10 more days - then pulling plug on trip #1

 HA - that MLB system kicked me in the gonads last night!   OUCH.  I sort of expected it with big dogs in play. Did win Boston over NY Mets   +230 for Boston  they won 1-0.    Still ahead of the game.

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I JUST got back from the opthamologist for my 6 week check up for right eye issues.  Lot's of garbage floating around.  This photo is from 2019 and you can see the floaters in the right (left on the screen) compared to my left eye.  (looks like some eyelashes got in there LOL) 

  Plus a tiny amount of cataracts in the right eye also.   Here is the cool part.  If the floaters get too bad I can have surgery where they suck out all the eye jelly and put NEW eye jelly in.  WHAT FUN that sounds like.   OH - there is some risk so . . . . . the Doc said it is as risky as it sounds so . . . take that into consideration LOL.  

The spiderweb floaters which are different won't go away but the brain will ignore them over time. 

I'm typing this with a dilated eye so . . . . . I'm only using my left hand to type to compensate.   

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As we wait for our pop up we are giving them 10 more days until we cancel reservations #1 - MEANWHILE I'm busy cooking on the griddle.  Reminds me when I was a grill cook at the truck stop on I90 and 51 outside of Madison.  Loved it (I say now) 

 We seasoned the grill day one and then cooked some bacon and burgers.  Last night stir fry  which came out GREAT - still a little sticky on the chicken but we both were super happy. 

Picked up soft noodles and plopped them onto the top of all the chicken and veggies and sprayed some water, put a cover over them to steam for 2 minutes - PERFECT 

Funny thing is we are both fascinated by the grill  LOL 

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Funny thing - SEEMS citizen Republicans (the real ones - not the whack job Trumpers)  are sort of happy so far with Biden.  OH - Fox Propaganda is all anal with hate but it seems Biden is NOT the Devil the King Baby Coward said he was.  The stock market has not dropped it seems.   OH - Biden was certainly not my first choice but at least the ignorant loonacy is gone and Scrotus is fading away and taking his crazy town Republican party with him  

OH - he was a winner in his own mind - remember he lost the House the Senate AND the Presidency.  So much winning the GOP can hardly wait to try him again.  

Well, unless he is in prison for SO MANY federal crimes is silly.   BUT - I digress. 

And don't get me started on QaRon Johnson. 

MEANWHILE Gov. Tony Evers (D) tweeted, "legalizing medical marijuana is a commonsense measure that's supported by a majority of Wisconsinites, will be good for our state's wallet, and can help Wisconsinites struggling with chronic pain or debilitating illness."

Do nothing Glenn Grothman (R) totally agreed and also said he would NEVER vote for it.  Obstructing is more his thing 

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 OK - gotta work on baseball for a bit!  hope there ere no noon games  

GREAT weekend coming up 

 

Getting ready to go Glamping

A recent study has found that woman who carry a little extra weight

 live longer than men who mention it. 

So my normal routine is thrown off a little today so I have time for a tiny blog.   

Typically I have been spending the morning working on MLB wagering, just small time stuff.  My plan THIS year was not to be a sniper but to be a machine gunner blasting away with many picks.   So far so good.  

The good thing is it's been consistent . . .so far   Money Line, Run Line and O/U  so the MAX number of bets per day COULD be 45  LOL.   Normally I'm in the 16 range.  I'm averaging 1.3 units a day.  Yea - It will all come crashing down at some point as all systems do but not before I make a little profit.  

Sadly the site where I get data says "NO GAMES TODAY".  ummmmm  what?  So I have extra time. 

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We all know the plight of my Strat-o-matic keeper league.  Covid crushed my players.  Win the World Series and maybe I can win 50 games this year.  April games are in and I'm on pace to win 41. 

HOWEVER - at the moment I have had a very good draft considering I drafted 24th and had ZERO pitching.  One of those pitchers crushed the Brewers last night    

Starting pitchers picks 

1st round pick (24th pick overall) Adrian Houser   3.32
5th round pick (120th pick overall)Trevor Rogers  1.29

14th round pick (336th pick overall) Matt Harvey  4.26 ERA

Bullpen picks

3rd round  (72th pick overall)Phil Maton   2.84

4th round (96th pick overall)Caleb Smith  2.63

7th round (168th pick overall)Dylan Floro  1.69

Not bad getting 6 pitchers from a horrible draft - SO FAR a success. 

PLUS - I traded Trout  GULP!!  I got a 2nd round pick next year and a 1st round pick in 2023 plus 2 players to eat up Trout's plate appearances. I lose Yelich next year to Free Agency after having him for 7 years.  

