I have confidence in him. To the McCain supporters who didn't hear the Senator's concession speech, I'll just paraphrase what the Republicans have been saying for eight years: Obama won. Get over it.
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
election night lunacy
And now . . . the envelope, please.
No, before that, we have sit through several hours of blathering and lunacy by the talking heads. My regular readers should know I have an extraordinarily low opinion of talking heads.
It is a few minutes after 8 p.m. Eastern time as I begin typing this, and CNN insists that Florida is one of the states whose polls just closed. Wrong. Except for a few counties in the Panhandle, which are on Central time, they closed at 7 p.m., the ballots are being fed through the computers, and ABC and other networks are carrying the early results.
Carl Rove, pontificating about politics in Florida, just told us that St. Petersburg is in Hillsborough County. Wrong. He must have been watching Rays baseball all summer. St. Petersburg is in Pinellas County. Tampa is in Hillsborough County. There are huge differences between the counties, politically. Pinellas has always been a Republican stronghold. Hillsborough County always seems like it should be the subject of a grand jury investigation.
Some of the networks are predicting outcomes in states based on exit polls. At least one network tells us righteously that they won't do that if the outcome appears close. Meanwhile, voters in the Pacific time zone have until 8 p.m., Pacific time, to go to the polls and vote. How are those predictions affecting those voters?
I think I'll pop open a Sam Adams beer (made in Massachussets, which this year is Obama country), get out the peanuts, and see what happens next. I may update this later in the evening as the frivolity unfolds.
UPDATE: After switching back and forth among the networks, I give CBS the "Hurl" Award. The visual appearance of CBS, with flashing graphics and a swirling background, is the one most likely to cause viewers to lose their dinner. I like ABC's appearance. I think I would like Fox's, but the local affiliate keeps hogging about 50 percent of the screen with an update of local races that dominates the bottom and right side of the picture.
Of all the graphics they can show us, give me the old map of the U.S. with the states color coded. Everything else requires the eye to move all around the screen and then the data changes before you get a chance to take it all in.
I'm hearing a discussion of the Pennsylvania results to the effect that Sarah Palin made a difference for John McCain, but a negative difference. She apparently didn't hurt him in the states he was expected to win but, in the "battleground" states, her initial attractiveness lasted maybe two weeks and then she lost it.
SECOND UPDATE: At almost the precise moment the polls closed in the Pacific time zone states, CNN projected Obama the winner. You folks out West could have just gone out for dinner, saving yourselves the trouble of voting. Meanwhile, the CBS web page was showing only 206 Electoral College votes for Obama, 64 short of the number needed to win. Ooops, it just changed. With 0 percent of the votes counted in California and Washington and 6 percent counted in Oregon, CBS is projecting all three states as Obama states.
FINAL UPDATE FOR THE NIGHT: No network has called Florida, which is still close. At 10:57 p.m., the state's web site is reporting the vote count as pro-Obama by a difference of 143,383 votes out of a total of 7,296,451 votes cast (not counting a few votes for 12, yes 12, third-party candidates). However, this year, it makes absolutely no difference which way Florida goes. There will be no disputed ballots worth the trouble of fighting for. I could have stayed away from the polls, gone out for a dinner, gone to a movie, and come home in time to see the outcome.
I was about to turn the TV off and hit the sack when I heard John McCain's concession speech. I believe his speech is the classiest speech I've heard from any politician. I wish his campaign had been run by the people who helped write that speech. If you missed it, you should find the full text of it and read it, and send it on to people you know who have been feeding you a continuous line of lies and baloney about Barack Obama all summer long.
p.s.: They just called Florida for Obama, but at this point, who cares?
No, before that, we have sit through several hours of blathering and lunacy by the talking heads. My regular readers should know I have an extraordinarily low opinion of talking heads.
It is a few minutes after 8 p.m. Eastern time as I begin typing this, and CNN insists that Florida is one of the states whose polls just closed. Wrong. Except for a few counties in the Panhandle, which are on Central time, they closed at 7 p.m., the ballots are being fed through the computers, and ABC and other networks are carrying the early results.
Carl Rove, pontificating about politics in Florida, just told us that St. Petersburg is in Hillsborough County. Wrong. He must have been watching Rays baseball all summer. St. Petersburg is in Pinellas County. Tampa is in Hillsborough County. There are huge differences between the counties, politically. Pinellas has always been a Republican stronghold. Hillsborough County always seems like it should be the subject of a grand jury investigation.
Some of the networks are predicting outcomes in states based on exit polls. At least one network tells us righteously that they won't do that if the outcome appears close. Meanwhile, voters in the Pacific time zone have until 8 p.m., Pacific time, to go to the polls and vote. How are those predictions affecting those voters?
I think I'll pop open a Sam Adams beer (made in Massachussets, which this year is Obama country), get out the peanuts, and see what happens next. I may update this later in the evening as the frivolity unfolds.
UPDATE: After switching back and forth among the networks, I give CBS the "Hurl" Award. The visual appearance of CBS, with flashing graphics and a swirling background, is the one most likely to cause viewers to lose their dinner. I like ABC's appearance. I think I would like Fox's, but the local affiliate keeps hogging about 50 percent of the screen with an update of local races that dominates the bottom and right side of the picture.
Of all the graphics they can show us, give me the old map of the U.S. with the states color coded. Everything else requires the eye to move all around the screen and then the data changes before you get a chance to take it all in.
I'm hearing a discussion of the Pennsylvania results to the effect that Sarah Palin made a difference for John McCain, but a negative difference. She apparently didn't hurt him in the states he was expected to win but, in the "battleground" states, her initial attractiveness lasted maybe two weeks and then she lost it.
SECOND UPDATE: At almost the precise moment the polls closed in the Pacific time zone states, CNN projected Obama the winner. You folks out West could have just gone out for dinner, saving yourselves the trouble of voting. Meanwhile, the CBS web page was showing only 206 Electoral College votes for Obama, 64 short of the number needed to win. Ooops, it just changed. With 0 percent of the votes counted in California and Washington and 6 percent counted in Oregon, CBS is projecting all three states as Obama states.
FINAL UPDATE FOR THE NIGHT: No network has called Florida, which is still close. At 10:57 p.m., the state's web site is reporting the vote count as pro-Obama by a difference of 143,383 votes out of a total of 7,296,451 votes cast (not counting a few votes for 12, yes 12, third-party candidates). However, this year, it makes absolutely no difference which way Florida goes. There will be no disputed ballots worth the trouble of fighting for. I could have stayed away from the polls, gone out for a dinner, gone to a movie, and come home in time to see the outcome.
I was about to turn the TV off and hit the sack when I heard John McCain's concession speech. I believe his speech is the classiest speech I've heard from any politician. I wish his campaign had been run by the people who helped write that speech. If you missed it, you should find the full text of it and read it, and send it on to people you know who have been feeding you a continuous line of lies and baloney about Barack Obama all summer long.
p.s.: They just called Florida for Obama, but at this point, who cares?
Monday, November 03, 2008
thank God it's almost over
After 20-plus months of campaigning, the presidential election will be over and done with tomorrow, thank God.
I know why so many Americans voted early. After voting, they can believe that the campaigns are finished and they can turn their attention elsewhere, immune from all of the lies and bull manure that has been slung during the campaign. I didn't vote early. I didn't want to allow them more time to lose my ballot. I'll be in line tomorrow morning, and it should be a short line. But as far as I'm concerned, the campaign ended weeks ago. It's all over but the shouting.
No matter who wins, here's the best part: George W. Bush has 77 days left in office. That's eleven weeks. I think he should pack up and move back to Texas the day after the election.
And here's another good part: No matter who wins, the winner will be able to move into the White House on schedule. Unlike other parts of the world, we don't have armies staging coups.
My wish is this, and I know my four regular readers don't need to be told this because their mother taught them better: I wish all Americans would accept the results of the election and move on, vowing to try again in four years if their candidate lost, and not engage in the acidic, venomous, hateful criticism that has passed for political discussion in the post-Reagan era.
That's my wish, for whatever it's worth.
I know why so many Americans voted early. After voting, they can believe that the campaigns are finished and they can turn their attention elsewhere, immune from all of the lies and bull manure that has been slung during the campaign. I didn't vote early. I didn't want to allow them more time to lose my ballot. I'll be in line tomorrow morning, and it should be a short line. But as far as I'm concerned, the campaign ended weeks ago. It's all over but the shouting.
No matter who wins, here's the best part: George W. Bush has 77 days left in office. That's eleven weeks. I think he should pack up and move back to Texas the day after the election.
And here's another good part: No matter who wins, the winner will be able to move into the White House on schedule. Unlike other parts of the world, we don't have armies staging coups.
My wish is this, and I know my four regular readers don't need to be told this because their mother taught them better: I wish all Americans would accept the results of the election and move on, vowing to try again in four years if their candidate lost, and not engage in the acidic, venomous, hateful criticism that has passed for political discussion in the post-Reagan era.
