Sick Day

My entire household has been under the weather this week.  All of us have used sick time, and it appears to be my turn now. I intended to update this site on Wednesday, but never got that far. It was supposed to be a cute post about partying too much with the old under-the-bed monster. Halloween is a distant memory tonight, so that ship has kind of sailed. By the time my commute ended, the game was already on, and I wasn’t up for blogging.

I managed to update the wallpaper for November. I snapped a photo of Old What’s Her Face’s maple tree in the front yard. The image is so big it kind of blurs along the edges of my site, but it looks artsy. Boise is ablaze with colors right now, and her tree is awesome.

Today is a good day for the fireplace, a cup of good tea, and complaining. Let’s complain.

Advertising

The radio ads on Sirius radio are worse than ever these days. There is one about getting help paying off credit card debt. It annoys me when they say you don’t have to pay it all back. The fact is you borrowed the money, you spent it, and you agreed to the terms of the loan. You get to keep the big-screen television, and they make it sound like a good thing that you don’t have to pay for it. What really chaps me is they say, “Don’t let the credit card companies trick you into thinking you have to pay it all back.” They even emphasize the word taaRICK to make the point. Nobody’s being tricked here. What they don’t tell you is that you are supposed to give them money to help you avoid paying a bill you owe. Bet they don’t take credit.

The other one is a mortgage lender who talks about a “yourgage.” Oh-my-God! That’s soooo cool, I’ll take out a loan against my house because yourgage sounds so much better than a mortgage. Getting a mortgage is a big deal, and it’s complicated. It should not be reduced to a click type app based upon snap decisions, and I don’t think they need some fake buzzword to make it sound better than what their competitors offer. Consumers really should shop around and even work up a budget themselves to see if they’re ready for this massive step.

Just throw the damned ball.

I’m excited for the Houston Astros. Last night they won their first ever World Series. It was a good series too, taking all seven games to decide the victor. It will never match 2001 in my mind, playing in New York the same year as the 911 attacks, oh and my Diamondbacks won. It doesn’t match the series from last year, or the bloody sock series, but it was pretty darned exciting. So where’s the gripe?

The gripe is in the length of the games. These guys start playing at seven or eight years old. They’ve played all their lives, including  the minors and major leagues. They’ve had access to the best coaching. They know this game. A batter steps out of the box to mess with the pitcher’s timing. Do you really think that’s going to do anything to Kershaw or Verlander? What it does is adds time to the game.

The pitcher then comes off the mound to talk to the catcher, but wait,  the entire infield has to come in too. Presumably, they’re talking about what to throw and the expected outcome. When he’s ready, they all go back to their positions, the catcher delivers his signs, the pitcher nods… and the batter steps out of the box again. This brings the pitching coach out of the dugout to talk to the entire infield once more, and the process starts all over again.

The guy delivers his pitch and then they replace the pitcher. Add fifteen minutes for the next guy to get ready, then repeat the whole process.

Just throw the friggin ball! This isn’t your first time on the mound. This isn’t the first situation you’ve ever seen. All of the position players have trained their entire lives for this.

When I was young, games used to last about two and a half hours. These games have been lasting six hours or more. I’m in the mountain time zone and one of them didn’t get over until midnight. Heaven forbid you’re an East Coast fan. “Sorry, son, you can’t watch the World Series, because your school bus will probably leave before the game ends.”

The regular season isn’t like this, but the playoffs always are. I understand there’s more on the line, but if you aren’t ready for it, maybe you shouldn’t be playing at this level. It isn’t going to get better until MLB does something about it. When it comes to baseball, I hate changes, but it’s time to act.

I probably have more, but my kettle is boiling and I need to get back to blowing my nose and figuring out what moved into my throat.