The 70s continue to haunt me

I have always said that we, as a species, should apologize to all other species for the decade known as the 1970s. We were an embarrassment to every living thing on the planet earth.

We had polyester leisure suits, we had fake wood paneling, we had bright-white shag rugs, we had burnt-orange corduroy couches, we had avocado green appliances and we had a car called the Gremlin.

We also had this shitty wallpaper:

I am in the process of stripping the wallpaper off our family room walls and I discovered that atrocity under two layers of wallpaper and some paint.

And to top it off, it is glued directly onto wallboard. No sizing, no paint, no nothing. Just glue on the wallboard paper. That means there is no way to remove it without destroying the wallboard. That means I will be patching all the seams and damage, sanding it smooth and then painting it with a nice thick oil-based primer.

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The Bruins are off tonight, the Red Sox are on vacation and the Patriots are probably getting drilled by their coaches.

Guess I'll be catching up on my DVRs this evening.

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Speaking of sportages, the Mets beat the Braves in game one of their double-header. This means they are now guaranteed one of the NL wildcard slots.

If the Mets win tonight's game, they will be the number 5 seed, the Braves will be eliminated, the Mets will take on the Padres and the Diamondbacks will become the number 6 seed.

If the Braves win tonight's game, the Mets will be the number 6 seed and they will take on the Brewers while the Braves will become the number 5 seed. The Diamondbacks will be eliminated

Go Mets!

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Here are some links you might enjoy:

• I wonder if he spent a few minutes tossing paper towel rolls to the little people.



• California: We know what's best for you.



• Massachusetts wants to legalize this shit.



• Seems like Ian Happ loves his fans.



• Pennsylvania is planning for flying cars.



• Apparently Tesla's don't like water.

81 - 81 = .500

Well, I'm not happy but I'm not unhappy.

The Red Sox managed to win todays game and they finished the season with a break-even record.

So now I have to pick a team to root for through the playoffs.

It looks like the Mets, the Braves and the Diamondbacks are in a three-way tie for the NL wildcard which should be interesting.

Maybe I'll root for the Mets because I like their shortstop, José Iglesias.

Maybe I'll root for the Braves because I like their pitcher, Chris Sale.

Maybe I'll root for the Diamondbacks because I like their manager, Torey Lovullo.

All I really know is won't be rooting for the New York Aaron Judges.

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The Patriots lost to the 49ers 30-13 this afternoon.

Their offensive line is a mess and Brissett got his ass beat by the 49ers defensive line. I have a feeling he's going to be sitting in a ice bath for the next two days.

They are now 1-3 on the season, in last place in the AFC east but not in last place in the AFC. That privilege belongs to the Jaguars who have not yet won a game.

So anyways, the Patriots will take on the Dolphins next Sunday the 6^th. Kick off is at 1:00 and the game will be carried by FOX.

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Along with all the baseball and football I had to watch, we also had a family thing that kept me away from interwebnewsing.

That means I have no idea what is going on in the world and I also don't have a lot of links.

The links I do have are here:

• Randy Bum-Biting Spiders is a great name for a 1980s British punk band.



• Yea, the guy is a weirdo and probably needs some kind of supervision when he's out in public but are they saying that looking at feet is against the law now?



• Idiots and morons. Our world is filled with idiots and morons.

Don't ignore the drought monitor

I did not realize that most of the state of Massachusetts is considered "abnormally dry" and the northeast corner is in moderate drought conditions.

Guess that explains my dead lawn...

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The Red Sox lost last night and are now at 80-80.

No, I will not be happy if they finish with a .500 (81-81) record. Yes, I will be pissed if they finish with a .494 (80-82) record. They have two games left and I really would like them to finished with a winning record of .506 (82-80).

Crawford has the start today. First pitch is at 4:10

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Am I the only that thinks his new acronym might be more than a little racist...

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The democrats are asses. The only time they are willing to admit there is a problem at the southern border is when they are running for office.

We have had a major problem at the border for the last several years but suddenly, with the election five weeks away, they start calling for "tougher border security".

Idiots. They are all idiots.

If the best the democrats can do is Harris and the best the republicans can do is Trump, we are all screwed.

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Oh, and I wanted to remind you to vote for Cammy:

Enjoy these links:

• I've been studying quantum mechanics in the hope of understanding quantum computing but it's nto going too well. Maybe I should just stick with learning to make ice cream.



• I checked in with my little sister. Rocky Mount, North Carolina is about 30 miles from her. She and her family are all fine. They even have electricity!



• Caleb Morris and the Unhinged Groundhogs would be a great name for a 1970s high school band.



• Heads up everybody, there might be more drunks on the road than usual.



