Welcome to the rookery

Today was "Trim The Bushes" day so I dragged the trimmer, the ladder & the rake out of the shed and set about trimming the bushes.

I did the two bushes next to our porch and garage:

Then I moved over to the line of bushes at our property line. That did not go so well...

I always inspect the bushes before I trim them and today I found not one, not two, not three but four different nests in four different bushes. Here is a conveniently labeled picture of the bushes at our property line:

The catbird is a firm in her protection and won't move off the nest when I approach. The robins, however, are all in full self-preservation mode. If I get near the bush (like a foot or two away), the robins will scram out of there at a high rate of speed, leaving the eggs or babies behind to whatever fate befalls them.

One of the nests is located in a spot that I could get a nice picture of so here you go:

We are apparently considered a high-end bird neighborhood. All the cool birds want to move here.

And one idiot bird who thinks parking her nest out in the open, a foot or two from the street, is smart.

Some bluejay or crow is going to spot those eggs and have themselves a nice meal.

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Speaking of birds...

Years ago, my Aunt Carolyn had a couple of hummingbird feeders that were visited by numerous hummingbirds. This collection of birds included one she called "Ivan the Terrible" because he would attack all the other birds.

Turns out we also have an "Ivan the Terrible" at our house because yesterday we spotted a hummingbird swooping back & forth and up & down. My wife thought maybe it was a brain-damaged hummingbird but when she asked google why the bird was acting that wya, she discovered that it was protecting its food.

In other words, it has decided that the feeders I tend to are its personal food source.

Hummingbirds are weird. Interesting as hell to watch but just plain weird.

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Yes, the Red Sox lost last night.

Yes, my level of hope is approaching the level of hope I had back in the 80s and early 90s when the Red Sox sucked all the time.

Do I think they should fire Craig Breslow? No, I do not. Simply because there is no one else out there that is any better that will take a job working for Sam "I am not a liar!" Kennedy and the penny-pinching organization known as the Fenway Sports Group.

They are kinda screwed and right now all we can hope for is that they don't make any stupid moves in a misguided & panicky attempt at "making the team better".

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Here are some links:

• Someone has compiled a list of the 37 (or is it 38?) times that Dementia Donny claimed a deal was near.



• Given a choice of jail or wrestling alligators, I'll take jail.



• The Coasties have stopped looking for Hooker.

Falling

With yesterday's loss, the Red Sox have fallen 10½ games behind the Rays and 2½ games behind the Orioles.

At this point, they have 99 games left to play in this season and since they usually fall apart after the All Star break, I don't think they will have much in the way of success.

My level of hope is almost non-existent at this point.

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In other sportings, Korda won the Women's US Open yesterday.

That young lady sure knows how to golf.

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Here are some links:

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



• Get ready for really expensive beef.



• She really likes to be in the limelight.

Postoned until August???

Yesterday's Red Sox game was postponed until August 29^th when they will play a double-header. Can someone explain to me why they aren't playing a double-header today?

I suspect this is a clever manipulation on the part of the Yankees. They are currently without their #1 guy, Judge, and this postponment means he will more than likely be back in their lineup by August 29^th and they will stand a better chance of winning.

Anyways, todays game was at 1:35 and Suarez had the start. He faced 25 batters over 6⅓ innings, giving up 1 run, striking out 6 and walking 0. When he left the game, the score was tied 1-1 in the 6^th

The bullpen took over and managed to give up free runs to everybody in a Yankees uniform and when the game ended, the score was 6-1 in favor of the Yankees.

The Red Sox are now on their way to Florida where tomorrow they will start a 3-game series against the Rays. First pitch is at 6:40pm and it appears that Early has the start.

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Dementia Donny told everyone that he was such a peaceful guy that he felt he should have won the Nobel Peace Prize. He said it so often that the actual winner of the Nobel Peace Prize gave him hers just to shut him up.

Then the assholes from FIFA (and yes, if you talk to anyone who regularly follows soccer, they will tell you that FIFA is an awful organization that screws everyone they deal with) decided to give him the "first annual soccer ball of peace that they just made up" prize, just to shut him up.

Finally, after all his rambling and pontificating about how he is the bestest most peaceful president since forever, he decided to threaten to invade Greenland, threatened to take over Canada, invaded Venezuela and finally he started a shooting war with Iran.

Look, when I talk shit about Trump, it's aimed at his lines of bullshit about what a peaceful guy he is, it is not at his decisions to use force. Trust me, I'm actually kind of glad someone finally got off their ass and did some damage to Iran and it's terrorist leadership. And I'm also kind of happy that someone took out that idiot in Venezuela.

Let's face it, there are a lot of terrible people in this world who are focused on doing terrible things to people. These are people who consistently accuse everyone but themselves of being evil when in reality, they are the devil in disguise.

