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Wednesday, November 02, 2016

All the Marbles

Who will win Game Seven of the World Series tonight? The Cubs will win because last night’s blowout helped them relax. They’re back in the zone, which should carry over to tonight. They have Hendricks starting with Lester and other starters ready if needed. And the Cubs have the always dominant Chapman.
 
The Indians will win because they’ve been hot as well. No way the Cubs can win three straight, right? And the Cleveland bats are now used to seeing Chapman, who is dog tired after pitching two plus innings both Sunday and last night. With the TV ratings blowing the NFL out of the water, tonight’s game should be one for the ages.
 
Last night I hung with it until Chapman was relieved in the bottom of the ninth, with the Cubs up 9-2. Helped M with a very hard presentation on German philosopher Immanuel Kant. Grilled chicken and salad. Wheel, Jeopardy, The Middle, The Voice, then baseball at 9 pm.
 
Beautiful weather all weekend. Good thing, because I was outside most of the time. Left work early Friday afternoon to get Anna’s Jeep widow fixed. While I waited outside the shop Ceil reminded me the brake light needed to be fixed. They had to order a whole new assembly. The shop didn’t take too long, so I had time to clean out the Jeep and get the emissions tested at the car wash. The roof was still filthy after the wash due to all the caked on crud, so when I got home I waxed and detailed the Jeep. Afterward I laid down on the couch and took a quick nap.
Later we drove over to the Earhart’s for pizza. When we got there Lee was leaving to take his son over to a house for a youth event. I rode with him, and even walked up to the door to meet the host family. As we approached the door I realized it looked weird for two grown men to drop off one teenage boy, kind of like a Modern Family moment. Introductions could’ve been tricky, but Lee was clear when he introduced me as just his friend. Guess I should’ve said it wasn’t a date. Back at the house our wives thought it more hilarious than Lee.  
 
Game of Thrones fans here at work are getting defensive about the ever growing amount of violence on the show. I’m not sure how much violence is too much in our society today. Not sure how often take a step back and consider how things have changed – the violence, the lack of respect, the lack of honor, the lack of faith in God. People are more focused on accumulating power and wealth for themselves than serving others – including so many of our elected officials.
 
Friday night my friend spoke about similar content on the Turner’s Cartoon Network’s late night Adult Swim. He was meeting with a colleague and mentioned the bad content, not knowing the guy had created the filth himself. The guy even admitted he was ashamed of his work.
 
Saturday morning I did laundry while watching College GameDay. Our neighbor Larry was moving. Lots of turnover next door in the past 23 years: (1) Mike and family moved to Sandy Springs, (2) Randy and bride moved around the corner, (3) Lisa cut down trees, put in the pool, and moved to the lake, (4) secret agent Brett, wife Carla, and big dog Bear moved to Alabama (5) Larry from Hooters cut down more trees, totally redid the house, and are moving over near Walton High, and now (6) new neighbor Shelia and her two young sons move in this week.
  
Trimmed the hedges, a much needed chore. Anna left for the wedding at ten and Ceil headed out at two. I watched the dismal second half of the Tech game, then Matthew and I made the drive.
Nice venue in Ball Ground. The bright sun dipped behind the trees just as the wedding began. Got to spend time with Robert and Trina Hargreaves, as well as Anna’s old roommate Emily’s parents. Lily “Slingshot” Neibur was there with her fam. Also the Cunningham’s, whose daughters went to school with Will at Living Science and Anna at Veritas. Parents Blair and Deanna recently moved down from Milton to Rumson Road to be closer to work and Passion City Church, where CPA Blair is on the finance committee. He is a big baseball fan, so we talked about the Braves, SunTrust Park, the World Series, and trips to Cooperstown.
 
At the reception I spied a man seated at a table with his back to the way, so he could see everything going on. He had he phone propped up against the flowers with a football game playing. I would occasionally ask a younger person for an update, and they’d quickly check. Ceil was anxious to get back to watch Clemson/FSU, so after the dinner and speeches were done and the youngster dancing to loud music, we made our exit. We stayed longer than many.
 
Got home for the second half. Anna made it home before midnight. I was so tired I forgot to check on the World Series.
 
Sunday we made it down to Oak Grove UMC by 12:30, but the shuttles didn’t start running until just before one. Made it to the Oak Groove Festival on LaVista just as Matthew’s band started playing. A decent sized crowd gathered at the south end of the shopping center where they played. The group sounded better, clearly, and louder than ever. They’d made up below cost Swim Moms T-shirts to sell: $3 for white and $5 for purple or blue. M sang several songs, as did Frank and Shep. The blew through every song and finished five or ten minutes early. The band started up on the main stage sounding polished, and as we were leaving the 9th & 10th grade band setting up looked wet behind the ears.
 
Anna headed to Athens, and I drove Ceil to the crowded Dekalb Farmers Market. I didn’t want to eat lunch there, so after dropping her off I made a Wendy’s run. Was after 4:30 when we got home. Turned on the Falcons while I changed into shorts and sneakers, then went outside to rake leaves. Ceil cleaned out the flower beds and put out new pine straw, and we got things looking decent for the trick or treaters tonight
 
Afterwards I crashed on the couch. Watched the end of the Falcons, the World Series, and a couple of episodes of Jimmy Fallon. Made myself a grilled cheese sandwich on the Panini press. Today’s grocery list: peanut butter, jelly, bread.
 
Monday at work lots of people brought in food to eat, so I didn’t have to eat my leftover pizza.
 
Halloween was a downer this year. I had gotten a bunch of candy to give out. Left work right at 5 pm knowing traffic would be bad, but made it home before six. One house down the street was hosting a big party for all the little kids. I poured some of the candy in a bowl and noticed Ceil had picked up more candy at Target. Later she poured it into another bowl. At 6:30 Ceil was ready to go to Chipotle. As we left we saw a bunch of trick or treaters out and about.
 
Chipotle had $3.00 burritos if you wore a costume. C and I wore our matching Dale Murphy jersey shirts, and matching caps. Received a couple of compliments. The line stretched back to the door but moved quickly. Nice, personable employees, which hadn’t always been the case. We got it to go and headed home.
 
When the first little girl rang our bell, I let her choose between my candy bowl and Ceil’s. She picked my candy. After that C made me give out her candy. We gave out most of her bowl, and had all of my candy left over. Then M brought home all the candy with nuts from McKinnon’s: mostly Snickers, Butterfingers, and Reese’s cups – the best stuff.
 
Typical Monday evening: Jeopardy and The Voice. Went to bed when Timeline was starting.   
 
Dialysis was out sick today, and Rodney travels the rest of the week. Friday four of seven team members could be out.

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