Moods, baseball, and cribbing from Craig

NLCS starts Sunday. Go Milwaukee.

For the ten days or so since I returned from California, I've been kind of low-grade depressed. Not what I'd term a full-fledged Black Hole Episode, but enough to keep me slightly dazed and more than slightly unfocused and foggy.

It's not surprising when I think about it. I mean, I'd just spent a month immersed in my dad's slip into dementia and that's pretty depressing (and exhausting). I expect even someone not afflicted with fucked-up brain chemistry would come out of those weeks feeling a bit bummed out. Unfortunately, with me even a depression with a solid outside cause takes effort to climb out of and I'm not there yet. I'm actually counting myself lucky to only be low-grade depressed given the circumstance. Still, it's annoying.

Anyway, this moodiness is poorly timed in that October should be a time to thoroughly enjoy the baseball postseason, but instead I've been only moderately enjoying it, skipping a few games and finding my attention wander when watching others. Which is too bad given how some of the series have gone so far. The Milwaukee/San Diego NLDS was especially good, four games that were super close and hinged on weirdness and odd pitching moves, and even though I've not seen most of it, the still-going ALDS between the White Sox and Guardians has been goofily engaging. Going forward I'm rooting for Milwaukee, as they've been the closest thing to a Whitey Herzog-style team as we've seen in a very long time, plus the Dodgers have had their glory already. I suppose in the American League I'm mildly in favor of whoever wins tomorrow between Cleveland and Chicago since one of my Spuds teammates is from Ohio and another from Chicago, so one of them will be happy. Plus, the Rays are, I don't know, not that fun? I mean, they're super good, they're definitely the best of the three remaining AL squads and on paper they should wipe the floor with whomever they get for the ALCS, but it's hard to care about them. Maybe because they're Florida Men.

Still on the baseball front, we're a couple months away from another clash between players and ownership. When the current collective bargaining agreement between the players' union and ownership expires after the World Series, almost everyone paying attention expects owners to instigate a work stoppage via a player lockout. Meanwhile, the Commissioner's Office as a mouthpiece for the owners is negotiating in public, presumably trying to get the baseball fan base on ownership's side before the arguing hits full force, or maybe just because Commissioner Rob Manfred is an idiot. Basically, the owners want to institute a salary cap, something they've been gunning for since Bud Selig's coup d'etat in 1992. They're not going to get it, they've never made a persuasive case for it, and with teams being sold for billions—the Angels, one of the most hapless franchises around, just sold for $4 billion, the Rays with their iffy market and shitty stadium for nearly $2B—it's laughable when teams cry poor. But they're throwing these other things into the conversation to try and get support for their side and/or distract from their desire to facilitate their greed with binding documentation.

The latest "proposal" to the union contained this:

MLB has proposed returning to a 154-game Regular Season, best-of-seven Division Series, and opponent selection in the Wild Card and Division Series.

Starting in 2029, shortening the season to a 154-game schedule would create a standard weekly off day benefiting player health, and it would allow the addition of up to 8 more Postseason games by moving to a best-of-seven Division Series format.

Beginning in 2027, higher-seeded clubs in the Wild Card and Division Series would select their opponents.

Doesn't matter if these are popular ideas or not as they're not suggested in isolation, they're in a larger proposal that includes the salary cap poison pill. So the whole thing is a non-starter. Nevertheless, I have thoughts on them:

• The season schedule has been at 162 games since the dawn of expansion in 1961/62, when it changed from 154 to 162. Why? Fairness. Pre-expansion, the leagues were comprised of eight teams each and every team played every other team in the league 22 times per year: 22 × 7 opponents = 154 games. Then the leagues expanded to ten teams each and 154 didn't work anymore because every team now had nine opponents; 154 ÷ 9 = 17.111. Just going to 17 (153 games total) was out because you wanted an even number for evenly divided home and away games. 18 games per opponent works, though: 18 × 9 = 162. (The alternative was to go the other way to 16, but that lopped the schedule down to 144 and nobody wanted less baseball then). The next round of expansion in 1969, when leagues went to 12 teams divided into two divisions of 6, mathematically fit the 162 game norm: teams played 18 games vs. each division opponent, 12 vs. the other six teams (18 × 5 = 90, 12 × 6 = 72, 90 + 72 = 162). The next expansions (to 14 teams divided into 2 divs of 7) muddied things a little bit, but 162 still fit even if the balance was less than ideal: (13 × 6 = 78, 12 × 7 = 84, 78 + 84 = 162). But then we got Interleague Play in 1997, which threw fairness out the window. Teams no longer played identical schedules. By then, 162 games was seen as somehow sacrosanct even though the whole reason it came to be was to maintain scheduling parity.

  The schedule is a mess right now; teams play an odd number against their intradivision opponents and an extra game against some teams but not others. I'm all for cleaning it up and restoring parity, that's more important than the total number of games, but I have no faith in the powers-that-be to do it.