• I have a camera on my phone that uses auto-focus and takes portrait-quality photograps but everyone that takes pictures of legendary monsters seems to have a camera from the 1800's...



• Oh Canada.

Not a good sign

The Bruins got beat 5-2 last night. That is the second game they lost to the Rangers.

Opening day for them is Tuesday, October 8th against the Panthers and I'm really hoping they are playing a lot better by then. I'm also hoping they have finally gotten a contract settled with Swayman.

They need a good goalie...

Their next preseason game is tomorrw at the Flyers. Puck drops at 7:00.

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The Red Sox and the Rays go at it this evening. A win tonight would give me joy.

Pivetta has the start and it looks like O'Neill and Rafaella are both out of the starting lineup. That menas Grissom and Valdez are in.

First pitch is at 7:10pm.

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I'm going to watch some news and then some baseball.

Enjoy these links:

• Someone needs to write a Batman and Sea Robin comic book.



• This is a very China kind of thing.



• Key line in this story: "...actually, they don’t."



• It's nice to have dreams.



• I'm thinking they've about had it with his bullshit.



• Buckets of Snot would be a pretty good name for a 1990's grunge band.

80-79 = .503

They lost last night but they are still one game above .500.

I really need to see them win two of the three games they have left to play so they end their season with a winning record.

The worst possible outcome is they lose all three and finish with a 80-82 losing record.

A okay outcome is they win one game and finish with a 81-81 record. Not a winning record, not a losing record.

A good outcome is they win two games and finish with a 82-80 winning record.

A great outcome is they sweep the Rays and finish 83-79 which is way better than all the "experts" predicted for them at the beginning of the season.

I'm hoping for a good outcome, will settle for an okay outcome but would love a great outcome.

The Red Sox are heading back to Boston where tomorrow they will start their final series of the season against the Rays. First pitch will be at 7:05 and Pivetta will have the start.

Oh, and I did some research and I discovered that other than the covid-shortened 2020 season, this is the first season in 10 years that no MLB team will finish with 100 or more wins. Every year since 2014, there has been at least one team with 100+ wins.

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The Bruins are in Manhattan tonight to take on the New York Rangers.

That means I have something to entertain me.

Puck drops at 7:00

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If any of you are sending email to me from an outlook.com domain, I won't get it.

I suddenly started getting slammed with a whole new stream of unwanted emails and all of them originated from outlook.com. My response was to create a new rule that takes any email with a MessageID that contains outlook.com and dumps it into my junk mail bucket.

Microsoft should be ashamed of the way it provides a spam machine to scammers.

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Here are some links:

• I'm not sure how eliminating a testing requirement assures "a high quality education that sets them up for success"...



• Australia: Where apparently it sucks to be attractive.



• I flew single engine Piper Cherokee's and I can assure you that if you have two people in the plane, you are not gonna get a lot of drugs in there with you.



• Toad and the Bagged Salad would be a fantastic name for a 1960s hippie band from San Francisco.



• Here's something I bet you did not know: Maine has a potato board.



• Attention attractive people from Australia: This may help you.

80-78 = .506

It took them 10 innings but the Red Sox managed to beat the Blue Jays last night. This gave them a 80-78 record which is two games above .500. It also means that if they manage to sweep the Blue Jays in tonight's game, they will go into the their final series of the season three games over 500.

They have not yet been eliminated from the playoffs but they are three and a half games out with only four games left to play. That means even if they win their last four games, the Tigers, the Royals, the Twins and the Mariners all need to go on an end-of-the-season losing streak.

So anyways, Fitts has the start for tonight's game. First pitch is at 7:07.

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The Bruins won their preseason game last night and I admit that I did not see a lot of it.

What I did see showed me that the Bruins can play well when they need to so hopefully the regular season goes well for them.

I need at least one of the teams I follow to play well...

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Enjoy these links:

• My sister is probably going to get wet but she is far enough away from the path to avoid the problems.



• His cult will buy every piece of crap he throws at them.



• This is what most fans hate about the Red Sox ownership: They are more concerned about uniforms than they are about pitching.



• Only in Florida.



• I don't like this guy (he's a bitcoin bro) but I'll vote for him simply because he's running against Lizzy "I'm, ummmm, gonna get me a beer" Warren.

79-78 = .503

With last nights win over the Blue Jays, the Red Sox are once again above .500

Houck pitched a great game and the batters hit the ball well. This meant they beat the Blue Jays 4-1

Bello has the start tonight and first pitch is at 7:07.

There is also a Capitals @ Bruins pre-season game this evening. That game will be on the NESNPlus channel so I will be doing the picture-in-a-picture thing again this evening.

