I was just a kid when Charlie Hustle played in Philly, and Rose and Schmidt were neck and neck as the best players that ever lived for most of my life. I remember in detail exactly how crushing it was when Pete Rose was kicked out of baseball, so it’s with no small amount of empathy that I can relate to San Francisco’s Bonds
Tag Archives: baseball!
Tax season is over!
Woof.
Now that tax season is done (for everyone except six lunatic states that are ending it today), there’s the gradual slowdown at work, and a chance to breathe. Less overtime means more comic. Got one up on time today – and a fairly lame-duck one up for Saturday. (You’ll either love it or hate it. Probably hate it. I think it’s hilarious.) Scripts are starting to flow inside my pathetic brain as well. It’d be nice to build a buffer again.
Still have some knitting to finish — and fast — but I’m trying to limit my knitting to during the Phillies games, since I won’t be drawing comics during that timeframe anyway.
Of course, catching up on my sleep and eating healthy and all that play a role in the grand scheme of things too, so I’m starting to do all that again.
News: all JessieDog’s blood work came out normal, so for now we’re going with a diagnosis of “old dog”. I can live with that. Little runt better not wake me at 7 am tomorrow because she’s thirsty and can’t open the bedroom door though.
Speaking of sleep, I’m off to do just that.
Every day is a new adventure.
We’re lacking comics, sorely.
Fortunately, there are so few people reading this thing anyway, that I haven’t heard any complaints. You’re welcome to complain if you’d like. It won’t get you far, but it’s nice to hear another voice in the wilderness.
Nighthawk’s been diagnosed with diabetes, which was a bit more than either of us were ready to handle. It’s led to a bit more silence on the ‘net than I usually exercise. Some days a person just doesn’t feel like reading half the internet and commenting on it. I prefer to do my worrying in private and wait until I have something concrete to report before worrying everyone else.
It’s also led to doctor’s appointments, researching, asking around, gathering information, and most of all being there for each other — all of which takes precious time.
In addition, it’s tax season, which means almost nothing to you if you don’t work in the financial industry. But where I work, tax season is the functional equivalent of the Christmas shopping season for retail, with tax weekend playing the role of Black Friday. The metaphor is especially fitting this year because Easter and Passover are layered on top of April 15th (17th this year) and that means work, work, and more work. So interspersed among the medical appointments and research and general freakiness have been tickets and calls and overtime, and more overtime, and oh, some overtime.
Case in point: our department was open today, from 8 to 7, despite the fact that it’s a company holiday. I’ll be a member of the skeleton staff working tomorrow as well. (Had I known about the health circus, I wouldn’t have volunteered months ago, but alas, my crystal ball is still waiting to be RMA‘d back to the manufacturer.)
Speaking of hardware returns, did I mention that the file server has been nothing but one big technical glitch for close to a month? Fortunately, I don’t use it to produce the comic or the blog. Unfortunately, it is where I run all my backups, and where I pay all the bills, so life is interesting, as usual.
But at least the dog’s healthy, right? Well, no. She was shipped to the vet for day camp today while I worked because she’s sleeping a lot. A whole lot. Like when we came home on Wednesday at noon she didn’t bother coming downstairs to greet us until 7 pm. And any time I have to ask my husband to go find out if the dog has died twice in one day, it’s time to worry. The x-rays of her lungs and heart came back clean so now we’re waiting on the blood test results to determine if she’s sick or just really old and really lazy.
Oh, and I still have that knitting project to finish.
There are rays of sunshine throughout all of this, mind. The hardware repairs have prompted some upgrades. The diabetes explains a lot, and means Nighthawk will feel better than ever once it’s treated. Seven hours of overtime tomorrow mean I get to work in relative peace and quiet. Tax season is almost over. I get to dye eggs tomorrow. The Phillies look like they’re going to win 3 in a row after sucking like a giant Electrolux when the season began. And when it’s all said and done, I should have a chance to just sit back and relax.
Baseball-loving Mac users need this script
Macworld: Editors’ Notes: Buy me some peanuts and AppleScripts details how you can use an Applescript to load your favorite MLB team’s schedule into iCal.
Instead of spending 3 hours typing it in by hand, like I did.
Yeah.
Anyway, go click – it’ll make you happy :)
Deflating Wheels
On Philly Future someone linked to a website pleading the Phillies to fire Chris Wheeler from the Phillies announcing team. Why? Because it’s been leaked that the Phillies are talking about putting Wheels on for all 9 innings of each game, and moving Larry Anderson to strictly radio annoucement.
Now, an argument can be made that in some ways, Chris Wheeler is a better “announcer” than Larry Anderson. He’s got an extensive memory of Phillies history and current events around the league.
But really, his ability to announce isn’t the part that is up for debate in the minds of most Phillies fans I know. The part for debate is whether he’s actually worth listening to. I can’t tell you how many years I’ve spent listening to games and hearing Wheeler complain about a decision the umpires made or a choice the manager made where Wheeler was just plain wrong, and anyone who was capable of seeing the replay on their television was capable of seeing it. Wheeler is too often a complainer and a homer and an idiot.
Larry Anderson, on the other hand, has never pretended to play the role of the full announcer – he’s an excellent color commentator, leaving the announcing of balls and strikes and such to Harry Kalas or Scott Graham. He’s frequently played the same role for nationally-televised games — never asked to be the announcer, but providing color to broadcasts for Fox Sports when the Phillies have played. He’s fun to listen to.
Phillies fans like Anderson. We’re not so hot on Wheeler. For that matter, rumor has it that those preferences follow for the staff in the booth. I’m strongly hoping the Phillies organization thinks hard about the decisions they make for staffing the booth this year — they won’t drive more people to the stadium by annoying the hell out of them at home.
Ahhhh…. baseball.
Just got the first Yahoo! score alert of the year. The Phillies beat the Yankees in the first spring training game of the year – 6-3. Sure, there’s an ice storm outside that’s got me wondering how many limbs I’ll lose braving my way back home tonight, but baseball is back, and all is right with the world.
Just so very January.
Work has picked up again and I’m so beat to death when I leave I just don’t have much energy left to write much. Plus, I should be writing instructions for properly installing Adobe Reader. (I’m not. I’m writing to you instead.)
Life is quiet right now. Plans to go to bed at a reasonable time are failing miserably every night. I have a thousand different comic ideas and no time to write them. Or draw them. Or anything.
I’m about 1/5th of the way through knitting my first scarf. Yes, over my Virginia Beach vacation 2 weeks ago I not only drove to another state and visited with relatives and went whale watching and took 150+ pictures and ate until I was ready to burst, I also learned the very basics of how to knit.
It rocks.
Anywho, I’m tired so I’m not writing much. That and the forum’s been a ghost town. Work is beating most of the rest of you up as well I ponder. (How busy was I today? I didn’t read a single comic until I got home.)
I want baseball back.
It’s time for bed.