Because my current laptop was unable to show me this, Matt Kemp's terrific, Willie Mays reminiscent catch to end the Dodgers-Brewers game Friday night:

( Behind the curtain... )

...thinking about the countryside and sunny days in June. Or July. Whatever.

I am actually sitting in a hotel room, a very nice efficiency at a Candlewood Suites in Burlington, MA. Only $50 per night, which is a terrific deal around these parts. The place is very new, and has all sorts of amenities included in the price, like the full kitchen in the room, free washers and dryers, and free DVDs available for checkout from the desk. The only sort of normal thing that isn't available is wireless internet, but they hand you an ethernet cable when you check in. How do they do it? The one obvious thing is that housecleaning only cleans your room once a week, which is fine with me. That's still way more often than I clean at home. If you need clean towels, you can get more at the desk. The only negative in the whole experience so far is that the desk/table is a bit too high, maybe 36" or so versus a more normal 30", which makes typing or writing a bit uncomfortable. Some one shorter than me might need to sit on a phone book to make it work.

I am here on a little two-night mini-vacation while I attend Readercon 20. I could've just driven up each day, but while it wouldn't quite cost me $50 a day in gas, it wouldn't be a lot less, and I certainly wouldn't have to deal with the bumper-to-bumper on Rt. 128 like I did Friday morning. I did this last year, too, although just for one night. That was in a much shabbier hotel in Bedford, the next town over. The main reason I stayed there was that it was within easy riding distance of the north end of the Minuteman bike path.

Friday was spent at the con, which went well into the evening, so there wasn't much in the way of side travel. Saturday morning I was up bright an early, so I drove to Bedford to get in a ride on the Minuteman path. I rode as far as Arlington Center, where the path disappears for a bit. To get to where it starts up again for the rest of the trip to Alewife one has to ride along Mass Ave through an incredibly busy intersection (being the center of town and all). Been there, done that, experienced the terror, so I decided to skip that part.

Spent more time at the con, but apart for some special evening events (a rock concert, for one) I found myself with nothing to do after 4:00. This was the point last year when I took my ride, but since that was already done, I just drove around for awhile, and shopped. Got a 1 TB portable hard drive at BJ's for $80, which is amazing to me. Stopped in at the local Barnes and
Noble, and the local Borders for awhile. I also found a place called the "Used Book Superstore," where I picked up a copy of the Landmark Books edition of The Battle of Britain to add to my small collection of other Landmark Books I had when I was a boy. I also looked at netbooks and laptops at Staples. I'm typing this on Slick, a ten year-old laptop running Win98, and it's about time for a replacement. Slick has soldiered on for more years than I had a right to expect when I bought it, but it just can't handle a lot of modern web sites.

After that it was dinner in the bar at the Outback while watching the Royals play one of the worst innings of baseball I've ever seen versus the Sawx. The shortstop chucked a ball into right field, the catcher chucked one into center, and the left fielder, after actually catching a ball, began running in to the dugout with it thinking it was the third out. But it wasn't. Oops.

We had a rainstorm last night, but it seems to have cleared out. I will look at the con schedule again, but last I looked there was nothing there to interest me this morning. I may head over to Concord to visit the bridge and take a few photos, then perhaps stop on the way home at Blackstone Valley for a ride.

Previously in the Plentiful Vintage: It rained for forty days and forty nights, and our hero had to shell out a lot of (fairly moldy) dough to get new tires and a battery for the Machinamobile. Also, it was air show week.

( Two weeks... )

No, not the stuff my father grows in his backyard that none of the rest of us will eat. Rich Lederer presents a fifty year-old piece of audio of Vin Scully describing one of the all-time great rhubarbs of the baseball variety involving the Dodgers. The setting is the Los Angeles Coliseum, one of the most oddly laid out ball fields ever. The left field foul pole was only 251' from home, 50+ feet closer than Fenway's famous wall. Because of the nearness, a 42' high screen was raised at the fence from the foul pole out to left center to keep routine fly balls from become dramatic, game-changing home runs. And because of the quirks in the set up, some bizarre ground rules were devised that seemed to make matters even worse.

And, of course, it had to be against the Giants...

"It's a fight, a blow-by-blow verbal battle."

- Vin Scully, June 30, 1959

Rich provides both the clip and a transcription.

Reading the transcript really makes clear what a remarkable piece of reportage this is, considering that Scully was doing the whole thing on the fly. Just keeping track of all the participants is something. And what participants! Willie Mays sets the whole thing off. Besides manager Walter Alston for the Dodgers there's Gil Hodges and Don Drysdale, and Don Zimmer, when he was still a stick-thin shortstop with cable-like veins in his neck rather than the chubby old gerbil who sat next to Joe Torre in the Yankee dugout.

The umpires look really bad here, because not only did they change their original call, they had to change it a second time when Alston (apparently) pointed out the correct, albeit bizarre) ground rule that changed a home run into a ground rule double. On the other hand, what's even more amazing is that no one was tossed from the game.

The umpires looked even worse later in the same season, when something similar happened in an even bigger spot. From the Wikipedia article on the Coliseum:

The Milwaukee Braves were playing the Dodgers in the Coliseum on September 15, 1959, and Joe Adcock hit a ball that cleared the screen but hit a steel girder behind it and got stuck in the mesh. According to the ground rules, this should have been a home run. However, the umpires ruled it a ground-rule double. Then the fans shook the screen, causing the ball to fall into the seats. The umpires changed the call to a homer, only to change their minds again and rule it a ground-rule double. Adcock was left stranded on second. The game was tied at the end of nine innings and the Dodgers won it in the tenth inning. At the end of the regular season, the Dodgers and Braves finished in a tie. The Dodgers won the ensuing playoff and went on to win the World Series. If Adcock's hit had been ruled a home run, the Braves may have won the game and could have gone on to win the pennant by one game.