  Now we have two leagues split into six divisions of five and everyone plays everyone. We could have near-parity, but we don't because of greed surrounding "rivalry" series; instead of a near-fair schedule of 162 games—14 vs. 4 divisional opponents, 6 vs. the other 10 same-league teams, 3 vs. 14 teams in the other league, 4 vs. the "rival" opposite-league team—we have an unfair schedule to accommodate extra games for Mets/Yankees, Cubs/White Sox, and so on. If we were to return to a 154-game slate, the cleanest way would be 12 × 4 intradivision teams, 6 × 10 same-league teams, 4 × the "rival" opposite-league team, and 3 × the other 14 opposite-league teams. But you know that's not how it would go, they'd want to keep all six "rivalry" games and screw it up. Unless they went to 156 games, which would work even though it's not parity when the Red Sox get three extra games against Atlanta but the Rays get their three extras against the Marlins (or whichever teams are strong/weak in a given year). 

  Then there's the specter of further expansion—Manfred has stated this as a goal, and if MLB goes from 30 to 32 teams, how's that going to work? I know how I'd do it, but that just means Manfred and company would do something else. (I'd split 16-team leagues into four divisions of 4, have each team play each intradivision team 14 times, other league teams 8 times, and half of the interleague teams 3 times: 14 × 3 = 42, 8 × 12 = 96, 3 × 8 = 24; 42 + 96 + 24 = 162. Too clean, and it dispenses with the "rivalry" concept, so it would never fly.)

  The point being, whatever they do to the schedule probably won't be fair so whatever happens there is status quo.

  I've clearly spent far too much time thinking about schedule parity, it's been a bee in my nerd bonnet since 1997.

• Division Series going from best-of-five to best-of-seven is fine. Either way. What isn't fine is the unmentioned part of the idea, which is that there would be more off-days during the playoffs. There are already too many of those, it changes pitching choices dramatically. The last thing we need is more bullpen games in the playoffs.
• Choosing your playoff opponent? Eh. Added drama for its own sake. Don't like it, but also don't care that much.

Elsewhere, via Craig Calcaterra, is yet another timewaster on the Internet that has sucked up part of my day. It's called Tentpole, and it's a game wherein you pick elements from randomly-selected movies—stars, director, rating, genres—to create a "new" film. When you've finished filling the slots, you get a result. Here are a coupe that I got:

It's fun for a few goes, then it's not, but here you go.

I had more stuff to write, but, like I said earlier, it's hard to keep focused right now, so nothing else for now. I need dinner.

Tagged Baseball, The Black Hole, Movies, Craig Calcaterra, Posted on October 9, 2026 at 10:29PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

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"I know I'm the best in the world"

I've been home now for a few days and I hate to admit it, but I've largely spent that time decompressing and resting rather than doing much of anything. Maybe I needed a few days like that, but now I'm getting caught up on some stuff that piled up in my absence and wading back into the news.

There was some benefit in being less of a news consumer for a few weeks, but some things just require one's attention if one is to be a functional member of society in a time when one's nation is being led by fascist incompetent sociopaths, and one of those things is the interview Time magazine did with Felon47 this week, in which he said "I know I'm the best in the world" when discussing ways to pay off debt despite his regime being responsible for a whopping $11 trillion of increased Federal debt.

If you have half an hour or so, I recommend reading the whole thing. It's both revelatory and not; which is to say, the things Felon47 says in it make clear (among other things) that he has absolutely no idea how economics works at any level. Which is something that requires a new word—many of the things we've lived through in the Felon47 regime fall into this category of "shocking but not surprising." Except not exactly, because by not being surprising it's not really shocking, it's just the sort of thing that should be shocking, would be shocking if said by anyone else that held the job previously. We need a word for that. For something that totally tracks—like that this particular occupant of the Oval Office, who is a narcissistic and uneducable moron, has based an entire economic policy on concepts he has zero understanding of—yet still leaves one befuddled when faced with the reality of it.

Anyway, the Time interview is full of stuff that makes you feel like that.

The intro paragraph conforms to the sanewashing that legacy media outlets have insisted on all through this nightmare, reading "Over the course of the interview, Trump discussed a wide range of issues, including the war with Iran, the artificial intelligence boom, the Federal Reserve, the Supreme Court, and his outlook for the midterms." I would have adjusted it to be, "Over the course of the interview, the president demonstrated his ignorance of a wide range of economic issues and seemed to be detached from reality concerning including the war with Iran, the artificial intelligence boom, the Supreme Court, and his corrupt methods of governing."

Part of me is tempted to rant some about the interviewer as well, because some questions were answered with non-sequiturs that demanded follow-ups and got none, but others did have follow-up so I'll cut him some slack on letting others go; there's also something to be said for just letting the idiot ramble and not poking the bear by pointing out that he didn't answer the question. Time likely got more material for this piece that way than they would have had the interviewer responded with, "You said you aren't ignoring the judge's order, then just now said you weren't aware of what was in the judge's order, so can you explain how you aren't ignoring something you profess to be ignorant of?" Or, "I asked you about Mitch McConnell, not pardons." Or, "Sir, this is a Wendy's." There's a better than 50% chance Felon47 would have walked out in a huff and had Time barred from the White House until a court ordered them allowed back in.

And the rambling gave us plenty of material to use in future investigations and prosecutions, plus some of it undermines strategies he might want to use when claiming the midterms were "fake" or "rigged" or "unfair."

Remember this bit next month, when Felon47 and his minions claim election results didn't match pre-election polling data: 

TIME: Mr. President, your polls have never been lower.

 

FELON47: They're fake numbers. I would beat anybody running today by 20 points. Your numbers that you have are fake. The pollsters are corrupt. They're almost as corrupt as the writers.

