A Super Bowl Poll!

Greetings, readers. Here’s the poll question! Who will win tonight’s Super Bowl?

San Francisco 49ers

Kansas City Chiefs

Leave your answer in the comment section! 😀 Until tomorrow.

I didn’t forget. I promise!

Greetings, readers. Guess who had absolutely no energy yesterday? That’s right, me! I sat down on my couch to watch an old baseball game on YouTube and fell asleep straight away. [OH BOY, DID I JUST GO BRITISH ON YOU ALL THERE!] Anyway, I was watching game 2 of the 1977 World Series between the L.A. Dodgers and the New York Yankees. 😉 

On days off from the Good Day Cafe, sometimes I go into shutdown mode. I don’t do much, and I certainly don’t go out if I can help it. Yesterday was one such day. I think everybody needs a ‘shutdown’ day every so often. 🙂 

Back to baseball for a moment. I love watching old, or what is called classic sports on YouTube. My two favorites are old football and baseball games from the 1970s. It was a more civilized time, and I think athletes were better role models for children. Leave a comment if you agree with me. 

Well, the Yankees won game 1, while the Dodgers took game 2. Both games were played at Yankee Stadium. Howard Cosell, Keith Jackson and Tom Seaver were the announcers. I’ll watch game three either tonight or tomorrow. Even though I know who won the series, it’s still fun to watch the old players, managers and even some umpires. 

Well, time to categorize, tag and publish this little guy. So, until tomorrow, have a great day, take care, love one another, and as always, happy reading! 

Hunker down! A storm is a Comin’

Greetings, readers. According to the weather forecasters, Pennsylvania is going to get zonked with a major snowstorm this weekend. So, I am writing this blog post now, at 10:45AM and then I’m off to Target to get supplies for the weekend and possibly beyond. Did I ever mention that hate winter! 😦  

With 6 to 8 inches of snow followed by a smidgen of ice, I’m not moving from Saturday morning until Monday morning. I am supposed to have a work shift tomorrow from 11AM until close. I’m hoping the cafe stays closed. We’ve had people call off ill this week already, so if they are open, I would have to go in. I shall call my boss tonight. 🙂 

While I am at the store today, I must purchase a flash drive or disc. Our office manager was indeed able to pull my A Christmas Carol performance. I was so worried that it had been recorded over. Now, my friends and co-workers at the cafe can partake in, if they wish. After an hour and thirty-five-minute show, of which I believe I did well enough to give myself a 92% on, I wish to keep it forever! 😀 

This Sunday at church, I’m to be an usher and we have an ushers meeting after service. With all that slippery, white stuff of the ground, I shan’t be there…, unless said storm veers off. This Sunday is also the final week of the NFL regular season. My Steelers are hanging on for dear life as far as making the playoffs and my Vikings are out! 😦 I remember when I would never miss a Saturday college or Sunday NFL game. Now, I have almost no interest. I watched last year’s Super Bowl but did not watch one pitch of the World Series. I just know that the Texas Rangers finally won the title! 😀 

Well, readers, that’s enough for today. I’ll be back on Monday…, providing we have power. 😟 Until then, take care, love one another, stay safe and warm, as and always, happy reading. 

My review of the new United States Football League

Greetings, readers. Here are my thoughts about week one of the new United States Football League. This past Saturday night, I watched all of game # 1 – the New Jersey Generals vs the Birmingham Stallions. Final score was 28-24, Stallions. The home team got the last-minute win! Now, I’ve just spent ten minutes looking for the paid attendance. It’s nowhere on the official website. It was not a sellout by any means, but there was a good crowd. Protective Stadium holds over 47,000. There were probably 25,000 to 30,000 folks there: a good first game crowd.

Then yesterday, the rain and lightning came. The first two games were delayed because of the lightning in the area, and the evening game was postponed until tonight. Once the 12 o’clock game got started, the few people who were there were probably in the restaurants staying dry. Virtually nobody was in the stands for the games between the Houston Gamblers and the Michigan Panthers. Likewise for the Philadelphia Stars and the New Orleans Breakers, delayed with hardly anyone in the stands. The nightcap between the Tampa Bay Bandits and the Pittsburgh Maulers was postponed until tonight. I’m going to watch it and route for my Maulers.

