There You Have It...again

It's Truck Day

2011-02-08T07:24:00.000-08:00

Almost everyone knows what this means. Big league baseball is close to being back for another season. This winter will more than likely still be in evidence when an even bigger day, Opening Day 2011, rolls around but who cares. The games will begin and everything will be alright.

I am not too sure when these events started to be the big thing to me that they are now. I know they were not that big a deal back when I still played the game, nor later when I tried to play middle aged slow pitch softball, nor even later when I was all self absorbed in my old man worries as I turned into a pensioner. But after that time when I realized that it's all about expectations and they can be adjusted and refined that it happened. And it's been a pretty good ride ever since.

So, pitchers and catchers on the 13th I think. First spring training game on TV sometime in early March. What the heck else is there.

A Fake

2009-12-22T07:50:00.000-08:00

I put up a fake Christmas Tree this year. Been threatening this for twenty five or thirty years and this was the year to actually do it. Mrs calls it our "holiday structure" after a cartoon in the Hartford Courant which referred to an artificial tree put up as Hartford's sort of official tree in Constitution Plaza this year.

Don't ask me why. I just wanted to. The rest of the season is about the same as it has been for the past fifty years. And the last two very faded links left from the paper ring garland that Mrs put on the tree in 1961 when I was sick are on it, as usual.

So, there you have it.

From the past...

2009-06-01T09:40:00.000-07:00

Long ago, I took this picture and never printed it. I probably knew who it was then. I am not sure now. But going through lots of old negatives, most of which are just plain bad, I did find some that I like a lot. This was among the latter.

The Cuban Revolution

2008-02-19T11:17:00.000-08:00

I can remember baby sitting with Mrs (before she became Mrs) for her older sister's kid on New Years Eve waiting for 1959 when we heard on the television that the revolution led by some guy named Fidel Castro against the dictatorial regime in Cuba was happening.

Later I became an admirer of the revolution and an avid listener to Radio Havana on shortwave 6.000 MHz.

I always have wanted to visit Fidel Castro's Cuba but never did and now never can.

It is amazing that this guy managed to survive the CIA, the american mafia and 10 presidents. Eisenhower,Kennedy,Johnson,Nixon,Ford,Carter,the dreaded and dreadful Reagan,Bush, Clinton, and the even more dreadful Cheny/bush over the past 47 years.

Viva Fidel.

I Do Not Care......

2007-12-14T07:04:00.000-08:00

First and foremost, the Mitchell Report doesn't mean much. It really doesn't. Yes a bunch of guys were named, but I am certain that it's only a small percentage of the players who used the so-called performance enhancers during the time that was investigated.

Second, it says nothing about all the rest who used, and still do use , "speed" type drugs, and special vitamins and cans of spinach.

What else is new?

Spring Training is less than couple of months away.

It's almost Christmas.

A Season sort of Like the Past...

2007-10-16T06:30:00.003-07:00

This season watching and listening to the Red Sox games has been pretty much like the past. Well, they did win the division, that was different. They didn't totally collapse, that was different too. The team did seem to get hot at the right time for the newish so called post-season. They won four straight games which would have translated to being World Series winners in the good old days when baseball was a game for the summer and winning a pennant was a big deal.

As of now though, they have lost a couple of games. They stopped hitting in bunches and rallying for the past 12 or 14 innings and the starting pitching seems to be very much like the old days, questionable. They may not be able to come back and beat the Indians ( at least they are playing a real old time team and not some sort of strange team from Florida or Arizona or Colorado ) for ignoble opportunity to play some team from the new new days called the Rockies. This isn't all bad.

So anyway, I get to listen to or watch at least two more games this year. Maybe more. So 162 plus 8 makes 170 games. It would be nice if there were a few more, but as of now I am pretty much satisfied with the season regardless.

I know, it didn't make sense when I first used it either. Sue me!!!!

A Season sort of Like the Past...

2007-10-16T06:30:00.001-07:00

I Know The Fat Lady has Finished her Warm Up Scales and ....

2007-09-18T06:40:00.000-07:00

...is getting ready to bellow it out. It's over. At least the thought of winning a division title that is. Sure, there is still an odds on chance that there will be a post season game or three thanks to the lame wild card baloney fat. But if there was any thought of winning a division title after leading the division for over five months , it went away last night after the Red Sox rolled over.

What's really pitiful is that the other night, after they lost a five run lead over THNYY in the eighth inning I couldn't get to sleep. God in heaven save me insert usual metaphorical disclaimer here) I am seventy two stinking years old and losing sleep over a bunch of millionaires and soon to be millionaires losing a baseball game.

If that didn't tell me something nothing will. What is it that some people say? Something about getting a life.

Well I got the message. Losing two of the last three since that stupid night hasn't caused me to lose anything. In fact, I can simply sit back and enjoy watching the game(s) with out meaningless expectations beyond each pitch, each at bat, each fielding play, and , well, hopefully you get the point. I do again. And thank god---there's that metaphor again--for that.

