Ummagumma

Well, with our home record being so mediocre (43-38), I certainly didn't expect the Atlanta Braves to eliminate the Philadelphia Phillies in the first three games of their four-game home series, but that's what happened.  I watched on FOX yesterday as the Braves won 5-3 behind a strong start by their All-Star ace Mike Foltynewicz and timely hitting by MVP candidate  Freddie Freeman  (who has the most hits in all of baseball with 186) and  Johan Camargo , one of the most underrated players in the league.  Folty dominated the game for the first 7 1/3 innings.  As is often the case, the Braves bullpen proved shaky but we hung on for the win. 2013 was the last time we were here .  We played the Los Angeles Dodgers in the first-round and lost .  As of today we will play the Dodgers again in round one, but that is undecided as the Colorado Rockies are still in the mix for the NL West.  There's long-shot chance we could catch the Chicago Cubs for the best record in the Nati

Going into today the 2018 Atlanta Braves are sitting atop the NL East Division with a record of 84-68 after defeating the St. Louis Cardinals 7-3 .  They have a 5-game lead over the second-place Philadelphia Phillies with only 10 reguler season games to play.  That is ordinarily a commanding lead, especially since over the past 10 games the Phillies have been playing worse than the Braves.   But, after rattling off a season-high 6-game winning streak , the Braves lost four in a row while the Phillies won a couple.  So the lead shrank from seven games to five in the blink of an eye.  What's more, the Braves play the Phillies seven times in the last 10 games.  So anything is still possible.  If the Atlanta collapses against Philadelphia then they will not make the postseason.  If the Braves can just split the seven games, say, 4-3 then that will pretty much ensures our division title.  (There are also three games against the New York Mets that complicate things a bit.)   We hav

Two small window units managed to sorta keep my house cool for 15 days in the late summer heat. The Tuesday after Labor Day I woke up to find that my AC was out.  Actually, the compressor was still working but the blower fan that drives the cool air from the unit into the duct work stopped turning.  I cut everything off since there was no point in the compressor running and spent that Tuesday morning dealing with the issue. I went to my AC provider and reported the situation in person.  I didn't want to fool with a simple phone call as I hoped to fix the issue as quickly as possible.  The office lady there was very helpful and sympathetic.  Unfortunately, all the repairmen were booked for the day but she would see what she could do.  One repairman standing around listening to my story simply said: "You need to get an alternate source of cooling." Well, alternate heat is comparatively easy, but alternate cooling involved equipment I didn't have.  The AC lady me

A grown fawn and a doe near the bird feeders in the back garden. A frequent occurrence this summer, a doe crosses my front yard.  I took this photo with my old iPad camera, which isn't really that good, but it was all I had with me at the time. Another doe along the back garden, again taken with my iPad. The best photo I have of two of the fawns.  It isn't very good, I know.  I just happened to look out my bathroom window as they crossed out of my woods into the yard.  The iPad focused on my window screen so the image of the fawns is blurry.  But this still gives you a sense of how magical it was to just happen upon all this deer action on my property this year.   This was a banner year for deer activity on my property.  Deer are no stranger to my woods and land.  I have seen them many times through the years since 1993.  But, this year was different.  I think due to nearby residential development more of them are being pushed into relatively safe, natural

The bloody vision seen by Danny when he "shines" about the psychic past of the hotel.  This shot was used as part of the advertising campaign for the film. “There’s something inherently wrong with the human personality.  There’s an evil side to it.  One of the things that horror stories can do is to show us the archetypes of the unconscious: we can see the dark side without having to confront it directly.  Also, ghost stories appeal to our craving for immortality.  If you can be afraid of a ghost, then you have to believe that a ghost may exist, and if a ghost exists, then oblivion might not be the end.”  (Stanley Kubrick quoted by  LoBrutto , page 412) Stanley Kubrick had reason to become somewhat more "mainstream" following his artistically brilliant but financially lackluster Barry Lyndon .  That film did not live up to expectations about “the Stanley Kubrick brand” when compared with the financial success of Dr. Strangelove , 2001: A Space Odyssey and ev