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I like Nick Cocchi and I will vote for him everytime he runs but I gotta tell ya, this looks bad.

I'm more than a little concerned with the fact he drove from the north end of Elm Street in West Springfield, down Route 5 and across the Memorial Bridge only to end up at MGM with "a vehicle parked in the valet area with its right front tire missing and damage to the wheel".

I give him credit for taking responsibility, for stepping up to a microphone and not only admitting to his actions but apologizing for them. I would like to think this will be an incident he takes to heart and stays on a straight path from now on.

The man has done more for the people of Hampden Country than any of our state and federal politicians have ever done. He's the only one who is actually doing something about the fentanyl addictions in this area. He's the only one who has established programs for kids whose parents are incarcerated.

In other words, he does good things. I won't hold this one screwup against him.

Having said that, I'm a realist. I'm hopeful it's his only screwup but only time will tell...

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Time to watch some sports.

Here are some links:

• Are they saying that the FTX chick has $11 billion dollars?



• There sure is a lot of attempted election interference going on.



• Looks like Mac Jones is not off to a good start.



• This robot has been rolling around Mars for 3 years and it is still making discoveries.

The second game was a win

The Red Sox managed to take 2 of the 3 games in their three-game series beating the Twins 9-3 last night and they are now once again at .500.

Tonight they are in Toronta to start a three-game series against the Blue Jays and I really would like to see them take that series.

If they can take two of the three games against the Blue Jays, they will go into their final series with a 80-79 record which is .503.

Their final series is a three-gamer against the Rays and I expect they will have the same results they had last week, winning only one of the three games.

If they can do both those things, they will finish at 82-82 which is .500. It's not a winning record but it's not a losing record either.

If I want to think positively, I hope they sweep the Blue Jays and take at least two of the three against the Rays. That will give them a 83-79 record which is .512.

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The man can't let go of the whole "she worked at McDonalds" thing...

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If you follow baseball, you will think this is funny:

If you don't follow baseball, allow me to explain:

Shohei Ohtani is probably the greatest baseball player of our time and he appears to be unstoppable.

The Chicago White Sox are having the worst season of any team in the history of the MLB.

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We went to the Big E today.

That was the only picture I took. I took that picture so I could remember what aisle I was parked in.

We looked at various farm creatures, we ate some unhealthy food and we bought some "stuff". In other words, it was a good Big E experience.

Oh, and I couldn't help but noticed that there was a shitload of people there for a Monday morning/afternoon.

What's up with that? Don't you people have jobs?

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Here are some links:

• Key phrase in this story: "...the crowd gave him a mini-ovation as he left the ice."



• Key line in this story: "Eisenhower banished the White House’s squirrels because they were ruining his putting green."



• Something tells me there will be a conclave soon...



• I call bullshit. No one likes that crap.



• Key line in this story: "Dispatchers could hear crashing sounds in the background."



• Oh Canada.

First game is a win

The Red Sox beat the Twins 8-1 in game one of their double header.

Cora made it through half an inning before getting tossed for arguing a call with vigor and gusto.

Pivetta threw an excellent game but the big story was Casas who hit three home runs. His first was a three run homer, his second was also a three run homer and his third was a solo.
Basically, Casas was responsible for 7 or their 8 runs.

The second game is at 5:35 and it looks like Crawford has the start.

I will be doing the picture-in-a-picture thing since the Bruins are playing a pre-season game against the Rangers and I need to see if they are any good. So far, they look good. They scored within the first 2 minutes of the game...

I also want to hear the new ply-by-play guy, Judd Sirott. I was not a big fan of Jack Edwards so I'm hoping this guy is not going to say stupid shit like "juicy rebound" or "high above the ice"

Oh, and in other sports news, the Steelers beat the Chargers and are currently 3-0 on the season. That means at least one of the teams I follow has a winning record...

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Time for a check in on the most popular operating systems and browsers visiting this website:

As you can see, Windows and Chrome are still number one by far.

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Time to watch a second baseball game.

Here are some links:

• That war just keeps getting bigger and bigger.



• Seems to me this should be bigger news.



• We noticed more bats and fewer mosquitos in our yard this summer.



• Only in Florida.



• Key line in this story: "...it looks like Cinnamon is extremely comfortable and happy..."

Yes, they lost.

The Twins beat the Red Sox 4-2 last night after twelve innings but I did not see the loss because I fell asleep in the eighth inning.

It's tough to be a Red Sox fan...

In the first third of the season, I was rooting for them to win the division.

In the second third of the season, I was rooting for them to win a wildcard spot.

Now I'm just hoping they finish above .500 and end the season with a winning record.

As of this morning, there are eight games left in the season and they are at .494, two games below .500.

