All posts by James DeVol

Sports

A little sports…

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Well…it was a little encouraging to see England struggle in a World Cup prelude soccer match with some South African all-stars and only score 3 goals. I had hoped to see a little weakness that would possibly give us a chance Saturday and it did occur. I guess the coach was so disgusted he didn’t even go into the locker room at the half to talk to them. Now, I’m not usually one to celebrate others’ failures, but I have to grasp any straw possible that the US may not be as embarrassed as I anticipate. Remember, this is soccer that has a different set of rules for us fans than other sports….much more rabid than we are all used to…well, if you exclude college football.

On hockey, GO Blackhawks!!! (I know, I’m a Wings fan but this is a midwest team that hasn’t won the cup since ’61).I had to explain to one of the youngsters during Sunday Funday how I can root for the Hawks…it goes like this: The Hawks are in our conference for one, second, I have to root against any east coast team especially when it has Ville Leino who dogged it in Detroit and got himself traded…now he’s a superstar in Philly? I know, I shouldn’t hold that against him since he wasn’t getting playing time in Detroit. but, as Babcock says…you earn playing time by working your butt off….and Ville just didn’t have any fire. Maybe more later….

My Life

June 8th

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Well…had an almost normal night last night, since it was Monday, out with G for a few beers and then back here to watch the Obama’s speech from K-zoo…the wireless was down but got that running this morning so I can get back online. Not a lot to say right now but I will give a heads up that I’m going to touch on how aggrieved religious folks seem these days….I don’t understand why it is so important for them that other ideas be stifled…why do they feel so threatened?

That might be the topic today but who knows? Haven’t read the papers yet and there may be something else that will arouse my ire or nothing…you’ll just have to come back to see..you know the regular schedule..work out, bike, then write…more later…

Politics

Okay, here’s some outrage…

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This is just a place holder for now until I get back from coffee…but I will touch on the fact that the Bushies have admitted torture and no one is prosecuting them for it. This one really pisses me off….more later…but not until I get the workout and a bike ride in…probably about 1 Eastern time….so, come on back…I know your work is boring at times (as I am) and I’ll bet you don’t have a window to stare out of…

Okay…looks like I’m having lunch with T again so the entry won’t be until 3 or so….come on back…

Back from a nice Lunch with T which tempers my outrage somewhat…but I still have enough of it from the happenings here in Gr last week. As you probably know, ole GW was here to speak to some organization or other and he reiterated his comments from many other occasions that he did. in fact, order the waterboarding of terror suspects and he glibly said that if he had the power, he would do it again to keep us safe. Sitting in the armchair on stage, with the smarmy little grin on his face, he admitted that he would commit a felony again, and again, and again. Doesn’t anyone see anything wrong with that? When they are locking up people for possession of marijuana for years, you have the one person who is supposed to uphold the Constitution saying he would repeatedly break the law, and admitting he had, being able to roam the country free and not being held accountable. I fault the Obama administration for making the political calculation that prosecuting the criminals would be unpopular; but that is not what the justice system is about. It is about the ideal of equal protection under the law and that there is no one that is above the law. But the Bushies never really cared about the law except when it was used to increase their power.

Doesn’t anyone remember that we hung Japanese interrogators after World War Two for doing exactly what Bush and his ilk approved….no wonder there is no respect for the US in the world anymore…geez…

My Life

June 7th

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well..there was Sunday Funday yesterday out to Logan’s with K, V, and C,….had fun but no winnings at Keno. It was nice to get out after being home here for 5 days…man, I have to start finding things to do. It is weird that one of my sons is going through the same thing right now. I am getting excited about going to Chicago thurs and it looks like the weather is going to be good for Thurs and Fri but storms on Sat, but that’s okay since I’ve decided to come back Sat after the game. The funny thing is that when I talked to my daughter yesterday, she had already figured out that I couldn’t stay Sat night….but I look at it as giving them some time to have to themselves after having me there for two nights…and there are things I need to take care of here that I can only let go for a couple of days. And, you know how it is, I sleep really badly here…being in a strange bed just aggravates that problem. When I used to travel for work, I never really adjusted to the new sounds and had to use earplugs to sleep at all.

Doesn’t look like there will be much to do this week until I leave but I do have to check out the wreck to make sure it will make it…yeah, it’s really old and I may be able to get it to 300K miles before the body falls off.

I promise I’ll have some topical stuff later after I read the newspapers this morning…after all, the outrage is still bubbling under the skin and I need to get some of it out…not all, since I find that it powers me at times…more later

My Life

June 6th

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Well…it has been an interesting couple of days…have reconnected some with the kids, J came over (oh, all of my kids names start with a J so you can’t tell them apart) yesterday and I made him dinner; had coffee with him this morning, too, so that was kind of fun. Don’t know what I’m going to do today…there may be a Sunday Funday happening but not sure yet…can’t get warm for some reason so it has been hard to think about getting on the bike today. So it may be a day of watching the Napcar race from Pocono and just taking a nap later and chilling out here.

Hmmmm…not outrage today but I will promise to write more about change that I started a few weeks ago…more later…

Sports

A couple of sports things…

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Well…don’t like the idea of Philly getting even with the Blackhawks in the Stanley Cup playoffs….but that will make it more interesting to watch the game that I can see Sunday since it’s not on Versus. Still want the Hawks to win, though.

Oh, and the USA beat Australia today 3-1 but looked like crap….if they play like that next Sat against England, it will be 6-0 England in the first half…guys, let’s avoid going out in the first round again, please.

My Life

June 5th part 2….

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Well….can’t believe how sensitive the shifter is on the bike…about a 16th of an inch of adjustment and it works better than it ever has…yay! Now I need to clean the thing up before I go to Chi-town Thurs to visit my daughter…will probably go down thurs evening and stay until the USA England match is over…coming back Sat night..or not, who knows, I may do what I normally do and that is to get out of dodge as soon as possible.

It has been a somewhat boring day but I did get my bathroom cleaned and the whole place vacuumed; getting ready for the sports car race to start at 2…have some chicken brining for dinner but will have to bake it since the grill is gone…brined chicken is no good on the grill anyway. It kind of feels good to have had a no-drink night last night…have a lot more energy today but that may be the coffee…

I did re-watch Burn Notice this morning…must have been the booze thurs night since it was not bad today…probably should stop
drinking completely for a while and give the liver a rest….at least for this weekend….well…maybe not…

I promise more later about other subjects…you may be getting bored with this stuff..but I wouldn’t know without comments…;-)

My Life

June 5th

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Well…it’s early morning and I’m sitting here thinking what to write today….hmmmm..the weather, the bike? Nope, the US takes on Australia in a World Cup tune up game in a few minutes so that is something that I have to see. I have been working on the bike and was so bored yesterday that I took the brakes apart to change the pads from front to rear; since the rears get all of the use…well…after I took them apart I remembered that I had already done that earlier in the spring. I did try to adjust the shifter to get the downshifts better and will find out if that worked later this morning when I go out after the soccer game. What else? Oh, burned my grill to the ground last week when the burner split down the side and went up in a huge fireball…only a couple of months old but I had problems with it since new…but now I have to find another one which isn’t too easy since most of the stores are already stocking winter stuff…geez….

My Life

June 4th

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Well…as has happened the previous two seasons, Burn Notice disappointed me somewhat last night…they just never hit their storytelling stride but I have hope that they will get better. Not much else to say today…just bored silly and nothing to do for the weekend…hmmm…I guess I’ll have to start making my own fun again since I never really hear from anyone anymore. Yeah, I know, stop whining…more later….