Fish Fear Me

Another End of an Era

A daily stop for me and one of my favorite blogs is closing shop. The gang at "It Comes In Pints?", with the delightful URL of www.secondbreakfast.net, is shutting down(voluntarily, to the shock of many...heheh). Thanks for all the great stuff over the years, Ken and Emily. And Dave J., yeah it's been that long. Sheila O'Malley is my blogmother(please don't hold that against her), but these folks are a close second and I'll miss that site.

Ken will still be around at "The Fifth String on the Banjo of Life", a name that I find somewhat disturbing, yet fascinating. I'm sure it's all very psychological. I'm not sure where Emily is at these days, but if she wants to let me know I'll be happy to stop by (doh! Missed the update).

Though I didn't participate that much, the often entertaining FFOT will live on here. Ken had the notion of doing a mid-week "F*CK Yeah!" thread a while back and I think that's a great idea. I give him two weeks to do that at his new place or I'm going to steal it from him. Duly warned, Ken.

Bookmarks on the sidebar.

Sammy Watch Update

Sammy is back from the vet and it's a good news and mildly bad news thing. The good news is the vet says she is in really good shape for a dog that's over 11 years old. My fear that she had hurt herself while we were out was unfounded. The word he used to describe her range of motion and apparent lack of arthritis was "remarkable". The mildly bad news is that she does not have the easily treated bladder infection. Her leaking is due to other factors, most likely age, and I have something called PPA to try first. It actually used to be used as a diet supplement for humans but was pulled from that use years ago. The vet told me it is often very effective, though she will probably be on it for the rest of her life. If that doesn't work then there may be something more serious involved. Keep your fingers crossed.

Go Twins

Here's something you don't hear very often about a regular season MLB game: I'll be watching THE game tonight. Well, for stats purposes it's a regular season game. Joe Mauer will need to do better than 0-7 tonight or he can kiss that AL batting title goodbye.

I'd bet that Mauer won't go 0-7 tonight, but I won't be putting any money on the Twins beating Chicago. Oh, I'll be cheering them on down at the local pub tonight, no doubt. They are walking into one heck of a hornets nest though. I agree with everything that La Velle Neal writes here, but this is the main point:

It will be the most hostile environment many Twins players will have experienced to this point in their careers. I have NOT forgotten the 2003 All-Star Game in Chicago, when fans booed Eddie Guardado mercilessly during introductions.

Yep. I have a few friends in the Chicago area and I know they really hate the Twins. The Twins are an offense to the proper order of things and the rightful dominance of the league by large market teams. In fact, all the other large market teams tease the White Sox about how often the Twins have won the Central Division lately(four times in the last six years) and their inability to keep them down. Here's another interesting bit of trivia along those lines:

It shouldn't have come to this for the White Sox, who have led the Central for 144 days this season. But that's the history of their rivalry with the Twins in recent years.

The Twins are trying to win their fifth Central title since 2002 despite the White Sox holding a time-of-possession edge for first place. The Sox have led the Central for 464 days over the last seven seasons, 20 days more than Minnesota, but have only one division title to show for it.

That is very annoying to my Chicago friends, and tonight they will have the chance to take it out on my Twins. And I assure you they will.

Can the Twins handle the pressure? Well, they are one of the youngest teams in baseball and they haven't exactly been consistent in games with far less pressure. I might not bet on them, but I won't bet against them either. It will take all they've got to beat the White Sox at home, however it is possible and these guys are scrappy enough to do it. We'll find out.

Keep The Faith

We're getting ready to head back to the Twin Cities this afternoon. Sammy has returned to normal with the exception of the "leaking" thing. I'm hoping that's just a bladder infection that can be fairly easily treated with antibiotics. She had that about five years ago, though the symptom was a little blood back then, not leaking, and it cleared up within a couple of days once she was put on antibiotics. It could be something worse though, so we'll just have to hope for the best. The vet sees her first thing in the morning.

