What Are The Odds?

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The Sox were one of Apple TV+’s selections for Friday Night Baseball tonight. The last time they were on Apple, I didn’t particularly enjoy the call from their announcers. This time I noticed that you could swap the audio to either team’s radio broadcast. Nice. So I changed over to Boston’s WEEI to listen to them while watching it on TV. Really nice. The advantage of this setup is that you don’t have to pay close attention to the TV, and when something good happens, you can look up and see the replay of it.

I’d like to do this for the regular Red Sox games; MLB.TV offers that option as well, but they never have the timing together. You’ll see what happens before the radio call, or you hear what happens before you see it. Apple TV+ nailed it, perfectly in sync.

The Red Sox had a bad delay happen on their flight into NY from Chicago, so they didn’t even get to NY until almost 5:00PM for a 7:40 start. And the team took it right in stride; they suited up, did some stretching, and went out and won the game 6-2. They have been on a tear for the last couple of weeks; they are 12 of 14 in those games.

The chart below was started about 3 months ago when they started playing awful and were almost 15 games below .500, and I decided I wanted to watch as they slowly descended down to a zero chance of making the playoffs. Well, a funny thing happened…

Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: 41.3%

 

Star Wars

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This past April I started to rewatch the Star Wars movies. The original trilogy first and then the prequels (in B&W). But somehow I never got around to watching the sequels. I forgot all about this until today. While trolling YouTube for mindless time-wasting videos to kill some time, I stumbled on one that discussed the making of the originals.

Mindless? Yep, I’m pretty sure I didn’t learn anything. Time-wasting? You bet, it clocks in at over two and a half hours. Maybe tomorrow I’ll cue up the sequel trilogy, AKA the worst of the movies. I sense some black-and-white viewing.

Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: 36.6%

 

Now What??

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I finished LOST, so what should I watch next? I have the whole seven seasons (156 eps.) of The West Wing, but as much as I love that show, I don’t think I could watch it again. Maybe in another year. The five seasons (50 eps.) of Orphan Black? The four seasons (30 eps.) of Rectify? Those are the candidates that I have my own digital copies of.

Justified, 6 seasons (78 eps.) of its original run, plus there is also a bonus 8-episode season from 2023, all on Hulu; that might work. But I rewatched the originals back in 2023 when I knew Justified: City Primeval was coming, so… Maybe The Wire, which I’ve never seen. Five seasons with 60 episodes, and it’s on Hulu as well.

I finished The Andromeda Evolution this afternoon. There was a nice little call back to the original right at the end, but it suffers from modernism. Not the early 20th-century movement, but my definition, which is; let’s add more action every couple minutes so the audience won’t get bored. Next up on the book front is The Aviator’s Wife: A Novel. Found this in one of those “little libraries” in one of those little towns on my recent middle-of-Oregon road trip.

Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: 28.2%

 

Completion Anxiety?

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I started rewatching LOST back at the end of April, and I was really enjoying it. Donna and I have watched it all the way through a half dozen times. The last time I watched it was back in 2018, so even though I’m very familiar with the show, there were always a couple of bits of plot that I’ve forgotten. But this time, as each of the six seasons progressed, I was remembering it less and less. Mostly because I had blocked it out, I can’t believe how stupid this show was. I gave serious consideration to just stopping at the point where I only had 8 episodes left, but I did power through and finished it off yesterday. Fairly sure I won’t ever rewatch it again.

When I bought a couple of books back in June, one of them was a “sequel” to The Andromeda Strain. I’ve read the Michael Crichton book and really enjoyed it. I also own a digital copy of the 1971 movie that I had just rewatched a couple of months ago. This is one of the very few instances where I’ve enjoyed a movie made of a book I liked. I watched part of the first episode of a 2008 TV adaptation before quitting; I just didn’t like it. Although, if I could see it again now for free, I might give it another try.

The book is called The Andromeda Evolution, and Michael Crichton’s name is in huge letters on the cover even though he didn’t write it; in a much smaller-sized font, the real author’s name, Daniel H. Wilson is shown. It started promising, but like LOST, the longer I read, the less I enjoyed it. I’m at the 300-page mark of a 360-page book, and I’m considering stopping. Also, like not rewatching LOST, I probably won’t reread The Andromeda Evolution.

Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: 22.7%

 

Track, Daily, Crush

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Track Daily Crush
2023 BAC Mono R 1990 Mazda MX-5 Miata 2023 Jeep Gladiator Sport S Diesel Apocalypse Hellfire 6×6
by SoFlo Customs
Well now, this is a proper track weapon. A base model, this is what I originally wanted. Compensate much. Even with the name too!

Here is what last week’s cars sold for or were bid to (if the reserve was not met):
Track: 1976 Toyota Corolla SR5 Bid to USD $13,500 07/02/2026
Daily: 1994 Mazda MX-5 Miata Sold for USD $11,200 07/02/2026
Crush: 2000 Toyota WiLL Vi Sold for USD $7,500 07/02/2026

Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: 22.6%

 

It Was 51 Years Ago This Weekend

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I just rewatched Jaws. This is a repeat of last year’s July Fourth post.

Donna and I had been paling around for a few months, watching movies at the base theater, going out for meals, etc. But for the Fourth of July weekend we planned a getaway trip to Pennsylvania, PA, to stay with Bob Brown, my old class leader at ‘B’ School back in Millington, TN, who was then stationed at Willow Grove. Bob and his wife Joanne had two teenaged daughters, so I slept on the couch and Donna bunked in with the girls.

I want to say it was on Saturday that all of us went out to see a movie. They have theorized that if you want to put your arm around a girl you would like to get closer to, just take her to a scary movie. That theorem proved true that day, because the movie we saw was Jaws. When Richard Dreyfuss’ character went down underwater to check on the boat he and Roy Scheider found, and that dead guy’s head popped out, BINGO, she grabbed my hand.

We both credit seeing this movie with cementing what was to become an almost 50-year-long love affair. We might have watched it a couple of times over the years, but it never was an annual thing. So today, it being the 50th anniversary and all, I rewatched it. I did kind of miss that hand, though.

On a side note, a dozen years later we both ended up working at the place that supplied the solenoid valves that operated the shark’s jaws, Automatic Switch Co.

Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: 21.0%

 

Christmas in July

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There was a stretch of about 1/2 mile along the Ch’ak-Cha-‘ak trail this morning that looked like it had snowed. Aaah, it is high cottonwood fluff season.

I have been driving the Miata all week. Its typical day is getting used for going to the coffee shop and for a walk and then being parked for the rest of the day. I have been leaving the top down when I get back just in case I decide to go out again. After dinner I’ll go out and put the cockpit cover on for the overnight.

I had the windows up for the beginning of the drive this morning because it was in the low 50s, and it was like I was driving in a snow globe. Yesterday’s fluff was trapped in a vortex in the cockpit. It was mostly gone by the time I made it to Stomping Grounds…

Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: 16.8%