One Of These Things Is Not Like The Other

So exciting to see another Red Sox World Series victory. The question to the Red Sox organization which I kept hearing last night during the postgame was the one about comparing this one to the 2004 victory. To a man, each member who had been there for both flatly stated there was no comparison. This one wasn’t better, it was just different. It’s true.

That’s true for me, too. When I wrote about the 2004 victory, I was reflective, remembering all the people I loved who weren’t able to experience it. As I watched the 2007 team, I couldn’t help but think that this team is positioned for a run like no other in Red Sox history. We’re looking at a core of young players who didn’t appear to be even remotely fazed by the grand stage they were performing on. Other teams should be afraid. And yes, the Red Sox spend more than 28 other teams and I do hate that. Because like it or not, it sullies the victory. I so wish that there was a salary cap in baseball, because I think the Red Sox would still be contenders given the core of young players they have.

I watched these playoffs with much less invested, too. No matter what anyone says, I can’t imagine anything topping the 2004 run. The way they did it and the whole 86 years thing, that will just never be repeated. I had no problem shutting off a game midway through during these playoffs. In 2004, I was GLUED. I’m not sure if it was just the novelty of 2004 that kept me glued, but while I enjoyed the ride in 2007, I wasn’t as…….captivated. Just extremely satisfied. The Red Sox, idiots in 2004, were so methodically dominant during the World Series, it just took all the suspense out of it. The most exciting moment of the 2007 series was the very first at bat of game 1. After that, you just knew.

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Now playing: Anders Parker – Under Wide Unbroken Skies
via FoxyTunes

Dirty Old, Egg Suckin’……

So I’m sitting at the gate in Long Beach, CA, about to hop a JetBlue redeye flight back to the right coast. On my drive back to the airport, I spotted one fire out in the hills as I got onto 405 North just after Laguna Canyon. Despite the haze, the soot and the smell, Laguna Beach is a damn nice place to be. Beautiful stuff. Sure, most of it was spent indoors in meetings, but we were able to step outside onto a porch off the meeting room and see nothing but palm trees and the vast, blue Pacific Ocean.

Getting caught up:

  • On the flight out here, I sat in the last row aisle, which sounds bad, but isn’t. JetBlue’s planes have the most legroom in the back of the plane, so it’s a no brainer for me. I’ll always take space over a quick exit, particularly for a 6 hour flight. Anyway, in the same last row across from me was a woman and her two teen children. When we were all sitting down and strapping ourselves in, I kept hearing small yelps. It sounded like it could have been a kid or a dog. The guy next to me asked me what the noise was and I could only assume it was the teen girl across the way. I thought she must have been developmentally disabled, because the mother kept saying “stop……stop…….don’t do that.” It was only three hours later that I discovered that they actually had a dog in a closed bag! Now, I really thought that this wasn’t allowed. Come to find out you can bring a dog on board with you provided it’s under a certain weight. I still don’t really get it, though. I thought the animal thing was about people with allergies, the potential for a dog getting loose and biting someone, or some other dog-related thing happenning. Yet here’s this little dog, yelping and in a bag. The bag had a fan on the end of it.
  • Our house odyssey is now over. We’ve successfully accepted an offer on our house and made an offer which was accepted on another house. We’re moving. A mile away. The only thing preventing it at this point would be if something came up during inspection that was a game-breaker and I don’t anticipate that happening. It will be tough to leave a house we put so much into, physically and emotionally, but it will be great to move into a larger place where we will, undoubtedly, create new memories.
  • I’m still not over missing the New Pornographers show last night in Boston to be here in CA. That hurts.
  • You Can Blow Out A Candle…..

    All it takes is six hours to be in another world! Took a JetBlue flight this morning to Long Beach, CA for work and I guess you can’t really comprehend the fires here until you fly over them. Smoke everywhere. Dust storms. Shit flying around. It looked like armegeddon! From the plane, it looks like huge mushrooms growing out of the ground. From the ground, all you can see around here is a brownish-reddish haze. The weather is clear, but there’s no sun. And outside smells like smoke and fire. Everywhere. Surreal.

    The flight? Horrific. Probably the worst flight I’ve ever been on. The middle of the country is awash in rain right now and it provided for some roller coaster moments from hours 2-4 of the flight. Of course, with the Santa Ana winds swirling and the fires feeding it (and vice versa) here in Southern Cal, flying into Long Beach was rather nauseating. Some serious turbulence.

