i hate losing more than i love winning...

 so, yesterday was one of those days where all it took was just one loss and it fucked up the whole damn day.

the New York Rangers lost to Washington, 5-4. i figured that was going to happen. hell, i'm just hapy they showed some life after getting down 3-0.

the USMNT defeated Northern Ireland, 2-1 yesterday. that was the USA's first win on European soil in years. that made me happy.

the USMNT Under 23's lost to Honduras, 2-1 yesterday. that means they will miss the Olympics yet again. i think i am still pissed at this loss.

the Yankees lost yesterday to the Phillies, 6-2. they lost to the Tigers today, 5-2. thank god, that is the last spring training game. Thursday will be Opening Day, weather permitting of course.

i did watch some of the college basketball games yesterday...

VICE was excellent last night.

Batwoman was really good last night.

the finale of The Luminaries was good last night.

Shameless was great last night. only two more episodes remain.

City on a Hill was really good last night. this looks like it is going to be another great season of the show.

enjoy some music:

and now some of this and that:

on the DVR tonight will be Vice News Tonight, Monday Night Raw and The Voice.

i did listen to episode 336 of Notsam Wrestling this morning. you can find that by going here:

https://omny.fm/shows/notsam-wrestling/stone-cold-notsam-wrestling-336

i did take mom to her appointment today with her foot doctor. i think this will be the last time she will see him since he's retiring. i have no clue who mom is going to use next. there aren't very many anywhere near us. we had to wait as we got there early and they were having lunch. i believe one of the drug reps brought in some food.

nearly saw a wreck on the way home on the freeway. nothing good comes from big trucks and elderly drivers. thankfully, there were no cops around.

i believe i may have a new muse. i haven't been happy with my poems here lately. i came across this one woman on MeWe that is striking as hell. i started chatting her up and asked if i could write about her. she said yes and my imagination got wet. so, i wrote the first of what will be many poems (hopefully) this morning. 

so, tomorrow around this time i will be getting my first vaccine shot. i am looking forward to it. 

i hope everyone had a great weekend.

until tomorrow kids...

fight the power.

fuck racism.

fuck hatred.

fuck the police.

black lives matter.

stay healthy.

wash your fucking hands.

wear your mask.

puedes imaginar la alegría que me da una mujer hermosa

be well. be creative. be cool. be quick to send me CASH, panties, hate mail, love letters, broken promises and dirty pennies from heaven.

peace and chicken grease...

music:

Ashley Monroe - Weed Instead of Roses

Corrina Repp - Lightest Light

Gin Wigmore - Kill of the Night

Norah Jones - I've Got To See You Again

"My mom used to say that Greek Easter was later because then you get stuff cheaper." - Amy Sedaris

and your whatever the fuck i wanted you to see video of the day:

sometimes you just get numb to it all...

i was born in 1976. so, growing up in the 80's and being a big basketball fan, i watched the Big East conference religiously. so, when i woke up this morning and saw that John Thompson, the legendary coach from Georgetown had died, i was crushed. when i played basketball in junior high, those Georgetown teams and the way they played defense was one of the models we used for our team. we never lost a game by the way. yet another damn death in the last few days. rest in peace coach.

WWE Payback was excellent last night. many title changes and over at 9:30 in the evening. fucking perfect.

Big Brother was good last night.

Lovecraft Country was great last night.

The Vow was very good last night.

Last Week Tonight was BRILLIANT as usual.

Love Fraud was pretty good last night.

We Hunt Together was good last night.

the Yankees won both games of the doubleheader yesterday against the Mets, both in extra innings. the first game was totally fucking unexpected, as the Yankees were down 7-2 going into the bottom of the 7th. amazingly, they tied the game and won it in the 8th, 8-7. Deivi Garcia made his MLB debut in Game 2 and didn't disappoint. i'm really hoping the Yankees keep him in the rotation. Gary Sanchez hit a pinch hit grand slam in the 8th inning last night and the Yankees won 5-2. they take that 3 game winning streak into a series tonight at home against Tampa. hopefully, they keep it going.

enjoy some music:

and now some of this and that:

on the DVR tonight will be Vice News Tonight and Axios. i'll be watching Monday Night Raw for most of the evening.

