Basketball and bloging

The winning shot! Hampden freshman shoots final second basket! - click to enlarge
Photo: Maine Public Broadcasting via Facebook

  The past week has been Tournament Week here in Maine, the cities of Bangor, Augusta and Portland have been busy places.  I'll just talk about the Bangor part of things.  Maine is split into two "divisions", East and West; the "big" schools, class A, play in Augusta.  The East Class B, C, and D schools play in Bangor, The Mecca, and the West B, C and D schools play in Portland.
  The Mecca is a nickname for the Bangor Auditorium, and tournaments have been played in the present building since 1954-55, this is the final year - a new facility opens next summer, games have been in Bangor since the end of WWII, or before.  It's history, it's fun and it's basketball at it's finest.
  My favorites are the C and D schools, those with less than 250 students, oh the fun it is to watch those games, or listen on the radio; I've never been in person, even though I've planned on it for 25 years!
  Next week the State Championships will be played, all in Augusta it's considered more central for some reason.  Bangor is actually more in the center since the geographical center is near Dover-Foxcroft which is 30 miles away.  Augusta is center because it's the Capital and because most of the population lives south of there - it's the big city folks against the "people in the sticks"!  I love being in the sticks.
  The school teams in Maine are named for a large variety of animals, raptor birds, and groups of people, or in one case a single person (the Red Eddies or Edward Little in Auburn).  There are some names that a few people find objectionable, the Witches, Redskins, Warriors, and Crusaders; I'm not dis-liking any of them, it's a matter of acceptance for me.
  My problem is use of the word "Lady" as in Lady Witches or Lady Bears!  There are female and male bears, yes.  I thought we had pretty much reached equality in Maine high school sports, girls are allowed to wrestle or play baseball (in some schools is necessary), so why do some schools continue the use of the word "lady"?  Even my favorite college team are the Lady Bears which are part of the Baylor Bears.  It's kind of easy to know it's a girls game, they introduce the players and if names like Emily, Suzy or Rachel are used it's probably a girls game.  On the radio it's the same.  The only confusion might be if the players are named Taylor, Madison, Jordan, Yvon/Yvonne or Francis/Frances - then it might be hard to tell on the radio.
   I find the use of "lady" to be objectionable - maybe that a little strong - but un-necessary for sure.  Just my opinion.

  Now we'll write about blogs.  I have been doing this for nearly four years, it started in May of 2009 and it's been daily except when I was hospitalized or traveling - not too many missed days.  My problem now is with loading photos, identifying photos and general photo bull crap. 
  In the "old days" I could just show photos from my own computer but now I load photos from my computer - after I've found and identified them, to www.picasaweb.com which along with blogspot is a part of Google.  This week picasaweb has made it even more difficult to upload photos by adding an extra step or two, and making it difficult, period.
  In short, it's getting to be a bit of a pain in the ass!  I intend, for now, to continue but to be honest it is getting tiresome with all of the extra steps - you may find more days without photos, for instance, or maybe a few more days missed (painful to even think about).  We will see.

Telephones, Time and Temper among other things

  It is my opinion that the time to call on the telephone, emergencies excluded, should be limited to business hours, or before 6:00PM.  That's just an opinion, not a law.
  Here in our humble home area doctors and other who are seen by appointment have a habit (assume habits are bad) of calling to remind you of an appointment.  First:  Are we really dumb enough to forget written information.  Second: Aren't we old enough to remember to read what we wrote.  Third: If it's okay for them to call why can't it be done during business hours.
  Last night I was watching the national news, starts at 6:30PM, and was interested in what was being talked about.  My wife was asleep.  The phone rang, I answered, no one said a word.  After a delay a voice reminded my wife of an appointment, and please press one if you validate the appointment.  This was on Friday night, the appointment is Tuesday - so, you see, they do trust us to remember for a limited time.  Now, if it's important to call after hours, shouldn't it be at the very least a "live" person who places the call and not a "robot"?

  Cell phones are important, we even have one at our advanced age.  Our carrier is Verizon, which seems to be the only one with a plan for "seniors".  Both U S Cellular and AT&T Wireless have an office, or multiple offices in the Bangor area.
  One of the companies has, at least locally, a HUGE advertising budget, US Cellular, has covered city buses 100 percent with ads, they were using a mobile billboard until it was declared illegal (Maine has a strict Billboard Law).  The other two advertise sporadically on TV or print ads.
  My opinion is that, not considering the "senior" plan, there isn't a whole lot of difference between the three of them.  You make calls, you pay for a pre-set number of minutes - end of discussion.  I don't text or browse the 'net on a phone, the keys are way to small for that, and I don't really know how to text anyway, so that's not a part of my discussion.

