August 6, 2021; This And That

 

Greetings everyone.  I was going to devote this blog post to the shenanigans of our governor, who I have no love lost for if you've seen my Twitter feed, over the past week in regards to Florida's astronomical COVID numbers, but that kind of negative news would only get me upset, and I don't want to post while I'm angry, so I'll devote my time to talk about something else.

The Olympics wrap up this weekend in Tokyo. For some, it's a sigh of relief because people have missed "The Voice" and "America's Got Talent" (I haven't). For others, it's a slight disappointment because let's face it, the Games do inspire countless people throughout the world. The most inspiring moment in my opinion came early this week at the long jump final. Long story short, Qatar's Mutaz Essa Barshim and Italy's Giamarco Tamberi were tied for the lead going into their attempt to jump 2.39 meters, which they didn't succeed in. Since those two competitors had zero missed attempts going into that height, the two competitors were set for a jump off, until Barshim asked if they could forgo the jump off and split the gold medal. What happened next was pure magic. It will be a moment that will live on in Olympic, and sporting lore, for ages to come.

This morning I woke up and chose violence...to my beard:

Don't worry, it'll grow back in time for the baseball postseason, and beyond 😉.

Speaking of violence, I had to break out the block machine this evening. Some annoying bot on Twitter thought it could catfish me hook, line, and sinker (sinker?), but alas, this person had a name of Natasha (no, not Natasha Natale of "Rocky & Bullwinkle"), but her handle name was YvonneC40284849 or the prototypical catfish bot handle of FirstNameLastInitialEightDigitNumber. That's almost an automatic block.

Hurricane season is starting to ramp up, but we have not had a named storm in the Atlantic basin since Elsa sloshed ashore in early July. However, don't let the lack of activity the last month or so fool you, it may get even busier than at first thought. And in case you haven't been paying attention, the world is literally on fire in certain places (California, Turkey, Siberia) and underwater in others (Germany, England), so mother nature is showing her ugly side in a ear unprecedented way.

(from www.independent.co/uk)

I swear this month sometime I'll tell you that story of the girl I knew a long time ago. I believe her birthday is sometime this month; I was going to mention it a couple of weeks ago, but the Olympics started and I got sidetracked. I also might look for a new blogging platform, because this blog won't get monetized and I don't think I can say everything I want to say on here. I have a wordpress site, but I haven't taken the time to configure all the bells and whistles on it. Whenever I do, I'll let you know. I the meantime, later.  

CT

Champa!! Bay!!

Greetings from Champa Bay, where Lightning has struck again! If you're scoring at home, first off, congratulations. Second, that's now three championships in a little over ten months. That's  a quite impressive feat, so much so that our friends and rivals to the north are a bit jealous. From the Boston Herald on facebook: 

Seems like they're a little salty over Tampa Tom signing here last spring. Oh well. As a Boston area native (and current Tampa Bay resident) once wrote: "And if they hate, let 'em hate, I drop their whole clan. Lay your ass down for the three second tan." I bet you can't get that song out of your head now. 

Nonetheless, I'm thrilled to pieces for my home region, now if only Tampa Bay's sporting success can spread to Orlando. Waiting on you, Magic and OCSC.

Speaking of Orlando, I was doing some Googling the other day to see what happened to some of the teachers/administrators of the old Orlando Christian school I attended as a little kid in Pine Hills. Much to my surprise, the old principal, Les Van Winkle, is still around and still living in the Pine Hills area. The president of the school, Dr. Meyer, sadly passed away two years ago. As is the case with my second grade teacher, Mr, Booth in 2013. As far as I know, my first grade teacher (Mrs. Nelson) in Zellwood, FL. And I think Mrs. Butler passed away not too long ago, but I'm not too certain; I'll have to verify if that is the case. 

I also saw the old playground at the old school (now Kingsway Christian Academy), and saw a few things I didn't quite recognize, like a couple of trees planted near the walkway where I would walk with my crush after school from the annex where grades 1-6 were to the office/chapel/high school area was where her mom worked, and her canary yellow Olds Ninety Eight. I could make an entire blog post about her (stay tuned), but for now, let's just say she was the Jessica to my Morty (if you've seen 'Rick and Morty,' you'll understand the reference.