i did listen to episode 306 of Notsam Wrestling this morning. you can find that by going here:
https://omny.fm/shows/notsam-wrestling/pat-mcafee-payback-notsam-wrestling-306

here are your NBA highlights from last night:

i hope everyone had a great weekend.

i'm not sure when i will be on here tomorrow. i'm hoping to actually get some sleep before the fucking sun comes up. if that actually happens, i might be on here in the early afternoon.

until tomorrow kids...

fight the power.

fuck racism.

fuck hatred.

fuck the police.

black lives matter.

stay healthy.

wash your fucking hands.

wear your mask.

hay una oscuridad que me mata lentamente

be well. be creative. be cool. be quick to send me CASH, panties, hate mail, love letters, broken promises and dirty pennies from heaven.

peace and chicken grease...

music:

The Weeknd - Blinding Lights
H.E.R. - I Can't Breathe
Gin Wigmore - Kill of the Night
Sade - No Ordinary Love
Van Morrison - Bring It On Home To Me

"You're either part of the solution or you're part of the problem." - Eldridge Cleaver

and your whatever the fuck i wanted you to see video of the day:

the perks of being lazy

i was somewhat amazed this morning when i woke up. i actually got almost 7 hours of sleep last night. it still feels somewhat weird to wake up refreshed.

we're in the midst of a warm up here in Ohio. might even hit 60 degrees in a few days. of course, in true Ohio tradition, there is a chance of snow on the weekend.

thankfully, i had a much better Sunday picking games than i did the week before. to go from only 5 wins to sitting on 12 going into tonight's game is quite the jump. and tonight is a huge game. i am trailing in both of my fantasy matches but i have 4 players going tonight, including both quarterbacks. i really hope the game is a shootout as i really need the points.

other than that, it will be the usual busy Monday night on tv. the New York Rangers are at home against Winnipeg. it would be nice to see them start rolling here soon. The Voice is down to the final 6. i have no clue who is going to win. just 2 weeks left for this season. Monday Night Raw should be an interesting one. been hearing rumors all day of people showing up for tonight's show. if any of them are true, it could be a memorable evening.

i found out today my mother has a fractured rib. thankfully it's non-displaced. only thing that will heal it is time. so, it's more or less a pain management issue. i've suggested to her to start drinking whiskey. always helped me over the years.

i nearly shit today when i saw the Dayton Flyers were ranked in the AP top 25 for the first time in 4 years. they start on a nice run of games they should win on Wednesday. it would be nice to see they aren't satisfied with just being ranked but actually want to destroy other teams.

my other holy shit moment of the day was when the New York Yankees announced they traded Chris Stewart to the Pirates for a player to be named later. goodbye to the human white flag. thank god.

Homeland was really good last night. but, Masters of Sex won the night in my eyes. their best episode in some time. really, really good. Total Divas really made me laugh. like i needed more of a reason to not like John Cena... and it's good to see the divas really are clueless at times.

thankfully, the mountain of trash i put out yesterday didn't get scattered around by the wind last night. and it was all picked up this morning. probably a good 100 lbs. of shit gone for good.

looks like the first of the gifts i ordered should be arriving here soon. can't wait to hear the bitching as i believe i had them all sent to the po box. good times.

that's all for me today. tune in tomorrow as i come up with yet another reason why i didn't spend the afternoon writing instead of looking at porn.

music:

Imagine Dragons - Night Visions
The Black Keys - El Camino
Jason Isbell - Southeastern
Rolling Stones - Let It Bleed
Gin Wigmore - Gravel & Wine

"Some people say my humor focuses too much on stereotypes. It doesn't. It focuses on facts." - Sarah Silverman

seeing the sun again

amazing what a little sunshine can do. i shouldn't be in a good mood today, yet amazingly i am. and with the sun out, some more work was able to get done on the barns. it's actually starting to look like a farm again.

the New York Rangers played pretty good last night, but good doesn't equal wins. a 2-1 loss that didn't surprise me much given the number of injuries the team has. more importantly, the injured are the 3 best players on the team. i'd hate to see where this team would be if Brad Richards didn't start off the season hot. one more game on the road trip from hell before the home opener.