It’s hysterical to me that Protective Stadium isn’t protected! 😦 There is no retracting roof to use in case of inclement weather. All three games would have begun on time, and TV stations would not have had to scramble for alternate programming. Would I call week 1 of the 10-week season a complete cluster f@&k??? No…, but close.

The league has two-point tries and three-point conversions. I like that a lot. I’ve not figured out exactly how it works yet, but when I understand it better, I’ll fill you in on it. I still do not think this league is going to survive one season, but I didn’t think Major League Soccer would survive either. That league begun in 1996, and it’s still going strong! 😉 So…, who knows about the USFL.

Until Friday everyone, have a super fantastic week, take care, love one another, and as always, happy reading.

The new USFL is doomed!!!

Greetings, readers. Yes, the old United States Football League folded before the 1986 season could get underway. The league only survived 3 mediocre seasons. Now, after 36 long years, a new USFL is set to kick off this month. I will be shocked if it survives one season!

The USFL 2, as most critics call it, will consist of 8 teams. Here they are – Michigan Panthers, New Jersey Generals, Philadelphia Stars, Pittsburgh Maulers, Birmingham Stallions, Houston Gamblers, New Orleans Breakers and Tampa Bay Bandits.

Here’s the problem. The new league chose team names exactly the same as the old USFL. Guess what folks…, the original league retained the rights to those teams and names. HOW IDIOTIC! Don’t wait until the impending lawsuit. Check and double check before you come out publicly with team names and logos. *Angry emoji*

Next, all the games will be played in one stadium, Protective Stadium in Birmingham, Alabama. Well, 1 team has home games. O…k… So much for a city getting behind their team other than the Stallions. I have 0% incentive to go to a Maulers game. Please, leave a comment if you can figure out any advantage besides cutting down on travel costs.

FOX, NBC, FS1 and USA Network are going to cover games this season. I’ll watch the first week or so and see if scores are more than 6-3. Here is this blogger’s prediction that this league will succeed – 10%.

Until Monday folks, enjoy your weekend, love one another, stay safe in the bad weather areas, and as always, happy reading.

Cloudy rainy day and I feel blue

Greetings, readers. After several days of sunny weather, central Pennsylvania is in the midst of a chilly damp rainy day. My just operated-on-shoulder is letting me know it, with painful twinges. Most people prefer sunshine, which provides everyone with much needed vitamin D.

I am also in a melancholy mood because I found out some not so great news on my monetary status. I am poorer than a I thought I was. I knew very well that I wasn’t rich, but things are not as rosy as I had hoped. I might very well have to get memory foam in my shoes and try to get my fast food job back. A night-time manager that likes me very much would, I think, re-hire me on the spot. I’m not desperate enough to play lottery tickets just yet, but … that day may come.

On to the Pittsburgh Steelers, back-up quarterback Devlin Hodges performed well in Sunday’s night win over the Chargers. That makes us 2-4 and we still have a chance to make the playoffs. If Mason Rudolph clears concussion protocol, we’ll see if he gets the start in the next game. The Steelers have a bye week coming up. A lot of my NFL teams are tanking this year. I do like the Cleveland Browns, simply because they have been so horrid for so long. Someone has to root for them. And the Philadelphia Eagles lost this past Sunday. I thought they would be a stronger team. We’re a couple of weeks away from the season’s mid-point and it will be interesting to see which teams turn it around.

Note to our readers: There will not be a Sunday blog entry this weekend, but look for one next Wednesday and the following Sunday. Next Wednesday Rebecca and I will post a long overdue Top Ten List. We haven’t done one of those in ages.

Continued prayers go out to all who need it all over the world. I keep praying for people to give peace a chance and things just seem to be getting worse. I would not like to think that this is the biblical end times, but only the Lord knows. I’ll make a statement right now: If it is, I’m ready.

That’s it for today. I’ll have to hunt down my umbrella, I have errands to do this afternoon. So until next time, take care, have a fantastic week, and happy reading.

Oopsie, I forgot, my bad

Greetings, readers. This is the first of two blog entries I will write today, for I completely failed to post one as promised this past weekend. I got so wrapped up with football and other events. For the time being my plan is to do a blog entry for Wednesdays and one to post on Sundays every week.

Unfortuanantly my writing projects have stalled again, but hope springs eternal. I’m having a dinner meeting with my co-creator to discuss project number two. I think when I take more detailed notes, I will be able to get a much better start. I tried to write the ending she wanted first, which was a tactic I used in a very successful writing project of my own many years ago. That decision failed miserably this time around. I’m going to have to pick my co-author’s brain for character traits and start at the beginning.