Two Tacks and One Jibe....

2007-08-12T17:17:00.000-07:00

...and two short runs with the engine during a five hour sail down the Thames out of New London into the sound and over to the Dumplings returning back and by the entrance buoys a bit, then finally the jibe to head in and back up the river to Shaws Cove and the berth. Wind never blew very much over 10k and it was just nice and easy all day.

But.....this and this and the Yankees are coming, the Yankees are coming, the Yankees are coming.

So far, the Sox have provided all I need this Spring...

2007-05-29T07:15:00.000-07:00

...and that's all there is to it. I didn't say it quite like this, but I should have. Incidentally, if your a Sox fan the link is a daily must.

As for the rest of the spring and the loooong summer to follow, we'll have to just see what there will be to see. So far, without the Sox wow's and the Yankees's woes, I'd be a melancholy basket case. But that is another longer and, sorry to say, tedious story which won't be told here.

Another "New Year" Day.....

2007-03-01T06:45:00.000-08:00

...just as I was getting ready to post this comment on the day and the time, I got an email from MLB.com. Of course, I was going to talk a little about watching the first game of the Spring Season last night. OK, the first couple of innings anyway. The Red Sox were going after the Twins. Neither team had to travel far, they both do spring in Fort Myers.

But that's not what I want to talk about. I look at this first game of the season as another way to celebrate New Years Day. I also like Labor Day as a New Years Day along with January second as the opposite, sort of a final day of the year day. Having nothing to do, really nothing to do by choices made a dozen years ago and remade just about every day since, days like the first game of spring are big deals. On a par with the return of The Sopranos which occurs next month I think.

In case you think this is all trivial let me assure you that it is. That's the point.

By the way, that new goofy looking second baseman Pedroia ( or whatever his name is) got a base hit and Lugo, on cue with all the pre-season stories made a throwing error. Ramirez didn't play.

Happy New Year!!!

Valentine Day 2007...no big thing ...

2007-02-14T06:18:00.000-08:00

...especially for this geezer. The giant snow storm that so many of the breathless weather newscasters tried to wish for the area hasn't materialized. We have a couple of inches of very tiny snowflakes and sleet mixed in as of the moment, but for crying out loud it's the middle of February isn't it?

The pitchers and catchers have already reported or will report in the next couple of days, but even for me I will have to suspend the reality of the absurd bloated egos and salaries of the players and try to just see them again as the boys of summer if I am to get back that feeling that all is right in the world which usually comes with the start of spring training.

The heart shaped box of Whitman's Samplers that I got for Mrs is still OK. But I bet that sitting here alone with me and her box of chocolates isn't exactly what she would really wish for today. Me either!

addendum added post the time of this story's previous posting an hour or so ago....It's not that she doesn't like me or vice versa. It's just that holidays lately don't mean as much unless one or more of the grandkids and/or kids are either here or at least in touch.

Valentines Day 2007. No big thing.

Take This Test....

2007-01-10T06:35:00.000-08:00

I ran across this test today. I took it and the results put me near Gandhi. Believe me, I am not Gandhi. But Gandhi and I probably do share something. We both want things to be a "certain way". He did, or tried to do something about it. I do not. There are doers and there are watchers.

My score: Economic line -7
Social Lib/Authoritarian line -3.85

...take it.

When It Was Really Something.....

2006-12-15T06:52:00.000-08:00

There are only 18 days or so until "it's finally over day". I don't like saying this but I am saying it. For the longest time I started the Christmas season very early, before Thanksgiving even. Larry Duhaime and I would take the afternoon off. He was a salesman and I was sort of his boss but we would both take the afternoon off and go toy shopping. We both had a bunch of kids and we both loved to buy toys. We would stash them in the car trunk, pile them up in the office around our desks, even sneak a few into the house when no one was home. This would go on and off for the next month or so leading up to Christmas Eve and scenes like this one when everything was simple....or at least seemed to be.

This little homely shot was in 1965. For a lot of reasons it was easy to ignore the reality of Vietnam, The civil rights wars, the recent near death experience of the Cuban Missile Crisis...all that kind of stuff and simply bask in the fun and anticipation of Christmas.

Now it's not the same. I fret and moan and mark January 2 down in my head as "it's finally over" day. The whole holiday season grinds to a halt and I begin to hope that something will happen in the next ten months that will let me get back to just "taking the afternoon off" and going toy shopping next Christmas.

Back in the Last Century....

2006-11-08T08:36:00.000-08:00

As they say in the movies nowadys, back in the day I might have had a lot to say today. See the archives here at the old Thereyouhaveit.com.

Today, I only breathe a sigh.....maybe of relief that the bush/Cheney/Rove crowd didn't get another victory to call a mandate or maybe just relief that this election season is over.

Now I wait for about 105 days or so until pitchers and catchers report down in Florida.

Another Day on the Sound...

