In The Spot Light

In this day and age of instantaneous news, it is amazing how many spectacular events are "in the spotlight."  Last week's tornado outbreak with the hundreds of deaths and untold numbers of injuries, and property damage of untold value.  I learned about this news story from The Weather Channel.

The "wedding of the century" between Prince William and Kate Middleton was another international media event. While I have seen or heard snippets of coverage on TV, the newspaper, the radio, and the Internet, I did not follow the story closely, nor watch the event.  I know this is a public couple and the publicity is to be expected, and maybe, hoped for, but I do not wish to follow their private lives.

The killing of Osama bin Laden is another international news story that I missed until the next day, because I was not watching TV nor listening to the radio.  I was on the computer, but not on the Internet, so I missed out until I was going to work the next morning. 

Many of the "big news" stories are peripheral to my life.  Am I a "bad citizen" because of that?  I hope not.  I get a hard copy of the Lubbock Avalanche Journal.  I read the headlines of the Greenfield Recorder,  the New York Times, and the Austin Statesman on line. So, I see the headlines, and a get information from a variety of perspectives.

I just do not study the news nor immerse myself in it.  I want to be informed, but I find the news distressing and depressing.  And, sometimes, I feel like a voyeur into the lives of people who are in the news.  I think some of them do not mind, because they put their stories out there. But, I mind. I do not want to know their personal, private business.  I deal with the personal, private lives of patients everyday.  I guess that meets my quota.

I am on Facebook, and I will tell you, I really am a voyeur there. I rarely post on my own page, and only seldom comment in someone else's.  I am thankful that my younger relatives share their lives so freely, as it has been a way for me to get to know them and keep up with their lives. 

I am just not that interested in sharing things with so many people.  If you want to know, send me an email, and ask.  If I am repeating myself, I know how to cut and paste, so it is not boring or tedious to me to answer you. But my life does not need to be in the spotlight.

The Radio

I know you experience this.  You set the radio just right, get the tuning just right, the antenna just right, sit down, and it seems the tuning is off...Grrr.  I have several dial tune radios, and this is very frustrating to me.   I like the digital tuners better, simply because this is less of an issue...

Fall Ball vs Foul Ball

Baseball... After September 1, although it is not fall by the calender, it is fall in terms of baseball.  The pennant races are closing down. The teams are trying to get into post season play.  Even if teams are mathematically out of the post season, their performance can influence the standings of the teams who are in contention for post season play.

Players are injured and tired.  Pitchers have worn themselves out. The roster is expanded, but some, if not most of the expansion players are unknown entities.  Maybe not next year, but this year.

Some players tough it out. But if they do, are they playing at maximum strength?

Strategy includes days off, bull pen usage, pinch hitters, understanding base running. 

Baseball is a thinking man's game... It is sometimes chastised for being too slow, especially when my favorites the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox are playing each other.   Some of the reason it is slow is because batters and pitchers play mind games with each other while in the battery...

I will protest any attempt to speed up the game.  Maybe a faster baseball game would improve TV ratings, but it would not improve the game.  And it would not improve radio ratings... I really think Major League Baseball needs to promote radio broadcasts as much as TV broadcasts... Because, sorry, but no matter how good TV announcers are, if you have a GOOD radio announcer, he is unbeatable, and makes the broadcast so ENJOYABLE.

Baseball, baseball

Charlie Osgood used to say (I have not heard him in a very long time) "see you on the radio." I discovered recently that many of my age contemporary colleagues understand how wonderful it is to "watch" a baseball game on the radio: if there are good announcers, radio coverage gives you a thinking man's approach to baseball. I still love baseball. I have said it before....

Melancholia

I have a touch of melancholia tonight. I like that word, melancholia. Not depression, that is too clinical, too permanent. Melancholia, sadness for sadness' sake. I am not sure where the melancholia comes from. I have hibernated all day, doing very little out of the house. It was sunny, not freezing, but with a blustery wind. No reason to be out. I even eschewed my regular walk, but that may have been a mistake...

Tonight, I am listening to KDAV, oldies from the 50s and 60s. Very melancholy music. Lounge music, suitable to listen to while holding onto a drink, sitting near the piano player, in a lounge or nightclub. Also, good fireplace music, but, alas, I have no inside fireplace...

I am content with being here, being nested and nestled up. Enjoying the company of the girls. But, feeling an emptyness, a sadness.

I am thinking about the Sunday evenings of my younger days: Before Uncle Voss lived with us, he would come by on Sunday nights to use the dictionaries, working on the crossword puzzles. Sunday night was mellow: maybe we had been for a ride earlier. But the evening itself was companionable... Waiting for Gunsmoke, and Candid Camera, getting ready for the coming week.... Just quiet.

Later years, we frequently had sandwich meals on Sunday night, and the Reeds joined us... Not always sandwiches, but that kind of food. Also, companionalbe.

Ken and I generally did Sunday supper: A product of both his upbringing and mine, when family would gather. Family, in our case, was whatever friends dropped by or were invited.

For a time, when I was with Bob, we had "Sunday dinner." Regularly, predictably, a big meal. Gator got so he knew we were cooking, and regularly joined us with his friends. It was a pleasant, mellow time. I think it was good for Bob and Gator to have the ritual.....

At Chet's it was mellow, too. He had music as much as TV. I forget to have music, and turn on mindless TV, when music would be better... An important lesson....

And, I like the indirect lighting. No ceiling lights, although the house has them... I like the indirect lighting better. It is softer, gentler...

I frequently have such yearnings for times that were: cross country trips, fireworks, camping, bonfires, box burnings... They are all gone now... I have to make new traditions for me..

I am listening to Elvis "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" and it brings an ache to my heart, but it is a good ache....

Melancholia, it is a good word. As you may know, I like words....