A bunch of totally unrelated stuff...
...I'm just throwing things out there hoping something will stick!

When economics combines with the weather...Here on the Oregon Coast, sunshine can be a fleeting thing...here for a day, half a day...sometimes two or three days, but the weather changes down here so fast. Yesterday, it was shirtsleeve weather on the coast. Which I took full advantage of...a folding chair, my guitar, a bottle of Pepsi and the ocean beach. Ooh yeah. Today, however, a different story; shades of gray in the atmosphere. Well, I've told myself that since gas prices are so outrageous, I've gotta "go nowhere" a couple days a week. And with the gray skies overhead, today was the day I stayed planted right here on the ol' homestead.

So far, my prognostication is correct, right down the line...and that is, that the Seattle Mariners will end up with a record at or very near .500. They're better than they were last year, but not all that much better. And, with last night's loss, the M's fell back to 18-18. Richie Sexson, the tall first baseman who can hit 'em a country mile, can't hit this year. My theory? He's tall (over 6'4" anyway), which means his strike zone is bigger than yer average player. Hey, I've had so much practice making excuses for myself that I'm now making 'em for others.

The world's best musician that you'll probably never hear...His name is BRIAN AUGER. He's a veteran keyboard player from England, who's been around since the '60s. He's one of those artists who was popular everywhere but in the U.S., tho he has a following here. If you like to listen to jazz-rock, with vocals, punctuated by some of the best Hammond organ playing that's ever existed, you gotta hear him. First there was Brian Auger and the Trinity, then Brian Auger's Oblivion Express, and he's still making new music. His entire catalog is being reissued. He has not recorded a single bad song. www.brianauger.com is where to go. No, I'm not on his payroll. I just like to turn people on to music they may have missed.

My two-inch finch are alive and well...You might remember I posted about my finch, and how one female attacked another and how I had to get another cage for the victimized little bird. Well, turns out one of her eyes was poked out, and she still has bald spots where her head and shoulder feathers used to be. But, she's alive and well, and can hop from perch to perch in spite of her having only one good eye. I put a male bird in with her, and he takes good care of her. Those finch are tough little birds. They've gotta be. I saw finch all the time up in North Idaho, in the coldest of winter weather. And there's lots of wild finch here in Oregon as well.

If you're ever sending money abroad...A lot of people use Western Union, and I have a few times as well. But, for about half the cost, you can go to the nearest MoneyGram office and send money anywhere in the world. I know, because I sent some cash abroad, and I was informed that the money I sent had indeed reached its destination. I'm buying some Beatles records from a guy in Australia. My bank uses MoneyGram; I don't know if they're only in banks, or if there are some in 'their own' locations, but if you gotta send cash abroad, you might as well save yerself a little bread.

Yep, they do it down here, too...I'm talking about traffic stings. Now, you'd think that would be some kind of big-city phenomenon, but as George Gershwin once wrote, "it ain't necessarily so". (from the musical 'Porgy and Bess'...so I do have a little culture!). Anyway, down here on the remote South Coast of Oregon, city cops conducted one of those ever-so-famous crosswalk stings, where a decoy takes one step into the street, and a motorist, 50 feet away from him on the other side of the street is expected to stop. Bah. I've already written the local paper down here saying that "traffic stings are glorified revenue drives". And the cops are also conducting "seatbelt stings", since Oregon is a mandatory-seatbelt non-wearing primary offense state. But, I now wear my seatbelt all the time. Makes me feel like an Oregonian. Although I'm not recycling much yet.

While typing the above paragraph, I thot of something else...and this is something that really, really "dates" me. Remember those annoying anti-litter commercials back in the 60's, featuring a little girl named "Susan Spotless"? She would sing, "please, please, don't be a litterbug, 'cos every litter bit hurts." That's back when the world was friendly. Nowadays, people are encouraged to report others who are littering, and offenders get fined an amount that's roughly equal to half a year's house payments. Ouch!
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Well, that's it. Time now to focus my attention on tonite's game. Miguel Battista, one of the M's new pitchers, has given up the lead and now the bases are loaded. How much are these guys making again? Certainly more than enough to pay a littering fine!