That's my wish, for whatever it's worth.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
winners: steadfast Rays fans
We got tickets at the last minute to see Game 7 against the Red Sox in the American League Championship Series, and I've gotta tell you, it was the most exciting and nerve-wracking game I've even seen in any sport. Having blown a seven-run lead to lose Game 5, and then having lost Game 6, and then letting the Red Sox load the bases in the top of the eighth inning, the Rays looked like they were history. But no! They came back to win Game 7, rewarding fans at the Trop who stood for most of the game, ringing cowbells, blowing horns, and making one helluva racket.
Of course they would. Rays fans have learned to expect the unexpected. Now they are down three games to one in the World Series, going against Philadelphia tonight for the remainder of a game that was suspended when the puddles on the field threatened to become ice slicks. The Phillies took an early lead, of course. Facing one of the toughest pitchers in MLB, the Rays' batting order came alive, tying the game at two all. How bad were the Rays' batters? Pena and Longoria were hitless in the World Series until Monday night. Pena got a hit; Longoria drove him in. Upton got a hit; Pena drove him in. Score tied. Game suspended on account of rain (first time in World Series history).
If you don't watch baseball, you are missing high drama. Watch tonight. If the Rays bring the series back to the Trop, it will be a totally fitting end to the Rays' season if Game 7 is played on Halloween night inside a dome that ought to be painted orange.
Of course they would. Rays fans have learned to expect the unexpected. Now they are down three games to one in the World Series, going against Philadelphia tonight for the remainder of a game that was suspended when the puddles on the field threatened to become ice slicks. The Phillies took an early lead, of course. Facing one of the toughest pitchers in MLB, the Rays' batting order came alive, tying the game at two all. How bad were the Rays' batters? Pena and Longoria were hitless in the World Series until Monday night. Pena got a hit; Longoria drove him in. Upton got a hit; Pena drove him in. Score tied. Game suspended on account of rain (first time in World Series history).
If you don't watch baseball, you are missing high drama. Watch tonight. If the Rays bring the series back to the Trop, it will be a totally fitting end to the Rays' season if Game 7 is played on Halloween night inside a dome that ought to be painted orange.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
losers: fickle Fenway fans
Tonight, with the Rays ahead of the Red Sox 7 - 0 in the top of the 7th inning, we were treated to the sorry spectacle of "fans" leaving Fenway. I was shouting at the TV set: "The Red Sox are only down by seven! They can do this!"
They did it, all right, winning 8 - 7 in the bottom of the ninth. Aaargh!
I can say two things: (1) I like and respect the Sox too much to see them lose the way they were losing, and I'm glad they did it. (2) I hope the "fans" who bailed out early are still kicking themselves in the rear for missing one of the most exciting comebacks in baseball history. Never, ever, leave a game early unless you are pregnant and your labor pains have started.
Next game: Saturday, the 18th, in St. Petersburg (not in Tampa, as the announcers said). They will be back in the much-maligned Trop, where the Rays have done well, and I'm still predicting the Rays will be the next AL champions.
They did it, all right, winning 8 - 7 in the bottom of the ninth. Aaargh!
I can say two things: (1) I like and respect the Sox too much to see them lose the way they were losing, and I'm glad they did it. (2) I hope the "fans" who bailed out early are still kicking themselves in the rear for missing one of the most exciting comebacks in baseball history. Never, ever, leave a game early unless you are pregnant and your labor pains have started.
Next game: Saturday, the 18th, in St. Petersburg (not in Tampa, as the announcers said). They will be back in the much-maligned Trop, where the Rays have done well, and I'm still predicting the Rays will be the next AL champions.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
what Mr. McCain can learn from Mr. Sears and Mr. Roebuck
When I was in college, I spent two summers working at the Sears store in Clearwater. I was on the "flying squad," filling in when people went on their vacation . . . two weeks in sporting goods, two weeks in building materials, two weeks in shoes, and so on, everywhere but ladies' clothing and the sewing machine department.
One of the department managers gave me an important lesson in salesmanship, which is, "Don't knock the competition. You won't sell anything by saying how bad the other guy's products are." If a customer is in Sears, holding a shirt, you won't sell it by saying how terrible Montgomery Ward shirts are. The customer may just walk out, empty-handed, and check out the shirts at Penney's instead.
Sears products are in three grades - Good, Better, and Best. The good products are perfectly good, for the money. For a few dollars more you can get a better one, and for a few more dollars, the best one.
I wish Senator McCain would learn the lesson I learned from the Sears department manager. There were reasons why I might have wanted to vote for him, months ago, but I've forgotten what they were. All I've heard lately is how bad the competition is. Unfortunately, we don't get to go to Penney's for a third choice. The other choice is Senator Obama, and he is looking better the more McCain tries to slime him. McCain should merchandise himself like Sears, by saying Obama is good but I'm better. Instead, we see him with this smirk on his face. Senator McCain, a smirk does not become you. It makes you look like a man with an intestinal disorder.
I am particularly tired of this silly nonsense about the 1960's radical, William Ayers. Young people may be unaware of this, but there were a lot of people in the 1960's who thought they were radicals or wished they could be radicals. We each had a different definition of what a "radical" was. The revolution we predicted failed before it started. We got our hair cut, we got jobs and families and mortgages, and now we are looking at AARP membership application forms, asking ourselves where the old guy we see in the mirror came from.
Not everybody wanted to be a radical; some became Republicans. In college, at places like USC and the U. of Florida, they became student politicians. There they learned the tactics of campaign dirty tricks called (please pardon my French) ratfucking, which they put to good use when they went to work for the Nixon campaign.
It seems clear to me that ratfucking is alive and well among the supporters of the McCain campaign, judging from the number of emails I get from people trying to tell me how bad Obama is. Try this: Go to Snopes.com and search for "Obama." You will be amazed at the lies being told about the man. I am deleting these emails as fast as they come in. They will not change my mind. My doctor told me something the other day I've never heard before, which is that I have high blood pressure. She gave me three months to bring it down, or she will prescribe pills. To combat high blood pressure I am tuning out the presidential campaign. For the rest of this month, all I will care about is whether the Rays can win the American League pennant and then win the World Series. Doctor's orders.
One of the department managers gave me an important lesson in salesmanship, which is, "Don't knock the competition. You won't sell anything by saying how bad the other guy's products are." If a customer is in Sears, holding a shirt, you won't sell it by saying how terrible Montgomery Ward shirts are. The customer may just walk out, empty-handed, and check out the shirts at Penney's instead.
Sears products are in three grades - Good, Better, and Best. The good products are perfectly good, for the money. For a few dollars more you can get a better one, and for a few more dollars, the best one.
I wish Senator McCain would learn the lesson I learned from the Sears department manager. There were reasons why I might have wanted to vote for him, months ago, but I've forgotten what they were. All I've heard lately is how bad the competition is. Unfortunately, we don't get to go to Penney's for a third choice. The other choice is Senator Obama, and he is looking better the more McCain tries to slime him. McCain should merchandise himself like Sears, by saying Obama is good but I'm better. Instead, we see him with this smirk on his face. Senator McCain, a smirk does not become you. It makes you look like a man with an intestinal disorder.
I am particularly tired of this silly nonsense about the 1960's radical, William Ayers. Young people may be unaware of this, but there were a lot of people in the 1960's who thought they were radicals or wished they could be radicals. We each had a different definition of what a "radical" was. The revolution we predicted failed before it started. We got our hair cut, we got jobs and families and mortgages, and now we are looking at AARP membership application forms, asking ourselves where the old guy we see in the mirror came from.
Not everybody wanted to be a radical; some became Republicans. In college, at places like USC and the U. of Florida, they became student politicians. There they learned the tactics of campaign dirty tricks called (please pardon my French) ratfucking, which they put to good use when they went to work for the Nixon campaign.
It seems clear to me that ratfucking is alive and well among the supporters of the McCain campaign, judging from the number of emails I get from people trying to tell me how bad Obama is. Try this: Go to Snopes.com and search for "Obama." You will be amazed at the lies being told about the man. I am deleting these emails as fast as they come in. They will not change my mind. My doctor told me something the other day I've never heard before, which is that I have high blood pressure. She gave me three months to bring it down, or she will prescribe pills. To combat high blood pressure I am tuning out the presidential campaign. For the rest of this month, all I will care about is whether the Rays can win the American League pennant and then win the World Series. Doctor's orders.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Green Monstah subdued
If you've been inside Fenway Park, you may admire but don't really appreciate the size of the Green Monster until you see it from the players' perspective. (Note the size of the left fielder.) In Game 3, B.J. Upton drives the ball over the wall, heading for the Charles River. Five innings later, Rocco Baldelli bounced one off of the Sports Authority sign. (Photo credit: Brian Cassella, St. Petersburg Times)
Friday, October 10, 2008
Rays - Red Sox tonight
Even if you don't watch baseball all year, you've gotta watch the Red Sox playing the Rays here in St. Petersburg, beginning tonight. I believe this will be, for all practical purposes, the World Series because only the Red Sox can keep the Rays from going all the way.
how to lie with statistics
One of the most valuable books I've ever read was "How to Lie with Statistics," by Darrell Huff. His main point is that statistics don't lie, if the numbers are accurate to begin with, but they can be used to distort reality.