You see anything about the Fed or Kevin Warsh in there? (And then there are the tells: "which I'm allowed to do," "I have the absolute right," "money paid does not have to be paid"—these indicate that he's been told he's not allowed, he does not have the right, and that he does have to pay someone.) He's turned a question about interest rates and the Fed into a tirade about the Supreme Court correctly ruling that the president cannot unilaterally impose tariffs because, like any taxation, that's in the purview of Congress. This answer has nothing to do with interest rates, but to the alleged President of the United States it does because he thinks they have something to do with trade? Maybe? And that he has "the absolute right" to stop trade with other countries? Does he think he can just draft an executive order saying "Best Buy shall no longer purchase electronics from Asia" and that would (a) be legal and (b) would somehow bring more money into the US treasury?

And then there's the complaint about have to refund the illegal tariff revenue the government took in: "giving it back to people that were enemies of ours." There are only two possible explanations for that remark. One, he really and truly believes that tariffs are a kind of fee paid by foreign governments somehow, which would be a level of stupidity and ineptitude worthy of removal under the 25th Amendment and/or impeachment; or two, he considers every American company that imports goods and every American citizen that purchased an imported good to be his enemies. Which would also demand his removal.

And what could he possibly mean by, "I just got a tariff from Lindsey Graham [for the] first time in 50 years"?! Lindsey Graham bought a Ferrari after only buying Fords for 50 years? Or a Chinese-made stud finder, having misinterpreted its function? And somehow the tariff on it made its way to Felon47 directly?

These are my favorite bits, though:

When asked about who is behind what he claims is a hoax regarding the AI industry, he says, "The whole country is based on fake stuff because these people have Trump derangement syndrome." The whole country? The country is behind the "AI hoax"? Still allegedly discussing AI, he says apropos of nothing, "I have the highest of IQs. I have the highest." Really? What is it? Give us a number, give us the name of the test that produced that number. Mine's 135 according to a few cheesy and likely unreliable tests found online. I'd guess Felon47’s would be around 70 at best.

Revealing his view of President as Mob Boss: "I told Jensen [Huang, of NVIDIA] that a chip that he's not allowed to sell, which I think is okay to sell, but I won't let him sell it unless he gave the United States of America a cut." Regarding the US buying a stake in Intel, he said an Intel exec "had a problem that I could solve. I said, 'I'll solve the problem, but I want—not me, the United States of America—to have 10% of your company.'" Then there's this, about who knows what the hell: "We have some other ones that—there was a big deal that was announced where the United States was approving a deal in Alaska where somebody with land was going to make a fortune, and we weren't getting anything. I said, 'You mean we have to build roads and bridges to get to the site? We have to approve the environmental in place?' And yeah, I said, 'I want for the United States of America 50% of the deal.' And they agreed to a number. I do that all the time."

When asked what was being done about OpenAI Agents having breached government websites, he said "They're not allowed to do that, and if they do that, they, you know, could have penalties that are not going to be acceptable to them," which indicates that he has no idea what an AI Agent is.

Talking about the judicial ruling that forced his name off the Kennedy Center, there's this gem: "The judge is a Trump hater, radical left Trump hater. His wife uses a different name." Just adds that bit about the wife using her own name instead of taking the husband's name for no reason. I think to him this means the wife would be embarrassed to have the husband's last name? He's such a bad judge the his wife doesn't want to be associated with his name. In case we forgot he was a misogynist on top of everything else, there's a handy reminder.

And because he can't go a whole hour without insulting a journalist, near the end he says this to the Time interviewer: "This ain't gonna be much of a story. Here we are doing this. You haven't asked me one fucking positive question. All of this. What about this? What about that? What about that? What about this? All negative." In truth, none of the questions were negative. They were neutral. If he interpreted them as "negative" it means they were about things he didn't want to talk about and that they didn't heap praise upon him like he demands of his cabinet officers.

This interview distills down Felon47’s deranged ignorance and narcissistic sociopathy into an hour-long conversation. I can see this being used in future high school history and civics courses as supplementary material illustrating how, for the first time ever, the US economy tanked due to the actions of one man (enabled by a compliant Congressional majority) without any outside influence whatsoever.

OK, next post will be about something fun, like baseball playoffs or TV.

Tagged Politics, President VonClownstick, Posted on October 2, 2026 at 7:56PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

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Automotive panic attack and a happy cat reunion

I think she missed me?

After a month away, I have returned.

I got home yesterday a bit before noon. I walked in to find that not only had my neighbor taken fine care of my kitties, but he also cleaned up my place to a degree that I probably never have myself. Big thanks to Josh. Truly above and beyond the call of duty. I'll have to come up with something nice to do in return.

The drive from Palm Springs to Shoreline was largely uneventful save for one thing that caused some stress and minor delay. Somewhere along US 395 where it's a two-laner and far from civilization, my dashboard lit up like the proverbial Christmas tree with a sort of "red alert" beep and my engine lost a bit of oomph, slowing me down considerably. Had to keep going until I came to a point where I could pull over, then I shut everything down and consulted the manual. Not much help there, so I let it sit for a few minutes, then started it up again to see what was still lit up. Master Warning Light, Check Engine Light, and Hybrid System Warning were all on, plus the low fuel indicator. Nothing else. So I drove on for an hour or so, then lost the oomph again with a warning light for Vehicle Stability Control System. Same routine, parked and shut down for a few minutes, restarted, and the VSC light was dark. Drove on until I got to the rest stop in tiny Walker, CA, at around 7:00am, where I'd intended to stop for a nap anyway; on the approach to the parking area, the VSC light popped on again and the engine oomph cut out again.

