Cubs ... lose

Sheesh ...

Lots of big games today. Pennant races going down to the wire. Managers already getting canned ...

So I started my 'final Saturday of the regular season' with the Cardinals-Brewers game on Fox. Not exactly a thriller. The Cardinals took it fairly easily and look to be in the playoffs ... Meanwhile the Phillies won. But so did the Dodgers and the Padres. The Phils are out; the Dodgers and Padres are in. ... I would've rather preferred the Dodgers and the Phillies, but just having the Dodgers in makes me happy ...

Then at about 3:15, I switch over to WGN for what might have been a meaningless game -- the Cubs-Rockies -- to some. Then again, it is the Cubs. At Wrigley. Our manager is as good as gone (pssst, Hendry... Let's go for Girardi ...) ... and we're just trying to save face on what has been a disastrous season, even by Cubs standards ...

... yeah right. The Rockies promptly got off to an 8-0 lead.

... and then the Cubs came back!

... Up until the ninth, I had only been half watching the game. But when Matt Murton walked with two outs in the bootom of the ninth... got to third on a passed ball ... and then Jacque Jones slapped a single that tipped off the Rockies' first baseman's glove, allowing Murton to tie the score ... I was jumping and hollering so loud I nearly tore off our roof ... which wouldn't have been a good thing given that it was pouring rain outside ...

... the game went into extra innings ... went to the 10th ... the 11th ... endured a 38-minute rain delay... the Cubs had chances to win, but couldn't ... the defense (Ronnie Cedeno made a phenomenal catch, running out to left field, lying flat out and snagging the ball over his shoulder ...) and some nice pitching by Jae Kuk Ryu kept the Cubs in it ... and finally in the 14th -- with two outs, two Rockies on base, a 2-2 count and Ryu looking as though he was going to get out of the jam again -- a single up the middle scored two for the Rockies and broke the tie ... I watched as Len & Bob sang the 14th inning stretch for the Wrigley faithful ... thought maybe the Cubs could tie it up again as Cedeno got on in the bottom of the 14th, but Carlos Zambrano -- yes, Zambrano -- flied out to end it ... at about 9:15 p.m.

Talk about an exhausting game to watch ...

* * *

During the rain delay, Len & Bob had the voice of the Cubs, Pat Hughes, in the booth ... as usual, he was full of insight and comic relief about the Cubs season and Ron Santo. He also made a great plug for his new project: recording the voices and history of some of baseball's legendary announcers ... check it out here.

Rambling ...

… I haven’t been much for blogging lately …

… Lack of motivation, and inspiration. Perhaps it’s the seasonal affective disorder settling in already … Figures. Since it’s been like 50 degrees and rainy here (it seems) everyday since, oh, Aug. 30 …

… That, and I’ve been crazy busy lately. I joined a gym -- which I looooooove, by the way. Something I’ve long wanted to do to, and the monthly rate is quite a bit cheaper than the YMCA or some of our local community centers. Plus the music is greeaaat! -- so I’m heading there every day after work … I’ve taken up racquetball again, playing at one of the local colleges on Friday evenings with my buddy, Brian … I’m leading the senior high Sunday school class at our church … The barrage of great fall TV has had me glued to the tube most nights …(See Letterman’s “Top 10 Reasons You’re Watching Too Much Television”)

… and when you write for a living every day, sometimes the last thing you want to do when you come home at night is sit in your home office and write some more …

… but I am a writer. Which means I have a stack of Post-it notes, slips of papers, napkins and anything else I could salvage over the last couple weeks when I saw something interesting or had an interesting thought … Except, as I look at most of them now, I can’t remember what spurred me to scribble must of the stuff down in the first place …

* * *

Dream come true last night: I met Ron Santo.

‘The Old Cub’ was at a local sports card shop and I reserved my ticket as soon as I heard … It’s only in the last few years, since moving back into Cubs territory and tuning into WGN radio on many, many summer nights that I’ve begun to understand the legend that is Ron Santo. The way he unabashedly roots for the Cubs, his eternal optimism, the knowledge and history he has with the game, the amusement he shares for simple things, and his battle with diabetes …

You can’t not love the guy …

With my color photo and ticket in hand -- ticket No. 28; I heard they went as high as 150 so I was in luck -- I waited with the 50 or so people filling the shop. According to the owner, Ron, who was coming with his son, was running a little late because of traffic … Finally, from my perch in front of the store’s doors, I watched as their car pulled up and parked. With the help of a store employee and his cane, he slowly rose out of the car and entered the store to a thunderous applause. … My heart fluttered and, as usual, my eyes welled up at the sight of the man -- live! in person! -- walking in and taking his seat behind the signing table …

The line moved swiftly, and in no time I was standing in front of him. Before I could get any words out, he’d politely signed my photo and slid it back to me across the table as I reached out to shake his hand.

“It’s so nice to meet you Ron,” I told him as we shook hands. “I listen to you and Pat every night. I love it! I’m a huge fan!”

“Aw, thanks,” he said, with that eternal gratefulness he seems to have dealing with any fan he comes across or any of the faxes and emails he reads on the air ...