Consider this chart, which depicts yesterday's drop in the Dow Jones Industrials average. You might think the Dow dropped to near zero. This is a perfect example of what Huff calls a "gee whiz graph," because the Y-axis (the vertical axis) does not start at zero. It starts at 8,500 and goes to 9,500 (or maybe less), which exaggerates the graph line tremendously. The Dow fell big-time yesterday, but it did not go all the way to the bottom. It fell 7.33 percent. (This is a very common graph, such as you will find in virtually every publication with news of the stock market. There's no intent to mislead or deceive, but it definitely produces a "gee whiz" reaction.)
Now, if you have faith in this country and faith in the innate ability of Americans to overcome adversity, you ought to agree that this is not time to press the panic button. What goes down will go up, maybe not quickly and possibly not all the way back to the top, but the stock market will not form a crater upon impact with the bottom.
Monday, October 06, 2008
Saturday, October 04, 2008
Evan Longoria
If there's one player who represents the new face of the Rays this year, it is Evan Longoria, who made it to the All Star team and who hit two home runs in the opening game of the American League division playoffs. This photo was taken on September 19, when the Twins were in town.
Thursday, October 02, 2008
keeping priorities straight
After the Rays won their very first post-season playoff game this afternoon, I had a choice: The Cubs were playing the Dodgers, the University of South Florida Bulls were playing Pitt, and Joe Biden was "debating" a woman who looked, and sounded, like she was reading speeches from a Teleprompter. Gee, what should I do?
(I put "debating" in quote marks because these "debates" are not debates. I took the debate course in high school and I've been a judge at debate contests among law students. Those were debates.)
I promised not to watch the "debate" but the Cubs were losing and so were the Bulls, so I switched to the "debate" in hopes that I'd miss a dramatic comeback while I was gone. No such luck. Instead, I watched Sarah Palin give one of those performances that only a practiced politician can put on, which is to recite short speeches from memory while smiling constantly and giving the thousand-yard stare as if reading a script posted on the back wall of the auditorium. If a spontaneous, original thought came out of her mouth, I missed it.
George W. Bush has 108 days left in office but for all practical purposes he has left the building. The meltdown of banks, lenders and Wall Street forced him to come out into the sunlight to give a short rah-rah speech and then hustle back into the White House without taking any questions. He needn't have bothered. In fact, he could spend the next 108 days in the White House, watching movies and sending out for pizza, and nobody would notice or care.
That brings me back to the point I wanted to make, which is that the thought of Sarah Palin being a heartbeat away from the Presidency gives me the heebie-jeebies. Baseball has been my escape hatch all summer. What I considered to be the grand rhetoric of the nominating conventions has become the irritating pestilence of the 15-second sound bite, which is all the average journalist knows how to deal with. I know who I'm going to vote for, but that's in November. Between now and then we have the glorious month of October, in which division playoffs, league playoffs, and the World Series will all be played. The Cubs will have to come from behind a two-game loss to stay in competition but the Rays are going to go all the way.
(I put "debating" in quote marks because these "debates" are not debates. I took the debate course in high school and I've been a judge at debate contests among law students. Those were debates.)
I promised not to watch the "debate" but the Cubs were losing and so were the Bulls, so I switched to the "debate" in hopes that I'd miss a dramatic comeback while I was gone. No such luck. Instead, I watched Sarah Palin give one of those performances that only a practiced politician can put on, which is to recite short speeches from memory while smiling constantly and giving the thousand-yard stare as if reading a script posted on the back wall of the auditorium. If a spontaneous, original thought came out of her mouth, I missed it.
George W. Bush has 108 days left in office but for all practical purposes he has left the building. The meltdown of banks, lenders and Wall Street forced him to come out into the sunlight to give a short rah-rah speech and then hustle back into the White House without taking any questions. He needn't have bothered. In fact, he could spend the next 108 days in the White House, watching movies and sending out for pizza, and nobody would notice or care.
That brings me back to the point I wanted to make, which is that the thought of Sarah Palin being a heartbeat away from the Presidency gives me the heebie-jeebies. Baseball has been my escape hatch all summer. What I considered to be the grand rhetoric of the nominating conventions has become the irritating pestilence of the 15-second sound bite, which is all the average journalist knows how to deal with. I know who I'm going to vote for, but that's in November. Between now and then we have the glorious month of October, in which division playoffs, league playoffs, and the World Series will all be played. The Cubs will have to come from behind a two-game loss to stay in competition but the Rays are going to go all the way.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
joy in Mudville
The lowly Rays, doormat of major league baseball for ten years, have come up a big-time winner this year. They will become the Boys of October when the regular season ends, entering the American League divison championship games against the White Sox, with the winner playing the Red Sox or the Angels. Over in the National League, the championship games will probably be Cubs versus the Phillies. This is exciting stuff! I haven't really cared about a baseball team since high school, although I was becoming a Red Sox fan until this year. It is hard to avoid becoming an avid fan of your hometown team.
A couple of minor points that even professional sports writers still can't keep straight: (1) It is no longer the Devil Rays, just the Tampa Bay Rays. And,
(2) It is not the Tampa Rays, the Tampa franchise, or the Tampa team. They are not in Tampa Bay, either. Tampa Bay is a large body of water separating Tampa from St. Petersburg, home of the Rays. Tampa has the Bucs and the Lightning, and used to have the Rowdies. Tampa is also home of the University of South Florida although we are actually in central Florida.
No, to see the Rays you come to Tropicana Field, in St. Petersburg. They play under a big dome, which some people don't like, but they have a huge winning record at home and they never get a rain delay.
Right now, even as we speak, the Rays are winning in Baltimore in typical Rays fashion: Two out in the top of the 8th, and they scored four runs to go ahead of the Orioles by two. Joe Maddon has taken a bunch of unknowns, second choices, kids fresh out of college, kids fresh up from the minors, and a few veterans, and they have blended into a team that wins even with key players on the disabled list. It almost doesn't matter who's sitting on the bench or which positions the guys in the field are playing. They believe in each other and they back each other up.
I made this prediction on this blog on May 28: The World Series will be the Cubs versus the Rays. That sounded good on May 28 and it sounds even more likely now.
A couple of minor points that even professional sports writers still can't keep straight: (1) It is no longer the Devil Rays, just the Tampa Bay Rays. And,
(2) It is not the Tampa Rays, the Tampa franchise, or the Tampa team. They are not in Tampa Bay, either. Tampa Bay is a large body of water separating Tampa from St. Petersburg, home of the Rays. Tampa has the Bucs and the Lightning, and used to have the Rowdies. Tampa is also home of the University of South Florida although we are actually in central Florida.
No, to see the Rays you come to Tropicana Field, in St. Petersburg. They play under a big dome, which some people don't like, but they have a huge winning record at home and they never get a rain delay.
Right now, even as we speak, the Rays are winning in Baltimore in typical Rays fashion: Two out in the top of the 8th, and they scored four runs to go ahead of the Orioles by two. Joe Maddon has taken a bunch of unknowns, second choices, kids fresh out of college, kids fresh up from the minors, and a few veterans, and they have blended into a team that wins even with key players on the disabled list. It almost doesn't matter who's sitting on the bench or which positions the guys in the field are playing. They believe in each other and they back each other up.
I made this prediction on this blog on May 28: The World Series will be the Cubs versus the Rays. That sounded good on May 28 and it sounds even more likely now.
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
no longer the king
If the one-eyed is king in the land of the blind, my royal status lasted exactly two weeks.
Yesterday, my ophthamologist replaced the lens in my right eye. The experience was, again, painless and brief. The dilation wore off in about 24 hours, and today I drove myself to work. I can't say I rejoined the ranks of the blind, not literally, but I rejoined the ranks of those who don't need corrective lenses to see.
Oh, I'll need reading glasses but I've been using them for years. I'm not clearly seeing the words on my computer monitor as I type this, about 20 inches from my face, but I suspect that will get better with the passage of time. I can read street signs and traffic signals and turn signals, and I can see pedestrians and small animals in the roadway, and I am not a threat to traffic when I drive. I can read the dial on the alarm clock on the other side of the room in the middle of the night for the first time ever.
I will be able to open my eyes in a swimming pool, clear my mask while scuba diving, and crash headfirst down a slope while skiing without fear of losing contact lenses. I can see the score when the Rays are on TV, which has been a sad thing to see the past two nights as the Yankees prove that they've been loafing all season but are waking up in time for the run-up to the post-season.