Fortunately, Walker has cell service, so after getting out and stretching and using the rest room, I got online and looked for a mechanic that worked on Sundays in Carson City, which was the next place on my route with a decent size population. There was one. He had other appointments until the afternoon, but would be happy to help around 4:00. That was a long time to wait, really, but if that's what had to happen, so be it. I napped for a while, then around noon drove on after putting a little over a gallon of gas in the tank at the one Walker station at $7+ to guarantee me enough to get to Carson (I probably had enough as it was, but with the low fuel indicator on and the weirdness going on I wasn't chancing it).

Master Warning, Check Engine, and Hybrid System lights remained on, but no VSC or engine performance issues the rest of the way into Carson. I found a gas station near a downtown area I could hang out in if I had to wait and filled the tank. Then, after restarting, all warnings cleared.

What the hell?

I'd used up my remaining cell data allotment back at Walker, so I had to find some WiFi to do any research. Found a Starbucks I could log in from, found that a couple of other people on message boards had run into similar occurrences with their ’07 Prii, and started to relax when their issues turned out to be computer glitches. I texted the mechanic, updated him on the new lack of warnings and proper car function, and ultimately canceled our meeting so I wasn't just waiting around for 3-4 hours when there seemed to be no reason to.

My conclusion after reading the other reports online is that due to the unlikely coincidence of the low-fuel warning triggering at the same time that the hybrid battery was nearing depletion, the car had a panic attack. Parking for a few hours allowed everything to cool down and some idling while parked charged up the hybrid battery some, then when the tank was full and triggered the reset of the low-fuel warning, it cleared all warnings because in reality nothing was wrong.

No problems at all the rest of the way. Took another nap stop, reached Portland before the morning rush hour, one more nap stop north of Vancouver, WA, and cruised on home via Interstates.

I'll have someone check out the car just in case sometime at my leisure, but first order of business after checking in with Josh was a shower and kitty reunion time, followed by a long sleep. Much better rest here, surrounded by three purring cats and an ambient temperature under 80 degrees, and I was out for about 12 hours. Gave the cats another meal and kicked back with a book for a while until zonking out again and I'm back in full working order. Found lots of expired food in the fridge, did a grocery run ($100! Goddamn Trump), and am now enjoying baseball playoffs and welcome cat attention.

Despite all the sleep, I'm still feeling a bit wiped out from everything over the past month. Hopefully by tomorrow I'll be ready to resume normalcy.

It's good to be home and nice to hear the rain outside complimenting the sound of purrs.

Tagged Traveling, Cats, Cars, Posted on September 29, 2026 at 5:39PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

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Karen's annual ex-M's playoff post

Here is the 2026 version of the Former Seattle Mariners Playing for Other Teams in the Playoffs post, by popular demand from one Karen A. As I write this, ten of twelve (ugh, twelve) postseason teams have been determined, with the hapless American League West entrant and the final National League Wild Card slot still unclaimed—we could get the Houston Astros or Texas Rangers in the former, the Philadelphia Phillies or Arizona Diamondbacks in the latter.

All told, we have 12 former M's in the mix this year, not counting those final two spots. Or 14 if you count the maybes.

To wit:

Tampa Bay Rays (AL East champs): 2

• Ben Williamson (IF): Traded this past offseason from Seattle, Williamson looked like he was going to be the future long-term third baseman for the M's. An excellent defender, his bat was a work in progress as he was, as so many Mariner players have been, promoted too soon from the minors. But, when the M's went looking for lineup help they struck a complicated three-team deal that got them infielder Brendan Donovan but cost them Williamson plus two minor-leaguers. In the short term, the deal has been a bust for both sides, as both Williamson and Donovan spent most of the season on the injured list, but maybe Williamson has the last laugh as his team's in the postseason and Donovan's is, well, not. In about a third of a season's worth of at-bats, Williamson batted a paltry .239/.304/.320 while playing second base and shortstop. He also pitched in five blowout games, giving up two runs on five hits in five innings.
• Casey Legumina (RHP): This guy appeared in 56 games for Seattle in 2025 and ’26 before being shipped off to west Florida for a prospect (Ty Cummings). He's been a better grade of middling for the Rays than he was here, pitching middle and mopup relief.

New York Yankees (AL Wild Card 1): 1

• José Caballero (IF): José was a pretty decent on-base guy with speed off the bench for the M's in 2023. Since then.he's suited up for the Rays and then the Yankees, winning two stolen base crowns with totals that would by mercilessly mocked by Rickey Henderson (44 and 49). This year he's added some pop (14 homers) but dropped 50 points in his on-base percentage.

Boston red Sox (AL Wild Card 2): 0

Cleveland Guardians (AL Central champs OR AL Wild Card 3): 2

• Matt Festa (RHP): Festa broke in with the M's in 2018, missed a couple of years due to Tommy John surgery, then was let go in 2023. He split the next year between the Mets and Rangers, then Texas traded him to Cleveland for the humiliating return of "cash considerations." He's been OK for the Guardians, providing them a decent middle relief option.
• Shawn Armstrong (RHP): Fairly impressive in 14 games as a Mariner in 2018, Armstrong was lost to Baltimore in a waiver claim in early ’19. He was terrible for the Orioles, who dumped him in ’21, and has put up schizophrenic numbers with the Marlins, Rays again, Cardinals, Cubs, and Rangers before landing in Cleveland this year. He's not to be feared.