OH - if you are astute you will notice the lack of what my 2nd round pick was . . . . . . Linblom  LOL  LITERALLY what I thought was the best starting pitcher remaining. I REALLY needed innings, ANY innings THIS year. 

 
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Glamping was not so much different 80 years ago 

MEANWHILE - we wait for our camper .  Went on a spending spree at Camping World yesterday and purchased a 22 inch Blackstone griddle for an amazing $103 ($149.99 at Walmart) with a lifetime warranty. 

  So today as we clean the garage HOPING to get a camper soon, I'll be seasoning the heck out of the grill.  This is so important.  The Old Rock, a wonderful bar outside of Columbus got new owners a few years ago and they REALLY cleaned their grill, got all that yucky black off the grill and the burgers went way way down hill with no more flavor from the tens of thousands of burgers in the past.  SAD

We are getting all the things needed which is more than you would think.  Like art fairs - SO MANY things needed that nobody knows about or thinks about if not camping.  This is "A" list we have found to help.  Not going to have ALL of this but . . . . . .  What is a Woofum Stick?  And nothing citronella - that is old technology - Thermacells are AWESOME and new technology.  We had a couple in our cart and a woman behind us said she goes camping in deep woods Canada and LOVED them.    

A few things I don't want to get UNTIL we ACTUALLY have a camper.  Our first adventure is in 3 weeks to Wyalusing State Park.  Might have to cancel.  NOBODY has ANY pop-ups in Wisconsin.  We checked out 3 places - zero - no used and no new.  We ordered ours in November. 

We don't want to be like these guys!!     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3SFqV0hMyo

Seems Flagstaff and other places are only working 3 days a week - glue shortage and one factory burned to the ground this winter. . waiting waiting waiting.

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Ever take your keyboard and shake it upside down?  I got a whole free lunch out of it.   

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A message for Donald Trump

When one door closes and another door opens, you are probably in prison. 

have a great whatever. 

Landlocked

One of the biggest issues in little Columbus WI is we are landlocked.  The farmers that surround Columbus refuse to sell land.  We can't expand across 151 in the south because if the elevation change.  The problem is we would need a HUGE pump station for waste products. Plus that farmer was screwed over over a decade ago by a corrupt City Council and on the other side of town they just want a TON of money. 

I can understand it as I have relatives that stopped Cottage Grove from expanding until they got a TON of money and then BAM  Cottage Grove doubled in size. 

Columbus is REALLY short on housing.  People want to move here but there is no place to go.  Last month the medium price of a home sold was $316,000 and was on the market for 13 days AND sold for 105% of the asking price.  and this is a "farming" community.  Not some artsy place. But Madison people are skipping the clusterf*ck of Sun Prairie that USED to be the small town to a REAL small country town.  

I know a few homes that might go up for sale in our area very soon and they are going to get some serious cash.  Well done. More power to them.   

Of course a drawback is we really can't build a new school being landlocked.  When a city takes out a HUGE loan for schools the argument is that it will be paid for with new housing more taxes from all the new people arriving.  WELL - that ain't happening if there are no homes to buy.   I think right now there are 3 house for sale in Columbus and maybe one lot. 

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Watching the Masters I came to a realization.  I could be as good as these guys if I had a huge crowd watching me.   OH - I would be nervous but when I hit a drive that is going to go off the fairway the pros have people that the ball will hit and stop.   OH SURE!!!  My ball will fly 20 yards into the rough.  They just hit people and the ball stops 5 yards off the fairway.  

NO WONDER THEY ARE SO GOOD! 

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The Brewer starting pitchers are AWESOME so far.   Look at the last run through the rotation.

28 innings, 1 (ONE) earned run, 14 hits (10 singles)  10 walks and 29 strikeouts for a 0.32 ERA. WOW!   Council (the longest employed manager in the NL)  is still figuring out the bullpen.  Every year he flounders through the first month, EVERY year and then by month 2 he has the bullpen rotation all set.  

 

And I'm actually making some coin of baseball.  Bill James has an algorithm for starting pitchers and ranks them every day.  So when I see a top 50 pitcher going against a NON-top 50 I wager on the good guy.  Yea - betting favs is never my goal but . . . BUT . . . the problem was that starting pitchers only go 5 or 6 innings now.  The Mets have, what many say is the best rotation and the worst bullpen.  How do I overcome a bad bullpen. 

Easy - only bet the first 5 innings (which is a thing).  Seems to be working so far.   As Elweed says, I always have a great system to begin a year and then it breaks down.  YUP!   The key is to know when it no longer works and stop.  Plus with more games under the belt I can start to get more information. Who is moving up and who is moving down in the top 100. 