Some call this operation a miracle. Some call it science fiction, but it isn't fiction. Some just call it wonderful.
Speaking of miracles, when I was about 12 I decided to test my faith by praying that my eyesight would get normal. It didn't, at least not during the next 52 years. I didn't give up on faith, but neither am I calling this experience an answered prayer. It is more of a demonstration that the ability of scientists to learn about the body and how to repair it is a gift of God, and anybody who interferes with science in the name of religion is an ignorant fool.
Yesterday, my ophthamologist replaced the lens in my right eye. The experience was, again, painless and brief. The dilation wore off in about 24 hours, and today I drove myself to work. I can't say I rejoined the ranks of the blind, not literally, but I rejoined the ranks of those who don't need corrective lenses to see.
Oh, I'll need reading glasses but I've been using them for years. I'm not clearly seeing the words on my computer monitor as I type this, about 20 inches from my face, but I suspect that will get better with the passage of time. I can read street signs and traffic signals and turn signals, and I can see pedestrians and small animals in the roadway, and I am not a threat to traffic when I drive. I can read the dial on the alarm clock on the other side of the room in the middle of the night for the first time ever.
I will be able to open my eyes in a swimming pool, clear my mask while scuba diving, and crash headfirst down a slope while skiing without fear of losing contact lenses. I can see the score when the Rays are on TV, which has been a sad thing to see the past two nights as the Yankees prove that they've been loafing all season but are waking up in time for the run-up to the post-season.
Some call this operation a miracle. Some call it science fiction, but it isn't fiction. Some just call it wonderful.
Speaking of miracles, when I was about 12 I decided to test my faith by praying that my eyesight would get normal. It didn't, at least not during the next 52 years. I didn't give up on faith, but neither am I calling this experience an answered prayer. It is more of a demonstration that the ability of scientists to learn about the body and how to repair it is a gift of God, and anybody who interferes with science in the name of religion is an ignorant fool.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
political rhetoric
I've been watching the Democratic National Convention every night, and I'm full to the ears with political rhetoric.
I love it.
In undergraduate school at FSU I majored in Government, or what other universities call political science. I was in perhaps the last class to study the great themes and principles of American government, straight from the best political minds of the last 200-plus years. Within a year or two the department was taken over by the statisticians, the poll-takers, the bean-counters, people who believed there was nothing to believe if it wasn't backed up by an opinion survey. They began learning how to write questions and how to tally the answers. They dismissed the various writings I'd been reading as mere rhetoric.
Balderdash.
Without that rhetoric, you forget where you came from and why you are going where you are going. Without the rhetoric, you lose your way in the forest. You get to the grocery store and can't remember whether you need a dozen eggs and a loaf of bread, or two six-packs and a bag of potato chips.
The speakers at the DNC unloaded some of the finest rhetoric I've heard all year. Pomp and fury. Very serious profundities. Hilarious one-liners. Sound bites galore.
Now the Republicans will have their turn. I'm not going to watch, because I've been hearing their rhetoric for years. They will rail against tax-and-spend liberals. (They prefer no taxes, but spend like drunken sailors.) They will get righteously indignant over abortion, gay rights (or same-sex marriages, which seems easier for them to say), and their version of family values. They will explain that things are going so well in Iraq that we need to keep our troops there. They will talk about experience, although some of the great presidents had no more experience than Senator Obama has. They will remind themselves where they've been and why they are going where they think they are going.
If they are smart, they will keep George W. Bush behind the curtains and off the stage for as long as they can. Dubya has 20 weeks and 3 days left in office. That's 20 weeks and 2 days too long.
I love it.
In undergraduate school at FSU I majored in Government, or what other universities call political science. I was in perhaps the last class to study the great themes and principles of American government, straight from the best political minds of the last 200-plus years. Within a year or two the department was taken over by the statisticians, the poll-takers, the bean-counters, people who believed there was nothing to believe if it wasn't backed up by an opinion survey. They began learning how to write questions and how to tally the answers. They dismissed the various writings I'd been reading as mere rhetoric.
Balderdash.
Without that rhetoric, you forget where you came from and why you are going where you are going. Without the rhetoric, you lose your way in the forest. You get to the grocery store and can't remember whether you need a dozen eggs and a loaf of bread, or two six-packs and a bag of potato chips.
The speakers at the DNC unloaded some of the finest rhetoric I've heard all year. Pomp and fury. Very serious profundities. Hilarious one-liners. Sound bites galore.
Now the Republicans will have their turn. I'm not going to watch, because I've been hearing their rhetoric for years. They will rail against tax-and-spend liberals. (They prefer no taxes, but spend like drunken sailors.) They will get righteously indignant over abortion, gay rights (or same-sex marriages, which seems easier for them to say), and their version of family values. They will explain that things are going so well in Iraq that we need to keep our troops there. They will talk about experience, although some of the great presidents had no more experience than Senator Obama has. They will remind themselves where they've been and why they are going where they think they are going.
If they are smart, they will keep George W. Bush behind the curtains and off the stage for as long as they can. Dubya has 20 weeks and 3 days left in office. That's 20 weeks and 2 days too long.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
through a glass, not quite so darkly
I want to report to my small handful of faithful readers that my eye surgery yesterday "appears" to have been quite successful.
After seeing the world through glasses (1st grade) and contact lenses (10th grade), my left eye now sees through a crystalens® implant. The crystalens® is a synthetic lens that flexes and "accommodates" like a natural lens. (Note that ® symbol - I wouldn't have bothered but it was just too easy to cut it and paste it.)
It was painless, absolutely painless. The only hard part was waiting longer than I wanted to wait before being wheeled into the operating room. They gave me a sort of "twilight" anaesthetic that relaxed me and let me see and hear everything, and talk. I might have preferred a couple of shots of Scotch and a stick to bite on, but what they gave me was much better. All I could see were a few lights overhead. I knew things were happening with my eye but there wasn't much to do but look at the lights. It was over in a matter of minutes.
Last night I was feeling anxiety because what I could see was blurry. They said to expect blurriness, halos around lights, and double vision for awhile. I was seeing triple vision while watching the Rays beat the Angels. Outside, the street light gave off rays of light. A photographer knows what a star lens does - I was seeing stars. My eye was dilated and it took more than 36 hours for my iris to begin getting back to normal.
Today, the blurriness has cleared up somewhat. I'm still getting some double vision. Looking at letters on the computer monitor, I see a ghost image behind and below the letters, which contributes to the blurriness. I think the dilation contributes to that, and I'm expecting the dilation to be gone tomorrow. Tonight, the street lights no longer look like stars. They still have halos, sort of like seeing them through a light fog, but nothing at all like last night.
I am amazed, grateful, happy. . .and not nearly as anxious. I think this is going to turn out just fine. I may need reading glasses to read with, but if that's the only problem, I can definitely live with that!
After seeing the world through glasses (1st grade) and contact lenses (10th grade), my left eye now sees through a crystalens® implant. The crystalens® is a synthetic lens that flexes and "accommodates" like a natural lens. (Note that ® symbol - I wouldn't have bothered but it was just too easy to cut it and paste it.)
It was painless, absolutely painless. The only hard part was waiting longer than I wanted to wait before being wheeled into the operating room. They gave me a sort of "twilight" anaesthetic that relaxed me and let me see and hear everything, and talk. I might have preferred a couple of shots of Scotch and a stick to bite on, but what they gave me was much better. All I could see were a few lights overhead. I knew things were happening with my eye but there wasn't much to do but look at the lights. It was over in a matter of minutes.
Last night I was feeling anxiety because what I could see was blurry. They said to expect blurriness, halos around lights, and double vision for awhile. I was seeing triple vision while watching the Rays beat the Angels. Outside, the street light gave off rays of light. A photographer knows what a star lens does - I was seeing stars. My eye was dilated and it took more than 36 hours for my iris to begin getting back to normal.
Today, the blurriness has cleared up somewhat. I'm still getting some double vision. Looking at letters on the computer monitor, I see a ghost image behind and below the letters, which contributes to the blurriness. I think the dilation contributes to that, and I'm expecting the dilation to be gone tomorrow. Tonight, the street lights no longer look like stars. They still have halos, sort of like seeing them through a light fog, but nothing at all like last night.
I am amazed, grateful, happy. . .and not nearly as anxious. I think this is going to turn out just fine. I may need reading glasses to read with, but if that's the only problem, I can definitely live with that!
Monday, August 18, 2008
Fay, Fay, go away
You know you are in Florida when your eye surgery is scheduled on a Tuesday and the sixth named tropical storm of the season boils up, threatening to force a postponement. I never ask much from poor Cuba but I am happy to report that the Cuban mountains have rearranged Hurricane Fay, breaking up its eye and sending most of the bad weather off on a tangent. Fay, Fay, just go away. Tomorrow may be a blustery day in our corner of Paradise but not enough to postpone my surgery.
