Thursday, August 09, 2007

Unintentionally blessing someone

When we moved to Monroe, we had our first experience with garbage- picking. We inherited a bunch of unusable stuff from the previous occupants that we put out each week at the curb. Some nights we would watch out the windows with the lights off as the crews swept the neighborhood looking for salvageable items. We had never seen anything like it.

Yesterday was garbage day and I unintentionally blessed someone with a wheelbarrow. My yard waste bags were rained on and were near collapse so I loaded them into the wheelbarrow as a courtesy to the yard waste collection guys. Someone took the wheelbarrow, and carefully placed the bags on the grass. It had not occurred to me that someone would even comprehend doing that, but so be it. I'm still shaking my head.

To whomever has my wheelbarrow, enjoy it. It served me well.

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Our Long National Nightmare is Over

Barry Bonds' death march to the home run record is officially over, and now we can all go back to ignoring the woeful San Francisco Giants team. Congratulations to Barry, who evidently took the "better living through chemistry" credo to new heights (and widths of his head) as he pursued Hank Aaron's record.

This record will forever be tainted because it happened in the Steroid Era of baseball, when the owners, media, commissioner and fans ignored the obvious use of performance enhancing drugs. Baseball needed excitement following the 1994 strike and World Series cancellation, and juiced-up players provided that spark. Suddenly, the league seems to have gotten religion about this and is trying to crack down on steroid use, long after the horse has left the barn.

Give Barry his props. He is the greatest of the steroid era.