Pay it forward

The other day I told you I had to jump-start my wifes car.

Today, I took my wife's car to the library and as I was leaving, I saw a woman with the hood up on her car, looking at the engine. I walked over, asked if everything was okay and she said, "I'm pretty sure my battery is dead."

And that, my friends, is the story of how my wife's car was able to jump-start another car only two days after being jump-started itself.

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The Bruins lost last night and I don't want to talk about it.

What I want to talk about is the dismal state of Boston sports.

I don't follow the Celtics because I don't care for basketball.

The Red Sox fell apart for the third year in a row and I'm not feeling overly joyful about this upcoming season.

As for the Patriots, even if their opponent showed up with 11 broken legs and 11 broken arms, the Patriots couldn't win because their offensive line doesn't exist. A cripple could make it through the line and sack the quarterback. And to make matters worse, without so much as a thought about the future, they won the only game they should have lost and are now spotted to make the fourth pick in the draft instead of the first.

The Bruins, once the most vaunted team in the league, are now out of contention for the division and are just barely hanging on for the wild card. And to top that off, some boneheaded idiot in the Boston media is trying his best to stir up controversy by claiming Pastrnak and Marchand don't get along.

I think 2025 is going to be a tough year for Boston sports...

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Here are some links:

• This is the best sports news ever.



• Trumpee was sentenced to nothing today but he is still the only felon ever elected president.



• I guess it must suck to run out of sausages.



• I'm pretty sure I would not enjoy a $4.00 meal prepared by a robot.



• I gotta get one of these.



• This is a bad look for the city and state.

Many errands got run today

We made multiple trips to multiple places today in an effort to restock on needful things. One of those trips involved using a medicare-supplied card to purchase numerous over-the-counter health care supplies.

The insurance plan my wife is on supplies her with a debit card that gets reloaded each quarter. That debit card is used to purchase over-the-counter items like head cold medicine, ibuprofen, etc...

Trust me, we have enough ibuprofen to last me at least a year, maybe longer.

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Another errand involved Home Depot and plants.

Last year my wife acquired a small fir tree that she has been growing in a large pot and it was doing quite nicely. Suddenly it decided to not do nicely and it died. This left a void in my wifes plant needs.

We are now the proud owners of one small plant that doesn't require direct sunlight and one giant plant that also does not require direct sunlight.

I give both about 6 months and they will either be dead or they will be so big that we'll have to build an addition to house them.

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Iran has offered military assistance and support to Canada, Mexico, Panama and Greenland.

Don't be surprised if one or all of those countries decides to take Iran up on it's offer. Also, don't be surprised if China and North Korea offer the same assistance.

Between Trumpee's idiotic statements & taunts and his threats of world-wide tarrifs, we could end up with a whole new balance of power on this planet over the next two years...

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Here are some links:

• Does anyone remember Cliff Clavin?



• Falling Iguanas would be a fantastic name for a 80s German techno band.



• I not entirely sure that this is a good idea.



• Well, I guess that is one alternative to healthcare...



• Mystery Balls would be a great name for a 70s high school garage band.
  (For those of you that are interested, Umhlanga is in South Africa.)



• I think Massachusetts is a "nanny state" but they got nothing on the town of Bacup in the UK.

Busy

For the first time in a long time (maybe 3 or 4 weeks), my wife went out to start her car. It was a miserable failure...

Since she retired, my wife has not really done much driving and when we go somewhere, we take my car. That means her car sits in the garage for long stretches.

With the freezing temps lately, her battery decided it had enough and her car would not start. She came back in the house, informed me that her car was dead and she was taking my car.

While she was gone, I grabbed my multimeter, set it for low-voltage DC and tested her battery. Turns out her battery had only 4 volts in it which is nowhere near enough volts to turn the engine over.

When she got home, I jump-started her car and took it for a nice long drive.

When I got home, I turned the car off and tested the battery again. This time it had 12.5 volts which is the right amount of volts.

I guess we need to start taking her car places every so often...

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The Bruins stunk up the arena last night, losing to the Oilers 4-0.

Something needs to be done with that team. They fired the coach but that apparently wasn't the problem.

Maybe they need to make some trades. Maybe they need to send some guys down to the AHL and bring up some kids. Maybe they need to practice more. I have no idea but whatever needs to happen needs to happen soon.

Next game is tomorrow against the Lightning. That will be a tough game. Puck drops at 7:00

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I'm ending this here and giving you some links:

• Okay, who had "Trump going to war with Greenland, NATO, and the European Union" on their list of 2025 disasters?



• I've been to Los Angeles numerous times. It is a desert filled with scrub-brush.



• This should be an interesting read.



• Key phrase in this story: "...some wounds were self-inflicted."

They really need a win

The Bruins are 4-4-2 over their last ten games. That 4 wins, 4 losses and 2 ties.

They absolutely need to win tonight's game against the Oilers but it's going to be tough. The Oilers are a good team with a better record than the Bruins.

Puck drops at 7:00.

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I had my quarterly meeting with my finance guy this morning and his description of the markets moving forward is,

"Imagine you are on a plane and so far, the flight has been smooth. Just don't be shocked if the plane suddenly encounters some turbulence. As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure we are going to hit some turbulence."

I guess he wasn't wrong...

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Here are some links:

• Listen up Jack, enough is enough. You had your shot and you failed. It's time to end this craziness so we can move on with our lives.



• Or maybe we shouldn't move on because it's looking more and more like Trumpee might be a little bit crazy.



• Speaking of crazy people...



• Wow. We are apparently surounded by crazy people.



• Add suffocating and freezing at the same time to the list of ways I don't want to die.



• If you go to Texas, stay the hell away from the screwworm.



• Puff, The Magic Dragon has lost his voice.



