We\u2019ve hit that moment in fall that is both lovely and sad: the last burst of really warm, humid weather before things change. We are scheduled to have the pool closed on Wednesday, so last weekend was our final chance to swim. Friday I cranked the heater up to be sure the water was tolerable. That took the chill off but we may not have needed it Saturday as the temperature burst into the 80s. A couple of the nephews came over and enjoyed our last day in the pool with us.<\/p>\n
Today the sky is darkening and the air is thick with humidity, feeling more like June than October. We may get a few sprinkles later, but not enough to break the drought we are mired in. It has been nearly two whole months since we got more than 0.10\u201d of rain in a 24 hour period. Last week I had to bleach and flush out our sump pit because it had gotten so smelly from the lack of water.<\/p>\n
The drought has caused trees to change colors rapidly and begin losing their leaves a little earlier than normal.<\/p>\n
It looks like we will have a few more warm days before a bigger cold front comes through late this week and gives us more fall-like temperatures for the foreseeable future. In the era of global warning, you never know how many bursts of warm weather are left. Probably more than we expect. But these moments of transition always strike something deep inside my DNA that no doubt goes back hundreds\/thousands of years ago when these changes meant finding shelter and stocking up on food to get through the cold months.<\/p>\n
Besides swimming, it was a fairly boring weekend. M went to a watch party Friday for the CHS game at a friend\u2019s house. (They won and are 8\u20130 going into the big season-ending clash with the #1 class 6A team.) C had a birthday party and sleepover at a friend\u2019s. L was stuck at home with us.<\/p>\n
It was certainly strange having the NBA Finals, the MLB league championship series, and the NFL regular season all on the same day Sunday.<\/p>\n
The Colts lost a thoroughly winnable game in Cleveland, and the blame falls firmly on Philip Rivers. He\u2019s taking some heat in the normally docile Indy sports media today. The gist of the argument against him is that he\u2019s not performing that much better than Jacoby Brissett did last year, and he\u2019s being paid a lot more than Brissett was. There was hope that putting him behind a stout offensive line could improve his passing stats. Losing his starting running back and three key receivers doesn\u2019t help, to be 100% fair. But he also seems to making a lot of poor decisions. The defense has been great. Jonathan Taylor looks like a terrific draft pick. TY Hilton appears to be healthy. Quarterback is the only real weak link, at least thus far.<\/p>\n
At least he didn\u2019t snap his ankle like a pretzel. Very glad the Colts game was on at the same time as the Giants-Cowboys game so I could miss seeing Dak Prescott\u2019s injury.<\/p>\n
By the time I switched over to the NBA game, the Lakers were already up by 20. I didn\u2019t think the Heat had one last run in them so pretty much avoided the game, other than a couple brief peeks to check the score.<\/p>\n
Quite a run by the Heat. Had they been healthy maybe they could have stretched the Lakers out another game or even stole the series. They have to feel great about their playoffs despite the ending. I don\u2019t think anyone outside Miami expected them to rip through the Eastern Conference and come within two games of a title.<\/p>\n
As for the Lakers, this feels less like a triumph than an inevitable result. When the Clippers and Sixers proved too fragile in constitution and the Bucks too banged up, no one was really going to pose a serious threat to LeBron, AD, and their crew.<\/p>\n
Their win kickstarts the \u201cIs LeBron better than Michael?\u201d debate again. I don\u2019t think it changes my mind. They are still 1A and 1B, and lean toward MJ because of generational bias. But it gets harder and harder to separate the two. That said, the differences in the league during their two careers is what makes the comparison so difficult. The NBA is nothing now like it was in Michael\u2019s career. So not only are they two very different players, but they also played in entirely different circumstances. Finally, I don\u2019t think it is ever fair to judge a player who is still on the court against someone who has been retired, at least in terms of deciding who is the greatest ever. If LeBron ever retires, that\u2019s when I will finally force myself to settle the question in my mind.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been a sporadic watcher of the baseball playoffs, some nights locked in, some nights not watching a minute. I watched a pretty good chunk of last night\u2019s Houston-Tampa game. It was a classically tense playoff affair. I don\u2019t know if it is the lack of fans, my general disinterest in baseball over the summer, or something else, but I\u2019ve been finding baseball tedious over the past few weeks. I just can\u2019t lock into all that playoff tension right now. I wonder if is the lack of a crowd is the biggest factor. There are no shots of people losing their shit because of nerves between every pitch.<\/p>\n