"One of the most important things I've learned in my life is that you never want to be an agenda item at a meeting to which you're not invited."

-Craig Calcaterra of Shysterball, on the anticipated firing of Indians manager Eric Wedge.

The air show is this weekend, and the performers have started to drift in. Team Oracle was the first in, doing a practice run yesterday at lunch in miserable weather. Today they were moving some corporate jets from their usual parking places to spots away from the expected throngs of people who'll be wandering around on the tarmac. I also noticed that Blue Angel #7 was parked over at the ANG end of the field.

This year the show will have both the Blue Angels and the Canadian Forces Snow Birds. I was planning on going until I realized that my niece and nephew's graduation party (HS and 8th grade, resp.) is on Saturday, which means I ought to go to NJ. Bother.

It was an expensive evening. Drove up to Sears and got new tires, a new battery, and an oil change. The one plus was that my five year-old Die Hard was warranted for seven, so I got $36 bucks off the new one. I hadn't had my truck serviced at Sears since I got the battery. I used to go there all the time when I had my Subaru, mostly because the Sub went through a lot tires and Sears sells Bridgestones, and also because they're open in the evening. TirePros, where I usually get the truck serviced isn't open at night. Also, no batteries, and the truck desperately needed a new one. Twice in the last week it was stone dead when I tried to start it in the morning. Fortunately I picked up a portable jump start battery last year, and it paid off big time this week.

The biggest difference between going to Sears for service now as opposed to five years ago is that you used to be able to while away the waiting by wandering through the RI Mall. These days, though, the mall is a ghost town. Other than Sears, only a couple of storefronts remain occupied, and none of those are the usual mall chains that used to inhabit the place. The only place that was at all crowded wasn't even a store, but the local office of the motor vehicle registry. This isn't the fault of the economy, either. This particular mall has been withering on the vine for several years. There were only a couple of more stores open two years ago. It's as though the owner has been deliberately driving out his tenants.

...So WTF is up with the frickin' weather?




Check the wind velocity. I'm pretty sure I just saw Margaret Hamilton float by my front window on a bicycle. Meanwhile, my iGoogle weather widget is telling me that the winds are from the SE at 6 mph. Not bloody likely.

It was like this yesterday, as well, although not nearly as windy. I was going to take a ride around threeish, but decided to check the weather first. There was a huge patch of green just starting at the RI/CT border on the radar map, so I figured it would hit us within the hour and opted forego the ride. When it still wasn't raining by four, I took another look, and the patch hadn't moved. Same thing at five. It finally started raining as I was lighting the grill for dinner around 6:30. Is it any wonder people hate meteorologists? Even when they are just robot sensors they lie like expensive Persian rugs.

---
In garden news, the potted gardenia I bought at Schartner's last week is currently laying on its side on the front steps, with the bottom of the pot pointed into the wind. Even the flora are hunkering down. In the tomato patch, the tomatoes seem to be doing well, and the spaghetti squash seeds I planted a week ago or so are now robust little seedlings. On the other hand (you know, the one with the black thumb), the musk melons are deader than things that are dead. The first inch or so of stem nearest the ground just shriveled away. I had something similar happen to the melons plants I put out last year, too, so I suspect some sort of plant disease is occurring.

When I got the gardenia, Schartner's was clearing a lot of stuff out, so I also bought a pot of some sort of daisies, and a pot with some sort of alleged perennial that looks suspiciously like marigolds. I also bought a couple of packs of marigolds. The daisies went into the one spot at the top of the driveway where last year's pansies didn't come back. The marigolds and marigold-like flowers went into the circle around the cherry tree.

Wow! Two sunny weekdays in a row, and I was able to ride both nights. I'm very tired right now, because this evening's ride was a longish road ride (rougher pavement and way more ups and downs that a path ride), and I continued to push my pace. I'll thank myself tomorrow. I'm sure of it...

It still seems a bit too cool for June, despite all the sunshine. Temps in the sixties yesterday, and right around 70° today. That all sounds reasonable, and I, as a hater of hot weather should love it, but I still had to wear my fleece pullover on both rides to be comfortable. I think part of it is that there was no humidity either night (again something that I rarely complain about), so it felt a lot cooler.

The weather continues to play havoc with my riding routine. I only managed to get one ride in during the week, sneaking one in Wednesday during a brief gap in the raininess. Not only was it wet, but it was also chilly enough that I had to layer up for the ride. Even wore my full fingered gloves, and was seriously considering the ear clamp. Doesn't Mother Nature realize that the summer solstice is next weekend?

Then the weekend finally arrived, and with it came some warmth. Well, humidity, mostly, which made the high sixties-low seventies temperatures feel a little warmer. Yesterday when I rode it was in shorts and a t-shirt, and I was still sweating like crazy. I've been pushing myself a little harder on individual rides lately, because I haven't been sure if I'm going to be able to ride two days in a row. My average speeds have been going up, and yesterday I was flying. Broke 14 mph for a 16 mile ride. The last time I broke 14 mph was in 1993, and that was only a 12 mile ride on my old road bike. Go me!

When I woke up this morning it was pouring, and the forecast was for rain most of the day, so I assumed there'd be no ride. But it cleared up some around noon, and although it was still mostly cloudy, it wasn't actively wet. It was cooler than yesterday. My legs were a little sore, too, but I still managed a pretty good pace. The path was jammed with people, although not many acted as speed bumps. As my legs unstiffened, I was feeling pretty good. Then I rounded a curve and nearly rode head-on into a couple of tweens riding on the wrong side of the path while looking at everything but what was in front of them. If it had just been the two of them, I would've just gone to the left side of the path, but their respective fathers and a couple of their sibs were riding there (like they were supposed to). I couldn't go right either, because that part of the path has a tall fence on that side. So I put on the brakes.

