Mindful Digressions

What HE said

It’s an ugly thing to watch American League pitchers attempt to bat and American League designated hitters attempt to field.

In the American League, the designated hitter (DH) rule allows pitchers to never have to step up to the plate.  It also allows players like Boston’s David Ortiz (aka, “Big Papi”) to never have to take the field.  The National League has yet to embraced the DH rule, so NL pitchers are used to batting, and some are decent hitters.

Each year, a few weeks prior to the All Star game, Major League Baseball attempts to spice things up with what is referred to as Interleague Play, where teams from the American and National Leagues square-off.

When an American League team visits a National League park, NL rules are followed.  Thus, pitchers have to hit and DHers, like the lumbering David Ortiz, have to take the field. 

Interleague play for AL teams on the road in NL parks, therefore, can be somewhat challenging.  For the Red Sox so far this season, it’s been their undoing.  The Sox are six games into a nine-game interleague road trip.  They lost two out of three games to both the Pirates in Pittsburgh and the Phillies in Philadelphia.

Clearly the old Pennsylvania license plate motto, “You’ve got a friend in Pennsylvania” doesn’t apply to the Red Sox.

But I digress.  My point is that these interleague losses, and the fact that the damn Yankees somehow keep on winning, have resulted in the Sox falling from a half a game ahead of the Yankees in the AL East before this road trip began, to now 2½ games behind.  And that makes me very unhappy and sort of depressed.

I thought I was unusual and perhaps somewhat alone in the way my mood is affected by the fortunes of Boston Red Sox.  When they win, I am thrilled, excited, happy.  When they lose I am depressed, despondent, upset.  Seriously, how lame is that?

Then I came across a short article by William Falk, editor-in-chief of The Week magazine.  I can’t express it any better than Falk did, so for those of you who don’t subscribe to The Week, below is what HE said:

On any summer morning, it is one of the first thoughts to drift into my head, as I stumble downstairs to prep the coffee machine: We won last night. With my coffee, I savor a tribal glow of triumph and plow through various accounts of my boys’ heroism — the rehash in the newspaper and Metsblog.com, the highlights on radio and TV. Birds sing. The sun streams through the windows. When the Mets lose, which is more often than not, I wake with a vague feeling of deflation, and skip the highlights and the game stories. I do not wish to relive Bay striking out with the bases loaded, or K-Rod blowing a save, or yet another injury to a key player. Those bums!  My coffee, on these mornings, has the ashy taste of defeat. The birds are silent.

I am fully aware of how ridiculous this is. At times, I try to will myself to care less, but my professions of emotional distance are fraudulent — a coping technique. I’ve been this way since I was 8, when I began my summer mornings by pedaling my bike to the newspaper store to find out if the Mets had won, and if Koufax had beaten Marichal. For those of us with the baseball affliction — or, for that matter, intense loyalty to any team — there is no cure, nor do we want one. Once every decade or two, you win it all, and by God that championship is glorious, transcendent — redemptive. When you lose, it is a little taste of death. Yet that death deepens your bond with other members of your tribe, and you all go down together, loyal to the end. There’s some consolation in that. Or so I tell myself.

Substitute the Red Sox for the Mets, Ortiz for Bay, and Papelbon for K-Rod.  Falk’s confession about his Mets obsession mirrors my own Red Sox obsession...and the associated alternative sensations of elation and deflation.

As the old saying goes, I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Apple polishing, part three

My last two posts on this blog were anti-Apple rants spurred by a dying batter in my old, first generation iPod Touch.  I went through about 48 hours of hell because Apple built a device that does not support swapping the battery.  You have to swap the entire device and then you have to jump through hoops to get it back to where it was.

After spending much of yesterday on the phone with Apple, my situation was still unresolved, and so I had to take my second 35 mile, one-way, drive to the nearest Apple store.

I was not a happy camper.

But this time there was a happy ending.  It didn’t seem at first that this night would end happily, though.  When my wife and I arrived at the Apple store and registered at the Genius Bar, we were advised that they were running “seriously” late.  Not a good start.  We were asked to take a seat and wait for one of the “geniuses” to assist us.

It actually didn’t take that long.  About five minutes after our scheduled appointment, an obnoxiously perky girl approached us and asked how she could help.  I explained what had transpired over the past two days.  She listened attentively and then said that she, too, didn’t know what an “error 5002” could be.  She took my new-old Touch and went into the secret, off-limits back room.