Todays game was supposed to be at 4:10 but it was pouring out in Boston so they postponed it. Tomorrow they will play a double-header.

Oh, and Devers is out for the remainder of the season.

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I want to address this piece of spam I received this morning:

In the first place, the Senate does not belong to either the democrats or the republicans. It belongs to us, the people. They can't "take back" something that doesn't belong to them.

In the second place, I want to point out the line:

First, the number of Americans identifying as Republicans hit its lowest point in YEARS.

It's probably a bald-faced lie. They are probably fear-mongering to incite their cult to donate even more money.

But if it's true, could it be because they have all declared allegiance and fealty to their favorite wanna-be dicatator, Donald "Super Genius" Trump? Could it be because there are a lot of people, independent, republican and democrat, who don't think very much of people like Cruz, a man who remains loyal to a guy who not only insulted him, he insulted his wife as well?

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With no baseball to watch, I need to find something to entertain me.

I'm pretty sure I still have a bunch of Gold Rush's.

Enjoy these links:

• Mark "I'm a black NAZI!" Robinson is running for governor of North Carolina.



• Does Russia just send Ukraine coordinates for it's ammo dumps? Seems like Ukraine is blowing up a lot of ammo dumps...



• Apparently they got a KFC in heaven.



• Key phrase in this story: "No, you can't get out."



• At some point, we lost all of our common sense.



• Key entry from our favorite police log: "11:59 a.m. A man walked into a grocery store, ate a doughnut and then left."

That sucked

The Red Sox failed to score any runs last night and the Rays beat them 2-0.

The Patriots failed to score any touchdowns and the Jets bet them 24-3.

In other words, neither one of my sportings teams did what they needed to do and they lost.

I really hope the Bruins have a good team this year...

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The Twins are in town to take on the Red Sox. Fitts has the start and first pitch is at 7:10.

That means I am done with this and now I'm going to watch the Red Sox play some baseball.

With only nine games left in the season, I would like to see them win at least six of those games. That would put them above .500 on the season. They haven't yet been eliminated from the playoffs but they are close. Fangraphs gives them a 0.7% chance of making the playoffs.

A win tonight would be a good start to ending the season with a winning record.

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Here are some links:

• I'm not really sure I'll be going back to Pennsylvania any time soon.



• Key line in this story: "...his theory is highly controversial..."



• This is the squirrel version of "Buthc Cassidy and The Sundance Kid"...



• Oh Canada.



• Psycho Vlad is a man with a plan.



• Rich people doing rich people things.



• I know people from Texas and to them, this is a major disaster.

I'm back

On Tuesday morning, we drove to Hampton, NH and checked into a hotel on the boardwalk. Across the street from us was the famous Hampton Beach.

This was what the place looked like on day 1 of our three-day trip:

As you can see, we had the place to ourselves. With temps in the upper 70s / lower 80s, it was perfect for us.

This is a crappy picture of the boardwalk I took the first night. Our hotel room is circled in red:

This was the sunrise we enjoyed from our balcony the morning of day 2:

And finally, this is what greeted us this morning:

That is sea fog. The lightness you see near the center of the picture is the sun.

It turns out that despite living in New England our entire lives, neither one of us had ever been to Hampton Beach. So a few weeks ago we decided to go.
It was a great time, we ate some excellent seafood, we walked for miles on the beach and I am very glad we went during the off-season because I'm betting that place is unbearable during the summer.

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My youngest has a new job working for a municpality and he will be joining a union.

This was a text exchange we had yesterday:

We are funny guys...

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The Red Sox won last night and are once again back at .500.

They beat the Rays 2-1 last night and I was able to watch the whole game.

Yes, I know they stand little or no chance of getting into the playoffs but I'm still a fan so I'll still watch them.

Besides, maybe something interesting will happen during tonights game. Bello has the start and first pitch is at 6:50

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The Patriots will be on Amazon Prime Video tonight and since I'm a Prime member, I'll be able to watch that game.

The Jets are the heavy favorites but I'm hoping Brissett and his receivers can pull it off and beat them.

Since the game doesn't start until 8:30 and I'm exhausted from a lack of sleep over the last few days, I doubt I'll watch the entire game but I'm hoping to last until at least the half.

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Here are today's links:

• Israel just can't win. They get shit when they carpet bomb a tent city filled with people and then they get shit when they conducted surgical strikes on terrorist leadership.



• This is going to piss off a bunch of people.



• "Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth."
  - Joseph Goebbels
    Director of the Ministry of Propaganda and Public Enlightenment.
    National Socialist German Workers' Party (NAZI)



• It is Talk Like a Pirate Day.



• I knew that Zapruder had been interviewed but I didn't know it was that day.