You know you are in Florida when your Key Lime tree begins producing ripe limes, although it is early in the season and the first ripe ones are about the size of marbles.
You know you are in Florida when your swimming pool turns green and remains green after you've cleaned the filter and added four jugs of liquid chlorine. I'm going to have to get serious about chemical warfare on the algae right after the storm blows by.
Speaking of chemical warfare, my lawn is not as green as my swimming pool, and it ought to be green after all the rain we've had. The lawn is showing signs of being eaten by something. I sprayed it with a heavy dose of Dursban, and if that doesn't do the trick, I will have to search through my stash of chemicals and try something else.
Back to that eye surgery: I reminded the folks at work of the adage that, "In the land of the blind, the one-eyed is King." The doctor is doing my left eye tomorrow, and when I return to work I expect to be treated like royalty!
You know you are in Florida when your Key Lime tree begins producing ripe limes, although it is early in the season and the first ripe ones are about the size of marbles.
You know you are in Florida when your swimming pool turns green and remains green after you've cleaned the filter and added four jugs of liquid chlorine. I'm going to have to get serious about chemical warfare on the algae right after the storm blows by.
Speaking of chemical warfare, my lawn is not as green as my swimming pool, and it ought to be green after all the rain we've had. The lawn is showing signs of being eaten by something. I sprayed it with a heavy dose of Dursban, and if that doesn't do the trick, I will have to search through my stash of chemicals and try something else.
Back to that eye surgery: I reminded the folks at work of the adage that, "In the land of the blind, the one-eyed is King." The doctor is doing my left eye tomorrow, and when I return to work I expect to be treated like royalty!
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Rays (2008) and Mets (1969)
One of the things I love about baseball is its historical lore.
The following was stolen from the St. Petersburg Times, which stole it from ESPN.com, thanks to the labors of reseacher Mark Simon who came up with parallels between the '69 Mets and the '08 Rays:
How are the 2008 Rays similar to the 1969 Mets?
The ace starter for the Mets was 24-year-old Tom Seaver.
The ace starter for the Rays is 24-year-old Scott Kazmir.
The 1969 Mets had a 61-101 record 2 years before winning the World Series.
The 2008 Rays had a 61-101 record 2 years ago.
The 1969 Mets had a closer, Ron Taylor, who had won a World Series (1964).
The 2008 Rays have a closer, Troy Percival, who has won a World Series (2002).
The 1969 Mets were 53-39 at the All-Star break.
The 2008 Rays were 55-39 at the All-Star break.
The Mets manager had a 3-letter first name (Gil) and a 6-letter last name (Hodges).
The Rays manager has a 3-letter first name (Joe) and a 6-letter last name (Maddon).
The 1969 Mets had a rookie as their primary third baseman (Wayne Garrett).
The 2008 Rays have a rookie as their primary third baseman (Evan Longoria).
And did we mention that the Mets won the World Series in 1969?
You gotta believe that the winner of the World Series in 2008 will be the Rays.
The following was stolen from the St. Petersburg Times, which stole it from ESPN.com, thanks to the labors of reseacher Mark Simon who came up with parallels between the '69 Mets and the '08 Rays:
How are the 2008 Rays similar to the 1969 Mets?
The ace starter for the Mets was 24-year-old Tom Seaver.
The ace starter for the Rays is 24-year-old Scott Kazmir.
The 1969 Mets had a 61-101 record 2 years before winning the World Series.
The 2008 Rays had a 61-101 record 2 years ago.
The 1969 Mets had a closer, Ron Taylor, who had won a World Series (1964).
The 2008 Rays have a closer, Troy Percival, who has won a World Series (2002).
The 1969 Mets were 53-39 at the All-Star break.
The 2008 Rays were 55-39 at the All-Star break.
The Mets manager had a 3-letter first name (Gil) and a 6-letter last name (Hodges).
The Rays manager has a 3-letter first name (Joe) and a 6-letter last name (Maddon).
The 1969 Mets had a rookie as their primary third baseman (Wayne Garrett).
The 2008 Rays have a rookie as their primary third baseman (Evan Longoria).
And did we mention that the Mets won the World Series in 1969?
You gotta believe that the winner of the World Series in 2008 will be the Rays.
Saturday, August 02, 2008
Five Weeks without contact lenses
This is Day 33 in glasses, i.e., without my old contacts lenses. I've gotten used to the glasses, somewhat, but not to the point of being able (or at least willing) to drive a car. I probably could if I had to, but I don't trust my ability to deal with heavy traffic.
I've gotten used to our bus system, as crazy as it is, but don't let me start on that again.
The Rays are now officially better than any Rays team in history, having won more games already than the old teams won in any complete season before this year. They are for real. They are going out on the field with good players on the bench due to injuries but the guys on the field are backing each other up and looking like champs. Joe Madden can shift them around to fill in the gaps but wherever he puts them, they perform like they belong in that position. They are truly fun to watch.
And when I'm not watching baseball, there's the Olympics, which is turning out to be the greatest show on Earth, literally. In fact, there's swimming going on even as I type this so it's time to bail outta here and go watch the swimmers. Adios!
I've gotten used to our bus system, as crazy as it is, but don't let me start on that again.
The Rays are now officially better than any Rays team in history, having won more games already than the old teams won in any complete season before this year. They are for real. They are going out on the field with good players on the bench due to injuries but the guys on the field are backing each other up and looking like champs. Joe Madden can shift them around to fill in the gaps but wherever he puts them, they perform like they belong in that position. They are truly fun to watch.
And when I'm not watching baseball, there's the Olympics, which is turning out to be the greatest show on Earth, literally. In fact, there's swimming going on even as I type this so it's time to bail outta here and go watch the swimmers. Adios!
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Day Eight without glasses
This is the end of Day Eight without glasses or, rather, without contact lenses. I've worn contacts since tenth grade, but I stopped wearing them last week to let my eyes get adjusted to "normal" in preparation for cataract surgery.
I'm wearing glasses made for my extreme myopia. They make everthing look small. Hold up a magnifying glass and look through it, and you'll see what I mean. Everything looks farther away than normal. My legs are longer, my feet are smaller. Crossing a street (on foot), I pay close attention to approaching cars. Women look about two sizes smaller, which is not a bad thing. I don't dare drive a car any time soon. In this traffic, I'd have a rear-ender before getting downtown.
Everything seems to be paying me special deference. The vertical lines of a door frame bow out as I walk through it. In a library, the ends of book shelves curve away from me as I approach. Looking down, curbs and steps seem to flatten out. None of this is good.
It is good that I'm a touch typist, but if I don't go back and correct my typos it would look like my spell checker went berserk and tried to convert my writing into a foreign language. I considered leaving my typos uncorrected here, just for laughs, but I'd look totally illiterate.
My optometrist said my brain would adjust to these glasses. I'm not sure I want it to. I should have the eye surgery in August and then I can send these glasses where I'll send my old contact lenses -- off to the land fill. There are organizations that collect old specs but I seriously doubt anybody could wear mine. On second thought, maybe I should donate them in case there's another poor soul out there with eyes as bad as mine.
Another good thing is that our county's bus system, as bad as it is, will let me get to and from my eye doctor's office in a reasonable time. This is remarkable because our bus system won't let me get to work in less than an hour and a half, for a trip that takes 25 to 30 minutes to drive. The bus system's routes make no sense. My kids will remember where the Bayside Bridge is. When constructed, it became the missing link in a major north-south artery. There is not one county bus that crosses that bridge. Not one. The bridge carries thousands of drivers daily, some of whom would rather ride a bus than pay four bucks a gallon for gas, but you can't get there from here.
How did I get onto that rant about the bus system? It distracts me from my current situation, stumbling around like Mr. Magoo. His problem was that he refused to wear his glasses. Mine is that they only "sort of" work. But this, too, shall pass.
One more good thing (hey, that's the third good thing here) is that I've rediscovered walking. The Safety Harbor Library is a 45-minute walk and I could probably do it faster. I've been there twice in a week. I plug my iPod into my ears and bop along, hoping for no rain.
That's all the good stuff I can stomach for this epistle. Tomorrow I'm going back to work for the first time in a week -- not that I really want to, but I don't want them to think they can get along fine without me.
I'm wearing glasses made for my extreme myopia. They make everthing look small. Hold up a magnifying glass and look through it, and you'll see what I mean. Everything looks farther away than normal. My legs are longer, my feet are smaller. Crossing a street (on foot), I pay close attention to approaching cars. Women look about two sizes smaller, which is not a bad thing. I don't dare drive a car any time soon. In this traffic, I'd have a rear-ender before getting downtown.
Everything seems to be paying me special deference. The vertical lines of a door frame bow out as I walk through it. In a library, the ends of book shelves curve away from me as I approach. Looking down, curbs and steps seem to flatten out. None of this is good.