When she returned a few minutes later, she said, “Well, we’re not sure if it’s a software or a hardware problem.  At this point, we would swap out this iPod touch with another similar model, as the guy did for you the other night.  Then, this time, before you leave the store, I’d load the software and we’d synch it up for you. 

Well, that's a bit of an improvement, I thought.  "Unfortunately,” she continued, “we don’t have another first generation Touch in our inventory.”

Here we go, I thought.  Now they’re going to have to order one and that’s going to take who knows how long and then I’ll have to start the whole damn process all over again.  “So,” she said with that perky look pasted all over her face, “the best solution is to swap this out for a fourth generation iPod Touch.  What do you think of that?”

Being the skeptic that I am, I asked (with somewhat of an attitude), “Would I have to pay the difference between the eighty bucks I paid for this swap on Tuesday and the $300 retail price for the latest iPod Touch?”

“Oh no,” she said, perkily.  “Given the hassle you’ve had, we’re going to swap this out for the latest model and not charge you for the upgrade to the new device.”  She literally clapped her hands.  “You’ll love it.  It’s fast, slick, cool, and state-of-the-art.  How does that sound?”

Actually, it sounded familiar, as those were the exact words the “genius” from my trip two days earlier had used when he tried to persuade me to upgrade...and to pay $300 bucks to do so.  But it also sounded pretty good.

“And we’ll synch it up for you while you’re here in the store,” she continued, “just to make sure you don’t have to spend more time on the phone with the support guys or have to drive out here yet again.”

And so this story does have a happy ending.  It took a while, yes, but Apple...and the perky genius at the Apple store...came through.  Not only am I back to where I was before my old iPod’s battery failed, I now have a brand new, latest generation iPod Touch.

Now I’m a happy camper.

Rotten Apple, part two

As I mentioned in my previous post, I had to swap my old iPod Touch, the one my wife bought me for my birthday three years ago, for a new-old iPod Touch because the battery would no longer hold a charge.  And because you can’t simply remove the spent battery from an iPod and replace it with a new battery.

Serious design flaw!  Do you here me, Steve Jobs?

Despite what the “genius” at the Apple Genius Bar told me Tuesday afternoon, synching up my iTunes library and updating the software on the replacement iPod did not go well.  As a next step to get me back to where I was before this whole misadventure started, I spent about four hours on the phone yesterday with three different people from Apple support.

The first guy I spoke with, Mike, was able to walk me through synching up my new-old iPod Touch with my iTunes library.  That accomplished, I tried to synch up my apps that I had previously downloaded from the App store.  But I couldn’t do that because I apparently needed to have iOS 3.0 or higher to run those apps, and my new-old iPod has iOS 2.2.

My old-old Touch had the later version of the operating system installed because all of my apps ran fine.  In fact, in January 2010 I purchased (for $4.95) the 3.1.1 software update for my Touch.  I logged into the iTunes online store to see how to download the updated software, but couldn’t find anywhere to do it.  So once again, I called Apple support.

This time Dan answered and, after I explained the situation, he guided me to a button to “restore” my iPod Touch to its factory settings.  When I clicked on “Restore,” a message appeared advising that it would wipe clean all music and other files on my iPod.  “Hey Dan, I just synched this up a few hours ago.  Now you’re instructing me to wipe it all out?”

Dan nodded (or at least I envisioned him nodding) and said that I needed to update the software and then I’d have to run the synch process all over again.  He e-mailed a link that would lead me to the update page for iOS 3.1.1.  But when I tried to run it, it told me I’d have to pay for the software yet again.  Sorry, I don’t mean to sound cheap, but I’m not going to pay even five bucks a second time for something I paid for previously.

Dan advised me to forge ahead and, if I got charged again, he assured me that Apple would issue a credit.  So I proceeded, but kept getting an “Error 5002,” with instructions to try again later.  Dan didn’t understand why that error message appeared, so he got his supervisor, Brett, on the phone and we tried it yet again...several times.  Brett said he needed to talk to some of his techies and he would send me an e-mail with instructions.

True to his word, Brett sent me an e-mail saying that “a 5002 error is related to the credit card.  You may have to remove it and put it back in, or update it to your new card.”

That made sense to me, as it had been quite a while since I last updated my credit card information for my iTunes account.  I made the changes and then, just to be sure, I logged out of iTunes and rebooted my laptop.

I was sure that these actions would enable me to finally download the right software and synch up my songs and my apps.  Instead, I continued to get the 5002 error.  I e-mailed Brett and asked him to call me, which he eventually did.  He suggested using Internet Explorer to do the download, as I was using Firefox.  That didn’t work.  Finally, Brett, sounding nearly as frustrated (but not nearly as angry) as me, said, “You’re going to have to go back to the Apple Store.”

