Thoughts On A Sunday

The Red Sox won Game 3 of the World Series last night, 10-5, putting them up 3-0 over the Colorado Rockies. Could the Sox sweep the Series, just as they did in 2004?

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It was a long day for BeezleBub, Submarine Tim, and me yesterday.

First, it must be understood that Tim's deuce-and-a-half is slow, geared more for hauling than for speed. Second, although he's done a wonderful job restoring it, there are a few more details he's still working on, specifically the gaskets that seal the windscreens when they're closed. Third, it was raining yesterday. I mean it was raining yesterday. Now take in the prior two factors and you'll understand that ride down to and back from the WP In-Laws was slow, noisy, and wet. I'm talking about so noisy that conversation was very difficult. I'm talking about so wet because rain was leaking in around the edges of the windscreens and being blown into our faces, so much so that my glasses were constantly beaded with water as we drove down the highway.

And then we got to the In-Laws.

It didn't take us all that long to load the deuce-and-a-half, fitting just under 3 cords of wood into the cargo bed. That's a little over 4 tons of firewood we moved in a little over an hour, with two people moving the wood from the woodpile and two people stacking it neatly into the back of the truck. This brought the truck frame down to the point where the helper springs just made contact with the rear axles.

As slow as the trip down to the In-Laws was, the trip back was even slower. There were more than a few steep hills that we had to climb and the loaded deuce-and-a-half did so at a stately 15 miles per hour, tops.

But finally we made it back to The Manse, parked the truck, and then took Submarine Tim home.

All that BeezleBub and I have to do is unload and stack the firewood and then get the truck back to Tim.

So far we've managed to unload about a third of the load and we expect to get the rest of it done by Tuesday evening.

Though we didn't get all the firewood we'd hoped in this one trip, we might have enough to make it through the winter. It isn't impossible that we may have to do this one more time before the end of the heating season, but I hope not.

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Speaking of heating season, how many of you out there are taking steps to offset the higher costs of heating fuel? I know that we're going to be spending a little more time and money to seal off most of the windows here at The Manse to minimize cold air infiltration. (We don't want to stop it entirely because we do need fresh air in order to maintain healthy air quality inside our home.)

While The Manse was built with a heating system that uses propane for fuel, we plan to do most of our heating with wood, as I mentioned in this post.

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The New England Patriots take on the Washington Redskins at Foxboro today.

If Bill Belichick stays true to form, he won't be letting the Pats get cocky, making sure that they focus on this game and forget the ones they've already played.

Is it possible the Patriots could go undefeated for the season? Of course. Will they actually go undefeated for the season? I'm not holding my breath.

But it would be great if they did.

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I almost forgot: today is BeezleBub's last day working on the farm. Unless the owner needs him in the greenhouses over the winter, BeezleBub won't be working on the farm again until next year.

I'm pleased as punch that he's such an industrious kid. He loves working, saves his money (I think he spent all of $50 of the more than $2000 he made over the summer), and looks forward to working there next year.

On the other hand I'm glad he's done for now, meaning that I won't be getting up at 6AM on the weekends to get him to work. Until mid-spring next year I'll be able to sleep in until 6:15, or maybe even 6:30AM if I'm really feeling lazy.

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While I am usually loath to see yet even more laws added to the rolls, there is one I can honestly get behind: banning texting while driving.

More than a few people, mostly teens, have caused automobile accidents because they were texting rather than paying attention to the road. In far too many of those accidents they did not survive. Teens aren't the only offenders. Too many adults try to use their laptops or Blackberry's while driving, which is no different from what I can see. Driving while yakking on a cell phone glued to your ear isn't much better.

When you're behind the wheel you're supposed to be paying attention to driving.

Will such laws be effective? I don't know. Certainly a number of teen drivers don't think so.

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It was interesting watching the Miami Dolphins and New York Giants play in Wembley Stadium in London, England.

From my many visits to the UK I know there are a lot of NFL fans there, usually watching the games in the US on the telly. Sometimes the time difference means that they're watching the games into the wee hours of the morning.

My ex-fiancee's father was a big New England Patriots fan. We spent many a phone call talking about the Pats, in some cases while the Patriots were playing. (I must explain that many years ago I was engaged to a lovely woman from England.) I once had a lengthy discussion with a London cabbie about whether the Patriots would win the SuperBowl that year. I told him he should put a bunch of cash on it. He did...and the Pats won their first SuperBowl that year.

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Diversity in the workplace is all well and good, but how the heck anyone expect to force diversity?

How is it determined that you have sufficient diversity unless an employer asks questions of employees that they aren't allowed to ask under anti-discrimination laws?

Talk about a Catch-22!

(H/T Instapundit)

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At least one Democratic member of Congress has the stones to tell the Dutch to “piss off” in regards to the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.

The Dutch are threatening to remove their 1,600 troops from Afghanistan to protest Gitmo. Dutch politicians face growing problems with Islamic youths and likely fear a L'Intifada like France suffered in 2005.

Peters said: "We have to close Guantanamo because it symbolizes for me everything that is wrong with this war on terror."

To which [Democratic Congressman Tom] Lantos apparently replied: "Europe was not as outraged by Auschwitz as by Guantanamo Bay"

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After yesterday's rain and wind, a good portion of the fall foliage has dropped from the trees here in central New Hampshire. It wasn't until I was taking Submarine Tim home late yesterday that we noticed the roads covered with a blanket of fallen leaves.

If you've never driven on a road covered with wet, fallen leaves, those leaves can make the road as slippery as if it were covered with ice. One driver behind us on one of the twisty winding road found out the hard way when he/she almost went off the road on one of the sharper turns.

For all intents and purposes, fall foliage season has ended of 2007 here in the Lakes Region.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where fall weather has arrived, the leaves have left, and where we still have 2 cords of wood to offload and stack.