Chicago White Sox (AL Central champs OR AL Wild Card 3): 1-ish

• Luis Castillo (RHP): "The Rock" has been very hittable since his trade to the Windy City a couple months back. He's given up a whopping 30 runs (29 earned) in 31 innings with the palehose and was relegated to the bullpen after six starts. He's not eligible for either the Wild Card or Division Series rounds thanks to a late placement on the injured list with "shoulder impingement."

Milwaukee Brewers (NL Central champs): 1

• Jake Bauers (1B/OF): A lackluster bench bat for the M's in part of the 2021 campaign, Bauers continued to be nothing special for the Yankees and then Milwaukee, but this year he's come into his own as an everyday player. In ’26 he led the NL in on-base and had more than 25 homers.

Los Angeles Dodgers (NL West champs): 2

• Teoscar Hernández (OF): A fave in Seattle in 2023, Teo signed as a free agent with LA the next season and has been fairly steady for them ever since. He didn't hit as many homers as he's used to this season, but at 33 he's still capable of the big hit now and again.
• Edwin Díaz (RHP): Yet another big-name free-agent signing this past offseason, Díaz has been a bit of a bust as a Dodger. Injured most of the first half, he returned after the All-Star break to post an ERA close to 9.00 in 13 appearances.

Atlanta Braves (NL East champs): 1-ish

• Rowdy Tellez (1B): Rowdy was a Mariner for half a season in 2025, and aside from a couple of timely home runs couldn't really hit his way out of a paper bag. After getting released he hooked up with the Rangers and was a bit better, then this season signed a deal with Atlanta that saw him spend almost the whole year in Triple-A. Not currently on the Atlanta roster, it's conceivable that Tellez could join the team as an injury substitution if necessary.

Chicago Cubs (NL Wild Card 1 or 2): 2

• Matthew Boyd (LHP): Impressive in a short stay in Seattle in 2022, Boyd was an All-Star last year and has been consistently decent when healthy this year, going 10-5 with a sub-4.00 ERA in 22 starts.
• Trent Thornton (RHP): A solid reliever for 2½ seasons in Seattle, he's served the same role with the Cubs this year in between stints on the injured list. He's there now recovering from a sprained ankle, and thus isn't likely to be on the active roster for the WildCard series. He might be activated should the Cubs advance, though.

San Diego Padres (NL Wild Card 1 or 2): 2

• Ty France (IF): After being shipped off to the Reds in the waning days of Scott Servais' reign with Seattle, in a sort of punishment for doing what was asked of him by a terrible hitting coach, it took a bit for Ty to remember he was an All-Star. Signing back with his original team before this season, he hit his way into the starting lineup and got back to being Ty France again. Since the All-Star break he's played like you'd expect Ty France to play, batting .319/.391/.518 in 61 games.
• Robbie Ray (LHP): Ray was traded to the Padres at this year's trade deadline and has been just OK for his new club (3-2, 5.02 ERA in 9 starts). He was with the M's for two injury-plagued seasons in 2022and ’23.

If the Astros get in, they have Taylor Trammell. The Rangers have no one at this point. As for the Phillies, Dylan Moore is in their minor league system, where he's been stinking it up in Triple-A, so we won't see him. Arizona has the great Ketel Marte, who's had a bad year by his standards but it still has All-Star talent. They had Carlos Santana, who was released, and Tyler Locklear is on their 60-day injured list.

Playoffs start on Tuesday with the Wild Card round.

Tagged Baseball, Posted on September 26, 2026 at 6:53PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

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Winding down the trip

I'm finally nearing the end of my lengthy sojourn to greater Palm Springs. I'll start heading back toward home either tomorrow night or midday Sunday, I think, depending on what things are like with Dad tomorrow and how well-rested I feel; by the time I get home, I'll have been away from my cats for a month. I don't know if that's worse for me or for them.

Dad went in to get new imaging on his brain done early this morning. I'd intended to go along, but I couldn't manage to stay awake at 5:00am, having by then only gotten a couple hours' sleep at best. No matter, though, Marty says he was relegated to the waiting room the whole time anyway and was basically just taxi service. Whatever the results from that imaging tell the doctors I suppose I'll find out in due course, but right now we know zippo; it's like the old days when you took pictures on film and had to wait a few days for it to be developed, I guess (I'm sure the doctors have the pictures immediately, but they need to be parsed, evaluated, whathaveyou before they share).

Most of what I wanted to accomplish with this trip I have, and I'd like to think Marty got to have a bit of a break with me here. I'm wiped out, though. And I feel flabby, having done near-zero physical activity for basically a month now. And I'm tired of being the blood bank for the neighborhood mosquito population.

Hopefully Dad will sleep well overnight. That has not been the case over the past few days, and as I've said before, his level of cogency seems directly proportional to how well-rested he is. I'm kind of resigned to the probability that when I leave, he won't have been aware of how long I was here or remember much of anything about my visit. That's OK, though. It's been worthwhile to him inasmuch as it could be.