Or maybe it\u2019s just me getting old. I don\u2019t think I could be as locked in if the Royals were in the playoffs as I was in 2014 and 2015. I was a mess those two Octobers. Not sure I what my mental state would be if I had to go through living and dying with every pitch again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We\u2019ve hit that moment in fall that is both lovely and sad: the last burst of really warm, humid weather before things change. We are scheduled to have the pool closed on Wednesday, so last weekend was our final chance to swim. Friday I cranked the heater up to be sure the water was tolerable. That took the chill off but we may not have needed it Saturday as the temperature burst into the 80s. A couple of the nephews came over and enjoyed our last day in the pool with us. Today the sky is darkening and the air is thick with humidity, feeling more like June than October. We may get a few sprinkles later, but not enough to break the drought we are mired in. It has been nearly two whole months since we got more than 0.10\u201d of rain in a 24 hour period. Last week I had to bleach and flush out our sump pit because it had gotten so smelly from the lack of water. The drought has caused trees to change colors rapidly and begin losing their leaves a little earlier than normal. It looks like we will have a few more warm days before a bigger cold front comes through late this week and gives us more fall-like temperatures for the foreseeable future. In the era of global warning, you never know how many bursts of warm weather are left. Probably more than we expect. But these moments of transition always strike something deep inside my DNA that no doubt goes back hundreds\/thousands of years ago when these changes meant finding shelter and stocking up on food to get through the cold months. Besides swimming, it was a fairly boring weekend. M went to a watch party Friday for the CHS game at a friend\u2019s house. (They won and are 8\u20130 going into the big season-ending clash with the #1 class 6A team.) C had a birthday party and sleepover at a friend\u2019s. L was stuck at home with us. It was certainly strange having the NBA Finals, the MLB league championship series, and the NFL regular season all on the same day Sunday. The Colts lost a thoroughly winnable game in Cleveland, and the blame falls firmly on Philip Rivers. He\u2019s taking some heat in the normally docile Indy sports media today. The gist of the argument against him is that he\u2019s not performing that much better than Jacoby Brissett did last year, and he\u2019s being paid a lot more than Brissett was. There was hope that putting him behind a stout offensive line could improve his passing stats. Losing his starting running back and three key receivers doesn\u2019t help, to be 100% fair. But he also seems to making a lot of poor decisions. The defense has been great. Jonathan Taylor looks like a terrific draft pick. TY Hilton appears to be healthy. Quarterback is the only real weak link, at least thus far. At least he didn\u2019t snap his ankle like a pretzel. Very glad the Colts game was on at the same time as the Giants-Cowboys game so I could miss seeing Dak Prescott\u2019s injury. By the time I switched over to the NBA game, the Lakers were already up by 20. I didn\u2019t think the Heat had one last run in them so pretty much avoided the game, other than a couple brief peeks to check the score. Quite a run by the Heat. Had they been healthy maybe they could have stretched the Lakers out another game or even stole the series. They have to feel great about their playoffs despite the ending. I don\u2019t think anyone outside Miami expected them to rip through the Eastern Conference and come within two games of a title. As for the Lakers, this feels less like a triumph than an inevitable result. When the Clippers and Sixers proved too fragile in constitution and the Bucks too banged up, no one was really going to pose a serious threat to LeBron, AD, and their crew. Their win kickstarts the \u201cIs LeBron better than Michael?\u201d debate again. I don\u2019t think it changes my mind. They are still 1A and 1B, and lean toward MJ because of generational bias. But it gets harder and harder to separate the two. That said, the differences in the league during their two careers is what makes the comparison so difficult. The NBA is nothing now like it was in Michael\u2019s career. So not only are they two very different players, but they also played in entirely different circumstances. Finally, I don\u2019t think it is ever fair to judge a player who is still on the court against someone who has been retired, at least in terms of deciding who is the greatest ever. If LeBron ever retires, that\u2019s when I will finally force myself to settle the question in my mind. I\u2019ve been a sporadic watcher of the baseball playoffs, some nights locked in, some nights not watching a minute. I watched a pretty good chunk of last night\u2019s Houston-Tampa game. It was a classically tense playoff affair. I don\u2019t know if it is the lack of fans, my general disinterest in baseball over the summer, or something else, but I\u2019ve been finding baseball tedious over the past few weeks. I just can\u2019t lock into all that playoff tension right now. I wonder if is the lack of a crowd is the biggest factor. There are no shots of people losing their shit because of nerves between every pitch. Or maybe it\u2019s just me getting old. I don\u2019t think I could be as locked in if the Royals were in the playoffs as I was in 2014 and 2015. I was a mess those two Octobers. Not sure I what my mental state would be if I had to go through living and dying with every pitch again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[76,36,66,15],"class_list":["post-10022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-mlb","tag-nba","tag-nfl","tag-weather"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10022"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10025,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10022\/revisions\/10025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}