is winning everything?

 The thing is I have already bought tongs.  At the very reasonable price of a buck fifty at the new Target that has just opened up on north LaSalle.  

But I did read the Beagles instructions with much interest.  The part about pulling the grate out was problematic because mine does not pull out smoothly.  It sticks a bit so you have to apply more muscle at which point it comes out free as a bird, out of the oven and onto the floor where the pieces of toast sprawl all willy nilly.

But wait, as I recall, there are two slots the grate can be slid in, and checking it just now, I see that while the upper slot is sticky, the lower slot is smooth as silk.  However skootching the toast from grate to plate seems problematic, but because of my new, handsome, buck fifty. tongs I now can pluck them off in a dainty manner.  I will test this all out when I have lunch today and a report should be forthcoming on Friday. 

That sunflower I showed you yesterday is beginning to fill in its flower, though the other sunflowers, while taller, do not appear in any hurry to bloom.  There are juicy ripe tomatoes, bright vermillion and just a little soft, but their skin is taut, and the initial bite is sloppy, but full of tomato goodness.  Fresh off the vine, nothing like it.  This year I vowed, as I have every previous year to keep the morning glories from strangling the peppers.  But now they are completely dominated by the pink and purple trumpets.  And you know what?  I don't care.  It's not like I ever get that many peppers our of them, and I adore the viny jungle.  I think maybe next year I will just plant all tomatoes.

And now an old man rant.  Over there in Tokyo right now there are the finest athletes in the world, and among them there is one who can run the fastest, and one who can vault the highest, and one who can hurl that big metal ball the furthest.  That is all I need to know.  I don't need to know which one it is.  I don't need to which country sent them there.  If the USA wins them all, fine.  If North Korea and Iran split the prize, that is also fine.

Then there is this gymnast, Simone Miles if you choose to google it, who has done all the grunt work and kept her eyes on the prize,  but now she is feeling too much pressure and is dropping out because of mental health issues.  Well that is fine with me, I don't give a shit.  But now, as is the mode these days, she is being lionized.  How bold, they are saying, how brave, what a strong young woman.  I can assure you that this is not what I would have heard from the boss back in the day when I worked for the state, and the report was due, but I told the boss, Oh, I have a mental health issue.

What did she think it would be like, all those years doing those flips and whatnot, when she got within reach of the prize?  Isn't that what people admire in athletes, that fighting spirit?  She didn't have to be an athlete you know, she could have been a barista at Starbucks, or the CEO of some Fortune 500 Corporation.  Like I said, I have nothing against her dropping out, it's the lionizing of her for doing so that seems off to me.

Another situation, somewhat similar.  The Cubs about a month ago were leading the NL central.  Which was great, but if you looked at it with the eye of an analyst, you could see that they weren't all that good.  They were playing over their heads, and likely would soon be plummeting towards the bottom.  And that is what is happening now.

For most of my life the Cubs have been the loveable losers.  From 2010 to 2015 they ended up in last place, one of those years losing 102 games.  And you know it was okay.  I watched the games and sometimes went to Wrigley, and if we lost, well what are you going to do, and if they won, it was like we had just won the fucking world series.  

Then in 2016 they actually did win the fucking world series, which was great, and for the next five they have gone to the postseason, but have never gotten to the world series again, which is also fine, just getting to the postseason is an accomplishment in itself.

I have this email group of my old Champaign beer drinking buddies who are all Cub fans, and on game day we all email each other, that was a fine catch, let's get some runs, stuff like that.  But now that we have sunk they are bitter, and they say things like if we win today and the Cardinals lose we will pass them in the standings, and we will only be nine and a half games out of first place.

The thing is we have only lost a couple more games than we have won.  Plenty of years we would have killed for a record like that.  Just sit back and watch our heroes who have about a fifty-fifty chance of winning, and there is nothing wrong with that.

I reference them with Lukenbach Texas, and that fine song at the end of that fine movie, Nashville. a little bit of The Iceman Cometh, and a snatch of T S Eliot, all to no avail.  They are on pins and needles over getting a hit here, gaining a half game on the leader there.

Crazy man crazy.  Sometimes you win sometimes you lose, that old sweet sun comes up in the morning and shines on your sunflowers anyway.  Maybe that is what that gymnast should have been thinking.  Just do it and maybe she would win and maybe she would lose, but the sun will still come up tomorrow, so where is the pressure?