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.
Monday, June 30, 2008
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.
Monday, May 05, 2008
gas tax pandering
The politicians who advocate a federal gas tax holiday can't be serious - can they? Does Hillary really believe the gas companies won't turn around and raise the price of gas if they have to pay another tax? How do you spell "pandering?"
The federal gas tax is 18.4 cents per gallon. If you are paying $3.50/gallon, that's 5.25% of the total, and as prices go up, the percentage drops. That would short-change the federal government by some $9 billion, which wouldn't normally break my heart except this money is supposed to go to road and bridge maintenance and replacement. Did you know that the U.S. national debt is already 9.35 TRILLION dollars? Check this out: http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/
5.25 percent is chump change. How'd you like to save about 15 percent without crippling the federal budget, and without worrying about the "holiday" coming to an end?
Saving 15 percent (or 52.5 cents/gallon if you are paying $3.50/gallon) is easy.
S. L. O. W. -- D. O. W. N.
I don't mean become a slowpoke, and I don't mean become the guy who crawls along while traffic backs up and road rage mounts. I do mean, don't speed. No jack-rabbit starts. Take it easy. Keep the passing lane open, but stick to the speed limit or a little less. Let all those SUV's and pick-up trucks go by.
If you drive 10 mph faster, your fuel consumption drops 4 mpg. Or, slow down by 10 mpg and your mileage will get 4 mpg better. If you are getting 24 mpg driving fast, getting 28 mpg is a 16.7 percent improvement.
Those are test results and "results may vary," but you get the point. My car was getting 33 or 34 mpg until the last fill-up, and then it was only 31.94 mpg. I think I've spent too much time driving with the hammer down, and I'm going to be more conscientious about my speed. Better mileage means stopping for gas less often and spending less on fuel over the long term. That would beat this silly gas tax holiday idea.
The federal gas tax is 18.4 cents per gallon. If you are paying $3.50/gallon, that's 5.25% of the total, and as prices go up, the percentage drops. That would short-change the federal government by some $9 billion, which wouldn't normally break my heart except this money is supposed to go to road and bridge maintenance and replacement. Did you know that the U.S. national debt is already 9.35 TRILLION dollars? Check this out: http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/
5.25 percent is chump change. How'd you like to save about 15 percent without crippling the federal budget, and without worrying about the "holiday" coming to an end?
Saving 15 percent (or 52.5 cents/gallon if you are paying $3.50/gallon) is easy.
S. L. O. W. -- D. O. W. N.
I don't mean become a slowpoke, and I don't mean become the guy who crawls along while traffic backs up and road rage mounts. I do mean, don't speed. No jack-rabbit starts. Take it easy. Keep the passing lane open, but stick to the speed limit or a little less. Let all those SUV's and pick-up trucks go by.
If you drive 10 mph faster, your fuel consumption drops 4 mpg. Or, slow down by 10 mpg and your mileage will get 4 mpg better. If you are getting 24 mpg driving fast, getting 28 mpg is a 16.7 percent improvement.
Those are test results and "results may vary," but you get the point. My car was getting 33 or 34 mpg until the last fill-up, and then it was only 31.94 mpg. I think I've spent too much time driving with the hammer down, and I'm going to be more conscientious about my speed. Better mileage means stopping for gas less often and spending less on fuel over the long term. That would beat this silly gas tax holiday idea.
Sunday, May 04, 2008
Dioner Navarro tags one
A week ago, the Rays looked great against the Red Sox. They aren't looking so hot this weekend at Fenway. C'est la guerre. I took this from the upper deck.
Thursday, May 01, 2008
catching up
A few notes to catch up on some odd topics:
OK, so Hillary won in Pennsylvania, despite my prognostication to the contrary. She was ten points ahead going in and ten points ahead at the end, and all that sound and fury didn't signify much. She's still treading water. If Obama can shake loose from that lunatic minister who appears devoted to sinking Obama's candidacy, he will win.
I think it would be only fair for a lunatic NOW leader to resurrect the Equal Rights Amendment over the next few weeks. By lunatic I mean strident and obnoxious, the kind who would love Hillary to death by conjuring up all the old Uppity Women fears that some people still have. My wife was a NOW member and we were disappointed the Florida Legislature wouldn't ratify the ERA, but that was 30+ years ago. It is time to trot out those ERA demons again, like the fear of unisex bathrooms. Believe it or not, that was an actual "talking point" by ERA opponents. If that were to happen now, Hillary would hate it.
I'm glad she's still a contender. I think the party ought to make its decision at the convention, not months ahead of time. This infuriates the former "news" media, which should now be called the entertainment media, because they want their talking-head pontificators to preside over the selection process. I don't smoke but I'm not a delegate either, so I say, let 'em decide in smoke-filled rooms like they have for two hundred years.