Looking up? Are you?

The Croc isn't real, the child is, let me explain.    funpub.net photo

  You see, the Governor of Maine, Paul E. LePlague er LePage thinks that people in other states look down on students entering college in other states.  He based his assumption on his personal experience.  For starters, he went to college in Maine.  For the rest, just because people in other states looked down at him, well, a lot of us here in Maine look down at him too.  The guy is laughable to say the least.  Two more years and that guy will be ready to have the proverbial fork stuck in.  Now the photo; the baby represents LePlague, the Croc represents the rest of us.  Actually the teeth may be his hangers-on.

Photo by Maine Forest Rangers, August 6, 2012

  Forest Rangers are fighting a fire at the top of Big Spencer Mountain in Piscataquis County, Maine.  The main tool being used are two helicopters, they carry large buckets of water from lower elevations, the nearest lake is three miles away.  Those buildings are radio repeater stations, those are one way radio/television and other services are delivered to rural or remote areas.
  The Maine Forest Service deserves a lot of credit for the jobs that they do, no the least of which  is fire fighting.  They also manage public lands, forestry practices, and make sure loggers only cut what they should.  Rangers also catch "log poachers" who cut logs where they shouldn't.  Rangers are foresters who also carry a badge, they have graduated from the Maine Police Academy along with the police and game wardens.  Hats off to the Maine Forest Service.

Don't believe it for a minute

Fall 2010, Bog Road, Hermon, Maine - click to enlarge      Photo by Linda Grant

  The fall photo is not a mistake, it's a wish and we can't wait!  It is almost too hot to walk even at 3AM, and the humidity is horrible.  Come on Fall and a breath of fresh air.
  I see that the Mars Rover just landed and I am wondering why our government is wasting so much money doing things like that.  It's about 100 degrees in the shade or 10 below at night in some parts of the dusty planet, and other places it's over 600 degrees - want to live there?  The Federal Government through NASA has wasted billions of dollars on this useless crap.  I wish I could use stronger language, I wish the people could vote on things like this.
  The Red Sox won yesterday, it must have broken their hearts.  They have been fighting so hard for that last place, the cellar, and now with that win they're still a half game out of last.  Oh! The sorrow!

Dixmont, Maine - 2010 click to enlarge    Photo by Linda Grant

Too many to choose from

  The photo machine isn't working at the moment, so as a result, it's just words.
  I was trying to watch the Olympics yesterday and once I/we had located all six or seven channels we were off and running, or maybe just off.
  The first channel has what I think the Olympic Committee calls "handball".  It's not handball as you may know it, there were teams from Kazakhstan and Slovenia on a court designed like a small hockey rink with soccer goals (short ones).  Each team had maybe six people who would throw the small basketball back and forth.  Every once in a while one player would jump in the air and throw the ball in the goal.  Score one for a weird sport.
  The next channel had an overly dressed man in a tophat.  He was from Norway and was riding a horse with a short tail.  He was riding the horse around the edge of a square drawn in the dirt.  How thrilling is that?  My heart rate increased so much I had to turn it off.
   Next was a real soccer match, but between Uzbekistan and Morraco so how much interest does that generate.  About as much as the water polo on the next channel.
  There was a bicycle race, the womens main road race, so NBC in its infinate wisdom showed us the middle part only.  Go figure.
  And phooey too.

Well there is SOME good news

Green enough and meow!

  The good news:
1)  The 'project' is in the recycle bin, it was beyound fixing.  I will start another.
2)  Hollie is moved in and we didn't work over there yesterday.
3)  I was able to walk six miles plus.

  And the opinion.  I enjoy watching sports on television, in particular baseball and basketball.  I also watch golf when those other two aren't on.  We have cable TV because I like to watch sports.  I very often mute the sound, you don't need sound on to watch most sports.
  Yesterday I watched some of the Tour de France (I like to see Frances country side), I watched the Yankees play the Chicago White Sox on TBS - I had to sound on some of the time, the announcer was tolerable, at least the non-athlete sports guy.
  I watched the golf at The National after the ball game, mostly with the sound muted.  The "former players" on any channel that broadcasts golf are intolerable.  Most of them don't speak American English, with my hearing loss any Brit/Aussie accent is not understandable.  They are so opiononated that it will make me want to puke.  "he should have moved his feet to the right", "that's sand in the sand trap", "he should have placed the tee two milimeters to the left".  If they are so damned good, why aren't they the ones making all of the money?
  Okay I've said my piece.