I don't know if The Very Stable Genius has an actual plan but I do know that Iran is in a shambles right now. Most of their government was killed, most of their military leadership was killed, their navy was sunk, their nuclear program was turned into dust and their civilian population is making it known that they are happy about all those things.

Why do I bring this up? Because even the biggest news organization in the middle-east seems to think it is a good thing...

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Jacob Misiorowski is a true phenom.

He is 6' 7" tall and when he pitches, his step towards the plate is about 5 feet. That means when he releases the ball towards the plate, it only travels about 55' before it crosses into the strike zone. Yesterday he threw the fastest pitch ever recorded by MLB at 103.7 mph.

An object travelling 103.7 mph is traveling at 543,840 feet per hour. Dividing by 60 gives you 9,064 feet for minute. Dividing that by 60 gives you 151 feet per second. Divide 55 by 151 and you get 0.36 seconds.

That means a batter has only 1/3 of a second to see the ball leave Maciorowski's hand, start the bat moving, guide the bat to where he thinks the ball will be and then hit the ball.

Anyone that can do that is an amazing human being. I'm pretty sure there aren't very many people that can do that...

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The Women's US Open is in its final round and right now, there is a four-way tie for first with Chun In-Gee, Nelly Korda, Kim Sei-Young and Gaby Lopez at 7 under par. Not to be forgotten is Charley Hull sitting at 6 under

There is also an amatuer named Kiara Romero who is sitting in 8^th place at 3 under. Not bad for a 20 year old college player.

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Here are a few links:

• Those nasty reporters need to understand that they are not allowed to ask him to prove any of his baseless claims. Just accept what he says and move on.



• Key lie in this story: "Kirby defended the rationale for a deal with American, saying he believed it would have benefited consumers."
  No CEO has ever done anything that benefits consumers. They only do things that benefit their comnpany. Best line I ever heard a CEO utter was, "What does the customer want and how much are they willing to pay for it."



• I've been to Vegas numerous times and I can say that this is not the weirdest thing you will see there.

Excellent win last night

The Red Sox beat the New York Aaron Judges 5-3 last night.

Gray pitched a good game, facing 27 batters, giving up 3 runs, walking 2 and striking out 3 over 6⅓ innings.

They are back at it again this evening. First pitch is at 7:35 and Suarez has the start.

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Right now I'm sitting on my porch watching the Worcester Red Sox beat up on the Buffalo Bisons.

This is just one reason that smart TVs are worth the money. No cable wires or boxes needed, just plug it in, turn it on and bring up the Spectrum app.

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I decided to check the stats on this collection of crap I put out every day. This is what the last 24 hours looked like:

In the browser battle, Chrome still has a significant lead over the others but in the OS wars, Apple is creeping up on Microsoft.

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Here are some links:

• Do you think Dementia Donny has figured out yet that the Iranians don't care what he wants and they aren't going to negotiate anything?



• Attention people: If you get into a fight or a disagreement with someone who works at a restaurant, do not go to that restaurant.



• Key phrase in this story: "...it was found that law enforcement lost a dash camera memory card that may have captured the shooting."



• What shall we do with a drunken sailor, early in the mornin'

Good luck to ya.

Yesterday I mentioned that I thought it was time for the Red Sox to cut ties with Bello. Well, I guess the Red Sox are not ready to cut ties with him. Instead, they are giving him a chance to rehabilitate himself down in Worcester.

Look, I get it, they have a lot of money invested in the kid and they don't want to just throw it away. Instead they want to give him a chance to get his shit together and come back as the potential ace they thought he was.

I just don't think he really wants to rehabilitate himself. I think he's going to show up in Worcester and pout and whine and piss & moan about how Tracy & Breslow are jerks who just don't understand.

I have a feeling we have seen the last of Bello in a Red Sox uniform. He'll spend June & July in Worcester and on August 3^rd at the trade deadline, they will trade him to the Marlins for a bag of baseballs and maybe a new set of golf clubs.

Damn shame because all of us Red Sox fans had high hopes for him when they signed him to that 5 year, $55 million contract back in 2024.

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In case you ever wondered what a bad day in the stock market looks like, wonder no more:

The DJIA is down 1.3 percent.

The S&P 500 is down 2.7 percent.

The Nasdaq is down 4.2 percent.

The Very Stable Genius is doing a great job with the economy. Many people tell him this is the best economy ever. Past presidents have called him and said they wished that they had as great an economy as he does. This is a huuuuge economy, bigger than any other economy. Bigger than Lincoln, bigger than Washington.

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Here are some links:

• But hey, she can get a job at any full service restaurant.



• Did anyone think to ask indicted arsonist Tommy Qualls what he was doing at the time of the crime?



• This headline helps explain why english is a very confusing language.



• Only in Florida.



• Everything I read about these soccer tournaments just confirms my belief that I wouldn't spend a dime to attend one.