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Once more and more places open up from Covid expect grocery prices to drop.  Meat will be the first to drop as more people go out to restaurants.  The the prediction is herbs and spices will drop in price and then condiments, packaged bakery and dairy.

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MEANWHILE my Roger Waters concert is now going to be July 2022.  Nightwish released they amazing album Human II one year ago and they have still not performed it live. The first live performance will be a concert I will be at . . in my basement.  Nightwish go back on tour in Oslo in November but in May they have a online concert (postponed twice) for those who want to pay for tickets (me me me).  

Here is the album which I believe is the very definition of symphonic metal. I played this literally 4 times in a row when I got it.  What is cool is every album they include the pure symphonic rendition (without the metal).   

I love love love this album with is SO many different sounds.  Every song is so different. 

https://youtu.be/8ElrsawqFSo

     

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Bitcoin is pretty steady in the $60,000 range now.  Every week I have been putting more and more into the coin.   Up 77% at the moment since January 1st.

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Bowling - OK - I will admit I used to satch Bowling with the Champs with my dad - we were big bowlers.  I quit when NOT getting a strike was making me angry.  I had about a 190sh average.  I HAD a 177 average until I dislocated my thumb playing softball.  REALLY bad (pointing to complete opposite direction).  It was about 6 weeks to bowling season and my thumb was a completely different shape.    

BAM - my average went up about 13 pins.  

ANYWAY - something happened on the PRo bowling tour that has not been seen on TV for 30 years . A dude picked up the 7-10 split live on TV.  No - I was not watching, 

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Nuff said - have a GREAT but cool seek.  

Cheers  

   

  

     

GOP Obstruction and the length of baseball games

 Went golfing for the first time this year. Spent an entire 1 minute talking politics - welcome back America. 

Speaking of politics - I am 100% for Bidens infrastructure deal.  I know I know Trump promised an infrastructure deal,  he also promised to get rid of Obama Care and to build a wall and to create 25 million jobs and to eliminate 19 trillion in debt and to cut the budget by 20% and a promise that border crossings would plummet and gangs will disappear and welfare use will decrease as crime plummets and to quell illegal immigration  and to raise minimum wage to $10 and to not take vacations and to lower corporate tax rate to 15% and to bring down medicine prices by importing drugs from other countries and to triple the number of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and a few dozen other promises he never intended to keep.  

BUT - instead he ruined the GOP. 

NOW - liberals, BECAUSE of Trump, have a free ride to do whatever the hell they want.  SO - let's tax the wealthy and for the first time in 12 years (how long the GOP has been in charge) can fix America's crumbling infrastructure. 

The GOP had 12 years of running the country they boosted up large corporations and their pocketbooks instead of fixing anything. Citizens United gave corporations a LOT of power to help bring money into the GOP.  

SO - as Biden said - we have a golden opportunity to ACTUALLY fix things.  And who the hell cares what the GOP say.  Remember, they automatically will NOT vote for ANYTHING Biden wants so . . . . why even bother asking them what they want.  

The GOP is the party of obstruction. They came right out and said it.  NO COMPROMISE!  SO - why bother asking them for advice on what they want. 

OH - and NOW?  The GOP is telling corporations to stay out of politics  LOL 

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OK OK - baseball - There is a movement about shortening the time it plays to play an MLB game.  This is stupid.  Do people want to shorten the time they have sex?  NO. It's not the length (that's what she said) it's the actual game that needs fixing.  

Many older people, even announcers, complain that analytics have ruined the game and shifting is killing it.  ummmm  no.   If you look at "shifting" BABIP (Batting Average Balls In Play) the numbers are about the same. You make contact and about .298 you will get a hit.  That number has been pretty steady.  

The issue is strikeouts. They are a little boring.  Watching 3 hours of Ks is not that entertaining.  So maybe it's time for some changes that will ACTUALLY affect a game.   

1. get rid of the home plate umpire and the inconsistent and widening strike zone. We saw last night in the Brewer game the umpire changed his strike zone significantly after the 1st inning. 

2. change the ball. It's a little peppy. 

3. move the pitcher back a few inches.  Almost every pitcher on a squad can now throw a 95mph fastball.  Starting pitchers no longer have to pace themselves for 6 or 7 innings.  5 innings is good. 

4. restrict how many pitchers in the bullpen you can have.  I like the 3 batter rule.  

Some of these things might not work but doing things like putting a clock on the pitcher is silly.  restricting shifts is stupid.  Moving the base back or making it lager is intriguing. 

