Third place

It was a messy win but a win none-the-less.

The first period ended 0-0 and the Islanders scored first in the second period. They traded scores through the second and third periods and regulation ended with a 3-3 tie. The sudden death OT period also ended in a 3-3 tie. That meant they needed a shootout to determine a winner.

Fortunately, the Bruins managed to put the puck into the net more times than the Islanders did and the game ended with a Bruins 4-3 win.

That win moved them back up the standings into 3^rd place in the Atlantic division.

Their next game will be tomorrow against the Senators. Puck drops at 7:00pm.

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Today I spent some time on a live chat with our washing machine repair people trying very hard to not yell at anyone.

I want you to understand that the act of remaining civil when my frustration level is a 17 on a scale of 1 to 5 is a difficult thing for me.

The bottom line is that I am now slated to have a repair guy working on my washing machine at some point tomorrow.

I'm very proud of the fact that I did not yell at the young lady from India who was trying her best to get things taken care for me. I did express my frustration with the process and she was quick to show me plenty of empathy and understanding.

If this doesn't work out to my satisfaction, I can always take my frustrations out by pounding clothes on rocks down by the stream for a few more days...

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Alex Bregman has declined his option to return to the Red Sox but Trevor Story has picked up his option and will remain the Red Sox shortstop for two more years.

This means the Red Sox either need to find a new 3^rd baseman or make Bregman an offer he can't refuse. I'm kind of hoping they make him that offer.

They also need to take a long hard look at what is going on with first base.

Casas should be back from his injury and hopefully ready to play but he's beginning to make bad noises on social media that indicate he is not happy. This is a bad path to go down for any player but it's a very stupid path for an injury-prone player to take.

He turned down a large contract offer in 2024 because he was sure he was worth a lot more than what the Red Sox offered him. Then he hurt himself and missed 60% of that season. In 2025, he hurt himself again and missed 80% of that season.

He really should have taken that offer back in 2024 because I doubt it's still on the table...

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Here are a few links:

• Key line in the ongoing saga of the worlds wussiest federal officer: "This case, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, is about a sandwich."



• For the record, "If I can help NYC, just let me know what I can do" is short for "I will give you a large some of money if you don't tax the shit out of me."



• I hope you aren't planning on going anywhere.



• Here's a nice Florida story.

My lawn is a mess

On the one hand, my lawn is nice and thick and green.

On the other hand, it is covered with leaves that have blown over from my neighbors yard and his oak trees.

At some point, the wind will stop blowing and maybe my lawn will stay reasonably clean. Until then, I just need to stay on top of things so I don't get overwhelmed.

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We were briefly the proud owners of a functional washing machine this afternoon.

And by "briefly", I mean long enough to get three loads of laundry done before it decided to once again flash some innocuous error code and shut itself down.

I have a text message into the repair guy but if I don't hear from him soon, I'll give a call to the company and start this whole, "My washing machine is broken" gig all over again.

At this point, I'm about ready to trash the thing and get a new one but since this one is only about 18 months old, that seems like an incredible waste.

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The Bruins will take on the Islanders this evening and I would really like them to repeat their last meeting when the Bruins beat the Islanders 5-2.

A win tonight moves them up the standings into a decent position and that will make me happy.

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The Red Sox have signed Jarren Duran to a one year contract which means they have avoided arbitration.

In the long run, avoiding arbitration doesn't really matter because I suspect the Red Sox will be trading Duran.

He is an outfielder on a team with two Gold Glove outfielders and a third outfielder who has been nominated for Rookie of the Year. That leaves him as the odd man.

Then again, what the hell do I know. Maybe they'll trade one of their gold glovers...

In other Red Sox news, they have declined to pick up the option on Liam Hendricks which is not surprising at all. As a matter of fact, I would have been very surprised if they had kept him.

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Here are some links:

• I will never forget the time he shot an old lawyer in the face.



• The Very Stable Genius is going to have an apoplectic fit if the socialist wins.



• Key phrase in this story: "...attempted to keep a straight face during the first day of his criminal trial."



• Here's your Naked Guy In The News story.



• Speaking of Naked Guy In The News...



• Seems to me that Brazilian police might need some military support.

I hate the time change

I may have mentioned 50 or 60 times in the past that I really dislike the changing of the clocks.

I'm not entirely sure what purpose it serves other than to make me crankier than I normally am.