• Here's something you will rarely, if ever, hear a company say out loud: "We acknowledge an error occurred in this instance, and we are fully committed to rectifying the situation with the customer and make the customer whole."



• Key phrase in this story: "Safe to say I need new pants after that one."



• In my opinion, Kuwohi is a much better name than Clingman.

Nope, no update

There will be one tomorrow.

Busy, busy day.

And I'm still busy.

There might be a post later.

Then again, there might not be a post later.

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Here's a link or two:

• If you are concerned about this, you should stop breathing.



• At 8 years old, I was crashing my bike into buildings.

Trump continues the search

Trump is continuing to search for his sanity and he still hasn't found it.

He has not, however, lost his arrogance.

In this post from his truthisms thingee, I pretty sure he's complaining that he lost the debate because it was rigged but then claims he won the debate because he is an extraordinary genius

This guy keeps helping me relive my childhood.

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No Red Sox baseball.

No Patriots football but I might watch a little of the Falcons/Eagles game.

Still no Bruins hockey.

Fortunately I have several dvr's to entertain me this evening.

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During my 30 year career in information security and risk management at a large Fortune 100 company, I learned a few things.

The statement, "All projects have a cost, a set of deliverables and a timeline. They can be done cheaply, they can be done correctly or they can be done quickly. Pick two..." is true. You cannot have all three.

Safety and security are expensive. No CEO wants to spend a lot of money on either safety or security. Just look at Boeing.

Never trust a member of middle-managment who tells you things are fine. They will tell you everything is great right up until business goes under or they terminate you to save money. Your best gauge of a business' stability is toilet paper. If no one is restocking the toilet paper in the bathrooms, the end is close.

I have no idea what made me type all of that...

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Here are some links:

• Those McQueen boys dont have long lives. His dad died at 50 and he died at 63.



• I just want to know if any of the "shots fired" were from him or all from the secret service.



• I can't say that I blame him.



• Key line in this story: "...it would have been extremely concerning to find out that Earth was not habitable!"



• I call bullshit. It has been my experience that they are just as hard working as any other generation and that it's mostly my generation that is easily offended.



• I'm pretty sure they're just making shit up now.

I dislike woodpeckers

They are shitty little birds that have taken a liking to all the houses in my neighborhood.

In my case, every few years I have to go up on a ladder and fill the holes they make in the shakes. Today was that day.

If I find a large hole, I simply replace the entire shake with a new one but if the holes are small, I use expandable foam to fill them.

Fortunately today's finds were all small so this morning I filled them. This afternoon, once the foam had expanded and hardened, I took a razor blade to the excess, smoothed it, sanded it and painted it.

Looks like they were never even there.

I hate woodpeckers. I think I should shoot the little bastards but my wife has stepped in to save their worthless lives. Guess I'll just throw rocks at them...

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Today was a picture-in-picture kind of day with the Seahawks/Patriots game kicking off at 1:00 and the Red Sox/Yankees first pitch being thrown at 1:35.

The Patriots lost 23-20 in overtime but it was a hell of a game to watch.

I gotta tell you, I'm not disappointed with Jacoby Brissett. He can throw, he can run, and Hhe seems to captain a good offense. I get the impression that he feels like he has something to prove.

But even more impressive are the running backs Antonio Gibson and Rhamondre Stevenson. Both of those guys move through the defense like Gayle Sayers or OJ Simpson.

Next game for them is this Thursday when they will go to New Jersey and play a team that insists on calling itself the New York Jets. Kick off is scheduled for 8:15.

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As for the Red Sox, stick a fork in them, they are done.

They lost 5-2 to the Aaron Judges and are once again at .500.

With twelve games left in the season, they will need a literal miracle to make the playoffs and I'm pretty sure that whatever gods are out there handing out miracles are not really focused on the Red Sox.

They are off tomorrow while they head down to Tampa where this Tuesday they will start a three-game series against the Rays.

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Here are some links:

• Oops.



• Anybody got an old aquarium they aren't using? I'm going to try and build one of these.



• God needs to stop telling people things.



• I don't know what a "superload" is but my relatives in Ellwood City should be on the lookout.



• I think horseback wrestling should be in the Olympics.

Get ready for a heat wave.

This morning I decided that it was time to take the air conditioners out of the windows.

That means we can expect a heat wave at some point in the next few days...

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The Red Sox had every chance to keep themselves in the playoff race last night and they blew it.

They went into the seventh inning with a 4-0 lead. All they had to do was go the next three innings without giving up 4 runs.

Then they gave up 5 runs.

Now all they had to do was score 2 runs over the next two innings to win the game.

But they couldn't do it and the Aaron Judges won 5-4.