I'll be trying to catch the Chicago-Detroit game as we roll down the road. If the White Sox win, the Twins will have to play in Chicago tomorrow to determine the AL Central champs. Just looking at it dispassionately, I have to say the Twins are a long shot. I figure the odds are with the White Sox today, with home field advantage being the biggest factor. I hope the Tigers are motivated by the spoiler opportunity, but you never know. I think it's a tall order to expect the Twins to beat Chicago on the road if it comes down to that. You never know though, it's not impossible. I think they are motivated after losing the KC series this past weekend when they could have made all this uncertainty beside the point. Story of their season in a way.

There's been little blathering here from me on the financial crisis. That's mostly because it's been hard to tell just what is real from news reports. There's been a tremendous amount of demagoguery from all sides on the issue and as of today I fear it may end up being too little, too late. Scratch that, I see the house just now voted it down. The Dow is down 537 as I write and my guess is it will go further.

I'm no expert, but this strikes me as a mistake. Maybe it will all work out ok and maybe the Left and the Right in this country have just managed to drop us into a deep recession, or maybe even a depression. If so, thanks a lot. I hope the "six foot under, pushing up daisies, dead right" principles you all hold are a comfort as millions are thrown out of work and retirement accounts are savaged. Maybe that won't come to pass. My gut tells me though, that we have just failed to stop something that will grow into a beast that will not be tamed before it does tremendous damage. Hope I'm wrong.

All Good Things...

The sun sets on a tough day...

It was a beautiful autumn day here by any standards and nice and cool this morning as we headed out to walk the woods and see if we could scare up some grouse. Where we were the woods are still only partly turned, but there's some decent color:

and I loved this little creek we stumbled on off of the Superior Hiking Trail:

Sammy, good old girl that she is, was raring to go this morning:

Unfortunately, like the Twins today, sometimes the spirit is willing and the body, well not so much. I watched the tail end of the Twins loss to KC this afternoon and didn't really care all that much. That's because just a couple hours in the woods really kicked Sammy's butt today. I gave her all the water she wanted while we were out, yet I think she got dehydrated anyway. I also think she hurt herself even though we didn't go off-trail at all. Something is up with her backend that has me a little worried. She's obviously stiff when she tries to get up, and much worse, she's...well..."leaking" a little. It's not like she has lost total control of her bladder, but she has never had anything like this before.

She's much better after an afternoon of TLC and it appears that the leaking problem is diminishing as the hours go by. She is also alert and eating, and doesn't appear to be in distress, just tired. We'll see how the next few days go and there's a vet in town if she needs her.

Just based on how well she has responded the last few hours I think she's ok. I also think it's probably the end of all but the most casual hunting for old Sammy though. End of an era.

Bah, Witches are nothing...

...They are going to have to do better than that. After all, roughly 47 years ago some people gathered to pray over my tiny body for my protection from Satan himself.

The jury is still out, but I think it's looking promising.

Stay Tuned

I'll be heading up to the north shore of Lake Superior in a couple days to see if I can get some grouse hunting in and also hopefully get some nice shots of the leaves changing up there. Down here in the Twin Cities the leaves are just starting to change, but up north they should be getting close to peak color around what passes for mountains in Minnesota. This may be Sammy's last season as a hunting dog so I'm going to try to make the most of it, gas prices be damned. Though she is apparently healthy for a dog of her age, the signs of age are starting to become more apparent and that's weighing on my mind a bit.

That and a few other things. As I tote my gun through the woods of northern Minnesota, one of the things I will ponder is how something like this can not only be spoken, but cheered by an audience in modern day America:

“If Sarah Palin isn’t enough of a reason for you to get over whatever your problem is with Barack Obama, then you damn well had better pay attention,” Rep. Alcee Hastings of Florida said at a panel about the shared agenda of Jewish and African-American Democrats Wednesday. Hastings, who is African-American, was explaining what he intended to tell his Jewish constituents about the presidential race. “Anybody toting guns and stripping moose don’t care too much about what they do with Jews and blacks. So, you just think this through,” Hastings added as the room erupted in laughter and applause.

Though that comment was directly pointed at Sarah Palin, I took offense to it as a hunter and someone who knows plenty of other hunters who go after bigger game. Granted, I'll be going for grouse and not moose, but I don't think that distinction much matters to Hastings. Or his audience for that matter.

