June 19th was a comfortable, bright and breezy afternoon. Following a day at the office I treated myself to a Graeter's ice cream in the uptown parks.
The college students had by that date split town. Sitting on a park bench in the sun-dappled shade it was a peaceful, pleasant end to my work day.
Living the dream!
Back on Curve Road, sun-dappled shade in the evening is a recurring theme;
The new neighbor, a very nice university professor, promptly threw up the Great Wall of Reily Township shortly after moving in. This, as one might imagine, reduced the formerly expansive view of the surrounding woodlands. On this day in late June it served as a broad canvas for the evening's fading sun rays. [F/X cue; Jacob's Ladder]
Moles have invaded my yard and turned it into a replica of the WW1 Ypres battlefield. If anybody has a sure-fire method of malicious extermination of said varmints, please submit your remedy. Grazie!
On the 29th of June, Lou popped for a working lunch at McD's:
Sometimes, photographic opportunities present themselves. I was powerless to resist.
July 1st exploded like the blast from a plutonium-fueled furnace.
Concurrently, the Reds opened their gates to the barbarian blue hoard from Wrigleyville.
Jude having rebuffed my gracious invitation to attend in favor of spending the Independence Day holiday
In the photo above, I captured a triumvirate of baseball legends. The National League's MVP for 2010, Joey Votto, takes a daring lead off third base. The National League's MVP for the 2016 season, Kris Bryant, mans third base. Coaching third base is the man who holds the MLB all-time record for World Series batting average, Billy Hatcher. Playing for the World Champion Cincinnati Reds in 1990, Billy Hatcher batted .750 (in 12 at-bats).
A hazy, hot and humid July 7th summer afternoon unleashed a tremendous thunderstorm upon SW Ohio.
Talk about bruised and sullen storm clouds, twilight premature, and thunderheads rumbling in a distant overture! [note; these are all lyrical references to Jacob's Ladder by Rush]
I fled the city to take shelter back at The Ranch. The power flickered, the local meteorologists removed their suit jackets, rolled up their sleeves and breathlessly gesticulated in front of their green screens. Around the region, trees and tree limbs came crashing down in the wind, torrential rain briefly flooded low-lying areas. The severe weather soon passed and I was back out on the road working late into the evening. My far-ranging patrol that evening brought me a stunning scene; the trailing edge of the storm front backlit by the setting sun:
Two days later and the atmospherics - as observed on a quiet, bucolic stretch of Indian Creek Rd - were as different as could be imagined:
The National League's 2015 MVP, Bryce Harper, brought his traveling roadshow into the Great American Ball Park on July 14th.
In the next photo (below), the 2010 and 2015 NL MVPs photographed together:
The Reds didn't win that night. I had nachos with cheese and salsa.
For her July birthday, my youngest niece opted for a low-key, inexpensive birthday dinner. At Steak n' Shake! Yeah, boyyyy!!!
I had fries. Lots and lots of fries.
Coming to a Xmas card near you! My sister-in-law Alison took the photo and added the artistic flourishes. Somebody should nominate this for Time/Life's Photograph of the Year.
The Incomparable Joe Wilhelm stopped by HQ one afternoon in late July and over the course of our wide-ranging conversation asked, almost randomly, if the Cow Crossing road sign was fact or a figment of some faceless bureaucrats imagination. All bureaucrats are faceless, right?
Immediately after work, I jumped into the cockpit of the TDS MINI Cooper Mobile Tactical Unit and headed for rural-most Reily Township to snap a selfie with the fabled road sign (having first checked my surroundings, observing no traffic I activated the 4-way hazard lights and placed the car in park).
When the legend becomes the fact, selfie with the legend!
Lou recently installed GPS tracking systems in the TDS fleet of vehicles. As I was taking this photo, Big Brother [indeed!] sent me a text message. Busted! He wanted to know why I was wasting precious 93-octane fuel.
On Labor Day Eve (is that a thing?), the odometer on the MINI rolled 375,000 miles:
Mid-July through mid-August was mostly a blur. On the 19th of August, Mr B organized a B Team Syndicate outing to Miami Valley Gaming for a day at the (simulcast) races.
There was good racing and, for our own part, suspect handicapping that day at both Saratoga and Del Mar. I picked the most Saratoga winners that day [2], equaling - as usual - the best effort by the panel of experts at the Daily Racing Form (and besting two-thirds of 'em).
I did some nifty handicapping in selecting Hello Don Julio to win. Yeah yeah yeah. I know. Hello Don Julio was the 3-1 in the Morning Line second betting choice. Bear in mind, he was 0 for 2 lifetime on the turf at Saratoga, including finishing well back in his most recent race. That was a Grade 2 race and for this race he was dropping down in class. But aside from two lifetime races, he always broke from an outside post (and was consistently running wide, disadvantageously, turning for home). He ran well in those two races, breaking from the 3- and 4-hole, and for this day's race he would break from the rail. I figured that was the critical element. I figured correctly. The DRF guys didn't.