It is good that I'm a touch typist, but if I don't go back and correct my typos it would look like my spell checker went berserk and tried to convert my writing into a foreign language. I considered leaving my typos uncorrected here, just for laughs, but I'd look totally illiterate.
My optometrist said my brain would adjust to these glasses. I'm not sure I want it to. I should have the eye surgery in August and then I can send these glasses where I'll send my old contact lenses -- off to the land fill. There are organizations that collect old specs but I seriously doubt anybody could wear mine. On second thought, maybe I should donate them in case there's another poor soul out there with eyes as bad as mine.
Another good thing is that our county's bus system, as bad as it is, will let me get to and from my eye doctor's office in a reasonable time. This is remarkable because our bus system won't let me get to work in less than an hour and a half, for a trip that takes 25 to 30 minutes to drive. The bus system's routes make no sense. My kids will remember where the Bayside Bridge is. When constructed, it became the missing link in a major north-south artery. There is not one county bus that crosses that bridge. Not one. The bridge carries thousands of drivers daily, some of whom would rather ride a bus than pay four bucks a gallon for gas, but you can't get there from here.
How did I get onto that rant about the bus system? It distracts me from my current situation, stumbling around like Mr. Magoo. His problem was that he refused to wear his glasses. Mine is that they only "sort of" work. But this, too, shall pass.
One more good thing (hey, that's the third good thing here) is that I've rediscovered walking. The Safety Harbor Library is a 45-minute walk and I could probably do it faster. I've been there twice in a week. I plug my iPod into my ears and bop along, hoping for no rain.
That's all the good stuff I can stomach for this epistle. Tomorrow I'm going back to work for the first time in a week -- not that I really want to, but I don't want them to think they can get along fine without me.
Monday, June 30, 2008
dem amazin' Rays
I've had a love-boredom relationship with baseball all my life. Growing up in Clearwater, the Spring Training home of the Phillies, I tried hard to be a Phillies fan. I saw Robin Roberts pitch. I got a cap with a funny-looking P glued to the front. The P eventually peeled off and so did my interest in baseball.
Fast-foward a long, long time. When our kids were little they started collecting baseball cards, featuring players I'd never heard of. We started watching games on TV, and when a player I never heard of came to bat, we all checked to see if we had his card. My interest in baseball began to perk up.
I bought a history of the rules of baseball and learned that the game goes 'way back. If you could resurrect your great-grandfathers and take them to a game, the game would look to them a lot like it did back when. Soldiers played baseball during the Civil War. The National League was started in 1876, the year Custer and the Seventh Cavalry were wiped out by the Indians.
I decided the history of baseball was more interesting than current events starring the Phillies and our hometown team, the Tampa Bay Rays. The Rays' franchise is going into its eleventh year and for ten years, they never had a winning season.
Until this year. Boy, this year! At the moment, they are the winningest team in Major League Baseball. If they hold on to their lead tonight against the Red Sox (5-2, top of the ninth), they will be 1 1/2 games ahead of the Red Sox.
Can the Rays make it to post-season play? Sure they can. Even a blind old hog can find an acorn now and then. But this year they have the talent to surprise everybody.
Fast-foward a long, long time. When our kids were little they started collecting baseball cards, featuring players I'd never heard of. We started watching games on TV, and when a player I never heard of came to bat, we all checked to see if we had his card. My interest in baseball began to perk up.
I bought a history of the rules of baseball and learned that the game goes 'way back. If you could resurrect your great-grandfathers and take them to a game, the game would look to them a lot like it did back when. Soldiers played baseball during the Civil War. The National League was started in 1876, the year Custer and the Seventh Cavalry were wiped out by the Indians.
I decided the history of baseball was more interesting than current events starring the Phillies and our hometown team, the Tampa Bay Rays. The Rays' franchise is going into its eleventh year and for ten years, they never had a winning season.
Until this year. Boy, this year! At the moment, they are the winningest team in Major League Baseball. If they hold on to their lead tonight against the Red Sox (5-2, top of the ninth), they will be 1 1/2 games ahead of the Red Sox.
Can the Rays make it to post-season play? Sure they can. Even a blind old hog can find an acorn now and then. But this year they have the talent to surprise everybody.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
stormy Monday, and Tuesday, and . . .
Driving to work on Monday, I started thinking about the lyrics to "Call it Stormy Monday:"
They call it stormy Monday, but Tuesday's just as bad.
Wednesday's worse, . . .
I couldn't remember the line about Thursday (which is, "Thursday's also sad") and it was too far from Friday to see the eagle getting ready to fly.
The summer weather pattern has started up in Florida and we are having stormy Mondays every day of the week, which is fine by me except I ought to mow the lawn twice a week to keep up.
Some miscellaneous gripes before heading down the River of Steel to work:
Our governor's honeymoon is over. Now that he's a semi-serious V.P. candidate, the nature of his political whoreness has become painfully obvious. He's advocating drilling for oil in the Gulf, off the Florida coastline, which nobody here wants to see. Yesterday he announced a Big Deal with U.S. Sugar to buy lots of swampland for a couple billion dollars, which is being touted (or pimped) as a conservation measure. The state is laying off workers, crimping on its criminal justice system, and cutting back on vital social services, but it seems we have a water management district that is rolling in cash and doesn't know where else to spend it.
Locally, we have a Big Business (no, not the Rays, yet) that is threatening to leave town if the city and county don't come up with a bag of economic incentives. There's a secret deal cooking. This will be another exercise in government subsidies by people who otherwise call themselves "conservatives."
Further south, a young man lost his left arm to an 11-foot alligator in a canal. He survived because he's strong enough to keep hold of a cable despite the alligator's subjecting him to four or five "death rolls." On national TV this morning, he said he's grown up with alligators and they've never bothered him before, but he's noticed they have become more competitive, that is to say, more aggressive and more likely to become man-eaters, in the last few years because Florida is up to its ass in alligators. We have a surplus of the slithery reptiles because the animal rights advocates have been buying up about two-thirds of the annual permits for 'gator catching and not using them. So, we have more of the protected critters occupying a smaller and smaller habitat, and they've lost their fear of humans.
I could go on, but somebody might miss me at work. I don't want to miss seeing the eagle fly on schedule.
They call it stormy Monday, but Tuesday's just as bad.
Wednesday's worse, . . .
I couldn't remember the line about Thursday (which is, "Thursday's also sad") and it was too far from Friday to see the eagle getting ready to fly.
The summer weather pattern has started up in Florida and we are having stormy Mondays every day of the week, which is fine by me except I ought to mow the lawn twice a week to keep up.
Some miscellaneous gripes before heading down the River of Steel to work:
Our governor's honeymoon is over. Now that he's a semi-serious V.P. candidate, the nature of his political whoreness has become painfully obvious. He's advocating drilling for oil in the Gulf, off the Florida coastline, which nobody here wants to see. Yesterday he announced a Big Deal with U.S. Sugar to buy lots of swampland for a couple billion dollars, which is being touted (or pimped) as a conservation measure. The state is laying off workers, crimping on its criminal justice system, and cutting back on vital social services, but it seems we have a water management district that is rolling in cash and doesn't know where else to spend it.
Locally, we have a Big Business (no, not the Rays, yet) that is threatening to leave town if the city and county don't come up with a bag of economic incentives. There's a secret deal cooking. This will be another exercise in government subsidies by people who otherwise call themselves "conservatives."
Further south, a young man lost his left arm to an 11-foot alligator in a canal. He survived because he's strong enough to keep hold of a cable despite the alligator's subjecting him to four or five "death rolls." On national TV this morning, he said he's grown up with alligators and they've never bothered him before, but he's noticed they have become more competitive, that is to say, more aggressive and more likely to become man-eaters, in the last few years because Florida is up to its ass in alligators. We have a surplus of the slithery reptiles because the animal rights advocates have been buying up about two-thirds of the annual permits for 'gator catching and not using them. So, we have more of the protected critters occupying a smaller and smaller habitat, and they've lost their fear of humans.
I could go on, but somebody might miss me at work. I don't want to miss seeing the eagle fly on schedule.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Father's Day
When Shakespeare wrote that "the good [that men do] is oft interred with their bones," he never met my father. Dad left a good name that was remembered long after his death, even back in the small Kentucky town he came from. When I wish I had someone to talk to about a problem, I can think of him and what I believe he would tell me, and I'm comforted.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
a whole new view of things is coming up
In about four weeks, daily living will get very interesting for me.
Between now and then we have one Rays game to go to (if not more), a mini-trip back to Palm Beach County to see sights we haven't seen in years, and a trip to Boston for the Fourth of July, the birthdays of two people close to our hearts, and a Red Sox game at Fenway Park.
