Potpourri - Vol. 3

 Welcome back kids to another blog bits and pieces.  Just tidbits of life sprinkled in with a few short observations.  

There are two weeks left in the 2025 MLB regular season.  Another way of putting it is my favorite team, the St. Louis Cardinals, have two weeks left in their season.  It has been a long season.

To give you an idea of how long a season it has been, and how bad things are going, Allison Blair, one of my best friends in the world, sent me a text Saturday night about the Savannah Bananas, who are kind of baseball's version of the Harlem Globetrotters.  The article was on Jesse Cole, the owner of the Bananas, who by all accounts is just a really good person.  Anyway, Allison was wondering if I had seen the Bananas play.  I have not but told her the Savannah Bananas sold out Busch Stadium for two consecutive nights earlier this summer.  Conversely, my lowly Cardinals did not have one sell out all year.

The NFL has been going on for a couple of weeks now, and I am happy to say I have not watched one minute of NFL action.

On the other hand, yesterday was a great viewing day for the SEC fan.  Starting with Game Day at 8a, for the next 14 hours I watched all or part of Wisconsin-Alabama, Louisiana-Mizzou, Georgia-Tennessee, Arkansas-Ole Miss, Florida-LSU, A&M-Notre Dame, topped off with Minnesota-California.  Why is it I love college football so much, yet hate the NFL?  Go figure.

P.S.  I loved seeing Vanderbilt win and Notre Dame lose.

I am not making any sort of political statement here, except perhaps showing my own ignorance.  But before he was shot the other day, I had never heard of Charlie Kirk.  Had no idea who he was.  Guess I am out of touch.  But let me say this, and I know some will disagree and be surprised by what I say, some may cheer.  I don't know, and honestly, I really don't care, but I am very surprised by the way the president and others have gone out of their way to lift this man up since the shooting.  I agree, his shooting highlights the worst of American behavior. There is no place for it in a civilized society.  But going to such lengths to honor someone just because he was shot, is wrong.  If you are going to do it for him, do it for everyone who is killed by violence, man or woman, Democrat or Republican, black or white, Jew, Christian or Muslim.

Ok, that is enough on that subject.  Maybe it shouldn't be.  I have a lot of opinions on a lot of things.  Maybe in a week or two.

I am really looking forward to early October.  The Sherrod Ave. Church of Christ, where M and I worship, will be celebrating its 100th Anniversary on Saturday and Sunday, October 4th and 5th.  We have only been attending there for 11 years, but I can tell it is going to be a fun and great weekend.

I plan on writing a blog this week on our recent trip to California.  My younger son Clayton, and his wife Mimi, live just north of San Francisco.  I am not sure I ever want to live in California, but without a doubt, San Francisco is one of the most beautiful cities in the world.  We went up to Bodega Bay and spent time in the Napa and Sonoma Valleys.  The grapes looked succulent, and we stopped at the Sullivan Winery (no relation) just outside St. Helena.  It was all so beautiful.  I love it every time we visit, even if gas is $4.75 a gallon.  Ugh!  

M and I have become slaves to Community Coffee.  It is so good, so full of flavor.  For about two years now, that is all we have bought.

I evoked the memory of my dad and Grandpa Dalton yesterday afternoon.  Between football games, I grilled pork steaks.  They were so good, with a bit of sweet and smoky Sweet Baby Ray's sauce.  M make some potato salad and skillet beans to go with them.  Sorry y'all weren't here.  Maybe next time.

I went to the courthouse on Friday here in Tuscumbia and got license stickers for the cars.  Are you like me, while in the parking lot, I put the sticker on the license plate of the car I'm driving.  Then when I get home, do the same to the other car before going inside.  We are such creatures of habit.

That's enough for now.  I have a list of things I want to write about.  Your inbox may be busy.

Be nice to each other.  See you down the road.