A typical walk

Come along with Scrappy Booogle and I for a typical walk. There are two ways to get to the IPFW woods. One is through the neighboring addition. The other is across what we call the Plex Meadow.

This takes you to the north entrance but one.

This is where the trail turns from mud to stone. If you'd come through the addition entrance, you'd be 1/3 of the way to the end now.

Aright about here, we ran into Grace, a dog we'd met before, along with her owner. Owner was amazed when I told her the story of the previous meeting; Grace, all alone, came up behind us. I told her she ought to go home, and she did. Owner couldn't believe she was out here with nobody with her. It's 6 pm. Do you know where your dog is? At any rate, they sniffed each other over calmly and friendly. Although Scrappy didn't care for his p-p getting sniffed, and wanted to climb on her head. Did I tell you Scrappy's dyslexic? We all parted on good terms and moved on.

This is a very pretty area.

Then you come to the middle entrance, or the barn entrance. This is where it switches over to paved trail.

Soon you come upon the famous bridge in the woods. It takes a little doing, but this is Scrappy's favorite part of the trip.

Getting back on the main trail, you don't go far before you hit a side trail that winds along the rim of the creek's canyon.

This is the only time you can get Scrappy to stop.

The trail has a basically hidden exit that comes out on California road, by the new hotel across from the Colisseum.

Then we go back in the entrance to the Plex. The Plex grounds are split in two by the old feeder channel for the Wabash and Erie canal. There are 5 good bridges across the feeder, and one not-so-good:

On the other side is the greenway trail that runs all the way to Washington Center. The edge is guarded by plastic sheet to prevent erosion since I&M had all the vegetation ripped out of the feeder. A large Ground hog, easily bigger and much heavier than Scrappy, noticed us here and smashed into the plastic about 3 times before he managed to get underneath and into the feeder. He needn't have panicked; as usual, Scrappy was oblivious.

Where we crossed is IPFW's soccer field. It's a nice field, fenced off from the Plex's plebian pitches. beyond it is our famous duck pond, which we didn't get too close to due to the high weeds.

Yesterday we found a trail that leads to a good view of what google earth for whatever reason calls Stevie's Island. A duck was also enjoying the view.

By this point it was thundering pretty good, but I think it was all hot air, as no storm clouds presented themselves. Still, it was terribly humid near the river, so we headed back. A cat came across our path; but he apparently had heard from other cats that Scrappy wouldn't notice a cat if it sat on his head. So he just laid down and watched us go by.

















And with that, we returned to Scrappy's house. Total time: just over an hour. Total distance: a hair over 2 miles, give or take.

Sport shorts

First, let's congratulate Tomas Kopecky, whose goal with less than half the 3rd period to go gives the Blackhawks a 6-5 win in game one over those disgusting, black-hearted Flyers. I almost missed it, busy with last night's rant until just before the happy event. The 28-year-old Kopecky, a Slovak who has spent most of his playing career in the Detroit organization, was a healthy scratch for several of this year's cup run. Probably not so much anymore.

Second, I think that the A's can safely release Eric Chavez now, we have someone else to fill the "perform a yearly cameo and take a seat in the trainer's room" slot. To wit:

Duchscherer to undergo surgery: The Oakland A's announced Saturday that Justin Duchscherer will undergo season-ending surgery on his left hip. "[Duchscherer] got through it, but didn't feel well doing it," general manager David Forst told MLB.com. "He finally saw another doctor down there, and it was just confirmed that it probably wasn't going to hold up. So that's when he decided to go ahead and shut it down." (Updated 05/29/2010).

Yes, this is one of our two starters who played not at all last season, and was 2-1 in a measly 28 innings this year. But he may have competition: Coco Crisp managed to play 2 or three games before returning to the DL last week.

"Every injury is a different situation. The good news with this one it isn't a real long one, so he'll be back," manager Bob Geren said before the A's faced the Baltimore Orioles. "He's a very good player; he does a lot of things to help a team win. That's obviously why we signed him."

What exactly does a player who plays 2 games in two months do to help a team win? I don't know, but obviously we need more guys like Chavez, Justin, and Coco; we are in first by a half game over Texas after all. (Hey, isn't Texas that team that just filed for bankruptcy? Apparently another alternate path to success.)

