Stuff


Fall Weather – Warmish days and gloriously cool nights. I love it.

Red Sox – They’re still losing. They’ve lost the last 3 series and aren’t looking too sharp against the TB Rays in this series. And the Rays are closing fast in the Wild Card standings. If the Sox don’t turn this around soon, they could rival the 2007 Mets for the biggest September collapse in recent memory.

Clumsiness – I was walking out to my car on Tuesday and didn’t see a depression in the parking lot. I twisted my ankle severely and went down hard. The next day my ankle was the size of a football and turning purple. Nothing is broken or torn, but I won’t be running a marathon anytime soon.

New Toys – Besides my new flash, I picked up a remote flash kit so I can put my flash unit somewhere else and trigger it from the camera. That allows me to shoot from one side of the subject while the flash lights the other.

Cat Burglar

Harvest Time

Someone fenced in acres and acres of corn. It’s like a giant corn gulag. I can only surmise that the neighbors got sick of long dead baseball players coming out of the corn at night to play baseball in on their lawns.

Corn Gulag

Corn Gulag

Corn Gulag

Corn Gulag

It’s bag worm time again. Every year we get this little buggers on our hedges and they wreak havoc. Time to call the exterminator. Here’s one of them up close and personal.

Bag Worm

Here’s a bunch of them destroying a section of hedge.

Bag Worm

As if the bag worms weren’t trouble enough, we’re still recovering from the damage caused by our recent visit from the cicadas. The cicadas lay their eggs in the thin branches of trees, and then everything from that point on to the end of the branch dies. Trees all over this area have lost virtually all new growth and many have clumps of brown leaves hanging from branches. The more established trees will survive, but the very young trees may not. The new neighborhood near us has dozens of new trees planted and most of them suffered substantial damage. This first tree is in my front yard. Normally at this time of year you can’t see through it. Clearly it has suffered this year.

Bag Worm

These are other trees around my yard.You can see the brown leaf clumps everywhere.

Bag Worm

Bag Worm

Bag Worm

Ups and Downs of the Week

Red Sox – They lost 1st place to the Yankees and have sunk to 2-1/2 games back. But despite injuries and poor performances from some key players, they’re still showing some signs of life. Once interleague play is over and they get the majority of the starters healthy, they might return to their winning ways.

Poor Timing – Our refrigerator died Thursday night, so we had to grab a floor model from Home Depot in order to have a fridge over the long weekend. We could have saved a bundle by using the discount I get at work from Whirlpool, but that would have meant no fridge for a week or more. Not an option.

New Refrigerator – On the Upside, we now have a very nice 22 cu. ft. LG fridge. Lots of space and very quiet. We need a trip to Trader Joe’s over in Indy to buy stuff to fill it up.

Long Weekend – Happy Fourth of July everyone.

Ups and Downs of the Week

Red Sox – Playing better lately. Especially the starting pitching. They still leave way too many runners on base, though. Games that should be blowouts turn into close games.

Donald Trump – Does this jackass actually have a purpose in life? You’re fired, meathead.

Bruins – Came back from 2 games down to tie the series.

John McCain/Libya – No we do not need to get more involved in the Libyan civil war.

Ups and Downs of the Week

Japan Earthquake/Tsunami – What a horror show. The images and videos are unreal. Such devastation. And yet a surprisingly low fatality count (so far). That shows how well the Japanese were prepared and how well they build their buildings. This was the strongest earthquake ever recorded in Japan, which is saying a lot. And yet their cities are still standing. Amazing. They have a huge cleanup ahead of them and there is still a concern about the nuclear power plants, but it appears their preparation and building codes saved countless lives.

Illinois Politics – The governor abolishes the death penalty, which is a good thing, and then signs the Amazon tax bill, which is sheer stupidity and arrogance considering the overwhelming evidence that this bill will hurt the state, not help it. So we’re 50/50 on the day. One step forward, one step back.

Habs Hockey Fans – So the Montreal Canadians fans called 911 to report an assault because one of their players got checked in an NHL hockey game? What’s next, reports of speeding at the Grand Prix of Canada? Give me a break.

 

Ups and Downs of the Week

Sam Adams Noble Pils – Glad they brought it back. Good stuff.

Sam Adams Noble Pils

NFL – While state workers and teachers are in danger of losing their livelihoods in the name of balancing state budgets, the NFL prima donnas on both sides of the table are arguing over how best to split up their billions. Something is very wrong here.

Springtime – Still one more snow storm coming, I think. But the days are getting longer and warmer and soon we’ll be into DST.

Oil Prices – Supply and demand have been pretty stable, but the price of oil climbs by the minute, mostly due to speculator fears (read: greed). “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” Indeed.

Ups and Downs of the Week

Being sick – I went to my doctor’s office for a quick check of BP on Monday and started feeling awful on Wednesday. Coincidence? Maybe. Nonetheless I’m battling the worst cold I’ve had in years. I hate being sick. We’ve had awesome weather the last few days, too. And I’ve been stuck inside feeling miserable. Thank God for Nyquil.

Nick Heidfeld/Robert Kubica – Renault confirmed this week that veteran F1 driver Nick Heidfeld will be replacing the injured Robert Kubica as their primary driver for a good part if not all of the 2011 season. It’s great to see a talented driver like Heidfeld back in the field, but it still sucks that Kubica is not because of his injuries. I wish Kubica a speedy recovery and Heidfeld an outstanding season.

Ups and Downs of the Week

Verizon – Just dumped our landline connection through our cable company and ported the number over to Verizon. So now we pay $10/mo for a house phone instead of $30. We would have had  it working through our new Bluetooth base and extension phones if it weren’t for…

UPS – Ok, I’ll spot them two days for the weather. But things that were due to be delivered on Tuesday should have been delivered today. Now we have to wait until Monday due to “Emergency conditions beyond UPS’ control.” What a crock of shit. How about Piss Poor Prior Planning. Seems to me UPS should have been able to adjust for a few bad weather days. I used to drive for UPS in Germany. We never seemed to have a problem covering bad weather days. And Fedex delivered today. No excuses for not delivering packages that have been at the local UPS center for three days.

Verizon Mifi – Due to icing and downed power lines, we lost our normal internet connection for three days this week. The Mifi kept us in touch with the outside world.

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