The Big Bang Theory was pretty damn funny last night. i did get a good laugh from the song near the end of the episode.

i did watch plenty of that shitty NFL game last night. i'm down by 26 points in one fantasy league now. needless to say i wasn't very pleased.

i was happy to see the Red Sox lost.

i had a good laugh watching the 1 kitten that has survived rolling around in the sunshine today. mind you, it's still well below normal temperature wise. and it was on concrete. not sure if the cats like that we are having the place fixed up or not. they seem to enjoy the mess.

a big sports weekend coming up. it's that time of year again where i venture out into public for college basketball. that's where i'll be tomorrow afternoon for the University of Dayton's first exhibition game of the season. they usually draw around 10,000 or more fans for each game. given my hatred of people, that tends to get interesting. also, tomorrow Manchester United plays in the morning and Ohio State plays in the evening. hopefully, 3 victory beers.

that's all for today. hope everyone has a great weekend. i'll try to find a few minutes between games tomorrow to give some updates. and given that we only had 3 pieces of mail in the box today, i'm guessing tomorrow or Monday it will be full. hopefully, as i'm waiting on a few things.

be well, take it easy, and if it's easy, take it again.

music:

Hayes Carll - KMAG YOYO (& other American stories)
The Charlie Daniels Band - A Decade of Hits
Nine Inch Nails - Hesitation Marks (Deluxe Edition)
Gin Wigmore - Gravel & Wine
Valerie June - Pushin' Against a Stone

"The chief enemy of creativity is 'good' sense." - Pablo Picasso

just another day in the 937

i just love waking up before the crack of dawn and watch Manchester United lose. just fucking great. i did figure this would be one of the tougher games of the pre-season tour. they played a side that is in mid-season form and it showed in the second half. a 3-2 loss. second loss of the tour. i'm sure a good number of fans are jumping off bridges. they tend to forget the number of times the team struggled in the pre-season under Sir Alex. that being said, i do hope Moyes gets some fresh blood on the team soon. they need it badly.

it was a pretty dense fog this morning. and the sun burned that off and has created quite the weather show this afternoon. a blazing sun to hail and thunder to more blazing sun. felt bad for the tree trimmers the power company sent out here. the hail came as they were trimming back some branches.

i didn't watch much of the Yankees last night and apparently i didn't miss much. they only had 3 hits in yet another loss. and then the news this morning that they are on the verge of bringing back Alfonso Soriano. sure, why not. he's 37 and on the downside of his career. he'll fit in great with all the other retreads on the team. part of me wishes they would tank the season and blow up the team. the other part of me wishes The Boss was still alive and running the show. this shit wouldn't have happened like this this season.

Monday Night Raw was excellent once again. when you have a final hour dominated by CM Punk and Daniel Bryan you can't go wrong. always funny to see guys wrestling against each other in 2013 (Bryan vs. Cesaro) when you can remember the same match around 2004 in ROH (Danielson vs. Castagnoli). i give the WWE credit though, make the last hour great and you tend to forget if you were bored or not in the first two hours.

i figure tonight i will give my usual glance to the Yankees until they piss me off and then i'll turn to Deadliest Catch for the rest of the evening.

i did a little shopping on Amazon.com today. the usual mix of music that should never go together: metal, techno and folk. but always nice when you can get 12 CD's at around $7 each.

for those of you keeping score, out of the 16 poems i sent out on July 7th, 8 of them have been accepted and/or published. i tend to look at these stats like a baseball batting average. and anytime i can bat .500 i know i'm doing pretty damn good.

that's all for today. i figure i better sign off before the internet goes out AGAIN.

music:

Tool - Undertow
Miles Davis - Ballads & Blues
Gin Wigmore - Gravel & Wine

"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last." - Winston Churchill

what happens when you can't find the pleasure in the pain

i don't know if it was because i slept wrong or not enough or did something i completely don't remember, but my back and my left ankle have been in tremendous pain today. this is always fun when you don't have anything in the house for the pain other than alcohol. and being trashed by 2 in the afternoon is something i would like to hold off on until i have lost all hope. and believe it or not, i'm not there yet.