    Sometimes I really do just take a huge sigh of relief and gratefulness when my feet hit that pavement.

    Update: they’re actually putting up evacuees from San Diego and North Los Angeles here at the hotel. Problem is they’ve sold out all the rooms, so there’s people sleeping in the lobby, etc.

    I Don’t Know Where I’m Going, But I Sure Know Where I’ve Been

    I try to tell myself that I’m not a gadget freak, but it’s just totally useless. I give up. I loves me the gadgets. The latest addition to my frivolous pile of plastic and metal goods would be the TomTom 510 GPS Navigator. GPS Navigator, you ask? But aren’t you the guy who works mostly at home, Jeff? Well, um, yes I am, thank you. Do you really need a GPS, Jeff? Um, probably not.

    That said, I own it and it’s my life. And don’t worry, I didn’t pay the $399 it typically retails for. I’m not THAT frivolous! I paid $199 for it. Which is another great mystery about gadgets – when you see they’re selling off for cheap, even if you don’t need it, you get it, because it’s a good deal. But I digress. I’m here to talk about the GPS.

    It actually has come in quite handy over the last few weeks as Steph and I cruise all around finding addresses to look at houses. And Monday night, in fact, I took a drive down to New York for a work meeting yesterday and it proved to be extremely helpful in getting me there with no problems at all. So I will use it.

    The machine itself is pretty snazzy:

    See Jeff's new GPS at rustedrobot.com

    It’s got all the standard maps and nice little additions like marks on the map for gas stations and rest stops. You can pay a little more and get points of interest (restaurants, etc) but I’m not feeling the need for that at all. I’m just tired of printing directions to get places. Anyway, you also have a bevy of languages to choose from and a whole big list of choices for voices (rhyme). You can use an Irish woman, an elderly woman, normal American voices, etc etc. You get the point. So I’m scrolling down through the voices and I see John Cleese as an option! Of course, I’ve selected him. So now I’ve got John Cleese telling me where to go. Literally, not figuratively.

    The best part? Cleese is actually a wise ass on the GPS! For example, when you get to your destination, he remarks that you’ve reached your destination and that there isn’t any more he can do for you, then adds that he’s not going to carry your bags, either. But he does wish you a good day. And when you have to turn around, he says the following, verbatim, in his snarky English accent:

    Turn around when possible, so that you’ll be facing in the opposite direction from the direction in which you’re directing your vehicle………….now.

    That alone is worth the price of the machine. Or not.

    —————-
    Now playing: Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros – All In A Day
    via FoxyTunes

    Random Musings

    Swing!

  • If I could find a place that had weather every single day of the year like we had yesterday, well, I’d volunteer to be mayor of that town. It was a perfect New England day here, spent at the old farmhouse of some local friends. The occasion? A celebration for two people who are about to go to Ethiopia to rescue/adopt two adorable little children, a brother and sister. They already have three kids of their own as well. How’s that for noble and righteous? Dem’s good beeble, as a certain Austin, TX band might say. They walk the walk.
  • I threw the dice on Saturday night, stayed up late and watched the Red Sox/Indians tilt. Bad move, Jeffro. The Indians put up a 7-spot in the 11th inning and the Sox went down in flames, along with my being alert and awake the following day. So it goes. Up until that point, it was a HELL of a game to watch!
  • Just got tickets for Band of Horses in Providence on November 3rd. I haven’t been this excited about a show in some time. There’s only one word that comes into my head whenever I hear or think about this band: epic.
  • Ever heard of Torticollis? Yeah, me either, until a few weeks ago. We noticed at about week 7 or 8 that our twins were always sleeping with their head one way. Know why? It’s because they couldn’t turn their head the other way. They could go part of the way, but not enough to sleep comfortably. I guess it’s common in twins – the uterus is only so big, so in cases with twins when there’s less room, the babies heads tend to turn to one side and that’s how the neck muscles develop. This is what happened to us and it has caused some minor flatness on each of their heads because they’re always sleeping on one side. The solution? Helmets! Now, I admit when I first heard this I was mortified, thinking that it would be impossible for them to sleep or do much of anything and that we’d get strange stares from people. There’s nothing we can do about the latter, of course, people will think whatever weird things they want, but the kids don’t even notice them! They sleep just fine, they still laugh a lot. It’s like nothing has changed. They’ll need to wear them another 6-8 weeks, but thankfully it’s been pretty seamless, other than the added chores of cleaning them, etc. Exhibit A:

    Nathan in his helmet