2006-09-19T06:59:00.000-07:00

So we were out sailing on the Sound. More specifically ghosting since the wind was not exactly howling and we decided to duck into Mystic Harbor for our annual visit. Now I am not normally a person who gawks at the places where the rich display that fact, but here I have to make an exception. There is a place that I truly like and I envy the owner despite the fact that he is filthy rich.
What do you think of this place?Isn't it just perfect? OK, OK maybe not quite perfect, but still...And Then there was this place. Pretty close to perfect too don't you think. The guy peering over at the boats thinks so. And why not. Maybe this is an even better place to envy and covet. Easier to maintain certainly. But nah, I don't really think so. I see myself sitting in one of those white chairs for the rest of my days. Sitting, contemplating the nature of things, waiting for whatever I am waiting for, thinking about the fact that I am not a cormorant, and glad that I am not, watching all the guys (and girls) out for Sunday boat rides sail and motor past, big boats, little boats, nice boats, not so nice boats, thinking about just about nothing some of the time, except maybe having a nice bowl of macaroni for supper.

Timeshots Revisited

2006-08-10T10:14:00.000-07:00

Timeshots Revisited

2006-08-08T08:21:00.000-07:00

This is an attempt by me to become sort of a cool blogger who can publish via email. Back in the last century, when I created There You Have it, I could barely use a now defunct little wed publishing program that came with early versions of Internet Explorer. And now here I am trying this email stuff.

What's next?

A New Camera but...

2006-02-15T08:08:00.000-08:00

...the same old outlook. It's been a few weeks since I whined here about the holidays and the upcoming "days of nothing to do except enjoy nothing to do". They are here and I am doing nothing. I did get a new digital camera. It's a pretty nice camera and it looks a little like cameras used to look back in the days of real cameras. The problem is that it did not come with a booklet of tricks to get a new outlook or a renewed outlook or keys to finding moments of truth which have been hard to come by lately.

Getting a new outlook will be a lot harder than selling a few unwanted things on eBay, including the older digital camera and a few really older "real" cameras and some unusable laser discs of great movies. And some other odds and ends that I could just as easily have thrown away.

I am going to find that new outlook. I am tempted to erase all my old pictures and other histories. The clean slate approach......

Just a Thought or Two...

2005-12-28T07:58:00.000-08:00

It's after Christmas and before that most useless of holidays, New Years Day and the post holiday silliness of New Years Eve. For me, I can now feel that the end of yet another holiday period is coming to it's end.

Everyone knows that the real new year begins around Labor Day . Then there is the "holiday season" and that is followed by the rest of the year.After the holiday season, there are about 250 days of just ordinary life. And I don't necessarily mean this book.

I mean just living without the holiday season looming. In just a few days I will be there, it will be the rest of the year. Maybe that is what we ought to call December 31. We could call it 'It Will Finally Be Here Day'

Here I would ordinarily insert a nice long sigh..................

Paradise Cancelled

2005-10-25T07:50:00.000-07:00

Alright, maybe it isn't what everyone woud think is paradise, but it does come close when the weather is nice and the boat is comfortable. The last time I was there I was cold. That was in October of 2003.

We promised that we would return this year, we missed it last year. But today I cancelled. I have lost my appetite for chilly days and damp nights on a sailboat in late October. And mornings like this with my coffee are now remembered more like this. This was me on the last morning we were there. In 2003.

The promise of this sort of warmth is only a memory. Like this picture that we snapped sailing in, maybe back in 1999.

The Fat Lady Has Done Her Thing

2005-10-08T10:03:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, somewhere around supper time I knew that the season was over. The Fat Lady had just about finished her song and the radio guy was done saying "there's a drive....way back way back. Manny had done his thing twice, Ortiz had hit one out and someone had to get on to to get to him one more time. Didn't happen. Wait till next year.

Sounds familiar and somehow, proper.

Amazingly Enough, I have not much to say about...

2005-10-02T09:55:00.000-07:00

... yesterdays game other than to point out the fact that the game was played by linking this story which talks about the Red Sox game yesterday. In fact, I agree with most of it's calm analysis . And that is that.

I will watch today's game since I can't remember a time when I did not either watch or listen to the last game of the season regardless of the standings.

I think that I sort of hope that it is the final game of the season. I am getting sick of the wild card thing.

Here We Go Again

2005-09-22T12:27:00.000-07:00

Back toward the end of the 20th century, I created a web site and a domain called thereyouhaveit.com. It was sort of fun. I posted pretty regularly and talked about a lot of stuff. politics, baseball, baloney-fat, the idiot running for President who didn't have a prayer, and lots of general things that were in the news and on the internet. What I didn't know is that this form would become known as a web log or blog. What do you know, I was an early days blogger. After a while, and with no more than half a dozen regular readers a day I got bored and quit posting.

The site still exists. Have a look if you feel like it. Some of the stuff is still fairly timely and many of the links actually still work. Here it is.

The only thing I will address today is the Red Sox. And here's to the fact that here they go again too. Life is returning to normal. Read about it here.

Look for more stuff from time to time