FRS

I Blame Steven Colbert

It’s all his fault I’m buying a FlightWall.

Like most of my impulse buying of nifty gadgets and items of clothing recently, it started because of an ad on Instagram. This photo shows what the entrance to the kitchen from the living room looks like. And I always wanted to add something in between the cutout above the entryway and the ceiling but never found anything that I liked. Until the FlightWall popped up. For $175 I could put one of those up there. I am literally right under the landing path to PDX!

The Mini for $175 is 12.6 inches long x 6.3 inches high. That is roughly the same area as a sheet of paper and would look kind of silly in that spot. But they also sell a Wiidescreen model that is 50.4 inches long x 12.6 inches high. So how big is that opening? It is 52″ x 15″ tall on the shorter end and 20″ on the taller end. It’s like they were thinking of me when they offered that size.

I have had a shortcut to FlightWall on my phone’s home screen for about three weeks. Every other day or so I’d look at it and think I should buy it, then think the Widescreen is too expensive, at lmost three times more than the Mini, and not follow through. Tuesday, I deleted the shortcut off the phone.

On Tuesday’s Late Show with Stephen Colbert, he had the other four members of the Strike Force Five (insert thunder crash sound effect here) as the only guests. At the end they teased a final 13th episode of their pandemic-created podcast. So yesterday I watched/listened to it on YouTube, and near the end, they had the wives answer the question, “What does he want for his birthday?” Steven says he’s been dropping hints about a nice leather desk organizer. This is the answer his wife gave:

So maybe in reality it is not Steven’s fault I bought the Widescreen FlightWall this afternoon; it is his wife Evie McGee’s.

Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: 37.4%

 

Haven’t Forgotten About LOST

It dawned cool, cloudy, and drizzly, so I immediately thought, I have no place I need to go, so after my 45-minute spin around Bavaria on the exercise bike, I changed into my loungewear and have been dressed that way ever since.

I farted around on YouTube, finished a jigsaw puzzle, and watched two episodes of LOST, then watched the Red Sox, much to my surprise, win a baseball game. After this I may go watch a movie, or read some more of the book I have going, or just zone out listening to Radio Paradise while watching their slideshow.

I’m three-quarters of the way through season two, watching 2 episodes a day. If you thought the first season was jam-packed, so far in the first 18 episodes of season two, the reveals and new stuff have been more of an avalanche. I have to admit that I almost pulled the plug at episode ten. Never been a fan of any of the Charlie episodes, but this one is the worst, IMHO. But I shouldered on.

Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: 35.3%

 

Bye Bye #15

I have been fighting with my last upper molar on the left, probably for a couple years. Last April I had a root canal done on it. But even a couple rounds of antibiotics haven’t cleared an infection in the tooth. At my semi-annual cleaning, I asked the dentist if he could refer me to an endodontist so they could re-do the root canal.

The endodontist’s high-tech, super-powerful x-ray allowed him to have what looked like an MRI image. He basically 3D-rendered my skull and, along with the imaging software, could zero in on the offending tooth, then show any cross-section of it, both vertically & horizontally. It found zero evidence of nerve, but it did look like it had a crack in it. His recommendation was to pull it.

Today, a nice young doctor grabbed a rusty pair of pliers, and while his even younger assistant held my jaws apart with his hands, he yanked out the offending tooth.

I used to get a shiny nickel from the Tooth Fairy for every baby tooth I lost. Today that nickel has the buying power of 55-cents, but the tooth has a crown of gold. With the current price of gold, that tooth is worth almost $500. I’ll let you know how much I find under my pillow tomorrow morning.

Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: 44.1%

 

They Showed Me

I don’t know what has come over me. For the 2 springs I’ve lived here, I have outsourced the weeding and tidying up of the yards surrounding the house. This year I’m doing it myself. Donna was the yard person, and I’d just come in at the end with the whipper-snipper 1 and tidy the edges. Here in Portland, where the winter is nothing but rain, the weeds here are hardy, to say the least. I have spent a couple hours a day starting on Sunday, and I’ve sprayed weed killer over everything that is unsightly and have one half of one side yard done. I’ve yanked out all the dead stuff, and I put down weed-blocking fabric and mulch, so next year it should be easier. The second half is pretty easy because it is more mature; that should be one more day. In the other side yard the previous owners put down a layer of small gravel, which looked really nice, but they didn’t put down any weed block, so it is filled with hundreds of invasive sprouting things. I have got 25 or so thistle plants there. Some are as tall as 4′ high. That side will probably take me all next week…

The Sox did beat the Detroit Tigers today. It’s the first time this year they have won three in a row and swept a series. This weekend is a big test; they are home for a four-game series with the Tampa Bay Rays. Tampa is only a half game behind the Yankees in the division and are 8.5 games ahead of the Sox. The Rays are hot right now; they’ve won 6 in a row and 12 of their last 13 games.

Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: 37.9%

 

On a Roll Now

The Red Sox have now won 2 games in a row and seem like they have righted the ship with the new manager and staff thing. Those wins bring their record all the way up to 15-21, and they are now a mere 10 games behind the dreaded Yankees in the division. Baseball Reference predicts their best record possible is 90-72. I say, “Ha,” they have one more game with Detroit tomorrow, and I’m predicting they lose, and their Wild Card chance will be right back down to 30% again.

Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: 31.7%

 

They’re One In A Million

After Tuesday’s loss to the Tampa Bay Rays the Red Sox’s probability to make the playoffs fell to 0.9%. It looked grim, but on Wednesday they beat the Rays and their probability “skyrocketed” to 1.7%! The joy was short lived as they managed to lose the next two games and their change to play in the baseball post season fell to 0.1% or one in thousand.

There are 8 games left in the 2024 season for them and they have to win all of them. That would be the easy part, the four teams in front of them would all have to lose at last 6 (that’s right six) of their last 8 games. One in a thousand sounds optimistic, more like one in a million.

Sure Didn’t Need That Break

The Red Sox had the best record in baseball from June 15th until July 14th with a 17-7 record. Then the 4 day All-Star break happened. “Second” half started Friday night and the Sox were in LA to play the Dodgers. They promptly lost all three games in spite of being ahead by several runs in two of them. Admittedly the Dodgers are a better ball club than the FRS, but they should have been able to win one of those three games.

Now they are off to play 3 games against the Colorado Rockies who are 36-64 and 23 games behind their division leaders, those same Dodgers. I hope the altitude doesn’t make them high2 and the Red Sox win at least 2 out of the three games.