As for today's game, first pitch was at 1:05 and Bello started. He pitched pretty well and the batters hit the ball.

In the end, the Red Sox beat the Aaron Judges 7-1, moved back above .500 and four games out of the wildcard.

As things look right now, I don't think they have much chance of playing baseball in October but weirder things have happened...

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I'm done with this today.

Here are some links:

• He's gonna round 'em up and toss 'em in concentration camps!



• Once again I feel the need to remind everyone that if you go to a foreign country and do something wrong, you should expect to be punished by their rules.



• Oh Canada.



• If they don't want to go to jail, maybe they should stop blocking traffic.



• It should be legal throw small rocks at these people.



• Oops.

10 inning loss

The Yankees ended up winning in extra innings last night and the Red Sox are now once again 4½ innings out of the wildcard.

Casas has not fully recovered his swing since his stint on the DL and Devers has something drastically wrong with his right shoulder. As a matter of fact, I'm not really sure why Devers was in the lineup last night.

Tonight's game is being streamed so I'll be paying attention to it via other means.

⧫
Trump knows full well what will happen when he riles up his cult with his lies and baseless accusations.

This is why, for the first time in 206 years, the Capital building was attacked.

This is why a lot of morons who refused to heed the warnings from the medical community died during the covid outbreak.

The dipshit says stupid things and his people start getting upset. Then they start getting out of line and finally they go the attack.

It's only a matter of time before someone gets hurt or killed, again, because of that idiot and his eyeliner-wearing running mate.

And speaking of Vance, I wonder if anyone has bothered to tell him that Trump tried to get someone to hang his last vice president.

This is what Germany in the 1930's must have been like...

⧫
I was both busy and lazy today.

That means I'm done with this.

Here are some links:

• Maybe Psycho Vlad should call off his "Special Military Action" before he ends up with a long range missile up his ass.



• Welp, he just blew off a locrative career.



• They got three for the price of one.



• No.



• Did this guy not know that they used to throw christians to the lions?

There was golf today

We decided that today was going to be a good day for golf and it turned out that we were right.

It is the last day without Big E traffic to contend with, the weather was perfect and we were all healthy. What else do we need to go make fools out of ourselves on a golf course?

We probably won't play again until October simply because the golf course we play at is not far from the fairgrounds and the fair is going on until the end of September.

⧫
The Red Sox managed to beat the Orioles last night and take two of the three games in their series.

Tonight starts a four-game series against the New York Aaron Judges.

Unfortunately, tonights game is on Fox and tomorrow's game is on Apple TV.

I will watch the game on Fox but I don't like the announcers. Since Apple TV is one of those streaming services that I refuse to sign up for, you can bet I won't be watching the game on Apple TV.

I may have to do what all the cool kids call, "Sail the Seven Seas"...

⧫
We have a leak in one of the pipes in our basement and I have limited/no skills when it comes to working with copper piping. It has been my experience that soldering copper pipe is not as easy as it looks.

We called our heating guys because this is a heating pipe and they came out to look at it.

The guy that showed up said, "Oh. That is not in a good spot. And it is the pipe that goes from the basement to the second floor. This is beyond me."

He set us up with a visit from their master plumber who can look at it, give us an idea of what needs to happen and when they can get to work on it.

Fortunately, it is a very small leak. I'm inclined to call it a very slow drip. So hopefully it all holds together until he can get here to look at it.

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Here are some links:

• Maybe I should get one of these...



• The words "man" and "sex act with cucumber" seems to indicate there might be some kind of weird fetish going on here.



• Rich people doing rich people things.



• Yes, alcohol in Florida was involved.



• Japan: It's not like where we live.



• Oh Canada.

I wasn't going to do it

I said I wasn't going to watch the debate but I couldn't help myself.

I turned it on and my brain seized up almost immediately like one of those wealthy bratty kids from the book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Willie Wonka). Try as I might, I just couldn't stop watching. It was like a slow-motion car wreck - I couldn't look away.

I enjoyed the, "They're eating dogs! They're eating cats!" rant but my favorite line was this one:

What I took away from that debate is that both candidates are idiots.

Once again, I'm pissed off at both the democrats & the republicans for giving us choices that no one really wants and forcing us to pick the lesser of two evils.

If that is the best candidate that either party can produce, they should be ashamed of themselves. They should apologize and ask for a do-over.

We can put "Dave from Des Moines" or "Pearl from Pittsburgh" in charge for one year while both parties go out and try to find candidates with some form of intelligence, common sense, decency and honor.

In the meantime, I stand by my current choice:

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The Red Sox lost 5-3 last night and they are now 4 games out of the wildcard.

