Joys and Tribulations

Joy:

My beautiful, wonderful L A Dodgers are playing beautifully. I LOVE this team, especially the young guys -- Ethier, Kemp, Loney, and Martin. And while I do believe that Manny has contributed even more than his bat to this team (it is amazing the level of patience our younger players have developed), I really don't think we'd be here without Casey Blake and his amazing consistency (I hope we get to keep him!), and Greg Maddux. Maddux's pitching hasn't been as phenomenal as in ages past, but he's taken our younger pitchers like Chad Billingsley under his wing and has truly been a mentor to them -- especiallly thus far in the playoffs.

I live in the middle of Cubs territory, so 100 year anniversary or not -- a fact that would normallly have me "almost" rooting for them (at least I might give a nod and a smile in their direction), there is no way that I want our Dodgers to be the doormat on their way to the pennant. So, my boys are making me proud. Don't get me wrong...I adore Sweet Lou. But now that he's a Dodger, I love Torre more. And as a Dodger, he smiles. I never saw that when he managed the Hated Ones.

(picture courtesy of The Cubs Suck Club. I discovered them in my image search...its not like I'm a member or anything...but I had a lot of fun there. Looney for Loney Puffs...roflmbo)

And the more I see the Cubs play in the postseason, the more I believe in curses. The ONLY explanation for that cacophony of errors in the 2nd inning is that an invisible goat was running about the infield, playing soccer with the baseball.

Tribulation:

The U.S. Senate. Need I say more? Naah. I've already said it.


Joy:

My icemaker is working!!! I don't know why it started working...but it started working when I decided that its machinery was already taking up valuable space enough, so I wedged that frozen salmon package that wouldn't seem to fit into the narrow cranny above it...it probably got whacked a couple of times in the process, and the bar was accidentally knocked back into the "on" position...and an hour later, I heard ice drop!!!

And there was much rejoicing!

I love ice. No really, I LOVE ice.

Tribulation:

There is no way that it can keep up with my iced tea pot...but at least the bags can be devoted solely to filling the daily tea pitcher before the button is pushed, and the dispenser ice can be used to fill my glasses.

Joy:

Sarah Palin was not the shameful atrocity that everyone kept saying she was going to be . In fact, many were very impressed with her, in spite of themselves.

Tribulation:

I couldn't rejoice in the debate, because after the week of the Bailout Bill from Hell, I just wasn't in the mood to get excited about having more meaningless slogans and promises jammed down my throats from either party, not to mention jabs, half-truths, and schmarmy lies. I'd already reached my weekly quota.

I've been saying for the last twelve hours that someone in the McCain campaign really ought to look up the word "maverick" in a thesaurus and try a few. Well, I did, and I guess I can understand why they are not going with "bohemian, dissenter, loner, nonconformist, stray," or "unbranded." Not quite the same connotations. But it really IS time to move on from the convention victory speech and on to something else.

What I really want is someone daring enough and smart enough to really disssect these issues and make them clear...and to do it in a way that just makes Obama and Biden look like the fools and shallow flip-floppers that they are....with a smile. I want Reagan. I know, I know. I can't have Reagan. But I at least want something real...not plastic. Palin did a fair job, but she didn't escape plastic. Biden won, in my opinion...in a sophistic, Snidely Whiplash sort of way.

And the moderator was obviously biased in her mannerisms, the way she phrased the questions to Governor Palin, and in her favorable treatment of Senator Biden in the rebuttals (he got all six that he requested, and Sarah Palin only got two, and was cut off without any sense of manners. The level of courtesy was very different in deference to Senator Biden). To her credit, Palin countered that somewhat successfully by deciding that she was going to talk about what she was going to talk about...but there were too many polished lines that meant almost nothing.

NOTE: it is NOT simply a big deal that Gwen Ifell is an Obama supporter, and has demonstrated it in writing a book. She has a marked interest in the success of Obama's campaign. Her book, The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama is being released on Inauguration Day, and it will hardly sell as much or win her nearly as much acclaim if it is McCain getting sworn in.


And I just have to say, if you haven't gathered it already.....I'm sick of the word "maverick." (I'm sick of "change" too...when we don't know what kind of change they are talking about...I have a feeling its more of what happened this week). After seeing that McCain's version of rushing to our rescue was to round up support for this bill that made absolutely no sense, "maverick" seems a bit hollow.

I know I am supposed to think of the studly Tom Cruise (before he seemed like a raving lunatic) zooming around to the rescue, flying on his own intuition--taking his own risks rather than blindly obeying orders.

Maybe unfortunately for me, it conjures up a different image. My first car was a twelve year old, baby blue, four-door Ford Maverick with a white vinyl top. It had some power, but it was hardly a risk taker (unless you count the way I took left-hand turns), and it also left me generally desiring something better (in the discontented way a spoiled sixteen year old with a passion for cars but left to drive a '74 Maverick would have -- actually, I'd be thrilled to have a car like that now -- straight six, comfy bench seats, no airbags).

Unfortunately, on a beautiful Spring day, I totalled that baby. And eventually, there was a hollow financial crisis with that as well (hmm, never thought of that before), when I found out my insurance company had seen fit not to do what it was supposed to do and pay the lady whose car I hit, so my family and hers had to undergo the lawsuit process to make sure she got paid.

No, the word Maverick does not in and of itself, inspire me with good feelings.

Joy:

It's Friday.