A sweep in Texas! Let the long beleagured Royals Nation rejoice!1 Because winning two road games against the best team in baseball in May always means good things for the rest of the season, right? Sarcasm aside, the brief Texas series was fun, and came at a great time following the news that Danny Duffy is the latest Royals pitcher to rip his elbow apart. Bruce Chen was fantastic Monday night while Vin Mazzaro was decent and Tim Collins absolutely filthy Tuesday.
I’ve been (almost) exclusively on the iPad + keyboard combo for nearly two weeks now. How’s it going? I’m glad you asked. A couple years back, in the midst of the nine or ten month netbook craze, I picked up a cheap MSI netbook. I tried to use it for work, but it was just too damn small. The keyboard was cramped and applications written for screens that were at least 12" were nightmares to use on the 9" screen.
Tuesday was primary election day in Indiana. The state continued its shift to the far right, selecting several candidates for the general election who have narrow views of both US history and how our nation should be governed going forward. I’m fascinated by how many politicians run around saying that they want to return our government to the ideals that the Founding Fathers had in mind. Why are so many voters so dumb as to believe the Founders had a monolithic view of government?
We spent most of Friday preparing for a couple social engagements, so I wasn’t able to write anything immediately after learning about the passing of Adam “MCA” Yauch. Here are some semi-related thoughts. Since I didn’t know MCA, I can’t really write about him as an individual. Rather, I must write about him as one of the Beastie Boys. It’s impossible to determine with exact certainty what the Beastie Boys' full impact on music was.
You know, I’ve been blogging for almost nine years now. I figure I repeat myself from time-to-time, and generally if I think I’m saying something that’s been said before, I acknowledge it. But since I’ve moved my Internet Home around so often, eliminating the possibility of an exhaustive archive, I have to guess sometimes. So I may well have written about this topic before. My apologies if that’s the case.
Mercy, there has been some funny stuff over the past week. M.: She’s picked up two new expressions, which she uses ceaselessly. One, ironically, is “It’s an expression,” often preceeded by a defensive, “What?” Example: “You better clean that up or Mom’s gonna kill you. What? It’s an expression!” The other saying is “Think about it.” This one is a little annoying, because she loves to use it on her sisters when they don’t understand something a big first grader knows.
The Colts passed the off-season with flying colors. At least thus far. They cleaned house in the coaching staff and front office quickly and completely. They handled the release of Peyton Manning with respect and honor. While there was some drama to the finals weeks of Manning’s Colts career, it never became a nasty divorce. They handled the lead-up to the draft perfectly, not playing media games about who they might pick and making an announcement that Andrew Luck would be their selection once they were sure.
As I shared last week, we have new neighbors. They began to arrive Friday night, and then spent much of the weekend replacing carpet, painting, and moving their stuff in. We finally met them on Sunday. Nice folks. Like we guessed, they have one daughter who is about M’s age and another who is about C’s age. As a bonus, their cousins, two more girls in the same age range, live about a block away.
Perhaps the column I’m linking to here is elitist and out-of-touch. But given the state of political discourse in this country, I think intelligent people of all political perspectives will find both truth and humor in this brilliant little piece of commentary/satire. Through the 19th and 20th centuries, Facts reached adulthood as the world underwent a shift toward proving things true through the principles of physics and mathematical modeling. There was respect for scientists as arbiters of the truth, and Facts itself reached the peak of its power.
Before I begin, I’d like to point out that my generic prediction for the 2012 Royals was that this season would be disappointing. This, though, is not what I had in mind. Ten straight losses, nine at home. Starters who can’t get out of jams. Relievers who throw gas on the fire. Hitters that can’t climb out of holes. Baserunners who make bad decision after bad decision. Curious managerial decisions.
After a couple of days of preparation, today I begin my latest technology experiment: can I survive with just an iPad? I’m often struck by the silliness of me switching back-and-forth betwen the iPad and the MacBook Air throughout the day. I always held on to the Air, though, because it seemed necessary for longer writing and for work assignments. After reading a couple articles, though, and doing some more research on my own, I decided to make a few purchases and see if I really could put the Air away.
Wednesday was a sad day at our house. Our next-door-neighbors, who have lived here for nearly six years, finished three days of packing and left for a new home in Texas. They were pretty much the perfect neighbors: our age with kids, friendly and easy to talk to but not ever in our business. Their kids and our girls spent nearly every day playing together in the summers, and usually hooked up after school as well.
This week’s list of things my daughters did that made me smile. M.: Her class has been busy sending Flat Stanleys all over the place this year. Among other places, they exchanged them with children at a school in Derby, UK. Her friend there returned a package last week that was loaded with cool stuff. British coins, postcards from the Derby area, a sticker of the local soccer team, some Royal Wedding stickers, a British flag, and some plain, universal, girlie stickers.
One lousy game can change everything. The Royals were looking good Wednesday afternoon. They got another strong performance from a starting pitcher. Alex Gordon finally got off the schnide, getting two hits including a home run. Billy Butler had gone deep for the second time this year. The bullpen was nails for six innings. And there they were, going into the bottom of the 12th with a one-run lead and a 4-2 season-opening road trip three outs away.
For the next month or so, the Indiana High School Athletic Association is holding public hearings around the state to discuss multi-class basketball. Even if there is an overwhelming outpouring of support for going back to the old system, no one really expects the tournament to change. The final decision is in the hands of the state’s principals, who are overwhelmingly for keeping things the way they are. I’ve written before about how my opinion on this has changed after living here.
A follow-up to the 3 Things post from the weekend: M. has mastered the art of riding a bicycle. Early Saturday she was doing a great job of riding with me just barely guiding her, but was more interested in doing other things and cut the practice short. In the evening I made a quick trip to the grocery store and when I turned onto our street, there she was riding all on her own.
Some things I’ve enjoyed about my daughters over the past week. M.: M. is always talking. Even if just to herself, her lips are always moving and sounds are coming out. We catch her whispering things to herself all the time. We’re working on bike riding. A week ago we took off her training wheels. She made some great progress the first few days, but with the weather cooling off and her back in school, we let things drop this week.
The off season is over; baseball is back! I’ve activated my MLB.TV subscription, loaded up At Bat on my iPhone and iPad, and am ready to go. It’s been an extra-long off season for Royals fans. After the solid finish to the 2011 season and encouraging results from the next wave of the youth movement, there was a sense that the off season could go a long way towards determining whether the Royals contended in 2012.
Since I remember things like this, a good time to look back at how I felt on four mornings that were similar to today. April 5, 1988. Exhilaration, amazement. April 2, 1991. Disappointment, sadness. April 8, 2003. Depression, anger. April 8, 2008. Relief, pure joy. April 3, 2012. Proud, at peace. One last deficit that could not be wiped out. A terrific year for a terrific team. Rock Chalk, bitches.
Monday night, for the fifth time in my life, my alma mater will play for the National Championship in men’s basketball. If this year, in which I’ve pulled back my obsession for the Jayhawks in order to find a better, healthier way of following them, has meant anything it’s appreciating that fact more than the brutal losses of Marches past. Is this team better than last year’s, or 2010’s?