And so tonight I will be taking another 35 mile (one way) trek to the Apple store.  I wonder if Apple will reimbursement for my mileage.

(To be continued)

Rotten Apple, part one

It really shouldn’t be this hard.  Especially when dealing with products from Apple.  Apple devices are supposed to be so user-friendly and intuitive, so easy to use and well designed.  Steve Jobs brags about how Apple builds computers and devices for the human race...for the rest of us.  So why is it that you can’t simply replace an old battery in an iPod? 

You can’t, you know.  I found this out when I ended up at the Apple store yesterday because the battery in my iPod Touch, the one my wife got me for my birthday three years ago, would no longer hold a charge.  It dies after about 10 minutes of modest use.

With virtually any other battery-run device, when the battery dies, you simply remove the old battery and install a new one, right?  Of course.  But as I learned yesterday, that is not the case with Apple products.  And there’s no app for that, either.

I called Apple tech support on Monday and explained my battery dilemma.  The guy on the phone set up an appointment for me to see someone at the Genius Bar (I’m not joking, that’s what they call it...the “Genius Bar”) at the nearest Apple retail store, which, it happens, is about 32 miles from my house.

So I showed up the next day at the Apple store and met with one of the geniuses.  He took a look at my first generation iPod Touch (the latest models are fourth generation), looked at me with my thinning gray hair and gray beard, and did his best, which was not very good, to hide his snear.  I’m sure he was not pleased to have to deal with some old fart with a sorely outdated piece of technology.

I handed him the iPod and shared with him my sad battery tale.  He took my ancient iPod Touch into a back room and returned a few minutes later to advise me that my battery would not hold a charge. 

Dude, I told you that when I first got here.  Duh!  This is what they call a genius bar?  Seriously?

He presented me with two options.  First, I could upgrade to a new, state-of-the-art, fourth generation iPod Touch.  This would cost me around $300.  “But you will be amazed at how much faster, slicker, and cooler it is,” he said.  I asked him if this new, fast, slick, cool, state-of-the-art, fourth generation iPod Touch had a feature that would permit a user to change the battery when it dies. 

“No,” he said.

“What’s behind door number two?” I asked.

He explained that he could swap my battery-challenged iPod Touch for a brand new, first generation iPod touch, which would only cost me about $80.  That, to me, still seemed like a lot to pay for a battery, but it was better than $300, so I told him that was the option I wanted.  I could sense his disappointment and disapproval.

He once again disappeared behind a door and returned a minute later with a “new,” first generation iPod Touch.  I asked him if he could move all of my songs and apps from my old iPod to the replacement iPod.  “No, we can’t do that here,” he said, “but when you get home, open up iTunes on your computer, plug the new iPod into the computer using the USB port, and everything will be automatically synched up to your new device.”

Okay, I can handle that, I thought.  I gave him my credit card, paid 80 bucks for a battery wrapped in a “new” old iPod, and headed back home.  I booted up the old laptop on which I have iTunes loaded, opened up the software, plugged in my replacement iPod, and....

(To be continued)

Just a touch more personal

As a general rule, my musings on this blog are not intensely personal or intimate.  My postings are mostly about my observations on things that I’ve read, heard, or seen that I think are humorous, different, or interesting...to me...and to express my particular point of view.  

I will occasional push out posts of a more personal nature, like when we had bats...not the baseball kind...flying around our bedroom and my wife had to get a series of rabies shots, my battle with fruit flies in our kitchen, or my travelogue from last summer when my son and I took our cross-country drive in a half-filled, 14-foot U-Haul truck from Worcester to San Francisco.

But yesterday was such an extraordinary day, I feel compelled to write about it and share my experience with my vast audience.

Yesterday was Father’s Day and my wife, who understands and appreciates (and shares) my love for the Boston Red Sox, bought tickets for the two of us, plus our daughter, to go to Fenway Park to see the Sox host the Milwaukee Brewers.  This was mostly a birthday present, but since we were in San Francisco on my birthday, my wife selected Father’s Day, when we would be back east, for the game.

I’m pretty sure that even our son, who is not a baseball fan, would have enjoyed this day.  But he’s still hanging out in San Francisco taking care of Colbert, our cat, and playing “King of the Condo” while we’re here in the east.

