FRS

Can I Worry Yet?

The FRS dropped 2 of 3 over the weekend to the MFY and their lead in the East was then down to just 4-1/2 games. But I was not worried, for the Yankees to tie us at the end of the season they would have to finish 11-2 if the Red Sox just won half of their remaining 12 games.

Tonight the Sox lost to the Blue Jays 7 to 1 and right now the Yankees are beating the Orioles 7 to 2. Looks like after tonight the division lead will be down to just 3-1/2 games, smallest since sometime in May. I’m now worried. Not only that I think I might have jinxed them because I opened my mouth saying how improbable it would be for them to lose the division. Is it 1978 all over again?

Since I revamped the Post Office Gallery, I decided to experiment with a couple of related pieces of software for some other galleries.

Phototime Tuesday is now running something called Postcard Viewer, a free Flash image viewer. The interface is based on the real world metaphor of a set of postcards shuffled onto a surface. And the Gnorthwest Gnorm gallery is using AutoViewer. It is designed to display a linear sequence of images and captions and has a slide show feature.

Check ’em out:
Phototime Tuesday
Gnorthwest Gnorm

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 398

Fireworks?

Killer Klowns From Outer Space, the Special Edition sits unwatched on the coffee table. Maybe tomorrow afternoon, before the Killer Klowns from New York invade Fenway Park and are hopefully rebuffed by those scrappy kids in an ice cream truck.

After last night’s ballgame, I felt cheated by this afternoon’s contest, even thought Boston won, because the game only went for three hours and thirty-seven minutes. Compared to the four hour and forty-three minute marathon loss on Friday, today’s contest was a minute waltz . Tomorrow’s FRS / MFY game is going to be on ESPN and won’t start until 8 PM, which means it probably won’t go off until at least midnight. I may just go to bed without seeing the whole game, the FRS are going to win or lose whether I’m watching or not.

After the game this evening Donna and I decided to ride the tandem downtown and get a scoop of ice cream at the Sweet Cow Creamy. We have a fairly powerful headlight and a flashing taillight, so night riding in our small burg is a fairly safe proposition. Things were going smoothly until we were about a half mile from our destination and crossed some the railroad tracks. We hit a rough spot that wasn’t too visible and slammed the back wheel pretty hard. About 50 yards later a loud bang was heard. Gunshot? Firecracker? Nope, back tire. We had a flat.

Fortunately we had a spare tube and pump and were not too far from a well lit street corner. I popped off the back wheel and put in the new tube. Donna showed me the big hole in the tube, I showed her the bent rim and for good measure, the nice split in the tire (thankfully not all the way through.) Got everything back together and pumped the tire back up with a small collapsible pump that we got when we bought the bike. Because you can only get 1/2 to 2/3 the air pressure recommended for the tire with the bity hand pump, we finished the trip, including the ice cream stop, slowly and carefully.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 398

As Threatened

I have created a new gallery For the South Carolina Post Offices, the old one is still there for now, but I have changed the link on the sidebar to point to the new one. I was built using the Simple Viewer skin for Jalbum. I like it a lot, but there are a few things that I don’t like, so it may or may not be permanent.

I’ve got the pictures segregated three ways,

I’m Sorry

I gave up too soon on them again.

Tim Wakefield who has practically owned the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in the past, he is 20-2 against them lifetime, was pulled in the top of the 4th inning after giving up 10 hits and 7 runs. By he time the top of the fourth was over the FRS were trailing 8 to 1. To add insult to injury the MFY were beating Toronto Blue Jays 8 to 2. Figuring we would probably get swept by the Yankees this weekend, I had pretty much seceded the division and the rest of the season, but…

The Sox batters didn’t feel he same way. In the bottom of the 4th they go 4 runs back. In he bottom of the 5th they scored three more. In the bottom of he 6h they scored 6 to take the lead 14 to 9. Suddenly the sun is shining and things are looking up.

Thing Are Looking Up

 

From Chapter 43 of the Spenser novel Widow’s Walk:

“Do you have a conclusion?”

“No, I can’t figure her out.”

“Maybe you need to,” Susan said. “Maybe you need to find out more about Mr. Smith’s life as a gay man. Maybe you need to find out why Mrs. Smith married him.”

“A tip?” I said. “A crime-stopper tip?”

“Two tips,” Susan said. “I have a Ph.D. from Harvard.”

“A hotbed of crime-stopping,” I said.

“A hotbed,” Susan said.

 

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 391

Took A Drive

Tigerville, SCWe had a reservation at a Holiday Inn Express (guess I should make this an acronym – HIE) for Sunday night because our original plan called for us to drive up on Sunday morning to watch the Professional Road Race Championships that are being held in Greenville. Decided to drive up today and catch a few Post Offices. Ten fell before the shutter. Most interesting: Tigerville.

Last night, six FRS pitchers gave up nine runs and 13 hits to the Baltimore Orioles. Tonight, 1 pitcher gave up no runs on NO hits. In 23 year-old Clay Buchholz’s second big league start he faced only three more batters than the minimum possible.

Started up, went down, back up, down again, up again, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 369

Mainlining Spenser

I’ve now finished 17 out of the 35 Spenser books. I’ve got two more books still on the way from my Amazon spending spree of a week ago and I’ve still got one left to read of the four I’ve already received. Today we went to 3 used book stores, one in Aiken and two in Augusta and bought 6 more books including a good find of a paperback reissue of #3 in the series, Mortal Stakes. his now leaves just 9 books in the series I don’t have.

Mortal Stakes is about Spenser and the 1975 Red Sox (with fictitious players) so it is like getting two pleasures for he price of one, even though I’m really not enamored with the FRS right now after their showing in the Bronx and tonight’s game, so far, against Baltimore.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 365

That Hurt

SweptTuesday, August 28, 2007: MFY 5, FRS 3
Wednesday, August 29, 2007: MFY 4, FRS 3
Thursday, August 30, 2007: MFY 5, FRS 0

The lead in the east is still 5 games, but lets hope the highly paid professional athletes that wear the uniform of the Boston Red Sox aren’t as easily depressed by these developements as I am…

Started down, went up, back down, up again, down, up, down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 364