So Comcast showed up yesterday and installed my DVR. It’s basically TiVO functionality, like I mentioned last week, except it’s all living in my cable box now – not having to add another component to an already gadget heavy home theatre system is something I am very relieved about, not to mention Stephanie, who is most likely plotting to throw it all out the window next time I go away (just kidding, dear). Anyway, I now have the ability to record shows on the fly, store them on the cable box and then watch them whenever I want. It’s pretty much a hard drive for the TV. I can also pause live television, go get some Fig Newtons, come back and hit play and it will pick up right where it left off. Genius. I launched the first recording experience last night – we recorded the season opener of “Scrubs” while we went to the Red Sox game.
Which is a nice segue into my next topic: the Red Sox game. I have very little to say about the game itself – as usual, it was entertaining and it’s always good when the park is packed and the game means something. It was also a beautiful night be at the park and the Sox won. However, by the end of the night my mind ended up in a strange place – thinking about our country. Baseball stretches back to somewhere in the 1800’s and last night, some 120+ years later, I couldn’t help but think about where our country is headed.
Sitting next to us last night were a couple and at the start of the game, they seemed just like any other normal couple to me. By the third inning, though, the guy had transformed himself into an utter nightmare. I don’t know how it started, but at some point he had “gotten into it” with another guy, possibly of Indian or Pakistani descent, who was sitting, perhaps, 10 rows in front of us. No explanation is needed, really, but the end-all is that the guy next to us was throwing out racial slurs and asking the guy things like “do you have a bomb in your pocket, Osama?” Just absolutely deplorable. I have no idea what prompted the exchanges and for all I know the other guy started it. But it doesn’t matter. That someone feels the need to fight somebody at a baseball game and to top it off by embarassing himself in monumental fashion by slinging completely inappropriate insults is just terribly sad to me. Soon afterward, he was thrown out of the park and we enjoyed the rest of the game.
Driving home, we were flipping around radio stations and ended up listening to Arnold – the Governor of the largest state in the U.S., – speak at the RNC. My goodness, do the people who write this dreck even consider that what they’re writing might be offensive? Arnold threw out the “girly-man” thing again and just moments later had the audacity to claim that the Republicans were leading the way in women’s equal compensation and rights or something similar. I couldn’t help but just shake my head. Let’s not even get into the Bush twins speech shortly thereafter, either – five minutes of pure pain which only lacked the two kids blowing huge bubblegum bubbles and twirling their ponytails or something. Those kids are clearly smarter than that (I hope) and whomever wrote their script ought to be ashamed of themself. The night was rescued by Laura Bush, who, despite her spouse, seems well-spoken and shows genuine care, especially for children and the well-being of others.
Hey, Democrat, Republican, whatever. Clearly there’s two camps in this country right now, divided as much as I’ve ever seen two parties divided. Both camps believe we should be running things in very different ways and each is absolutely entitled to passionately defend their position – and each does. But the RNC last night came off as much more of an unprofessional organization than I was expecting. It all ties back to my thoughts on the country – did people act like this 20 years ago? 40? 60? 100? Can’t imagine.
Song now playing: Cracker – “Bicycle Spainard”