All things worked on beautifully on this day.  The weather was exemplary, with temperatures in the upper 70s and with uncharacteristically low humidity.  We drove into the city and parked at the “official” Red Sox parking garage and took the “T” to the Elephant Walk, a French/Cambodian restaurant on Beacon Street, where we enjoyed our Sunday brunch.  After brunch, we took the relatively short walk to Fenway Park, home of the beloved (and first place!) Boston Red Sox.

My wife managed to get terrific seats in a lower box to the first base side of home plate, giving us a great view of the field.  As an added bonus, there was a pre-game celebration for the Boston Bruins, winners of the 2011 Stanley Cup.  I’m not a hockey fan, but it was still a thrill to see the Red Sox fans wildly cheering the success of yet another Boston sports team.

The game between the Sox and the Brewers got off to a fantastic start...for the Sox.  They pretty much wrapped it up early, with a six-run barrage in the first inning, and went on to win 12-3 on this absolutely stunning afternoon.

After the game, the three of us headed to Natick for some sushi and such at a great little place called Oga’s.  Yum!

To sum it all up: beautiful weather, great food, Bruins celebration, and an outstanding Red Sox game.  What an amazing Father’s Day.

To my wife: a sincere, heart-felt thank you for the best Father's Day ever.

Anthony Weiner Action Hero?

I’ve finally figured out why Anthony Weiner did what he did.  When he was a kid, Weiner was probably a big fan of G.I. Joe dolls (and maybe Barbie dolls?).  He simply wanted, like so many of us guys, to have an action figure doll of his own.  What better way to get an action figure doll in your own image, he must have decided, than to be a congressman who tweets pictures of his junk?

It worked!  An Anthony Weiner action figure is now available.  A Connecticut company, HeroBuilders.com, has introduced two versions of the Weiner action figure doll.  One version is g-rated and the other, for a $10 premium, is “anatomically correct.”  The company, which also has a Sarah Palin action figure doll, claims that no one is buying the cheaper, “standard” Weiner doll.  Most are opting for the uncensored version.

But I digress.  This post is not about action figure dolls.  It’s about arrogance and stupidity.

Yes, I’ve done some really dumb things in my life, things that if I had it to do all over again, I’d do differently (and, hopefully, better).  Unlike Anthony Weiner, though, I do not hold public office...either elected or appointed.  That’s not an excuse for those dumb things I’ve done and for which I must take responsibility.  But I am not a politician or a celebrity whose actions are scrutinized by thousands, if not millions.  

So what is it about these high powered, public figures...congressmen, senators, and even U.S. presidents...that allows them to believe they can engage in these indiscretions and not step into deep doo-doo?

Just look at the list politicians who have been caught behaving badly recently.  Besides Weiner, there are former governors Arnold Schwarzenegger (who also has his own action figure doll), Mark Sanford, and Jim McGreevey.  There are former senators John Edwards, John Ensign, and Larry Craig.  New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and, of course, former President Bill (“Slick Willie”) Clinton, had their own very public sex scandals.

Even foreign politicians have been getting into the act.  Former IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn and former Egyptian bank president Mahmoud Abdel Salam Omar seem to be attracted to New York hotel housekeepers.  Seriously, guys?  Chambermaids?

Some might point to social media as the real culprit.  Most politicians these days use social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to communicate with their constituents (and with the media).  Congressman Weiner had around 40,000 followers on Twitter before he inexplicably decided to tweet pictures of his Oscar Mayer wiener.  According to one article, his Twitter followers have nearly doubled since the Weinergate story broke and the number is expected to hit 100,000 by the end of this month.  Oh my how we seem so interested in and attracted to matters prurient.

But to blame social media for what happened to Weiner is like blaming guns for killing people.  I can’t believe I’m saying this, but to echo the NRA mantra, guns don’t kill people, people kill people (although guns do make it a whole lot easier).  You can’t blame Facebook and Twitter for how people use them.

The real culprit is conceit, arrogance, vanity, ego, and narcissism.  Unfortunately, these same traits are often the very traits that drive people to run for public office in the first place.  And these are the same traits that enable these very public figures to believe that they can get away with these very stupid actions.

While most politicians can effectively manage or control the negative aspects of these requisite traits and put them to positive use, some seem to let the darker side prevail.  Like the Washington Post’s Joel Achenbach recently wrote, “These guys say: Look at me.  Look at me.  Look at me.  And the weak and the flawed and the stupid don’t know when and where and how to stop.”

It turns out that Weiner has decided to resign from the U.S. House of Representatives as a result of his inappropriate tweets and his ill-conceived efforts to cover it up.