Finally, congrats to Ray Halladay, who had an 11-strikeout perfect game last night against Florida, just 20 days after the perfecto by Dallas Braden (one of those Oakland players that selfishly hurts his team by actually showing up in uniform to games and playing). This breaks the mark for shortest interval between perfect games, set by the 1 year, 2 months, 18 days between the pair by Jim Bunning of the Phillies against the God-awful "Amazing Mets" on June 21, 1964, and Sandy Koufax of the Dodgers and his gem against the Cubbies on Sept. 9, 1965.

The breaking strain

One of our best cutters told Laurie and I she was quitting. The long, thankless hours, the strain on her kids and her family, was finally too much.

And this is a damn shame. Also, not surprising.

You cannot keep working people 70 hours and tell them they are getting farther and farther behind indefinitely. Eventually you have to either realize that you are in over your head and no amount of worker effort will change that, or you press on and destroy your work force. I warned our production manager this day was coming. But corporate attitude seems to be that we can all reach a bit deeper, find that elusive 30% more efficiency we must be hiding so we can work all this overtime.

The truth is, you have a plant on the edge of the breaking strain. They couldn't even give us an enjoyable holiday: make us work 6 hours today with the veiled threat of "we should have worked you Monday." This is not to bash our production guy, his attitude has been one of the few things that held us together this long. But think about the words- we should have made you give up your memorial day holiday. No, you shouldn't, and it never should have gotten to the point that you thought about it. I've heard them threaten 14 hours in the past, so let me publicly state this- I will NOT leave this house at 5 am and get home at 9:30 pm, period. When they ask that, they will find themselves facing a much bigger problem.

We have a yearly "chairman's award", in which nominations are solicited from all workers, to be sent to our president, who will read them and select someone making far more than the usual factory peon to get the cash prize. I sent mine nominating the cutting department en masse and enclosing a letter showing him the view from our seat and begging for help. I debated long and hard about this before Tina quit, and had talked myself out of it. Just barely. But now comes this news and I know its only going to get worse, because they are far more worried that Fanny Adams in Duluth gets her seat pad with pillow than driving their workers to go postal. (For those who don't know me, I do not have a gun nor any intention to buy one.) And given that, and previous threats coupled with the lack of being able to see we can't give any more, I figure I have nothing to lose.

I tried to step up Friday, work on adrenaline. At 5:00 the adrenaline faded and I became intensely angry, Bruce Banner angry. After about five minutes, that turned to wanting to cry for about 2 minutes, followed by an out-loud discussion with God about "My strength is sufficient" when there is never any light at the end of the tunnel, just the next train coming to crush us yet again. Everything that goes through my mind anymore is one long bitch session. I'm not doing adrenaline any more. I'm doing my best, trying to be quiet and do what I'm told, but no more adrenaline. And no more added hours.

The last week and a half Tina and I barely spoke because of some stupid tiff we got into. I was hoping to buy an I'm sorry card and lay it on her table Tuesday morning. I guess she told Laurie she felt she owed me an apology too. Maybe I should buy some black roses and set them on her table instead. Damn you all for causing this, you incredibly stupid, inhuman, greedy bastards. The only comfort in being forced as regular joes to work for people like this is:

Luke 6:24 "But woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full. (NASB ©1995)

So no doubt the excrement will hit the air circulator Tuesday morning. I hope you will all pray for us, because I honestly do not want to leave my job (although my chairman's nomination may take that out of my hands) and My ability to pray in such a way that even a vengeful Greek god looking for someone to hit with a thunderbolt probably would just ignore me.

Step into my time machine, week five

...and maybe I can get a fragment of my life being wasted away at work back. I'd go on, but it all becomes bitching after a while, so suffice it to say the end just gets farther and farther away and we'll move on.

On memorial day weekend 35 years ago, we had 12 new additions to the hot 100, 4 to the top 40, and 2 to the top ten, as well as a brand new #1. These list were based on sales and not airplay, which is why they differ somewhat from the billboard charts. The difference being, billboard thinks you should pay for their archive data, and cashbox's is just as good- and free. God bless America!



Of the dozen new songs this week, four posted a major future impact: Glen Campbell's soon to be number one on pop and country, Rhinestone Cowboy, comes in at 96; The Eagles' first chart topper, One of These Nights, at #80; Olivia Newton-John had another of the big country crossovers of 1975, Please Mister Please, at 73; and way up at 69 came McCartney and Wings with Listen to What the Man Says. A couple of other notes to the lower reaches: since I made such a big deal about it last week, the Beach Boys' Sail on Sailor moved up one to 72 this week; and another song more popular on AOR, Supertramp's Bloody Well Right, had peaked at 53 last week and moves down two this week.



The top 40 debuts this week were: Ray Stevens at 40 with Misty; Frankie Valli's Swearing to God (his first true single without the Four Seasons) at 39; the O'Jays with Give the People What They Want (which I sorta remember after just playing a 30-second clip) at 37; and Gwen McRae's Rocking Chair at 31. That song jumped 20 notches, tying for the biggest mover in the countdown with 10cc's I'm Not In Love, which landed at 65 in it's second week. With two moving into the top ten, two fall out: Paul Anka can finally get some sleep as he drifts down from 5 to 11, and Dawn's He Don't Love You tumbles from 7 to 23.



The top ten starts with the song that was most likely my favorite for the week, Chicago's Old Days, moving up 3 to the leadoff position. The sweetheart of covers, Linda Ronstadt, with her redo of the Everly Brothers' 1960 #8, When Will I Be Loved, moves up 2 to #9. Karen and Richard Carpenter move up one to 8 with Only Yesterday; Grand Funk bats cleanup with Bad Time moving from 10 to 7. The Ozark Mountain Daredevils give ground grudgingly, slipping from 4 to 6 with Jackie Blue. America climbs 3 more to the top 5 with Sister Golden Hair; John Denver, with yet another of the country crossovers of 1975, Thank God I'm A Country Boy at 4, up two. In fact, a record six songs would hit #1 on both charts (according to billboard, whom I will now quote after trashing): BJ Thomas' incredibly long titled song; Freddy Fender's Before the Next Teardrop Falls- which is at 3 this week, and holding- the just-debuted Rhinestone Cowboy; CW McCall's truck driving opus Convoy; and Denver's Country Boy as well as the double-sided smash I'm Sorry/ Calypso. John would actually receive country music's entertainer of the year award in 1975; and the controversy over crossover singers being resented by the old guard "flared up" again, as the previous winner, Charlie Rich (who'd had a crossover #1 just the year before) announced the winner, he pulled out a lighter and burned the envelope on stage.

Anyway, as I said, we have a new top dog, which means Earth Wind and Fire have dropped a notch to #2 with Shining Star. The new number one is How Long by Ace, a band led by singer Paul Carrack, better known as the Lead singer for Mike Rutherford's project Mike and the Mechanics. Carrack was the singer for their big hit The living Years which also hit #1 in March of 1989.

Almost left out our biggest dropper this week. Barry Manilow's It's a Miracle tumbles 41 notches to 64. And the mighty Martin Index has a new high of 40 this week. In fact, a couple of years ago I actually did a top 1200 of the seventies. Out of those 1200, one top ten (Listen to what the Man Says at 7), five of my top 50 (Sister Golden Hair at 14, Old Days at 19, Only Yesterday at 22, and Love Will Keep Us Together at 41) 9 out of the top hundred (with Sail on Sailor at 52, Bad Time at 60,Magic by Pilot at 53, and Misty at 83), eleven of the top 200 (Rhinestone Cowboy at 115 and ((Take Me In Your Arms)) Rock Me at 167) and a total (except for those I missed) of 26 out of the top 1000 IN THIS WEEK'S COUNTDOWN. Now do you see why my Wayback Machine stops here?

Number 100

I asked the Lord this morning for an idea to make special my 100th post. The way things have gone lately, I wouldn't have been surprised if He blew me off- after all, I've done it enough to Him. Arguing with co-workers, arguing with Him, even with myself- oh, especially with myself. At church, sometimes I feel a great disconnect, caused by the distance I've travelled from Him. In recent days, He has reminded me to look in the mirror, and that the obedience I owe Him is not being delivered. Prior to the service today, He showed me a powerful lesson about how to get back where I need to be, a message enhanced by an excellent sermon by Pastor Dave today. The lesson Dave taught, which I shall not try to reprise, was on Collosians 3. The lesson I learned myself, which I shall share here, is in Psalm 51. And that lesson titled itself, what are the steps I must take to get back near where I should be.



1. From v. 3- I need to Acknowledge my faults. I need to look at my actions as others see them; in normal view, I can be oblivious. I need to recognize when I am thinking/heading toward sin, and abort course. I need to stop being self-righteous, especially in prayer.



2. From v. 8, - I need to listen for the joy and goodness that He puts into this world. So many times, especially in light of two incidents this week past that I will not mention, all I hear is the crap that man dredges up and the crap Satan feeds me all day that I chew on like a starving dog. The same God that is so awesome in the midst of the beauty of nature exists under the corrugated roofs of factories and the domed halls of legislatures, and even amidst the polished floors of pagan mosques.



3. From v. 10- I need to strive for a steadfast (i.e. stable) spirit. Not be blown so much by the winds of sin and everyday life, but to keep a constant eye toward God in what I'm doing. Pastor Dave suggested we "be excited about our work job", i.e. the prospects and opportunities and being thankful for all of it; I have been better at appreciating it this year, and it makes it so frustrating when it seems that you become perceived as an a-hole with one frustrated incident. More so when you look at number 1 above and say, well, maybe more than one...



4. From v.17- remembering that God's delight is in a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart- and that He is more than willing to set up the means to break it if you don't particularly feel like doing so.



These four things that I need to work on hold the key to not being quite so miserable. The death clock (see http://www.deathclock.com/) says I still have 1 year, seven months, and 3 days to put up with this world, so I might as well start following these pointers and get comfortable. Which puts me in mind of one more thing: Pastor Dave spoke about being in the "end times" and that wouldn't it be nice to get back to heaven and everyone agreed; I hesitated. Not because I'm not ready for this life to end; but because where Dave said it from a mindset of happy, hopeful expectation of the next life, I would have said it from bitter disillusionment over this one. When I get from one mind set to the other, I'll know I'm almost ready.





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The world cup ends in dramatic fashion with the Czech Republic breaking Russia's two year reign and 27-game win streak, 2-1. Goalie Tomas Vokoun was the star, stoning Malkin and Ovechkin on breaks, receiving some help from the post on what looked like a sure score by 40-year old Sergei Federov, and having a goal by Pavel Datsyuk waved off as coming just after the second period buzzer sounded. Datsyuk eventually did score with 35 seconds left, but Vokoun kept the door shut from there. Despite almost not making the final eight, the Czechs win their first title since 2005, their 12th overall- 6 of those as Czechoslovakia. Sweden took the bronze, topping Germany 3-1 in the consolation game.


(pictured is Czech captain Tomas Rolinek.) Congrats on a upset victory for the Czechs! and congrats to me. 100 posts are in the book.

Told Ya

Back on April 4th, I posted this about my Oakland Athletics:

And Oakland designates Jack Cust (AKA the guy who hit 60% of your HRs the last 3 years) for assignment (translated: dumps him) to keep roster room for Eric Chavez (AKA the guy whose allegedly bad back has limited him to about a week's work in those 3 years), Coco Crisp (AKA I got it, I got it... oops, I broke my pinky. I think I'll start the year on the DL), and Daric Barton (AKA I could hit my weight... if I was anorexic). Let's see. Dump Cust, let Adam Kennedy go, give the #1 and #2 pitching spots to 2 guys who pitched 0 innings last year, and fail to fire what may be the single most incompetant manager in franchise history. Yeah, we're trying REEEEEEAL hard to compete this year. Thanks Billy Beane. I hope your summer is all wine and cheeses too.

And yet, last night's A's win featured:

Jack Cust, DH

and I wondered why this was, and I found:

Cust now primary DH for A's: According to the team's official website, A's manager Bob Geren said Saturday that Jack Cust would become the team's primary designated hitter after Eric Chavez was placed on the 15-day disabled list. Cust went 0 for 2 with a walk on Saturday against the Giants.

And Eric Chavez is on the DL because:

DL stint could end career for Chavez: A's 3B Eric Chavez was placed on the 15-day disabled list injured once again, on Saturday, and acknowledges his career could be over. "It might be," Chavez said Saturday. "I don't know what the future's going to hold." Oakland placed its longest-tenured player on the DL because of what he called two bulging disks in his neck. The team referred to the injury as neck spasms and manager Bob Geren wouldn't speculate on the severity. The 32-year-old has been having spasms on both sides of his neck since getting hurt during a spring training drill in which a minor-leaguer collided with his right shoulder. The impact jerked his neck to the left in what Chavez described as a "whiplash" motion. "It was like playing pingpong," Chavez said of the spasms on either side. While he has been receiving regular treatment for the spasms, Chavez said he kept the condition between only himself and the training staff - not even telling Geren. A couple of weeks ago, Chavez pushed for an MRI exam because he knew he wasn't right. The results showed the bulges in the C6 and C7 disks.

Respect the manager much, Eric? (I know I don't.) So now, we have Chavez back in his accustomed DL slot and Cust back at DH where he belongs. All of which makes Geren and GM Billy Beane as candidates for the team's DA slot. I think we can all figure that one out.

