Counting down the baseball games left

Five. A measly five games. That's it. I can count on one hand the number of games left for the Royals, which includes the one tonight against the Twins. Then the baseball voices will fall silent and sports radio will be totally taken over by football. And there will be a feeling in the evenings, as the leaves fall and the cold wind scatters them, that something is missing.

To be honest, I am one of those new fans who didn't notice baseball going on around me until the first World Series bid in 2014. But once I started paying attention, the sport quickly grew on me. More about this in the coming weeks, as I work through my baseball withdrawal...but for now, I'd like to post something I heard Josh Vernier, the "baseball insider" say on the radio a few days back.

He was explaining to two sports radio talk show hosts why blaming one pitcher for a bad season or blaming one set of circumstances in a game doesn't make sense, because there are too many unpredictable variables in baseball, and what he said helps explain ONE reason why I love baseball so much:

Josh Vernier on 610 Sports Radio:

"Baseball's a thinking man's game. Baseball is the game that resides ----like life ----in the grey area. Sure football can be black and while ---this didn't happen, so this happened...baseball is never black and white. There's never an easy answer in the game of baseball. I understand fans and I understand sports radio always wants things to be easy....baseball and sports radio don't line up, because it's never easy in the game of baseball. It's always quite the long explanation if you want the true answer as to why your team lost that day or why your team's gonna fall short in the season."  

Late September Lament

Is autumn my favorite season? I know it used to be, but I’ve kind of been on this sun kick for awhile, that’s making me rethink that. I have this tendency to lie around  in parks and other outdoor places, taking what I like to call my sun bath. This requires the earth to receive sunlight at a certain angle, so thanks to the buzzkill known as geometry, my chances left to do this are numbered.

I know October is coming with its cornucopia  and all. You don't have to tell me that. As October's Golden Child, born and nuzzled within its loving bosom, I've always been one of October's biggest boosters. But at this stage of the game, I’m still feeling conflicted about the change of season.

For late September is neither hither nor thither.  The leaves haven’t turned yet, (unless you live in one of those godforsook states up north where sunning  is a tepid affair akin to soaking in day-old bathwater)  yet there is a chill in the air.   A chill that sends you back into the house for a sweater and what’s worse, strips you of the ease with which you were moving through life just 24 hours prior, when it was warm enough to stroll down your driveway naked. Not that you did that or thought about it, or wondered who it was that called the police, but it’s now one less option for you, and less is sad.

Other things I see slipping away, and/or hardships to come:   

• Baseball season is ending. If I were following one of those obnoxious teams that have been hot all year and are favored to win a play-off spot, it'd be far from over. But I'm following the Royals, who are still hungover from last year's World Championship victory fetes.(Go Gone Royals!) So one more week and the lovely baseball chatter on my radio will fall silent. No, football chatter is not lovely, so don't even....

• It's growing too cold to sit on the deck late at night with a glass of wine. 

• I guess I can put a burn barrel on the deck and rub my hands together over it. Although that means I'd have to put down my wine.   

• Wait. Burn barrels are illegal. And the cops have recently stepped up patrols past my house....   

• But I do have that old Weber kettle out back. Wouldn't hurt to fire that baby up.  

• Well, as long as I'm sitting around the grill I might as well cook something.Which will mean I'll have to clean off all the gook from that cookout I had months ago. 

• Sigh. This is exactly what I  meant when I said everything is harder.  

• Another case in point: It's turning so cool indoors, I've had to use the microwave to melt the ice cream for soup night. 

It's Fall! - Time to Burn Things!

BYOE (Bring your own effigy) and support your local bonfire. 


Pile on your unmentionables, unquench the quenchables.

Tout-er Suite!

At this moment in time, uncannily, both of my daughters are French tutors.

The younger tutors in high school, the eldest in college. The younger one signed up without knowing that her older sister was tutoring French at KU.

It's as if they are heeding some inescapable spore, born into their blood, planted there by our ancient French ancestors, who sent hopes for the survival of their genetic material, and some lingering memory of them, across many years and many miles of sea.  

They thought I was dying

I was visiting my mom in late August, and lolling about on the school yard behind her house. The air was perfect. The buffalo grass beneath me felt good....dry and wiry. The sky above me a clear bowl of blue. I lay flat on my back, my arms stretched out. It was bliss.

But the next thing I knew, these turkey vultures started circling overhead. Did they know something I didn't?

It was kind of eerie....  

Star Trek is 50!

How could I have missed Star Trek's 50th anniversary?---a few weeks back, or whenever it was.

To pay belated tribute, I've dug out this old Star Trek chart I made once for an assignment I had to do for a web design class.  We had to use html to construct a table (columns and rows.)

The images of the Enterprise crew no longer display and I'm too lazy to reinstate them. Or I don't remember how.

No need to see their photos anyhow. This Trekkie Quick Guide will help you keep all the action straight, so you never have to be confused about who's doing what, or where the hell Chekov went. (Hint: he was an afterthought, brought on in the 2nd season as girl bait.)      

Star Trek Chart

A guide to characters and episodes

Trekkie Quick Guide

	Kirk	Spock	Mccoy	Scotty	Sulu	Uhura	Chekov
Amok Time	Killed by Spock(it seems)	Struck by powerful urge to mate	Dupes Vulcans, fakes Kirk's death	Left in command of ship	Gripes about erratic changes in flight orders	"She's lovely Mr. Spock, who is she?"	"I think I'm going to get space sick"
Naked Time	Rambles nonsensically about walking on beaches	Struggles with feelings for Nurse Chapel	Perturbed by partying lab techs	"Captain, you can't mix matter and antimatter cold!"	Strips down and charges crew with fencing foil	Briefly taken hostage by rampaging Sulu	Not yet part of crew
Devil in the Dark	Hunts down acid-dripping blob	Does freaky mind meld with the Horta	Jim, I'm a doctor, not a bricklayer!	Works feverishly to repair pump for nuclear reactor	Aboard Enterprise	Aboard Enterprise	Not yet on crew
This Side of Paradise	Loses spore-happy crew to mass love-in on planet below	Madly in love, hangs from tree, grins like idiot	Talks southern and slurps mint julips	Off somewhere	Sprayed with spores and becomes "one"	Short-circuits ship radio and skips off to planet	Not yet on crew
City on the Edge of Time	In love with visionary social worker	Wears hat to cover ears in 1930's America	Crazed from cordrazine shot,wrecks past & future	"Control circuits threatening to overload, Captain"	Stranded in time vacuum	Stranded in time vacuum	Not yet on crew
Trouble with Tribbles	Beseiged by Tribbles, Klingons and pesky grain officer	Secretly likes Tribbles but pretends he doesn't	Discovers that Tribbles are born pregnant	Goes apeshit when Klingons insult Enterprise, starts brawl	Hangs out in bar with Scotty and Chekov	Buys Tribble for a pet and starts the whole mess	Incensed when Klingons call Kirk a Denebian Slime Devil
The Deadly Years	Becomes doddering old man	Becomes slightly less doddering old man	Becomes "just an old country doctor"	"I just need a wee bit o' rest, that's all"	"Romulans approaching from both sides!"	Dismayed by senile captain	"More blood, Chekov.Take off your shirt, Chekov. Roll over, Chekov

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