Friday, September 20, 2024

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...


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.


Here are some links:

Thursday, September 19, 2024

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.


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...


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


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.


Here are today's links:

Wednesday, September 18, 2024

Nope, no update

There will be one tomorrow.

Tuesday, September 17, 2024

Busy, busy day.

And I'm still busy.

There might be a post later.

Then again, there might not be a post later.


Here's a link or two:

Monday, September 16, 2024

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.


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.


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...


Here are some links:

Sunday, September 15, 2024

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...


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.


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.


Here are some links:

Saturday, September 14, 2024

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...


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...


I'm done with this today.

Here are some links:

Friday, September 13, 2024

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:

Thursday, September 12, 2024

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.


Here are some links:

Wednesday, September 11, 2024

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:


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.


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...


Enjoy these links:

Tuesday, September 10, 2024

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.


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.


This made me laugh out loud...


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.


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.


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:

Monday, September 9, 2024

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...


Darth Vader died today.

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


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


Here are some links:

Sunday, September 8, 2024

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.


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.


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


Here are some links:

Saturday, September 7, 2024

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.


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...


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


Here are today's links:

Friday, September 6, 2024

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.


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.


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...


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

You can enjoy these links:

Thursday, September 5, 2024

Back to .500

The Red Sox lost again last night and they are now back to .500. They are also now 5½ games out of the wildcard, tied with the Tigers.

They keep losing and it's looking more & more like September 29th will be their last game of the 2024 season.

Then again, maybe they'll suddenly remember how to play good baseball and go on a 10 game winning streak. Stranger things have happened...

They are off tonight while they return to Boston where tomorrow they will start a three-game series against the White Sox.


Speaking of going down...

Not sure why it decided to drop today. Maybe Powell gave a speech somewhere.


One of my neighbors are democrats. I know they are democrats because they always have political signs in their front yard shilling for any democrat that is running for office.

They currently have a "Harris - Walz" sing in their front yard.

But none of that means they don't have a sense of humor.

They also have this sign in their front yard.

Cammy is their dog. Cammy is a good girl. I'm voting for Cammy.


Here are today's links:

Wednesday, September 4, 2024

Another loss

The Royals are on a seven game losing streak. They are shoving the wildcard slot down the Red Sox throats but it just seems the Red Sox aren't interested.

Last night, it was the batters and the bullpen that failed. They lost to the Mets 7-2 but comitted no errors. They just couldn't hit the ball.

Tonight Houck has the start. First pitch is at 7:10


Once again, I don't have much to spew about.

Here are some links:

Tuesday, September 3, 2024

I'm about to give up on the baseball season

With last nights 4-1 loss to the Mets, the Red Sox have fallen back to 4½ games out of the wildcard. The only highlight last night was the Royals loss.

With a six game losing streak, the Royals are going out of their way to hand the wildcard to the Red Sox but the Red Sox just don't seem to want it.

Tonights game has Crawford as the starter. Hopefully he has a better outing than Bello did last night.

First pitch is at 7:10.


Remember back in 2020 when Donald "I can do anything I want!" Trump was ranting and raving about "election interference"?

Turns out he was right...

Basically, Trump claims that any election interference he may have committed was perfectly legal. I'm not saying he did this but I assume this interference includes things like voter fraud or paying voters to vote for him.

He pretty much claims everything he does is perfectly legal.


Today was the day that Massachusetts held it's primary elections.

This was the democrat party ballot for my town:

This was the republican party ballot for my town:

Can someone explain to me why I would need to vote? Every seat except one is unopposed and since we are a one-party state (democrat), it doesn't matter who wins that race.


Before I leave you, I just wanted to let you know that the damned stock market crashed again.
Ain't I just a breath of fresh air...


Here are a few links:

Monday, September 2, 2024

A loss tonight will be bad

The Guardians beat the Royals which gave the Red Sox a half game bump, to 4 games out of the wildcard.

If the Red Sox can beat the Mets this evening, they will move back to 3½ games out of the wildcard.

So anyways, first pitch is at 7:10 and Bello has the start.


I'm still trying to avoid politics.

It's hard, but I'm trying.


Here are some links:

Sunday, September 1, 2024

Apparently they can't win on the road either

The Red Sox lost to the Tigers 4-1 today, losing the series and falling back in the wildcard.

They are now 4½ games out of the wildcard and things are looking bleak.

They have 25 games left in their season and they need to win half those games if they want to finish above .500. I suspect they will need to win 15 of those games if they want to get into the playoffs.

I do not think they have it in them to win 15 of those 25 games but I would be happy to be proven wrong.

Tomorrow they go to Queens to start a three game series against the Mets, a team that has been having a similar season and currently has a slightly better record than the Red Sox.


Here are some links: