Back To Work

Now if you have been following closely, you are aware I just finished a major battle with pneumonia.  I was subsequently out the entire week last week- a first for me, as I have never taken five consecutive work days off for illness.  Yikes , I must be getting older!  Might be time to call “ Tom Cruise,” and reserver my “Hoveround!”  Honestly before I get to that point in my life I hope honestly that someone just give me two in the hat and tosses me into a dumpster somewhere.  But I digress......
Today was my first day back to work and I now know why I don’t take time off.  My desk was a nightmare, and god only knows what will come to light over the coming weeks that people trying to help me screwed up.  Oh my this is going to take  while-and just as I get things back to normal, I am going on vacation the second week of August.....

That Thud You Heard

 .....was all the USA Soccer fans falling off the bandwagon!  Oh my they were such fervent supporters, wearing all the garb, painting the faces, chanting, ‘USA,” “USA!”  and then the team lost.  Yawn- what do we watch now?  Like little lemmings they go from one fad to the next,  Soccer, not a very popular sport in the USA, was all of a sudden the hot topic of conversation.  Not only were thy buying all of the swag, and painting their faces and chanting, they actually had a couple of them honestly trying to understand the rules.  “Someone told me that offsides in Soccer isn’t like Hockey.  They said it all depends where the guy is standing when the ball is kicked-that can’t be right can it?
Ahh yes- so now it’s over.  Back to the baseball,  Yawn.

Backward Hats

 I would like to take a stand and make it known that personally I think the backwards hat fad should officially end. ( I would also like to add the pants worn so low the butt crack shows too-but lets take one at the time).
Now at the risk of sounding especially uncool and cerebral, I have never-not once worn my hat backwards.  It has always been my feeling that the invention of the hat with a bill that sticks out of the front to shade your eyes from the sun, and keep light rain off of your eyeglasses was actually a pretty neat idea.  Also, if I buy a Red Sox, or a Cubs, or a Boston Bruins hat to show my team support, I kind of like the idea of showing my allegiance right up front, and not expecting people to turn their heads to look at the back of my head to know which team I support.
My other main objection is this.  Nothing makes you look like more of a dope than a backwards hat.  You could put a backwards hat on Albert Einstein, - instant dope.  At least for me, the combination of that tight fit along the skull, and the fact that you have taken a very practical invention and completely changed it’s intended use screams out ,”I am a dope!”
Now you can add to this ban the sort of sideways bill also- this is an ethnic thing best kept with the ethnic group that invented it.  Some things ,”Yo” just don’t translate cross ethnically, like for instance old white guys calling another old white guy, “Homey,” or saying, “Yo,” or shaving their heads completely bald.  A black guy with a shaved bald head looks cool, a white guy with a shaved bald head looks like a bald guy trying to fool people about his baldness and not looking cool at all. (and turning a hat backwards and calling people, “Yo,” and “Homey,” doesn’t help in this case either.
Now I wili end this by saying this.  Most of the dopes i see wearing backwards hats are between 50 and 70. Psst- guys you don’t fool anyone because not only can they tell you are between 50 and 70. but the fact that you are brining attention to yourself with the dopey looking backwards hat.  Not cool, “yo”- and all my “homey’s” know that!
Hitch those pants up too we will discuss those another day.

"P-Neumonia!!!!

Hey wait-I do know how to spell “Pneumonia . “ that is how I remembered the spelling over all these years ! But I digress......,
The real story started about a week ago.  After having a nagging little cough for a couple weeks which I actually thought was an allergy, last Friday afternoon things changed remarkably quickly. Sitting in work, this miasma came over me like someone flipped a switch.  I felt really awful really fast.  My bones ached, my fingers ached, and curiously this seemed familiar.....oh no Pneumonia?   o hope against hope I went home took my Temp (98.8 actually my “normal” is 96.8) so I was up a bit-but nothing to worry about.  Figured i would ride out the weekend and if still feeling bad call the doctor on Monday. Wrong answer as it turned out.

On Saturday  afternoon, i went down faster than a bobsled. Temperature over a hundred and every teeny little bone in my body ached, so I called the Doctors office.  The woman covering told me to get to the emergency room.

So reluctantly I dragged my butt to the emergency room at Winchester Hospital-which for the nasty treatment I got there might has well have just checked into Hades..... Oh my are they nasty. Now mind you, my temperature is raging, every bone in my body aches, m skin feels like its gonna slide right off my achy bones-so they take my vitals and tell me to sit down.  Two minutes later -front and center-now they need my insurance info-and bu the  way want to pay that $100.00 co-pay now? I agreed to pay the Co-pay cause i figured in my scheming brain that perhaps if I paid-I might get preferential treatment- ha,ha, ha, ha.......
So now I have the bracelet, and i sit and I sit and i sit.  Thirsty, uncomfortable. hot, after two hours ok now it’s time for blood work and a chest X-Ray.  (They want to make sure I’m not fakin’ this just for the good time) so into the arm goes the needle and she starts filling these bottles that looked like nips-something about bacteria. Then it’s off to X-ray and sit some more hours.  Finally they call you so you think this is it-oh wait put on this Johnny and wait a few more hours.

Finally the Doctor comes in and announces that after some antibiotics I’ll be going home.  She forgot to mention that it would take two hours for the IV drips of antibiotics.  Finally i get home so you think now with all this hospitalization that i was on my way to feeling good.   Well they gave me a prescription for something called “Byoxin.” and I took it the next day.....my skin developed a nasty looking rash.  o here I was n Sunday, one of the hottest days of the year with a 102 degree temp, which was so high I had trouble moving my eyes from sided to side, pouring sweat and covered with a nasty rash (I must add here-when I was in the Navy I had a shipmate from deep in the mountains of West Virginia- never owned a pair of shoes until boot camp- his name was “Woody.”  ell whenever Woody got sick if you asked how he felt he would say. “ I only felt this bad twice in my life-and both right now!” That is how i felt that Sunday- I was sure I was going to die.  Monday i felt a little better-but not much, and on Tuesday I felt good enough to drive myself to the doctors office to see about this nasty rash.  My Doctor was on vacation, but I met with the only medical person in the entire ordeal to actually seem concerned and offer some compassion, a Nurse practitioner
named Maria and she was awesome.  She gave me a new prescription threw away the old nasty one- and I was on my way to recovery. Honest i wouldn’t wish this on anyone.

Fathers Day

Well It is that time of the year that signals the beginning of summer, Fathers day. Yeah I Know what you are saying just another "Hallmark Holiday," (isn't it odd people seldom say that about "Mothers Day" though) Anyway it can be an excuse for people to do nice things for and get together with their fathers so it could be nice. Far from the traditional tool ads from Home Depot and Lowes, I am sure there are Dads that look forward to getting together with their kids and celebrating.

Oddly, although few think of this, it can be a day of pain and suffering too, a couple ways. First there are those whose dads have passed away, so it can be a day of memories and trips the the cemetery. Also there are those men who always wanted to be a dad but for whatever reason never attained that distinction, Though time and circumstance, it just never happened, and yet they truly lived their entire life wanting it to happen. Oh for those with kids it doesn't seem like much, but for someone denied the privilege I guess it can be painful. You're at a restaurant and families bringing their dads out to eat are sitting all around you, laughing and having a great time. So it hurts. The constant reminders by way of ads on TV and full page spreads in the paper can be rough too. Lastly, although this one is rarely discussed, there are those who out of youthful foolishness became fathers and gave their child up through adoption. They spend their life wondering how the child turned out, what they might look like, and perhaps whether they themselves ever wonder about their "real" parents. With all the resources available to them, gosh I wonder why they never tried to find me.....

Yeah, it can be a time for happiness, but can also bring a great deal of pain-think about it.

The "DInge"

Several major weather events have occurred lately, the latest being the floods in Arkansas so I guess I shouldn't complain..... But hey all thing being relative, I live in Massachusetts which if you aren't familiar has some pretty terrible weather, Quite honestly I cannot remember a weekend when we didn't get rain at least one day- this weekend it rained yesterday and today we got "The Dinge." That i when it is cloudy all day and if it doesn't rain it looks like it might so you are always off balance. Ahh Massachusetts- Gods armpit.....

Stanley Cup

The Good news is that the Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup. The Bad news is that Hockey is over for the year. I have been watching hockey for more years than I care to admit and coming form Boston I guess I am a Bruins fan by default. As the years have gone by however I have noticed as the Bruins get eliminated, I always pick another team to root for in the playoffs, and curiously it is always an original six team. For many years I delighted at the dominance of the Detroit Red Wings (How can you be a Hockey Fan and not like Stevie "Y") but with their ups and downs similar to the Bruins, I have always liked the Chicago Blackhawks.

Over the years a lot of the Players on the Hawks were my favorites, Bobby Hull, Tony Esposito, Stan Mikita, Steve Larmer, Jeremy Roenick, Eddie Belfour, and I am sure I am leaving some out,but as I said earlier as a Hockey fan, my loyalties were never so strongly Bruins that I didn't enjoy watching these other teams. Of Course over the years there were teams and Players that I simply had no use for whatsoever- The Pittsburg Penguins, Mario Lemeiux (always crying to the referees) Sid Crosby (with the Collagen Lips) Jaromir Jagr (the girlie man who despite being quite big never ever hit another player unless it was accidental), The Montreal Canadians, and of the original six teams, I never had any like for the Rangers or The Toronto Maple leafs. But of all the teams I hated none ever came close to my dislike for the Philadelphia Flyers. This is a team that has always been filthy nasty dirty. I think the term "deliberate attempt to injure" originated In Philadelphia. Getting Chris Pronger, a man I have hated since he came into the league this year did nothing to sway my opinion.

So I was delighted when the Flyers and Hawks ended up in the finals. I guess it would have been neat if the Bruins and Hawks Played, but I would have been too conflicted. This way I had a true hate for the opposing team. So going into what turned out to be the final game, I was not surprised to see the Flyers at their cheap shot best, throwing themselves at people, charging, crosschecking, kneeing leaving their feet on hits etc. So I was so pleased when Kane slipped that overtime winning goal into the net. Although I must say, like everyone else, I was confused that no light went on...... but when Kane after seeing the puck lodged under the padding began shedding parts of his uniform, I was ecstatic. Finally the long suffering fans Of Chicago had their Stanley Cup. Believe me as a resident of Massachusetts, with the Red Sox I know long suffering to be sure.

So now it's Over! Congratulations to the efforts of all the Players on the Blackhawks who played good solid tough Hockey without the need of cheapshots. The Kane goal was awesome, (maybe not as dramatic as Bobby Orr's flying through the air) but incredible anyway. I'm sure you would have liked to win it at home in front of the home fans, but excuse me for taking delight in rubbing it in the faces of those obnoxious, classless fans who booed Anti Niemi when he hoisted the cup, and Toews when he was announced as MVP. Who dod they think was going to get the series MVP a Flyer? Maybe they thought the "Breck Girl, " Hartnell should have won (didn't he look like one of the characters in "Where The Wild Things Are?)

So to the fans of the Hawks and citizens of Chicago enjoy your win, soak it all up, take pictures , and buy all the merchandise, you never know when it will happen again. I know You have a good solid core of players going into next year, but sadly a lot of odd things can happen. We in Boston know that first hand as we saw a very promising superstar, Patrice Bergeron taken out by an incredibly cheap hit from behind head shot, by no surprise a Philadelphia Flyer. Although he has returned to the team and was named the Bruins MVP this year, he is a mere shadow of his former self after recovering from his major concussion. So you never know, they might repeat but for now soak it all up-take advantage of viewing the cup when it appears in town, and we'll see you again In September. Now it's the Cub's turn....... Good luck and godspeed!

It's Official

I was thinking the other day as I watched a variety of sports, how terrible the officiating/umpiring is. I guess I started being annoyed as most of the sports watching nation was with the Galaraga incident and how devastating that umpiring mistake was. Then I started watching the Stanley cup finals. I watched as the entire first game the Philadelphia Flyers were not assessed one penalty. How unusual for a team of filthy cheap shot artists to go an entire game without a penalty, while the opposing team made a steady stream to the penalty box for various infractions. What makes it truly preposterous however is that Chris Pronger plays for the Flyers and I swear they could call penalties on this guy every time he steps on the ice if they truly called what is happening out there.

Now the storyline going in to this series was that the Chicago Blackhawks have a player named Byfuglin, a big guy who annoys goaltenders by placing himself in front of the net and blocking their view and distracting them. Well It seems Pronger had an answer for this nonsense/ On the first shift he crosschecked him about twenty times by ramming his stick into his back-clearly penalties ever time his stick made contact- but nothing called. This behavior went on the entire game with nothing being called. Why not? Well only God and the braintrust of the NHL seem to know why they allow this nonsense.

The NHL routinely whines aout it's inability to get a major US television contract and yet they present a game which is only marginally above roller derby in its foolishness as I just mentioned. Curiously they not only condone this type of dirty play, but they insult everyones intelligence by covering up this nonsense. When Bruins Player Savard got pummeled to the ice by an obvious cheap shot elbow to the head in a nasty blindside by some idiot Pittsburg Penguin, the league defended not suspending the player by saying "Savard Should have been paying attention." Thats right they blamed the victim of the cheapshot for being blindsided.

and so it goes.

They have numerous penalties on the books but for reasons only the NHL Hierarchy seems to understand they do't call them, Curiously most of the problem seems to stem from the league expanding so much that they have watered down the product to the point that several of these players who commit these cheap infractions don't even belong in the league and they only survive because the league condones their illegal play. One of the interesting aspects of hockey in days gone by was fighting. In the old NHL when a player went out and deliberately used his stick on another player, ran him into the boards from behind, or elbowed him in the head with a blindside, if the referee didn't call a penalty, you could be sure that at some time in the game the fighter would go after the cheapshot artist and wail on him. That doesn't happen anymore. Now the only fighting is when one goon from each team who's only job is to fight goes out and challenges the other teams goon. This in the moronic mindset of the NHL is supposed to "fire up" the team when they are lethargic-when in reality it is just useless and boring.

Probably the worst excuse for not calling penalties is this, The NHL says that if they call every penalty the teams would be shorthanded constantly and this would be boring. Let me leave you with this anecdote. A few years back the Bruins and Canadians were locked in one of their epic playoff battles. Each team was carping the entire series about penalties not being called etc. so the league said fine we will call everything we see. The first period of the game was a constan trip to the penalty box by both teams, but curiously after playing that way the entire first period, the players settled down, stopped the cheap penalties and the result was two periods of some of the best hockey I have ever seen- no more penalties (the Bruins lost 1-0 what a shock eh). At some point the league has to decide to suck it up and call penalties as they occur, They may have a coupe of months of penalty ridden hockey games but eventually even the thick headed hockey players will get the idea they will have to stop the insanity. Perhaps then we can see some real skilled hockey without all the tripping, holding, crosschecking and other nonsense they in reality has no place in the game. Maybe just maybe they might be able to get a TV contract.

Well thats it for today-tomorrow I will take on the NBA.

Hockey Playoffs

Blackhawks lost tonight in Stanley cup finals. Just wish they would call penalties in the playoffs the NHL is becoming like roller derby, and if you don't believe me look at the hair of some of these players, Hartnell for the flyers has about the worst "Homo" hair I have ever seen. You can take then out of Canada but ya can't take the Canada out of them EH!

Back to work

Always fun to get back to work and have an entire weeks work waiting for me. My desk was a nightmare. It was good to see a couple people I missed while I was out, Billy, Cheri, Jeanette, Paul Mcdonald-others I could have gone another couple weeks without. Oh well Back to the grind-second week of August is not that far away. Looking forward to Lake George.....