Misc Photos

Someone Has Sold Their Soul

I’m thinking it is Chad Tracy, the interim manager.

Since the beginning of July the Red Sox have played 27 games and have lost only 4 of them. On July 1st their playoff chances were listed as about 12%; as of today that number is almost 83%.

Here is why I think the Devil might be involved here. First, somehow they didn’t come out of the All-Star break with a losing streak as usual. Then, a week ago, they traded a pitcher that should have been on the All-Star team, who was 11-1 so far, for a power-hitting infielder named Curtis Reed. On his second at-bat with the Red Sox, Mr. Reed was hit on the forearm and will be out for the next 4-6 weeks with a non-displaced fracture. Now, this weekend we had a three-game series with what most folks would agree is the best team in baseball, the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the Sox won all three, 9-4, 3-2 & 8-4.

Seeing as I’m not on Instagram anymore, I guess I’ll just try and post an image here…

Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: 82.7%

 

I’m Such A Girl

This could almost qualify to be included on the “Awkward Family Photos” website. Note Donna’s wet hair (and holy crap, ’80s glasses); she has probably just finished showering in the tub she and her sister Sandy are in while I am outside. I bet the original plan was we were all going to be in the tub, but the instant camera didn’t have a timer. I wonder what I’m using to push the shutter button? So, I guess I did have a Polaroid Swinger camera. I’ve stumbled on a bunch of them recently.

Today was just another typical day (maybe not it that order) for me. Until I went looking for a movie to watch this evening. I started at Prime Video and after watching a half dozen trailers, I settled a quirky little movie called Carrie Philby. It is a fish-out-of-water comedy/drama, and when it gets to the end, our protagonist finds herself, and someone to share it with. I actually got a little teary-eyed at the finale; I’m such a girl.

Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: 17.4%

 

Old-School

“Old-school selfie: me holding up a point & shoot film camera sometime between 2003 and 2005.”

That was the caption I put on this photo when I uploaded it several months ago. I was going to lean in and tell you how I could tell it happened to be in that date range. But now looking at it, I can see this is positively prior to November 2003. I know that because that is when we bought the Emperor, a 2003 NB in Garnet Red, and this car is blue, and those seats are cloth NA seats. I owned two blue Miatas, a 1990 and a 1995, and because of the limited amount of blue you can see in the photo, there is no way to tell which car it is. It has to be prior to 2000 because I put leather seats in the 1995 that year.

Another clue was on the hat: the word “Word” is clear there, but what follows it? My first thought was WordPress, but that didn’t come into being until 2003. The only other thing I can think of is WordPerfect. That has been around since the late 70s, and according to Wikipedia, “the height of its popularity was in the 1980s and early 1990s.” I started work in Aiken in 1989, and the first computers came in the early 90s, so I think the best I can narrow it down to just somewhere between 1993-1999.

Best 12

Way back when, AKA 2018-2020, it used to be cool to post your top nine photos in a grid with their like count displayed prominently. There isn’t an Android app available anymore; I see links for the iOS platforms, but I have no idea if they are real. I can’t try it because I don’t have an iPhone…

Here’s my Best 12 of 2025. They have nothing to do with likes or views; these are just my favorites, one for each month.

There’s Something You Don’t See Every Day

telepoem booth

When I first noticed this in the lobby area of the Chavez Center while waiting for Santa Fe Sally to finish up her workout, I thought maybe it was an actual phone booth, but then I noticed that the word “phone” was misspelled as “poem.” Was it a joke? Or was that telepoem Spanish? I looked it up on the WWW, and lo and behold, it is a repurposed phone that has been converted into a jukebox-like device that lets you dial a number formatted like a phone number, and you get to hear a poem and have the old-school telephone experience.

Find one nearby on their website: http://www.telepoembooth.com/locations.html

Monument Valley

The View Hotel at Sunrise

This is my fourth visit here, and each time it is a different experience. They have each been slightly different times of the year, but never in the summer when it must be both too hot and crowded, always in the shoulder seasons. And the weather has varied, from hot to mild to this one’s cold and very breezy. I would like to visit again, and Sally is game, but it might not be until 2027.

I took forty-one photos today and promptly deleted a little over half of them. These eight, well nine, if you count the one at the top, are the cream of that crop.