When we get back, it will get really interesting. I will take out the contact lenses I have worn since tenth grade -- well, not the exact same lenses, of course -- which replaced glasses I began wearing in the first grade. I may as well flush the contact lenses down the toilet because I don't plan to wear them ever again. Instead, I will allow my eyes at least three weeks to get accustomed to their normal (lousy) shape, and then I'll go in for cataract surgery.
Yep, that's the kind of surgery for old people, and for people like me who develop cataracts. I've been expecting this for eight or nine years, ever since my ophthalmologist told me I was beginning to develop cataracts, but I figured it would happen in five or ten more years -- you know, when I become an old guy. That good doctor has since passed on to his reward but another doctor in his office has told me that I am now a candidate for the procedure. (That's a code word that means the insurance will pay for it.)
My optometrist put it to me bluntly: One eye is 20-40, the other is 20-70, and he can't make lenses that will do any better for me. The cloudiness in my left eye? That's not caused by a dirty, oily, greasy contact lens, which was my theory. It's caused by a cataract which will do nothing with the passage of time but get worse.
The clincher was this: Since I know I'm going to have it done sooner or later AND I know I will be able to see better afterwards . . . why wait?
I had no good answer. Back to see my ophthalmologist again. Now we are serious. I had several questions, one of which was (and I don't want to insult you, doctor, but) can it be done over if something goes wrong, such as putting the wrong artificial lens in the wrong eye, or I'm seeing 20-100 when I come out of it? Answer: Yes, there are several possible ways to deal with such problems, one of which is replacing the bad lens. Another could be Lasik surgery to fine-tune the results.
So, I'm sold. I'd do it tomorrow if we could. Instead, I'm to wear eyeglasses to get around for a week, then see him again, then see him again two weeks after that. He does surgeries on Mondays so it could be the first or second Monday in August when he does the left eye, and another two weeks before the right eye. Meanwhile, I'm Mr. Magoo without the glasses and a guy looking through binoculars, turned the wrong way, with the specs on.
Assuming all goes well, I should be "normal" before Labor Day, whatever that means. My eyes haven't been normal since I was in kindergarten.
Between now and then we have one Rays game to go to (if not more), a mini-trip back to Palm Beach County to see sights we haven't seen in years, and a trip to Boston for the Fourth of July, the birthdays of two people close to our hearts, and a Red Sox game at Fenway Park.
When we get back, it will get really interesting. I will take out the contact lenses I have worn since tenth grade -- well, not the exact same lenses, of course -- which replaced glasses I began wearing in the first grade. I may as well flush the contact lenses down the toilet because I don't plan to wear them ever again. Instead, I will allow my eyes at least three weeks to get accustomed to their normal (lousy) shape, and then I'll go in for cataract surgery.
Yep, that's the kind of surgery for old people, and for people like me who develop cataracts. I've been expecting this for eight or nine years, ever since my ophthalmologist told me I was beginning to develop cataracts, but I figured it would happen in five or ten more years -- you know, when I become an old guy. That good doctor has since passed on to his reward but another doctor in his office has told me that I am now a candidate for the procedure. (That's a code word that means the insurance will pay for it.)
My optometrist put it to me bluntly: One eye is 20-40, the other is 20-70, and he can't make lenses that will do any better for me. The cloudiness in my left eye? That's not caused by a dirty, oily, greasy contact lens, which was my theory. It's caused by a cataract which will do nothing with the passage of time but get worse.
The clincher was this: Since I know I'm going to have it done sooner or later AND I know I will be able to see better afterwards . . . why wait?
I had no good answer. Back to see my ophthalmologist again. Now we are serious. I had several questions, one of which was (and I don't want to insult you, doctor, but) can it be done over if something goes wrong, such as putting the wrong artificial lens in the wrong eye, or I'm seeing 20-100 when I come out of it? Answer: Yes, there are several possible ways to deal with such problems, one of which is replacing the bad lens. Another could be Lasik surgery to fine-tune the results.
So, I'm sold. I'd do it tomorrow if we could. Instead, I'm to wear eyeglasses to get around for a week, then see him again, then see him again two weeks after that. He does surgeries on Mondays so it could be the first or second Monday in August when he does the left eye, and another two weeks before the right eye. Meanwhile, I'm Mr. Magoo without the glasses and a guy looking through binoculars, turned the wrong way, with the specs on.
Assuming all goes well, I should be "normal" before Labor Day, whatever that means. My eyes haven't been normal since I was in kindergarten.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Charlie Chan
I've been hanging around with a low grade fever and a touch of bronchitis for a couple of days. I went to work today and will go tomorrow on the theory that spreading the germs will allow them to leave me sooner. Meanwhile, I've been watching Charlie Chan movies.
Charlie Chan had a aphorism for every situation, whether it was his honorable son-in-law calling from the hospital to report on the status of Charlie's about to become a grandfather, or advice to his Number One or Number Two sons, or a retort to a police officer who wanted to move too hastily.
Naturally, using Google, you can find them all. Here are a few of my favorite Charlie Chan aphorisms from the two movies I saw tonight and a couple I want to see:
Magnifying female charms very ancient optical illusion. (Charlie Chan at the Circus, to his Number One son)
One ounce of experience worth ton of detective books. (Charlie Chan at the Circus, to his son)
Ancient ancestor once say, "As mind is fed with silent thought, so should body absorb its food." (Charlie Chan in Honolulu)
Opinion like tea leaf in hot water - both need time for brewing. (Charlie Chan in Honolulu)
Waiting for tomorrow waste of today. (Charlie Chan in Egypt)
Charlie Chan had a aphorism for every situation, whether it was his honorable son-in-law calling from the hospital to report on the status of Charlie's about to become a grandfather, or advice to his Number One or Number Two sons, or a retort to a police officer who wanted to move too hastily.
Naturally, using Google, you can find them all. Here are a few of my favorite Charlie Chan aphorisms from the two movies I saw tonight and a couple I want to see:
Magnifying female charms very ancient optical illusion. (Charlie Chan at the Circus, to his Number One son)
One ounce of experience worth ton of detective books. (Charlie Chan at the Circus, to his son)
Ancient ancestor once say, "As mind is fed with silent thought, so should body absorb its food." (Charlie Chan in Honolulu)
Opinion like tea leaf in hot water - both need time for brewing. (Charlie Chan in Honolulu)
Waiting for tomorrow waste of today. (Charlie Chan in Egypt)
Friday, June 06, 2008
swing and a miss
Rays pitcher James Shields takes a swing at Coco Crisp after Crisp was hit by a pitch and charged the mound. June 5, 2008, in Boston. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
Rays, again
When I foolishly predicted the Cubs and the Rays would meet in the World Series this year, I said the Red Sox were the only team to keep the Rays out of it.
The Rays just finished a series in Boston and got swept, again. The team that beat the Red Sox at home can't keep it together at Fenway, although they do seem able to hold their own in brawling. (Note to coaches: Please teach the Rays how to connect with their punches).
Meanwhile, the Cubs still look good. They are 9-1 in their last ten games.
New prediction: Cubs and Red Sox in the World Series. One team with a curse, one with a broken curse. This will be the Series that should have occurred in 2003.
The Rays just finished a series in Boston and got swept, again. The team that beat the Red Sox at home can't keep it together at Fenway, although they do seem able to hold their own in brawling. (Note to coaches: Please teach the Rays how to connect with their punches).
Meanwhile, the Cubs still look good. They are 9-1 in their last ten games.
New prediction: Cubs and Red Sox in the World Series. One team with a curse, one with a broken curse. This will be the Series that should have occurred in 2003.
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
more Rays, Cubs
Further evidence that nobody reads this blog: A few days ago I predicted that the Rays and the Cubs will be in the World Series this year, for the first time since 1945 (Cubs) or since forever (Rays). Nobody has responded (such as by saying, "are you nuts, or what?").
Of particular interest, the Cubs and Rays continue their winning ways, proving that this blog does not have the effect that Sports Illustrated covers have had on athletes' careers.
As of this morning, the two teams in MLB with the best win-loss percentages are the Cubs and the Rays. Only two teams have won 8 of their last 10 games - the Cubs and the Rays.
This happy dream could end over the next three days, when the Rays play the Red Sox. They are 3-3 against each other. They each swept the other in their home stadiums (stadia?).
In two weeks, the Cubs come to St. Petersburg for three interleague games. You can guess where I'll be for at least one of those nights.
Speaking of Sports Illustrated, does anyone out there have the issue with the comic-book cover, showing a Rays player swinging a Yankees player around over his head? If so . . . how much do you want for it? I might be interested . . . at our local Borders book store they sold out within 45 minutes of that issue's hitting the stand.
Of particular interest, the Cubs and Rays continue their winning ways, proving that this blog does not have the effect that Sports Illustrated covers have had on athletes' careers.
As of this morning, the two teams in MLB with the best win-loss percentages are the Cubs and the Rays. Only two teams have won 8 of their last 10 games - the Cubs and the Rays.