the Yankees must have decided winning 1 game was enough last night as they completely mailed in the second game of the doubleheader. that did free up plenty of time for me to watch hockey. more on that later. the Yankees start a series with Tampa tonight which could go a long way in determining if they will still be in shouting distance of first place in the division or one spot from the basement of the division. as you can tell, this season is destroying my nerves.

the hockey game last night reminded me of hockey when i was growing up. 6-5 win in overtime for Chicago. this series has seven games written all over it.

and speaking of game 7, the last game of the NBA season is tonight. i might pay a little more attention to it than i normally do. but not much. and that's because...

Wilfred comes back on FX tonight. one of the few shows that makes me laugh out loud literally.

quick critter update: 1 more raccoon caught. i believe that is all of them. still no sign of the skunk or the groundhog. i figure they either have ran away or the nursing coyote in the back of the property wanted a snack or two.

the Manchester United rumors are heating up. anything i read i take with a grain of salt until i read it on the official website. i'm not exactly thrilled how the schedule for next season starts out. Moyes better have the team firing from the start. many tough fixtures in the beginning. get those out of the way in good shape and another title could be coming.

a quick shout out to the muse. i do hope stress isn't beating you down today.

i did figure out what poems will be going where tomorrow. i figured since i have had a pretty damn good week in the poetry world, i would send them out on a Friday. it's something i normally don't do, but since this has been a superstition busting week, i figured i might as well continue that trend.

i hope this finds everyone well. until tomorrow...

music today:

Gin Wigmore - Gravel & Wine
Guided By Voices - English Little League
The xx - Coexist
Daft Punk - Random Access Memories

"I like dark places." - James Gandolfini (Sept. 18, 1961 - June 19, 2013)

trying to turn a gloomy day into a productive one

had a little thunder this morning and some fog. add to that a persistent drizzle that sometimes became a pouring rain. just a gloomy day to say the least. toss on top of that that my mother is feeling sicker than shit... you can just imagine the mood in this house at the moment.

a quick raccoon update: no new hat. the little fucker made it down from the tree while i was watching the hockey game last night. it was up in the tree for nearly 5 hours. during the intermission between the 3rd period and the first overtime, i caught the little fucker and its other raccoon buddy enjoying a bird feeder meant to keep out squirrels. i chased them both off. hopefully the rain does that job today.

i did send out some poems today. i had a quick change of thought this morning and decided to send out to a few different places than i originally thought. i guess in the coming days we'll see if my gut has shit for brains or not.

i sent out 3 poems each to Dead Snakes and Pyrokinection. 5 poems went to BoySlut. when i hear back from these places i'll pass along the verdicts here.

i found myself flipping between the hockey game and the Discovery Channel most of the night. i laugh at how interested i am in science now at 37, given that i hated it growing up. i imagine that's probably due to all the shitty teachers i had on the subject. i can think of 2 that i actually enjoyed. that's pretty sad given all the years of science class i had. oh the joys of public education. amazingly, i still graduated with honors. i suppose it helped that i refused to simply learn what they wanted me to know.

the hockey game was great. overtime hockey in the playoffs is the best. i could have watched 4 or 5 of them last night. had to settle for 2. i'm shocked at how Boston has absolutely beaten the dog shit out of Pittsburgh.

i figure tonight i will bounce between some hockey and the start of the NBA Finals. and then the Yankees come on at 10. so, i figure i'll be hitting the bed around 3 or so in the morning, unless there are some blowouts. then i might actually get to bed at a "regular" time.

one thing i did notice messing around with that raccoon yesterday was i have some dead limbs to cut down on the tree it went up. i'm amazed it's still standing after getting hit with lightning a few years ago. i guess when it gets dry again i'll break out the saw.

that's pretty much all. here's hoping i don't get whatever my mother has. getting sick in the summer months totally fucking sucks.

peace and chicken grease.

music today:

Beth Hart & Joe Bonamassa - See Saw
Charles Bradley - Victim of Love
Gin Wigmore - Gravel & Wine

"Love dies only when growth stops." - Pearl S. Buck