Have I mentioned how well the new brake pads I had installed last month work? Because they work great. Came to a full stop just short of hitting the suddenly wide-eyed kid who'd just frozen in the path when he saw me. That should've been it, but when I tried to put my foot down on the ground to steady myself as the fathers started yelling at their kids, it got stuck in the toe clip. I lost my balance and fell off the bike sideways into the fence. The fence kept me from hitting the ground, and apart from some slight bruising of my forearm, I was fine. The parents apologized profusely, but I was more embarrassed than anything, and got going as soon as the kids cleared a path.

After that, the ride spiraled downhill. There was more speed bump behavior by another family clump, and some sprinkles started coming down, so I cut the ride a little shorter than I'd planned. When I got home I mowed the lawn instead.

...got me up again at 4:30*. I stuck a foam plug in my ear, buried my other ear in the pillow, and briefly fell back asleep until 5:00. Then it started raining, which quieted the birds somewhat but brought it's own form of noise, and my back started complaining, and I was up for good. Now I have coffee.

* A couple of weeks ago I purposely got up before dawn to look at the Venus-Mars conjunction, and the racket outside was incredible. It's one thing to hear it solely from the direction of the single open window in my bedroom, and quite another to be out in the open in a neighborhood surrounded by evil thicket. It was a very Tippi Hedren moment.

It was the same story yesterday, albeit without the rain. I just don't get it. I don't have this problem on weekdays. Just on days when I don't set the alarm, apparently. When I do set the alarm, I may briefly wake up in the vicinity of dawn, but then I roll over and go back to sleep until it goes off at 6:25. And then I hit the snooze button and sleep for another nine minutes. Stoopid brain.

---
Here's another terrific Posnanski post, this one on the battle between writers and editors.

---
Andruw Jones feels he was disrespected by the Dodgers, especially owner Frank McCourt, last season.

"He wasn't standing behind me, I think," Jones said, adding that if McCourt had shown him more respect, "I almost definitely would be part of the L.A. Dodgers right now."

This from a man who signed a contract for $36 million dollars, then showed up massively overweight and out of shape for spring training. Who batted .158, with an OPS+ of 34. OPS+ is on-base pct. plus slugging pct. normalized for ballpark effects. An OPS+ of 100 is average. Jones's OPS+ last year was one of the worst in baseball history. There are a lot of pitchers who have had better seasons with the bat. And the only reason it was even that high was because he did manage to walk every ten plate appearances or so.

The Dodgers dumped Andruw in the off-season, but are still on the hook for the rest of the $36M. Jones hooked on with the Rangers, showed up to camp in shape, and his OPS+ currently sits at 125. I'm with McCourt on this one. Andruw deserves whatever lack of respect can be heaped upon him. He basically defrauded the organization of $36M. I haven't disliked a former Dodger player so much since Darryl Strawberry decided to put his salary up his nose.

So, no Andruw, you wouldn't still be part of the Dodgers. The Dodgers currently have not one, but four outfielders better than you. Even Juan Pierre is a better player than you. Say what you will about his failings as a hitter, when he got sent to the bench last season he didn't sulk, he just made sure he stayed prepared for when he was needed.

Supper tonight was hot dogs and mozzarella sticks, with a banana for dessert.

Terrific piece by Joe Poznanski today on great athletes retiring, voluntarily or otherwise.

Does it really matter? Maybe we make too much of endings. I suppose it’s because we are conditioned to wanting our movies and television shows and novels and songs to end in a satisfying way. We want the giant “GOODBYE” spelled out in rocks as the helicopter pulls away, like the final episode of M*A*S*H.* We want Suzanne Pleshette to be under the covers at the end of Newhart. We want Bruce Willis to be … um … and we want Keyzer Soze to be … and we want Snape to be … well, wait, you might not have finished those.

"I think you overestimate our dear Viennese, my friend," Salieri said to Mozart in the movie. "Do you know you didn’t even give them a good bang at the end of songs so they knew when to clap?"

But sports are not like the movies or television or books or songs. The best stuff in sports generally happens in the middle, after an athlete has learned the game but before skills have faded and frayed.

Poz may be the best baseball writer on the planet right now.

Big Finish
 

Man, I am wicked tired. The getting up at 5:15 doesn't help, but the mowing the lawn in the hot sun followed by 19 miles on the bike over at windy Quonset in the, ok, the high was only 74°, so warm, sun have done me in. Part of the ride was along the soon to be opened Quonset bike path, which follows the Camp Thomas perimeter road. I used to ride the perimeter road when it was nought but an overgrown trail, so it's really kind of disorienting now that it's paved and, you know, clear. I wish I had taken some pictures back there in the old days. I did take pictures today which I shall put up at some point.

One thing that surprised me is the the old service road out to Calf Pasture Point doesn't seem to be part of the project. It's ridable, but there have been no improvements. Plus, the annoying pair of gates are still in place to be negotiated on foot.

I should drag myself to bed, but it's Dodgers versus the Phils tonight on ESPN, so maybe I'll stretch out of the couch instead.

Ah, circadian rhythms, you are a cruel master. I've been up with the sunrise the past couple of days, my eyes popping open for good somewhere between 5 and 5:30 in the frelling A.M. I've been hitting the sack between 10 and 11, so it hasn't been that bad. I was up at 5:15 this morning, for example. Went into the kitchen, ground some coffee, put water in the coffee maker, dumped the ground coffee into a filter, put the filter in the basket inside the maker, hit the switch, and went over to the computer to read the Sunday funnies. Five minutes later I went back over to pour myself some coffee, and noticed that there were coffee and grounds all over the kitchen counter. I'd completely missed the step of putting the actual coffee pot under the basket, and since the basket couldn't drain, it overflowed.