I belatedly realized I have tickets to tomorrow night's penultimate Mariners game; I've put them on StubHub, but thanks to the team's crappy finish to the season I may not get anything for them. I've already priced them at a loss. Anyone seeing this wants to go, text me and if they haven't sold by time I hear from you I'll send them along.

Now I'm pondering which route to take for my return drive. Going back the way I came is the old reliable, fewer miles and more interesting scenically speaking than just sticking to the Interstates. I've done it already, though, repeatedly. I mean, I've done the Interstate option as well—it's maybe faster by an hour even though it's more miles—but dull. Going up the coast is better, but that would mean adding another day and maybe 1½ more tanks of gas, so I won't be doing that. I'll probably just go back the way I came, US 395 and some state highways until north Oregon, then I-5.

I'm glad I came down and stayed this long, but I am ready to be home.

Tagged Dad, Health, Traveling, Posted on September 25, 2026 at 11:30PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

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SNW 410: Tomorrow's Enterprise

The finale episode for Strange New Worlds' troubled fourth season dropped today, and if we're grading on a curve, it was pretty decent. That said, I was still yelling at the screen and metaphorically tearing my hair out (to do so literally would just be speeding nature along) at the abominably bad science and the misuse of words and the clunky story structure and the hand-waving away of inconsistencies and all the other frustrating stuff common to an episode of SNW in seasons three and four.

There was fun stuff too, and as usual the performances were good. I just wish, again, that this series (a) had bothered with a science adviser and (b) had someone in the writers' room who would call out structural problems and say, "OK, I like what you're going for here, but there's too much surrounding it. We need to bring the focus in some. Also, we don't need this reference or that mention and we can't have this other thing because it's inconsistent with that other thing."

Instead we have Henry Alonso Myers and Akiva Goldsman running the show for Alex Kurtzman. It's too late to fix anything for next season, it's already in the can, but when the studio's internal politics are settled they need to put new people in charge of Star Trek. Preferably people who know what words mean as well as how allegorical storytelling makes Trek work best.

Let's get into it.

See full post: "SNW 410: Tomorrow's Enterprise"...

Tagged Star Trek, TV, Posted on September 24, 2026 at 11:59PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

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Good day, and welcome to week four

Week four of my visit to greater Palm Springs is fairly productive while also being boring. Right now I'm here watching Your Seattle Mariners as they get eliminated from this year's playoff race (I'm assuming they'll lose or Texas will win—ooh, just saw an update on the Texas score, the Mets are thumping them!—technically, if the M's win their final five games and Texas and the Astros lose all their remaining games there's still a chance? There's some sort of tiebreaker formula Rob Manfred BS that would come into play; won't happen) while Dad naps and Marty catches some rest. More power to him, man. This is a stressful reality to live in.

Dad had a surgery followup yesterday, X-rays on his repaired shoulder looked good (lot of hardware in there now) but because he doesn't do his exercises unless a physical therapist is here his range of motion still stinks. He was supposed to have a PT visit yesterday as well; he sort of did, but it was a bit of a mess. The agency that employs these folks seems to be a bit lax when it comes to communication; this was the second reschedule for this visit, and when someone did show it was hours ahead of the appointed time while we were out at the doctor's office and it was someone new, who said he was covering for someone we'd never heard of, and confusion reigned. He left when no one answered the door, Marty went through in intermediary to remind the agency the appointment was for 5:00, and he came back then, but because he knew nothing of the history here is was a rudimentary intro visit rather than continuing the therapies that have been in progress for weeks. Hopefully the former PT will return soon and there won't be more random restarts. Bureaucracy, man.

We met with a potential in-home care aide today, I think she'll be good. I'm a little concerned with her being understood—English is her second language, Marty's hearing sucks, and I can envision their respective accents getting in the way. But she's local (by real people standards, not just by southern California standards) and it sounds like she's plenty capable, plus the expense won't break the bank. I feel OK with her in the mix, assuming it works out. Hope so, because a stopgap is definitely needed while we wait for the state paper-pushers to approve them for subsidized home care, which seems like it'll be weeks away still. Bureaucracy, man.

Dad was cogent-ish for both the surgeon followup and the home-care interview visit, but afterwards not so much. I never know what to say when he asks me "if we're staying here tonight or going home," since the obvious reply, "you're already at home, Dad," would short-circuit him like he's Norman the android. "We're staying here" has been OK, but it frustrates him because at such times he thinks he hasn't been home in weeks.

We still need to finalize a couple of things, get their trailer sold and make sure the home care will fly, and there's getting Dad in for a brain scan Friday. Then we hit the weekend, and barring complications I'll start for home Saturday or Sunday evening. I'd like to be home Monday night, but Tuesday sometime would be OK too.

I need me some kitty time. :)  And maybe some rain. I've had enough 100° weather for a good while.

Also, hello to a few of y'all who've reached out and whom I've been bad about getting back to. I appreciate the texts/emails. I promise to be a better correspondent after I get out of here.

Tagged Dad, Health, Posted on September 23, 2026 at 8:14PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

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Trying to make it make sense

Things are progressing down here in the scorching desert (less scorching now, I think the high today was only in the low 90s), but though taskwise I feel like things are slowly getting accomplished, overall outlookwise it appears it's going to be status quo for the foreseeable future.

Dad's more cogent times occur only when he's well-rested, and you never know when they'll veer into distorted memory or a need to go drop me off somewhere on his way to wherever he thought he needed to go. A lot of that today, a lot of dissuading Dad from compulsions to transport me somewhere and to return to whatever place we'd supposedly been at earlier in the day. In other words, more of the same as I hung out here with Dad while Marty was out dealing with his own stuff, medical and otherwise. 