Step into my time machine, week four

We have a new number one this week! We have three debuts in the top 10, 4 in the top 40, and 9 in the hot hundred. Coming into the count for the first time this week were The Rockford Files theme by Mike Post at 99, the Bee Gees game changer Jive Talkin' at 89, and Steely Dan's Black Friday at 78, along with a lot of songs no one remembers too well (at least me). Into the 40, which was basically the stuff that actually got played in most areas, were Kool and the Gang at 40 with Spirit of the Boogie and Disco Tex and the Sex-o-lettes (real endearing name there) with I Wanna Dance Wit'Choo- neither of which made much of an impression on me- along with two songs that basically defined the upcoming summer of '75: Pilot's Magic, and the Captain and Tenille's breakthrough Love Will Keep Us Together. Toni and Daryl also claimed the weeks big mover with that one, jumping 15 spots to #28, three ahead of Magic. I was going to curse BJ Thomas for making me type out that damn long song name of his (still the longest title of any #1 in history) on the big dropper list, but Chevy Van beat him out by one, dropping 41 notches to 64. BJ only fell 40 to 57.

The top ten, as I said, had three debuts, so, as Casey used to say, the three that fall out of the top ten were the Blackbyrds walking in rythym the other direction to 14, Elton John's former #1 Philly freedom down to 16, and Barry Manilow who apparently thought 1 week in the top ten was miracle enough and fell to 26. Coming in were three of the four songs I would have had trouble picking between for my #1. Grand Funk's Bad Time up 4 to 10; the Carpenters' Only Yesterday up 2 to 9, and America's Sister Golden Hair (the winnah!) up 4 to 8. Tony Orlando and the girls drop 2 to 7 with He Don't Love You (and I've got to get the story in;

When Orlando and the members of Dawn (Telma Hopkins and Joyce Wilson) appeared at a Golden Globes award ceremony, Orlando spoke with Faye Dunaway and her then-husband, Peter Wolf, while waiting in a lobby. Wolf was the lead singer for The J. Geils Band, and the two started singing songs from the 1960s, including "He Will Break Your Heart", which the couple recommended Orlando record. Orlando contacted Mayfield requesting that he and Dawn wanted to do a remake but change the title to the opening lines of the song, and Mayfield gave his permission. Courtesy the name droppers at Wikipedia.)

Thank God I'm a Country Boy, sung by John Denver and written by his fiddle player (no lie!) moves the most within the ten, from 9 to 6. Insomniac Paul Anka climbs another notch to 5 with I Don't Like To Sleep Alone, a song I actually listened to today on LaLa and was not overly excited. The Ozark Mountain Daredevils concede the the top bunk this week, dropping to 4 with Jackie Blue; everyone else moves up one, with Freddy Fender going to 3 with Before the Next Teardrop Falls, Ace with How Long to 2, and the #1 song was the first big hit for Earth Wind and Fire, Shining Star.

The Martin index shows us with 38 songs out of the 100 that I've burned at one point or another. This includes one of my all time faves which was never exalted to the top 40 by a tone deaf listening audience: the Beach Boys' Sail On Salior, which moved up a measly 2 to a measly 73, but I would listen to right now over 98% of the top 100.

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It will be Russia vs the Czech Republic in the world cup final tomorrow after the Czechs knocked out Sweden 3-2 in an OT shootout and Russia downed Germany in their hardest fought match of the tourney, getting the winning goal with less than two minutes on the clock. In other news, Morrocco of all places was admitted to the IIHF today. They have one rink, three teams and 90 players in Morrocco, and apparently that's good enough. (Any further questions about Division 3?) In the meantime, Armenia was suspended indefinately for supposedly using ineligible players in their recent tournament, including one who they'd been busted for using previously. Does Kelvin Sampson coach this team, really? Also, my wonderful Blackhawks are now up 3-0 on San Jose and one game away from the Stanley cup finals for the second time since 1973. Hopefully they will avoid this year's Washington/Boston/Pittsburgh virus. Still waiting to see the ugly choice of opponant there. Hopefully (UGGH) Montreal: I'd rather watch them play Israel Bat Yam II than Philadelphia.

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Oh and speaking of Philadelphia, we saw yet another skunk, this one sagely avoiding becoming tire food on the way to work this morning. Do they come in threes, like funerals? I hope not, Scrappy and I might want to get another walk in this weekend.