But I digress, Monday is the victory boat parade for the Lightning, and hopefully I can attend. I'm hoping for a ride down to Tampa, otherwise I'll have to utilize this regions fractured and inefficient transit system, and that may take forever. Plus the parade starts at 11am, kind of early, but who doesn't want to see party Kuch at that time of day? If you remember last year's celebration at Raymond James Stadium (why couldn't the use it this year,) Party Kuch was a sensation, as was Pat Maroon. Anyway, hoping I can attend.

Well, better get to my Friday night, and my Fireball. 😉

CT

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Elsa's Here

 Greetings once again. In case you haven't noticed (especially if you live in Florida), Tropical Storm (for now) Elsa is knocking on the doorstep of the Gulf Coast of the Sunshine State. Here where I live, we have made sure everything in secured. Sandbags have been filled across many counties across the Tampa Bay region, and this area by and large is ready. By the way, I mentioned in my last post about how Elsa could affect the Stanley Cup Final. Well, I can tell you that the Tampa Bay Lightning players have arrived back in Tampa safely, and I assume the Montreal Canadiens have as well, but as of this writing nothing official from the NHL has been said about any potential disruptions to Game 5, which is scheduled for Wednesday at Amalie Arena. Of course, by that time, Elsa will have long since left the immediate Tampa Bay region and probably affect Gainesville, but that is something everyone will undoubtedly keep an eye on.

I'm writing this right now because frankly I don't know if and when we'll lose power in Hernando County, which means that I can't post anything on here until power returns, and who knows that will last? Bottom line though, is that I hope everyone in Florida stays safe from this storm.  

CT

Why a sweep would be optimal for Tampa Bay

 Greetings again, in my last post I made a list of potential future topics to write about for this blog. Well, I'm not going to work on that just yet; instead, I thought I would give my thoughts about this year's Stanley Cup Final, which at the time of this writing, was being led by the Tampa Bay Lightning two games to none, with games three and four being held on Friday and next Monday respectively.

If Montreal wins either one of their home games, the series shifts back to Tampa for Game Five. So what's the issue you ask? Elsa.

As you can see from the map above, Elsa is our latest tropical system and from its current predicted path, could wreak havoc with a possible Game 5 come next Wednesday. So, what can be done? Well, and this is totally speculative, the NHL could play game 5 in Montreal and have games 6 and 7 in Tampa. There is a precedent (sort of) for an unforeseen set of circumstances moving a series after all. Or, the NHL could potentially delay game 5 until later. But the best possible outcome?

Tampa takes care of business Friday and Monday and clinches their second consecutive Stanley Cup and third overall.

CT

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Wondering What To Write About

Greetings.

Over the last couple of weeks, I've been racking my brain trying to figure out what exactly to write about for my next blog entry. And, as I just now found out, even getting the phrase "racking my brain" can be confusing. But, trying to pinpoint what to write about has become an adventure; let me list out what I have in mind.

Should I write about my trip to Tampa the other week, and should I expound on it's public transportation system? 

Should I write about my seemingly perpetual heartache? Nahhh...nobody wants to hear me whine about that...or do they?

Should I talk about my seemingly dysfunctional family, and who should incur more wrath, my father or my sister (which I alluded to briefly in a previous post)?

Should I write about how embarrassing officiating has been in this year's Stanley Cup Playoffs? By the way, on a personal note, GO BOLTS!!

Should I do what I wanted to do earlier in this blog and list the Top 40 songs for a particular week from between 1980 and 2020?

Should I go back and check what I've posted in the past, which is something I NEVER do, and make retractions/edits/updates, etc?

Should I write more about my early childhood in Orlando, which was well, interesting to say the least?

Should I write about what I want for my future, where I want to be, and what dreams and aspirations I have left?

Should I write on how umpire Joe West decided to make an ass out of himself (something he's been doing for over thirty years now) and as a result single-handedly made MLB nearly unwatchable?

Here's an idea, why don't I do all of the above? That works for me; stay tuned.

CT

Putting The Cart Before The Horse

 Earlier this month, the city of Denver, Colorado was on a pretty good run as far as their sports teams went. The NBA Nuggets were cruising against the Portland Trail Blazers, and the NHL Avalanche, fresh off a sweep of the St. Louis Blues, had gone up 1-0 on the Vegas Golden Knights. On top of that, Denver was selected to host the MLB All-Star Game after Georgia politicians decided to do some shady shenanigans with voter rights. So, on June 2, hoping to ride the momentum of both the Avs and the Nuggets, the Colorado Rockies put out this rather ambitious tweet: 

Well to quote a famous Orlando resident, "not so fast, my friend," because both Los Angeles and Tampa can BOTH lay claim to that statement. Los Angeles has the defending World Series and NBA champions, and Tampa has the defending Stanley Cup and Super Bowl champions. Furthermore, Tampa is home to the World Series runners-up, and shares the USL soccer championship with Phoenix.

