Thoughts On A Sunday

What a difference a day makes.

Yesterday it was sunny, in the 80's, another summer day.

Today, it's cloudy, raining, and in the 60's in the morning.

It isn't a boating day by any means, at least not until after noon. And then, it was time to watch the Pats and the Red Sox, leaving no time for boating.

Drat!

*******

As I write this, both the Boston Red Sox and the Cleveland Indians are one win away from winning their division titles. Both teams are 2-0 against their opponents, the Angels and the Yankees, respectively.

If it comes down to a Boston-Cleveland playoff, I couldn't be much happier. While I am a staunch Red Sox fan, I could get behind the Indians for a World Series run should they be the American League champs.

But that's not going to happen, of course.

Go Sox!

UPDATE:The Sox swept the Angels, beating them 9-1! Now it's a matter of waiting for the outcome of the Indians/Yankees game.

Go Tribe!

*******

And speaking of Cleveland, the New England Patriots are playing the Cleveland Browns today in Foxboro.

There's been a family connection to the Browns through one of my late aunts, so they've been a favorite of our family for years.

However, that doesn't extend to supporting them over the Patriots. I've been a Pat's fan since the days of Jim Plunkett and Mini-Mack Herron. (Yeah, I know I'm dating myself here. So what?)

UPDATE: The Patriots beat the Browns, 34-17!

*******

It was Fall Cleaning Day here at The Manse. Floors were scrubbed, baseboards cleaned, baseboard radiators cleaned out, everything dusted, vacuumed, or wiped down. This went beyond the usual weekly cleaning, all in preparation for the upcoming winter. Once everything is cleaned, we'll be installing some more insulation in the basement (rim joists), preparing some of the windows on all three levels for sealing, and taking care of some gaps in one of the basement doors. The glass that replaces the screens in the storm doors will be cleaned, though not installed – we will probably see more than a few more windows-and-doors-open days before the weather really cools off – and the plastic shrink cover for the basement slider will be pulled out of one of the storage containers and placed nearby for use when we seal it off.

There's still 4+ cords of firewood to move up from the WP In-Laws and get stacked for use. Some will end up in the basement, some in the garage, and the rest stacked outside between the garage and the Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout Trailer.

*******

Speaking of firewood, we're hoping that we'll be able to use nothing but the woodstove to heat The Manse for the entire heating season. That will keep our use of propane to the bare minimum, mainly to heat water and to run the clothes dryer.

Last heating season we managed to make it to the beginning of March before we had to stop using the woodstove because the chimney became clogged. At that point we should have called a chimney sweep, but we figured we were close enough to the end. We were wrong. This year we'll have the sweep come sometime in February to ensure we'll be able to use the woodstove until April or May.

If we can pull that off we'll have kept our use of propane under 300 gallons for the entire year. At $2.50/gallon (or more) that will suit me just fine.

*******

Rachel Lucas points us to a piece by a liberal academic who admits that the Second Amendment is indeed an individual right, not a collective one.

He'd better keep this to himself or he might be drummed out of academia!

*******

This doesn't sound good.

(H/T Instapundit)

*******

Tom Bowler covers the ongoing information war between the Iranian backed insurgency in Iraq and the Coalition forces/Iraqi government. It's interesting to see the difference in how a counterinsurgency strike against Iranian Quds force commandos operating in Iraq is reported by various new agencies.

Need I say that a majority of the US media is not on our side?

*******

Isn't it interesting how the Dems have been bashing President Bush and crying crocodile tears because he vetoed the deceptive SCHIP bill? They didn't waste much time trying to paint Bush as the villain even though he warned them that he would veto the Democrats attempt to expand coverage and bring in socialized medical care by the back door.

It didn't help that the Baltimore Sun didn't perform any fact checking before they swallowed the Dems spoon-fed propaganda.

But then the Dems don't want to confuse the issue with facts.

*******

Oh, now I see how it works!

Bad news from Iraq must be reported and hyped immediately. But good news should be buried in case the numbers are 'tricky'.

Yeah. Right.

Thank God that these jerks weren't around during WWII otherwise that war might have dragged on another couple of years. But back then the media was on America's side.

*******

Tomorrow is Columbus Day, the day when we celebrate the Western Civilization's exploitation of the Americas, including the genocide of the peaceful indigenous peoples and rape of the land. (See how silly such a contention is? Mind you, we aren't innocent, but then neither is any other civilization. Many existing civilizations are far worse than we are or have ever been. But that doesn't matter to the PC progressives, does it?)

*******

And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the weather is still variable, the leaves are changing to their fiery fall colors, and where I have the day off tomorrow.