Friday, September 09, 2005
Cleaning out the Cupboard
So, last (full) day in God's Country - a.k.a. Rhode Island (check!) on this wonderful Friday.
Spent last night in front of two television sets. The one on the left had the World Champion Boston Red Sox (check!); the one on the right had the Two-time Defending World Champion New England Patriots (check!). Two tv's over were the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. In front of me was a tall Miller Lite (well, I guess that needs to become a new checkmark...) and barbeque chicken nachos. To my right were Matty and Jeffy. That, my little precious, is a good setup.
Pats won, D-Rays won, Sox lost. With all apologies - not to Meatloaf for stealing his line, but to myself for having to use Senor Loaf's quote - two outta three ain't bad.
At the half, we departed and headed home. A hug and a handshake to the fellas and then vamoose. Was it sad? No, not really.
Despite the halfway Horatio Alger excursion that begins tomorrow around 7:30 a.m., it's not really a big deal.
The life I've chosen, the professional path I've laid - no matter if I'm in the Inner Harbor, Outer Banks, Upper Peninsula, or Down Under (check!) - my schedule is hectic and busy. This, to me, feels more like the end of a vacation, not the end of some sort of era. With apologies to Gavin DeGraw, this is start of something good (don't you agree?).
But regardless, this is the last bit of Northeast living I'll have in a while, at least until the road trips start. So I'm firing up the grilled tuna tonight and playing golf this afternoon at Newport National.
But what does playing golf have to do with the Northeast? Don't they have golf in Mil'waii (my morph of Milwaukee and Hawaii)? Answers, in order: I'll explain and; yes, they do.
Golf makes me mad (on occasion) and at National, if you don't carry your drives 220-230, you get the pleasure of hitting out of waist-high fescue and risk lyme disease on 18 separate occasions. So this should get all those dreaded four-letter words out of my lexicon, as I'm noticing that very few Midwesterners use the eff-word (which loyal readers know means "shampoo" here on TLBR) as a noun, pronoun, verb, adverb, adjective, and participal like we N'easterners do.
But, don't worry, I'm seeing a buddhist about it.
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Been listening to WEEI all week. While usually maddening with some of the asinine callers and firestarters, the Dennis & Callahan bits about Raider fans; the playing of Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" to Michael Holley re: the Pats; and the playing of the Michigan fight song everytime Hawk alum Pete Sheppard talks about Tom Brady is just good humor.
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Over the last few weeks, with the packing mechanism in full force, lots of unused stuff has ended up at the Salvation Army. Obviously, with the events in the Gulf over the last two weeks, I hope and pray that stuff has gone to good use. Old sneakers, t-shirts, shorts, pants, and sweaters in trash bags that I either had no use or space for will hopefully find a second life for the folks who have been so adversely affected.
In a small state like Rhode Island, the state that's a half-hour by 45 minutes, the groundswell of support and help that my fine fellow citizens have shown is so encouraging. Back in the day, RI used to have a huge Navy presence. But since we've voted Democrat virtually every year since we became a colony (I think they went Reagan in 1984, but I'm not sure. It's a relatively educated guess, as 49 of the 50 did...), Nixon closed most of our Navy bases.
Like donated clothes, shoes, etc. to the Salvation Army get new lives, so do the bases. Over 500 Hurrican victims landed here in our state and they're expecting up to 400 more.
Welcome. Enjoy yourself. And no matter how long you stay, you're home.
-----
One.
Spent last night in front of two television sets. The one on the left had the World Champion Boston Red Sox (check!); the one on the right had the Two-time Defending World Champion New England Patriots (check!). Two tv's over were the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. In front of me was a tall Miller Lite (well, I guess that needs to become a new checkmark...) and barbeque chicken nachos. To my right were Matty and Jeffy. That, my little precious, is a good setup.
Pats won, D-Rays won, Sox lost. With all apologies - not to Meatloaf for stealing his line, but to myself for having to use Senor Loaf's quote - two outta three ain't bad.
At the half, we departed and headed home. A hug and a handshake to the fellas and then vamoose. Was it sad? No, not really.
Despite the halfway Horatio Alger excursion that begins tomorrow around 7:30 a.m., it's not really a big deal.
The life I've chosen, the professional path I've laid - no matter if I'm in the Inner Harbor, Outer Banks, Upper Peninsula, or Down Under (check!) - my schedule is hectic and busy. This, to me, feels more like the end of a vacation, not the end of some sort of era. With apologies to Gavin DeGraw, this is start of something good (don't you agree?).
But regardless, this is the last bit of Northeast living I'll have in a while, at least until the road trips start. So I'm firing up the grilled tuna tonight and playing golf this afternoon at Newport National.
But what does playing golf have to do with the Northeast? Don't they have golf in Mil'waii (my morph of Milwaukee and Hawaii)? Answers, in order: I'll explain and; yes, they do.
Golf makes me mad (on occasion) and at National, if you don't carry your drives 220-230, you get the pleasure of hitting out of waist-high fescue and risk lyme disease on 18 separate occasions. So this should get all those dreaded four-letter words out of my lexicon, as I'm noticing that very few Midwesterners use the eff-word (which loyal readers know means "shampoo" here on TLBR) as a noun, pronoun, verb, adverb, adjective, and participal like we N'easterners do.
But, don't worry, I'm seeing a buddhist about it.
-----
Been listening to WEEI all week. While usually maddening with some of the asinine callers and firestarters, the Dennis & Callahan bits about Raider fans; the playing of Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" to Michael Holley re: the Pats; and the playing of the Michigan fight song everytime Hawk alum Pete Sheppard talks about Tom Brady is just good humor.
-----
Over the last few weeks, with the packing mechanism in full force, lots of unused stuff has ended up at the Salvation Army. Obviously, with the events in the Gulf over the last two weeks, I hope and pray that stuff has gone to good use. Old sneakers, t-shirts, shorts, pants, and sweaters in trash bags that I either had no use or space for will hopefully find a second life for the folks who have been so adversely affected.
In a small state like Rhode Island, the state that's a half-hour by 45 minutes, the groundswell of support and help that my fine fellow citizens have shown is so encouraging. Back in the day, RI used to have a huge Navy presence. But since we've voted Democrat virtually every year since we became a colony (I think they went Reagan in 1984, but I'm not sure. It's a relatively educated guess, as 49 of the 50 did...), Nixon closed most of our Navy bases.
Like donated clothes, shoes, etc. to the Salvation Army get new lives, so do the bases. Over 500 Hurrican victims landed here in our state and they're expecting up to 400 more.
Welcome. Enjoy yourself. And no matter how long you stay, you're home.
-----
One.