So, what happened to the Nuggs and Avs after said tweet? To say that things didn't go so well for them would be a massive understatement. The Nuggets would be swept out of the playoffs by the Phoenix Suns, and the Avs, after taking a 2-0 series lead on Vegas, would come from ahead to lose four straight games, and wind up eliminated themselves. Which prompted me to post this on the Meme Generator:

Talk about putting the cart before the horse.

CT

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Some Things From Over The Weekend...

Hello friends, neighbors, and strangers. Thought I'd share a few thoughts about things from over the weekend.

While I was watching the Stanley Cup playoff game from Amalie Arena Saturday afternoon, I couldn't help but cringe a little bit when play by play announcer John Walton kept referring to the Tampa Bay area as "Central Florida." This of course started a brief furor amongst Lightning Twitter, because most of them think Central Florida as the Orlando area, and Tampa as the Tampa Bay area; and for the most part, it is true. While Tampa does lie halfway between the Panhandle and the Keys, most people that are FROM Florida NEVER refer to the Tampa Bay area as "Central Florida." The opposite can be said about Orlando; they call their area as Central Florida and DO NOT include the Tampa Bay region. Yes, there is some overlap in Polk County, but the majority of which is considered part of Tampa Bay. But, the two regions are not the same...at all.

Please, Don't Complain...

Last night on Twitter, one poor lad wound up getting himself muted: Why? A hashtag game...that was played three months ago. The hashtag game in question last night was #ImEmbarrassedToAdmit, in which I replied "watched one Harry Potter movie in its entirety." One guy, however, decided to go rogue and play the hashtag #TheLastTimeIHadSex 🙊. Not only that, he had several tweets about it. For editorial comment, let's check in with this blog's unofficial spirit animal: 

Seriously, nobody wants to hear about that stuff. It's a bad look on you to complain about things that aren't really any of our business. Who knows, maybe the poor guy was drunk or something, but complaining about it won't help at all, and it definitely not get you laid...

"BuT cHrIs, WhEn WaS tHe LaSt..." STOP!!!

An Absolute Farce

Late last night, Floyd Mayweather and Logan Paul had a boxing "exhibition" (and I use that term very loosely) in Miami Gardens. No winner was declared, unless you decided to NOT spend $50 or so to watch this on Shotime, and for those of you who did, as DJ Khaled would say, "Congratulations, you played yourself." I would link you to a tweet that basically epitomizes how much of a farce this fight was, however, Shotime filed a complaint that the video in the tweet was cleared with them first, so I'll try to describe it to you as best as possible. During a later round, Mayweather landed a right hook that staggered Paul, however Mayweather held him as Paul was about to collapse to the canvas. Yep, Mayweather held Paul up so he wouldn't get counted as knocked down, and take the mandatory eight count. Howard Cosell is probably still spinning in his grave right now...

No "SOS' In The NBA Playoffs

Yesterday, the Clippers beat the Mavericks 126-111 to advance to the second round of the playoffs. Dallas's elimination meant that there are ZERO teams left in this year's playoff field that has reached a NBA Finals over the last ten years, hence the SOS (same ol'...stuff) in the paragraph header. In fact, of the eight teams left, only two (2001 Sixers and 2003 & 2004 Nets) have reached the Finals this century, and only three of these franchises have won a championship, the last being the 1983 Sixers. Two of the eight (Clippers and Nuggets) have never reached the Championship Round, and the Clippers are one of three franchises total (Hornets and Pelicans being the other two) to have yet to reach a conference final. It will be nice to see some new blood, if not new players, in the Finals this year (now watch it be Brooklyn and Los Angeles in the Finals)

Coming Up

No Rays baseball or Lightning playoff hockey until tomorrow, and nothing (besides NYI vs BOS n hockey) worthwhile on television to watch tonight, so I'll likely be on Twitter. I'll probably post again sometime this week; not sure yet what I'll write about. Until then, stay safe and take care. Oh, ad since I haven't said it yet, Happy Pride!!

CT

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