A very lazy day

I honestly didn't do anything at all today.

It's raining, it's a bit chilly and my back is killing me.

Sounds like the perfect day to do nothing.

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There is no Red Sox baseball tonight so I will have to find something to entertain myself.

One option is the Netflix "The Clubhouse - A Year with the Red Sox".

They kinda sucked last year but seeing the behind the scenes stuff that Netflix captured might be interesting.

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I can't read this story because I refuse to pay the Boston Globe (John Henry) any money but the headline says it all:

In ‘millionaires tax’ bill, House speaker carved out $25m for a parking garage in his hometown. Critics call it a ‘power play’.

My question to the Speaker would be, "Please explain why you believe that the people of Quincy needed a parking garage more than all the people across Massachusetts who need help with their crumbling house foundations? $25 million would go a long way in helping a lot of those people save their homes."

I'd love to hear his answer to that question.

My followup question would be, "It's been at least 10 years since Massachusetts had a Speaker of the House convicted of a crime. What do you think the chances are that we go 10 more years before another one is indicted?"

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Here are some links:

• Sound advice.



• Yes, alcohol was involved.



• Cows are nothing more than giant dogs.



• China: First it was dogs painted to look like pandas, now it's hills painted to look like mountains.



• Key line in this story: "...the iguanas are just up there … going to the bathroom. Constantly."



• I love The Onion.

They lost the series

The Red Sox lost 4-3 last night after a two hour rain delay.

This afternoon, they once again gave up a lead and the Twins beat them 5-4. This means they lost the series and are once again at .500 & 2½ games behind the Aaron Judges.

Yes, it's early in the season and standings don't matter but before you know it, it's going to be August and the standings will matter.

A lot.

Tomorrow they are off. This Tuesday they start a three-game series against the Rangers. Giolito will get the start against Eovaldi.

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When Trump stood in front of the world at his swearing in ceremony, he took the following oath:

I, Donald John Trump, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, so help me God.

Now he is saying, "Just kidding!"

He swore before all of us and his God that he would uphold the constitution and now he's saying he's going to do what he wants and to hell with the constitution.

And one more thing - how come he never has himself depicted in his natural shade of orange? He always has his cartoon characters drawn as being strong and tanned.

And for the record, if he was part of the Star Wars universe, he'd be a member of the empire, not a jedi.

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I'm pleased to say there was no mulch spreading today. We actually focused on cleaning the house because for the last three days, we tracked in a lot of mud, sand and mulch.

We're not clean freaks but having chunks of mulch and clots of mud on the floor are definitely not something either one of us wants. I mean we used to put up with it when we had kids because that's what kids do, they drag all kinds of shit into the house. Baseball, lacrosse, field hockey and soccer cleats alone can haul in a half an acre of mud. But it's just us now and trust me, we aren't kids.

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Enjoy these links:

• Catch of the Year.



• I hope they don't offer him a job. I was never overly impressed with him when he was with the Yankees and obviously the Yankees weren't all that impressed either since they let him go.



• This is what happens when you don't say 'Please' and 'Thank You' to Alexa.



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



• Why are all these nutcases "former Pentagon/CIA/Military officials"?



• 2.1, 2.7. Whatever it takes.

And we're done

I went out at 9:00 this morning, hooked the trailer up to the tractor, loaded it up and set about spreading mulch into the last of the gardens.

My wife joined me about 10 minutes later and set about spreading the mulch around in a nice even layer.

We finished up the last of it, along with the clean up, right around noon. After that, I mowed the lawn because after making the gardens look like a million bucks, having a crappy looking lawn wasn't going to fly with me.

So now we are done with yard work for a while and I said to my wife this afternoon, "Let's not spread mulch ever again."

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The Red Sox had a nice win last night, beating the Twins 6-1.

First pitch for todays game was at 4:10 and the baseball gods decided to piss me off by knocking out the power just as I pushed the "ON" button on my remote control.

Spectrum's cable boxes suck and they take at least 10 minutes to reboot. The internet came up quicker so I was able to launch NESN360 and watch the game on my laptop.

Once the cable boxes finished rebooting, I turned the game on in time to see Devers drive in Duran for the first run of the game.

Right now the Twins are leading 4-1 in the the sixth.

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Oh, and apparently Looney Donald has pissed off the catholics:

Speaking of Looney Donald, can one of you tell me where I can get gasoline for $1.98 a gallon...

According to GasBuddy, the cheapest gasoline in the United States is selling for $2.13:

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Time for me to take my ibuprofen and watch the rest of this baseball game.

Here are some links:

• Attention scientists: Stop. Just stop. We have more than enough ways to blow ourselves up.



• Seriously. Just stop.



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



• Key line in this story: "...he’s probably grounded for the rest of his life."



• Our world is filled with stupid people.

Almost done

Once again, we spent all day hauling mulch and spreading it around the gardens but at 5:00 this evening, I said I was done and it was time to call it quits.

We are about 99% done and, fortunately, the places we have left to do are the easiest ones. That means we can finish it tomorrow morning before any rain arrives.

At least, that is the hope...

What I can tell you is that my hands hurt, my legs hurt, my back hurts and we are getting low on ibuprofen.

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The Red Sox blew a lead and lost again last night, getting beat by the Blue Jays 4-2.

The bullpen just can't seem to maintain a lead and it seems to me that the batters seem to be unable to score runs in the later innings.

It's like they go into some kind of daze and stop scoring runs in the fifth or sixth inning.

They are back in Boston today where they will start a three-game series against the Twins. First pitch is at 7:10 and Bello has the start.

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Speaking of baseball, I think they need to bring back the top hat as part of the managers uniform.

It would make arguing with the umpire a lot more visually entertaining.

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Here are some links:

• If you live in Massachusetts and you use natural gas in your home, you need to read this story.



• On the one hand, most "news" organizations have become nothing more than the marketing/advertising branch of whatever network they serve. On the other hand, a government funded "news" organization is nothing more than a propaganda machine..



• There are some seriously effed up people walking around in our society.



• What's the big deal? It was just a loan.



• Key phrase in this story: " — yes, really — ".

Still moving mulch

Yes, we are still hauling mulch around the yard.

Like I may have inferred yesterday, eight yards of mulch is a shitload of mulch.

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The Red Sox blew a 6-0 lead and ended up losing 7-6 to the Blue Jays last night.

Giolito had an excellent outing and I was really glad to see that he is everything they kept saying he was. I wish Cora had pulled him after five innings because they banged five hits and scored 3 runs off him in the sixth.

Things really went south with the bull pen.

Whitlock gave up 3 runs over two innings. Chapman shut them down in the ninth but then Slaten came in for the tenth and gave up two walks & the game-winning hit.

They are back at it again tonight. First pitch is at 7:07 and Houck has the start.

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I thought these were funny:

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Time for some ibuprofen.

Here are some links:

• I wonder if he'll still have public group-chat sessions if he becomes the U.N. ambassador?



• What the hell is wrong with the democrats? She already lost once, don't run her again.



• You might want to keep an eye on the sky for the next few weeks.



• This is what happens when you drink too much warm beer.



• Don't they need ponds to swim in?