But hey, he's now got his own anatomically correct action figure doll!  No doubt he will be publishing his own best selling memoir soon and will probably have a TV movie about his sexploits on a cable network like Lifetime or SpikeTV.

Anthony Weiner: Action Hero?  Only to the Republicans, probably.

Logical punctuation is un-American

“It’s nonsensical,” my late father-in-law would say.  “If the period or the comma is not part of what is being quoted, it shouldn’t be contained within the quotation marks.”

Poppy, as he was known to his family, was a man for whom I had the utmost respect and highest regard, but we didn’t always see eye to eye on everything.  Politically, for example, he was a very conservative Republican.  I am not.  And when it came to rules of punctuation, I am a stickler.  He was not.

Countless debates, both verbal and via e-mail exchanges, ensued between the two of us about one particular American English punctuation rule, which states unequivocally that commas and periods must always be placed inside the end quotation marks, even if they are not part of what is being quoted.

“That’s not logical,” he would say.  Admittedly, the punctuation rule regarding where periods and commas are placed in American English is different than in British English.  As one grammar site noted, “In the United States, periods and commas go inside quotation marks regardless of logic.  In the United Kingdom, Canada, and islands under the influence of British education, punctuation around quotation marks is more apt to follow logic.”

“Logical or not,” I would respond, “that’s the rule.”  I would refer Poppy to tons of references...overwhelming evidence...to support my argument.  And I reminded him that America won its independence from Britain over 200 years ago!  “We are Americans,” I would say, “and, as such, we should abide by American rules of grammar and punctuation.”

A retired lawyer, Poppy stubbornly ignored the mounds of evidence and continued, in his writings, to always place periods and commas outside of the end quotation marks.  I am convinced that he did that not so much because of his conviction that it was more logical to do it that way, but because he knew how much it vexed me.

The other day, on the Daily Writing Tips website, there was a posting that referenced a recently published column by Ben Yogoda in Slate.  The author, a college professor, contends that the American style of having periods and commas within the quotation marks is inconsistent.  “When it comes to other punctuation marks—semicolons, colons, exclamation points, question marks, dashes—we follow British/logical protocol,” Yogoda wrote.

This “Logical Punctuation” movement seems to be gaining some level of grassroots acceptance in this country.  This is not surprising to me, given the proliferation of e-mails, chats, blogs, tweets, and Facebook updates and the informality used in those forms of written communications.

Seriously, would someone who writes, “Wassup?  How R U doing?” or who responds, “I am gr8, U?” give a shit about the proper positioning of periods and commas relative to quotation marks?

Even Wikipedia, the “free encyclopedia that anyone can edit,” has embraced logical punctuation.  According to Yogoda, Wikipedia’s style guide notes that “logical punctuation … is used here because it is deemed by Wikipedia consensus to be more in keeping with the principle of minimal change.”  Yogoda explains that this “principle of minimal change” means that if you put a period or comma inside quotation marks, you are wrongly suggesting that the period or comma is part of the quoted material, and thus you have “changed” it.

In a Daily Writing Tips post, “Logical Punctuation Isn’t the Logical Choice,” Mark Nichols appropriately laments this punctuation shift.  “The hoi polloi, it seems, can’t seem to get this convention straight, or can’t be bothered about it.”

Well, being the stickler that I am, I am bothered by it.  Hey, it’s not that difficult.  Put the goddam period or comma WITHIN the friggin’ end quotations marks.

“Let’s eat Daddy” or “Let’s eat, Daddy”

I remember being in a Borders bookstore a number of years ago and seeing a book by Lynne Truss called “Eats, Shoots & Leaves.”  I was intrigued by its subtitle, “The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation.”  At last, a book that might resonate with a stickler like me.

I sat down and started reading the book, impressed by the engaging, witty, but informative way the author discussed the abomination of using apostrophes in plurals (as in “people often misuse apostrophe’s”), misplaced or missing commas (as in the book’s title, which suggests sociopathic behavior after a meal), and other punctuation faux pas.  These things drove her “absolutely batty,” as it does me.

Truss is British and her book was a runaway bestseller in Britain.  Unfortunately, when the American edition was published, there was no editing for American rules of grammar and punctuation.  I was appalled to be reading a book touting the beauty of proper punctuation that was chock full of periods and commas falling outside of the quotation marks.  Angered and frustrated, I tossed the book back on the table and left Borders in a huff.