---
The weather continues to be ridiculously chilly and wet. I considered turning the furnace back on one day last week. Doesn't mama nature know it's June? Even yesterday was cool, although the humidity made it feel warmer than it was. Today looks good so far, though. Very sunny.

Last weekend was pretty nice, too. I planted the tomato patch last Saturday. Just four plants, two reds (Better Boy and Beefmaster), a cherry (Patio), and an heirloom yellow (Brandywine), along with a pair of muskmelons. I got the melons and Brandywine at Schartner's, the others at the Depot. The Depot had single plants, as opposed to Schartner's four-packs, so although the price per plant was higher there, the overall cost was lower. The Depot's plants were from a local grower, and much cheaper (less than half the price) than the national brand they (and Wal-Mart and Lowes) also carry. I wanted to try spaghetti squash, but couldn't find any plants. I have some seeds, but I never got around to starting them.

I also hacked back the bush that sprang up from the root system of the Bradford pear that crashed to earth a couple of years ago. I'd originally let it grow in order to replace the lost tree, but then the town planted the new cherry tree in the same location. My next plan was to take the strongest stem and transplant it elsewhere in the yard, but I never got around to it. So the shrub grew. The cherry is doing famously, but the pear was also running riot (you can see it in the background here), and some of the stems were already taller than me. It was starting to crowd the cherry, so clearly something had to be done. So I took the loppers to it, and cut out all the stems but one. That one I'm going to try to move elsewhere. I'm not sure how easy that will be. It's growing out of a twenty year-old root system, so I may not be able to hack it out of there without seriously damaging it, or even be able to do it at all. If I can't do it, it'll have to get lopped, too. We'll see.

Your results:
You are An Expendable Character (Redshirt)

An Expendable Character (Redshirt) 95% Geordi LaForge 60% Worf 55% Spock 54% Data 54% Chekov 50% Uhura 50% Jean-Luc Picard 50% Leonard McCoy (Bones) 45% Beverly Crusher 45% James T. Kirk (Captain) 30% Mr. Scott 25% Mr. Sulu 25% Deanna Troi 25% Will Riker 20%

Since your accomplishments are seldom noticed, and you are rarely thought of, you are expendable. That doesn't mean your job isn't important but if you were in Star Trek you would be killed off in the first episode you appeared in.

Click here to take the "Which Star Trek character am I?" quiz...


It's a fair cop...

So, after much delay, bike shop guy finally rebuilt my rear wheel, broken since September. And he was also finally able to find a pair of the tires I ordered back in March. I went over there Saturday to get the wheel and new tires put on, as well as getting the bike the tune up it's been badly needing.

The first order of business was to take my set of gears off the loaner wheel I've been using and put back onto my wheel. Except they didn't fit. I have nine gears on my bike, but the replacement hub he used is only long enough to fit eight of them.* Bozhe moi! So he took the high-tech rear wheel off his own bike, which does fit nine, and put my gear set on that. He figures that'll provide him some incentive to not let the thing hang around very long.

* The loaner wheel had the same problem. It's not really a critical issue since I almost never use my smallest gear, but it's the principle.

The rest of the visit went well. I have the new tires installed. That had become an issue because I've had two flats on the old set since I ordered the new ones. The rubber was really getting thin. He also gave me a third tire and a couple of new tubes gratis because it took so long. The rear brakes needed new pads, so he installed and adjusted them. The rear derailleur got adjusted and the cables all got lubed. Took the bike for a test ride, and it was like having a new bike.

---
All that effort was put to good use yesterday when I headed over to Block Island with the volleyball crew. We were a little worried at first, because it started raining as we were boarding the ferry at Pt. Judith, but fortunately we didn't get any rain while on the island. We didn't get a lot of sun, either, but it still turned out to be a decent day. The temperature was right around 70°, and it was breezy, but the riding was pleasant enough, even on the long climb up to Southwest Light. Good time.

The weather has been playing havoc with my attempts to settle into a riding routine. Lots of rainy (or ridiculously windy) days punctuated by occasional single days of sunshine. Of course, all the rain has been making the grass grow almost fast enough to see the progress, so the occasional sunny day must needs be spent walking behind the lawn mower. It's exercise, but not really what I had in mind.

It was nice out last night, though, so I did manage to ride. When I'm in my routine, I rarely ride on Fridays. I usually use it as a day off before a couple of long rides on the weekend. However the weather patterns this year have had me riding on Friday a lot, and it's actually kind of nice. Very few people seem to use the path on Friday evenings. The rest of the world must all have lives.

I hadn't ridden since last Friday, but I was still surprised at how weak my legs felt on the first lap. At first I thought I might be pedaling into some wind, but the trees were barely moving and I wasn't doing much better on the inbound part of the lap, either. I did better on the second lap. Must have knocked some of the rust off the ol' muscles.

Need to get out more this week. Next weekend I'll be going to Block Island with friends, and I need to get the legs stronger for the climb up to Southwest Light.

---
In attempted Darwin award news, two men had to be rescued yesterday when their kayaks flipped as they tried to shoot the tubes at the Pratt Dam. This is the same dam where I witnessed a kid drown last November when his canoe capsized while he was trying to do the same thing. This time, at least, nobody died. Sheesh.

Last Wednesday night I did my usual weekday Dodger game routine. I clicked on the Dodger Gameday Audio feed at 10:05 p.m., stretched out on the couch, and started listening to Vin Scully. Eventually I dozed off, although it seemed that I woke anytime something significant occurred. I heard the Dodgers score the go-ahead run, and later heard Jonathan Broxton close out the game in the top of the ninth. I toddled off to bed happy. The team was on a serious roll. They had the best record in baseball, and the win had set a new modern major league record for home wins to start a season (13 straight). It was a good day to be a Dodger fan.