• Key line in this story: "But if they could come back and clean up the mess a few days later that would be lovely."

No more coach

After yesterday's agonizing win over the Bills, the Patriots fired their head coach, Jerod Mayo.

All the guy had to do was lose and he probably would have kept his job.

So now they not only have to figure out what to do about their shitty offensive line, they also need to find a new head coach who will, in all likelyhood, fire the offensive/defensive coordiinators and bring his own guys in.

It is my guess that at some point in the near future we will hear someone in the Patriots organization use the words "rebuilding year" before next season begins...

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The Bruins lost in OT last night and are just three points ahead of the Lightning. If they drop below the Lightning, they will fall out of the divisional race become a wildcard team.

They are half way through the season and if they continue on this trajectory, the wildcard will look like a good thing come April...

Their next game is tomorrow against the Oilers. Puck drops at 7:00pm.

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As for the Red Sox, things don't look terrible right now.

They have a potential seven man rotation which is going to be hard to turn into a five man rotation but that's a good problem to have.

They still need to balance out their left-handed batting lineup with another decent right-handed hitter. They also need a solid second baseman but I have a feeling they will bring up that kid Kristian Campbell because he fills both those needs.

I do have a selfish desire and that is they leave Campbell down in AAA for a month or so because that will give me time to attend a Worcester Red Sox game and see him play...

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Here are some links:

• Imagine that, not a single person broke into the US Capital or threatened to hang the VP...



• The best thing that could happen is this guy gets locked up for a long time.



• Goofy Joe has an agenda and in his little mind it doesn't matter if it impacts how much you pay for gasoline or home heating fuel.



• Welp, no driverless taxi's for me.



• It appears that dropping the kids off at the pool is good for your mental health.



• Trumpee is going to get us into a war with both the Netherlands and Canada over his moronic ideas..

Yesterday was a busy day but today is not.

The Patriots should have lost todays game because that would have assured them the number one draft pick in 2025.

It should have been easy for them to lose todays game since they've been losing games all season.

You would think that a team with a 3-13 record could easily end the season with a 3-14 record.

Apparently the Patriots had a different idea and rather than guarantee themselves number one draft pick in 2025, they decided to go for the awesome season record of 4-13 and pray to the football gods that come 2025 there would be someone left in the draft that could help their offensive line and protect their quarterback.

Not only can they not win when it counts, they can't lose when it counts either...

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In baseball news, there are 38 days until February 12^th which is the day I'm pretty sure the Red Sox pitchers & catchers report to JetBlue Park in Fort Myers. That may change when the actual reporting schedule is put out.

No word yet on when Walt and his wife report to JetBlue Park in Fort Myers...

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The Bruins lost to the Maple Leafs last night which was not unexpected. The Leafs are a very good team this season.

They take on the Islanders this evening. Puck drops at 6:00pm

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Here are some links:

• Man, they got world records for everything.



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



• Key phrase in this story: "You want to argue with me about what the rules say?"



• We need more content like this.



• Whoops...



• Krazy Kim is still crazy.

Busy

That is all.

The Bruins are not winning

They've lost three of their last four games and are now six points behind the the Maple leafs in the division.

There are some players who appear to be dealing with some injuries. For instance, Pastrnak can be seen wincing and talking to the trainer at least once every game and Marchand doesn't look 100% either.

Hopefully they can add some wins over January and the first half of February so that when the break hits, they have a lead.

On February 10^th, the entire league shuts down for a couple of days and then on February 12^the, the "The Four Nation Face-Off" series will kick off. That is a round-robin series where teams from Canada, the US, Sweden and Finland will face each other over six games. I'm not sure what the winner gets. Maybe bragging rights...

So anyways, the Bruins need to do more winning and less losing or, as I said the other day: "More Commanding, Less Flailing".

Tomorrow they take on the Maple Leafs. Puck drops at 7:00pm.

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Here are some links:

• This is what a disfunctional government looks like.



• Get ready for history to be made.



• This sounds way better than those annoying "click every square that has a bicycle" ones.



• Maybe they need to call Chief Brody, Oceanographer Hooper and Captain Quint.



• Here we go again...



• Am I understanding this correctly? Psycho Vlad is pissed because the country he attacked is no longer buying his gas?

A bit breezy

We had some nice winds today, most of which were in the 20-30 mph range.

But that's not the bad part. The bad part was the streamers that came off the lake with those winds.

I got caught in one of the squalls when I was driving home from the library and man, it was hard to see the road.

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Here are some links:

• I'm not shocked.



• We don't pay cops enough.



• I hope he sits on the bench for this final game.



• In my humble opinion, the words "celebratory gunfire" should not be used together.



• If you look up the word "scumbag" in the dictionary, you will see a picture of Jason Kehoe.

Welcome to 2025

Yes, I stayed awake until midnight. So did my wife.

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Once again, someone decided that their particular version of "right and wrong" was the best version of "right and wrong" and everyone that didn't believe in his version needed to die. So he hopped into his F150 and drove at a high rate of speed through a crowd of people on Bourbon Street in New Orleans.

He killed at least 15 people and injured a whole bunch more.

Then he jumped out and started shooting at the cops. He hit two of them but they were on target and they killed him before he could kill anyone else.

In the end, a bunch of people have lost loved ones and another group is dealing with loved ones who suffered injuries that may be debilitating for the rest of their lives.

Hell of a way to start the New Year.

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Here are some links:

• I did not know they had an 'explosion' option.



• This makes me happy.



• Just because I think they are making shit up doesn't mean I disagree with them.



• Are we now calling assault and battery a "mistake"?



• I'm begging to think Mayo may not be a good coach. There is no reason at all to play Maye.



• Key line in this story: "Sure, that means that rich people get to do things that people who are less rich don't get to do."