Notes, Quotes, and Raincoats

The weather in Ohio is notoriously inconsistent, but this is getting ridiculous. Yesterday it was sunny and 86°. Now it's raining and 60°. If it was a simple progression, that would be fine, but it wasn't. It was hot all day yesterday, then clouded up and stormed some last night. Then it cleared up. Then it stormed again early this morning. Then it cleared up and was gorgeous and sunny for a while. Then it got really dark and stormed again. Now it's just cloudy and rainy. It's supposed to clear up again this evening, and then storm again overnight.

It's supposed to rain on and off all weekend. This makes me even more glad that I took advantage of Wednesday's awesome weather.

After some searching, I've finally found the channel on which Time Warner Cable in Bowling Green is showing Reds games that are televised on Fox Sports Ohio, even when they're pre-empted locally by Cleveland Indians games. This means I'll get to see a fair number of Reds games this season after all. This makes me happy.

Unfortunately, as is my habit, I fell asleep on the couch in front of last night's game. This means I missed Ken Griffey Jr.'s return to form. I'm glad to hear about it, though, even if I didn't actually see it. We need Junior to stay healthy this year and do the things he's capable of doing.

Other than baseball, what a crappy time of year this is for sports. I've tried to get into the NBA and NHL playoffs, but I just can't do it. Unfortunately, that stuff is dominating sports coverage due to its "importance." I'm ready for these sports to be over so ESPN can focus on baseball. Of course, then they'll probably ramp up coverage of golf and NASCAR, which are even worse.

I don't attend nearly as many sporting events through the summer as I do the rest of the year. There's plenty of other cool stuff to look forward to in the coming weeks and months, though. The new Stephen King book, Song of Susannah, comes out on June 8. Edwin McCain's new CD, Scream and Whisper, comes out on June 22 (also Brandi's birthday), and hopefully he'll be playing a show or two in the area. I have tickets for Brandi and I to go see the Reds on June 12 when they play in Cleveland, and I'd like to get down to a game or two in Cincy.

There are plenty of cool movies coming out this summer as well. I'm a bit of a movie buff, but I probably won't get to the theater to see each one I'm interested in. Oh well, that's what DVD players are for. The one I'm most anticipating is Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, which comes out on June 4. Troy comes out today, and it looks pretty cool. I also want to see Shrek 2 (May 21), The Day After Tomorrow (May 28), Garfield (June 11), Spider-Man 2 (June 30), and Anchorman (July 9). I'm sure there will be more.

Speaking of Harry Potter...I know I've linked this site before, but I wanted to mention it again. Not having much to do this morning, I was perusing this site and some of the essays people have written. I'm amazed at how much analytical though has gone into some of them. I think it's awesome. I have a tendency to geek out on stuff sometimes, and it's good to know I'm not the only one.

Okay, so Friends is over now. I wasn't a regular viewer by any means, but I've seen my share of episodes and was mildly amused by them. Anyway, not many sitcoms have this kind of staying power, so I'm a little sad to see it go. On the other hand, I don't generally watch television that doesn't involve some sort of athletic competition, so what do I care? Why am I even writing about this? I don't know. If you're looking for a sitcom to watch, check out That 70s Show. Now that is quality television.

For my latest video game fix, I'm thinking of picking up Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. It looks really cool. I've been playing sports games almost exclusively for a while, so it'll be nice to plunge into a role-playing game, particularly a Star Wars game. In the back of my mind I'm still interested in Galaxies, the massively multiplayer online role-playing game, but I doubt my life would be the same if I got into it. Also, I really don't have any spare funds right now for a game subscription.

Sounds like we're all set to lay off some more guys this afternoon. Shop guys, of course, unless someone isn't telling me something, which is possible. Current plans call for laid-off employees to be called back to work on June 7. I'll believe it when I see it. We have no business right now, and our "sales staff" doesn't seem up to the job. If things get worse, I just hope the owner decides to sell instead of just folding the company, even if I'm not here at that point. There's potential here, but right now there's no leadership.