Thursday was much less good.

---
( Knuckleheads... )

Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar... - Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes — Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein

A short, small book illustrating philosophical principles through jokes, such as this one about relativity:
Pat: "Mike, I'm calling you from the freeway on my new cell phone."
Mike:"Be careful, Pat. They just said on the radio that there's a nut driving the wrong way on the freeway."
Pat: "One nut? Hell, there are hundreds of them!"

There's no depth, but it is pretty handy if one is looking for a quick description of, say, existentialism.

---
Small Favor — Jim Butcher

Dresden fights fallen angels and the billy goats gruff. Great fun, as usual.

The high school in my town has been closed because a student there showed flu symptoms today after returning from a vacation in Mexico. Let the hysteria commence!

Back in December as I was power shovelling out my driveway after one of the big snows we had, I had just finished clearing the end when a plow came by and closed me back in again. However, since I was standing right there, he took pity on an old man and came back around and cleared it back out. I was overjoyed. Except that it turns out that there ain't no such thing as a free plow out (TANSTAAFPO). When the snow finally melted many weeks later, I discovered that the plow had left behind a huge rut in my lawn as he cut across the end of the driveway. Couple that one up with a couple of ruts left alongside the driveway by the septic truck the winter before, and that part of the lawn was fast becoming incipient broken ankle territory.

So tonight I finally got around to doing something about it. I picked up four bags of top soil and a small bag of grass seed from the Depot, and started in. Three of the bags went into the big rut, and the fourth went into the others. Scattered some grass seed on top, then raked it in. Finally I hooked up the hose to the front spigot and watered the patch. Easy Peasy.*

* Well, except for the part where the water spigot is behind of the big rhododendrons out front of the house. This is normally not a problem, but just now they are fully in bloom, and are THE place to be if you're a bumblebee. Instead I had to work my way around the back of the juniper bush on the corner of the house, annoying because I'm slightly allergic to it.

---
The unseasonable warm weather over the weekend seems to have compressed the blooming cycles of my little ecosystem. Everything is fully in bloom. The tulips and the last of the daffodils all popped over the weekend, as did the Bradford pear. The rhododendrons are at peak, while the forsythia have just passed peak. It's all very pretty.

Had a very pleasant ride this evening on a day that was very pleasant weather-wise. Temperatures in the mid to high seventies, sunny, and no humidity. There were no speed bumps of note on the path, and despite scads of tiny fauna flitting about, no bugs were swallowed. Can't beat it.

Well, today it was wicked hot for April, reaching the mid-eighties. Very summery, with little shade from the trees yet to mitigate all that hot sun.

I drove up to the Blackstone Valley path for the first time this season. I did this with a bit of trepidation. Last time I rode Blackstone, a young man became trapped in one of the tunnels under Pratt Dam, and drowned while rescue workers tried in vain to free him. I was worried about my reaction to the place where it happened, but it turns out I had little reaction at all. It was a quiet, sunny day, with no one around the spot, and no outward evidence that anything bad had ever happened. I sent a silent thought in the young man's direction and kept on going.

The path runs from Central Falls all the way up to Woonsocket now. I always start near the mid-point of the path, and head south first. The southern half is older, bumpier (tree roots have buckled the pavement upwards in spots), and more heavily trafficked. I felt really strong despite the heat, and made pretty good speed in some pretty high gears for me. Then I turned around to head north, and finally noticed the stiff breeze that had apparently been pushing me along so well. It was pretty much in my face all the way up to Woonsocket, and made for slow going.

Then, just a little south of the Woonsocket treatment plant, I saw a vehicle on the path ahead of me surrounded by a group of men. At first I thought they might be some clueless anglers (trout season just opened here) with an ATV, but as I got closer, I realized that they were rescue personnel, and that they were loading a stretcher onto the back of what turned out to be the groundskeeper's cart from the athletic field complex a little further on. Now I got weirded out. I was able to ride past as they were seeing to whomever it was, but I didn't rubberneck. The actual rescue vehicles were waiting at the treatment plant, and I saw one of the firemen propping up a bicycle. Now I'm wondering if its owner was the person on the stretcher.

By the time I got turned around at the north end and headed back (the new section that was under construction in the fall is now fully open), the rescue trucks had left. With the wind at my back again, the rest of the ride was easy.

When I got home, I looked to see if there was anything in the news about the incident,but there was nothing. I'm hoping no news is good news this time out.

Tweeting outside my window at 5:00 in the morning. Stoopid birds...

---
Wow, that sure was a short spring. We went from the last remnants of winter on Thursday (high 40's, rainy, windy) to full on summer yesterday (temperatures approaching 80), with even warmer temps due today.

I celebrated by doing the first mow of the season (and was stunned when the mower started up on the second pull), along with some other yardwork. I also swapped out the windows for screens on the storm doors and assembled the garden cart I picked up at the Depot a little while ago. A garden cart is basically a wagon with delusions of grandeur. It does have one feature that I would've killed for back when I was a kid hauling one brother or another around in our Radio Flyer. There's a handle on it that if pulled lets you dump the contents out the back. That would've been handy.

I'd actually gone looking to finally buy a wheel barrow, but as I was looking at the options in the store, I remembered all the times I'd managed to accidentally dump the contents of a wheel barrow after running into an inopportunely placed obstacle. Plus there is still a certain amount of lifting involved when using one, and I'm getting a little too old for that. The cart was in the same ballpark price-wise, and should do nicely for the kinds of toting I need to do around here. It was a bitch to put together, though, relying on very large-headed machine screws to be driven into very tight lock nuts for assembly. I was done by the time I was finished.