The book turned out to be a bestseller in this country as well, thus reinforcing to those who have little or no regard for the rules of grammar and punctuation that, when writing with quotations, they can put their end punctuation any-damn-where they want.  After all, if it’s good enough for a bestselling book by a self-proclaimed stickler....

Yes, I may be rigid in my thinking when it comes to grammar and punctuation.  Or maybe I’ve just turned into an old curmudgeon for taking issue with people who write...even informally...and don’t even attempt to or bother with using proper punctuation.

Still, as I think back on my many conversations on this topic with Poppy, I have no doubt that he would have been delighted with Yogoda’s position and this grassroots movement toward Logical Punctuation. 

He no doubt would have sent me an e-mail with the Slate article attached.  “You see,” he would have gloated, “The American rule about where to place periods and commas with respect to quotation marks is simply not logical.  And I’m not the only one who thinks so.” 

Touché, Poppy.  But it’s still un-American.

Damn you, Mother Nature

Even though we live in the heart of the city, it was as if we lived in the middle of the forest.  Well almost.  All we had to do was ignore the traffic noise from the busy street outside of our condo and, as we sat on our living room sofa looking out of the large windows, we were transported to someplace else, someplace tranquil and serene.

In front of our condo stood this broad, majestic old tree.  We would watch the multitude of green leaves on the full branches of the old tree, the branches swaying to the random beat of the breezes; the leaves moving to the rhythms of the wind.  There was the sensation that it was we who were in motion as the leaves fluttered and the branches waved.

As a bonus, the leaf-covered tree branches provided a natural, visual barrier that hid us better from the prying eyes of each passerby outside than any curtains or drapes could.  We loved that tree.

Last night Mother Nature took our tree from us.  Heavy rains and winds hit the area, and when we woke up this morning, we were devastated by what we saw.  Or, more precisely, by what we didn’t see.  Half the tree was gone.  The branches that extended in front of our condo and provided cover from the world outside and a sense of calm and serenity, had fallen to the pavement below.

Gone was the rhythmic swaying.  Gone was the visual barrier to the outside world.  Gone was the sense of tranquility and peacefulness the tree provided.  Gone was the notion that we could save money by not having to buy living room window treatments.

All that was left was the reminder that what we had once was now gone and cannot be replaced.

Damn you, Mother Nature.  You have betrayed us.

How fleeting is success

Even though I have spent more time in San Francisco than in Boston over the past year, I remain a loyal and almost fanatical fan of the Boston Red Sox.  And so, just three days ago, when my beloved Sox had amazingly overcome an absolutely awful start to the 2011 MLB season to vault into first place in the AL East, I felt compelled to write about it in my blog.  The result was something I called “From worst to first.”  I was a happy camper.

But being the pragmatist that I am, I also cautioned, “There are yet four games to play in May and, if the Sox suffer a couple of losses, they could yet be knocked out of first place before month-end.”

Why oh why did I have to say that?  Since I published that that post, the Red Sox not only have suffered “a couple of losses,” they’ve suffered three losses in a row.  At the same time, those friggin’ Yankees have won three in a row.  And, to add insult to injury, the Yankees have taken over from the Red Sox, at least for now, as the new hottest team in the majors.  Damn Yankees!

Indeed, just as I fretted in my blog posting, the Red Sox very quickly got knocked out of first place by month-end.  In a matter of just three days, my Red Sox have gone from having a game and a half lead over the Yankees in the AL East to being a game behind the Yankees.  Damn Yankees!

So what three lessons have I learned from this experience?  First, it’s a long baseball season and, as with the tides, there is a constant ebb and flow.  Your team is in and then it’s out, it’s up and then it’s down.  And when all is said and done, the only thing that really matters is where things stand at the end of September.

Second, it’s senseless to write posts about the Red Sox on this blog because as soon as I do, everything changes.  Then I have to go back, like I am today, and explain that I may have been a bit hasty in my celebration of the Red Sox success...their fleeting success.

Third, damn those Yankees.

UPDATE:

I wrote this post on the flight last night from San Francisco to Salt Lake City, but since I didn’t get to my hotel until after 1 a.m., I didn’t publish it to my blog.  Now I’m at the SLC airport awaiting my flight back to San Francisco and have a few minutes to kill before boarding starts.

I’m loathe to report that the Red Sox have lost their fourth game in a row, while the Yankees...those DAMN YANKEES...have won their fourth in a row.  As a result, the Beantown Boys are now two full games behind the Yankees in the AL East.  So sad.

Oh how quickly the winds of change have caused the landscape to shift.