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Over the last two days, the Bruins have been bumped down two spots in the standings but that is because they have played the most games in the league.

If you look at the standings you will notice that they have 14 points which puts them in a 3-way tie for 3^rd place but they have played more games than anyone else. They have the same number of wins but more losses so they are a .500 team.

I expect that will change over the next week or so. Hopefully the change is the win percentage and points going up...

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Here are some links:

• So I guess PopEye Patel wasn't lying the other day.



• Speaking of PopEye, he takes after his boss.



• The Red Sox are in need of a third baseman.



• Charging him with a felony proves that the Trump administration is crazy but this idiot lost his job and his $10.00 sandwich because he can't control his emotions.



• I'm not a conspiracy theorist but I can't help but wonder if The Very Stable Genius and BrainWorm Bobby had stock in Kimberly-Clark and they purposely drove Kenvue's stock price down with their idiotic autism claims.



• This man is insane and someone should put him in a safe place before he kills us all.

My gutters are clean

I went up on my roof this morning and got my gutters nice and clean.

I figure they'll stay that way for at least a whole day before I have to think about going back up there to clean them out again.

I will be damned glad when the damned leaves are off the damned trees..

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The Patriots continued their winning ways, beating the Falcons 23-24 this afternoon.

The spread should have been greater but Maye got stripped on a sack and the Falcons recovered the ball. They scored a touchdown on the next drive.

Another turnover came when the Falcons rushed Maye, had him surrounded and he ended up tossing an airball that got intercepted. This resulted in an eventual field goal by the Falcons.

The Patriots take on the Buccaneers next Sunday. Kickoff is at 1:00 which means I will once again be able to watch all four quarters

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I managed to watch 5 innings of baseball last night and when I went to bed, the Blue Jays were up 4-2 over the Ohtani's.

When I woke up this morning, I discovered that the Ohtani's are World Series champions, beating the Blue Jays 5-4 in 11 innings.

Whatever...

So anyways, now that the World Series is over with, teams and free agents will begin negotiations. I really hope Breslow and ownership have the same goal in mind that I have - to win the World Series.

Do I think they can do it with the youngsters they have? Maybe but probably not.

Do I think they can do it by paying a bunch of free agents a lot of money? Also maybe but they better be the worlds best free agents.

Do I think they can do it if they combine their youngsters with a nice group of veteran free agents? Absolutely

Breslow needs to be particular who he brings in. He made some bad choices this past season (Matz and May come to mind) so I'd like to see him find the best fit.

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Here are a few links:

• For a guy that avoided military service by faking some kind of weird chronic problem, he sure likes to go to war.



• If you are planning on flying anywhere in the near future, you might want to think about driving.



• I'm beginning to think it's a race to see who goes first: The Very Stable Genius, Bubba or Goofy Joe. My money is on Goofy Joe.



• Bill Maher looks more like Barry Weiss from Storage Wars than Barry does.

Another win

The Bruins beat the Hurricane 2-1 this afternoon and are now in 3^rd place in the Atlantic division.

They played well today. They played like a team destined for a playoff spot. Hopefully they can keep playing that way.

Next game is Tuesday against the Islanders. Puck drops at 7:00.

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Something very large fell in our neighborhood around 10:30 last night. It was big enough that when it hit the ground, the house shook.

Fortunately, it didn't fall in my yard or in any of my immediate neighbors yards but when I went outside to look around, I could smell pine. And not like those cheap carwash air fresheners, I mean real pine.

My guess is that someone in my neighborhood is now the proud owner of a few hundred board feet of white pine.

My next door neighbor did have a tree fall this morning but it was an already dead oak tree in the woods behind our houses. No damage was done and it was no big loss.

Wind is an amzing thing.

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Our new control board showed up this afternnon and we now have an appointment for Tuesday morning.

Hopefully this is the final repair of this washing machine because if this doesn't fix it, I'm thinking it might be time for a whole new machine.

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The Ohtani's managed to hold off the Blue Jays last night and tie the series 3-3.

They play the final "winner-take-all" game tonight at 8:00.

I'll probably watch a few innings but if I don't, I'm not gonna worry about it. It's two teams I don't really care about.

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Here are some links:

• The world is filled with crazies and no one is paying attention to them. Time to stock up on ammo.



• He just loves gold. How much is all this shit costing us?



• Great. As if we didn't have enough to worry about, now we got collapsing crust.



• The football wizards are predicting the Patriots will beat the Falcons.