Over the last week and a half, I’ve tried to keep my creative brain moving by watching three films from the library: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan; Rebecca’s highly recommended film Invincible; and the classic, The African Queen. Invincible, about Vince Papale of the 1970s Philadelphia Eagles team, was a feel good story and highly inspirational. You have to love those true stories. STII is still considered the best Star Trek film. I saw in an interview, with Ricardo Montalban, that for the first two weeks of rehearsal he was reading the lines like Mr. Roarke from Fantasy Island; he had to go back and watch the original series Star Trek episode “Space Seed” to get back into the character of Khan. And believe or not, The African Queen is my first Humphrey Bogart film, you can’t do better than Bogart and Hepburn.

Watching STII inspired me to go to YouTube and re-watch all of the episodes in the Star Trek fan fiction series called Star Trek Continues, which was produced by Vic Mignogna. Vic does a better William Shatner’s version of Kirk than William Shatner did. Amazing. Too bad Paramount shut them down. Their reason was copywrite infringement. I think it was because they were too good.

On to sports news, the Pittsburgh Steelers are 1-4 and barely have a pulse. Quarterback Mason Rudolph was clobbered by two of the Baltimore Ravens’ players and got knocked senseless. It didn’t help matters that he had to walk with help into the clubhouse because the cart broke down. A black mark for the Heinz Field staff.

Staying within our division, the Cleveland Browns got pummeled 31-3 by the San Francisco 49ers Monday night, thus rendering the AFC North the weakest division in the NFL. When a team is 1-4 and they still have a good chance to make the playoffs, that is a sad division.

That’s going to wrap up blog entry number one, for our weekly meeting is going to take place any minute. This entry will go live today. Entry number two will be written today and will be scheduled to go live on Sunday afternoon. Again, I apologize for my faux pau. In a week or two’s time, I shall try to find a time of day that I can pump out a Sunday entry by myself.

Until next time, take care, have a great few days, love one another, and happy reading.

Sunday evening blog tentatively set to begin again October 6th

Greetings, readers. Yes, folks, it has been too long now not having two blog entries up per week. If the truth be told, I was going to wait until football season was over, but I think I shall try to sneak in an entry on late Sunday afternoons or evenings. My readers have come to expect two blog entries a week and as you know we aim to please.

For those of you who follow me on Facebook you will know I am trying to shake a cold right now. I just got finished telling Rebecca that I feel perfectly fine but sound very stuffy. If I hadn’t felt terrible two days ago, I might have actually called this an allergy attack. Remember it is fall here in central Pennsylvania. Happy second day of fall!

It is a gorgeous day here, nary a cloud in the sky. The new building next door is being worked on in earnest. They have five stories complete on my end of the building and four stories on the end closer to Beaver Ave. Completion date is set for next August, so quite soon the plumbing, lights, and the electrics will have to be put in. That means that the outside of the building must be completed first. It seems like only yesterday they were using the jack hammers to excavate for the foundation.

I saw a marked improvement in the Pittsburgh Steelers this weekend though they lost. Mason Rudolph was a wonderful young quarterback and I’m hoping he gets his first win this Monday night at home vs the Cincinnati Bengals. Other NFL surprises are the Buffalo Bills and the Washington Redskins. The Bills are 3-0??? And the hapless Redskins are 0-3. I think Redskins’ head coach Jay Gruden will be ousted if he loses to the New York Giants on Sunday.

In other sports news, the baseball playoffs are just around the corner. The Pittsburgh Pirates will not be in it, so I’ll take a quick glance to see if there are any other teams I am interested in rooting for before investing my time.

While watching NFL football, I have seen advertisements for new and returning TV series’. I’ve got to tell ya, I can’t say that I am truly dying to see any of them. If I really wish to see something there is always that beautiful invention called On Demand. With my new writing project now well under way (yay!) I think I shall watch TV catch-as-catch-can on Demand. I love Xfinity and its cable box.

Continued prayers go out to all who need it.

That’s all the news from here. Until next Wednesday, have a good week, take care, and happy reading.

Due to circumstances beyond our control …

Greetings, readers. Because of some switching over of new telephone and electrical poles behind my building, the power and internet was going to be switched off at certain intervals today. Neither Rebecca nor I wanted to walk up eight flights of stairs or, worse yet, get stuck in the elevator if the power got cut at that moment. So, hello from Panera.