I'm sure there are professionals and scholars who know this already and could explain it to me in detail if I wanted to seek them out. I doubt I'm breaking any new ground. But I'm realizing just from observation that the part of Dad's brain that's working recognizes that his current circumstance isn't what it should be, that something is off, but it can't understand what exactly is off because of the part that isn't working—all it knows for sure is that right now, in the moment, things are not what they're expected to be. So the working parts of the brain try to compensate by treating the current moment as a transition in between something that does makes sense to it and something else that makes sense. So a memory of something that did make sense is plugged in to the slot for "recent past" and the expectation of another something that makes sense is put forth as coming up.

That's why he's always insisting he needs his shoes on, he has to be ready to go when it's time to move to the expected "coming up" thing his brain's plugged into place to compensate for right now being wonky. The thing from the other day when he was convinced we were at a conference center is probably extrapolated from things he attended in his career at U of A, that was the memory his brain could find to stick into the blank "recent past" slot, and context from those things fed the insistence that he needs to know the conference schedule and how we're going to get from place to place in "the complex" since that's the logical thing "coming up." It's not so much about believing he's someplace he's not as it is about not believing right now is real. The unreality context is just randomly picked from whatever file fragments can be easily found in the busted hard drive in his skull.

Hell, what do I know, I'm tired all the time now.

Today Dad was asking me if I had a light meter. He explained how it would help me assure anyone I was working for that I'd done things correctly, that it would be worth investing in if I didn't have one and he suggested his leftover lunch was the object I was supposed to be doing something with. I presume photographing, since he was talking about light meters and since part of his old job was managing multimedia stuff for a hospital.

Interestingly, the cat can ground him somewhat. When the cat's in view—or better, lying at his feet—he focuses. On another plane, if we have a news program on the TV and a clip of Felon47 plays, spouting whatever the bullshit of the day is, that brings him back at least enough that he confidently declares "that guy is such an asshole."

On other fronts, my wrist is better—not 100% by a long way, but healed enough that I don't feel like I need the brace. Range of motion is good and the twinges aren't excruciating. The mosquito trap has worked reasonably well; it hasn't actually trapped many mosquitos, just a few, but it does appear to at least be keeping them away from me overnight.

Tomorrow there's a doctor's appointment and a PT visit on tap, Wednesday and Thursday should be good for dealing with other logistics about various loose ends, Friday Dad's going to get another brain scan. We'll see where we are after that. Somewhere in there I hope we can get a handle on what kind of other home care help will be available for later so I can head home feeling like things are stable.

Tagged Dad, Health, Posted on September 21, 2026 at 10:48PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

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SNW 409: Once La'an a Time

Is this Anson Mount playing Sir Rauth or is this Anson Mount imagining the audience reaction to yet another gimmick episode?

At this point I have to ask if anyone on the writing staff of Strange New Worlds has now or ever had any interest in writing for Star Trek. Because they have done their damnedest to avoid it all season. They've apparently preferred to write anything, anything other than a thought-provoking science-fiction story about Captain Pike and the crew of the USS Enterprise.

The latest installment of this failed season is a swords-and-sorcery type fantasy lark that is ostensibly about paying off a season-long character arc but is actually just an excuse for the cast to act goofy and out of character. Again.

Why? Why are they wasting their time on this stuff? Season three was chock full of lazy writing and bad execution from start to finish, but at least most of the episodes had something resembling a point, however hidden behind lousy structure it was. Here we get another one that pursues very little substance in the name of a gimmick that is thought to be stronger than it could ever be.

Let's get into it.

See full post: "SNW 409: Once La'an a Time"...

Tagged Star Trek, TV, Posted on September 20, 2026 at 12:55AM   |   Permalink   |     |  

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Good days and bad days

Today's events down here at chichi no uchi were more tiring than anything else. Dad slept a lot of the day, but that's not what I mean. I'm tired. Marty's obviously tired. In terms of physical energy, I've expended almost nil since I got here—I feel fatter than ever—but I'm still wiped out.

Most days, Dad seems to have ups and downs regarding his cogency. Today there were no ups. He didn't have any bad vertigo, which is good, but was confused continually, wondering where he was supposed to be and not recognizing where he was and seemingly regressing in time but only sort of.

The most surreal part of the day was when Dad starting talking to me about me not knowing I was here. I understand that kind of thing's not uncommon among dementia patients, but it was a first for my personal experience. He didn't reveal anything I didn't already know he thought about me, but it reminded me of an exchange we had a few years ago when I finally got in his face regarding his pestering me about my dating life or lack thereof; it cleared the air, at least for a while. Today I wanted to get in his face again, but he wouldn't have understood and nothing good would come of it as it did before so I just acknowledged what he said and tried to shift the conversation away from me since he didn't know he was talking to me. When that didn't work I tried leaving the room for a couple minutes and made sure to greet him with "Hi, Dad" when I returned to jolt his recognition. That did the trick, and since it seemed to ground him the other day, we tried to watch some baseball. Or I did, rather; he kept either talking nonsense or wondering where Marty went. Or worse, where my mom was. Eventually I steered him into talking about going to ballgames with his dad in Santa Barbara and that got him onto things that were real memories and were safe (i.e. wouldn't upset me), though it did make it harder to follow the game. :)

I'm here at least through next week. After that, if there are no appointments on the books in the immediate next few days that I could assist with, I'll likely start heading home. I kind of feel badly for that, but as my friend Stacey, who has her own experience with this sort of thing, told me recently, "When you hit the wall, get back to your life. (And your cats.)" Besides, I'll be back down again before too long.