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I still need to do a couple of chores out there. I need to fill in the deep rut left in the lawn by the corner of the driveway when the kind snowplow driver plowed out the end of my driveway back in December. There are also still some ruts near it from when the septic truck drove over the lawn last year.

I also need to do something about a dead rhododendron. I have a line of shrubs along one side of the yard, alternating forsythias and small-leafed rhododendrons. The forsythia are three years old now, and doing splendidly. The rhododendrons are at least five years old, and aren't. They're barely bigger than when I planted them. One of them is totally dead. What's weird about it is that it was murdered rather than being a natural death. All the remaining branches were clipped below the leaves somehow, as if someone ran it over with a lawnmower. I know I didn't run it over. I'm pretty sure that C next door, who is way more into gardening than I am, would've told me if she'd accidentally hit it with the lawn tractor. That leaves either her boyfriend's kid, who occasionally does her lawn, or bunnies unknown. But if it was a bunny, why just that one and not the others. And my experience is that bunnies don't eat wooden stems, just leaves.

Anyway, I have one rhododendron that I planted near the flower bed at the head of the drive that's done even worse over the years than the others (albeit without dying), and this gives me the opportunity to move it to the ex-rhododendron's location. Today should be a good day for that.

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I also want to go for a ride. The weather's been so lousy that I haven't gotten out much at all. I did get out Friday, and swallowed my first bug of the season. Today I'm thinking about driving up to Blackstone for a ride before the thunder storms roll in.

The Yiddish Policemen's Union — Michael Chabon

Forget it, Meyer. It's Sitka.

Chabon carves an alternate history noir out of the notion that parts of Alaska might have been used to resettle Jewish refugees during WWII. It took awhile for me to get into the story, although much of that is probably that a lot of the Jewish text and subtext flew right over the head of this goy. But eventually the pages started turning. The mystery is a good one, although, as with much noir, the resolution is unsatisfying. Well worth reading.

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Lieutenant Hornblower — C.S.Forester

I've read most of the Sharpes, all of the Harringtons, the first Aubrey/Maturin, and most of the Leary/Mundy books, but this is the first time I've gone back and read one of the Hornblowers that inspired them all. I had read Forester's The Last Nine Days of the Bismarck when I was a kid, but nothing else. I had watched much of the Ioan Gruffudd series, as well as the Gregory Peck movie, but not at all recently.

It's an odd book. For one thing, it's told entirely from the point of view of Hornblower's friend Lieutenant Bush. This leads to there being occasional sections of the book, including one long section where Hornblower is given command of a prize and sent back to England, where the title character is hardly mentioned, much less seen. Then about three quarters of the way through the war ends (the Treaty of Amiens), and both Bush and Hornblower wind up on the beach at half pay. The rest of the book follows their adventures in peace time, to wit, Hornblower hustling whist while Bush looks on. Riveting stuff.

Still, it's an enjoyable read, and there's plenty of action in the first three quarters. After reading it, I mainlined Hornblower episodes, two of which are based on the book. The adaptations are mostly faithful to the book, with one big exception. What is a three page court of inquiry in the book turns into an episode length court martial for mutiny in the adaptation. That certainly added some tension that was lacking in the book, although I suppose the book version was more realistic. The producers also had the good sense to cut the last quarter of the book, and paste into into the first part of the Hornblower and Hotspur episodes.

I have no current plans to move to Dreamwidth. I bought a permanent account here a few years ago, so there's really no incentive to leave. I don't get ads, and the assorted fannish dramas with LJ over the years have little impact on mostly non-fannish self. Besides, the name and logo just seem incredibly precious.

Today I started seeing posts popping up on my friends list that were crossposted Dreamwidth posts, each with a little note on the bottom saying that if I want to comment please do it over at Dreamwidth using OpenID. The "please' turns out to be meaningless because comments are disabled on the LJ posts. So, I tried to comment on one over there. It looks like you can't do it unless you're already a member. The reply box has an option for OpenID, but it's disabled. Thought it might be a browser issue, but nope, it's the same in both IE and Firefox. Can't reply unless you're a member. Honestly, life's too short.

So I guess that's adios. I wish y'all well.

When the Tide Rises — David Drake

Another episode in the Aubrey/Maturin inspired Leary/Mundy series. Despite my dislike for certain background details, I am enjoying these books far more than recent Honorverse books. For one thing, there is far less exposition. For another, I find it far more interesting to see what Daniel Leary can do by firing, say, two missiles at an enemy ship than Honor Harrington can do firing 60,000 or so.

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Escape from Hell — Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle

The recently released sequel to Inferno. Carpenter has tried to take over Benito's mission of helping souls escape from Hell, but hasn't been very successful. The book opens with him telling his story to one of the trees in the grove of suicides, who turns out to be Sylvia Plath. He manages to free her from her treehood, and together they head for the exit at the center of Hell.

( Redeeming qualities... )

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Soul Music — Terry Pratchett

It is said that whosoever the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad. In fact, whosoever the gods wish to destroy, they first hand the equivalent of a stick with a fizzing fuse and Acme Dynamite Company written on the side. It's more interesting, and doesn't take so long.