What an appalling and indecent thing to say. And shame on the people who laughed and cheered at it. I've long thought of Hastings as an ignorant fool who is completely lacking when it comes to integrity, but what's the audience's excuse?

Perhaps I'll get an answer from my openly gay brother's Jewish partner, a Democrat whom I truly like and respect. Or maybe I'll get the answer while I hunt the woods this weekend with my Obama-supporting openly lesbian sister and her not out partner, a woman I also like and respect.

My guess is that, though their political beliefs are on the opposite side of the aisle from mine, they will be dismayed also.

You know, this is the eighth presidential election that I've had the privilege to participate in. I have voted for candidates, I have voted for candidates reluctantly against other candidates, but I've never voted against a candidate just because of how truly vile some of his supporters are. This might very well be the first.

RIP, Wally Hilgenberg

Wally Hilgenberg, a stalwart member of the old "Purple People Eaters" as a linebacker for the Minnesota Vikings and one of my boyhood heroes, passed away today at age 66. He had been diagnosed with ALS in 2006. The Strib story from today is here and they also relink a great column by Patrick Reusse from earlier this year.

I like the humor in this anecdote from the Reusse column:

Lonnie Warwick was the middle linebacker and Roy (Moonie) Winston was the left linebacker. Hilgenberg was big into hunting and fishing and had heard the same about Warwick and Winston.

"I thought it wouldn't hurt to buddy up right away to two starting linebackers," Hilgenberg said.

The newcomer was told that Warwick and Winston were going duck hunting early the next morning. "If you want to hunt with us, you're going to need waders,'" Wally was told.

He bought waders after practice. He was ready when Winston picked him up before dawn in his old truck.

"Even that morning, Warwick sat in the middle, because that's where he played," Hilgenberg said.

The Vikings arrived at the Minnesota River backwaters.

"I said, 'Where are your waders?'" Hilgenberg said. "They said, 'We don't need waders, as long as you got them.' I waded out to set up the decoys. I waded out to retrieve the ducks. I waded out to pick up the decoys."

Heheh...been on both sides of that kind of thing myself. RIP, Wally.

This Is It

The Twins start a three game series with the White Sox tonight at home. The math says differently, but if they are going to take the AL Central and get into the playoffs then reality says they have to sweep the Sox I think. Anything less and the season is realistically over. That may not be a bad thing, since they weren't expected to be even close to this position, they probably wouldn't last the first series in the playoffs, and it may leave them hungrier to fix what needs to be fixed for next season. I'll root for them to win and enjoy watching these last two series no matter what. I'm really more focused though on what they need to do for next year. In my humble opinion, those things are:

Defense: They need to figure out the left side of the infield and stick with it so they develop some chemistry. Across the board though, they need to improve their fielding. They will not win squat as an average fielding team and that's all they are this year. They have shown brilliance at times this year and then turned around and done the lamest errors in the field. Errors happen, but have to be better than average to go anywhere.

Starters: The Twins have a great group of young talent and I like that they go after hitters. That means home runs will be given up, but I think there were too many momentary lapses of reason this year. The starters have to do better on giving up home runs and they damn well better be putting out more quality starts in Aug/Sep next year.

Bullpen: What was the best bullpen in baseball is staggering to the end of the season. Maybe not a total rebuild is needed since Nathan is there at closer, but just about everyone else is up for grabs. I haven't cringed this much at the bullpen in years.

Mental mistakes: They happen, but geez it's been a bad year for that. I think a lot of that is due to inexperience and that means next year should be better. Serious helpings of brain food wouldn't hurt for the offseason though, and if Gardenhire doesn't have the trainer making menus for these guys then he should be fired. Oh, just kidding. Sort of. I bet if I could wave a magic wand and cut a third of the dumb things they have done on the bases this year, the Twins would be up 1 1/2 on the Sox right now. At least.

All of that said, it's been a fun season and a heck of a lot more interesting than I thought it would be. At the start of the season I didn't figure they would be even close to contention, so this is great. I'm cheering them on this week and hope they do well. If not, back to thinking about the future. 

Good News!

Democratic Congress May Adjourn, Leave Crisis to Fed, Treasury

I was kind of worried that they wouldn't.