The week gone by — July 18

On By BillIn Uncategorized, Weeks Gone By

I slept through it, but Suzi said our cat Sasha was very anxious for her to get up the other morning.

When she saw the mouse on the floor of our dining room, she realized why Sasha had been so insistent.

She must have gotten it overnight, since we hadn’t heard anything before we went to bed.

I’m not much for horror movies, but even I’m aware the trope of people making bad decisions that lead to their doom, and it wouldn’t surprise me if there was always one person suggesting the equivalent of getting in the running car, only to be ignored.

Mice must be the same way, since I would think that if one of them didn’t come home, his pals might stay away for a while — since, of course, mice talk to each other, right?

But nope, another one showed up the next night.

This one was lucky, though, because Sasha’s mouse-hunting efforts tend to be … inconsistent. She’ll chase and paw for a while, but then she’ll get bored and move on, especially if she’s in the mood for a snack.

Our most-recent little visitor was last seen fleeing to the corner of our TV room, so it might be hiding somewhere or gotten out of the house.

I just don’t want it to wind up in my slippers.

All hail!

Paul announced the results of his latest Captain’s Quiz and … I won!

It took until the very end, when my blatant sucking up to the man in charge by choosing three numbers of famous Toronto Maple Leafs — 93 (Doug Gilmour), 17 (Wendel Clark, above) and 29 (Felix Potvin) — earned me enough points on the bonus question to win it at the death.

The decision might have met with some disagreement, given that Giggles has said she won’t give up her crown, and somehow an army of mercenary elves got invoked.

I can’t personally go up to Canada to claim my prize, and my requests for the 82nd Airborne to intercede have fallen on deaf ears. Perhaps I’ll have to get in touch with our ambassador in Ottawa. I’ve seen the embassy; it seems like a place not to be trifled with.

But a win is a win, and until someone takes the title from me, everyone can bask in my glory.

Yankee update

I decided I’d start watching the Yankees again after the All-Star Game. They had been playing better before the break, so maybe they’d keep it up (?), and I couldn’t just abandon them forever.

Naturally, they started the second half by:

So … yeah, everything is going great, although they did win the second game against Boston, so that was nice.

What I wrote

How often do we promise we won’t forget someone, that we’ll keep in touch? And then how often does it actually happen?

The other day, I wrote the date as being in 2019, Although that date had some interesting goings-on in other years, two years ago, it was pretty uneventful … and I think I wouldn’t mind some of those “ordinary” days right about now.

Stuff I read

Pea Green writes about how different can be beautiful.

Pepper has scheduled her first flight since COVID. I can’t wait until I can do that.

Renata is trying to find a balance between short- and long-term thinking, or as she puts it between her brain and … some other body part.

Jeff reminds us of the original machines designed to be obsolete … and can’t be replaced.

Emily’s attempt to get revenge didn’t go as she had planned.

A year ago, Savannah’s business was born.

We’re less than six months from 2022, but Rosie is still processing 2020.

Vee is thinking about visiting her hometown of Vancouver. I can’t say I blame her.

We all have bad habits. Fran tells us six of hers.

The twists and turns continue in Austin’s “The Vanishing Corpse.”

Apparently, Ally got her friend thrown out of Bible study.

Graham deals with the morning after.

Mark says that if we look up once in a while, we might see something nice.

Sarah’s journey continues, and sometimes, the journey is annoying.

According to Rick, we can learn not just from the people we admire, but the people we don’t.

Cass got a very pleasant surprise during her trip to Whistler.

Just like that, Jackie in Italy is back in class. At least they got the air conditioner working.

The Huntress’ new home has come with its share of adventures.

Christina stopped herself from giving in to an urge.

Tweets I liked

I’m still not convinced it’s a real place.

Spaghetti being back is good news, but I wouldn’t want to be anywhere it had ever left.

If people just realized I was right all along, then I wouldn’t get tired.

We used to work together, so this probably isn’t the first time.

Given that I once tore apart the bedroom looking for my phone while talking with my parents … on the phone … I really can’t say anything.

If he were so inclined (he’s not), some of these could be a blog unto themselves!

Ummm … yes.

A farewell

Last March, I wrote about my collection of Yankee yearbooks from my younger days, which were in a plastic storage bin in my basement.

The post also included programs and magazines and other stuff I had collected.

In college, a professor who knew so many people that my buddy Jon referred to him as “God’s Rolodex” (perhaps “God’s iPhone contacts” works better for the younger set) knew I was a San Diego Chargers fan, so he got in touch with a friend in an NFL front office and scored two media packets from Chargers preseason games.

They consisted of clippings, rosters and information, but more than that, I was holding in my hands the same folders with the same contents as real sportswriters at real — — well, real exhibition, anyway — NFL games.

The professor was Jack Behrens. I took magazine-writing and sportswriting classes with him, and he was also in charge of the college’s journalism fieldwork program. (I worked in the sports department of the local Utica daily, the Observer-Dispatch.)

I wasn’t a particularly noteworthy student of his, and we didn’t have a lot of contact after I graduated, but he was a great professor, a fine man and an absolute legend.

And he did something really cool for me that I’ll never forget.

No introductions will be necessary. He’s already friends with everyone.

8 thoughts on “The week gone by — July 18”

  4. Thanks for including me in your post. I like that *Spaghetti Is Back* tweet and agree with you. In my world, spaghetti will always be here. Kind of sad to think that somewhere it wasn’t there for a while.

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