Customer No-Service

Tuesday afternoon I took my car to my shop in Roswell to get the emissions tested. They had recently moved, and the state hadn’t approved their emissions license. So I drove to the carwash in East Cobb where I get my oil changed. As I drove up I remembered they’d been closed for renovations. Sure enough, their license hadn’t been re-approved either. Had to drive back to Roswell to the other side of 400 almost to the river to get it tested at another carwash. When I was almost there I remembered a different place in East Cobb I could’ve gone.

At the east Roswell carwash they got the emissions tested and car wash real quick. I was waiting outside, sitting at a picnic table. The guy brought my car back and said a cashier would check me out. I went inside to pay, but no one was there. I could see employees outside walking around, three in the service bay, more out in the detail area, and at least four sitting at one of the tables outside. After five minutes I looked the place up on my phone and called them. One of the guys sitting at the table answered. I asked if there was a cashier who could check me out. He lumbered inside and checked me out. He never said sorry for the wait. 

On the way home I stopped by Dollar Tree for Halloween candy. Went up to pay, but there was no employee at the register. After a couple of minutes I looked around and caught the eye of a guy stocking the shelves. “Ready to check out?” he asked. He lumbered up to the register. Two quick errands turned into over two hours.

Got home as the Braves game was starting, but I stayed outside cleaning out the car. Took an hour. Then I worked for over an hour. Was after 9 pm before I finally plopped on the couch to watch the rest of the game. 

NL teams winning the first two games of the best of seven NLCS have won the series 28 of 31 times. So their record is 28-3. That was the lead the Falcons had in the Super Bowl when they lost to the Patriots in overtime. A bad sign? Well Fox got their wish: their beloved Dodgers jumped out to a big lead in game three. So big a lead that millions of fans changed the channel. Ratings plummeted. I hope Fox is happy. Should the Braves lose by one run or twenty, it is just one loss. I hope karma doesn't come around for Justin Turner, sticking out his foot to get a hit by pitch (top).

Barney is still sick. Vet took an x-ray and said his lungs looked good, which was a worry because he’s always breathing so deep. Ceil fixed him some turkey, sweet potato, and rice, which is supposed to be good when he’s sick, but he barely touched it. Isn’t drinking much either. But when I was eating cheese and crackers, he looked interested. Poor thing. 

Alex Mullen’s funeral is Friday afternoon at Peachtree Presbyterian. I hate to miss it. Condolences to Pam, Hope, Marnie, Tripp, Mandy, and Audra.

Lately I’ve been taking more vitamins than ever. If C or M buys a vitamin then stops taking it, I usually finish the bottle. Since I’m mentioning it, five bucks someone tells me “You need to take this.” Here’s my current regimen. 

1. For years I’ve eaten a Tums for the calcium.

2. Daily baby aspirin for my heart.

3. Steve Apollo got me taking salmon oil for the Omega 3.

4. Doctor said I should take Vitamin D.

5. We have a bottle of Vitamin C at home, so I gobble one of those.

6. Zinc wards off the covid, so I started taking that as well.

BOBBY DOERR  [SABR Bio] record for played games at second base without ever playing another position in the majors, did Lou Whitaker break. Played 1,852 G at 2B w/BOS. Also appeared in 8 as PH and 10 as PR (1,865 G in all). He was a coach for the Toronto Blue Jays in their early years - TOR coach 1977-81 A certain-MVP-to-be broke his franchise record for grounding into the most double plays in a season. Doerr had 31 GIDP in 1949, but Jackie Jensen (AL MVP 1958) had 32 in 1954, also w/BOS. Current record holder is Jim Rice who had 36 in 1984 (BOS record, but also MLB record).

ROBERTO ALOMAR  [SABR Bio] the Hall of Famer played for seven major league teams and retired trying out for an eighth team managed by Lou Piniella. Played for SDP (1988-90); TOR (1991-95); BAL (1996-98); CLE (1999-2001); NYM (2002-03); CHW (2003-04); & ARI (2004). He left spring training in 2005 after attempting a comeback with TBD. In 1999 Alomar was engaged to tennis player Mary Pierce, but she broke off the engagement and ended the relationship. Alomar’s dramatic game-tying HR off Oakland’s Dennis Eckersley on 11-Oct-1992 changed the momentum of that ALCS and helped propel TOR to their first WS championships in 1992.

Alomar won every AL Gold Glove from 1991 to 2001 except 1997 when the Twins’ Chuck Knoblauch took the honors, denying Alomar a string of 12 straight. This became even harder to tolerate when Knoblauch developed the inability to throw, a key asset at the keystone position.