Not our work place of choice, Panera will have to suffice. One of the main reasons I don’t like to work in public is all the miscellaneous noises, such as other customers talking or background music which could start blaring any moment. I promised a blog entry for today so we are going to get it done. Oh, what creatures of habit we are. I used to like working here. Now it is completely foreign to me. I much prefer sitting in my apartment chair dictating to Rebecca.

So, let’s see what else is news. Last evening at 6:00, I donned my Spikes T-shirt, cap, and sit-upon and got ready in my comfy chair in my apartment for the 7:05 start, only to suffer through a two-hour rain delay and the eventual postponement of the game. Folks, when did baseball change? In the single A short season, if the game has to be made up, they will only play seven innings. To me that is not baseball.

Unless the major leagues have switched also, single A has another weird rule. If the game goes into extra innings, the teams start with a runner on second. They are called the designated runner. The first time I experienced this was two games ago and the Auburn Doubledays fans were chanting, “That’s not baseball,” clap, clap, clap-clap-clap. As it turns out, it actually helped the Spikes win that game. I am still not a big fan of it though. I do not think it is preparing the younger players to play at the major league level. Proponents would probably tell me that we cannot tax our 17 to 20 year-olds. I can see both the pros and the cons.

The construction of the new building is coming along nicely, and I am very slowly losing my view of the Days Inn’s restaurant, Mad Mex. When the building is completed, I’m not going to have much of the view left which I enjoyed when I moved in. When I moved in 13 years ago, I had a choice of a fifth floor apartment or an eighth. I took the eighth floor apartment because of the view. All good things must come to an end, as they say.

It’s only a few weeks now until the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts and the People’s Choice Festival roll into town. I’m looking forward to July and its warmer weather, but not the crowds and the humidity. I’ll probably spend some time walking around downtown, seeing what’s on offer. With everything being handcrafted, I doubt I will be able to afford any wares. My favorite part of the Arts Festival is the misting ferns. They were slightly different last year, but it was still refreshing to walk through it. I am not going to partake of the children’s water bucket dump, however.

Then, it is on to Maine a few weeks later. That boggles my mind. I can rest easy, though, as I have made all the accommodations for my motels and rental car. Now I know why my mom liked to be prepared so early, so that she could relax knowing that if anything went wrong it was on them. When I get back from Maine, I shall immediately look for gainful employment. My accountant has been gently nudging me all summer to become gainfully employed and I think it would be a good idea. My funds are depleting quickly. If I do go to camp next year, I will certainly have to have at least a part-time position. Any position I get, must be within walking distance to my apartment. No more buses at rush hour for me.

This weekend appears to be a normal one, so I should be able to put up the next new blog entry Sunday afternoon. Until then, have a good few days, take care, love one another, and happy reading.

Go Spikes Go!!! :-D

Greetings, readers. I’m very sorry that I did not post a blog entry yesterday. I was feeling extremely drained, both emotionally and physically. Here where I live, we have had several days of rain in a row. This is not good for me, because I suffer from depression. Even though it is overcast, chilly, and looks like it could rain at any moment, my mood is much better today. So, I thought I would put up this blog post to let you know what’s been going on in my life the last few days.

My friends, Traci and Smith, accompanied me to a State College Spikes baseball game a few nights ago. We are the single-A, short season team for the St. Louis Cardinals. There are only 33 home games in the whole season. I purchased what is called a Flex Book; 14 tickets, which can be used at any time. The price was reasonable, so I jumped at it. Traci, Smith, and I went to a game the other night against the Williamsport Crosscutters. Yes…, That is one word. I looked it up.

The game we went to was in honor of Josiah Viera. He was a young teenager who suffered from a rare genetic disease called Progeria. The genetic disorder causes children to age rapidly, and die young. For a number of seasons, he was the inspirational leader in the Spikes clubhouse and dugout. On opening night, the team retired his number on the jersey, number 10, which he had worn so proudly.

I am going to have lots of fun this season going to several games. I love it when they have fireworks after the game. If any of you live in a town or city that has been minor-league baseball team, please share it with me on my Facebook page, or in the comments section.

SPECIAL NOTE: Due to an appointment which cannot be changed, I have asked Rebecca to come in and work on Thursday this week, instead of Wednesday. So until then, I bid you a great few days, take care, love one another, and as always, happy reading.