I thought Crawford did a fairly good job on the mound but the batters just weren't moving the runners along. And that seems to be a theme with the Red Sox every season. They just can't hit the ball when they need to. There will be one out, runners on 2nd and 3rd and next thing you know, there are three outs and the runners are still standing on 2nd and 3rd.

Tonights game starts at 7:10 and Pivetta has the start.

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Today was our monthly meeting of the ROMEO's (Retired Old Men Eating Out) and once again, we spent two hours solving all of the worlds problems.

Maybe we should be in charge...

Anyways, everyone remains in good health. Well, as good as it can be for a bunch of old guys who all had been very active in their youth. Jim has had both knees replaced, BillE and I tend to limp a lot and BillB has a bit of a hunch to his back.

Bottom line is that none of us has recently spent any time in a ER or hospital and, unlike Goofy Joe or Twitchy Mitchy McConnell, we seem to remain capable of holding a conversation without forgetting what we were talking about in mid-sentence.

At least I think we didn't forget what we were talking about... I don't remember...

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Enjoy these links:

• Key line in this story: "...explosives-laden Nazi ships..."



• Oh Canada.



• Key line in this story: "The squad eventually determined the entire thing was a hoax..."



• No thanks, I'll pass.



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



• Maybe this is the new crop circles.

Screenshot kind of day

It was not a busy day but the news was mediocre at best.

What I have today are a few screenshots of things I found entertaining or interesting.

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Liam Hendricks is a pitcher for the Red Sox. He is also from Australia.

His fellow players voted him to be their nominee for this years Clemente Award.

"Don't be a dick" is sound advice.

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This made me laugh out loud...

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The Red Sox beat the crap out of the Orioles last night, winning the game 12-3.

With the Royals and the Twins both losing, the Red Sox are now only 3 games out of the wildcard

Crawford has the start for tonight's game. First pitch is at 7:10.

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This morning, two Delta jets were taxiing around at the Hartsfield-Jackson Airpot in Atlanta. One of them wasn't where it was suppossed to be...

Here's a different view of the jet that took the most damage:

Imagine being a passenger in that plane.

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No, I probably won't be watching the debate tonight. My bullshit tolerance container has reached it's overload quotient for this election year and I have no room for any additional bullshit.

Here are some links:

• Fashion: I don't get it.



• Don't worry, Trump's wall will keep it out of Texas.



• They got a syndrome for everything now-a-days.



• How about they first remember how to get there. Then they can worry about charging devices...



• Shoal Of Farting Herring would be a great name for a band that sings old sea shanty's.



• Must be those darned farting herring.

I don't get it

I've decided that I will never understand the stock market.

The other day it was down 1% and today it's up 1%

This is why I pay a guy to pay attention to this stuff. If I left it up to me, I'd be living under bridge in a cardboard box...

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Darth Vader died today.

He was great in Field of Dreams and I was always under the impression he was a genuinely nice guy.

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Nope, still not high enough for me to buy a ticket.

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Here are some links:

• There is something appropriate about a hurricane named Francine hitting the Louisiana coast.



• Please keep in mind that they are talking about those toy drones that people fly around.



• Key line in this story: "I would say during the game, there were some challenges."



• Remind me to never go to an Eagles game.



• Those damned "Scientists" should stop talking and come up with a free/cheap alternative to fossil fuel.



• I don't think the Trump cultists know the difference bettwen a pep rally and an intimidating attack.



• Andy Hill and the Snot Otters would be a great name for a 1970's pop band.



• This is why I don't keep my firearms in the stove.

A couple of wins and a loss

It was an interesting day for the Red Sox today.

They beat the White Sox last night which kept them above .500 and moved them to 4 games out of the wildcard.

Today, they lost to the White Sox and while they are still above .500, they are once again 4½ games out of the wildcard.

Tomorrow the second place Orioles come in to town. First pitch is at 7:10 and Bello has the start.

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The highlight of my day was watching the Patriots make the so-called "football experts" look bad by beating the Bengals.

The odds-makers had the Bengals winning by 8 but Jarod Mayo & Jacoby Brissett said, "Screw you! Watch this!" and the Patriots won the game 16-10.

Next Sunday the Seahawks will come to Gillette. Kickoff is at 1:00 and the game will be carried by Fox.

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I'm still avoiding politics but I just want to remind everyone to vote for Cammy

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Here are some links:

• There are some really sick individuals in our world but damn, Dominique Pelicot takes the lead in the race for worlds biggest scumbag.



• We don't pay cops enough.



• I would like "scientists" to invent flying cars, find a free/cheap alternative to fossil fuels or eliminate global warming but they don't do that. Instead, they waste money using Doritos to make mice invisible.



• Oh Canada.