( would they remember some felonious monk or would they shout for Glod Glodsson? )

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Storm from the Shadows — David Weber

I had hopes. The Shadow of Saganami was supposed to be the first of an Honorverse series that did not involve Harrington and the interminable politics and incredibly lame soap opera surrounding her. It still had annoyances, but for the most part was mostly about action rather than talking heads. Now comes this second book, and it's almost entirely talking heads, and worse, the talking heads are just rehashing the same information over and over and over. Plus there is again the whole massive overkill syndrome (The fleet had all the latest defensive technology, but even that couldn't stop all of the 60,000 missiles now heading for it...) It's not really a sequel to SoS, although a couple of characters continue from that book, but rather it first retells the end of the last Honor Harrington book from Michelle Henke's point of view, and then spends the next 600 pages or so setting up a cliffhanger that will be resolved in the next Harrington book. (Weber's new technological twist is apparently a starfaring analog to modern submarine warfare.) Incredibly disappointing. Feh.

Amazon Can Ban You from Your Kindle Account Whenever It Likes

Amazon recently banned a customer for making what they considered too many returns, and when they did this they also disabled his Kindle account, although the returns were never related to Kindle purchases.

I had no plans to get a Kindle anyway. I prefer the smaller size of my Palm Tungsten, which allows me to just stick it in my pocket until I have some time to read. But the DRM issues would also keep me from considering it. There have been too many instances where companies have turned off their DRM servers, leaving their customers without the goods they purchased.

According to a report from China’s official news agency Xinhua, “thousands of dolphins” recently prevented an attack on Chinese merchant ships by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden.


http://tinyurl.com/SoLongAndThanksForAllTheFish *

(Unfortunately, I can't take credit for the tinyurl tag. That belongs to Dodger Thoughts commenter Humma Kavula.)

Mark "The Bird" Fidrych was apparently killed in an accident on his farm in Massachusetts. It's hard to explain what a sensation Fidrych was in his rookie season. He talked to the ball. He got down on his hands and knees to shape the pitching mound to his satisfaction. And he got guys out.

Unfortunately, after that one magic season, he blew out his shoulder. He managed to play a few more seasons, but they were always comeback attempts. I saw him pitch at McCoy Stadium for the PawSox in his final season, when he was trying to make it back with the Red Sox. He was one of the few Red Sox I've ever actively rooted for.

The Bird was unique. I loved watching him pitch. R.I.P.



What a terrible week in baseball. Besides Bird and Kalas, Angel rookie pitcher Nick Adenhart was killed by a drunk driver Friday night, just hours after pitching the best game of his brief career. He was only 22.

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Today was the Dodgers' home opener, and they're just crushing the Jints. Orlando Hudson has just hit for the first cycle (single, double, triple, homer) for a Dodger since Wes Parker did it in 1970. And it's only the sixth inning. I just wish the day wasn't so sad.

Harry Kalas, the voice of NFL Films and the Philadelphia Phillies for decades, not to mention Puppy Bowl, passed away today while preparing to announce the Phils-Nats game in DC. I suppose there are worse ways to go than getting ready to do what you loved. NFL Films will never sound the same.

Other stuff:

The Teen Titans as peeps!

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I managed to fix the chain saw. The chain had come off the bar, turning an implement of mass destruction into a noisemaker that couldn't hurt a hamster. Well, unless you dropped it on top of the hamster. As I thought, it was a simple fix, except for the fact that I managed to reinstall the chain backwards, which basically turns it into a noisemaker that can rub the bark off trees like nobody's business, but not much else.

Once I got the chain pointing the right way, though, it worked like a charm, and I spent about an hour attacking the depredations of the thicket. There is still some clean up to do, but things are looking better.

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Meanwhile, the forsythia are starting to bloom (although it seems early for that), and there are some daffodils alongside the house. I still haven't started any tomatoes, which I should've done a couple of weeks ago. At this point I'll probably be better off buying some plants when the time comes. Oh, and I'll probably have to start mowing the lawn soon.

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I didn't ride over the weekend. Yesterday it rained all day, and today it never got much above 40°. I did get in a shortish ride Thursday evening, so that's something, anyway.

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I've got six books read that I need to write about at some point. I've also got grist for several baseball posts. Sometimes it's just so damn hard to put electrons to screen. One of these days.

Okay, so I haven't been watching Dollhouse because I dislike the premise. That aside, Eliza Dushku's new Dollhouse themed Hulu commercial?

Whoa! </Keanu>

So, I have new loppers, although not the ones I really wanted. The ones I had were pretty compact for loppers, only 18" long or so, similar to these. They were light, and in a pinch I could manage them one-handed. They also used Fiskars' "3X" gearing system for added leverage, which was a feature I liked. That's what I was looking for when I set out to get the new pair. Except no one had them. Not Wal-Mart; not the Depot; not Lowes. Oh, they all carried Fiskars, but only in the 27" size. (Wal-Mart did have these, but it was an anvil model, versus the bypass type (which are more like scissors), and they were made out of plastic rather than metal. No sale. BJ's had the Lop and Saw model, which were close to what I wanted, but I already have a saw, and they were way more expensive than plain old loppers. Amazon had the ones I wanted, but they would take awhile to get here. Then I noticed something on the Fiskars site. They have a lifetime warranty. It turns out I may be able to get mine replaced under warranty. That would be nice.

Meanwhile, however, I still needed a pair for right now. Knowing that I may be getting my smaller pair replaced, I went ahead and got a 27" pair at Lowes. They are heavier and more tiring to use than my old ones, but on the other hand, I can lop higher branches with them. They certainly work. Now I just need to contact Fiskars about the other pair.

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I have lots of crocuses already, even out by the cherry tree. Last year the cherry tree crocuses didn't start popping until the second week of April. That seems odd, because it hasn't exactly been warm this month.

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Today is my annual journey to Connecticut to eat ribs, drink beer, watch college basketball, and talk baseball, which makes it possibly the best day of the year ever.

It was a sad day for this baseball fan. First came the passing of George Kell, a Hall of Fame third baseman for the Tigers, Sox, and other teams, and later a long-time broadcaster for the Tigers. He was 86. Kell's playing days ended just before I started paying attention, so I never saw him play, but he was one of the players in my All-Star Baseball set, and a good one.