This happy dream could end over the next three days, when the Rays play the Red Sox. They are 3-3 against each other. They each swept the other in their home stadiums (stadia?).
In two weeks, the Cubs come to St. Petersburg for three interleague games. You can guess where I'll be for at least one of those nights.
Speaking of Sports Illustrated, does anyone out there have the issue with the comic-book cover, showing a Rays player swinging a Yankees player around over his head? If so . . . how much do you want for it? I might be interested . . . at our local Borders book store they sold out within 45 minutes of that issue's hitting the stand.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
post-script
Having set myself up for lifetime ridicule (see below: Rays and Cubs in the World Series this year - is he serious?), I had to check on the Cubs last night to see if they could keep up with the Rays. They were behind the Dodgers 1-0 until the bottom of the ninth when they tied it up, and then they won in the tenth inning. Very impressive, guys! That left the win-loss percentage for the Cubs and the Rays tied at the top among all MLB teams. It was good to see Lou Piniella win although it was a tough loss for the Dodgers.
Naturally, the Rays dropped their game with the White Sox tonight. I'll have to check tomorrow's paper to see who's standing where after today's games.
It's a long season. We shall see . . .
Naturally, the Rays dropped their game with the White Sox tonight. I'll have to check tomorrow's paper to see who's standing where after today's games.
It's a long season. We shall see . . .
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
almost spoke too soon, and a modest prediction
Even as I was saying how good the Rays are this year, they were getting bombed by the Texas Rangers. I got home late, turned the game on, and the score was 7-4 Texas. Then it became 8-5 Texas. Then a Texan hit a grand-slam homer and it was 12-5 Texas. Ouch.
Even with that loss, the Rays were tied with the Cubs for the best winning percentage in major league baseball as of this morning. The Cubs!
But this afternoon the Rays came back and won, 5-3. Their percentage is back up to .604 with 32 wins and 21 losses. The Cubs, with 31 wins and 21 losses, play tonight.
The Rays! The Cubs!
The Cubs have not won the World Series since 1908 (yes, folks, exacly one century ago) and have not appeared in the World Series since 1945. I might have heard that game on the radio but I wasn't old enough to walk.
The Rays have been around for ten seasons plus this one, and for ten seasons they have smelled like really old fish. They've never finished a season with a winning record.
You might remember how, in 2003, there was a brief moment when it looked like the Cubs and the Red Sox could have gone to the World Series. That would have been good for baseball, and good for the country. It never happened. The Red Sox had to wait another year. Cubs fans are still dying from old age while waiting.
Prediction: In 2008, the World Series will be between the Rays and the Cubs. You read it here first. Only the Red Sox have the ability to keep the Rays from going that far.
Even with that loss, the Rays were tied with the Cubs for the best winning percentage in major league baseball as of this morning. The Cubs!
But this afternoon the Rays came back and won, 5-3. Their percentage is back up to .604 with 32 wins and 21 losses. The Cubs, with 31 wins and 21 losses, play tonight.
The Rays! The Cubs!
The Cubs have not won the World Series since 1908 (yes, folks, exacly one century ago) and have not appeared in the World Series since 1945. I might have heard that game on the radio but I wasn't old enough to walk.
The Rays have been around for ten seasons plus this one, and for ten seasons they have smelled like really old fish. They've never finished a season with a winning record.
You might remember how, in 2003, there was a brief moment when it looked like the Cubs and the Red Sox could have gone to the World Series. That would have been good for baseball, and good for the country. It never happened. The Red Sox had to wait another year. Cubs fans are still dying from old age while waiting.
Prediction: In 2008, the World Series will be between the Rays and the Cubs. You read it here first. Only the Red Sox have the ability to keep the Rays from going that far.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
who ARE these guys?
Long-suffering fans of the Tampa Bay Rays - or at least those who haven't been to a game this season - are reading but having trouble understanding this morning's news: The Rays are number one in the American League East. They are also number one in major league baseball, with the highest win-loss ratio of all MLB teams - or, they are as I type this.
I'm still a Red Sox fan but these guys, barely ahead of the Red Sox (but way ahead of the Yankees) have captured my attention. They are fun to watch, too.
Traditionally, the Rays have faded quickly after the All Star break. We'll see how good they look in August.
I'm still a Red Sox fan but these guys, barely ahead of the Red Sox (but way ahead of the Yankees) have captured my attention. They are fun to watch, too.
Traditionally, the Rays have faded quickly after the All Star break. We'll see how good they look in August.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
odds and ends
I haven't done this lately. Here are odds and ends not worth an entry by themselves:
I got a "survey" in the mail from Howard Dean, the Democratic National Party chairman. It's all made up to look official, with "registered" something-or-other in three places on the envelope and a cover letter from Dean asking for money. They were beginning to teach public opinion surveying when I was a government major at FSU, and I remember enough to recognize a bogus survey when I see it. I'm sending it in, though. I'm telling them what I think about the DNC's not seating the Florida delegates and the Democratic candidates ignoring Florida except to come in for fund-raisers. I'm proud to have omitted obscenities and profanities. They won't read it anyway, after seeing no check fall out of the envelope.
Obama and Hillarious are in Florida today. I wish them well but where have they been all during this campaign? I'm a Democrat the same way Will Rogers was a Democrat ("I don't belong to an organized political party. . ."). I'll hold my nose and vote Democratic in November because nobody can afford to pay me enough to vote for John McBush II.
Speaking of Bush, the man Garrison Keillor calls the "Current Occupant" now has 243 days left in office, or a little less than 35 weeks. Most babies conceived in the past two to seven weeks will be born with a Democrat in the White House.
On a somewhat brighter note, they've autopsied a man whose body was being guarded by a gator and concluded that he drowned with no assistance from the gator. This came too late to save the gator, however. You can read about it here:
http://www.baynews9.com/content/36/2008/5/18/349430.html
This news came a couple of weeks after a professional golfball retriever was attacked by a gator at a golf course but fended him off, after gouging him (the gator) in the eye and telling him Bobby Bowden was on the next green with a couple of FSU football players carrying gigs and a big rope. Just kidding about Bowden and the FSU players. The golfball retriever wears a wet suit and a Scuba tank, which makes the job somewhat harder for the gator.
Sometime this summer I will be undergoing eye surgery -- cataract surgery. I've worn glasses since the first grade and contact lenses since tenth grade, but my vision in one eye is getting cloudy and the acuity in both eyes is not good. At some point I will have to take the contacts out and wear glasses for several weeks. I haven't worn glasses since I went to ROTC summer camp 40-plus years ago. My new glasses resemble the bottom of the glass I'm drinking out of as I type this. Wearing them is going to require a lot of time to get used to them, because everything looks a mile away. I'll keep you posted.
I got a "survey" in the mail from Howard Dean, the Democratic National Party chairman. It's all made up to look official, with "registered" something-or-other in three places on the envelope and a cover letter from Dean asking for money. They were beginning to teach public opinion surveying when I was a government major at FSU, and I remember enough to recognize a bogus survey when I see it. I'm sending it in, though. I'm telling them what I think about the DNC's not seating the Florida delegates and the Democratic candidates ignoring Florida except to come in for fund-raisers. I'm proud to have omitted obscenities and profanities. They won't read it anyway, after seeing no check fall out of the envelope.
Obama and Hillarious are in Florida today. I wish them well but where have they been all during this campaign? I'm a Democrat the same way Will Rogers was a Democrat ("I don't belong to an organized political party. . ."). I'll hold my nose and vote Democratic in November because nobody can afford to pay me enough to vote for John McBush II.
Speaking of Bush, the man Garrison Keillor calls the "Current Occupant" now has 243 days left in office, or a little less than 35 weeks. Most babies conceived in the past two to seven weeks will be born with a Democrat in the White House.
On a somewhat brighter note, they've autopsied a man whose body was being guarded by a gator and concluded that he drowned with no assistance from the gator. This came too late to save the gator, however. You can read about it here:
http://www.baynews9.com/content/36/2008/5/18/349430.html
This news came a couple of weeks after a professional golfball retriever was attacked by a gator at a golf course but fended him off, after gouging him (the gator) in the eye and telling him Bobby Bowden was on the next green with a couple of FSU football players carrying gigs and a big rope. Just kidding about Bowden and the FSU players. The golfball retriever wears a wet suit and a Scuba tank, which makes the job somewhat harder for the gator.
Sometime this summer I will be undergoing eye surgery -- cataract surgery. I've worn glasses since the first grade and contact lenses since tenth grade, but my vision in one eye is getting cloudy and the acuity in both eyes is not good. At some point I will have to take the contacts out and wear glasses for several weeks. I haven't worn glasses since I went to ROTC summer camp 40-plus years ago. My new glasses resemble the bottom of the glass I'm drinking out of as I type this. Wearing them is going to require a lot of time to get used to them, because everything looks a mile away. I'll keep you posted.
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