My wagering efforts for the Del Mar race card were less sterling. Let's ignore that.
On Monday the 21st..... well, you know:
We had a cloudless, clear sky and 91% of totality. It was awesome. According to them there fancy-pants astronomists from NASA, SW Ohio will experience a full solar eclipse in the year 2024. Book your reservations now!
Jude arranged for me and The Incomparable Joe Wilhelm to accompany him and his dad to the Reds-Cubs game on the 24th of August. Jude was suspiciously non-committal as to just where the seats were located. Then Jude bailed out on us, taking - evidently - Jim with him. And so it was just The Comparable Joe Wilhelm, Mr Heavy Artillery.... and a voluminous multitude of the barbarian blue horde from Wrigleyville.
On the drive down to the Great American Tilt Yard, serious consideration was given to swapping the seats with a broker but, in the end, we kept the seats. They were pretty awesome!
About 20 rows up from the visitor's dugout, on the aisle. Jude hooked us up!
In the photo above, Middletown's own Kyle "Schwarbs" Schwarber bats in the 1st Inning against Sal "no relation to Claudio" Romano, Joey Votto ready to field a hot smash at first base.
The Cubs launched a failed preemptive strike in the 1st. Above, the Cubbies' Anthony Rizzo bats with Kris Bryant taking a lead off first base.
Of course, the real star was Joey Votto!
Votto, here (above) facing Jake Arrieta, bats in the 1st. Later, Votto danced off first base:
These days, Reds fans are excited about the rookie prospect Jesse Winker.....
..... who Dat Manager BP insists on parking on the bench.
We arrived at the ballpark early enough to grab a Frisch's Big Boy and fries and eat them at a leisurely pace. Good thing as they give you a mountain of fries. I looked for a Coca-Cola that had my name on it but I've yet to find one that reads "Mr Heavy Artillery." So instead, I settled for something that would be non-controversial in today's social and cultural climate:
Dadgummit!
The carbonation had me so dyspeptic (or maybe that was the obnoxious Cubs fans) that I feared my Big Boy might rise again. I wonder if some Liberal snowflake artwork destroying Talibani vigilante mob seated near me would have considered my cola a Confederate monument? I so hoped that they would if only to injury their ridiculously fragile psyche.
In needs to be said here, as a means to forestall any vigilante mob bent on retribution against Heavy Artillery, that as a lifelong Ohioan, a descendant of two Union Army veterans, a student and admirer of U.S Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman, an Irish-Italian whose own ancestors had to band together throughout one dark night in Springfield, Ohio more than 100 years ago in order to prevent the KKK from torching their Catholic church, that I have no time for anything C.S.A.-centric. To me, the Stars and Bars is no different than the Rising Sun flag of Imperial Japan; both flags declared war against my flag and drew American blood in two long and bitter wars (observing neither flag today sends me into a frothy lather). That said, I also don't like vigilante mobs and anarchy but I do like order and the Rule of Law. If there are Confederate monuments on public lands - such as the lawn of a county courthouse - or being maintained by public funds and the sentiments of the local populace runs counter to their continued presence, have them removed. But I question the true motives of those vigilantes who employ mob rule and the Talibani tactics of destroying artwork in the name of a nebulous, purposely ill-defined and proportionally insignificant cause. Those same vigilantes who will proclaim that art should be defended, even art that is deemed by some or many in the community to be offensive, now feel no compunction about themselves donning a mask and destroying public property, monuments and statues.
The Incomparable Joe Wilhelm joined me on the last day of August for a day game versus the New York Metropolitans.
My source deep within the Reds organization, code named Boss, joined us for an inning. Among the lighter, humorous conversation we also shared what little information we knew of the perilous situation of Hutch and his folks in SE Texas. We're all thinking about Hutch and are hoping for the best after Hurricane Harvey.
That afternoon I picked out a Coca-Cola that signaled my concern and hope for Hutch and his folks.
The Reds won, again. Joey Votto homered, but was the star of the game for a much more important reason. If you don't like Joey Votto, you hate life. And are probably an unrepentant Confederate sympathizer.
This season at GABP I am 2-0 in games that The Incomparable Joe Wilhelm attended with me. I'm 2-0 in games against the Chicago Cubs. I'm 2-0 in games that Jude ditched me. I'm on fire!
Shameless plug; As the pennant races heat up, you should only be watching MLB Network for the next 2 months.
Roll the credits!