Later came the news that John Brattain had died, apparently of complications from heart surgery. Brattain was probably my favorite writer over at the Hardball Times. His pieces were funny and intelligent, and I will miss them. He was much too young at 44, and leaves his wife and two teenage daughters.

The odd thing for me is how much Brattain's death stunned me. It's not so much that a writer I admire is gone. I lurk at the Baseball Think Factory board where he was an active participant. I've never felt much of an urge to participate there myself, mostly because the tone is generally much snarkier, and often far meaner, than I am comfortable with. But one of the things about lurking is that you often become as familiar with the active participants as if you were participating yourself. Brattain was a witty voice of reason amongst the lesser snark. Such a shame.

Still feel like crap, although not quite as bad as yesterday.

It started out nice and sunny today, with promised temperatures near 50. As usual, promises seem to have been broken. The clouds rolled in and it's chilly out there. Still, there's yardwork that needs doing, so I headed outside with chainsaw in hand.

I last did battle with the evil thicket a year ago. At the time I thought I'd be good for at least a couple of years, but last year seems to have been an exceptionally productive one, evil thicket-wise. Towards the end of the summer there were spots along the thicket that I could no longer walk along to mow the lawn because the canopy had gotten so low.*

* Autumn olives grow on sort of a diagonal between up and out, producing thick trunks that spread sideways rather than upwards. As the leaves grow, they get heavier, and hang lower... and lower...

So I really need to attack the worst offenders, and this year I decided to do it early, before any leaf growth had started. It's bad enough without leaves obscuring things. Besides the autumn olives there is some sort of vine running around out there that lashes many of the olives together, along with another vine with thorns like roses.** So I set to work trimming and cutting back the first bush in line.

** Those may be actually be some sort of wild rose. My old landlady has some similar looking rose vines draped over her pergola, and in various other places in the yard.

Now I do have a chainsaw for the thicker trunks, but a lot of the work involves using loppers to trim back the smaller branches so I can get at the main trunk, along with a folding camp saw for medium sized branches. So I'm lopping along, minding my own business, when I try to lop off a branch that's just a tad too thick. No biggie, I figure, I'll just cut it with the camp saw. The only problem is that the lopper is stuck, the blade embedded too deep into the branch to pull out easily. So I twist the handles a bit and it comes free with a snap. Whoot! Except then I notice that there's still a piece of metal stuck in the branch. I examined the loppers, and there was a crescent shaped piece of the blade missing. WTF?

These weren't Job Lot loppers. they were Fiskars, with good quality carbon steel blades. Now even the best carbon steel can be brittle (cf., Andúril), but really, broken by a branch? I suppose there's some sort of irony in an olive branch breaking a blade, but still.

Anyway, I did what I could with the saws, but there are just too many vines to deal with. I really need to get new a pair of loppers before I can do much more. Have I mentioned that a Lowe's opened on the base, in sight of where I work. Very convenient. So now I have a choice of both a Lowes and a Depot on my ride home at night.

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Other than that, the crocuses popped in the bed alongside the house about ten days ago, and the daffodils and tulips have started poking leaves up, even over around the cherry tree, which was way late last year. At some point I need to start some tomatoes.

Sci Fi Channel Has a New Name: Now, It’s Syfy

Plans call for Sci Fi and its companion Web site (scifi.com) to morph into the oddly spelled Syfy — pronounced the same as “Sci Fi” — on July 7. The new name will be accompanied by the slogan “Imagine Greater,” which replaces a logo featuring a stylized version of Saturn.

I remember being dumbstruck when Esso became Exxon. The scary thing here is that someone at NBC paid some consultant a metric shitload of money to come up with this. When HP split off its scientific division they paid a million bucks or so to whomever it was that came up with "Agilent." It was supposed to hint that the new company would be an agile version of Lucent. Of course, Lucent went into the toilet not long after, obscuring the reference. Now the only thing Agilent reminds one of is that it sort of rhymes with flatulent.

Fixing the tire turned out to bit a bit more trouble than expected. Not only did the tube have a hole in it, but the tire itself was worn down to the cords in some places. Good thing I have a new set on order. Meanwhile, I had a tire from the set that came with the bike originally that still had some tread left, and I also had a spare tube, so everything got replaced. It took a while to get it right. The tube didn't sit on the wheel quite right, and the tire rim wound up crimping it in a couple of places, which led to some deflating and reinflating until I got the tube safely and completely inside the tire.

Good thing, too, as yesterday was a nicer day for a ride than Saturday. Still a little chilly (mid-50's), but sunny.

Despite the onset of daylight savings and generally sunny weather, it was still a little too cold to ride during the week. But the temperature managed to climb all the way to 50° yesterday, so I bundled up and headed out for the path. It was still pretty cold, and the temperature dropped about five degrees over the course of the ride. The one benefit to this was that there were far fewer people out there with me than last week.

The first lap was fine, and I felt strong, but as I went up the Tefft Hill grade the second time, I noticed that I was having a harder and harder time maintaining speed. I chalked it up to the legs running out of gas, but then as I approached my turn-around point, I realized the ride was getting rougher, too. Looked down at the rear tire, and sure enough, it was way more squashed than it ought to be. Of course, just as with the last time I got a flat, I was a far from the Machinamobile as I could be. The good news was that after the last time, I put a little hand pump in the bike's handlebar bag. A few pumps (okay, more than a few) and the tire was less soft that it had been. I turned around, and rode gingerly back to Kingston Station.

The first chore for this morning will be fixing or replacing the tube. It's supposed to be a few degrees warmer today, although its awfully cloudy right now.