I LOVE the new extra inning rule where a guy is on 2nd base to begin the 10th inning ALTHOUGH!  In a Strat-o-matic game last night my bad team accidentally tied (I sort of want to lose I'm so bad) a game in the 9th.  

My team did not score in the top of the 10th  but the other team had super speedy Victor Reyes on 2nd base.  I put in a new pitcher and he throws one strike, Reyes tries to steal 3rd and my catcher throws the ball into left field - I lose.  

My pitcher, who threw 1 strike, is credited with the loss.  LOL  Sucks to be him.  

ANYWAY - meandering a bit here - I found out a guy on my SOM team lives down the road from Bill James and Bill is in his other SOM league.  

I went to BillJamesOnline and he has a thing where he rates all starting pitchers, like golf, in a top 100 and updates the list each day with a complicated algorithm.

At the moment for the Brewers

Woodward 21
Burns 43 (new on the list)
Anderson 93
Peralta 70
Houser 105

Also the BEST player defensively in the last 3 years - Brewers have two,  Wong at 2B and Cain at CF are the BEST fielding in the last 3 years. 

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nuff said 

 

            

     

Mag Landrace / goosy / S. Beloit / Bill James

 Here is an interesting thought.  

Liberals wear masks because they are "afraid" of an unseen virus but don't carry guns because they are not afraid of armed humans. 

Conservatives carry guns because they are "afraid" of armed humans but don't wear masks because they are not afraid of an unseen virus.  

Both sides believe the other are complete idiots! 

And this whole Founding Fathers never intended argument?  Well the founding fathers never intended to give up their black slaves and NEVER intended to have so many people voting.

Remember - you vote ONLY if you owned land. And remember - you only own land if you are completely paid up.  The banks own it otherwise.  

And then there is Matt Gaetz . .sigh . . . . and the only person defending him is Jim Jordan yet another Republican accused of a child sex crime.   OH - FUN FACT - Matt Gaetz was the ONLY Senator to vote against a child sex trafficking bill a few years ago.  SURPRISE!  

One thing - if I could "short" Donald Trump I would put a lot of money on it. The loser is in SO much REAL legal trouble is crazy. I bet propaganda news did not cover the new lawsuits against him that happened this week.    

Schadenfreude is large on this one.  

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Every year for the last 1,200 years Kyoto Japan has registered the bloom time for their cherry blossoms.  This year they broke a 612 year record by one day.  Earliest ever!!  

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Masks - the number of Americans that say they will never get a Covid shot keeps dropping and is now down to 17%.  In January the number was 22%.

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Gus is 75% Golden Retriever and 25% mini poodle. He has never hunted and has never actually seen a goose.  He evirsiates every stuff animale in less then an hour BUT,  not his big stuffed goosy which he carries around and chews on gently until is soggy and gross. 

BTW - on ABC on Thursdays (or Tuesday hmmmm) is a show called Pooch Perfect. A reality dog grooming show that if you like dogs it's pretty good.  Plus a groomer from Fitchburg is competing!  

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I have all this nice equipment and then I can do this straight out of my iPhone  sigh.  

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If traveling to South Beloit may I suggest

While 90% of all legal cannabis are equal a few strains stand out.  If S Beloit has something special I'll mention it.      

In my expert opinion S Beloit offers a strain called "Mag Landrace".  Mag Landrace is a cannabis strain that has been isolated from all other cannabis strains and is from Iran. The unique alterations of a "landrace" are caused by its environment and isolation from other populations of species" 

 The seeds were brought to Illinois and is one of my favorite indicas (in da couch). Great for chronic pain and you will get couch locked for hours.  Great for watching late night baseball.  Relaxed, euphoric and sleepy are the effects  

Another really good goody they have at the moment is called Rollins (like Henry Rollins). Need to clean the garage? dust the entire house? Going to a party?  Rollins!  Seriously - a great daytime herb for getting things done. A sativa strain that will boost your energy and have you talking loud.  Happy, uplifted, creative, euphoric and energized.   

I'll have more reviews when they pop up. 

BTW - NY State is now legal to buy and grow.  

The Swiss government announced details of a draft plan to make marijuana legally available under a pilot program.

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According to Bill James.

I found out yesterday that one of the guys in my Strat-o-Matic league is in a league with Bill James.  Bill is saying he believes the Brewers will win 100 games this year.  I'm not THAT sure but PECOTA says 89 games and 1st place.  

Reason Bill says 100 is Woodard and Burns pitching (were they not in All the President's Men?), one of the best, if not THE best, bullpen in the majors and Yelich. 

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Seems like a saturday to me. Maybe because last night was Friday date night!  

Cheers!!!