Changing subjects: My daughter in California is now paying $3.999999 cents a gallon for gasoline. It's no mere coincidence that the gas prices are going up just as the federal tax rebate checks are going out in the mail. How clever that the U.S. oil cabal, who have friends in high places in Washington, jacked up the prices in time to siphon off the tax rebate checks. This is clumsier than a direct subsidy from Washington but just as effective, and it is better than having those federal rebate checks going to the Chinese suppliers of goods at Wal-Mart. (My check will go back to the bank account from which I paid my income tax this year. You can't get more patriotic than that.) Prediction: Gas prices will stabilize and come down after the rebate checks have been spent to pay off gasoline credit cards.
Changing subjects again: I just dropped a bundle on a new Nikon digital single-lens reflex camera, and a telephoto lens. The telephoto has an image stabilization feature that works nicely. From the upper deck at the Tropicana Dome, I shot some pictures of various Rays and Red Sox pitchers and batters . . . available light, hand-held telephoto . . . and stopped not only the batters but the ball in mid-flight. In one shot, I got the ball as it made contact with the bat, or vice versa. I'll post that photo here, later.
Speaking of the Rays: They now have a winning season going for them, which they've never had so "late" in the season during their miserable franchise history. They swept the Red Sox 3-0 here, then took the Orioles 2-1 in Baltimore. Now they face the Red Sox again, in Bahston, and we'll see what kind of team they really are. I think they are a VERY good team this year. Their infield is near-perfect, their batters score when they need to, and the pitching staff finally has the talent to win.
I'm happy to see the Rays beat the Red Sox because it happens so seldom. Just as long as the Red Sox stay ahead of the Yankees.
OK, so Hillary won in Pennsylvania, despite my prognostication to the contrary. She was ten points ahead going in and ten points ahead at the end, and all that sound and fury didn't signify much. She's still treading water. If Obama can shake loose from that lunatic minister who appears devoted to sinking Obama's candidacy, he will win.
I think it would be only fair for a lunatic NOW leader to resurrect the Equal Rights Amendment over the next few weeks. By lunatic I mean strident and obnoxious, the kind who would love Hillary to death by conjuring up all the old Uppity Women fears that some people still have. My wife was a NOW member and we were disappointed the Florida Legislature wouldn't ratify the ERA, but that was 30+ years ago. It is time to trot out those ERA demons again, like the fear of unisex bathrooms. Believe it or not, that was an actual "talking point" by ERA opponents. If that were to happen now, Hillary would hate it.
I'm glad she's still a contender. I think the party ought to make its decision at the convention, not months ahead of time. This infuriates the former "news" media, which should now be called the entertainment media, because they want their talking-head pontificators to preside over the selection process. I don't smoke but I'm not a delegate either, so I say, let 'em decide in smoke-filled rooms like they have for two hundred years.
Changing subjects: My daughter in California is now paying $3.999999 cents a gallon for gasoline. It's no mere coincidence that the gas prices are going up just as the federal tax rebate checks are going out in the mail. How clever that the U.S. oil cabal, who have friends in high places in Washington, jacked up the prices in time to siphon off the tax rebate checks. This is clumsier than a direct subsidy from Washington but just as effective, and it is better than having those federal rebate checks going to the Chinese suppliers of goods at Wal-Mart. (My check will go back to the bank account from which I paid my income tax this year. You can't get more patriotic than that.) Prediction: Gas prices will stabilize and come down after the rebate checks have been spent to pay off gasoline credit cards.
Changing subjects again: I just dropped a bundle on a new Nikon digital single-lens reflex camera, and a telephoto lens. The telephoto has an image stabilization feature that works nicely. From the upper deck at the Tropicana Dome, I shot some pictures of various Rays and Red Sox pitchers and batters . . . available light, hand-held telephoto . . . and stopped not only the batters but the ball in mid-flight. In one shot, I got the ball as it made contact with the bat, or vice versa. I'll post that photo here, later.
Speaking of the Rays: They now have a winning season going for them, which they've never had so "late" in the season during their miserable franchise history. They swept the Red Sox 3-0 here, then took the Orioles 2-1 in Baltimore. Now they face the Red Sox again, in Bahston, and we'll see what kind of team they really are. I think they are a VERY good team this year. Their infield is near-perfect, their batters score when they need to, and the pitching staff finally has the talent to win.
I'm happy to see the Rays beat the Red Sox because it happens so seldom. Just as long as the Red Sox stay ahead of the Yankees.
Monday, April 21, 2008
election day in Pennsylvania, thank God
Tomorrow is election day in Pennsylvania. I really look forward to seeing the results.