• Pretty soon The Guardians of the Galaxy will be able to play dress-up.

Thank goodness they won

It was looking bad because the Red Sox were down 1-0 until the fourth inning. Then it was tied 1-1 until the seventh inning. Then Rafaela hit a two run homer and put the Red Sox up 3-1.

So the Red Sox won the game 3-1 but I gotta tell you something, they need to start hitting the ball. And I don't mean home runs. They need to get guys on base and move them along until they touch home plate.

Tonight's game is on Fox and it starts at 7:15. I am under the impression that tonight's game caller will be Don "Announcer Boy" Orsillo and the color analyst will be First-Name-A Middle-Name-J Pierzynski. I'm not a fan of Pierzynski but I really enjoy listening to Orsillo call a game.

Looks like Criswell has the start and if he performs like he did last time, the White Sox will have some serious difficulty. He was throwing a no-hitter against the Tigers last Sunday. Then Cora took him out, put Hill in. Hill then proceeded to show us why it's rare to see a 44 year old pitcher in the MLB.

Speaking of Hill, the Red Sox DFAd him yesterday. He gave it a shot and they got several good innings out of him but it looks like he just doesn't have it in him anymore.

Also, it appears that Story is back up with the team and will be starting at short stop this evening. I'll be really curious to see how he plays after being out with a dislocated shoulder since April.

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Looks like the busted spaceship made it home safely.

I'm betting the good folks at Boeing are breathing a sigh of relief but I doubt they are clapping each other on the back and shaking each others hands. This Starliner thing has been a fiasco from the start.

It is at least $1.5 billion over budget, it's first test flight was deemed a partial failure and the current test flight experienced failures of thrusters.

If I were the head of NASA, I'm pretty sure I would have the CEO of Boeing sitting in my office explaining to me why I should continue to pay them any money or why I should use their spacecraft.

It's not like Boeing has a great safety record lately...

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A young woman from the US went over to Gaza to protest and she got shot in the head. It's all over the news and while I feel bad for her family, I'm torn.

On the one hand, if you decide to go to a foreign country for the sole purpose of expressing your opinion and you choose to do this in the face of armed individuals, it's a good bet you are going to hurt or killed.

On the other hand, when did we stop calling these people "protesters" and start calling them "advocates"?

Sorry but if you want to stay alive, don't poke a bear and don't go to protests were there is a better than 99% chance someone is gonna start shooting

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Here are today's links:

• Key line in this story: "All he needs to do is be better than Mac Jones, Bailey Zappe, and Cam Newton."



• From the country that gave us golf comes Championship Stone Skipping.



• Neenah and Mystery Chickens would be a fantastic name for a 1970s high school garage band.



• If you are willing to pay someone to do this to you, you are a moron.



• Only in Florida.



• Key line in this story: "Why the f*** would ants want a fake croissant?"

No baseball last night

Since there was no baseball last night, I have nothing to complain about.

Oh, wait. I forgot. I do have something to complain about.

Since the Tigers and the Mariners both won last night, they are both now half a game ahead of the Red Sox.

This just keeps getting better and better...

Tonights game against the White Sox is at 7:10 and Pivetta has the start.

For the record, the White Sox have the worst record in all of major league baseball. If they beat the Red Sox, I'm not going to be happy.

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As I type this, the good folks at NASA and Boeing are making preparations to bring the Starliner back to earth. They are expecting the spacecraft to undock by using springs to push it away from the ISS and then they will guide it back to a landing in White Sand, NM using the defective thrusters.

The undocking is scheduled to happen at 6:00pm EDT

If this spacecraft makes it back to earth in one piece, Boeing is going to spend the next few months reminding everyone that they were right and NASA is staffed by a bunch of fraidy-cats.

If the spacecraft thrusters fail to orient it correctly and it burns up on re-entry, NASA is probably going to tell Boeing they need to find some other kind of work because their space stuff sucks.

Either way, I'm going to watch it just in case something spectacular happens.

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So Disney has this exhibit they call "The Hall of Presidents". In the exhibit is an animatronic figure of each previous president of the United States.

I'm thinking Trump is gonna have a heart attack when he sees his...

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I'm going to watch the Boeing spaceship show as well as some baseball.

You can enjoy these links:

• They aren't remorseful. They are all convinced that their cult leader will pardon them when he gets re-elected.



• Instead of making them transparent, why don't they figure out how to keep them out of my garage.



• Researchers: Contributing to the betterment of our society or a complete waste of perfectly good oxygen?



• Sounds like Psycho Vlad might have a secret.



• Reminds me of the punch line of an old joke: "He's a fun-gi!"



• There is nothing I can say that will makes this story any more interesting.