The Olympic Marathon Trials OR Let’s Just Leave the Supreme Court Out Of This

Tags

money, olympic marathon trials, Running, TV

Watched the Olympic Marathon trials from the West coast Saturday afternoon while here on the East coast.  This which coast thing is important so stay with me.

Watched the whole broadcast from top to bottom, stem to stern, front to back inside and out.

The Men’s race kicked  off at 10 am PTLTSAMT  (Pacific too late to start a marathon time) and the Women followed later at around 10:15 am local time which is also too late to start a marathon anywhere, anytime, anyhow.

And why you might ask? Isn’t say 8am a good time to start a marathon anywhere?  There are two reasons why not.  They are called TV and TV Money.  You probably do have a TV but not TV Money.

You see, TV and TV Money which are the source and cure for all of our problems decided that I wanted to watch the trials at 1pm in my basement on Saturday afternoon instead of at 11 am which would have been the viewing time had the race started at a reasonable hour.

Reason has no pull when it comes to TV and TV Money.  Witness countless World Series games trudging  into the seventh inning at 11 pm and later at that precious east coast time.

I rest my case and I’m leaving the Supreme Court out of this.

 

 

The Black Ice of Life

Tags

age, Beach Boys, getting older, ice, summer

I was carpooling this morning across what used to be the mighty and still lovely Susquehanna, before it was all dammed up, as snow flurries began to fall.

The sky was grey, the highway was slowly turning white and many cars were covered with a white and grey with a combination of snow, slush and road salt.

It was a ghostly looking caravan made a bit more treacherous because some of my fellow drivers neglected to turn on their car’s headlights, fog lights, tail lights or any other illumination required by law when using windshield wipers.

Some regulations appear to merely suggestions or just plain optional depending on the IQ and common sense of the driver.  In both cases low and lacking.  Great title for a future post I think.

In an attempt to pretend it was once again 80 degrees and once again July, 1963 I tossed this little gem into the cd player.

As me and my buddy ruminated on our respected ages, declining incomes, general desire NOT to work anymore and our collective inability to understand the current world at least the music brought us back to a simpler time when our roads ahead and our visions were clear, as opposed to the increasingly streak smudged windshield I was peering through.

And then in a flash of insight ( I thought so anyways) as we were talking about how great things used to be I somehow married our discussion with the weather and said something like:”  When we were young our whole lives were stretched out ahead of us just like this road except we couldn’t have possibly known about the Black Ice patches that lay ahead.

Boom – Dead silence and an aha moment.

Life is kinda filled with patches of Black Ice I suppose although it goes by many other names but this morning Black Ice seemed appropriate enough.  Some of those rough spots are of our own making and I take responsibility for those.

It’s the ones you never expect when you’re cruising along with the top down and radio blasting.

Freezing rain tonight followed by temps in the 40’s tomorrow.

I can’t wait until it’s 80 degrees and July 1963 again.

Super Thoughts on the Super Bowl

Ya got your winners and losers.  It was a boring game.  I’ve seen better football played between the Bills and Jets.  Grade D

Commercials – Constipation or diarrhea take your pick. Grade D

The Super Bowl baby commercials were vaguely disturbing to say the least.  What are we trying to say?  Who Cares?  Grade F

Every blow ’em up movie trailer looked interchangeable with similar special effects and plot lines.  All the commercials I saw may have been for the same movie.  Hard to differentiate between super heroes, super villains and explosions.  Grade F

Halftime show colors and visuals looked like a tribute to Sgt. Pepper.  Grade C only because of my vague reference to Beatles, otherwise D.

Pre game Blue Angels flyover – Grade B only because while a flyover is exciting I have to wonder as a taxpayer what it cost me to have those jets circling over Encino until we hear ” And the Home of the Brave.”  Internet estimates for flyover price tag between 100,000 and 450,000 dollars.  You’re welcome NFL.

All commercials and movies which make animals talk and sell anything should be banned forever.

In the pretentious category the NFL gets an A+.  Hands down, no contest.

And finally this is the question we all ask as soon as the game ends:

” When do pitchers and catchers report?” Grade A+++++++

PS – It’s February 18, 2016.

Play Ball, and the home of the Brave!!! ( no flyover required)

 

I Tried

Tags

humor

I tried to teach our cat how to wink.

The cat thought I was nuts.

It does not wink.

It probably thinks I have a neurological disorder.

 

 

Ioaw

Tags

humor, politics

Ok, so I misspelled Iowa.  Catchy little trick though dontcha think?

Here are the results from last night’s vote-fest in no particular order with quotes suitable for framing:

1 – I won.

2 – I came in second so I won.

3 – I came in third so I won.

4 – I need clean clothes.

5 – I’m out.

6 -Suspending my campaign which means I can still accept donations.

7 -My vote total works out to around three grand per vote.

8 – A tie is a win.

9 – Bonus – Reader special – Fill in the blank your own bad self.

10 – Thank goodness, no more pretending to like corn dogs and moon pies.

Iowa – Please Make It Stop

Hold the damn caucuses already.  I don’t want to hear about light voter turnout because of inclement weather or darkness.  Vote for someone, anyone out of a sense of self preservation to get that traveling freak show out of your state.  Make it New Hampshire’s problem on Tuesday.

Somewhere during my upbringing and subsequent misspent youth I was told, taught and generally informed that lying was pretty much a thing I wasn’t supposed to do.  I’ve kept to those precepts as I have travelled life’s highway.

Judging from what I’ve heard and been reading about the goings on in Iowa lying is the new truth.

I have nothing against Iowa, I spent a couple of wonderful years in the Hawkeye state.  I loved ” The Music Man” and saw ” Field of Dreams” twice and read the book ” Shoeless Joe” upon which the movie is based.  Even bought my copy of the book at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.  OK, that is pretty much an irrelevant sidebar.

I have it on good authority that Iowans being possessors of good common sense will vote next week to no longer have the first primary vote in the nation.  Utah – It’s your turn.

Apparently Iowans are fed up with tour busses plastered with gaudy and meaningless political slogans crisscrossing their state.  They are tired of having their innumerable small town coffee shops and citizens used as props in a game.

Iowa’s new state motto  – Where politicians make promises they don’t intend to keep, soon to be the new motto of New Hampshire.