I have much more confidence in the voters of Pennsylvania than I have in any of the political talking heads of the "news" media. All they've talked about for weeks is the significance of comments about people who "cling" to their religious beliefs, their guns, and their disdain for people not like them.
What does it mean to "cling?" If you wake up in the morning and thank God for allowing you to make it through another night, if you pray a dozen times a day for minor miracles such as an open parking space in front of the courthouse when you are about to be late for a hearing, or for a safe flight to North Carolna and return, you are clinging to a religious belief.
Is there anything wrong with that? No. Absolutely not.
The same can be said for "clinging" to the belief that you can defend yourself with a gun. If you believe that you can find it when you need it, load it, put a round in the chamber, release the safety, aim it, and not shoot yourself in the foot or shoot a neighbor or a family member while trying to shoot a bad guy. . .go ahead. Believe what you want. Cling to that belief. It's as American as the coonskin cap and the Kentucky long rifle.
The disdain for people not like you is human nature. Just remember that we have a Constitution that is predicated on the idea that all men, and women, are created equal, and don't actually do anything stupid. Others have likely looked upon you with disdain, too.
Back to Pennsylvania. I was at dinner with fellow book club refugees, five of us, and I was the only one predicting that Obama will edge Hillary out tomorrow. My guess was, by five percent.
We shall see. I can hardly wait.
I have much more confidence in the voters of Pennsylvania than I have in any of the political talking heads of the "news" media. All they've talked about for weeks is the significance of comments about people who "cling" to their religious beliefs, their guns, and their disdain for people not like them.
What does it mean to "cling?" If you wake up in the morning and thank God for allowing you to make it through another night, if you pray a dozen times a day for minor miracles such as an open parking space in front of the courthouse when you are about to be late for a hearing, or for a safe flight to North Carolna and return, you are clinging to a religious belief.
Is there anything wrong with that? No. Absolutely not.
The same can be said for "clinging" to the belief that you can defend yourself with a gun. If you believe that you can find it when you need it, load it, put a round in the chamber, release the safety, aim it, and not shoot yourself in the foot or shoot a neighbor or a family member while trying to shoot a bad guy. . .go ahead. Believe what you want. Cling to that belief. It's as American as the coonskin cap and the Kentucky long rifle.
The disdain for people not like you is human nature. Just remember that we have a Constitution that is predicated on the idea that all men, and women, are created equal, and don't actually do anything stupid. Others have likely looked upon you with disdain, too.
Back to Pennsylvania. I was at dinner with fellow book club refugees, five of us, and I was the only one predicting that Obama will edge Hillary out tomorrow. My guess was, by five percent.
We shall see. I can hardly wait.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
baseball season
I love the beginning of baseball season. Spring training is the surest sign that Spring is in the air, and once the season starts you can count on a newspaper headline such as the following:
"NY Yankees unearth buried Red Sox jersey from new stadium"
You can see the whole story below, but the gist of the story is that a construction worker buried a Red Sox jersey in a service corridor in the new Yankees Stadium, and they had to use a jackhammer to get it out from under two feet of concrete. It was a #34 jersey for David "Big Papi" Ortiz.
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-yankees-cursefoiled&prov=ap&type=lgns
"NY Yankees unearth buried Red Sox jersey from new stadium"
You can see the whole story below, but the gist of the story is that a construction worker buried a Red Sox jersey in a service corridor in the new Yankees Stadium, and they had to use a jackhammer to get it out from under two feet of concrete. It was a #34 jersey for David "Big Papi" Ortiz.
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-yankees-cursefoiled&prov=ap&type=lgns
Monday, March 24, 2008
Monday, March 03, 2008
Baptist church, Louisville, circa 1950
In an earlier phase of my life I was a Southern Baptist. In this photo, I was attending Vacation Bible School at the tender age of 6, more or less. I thought I knew the name of the church but, as it turns out, I was wrong. I'll post this here in hopes that somebody, somewhere, might recognize it. The architecture is unusual for a Baptist church but you have to admire the window.
Sunday, March 02, 2008
9 trillion is a BIG number
A few days ago I said the national debt is $9 trillion. That's $9,000,000,000, I said.
It occurred to me this morning that I was off by a factor of one thousand. $9,000,000,000 is a mere nine billion dollars.
Nine trillion of anything is actually 9,000,000,000,000, and an alert reader pointed that out (see below).
I wish I could claim to have done that just to see if anybody is actually reading this blog. I'm glad to see somebody is.
It occurred to me this morning that I was off by a factor of one thousand. $9,000,000,000 is a mere nine billion dollars.
Nine trillion of anything is actually 9,000,000,000,000, and an alert reader pointed that out (see below).
I wish I could claim to have done that just to see if anybody is actually reading this blog. I'm glad to see somebody is.
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