Of course, by the end of next week, gas prices might be twice what they were when I came down at the beginning of the month because of the utter stupidity/bigotry/cruelty/willful ignorance of millions of American voters. Makes me even more appreciative of my Prius and its better-than-2½-times the fuel economy of my previous car.

Tagged Dad, Health, Posted on September 18, 2026 at 11:23PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

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Balancing stress and boredom in CA

Zephyr, Mizuki, and Raimei (not pictured) have been wihtout their human for going on three weeks. I know they're fine, but I worry about them.

Yesterday, I was asked how I'm holding up while down here in greater Palm Springs, and I replied that I was OK but doing a kind of balancing act—this experience equal parts challenging and boring.

Most of the challenges are emotional, of course, seeing and interacting with my dad in the state he's in. On that front, today was pretty tame. Marty had stuff to do out in the world this morning, so I had to be up early in case Dad needed anything, which he naturally did. After trying to get him up and about, he had to immediately go back to bed due to vertigo. I decided this was a time he could take one of his dizzy pills (which do have a name, I just can't remember it) even though his neurologist ordered him to cut way down on them and only take a few a week. I think I was vindicated in that decision as he later got up and wandered out into the living room on his own; I had sat down to read, but only going on a few hours' sleep, I'd nodded off, a dereliction of sentry duty. I stirred—after having some weird dreams involving my grandfather, his old house with a ton of people in it, and a phone call from Erik that I could never hear properly because of all the people making noise and that in the end turned out to be on speaker so a bunch of people on the other end were hearing me that I didn't know about; I'm sure that was prompted by something in my subconscious relating to how my dad seems frailer than Grandpa ever did along with the various bouts of chaos here—and came out to the living room to find Dad trying to figure out the Roku remote control.

No appointments today, no visits from nurses or attractive physical therapists, just hanging out and doing a fair amount of escorting dad back and forth to bed and making him lunch, which he ate about a third of. He wasn't going on about being in strange places today, though he did seem to think I had left and come back from somewhere distant between his naps, and once he asked me what grade of school I was in now. But, as I've said before, I'm kind of getting used to that. Sort of. A little.

While he was napping I took some time to clean up a little around here, and while I was running the vacuum it got hung up on something and started making noise (it's a fairly quiet vacuum otherwise) that I immediately equated with the "victory growl" Zephyr makes when he successfully steals food from either me or the other cats. I miss my cats. This is a long time to be away.

Dad and Marty's cat treats me like an intruder, which is fair. But this morning he let me pet him a little. He's got some abrasions and little scabs on his head and neck that I'd like to get a look at, but he'd never let me. His fur's a bit unkempt too. He's mostly an outdoor cat, so I think the abrasions are likely from altercations with other cats in the area (I hear them now and then) since this isn't an environment where you tend to get fleas. Still, I know he doesn't get regular vet care, so I'd feel better if I could check him out more thoroughly. I'll take what I can get, I suppose.

We've made progress on selling the truck and trailer, though nothing final yet. Got a decent offer on the truck, a less decent but acceptable given the ease of transaction one for the trailer. Also I'm trying to further refine what's needed here for after I leave and tweaking some furnishings. I wish I could convince Dad to use a different chair in the living room; years ago they bought these "captains chairs" that are deeply padded, swivel, recline, have footrests that spring out. All that flexibility makes them a horrible choice for him because they're so hard to get out of, it's impossible for him to stand from it on his own and a little tricky with help. Tried swapping it for a more stable option in its place, but he complained that the swapped-in chair didn't move enough and insisted we switch it back. I tried elevating the seat with extra padding and that just made it unfamiliar and distracting when he'd sit down and didn't really help much with getting out of it, so that experiment was short-lived. His bed's too high off the floor, too, getting in it is a struggle every time, so I'm going to try a sort of low stepstool thing. If I were at home, I'd just build one in my garage from spare wood, but not an option here so we'll be buying one.

I also watched this week's Strange New Worlds today. Eh. I didn't hate it, which is a surprise given the material—this week we got something like "SNW does The Princess Bride"—but once again it's the sort of thing that would be fun as one of 26 but is frustrating as can be when it's the seventh of eight (out of just ten) episodes that are gimmick-based and stray so far afield of the solid Trek sci-fi by being sendups of/homages to other media. It's just sad what the series became after two really good years pre-COVID.

Got another early (by my standards) day tomorrow, with visits from both a home-care nurse and the pretty PT gal on the agenda, so no in-depth SNW review for a while. I'll get there, though, I can't help myself.

Tagged Dad, Aging, Health, Cats, Posted on September 17, 2026 at 10:02PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

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Pro-nouns, pro-verbs, pro- whatever gets your point across

Here's a little something that amused me, and since amusements are infrequent down here I thought I'd share. From the latest episode of Ted Lasso, wherein Ted sets up a dating profile with assistance from Keeley.

Tagged TV, Ted Lasso, Posted on September 17, 2026 at 5:23PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

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