It was a great, great moment. ... God Bless him. Let's get him in the Hall ...

* * *

So I got my hair cut the other night …

It’s trimmed up a bit, but I can‘t seem to give in to the idea of going back to the shorter standard…

You see, I’ve grown my hair out pretty long this summer -- long by my standards anyway. It’s well over my ears, it nearly covers the back of my neck and curls upward at the ends. While I absolutely won’t let it grow past my collar (I hate the itch of it...), I haven’t worn it remotely this long since college …

Earlier this summer, my editor called me to his office and started the conversation by asking,

“What’s with the hair? Are you becoming a hippie or something?”

“Nah,” I laughed. “I just decided to grow it out for a little bit …” And I said something about it not being exactly professional attire. But my balding editor stopped me, “No, I like it and it looks good on you. There’s a lot of things that bug me, but that’s not one of them. In fact I wish I had that kind of hair …”

Nice. … A week or so later he approached me and greeted me with “Hey, Shaggy …”

… My younger brother, also balding, had a similar reaction when we saw each other recently at a wedding …

… And when I met up with some of my police acquaintances a few weeks ago, a couple of whom I’d not seen in some time, the subject came up. “You kind of got a new do going there?” one of them said, sitting down across the table.

“Yeah, he looks like a thug,” said a Captain, a close source of mine over the years and one who seemingly never wastes time inserting the word “thug” into a conversation. … The discusssion eventually came around to the fact that I’d once endured a Taser shot for research purposes and theories of the Taser spurring my new shaggy look …

* * *

… So I was driving near our house and stopped in the east-west lanes of a busy intersection …

… The light for the north-south lanes turned green and I watched as a red sports car, which had been in the right turn lane, sped straight ahead into the intersection and cut off a minivan that was heading straight (legally) across the intersection …

… I looked in just enough time to see the driver of the minivan -- the mayor! -- shaking his head at the dufus who just cut him off …

Never cut off the mayor …

* * *

… We’ve been having power and computer drive issues in our office all week -- never a good thing in our industry …

So it’s about 2:30 in the afternoon Tuesday on a typical, busy news day. Phones are ringing. The office is buzzing with conversation. Dozens of computers are humming. Fingers are pecking away on computer keyboards …

Then, suddenly and without any warning, everything went dark. There was a loud, unison “Ahh!” And then an eerie silence.

It was CRA-zy. In a flash, everything had stopped … Managers were coming around with flashlights and techies were trying to figure out what had gone wrong …

Turns out some power source down the block had malfunctioned, and the hospital and elementary school down the road were out also. The power did come back on about 45 minutes later. But hearing that deafening silence in a newsroom was unforgettable …

* * *

… On Monday morning I had an 8 a.m. assignment on the west side of the city. For once, I had left the house in plenty of time and was on a good pace …

About halfway there, I opted to turn off the main thoroughfare and try taking a side street, thinking it might be faster. It seemed like a smart move at first …

Then I pulled up to a railroad crossing. And a slow moving freight train passing by …

Ugh.

No big deal. So it slows me down a couple minutes. I got time. Good thing my morning radio show was airing a funny and amusing interview with Julia Louis-Dreyfuss to keep me occupied …

Then there’s a loud crash that sounds from the railroad tracks behind the tree line …

… The train rolls to a stop. Remains still for a few moments …

… and then begins to back up!!!

… and I got cars all around me that are staying put, so I’ve got no hope of somehow turning around and finding another way …

… Now I’m officially going to be late to my assignment …

Finally, the engine appears from behind the tree line and inches closer to the crossing. I’m so anxious I’m ready to floor it as soon as the crossing bars go up …

Then the train stops in the middle of the crossing !!!!

Oh. My. Gosh …



It was another two or three minutes -- although it seemed like 22 or 23 -- before the train finally cleared the crossing and the bars went up, allowing what was now a long trail of cars to drive through …

I made it to my assignment about 15 minutes late …

* * *

I was stopped at a downtown intersection the other day and got to watch a gas station attendant tear down and replace the numbers on the roadside sign. He dropped the gas prices to $2.24 …

… It was a great feeling to watch that.

Sunday reading

...I've gotten way behind on my posts again. Feel free to blame it on all the new fall shows (the subject of one of the posts I need to write ...)

Some decent reads to get you by ...

a After raising white flag, Phillies making a run ... I've said it before, I'll say it again: The Tigers are my team this year. Now if only the Dodgers could squeak by the Padres to win the West and the Phillies could hold to the Wild Card ...
a Journalism: 10 years, 10 days ... if you're a journo, you'll understand ...

Music ...
a See you again on ’The Dark Side’
a Elton John back on track
a Turbulent times mean no lazy, hazy, crazy tunes this summer
a Long Lost Listener Has to Relearn Top 40

TV ...
a 'Studio 60,' your blog is so bleah
a Super, within reason

Sunday reading ...

Once again, ridding my desktop of interesting and intriguing reads I've collected ...

a Exile in Stonesville ... the best and worst of Oliver Stone ...
a Marketing 'World Trade Center' takes a special touch
a Windy City goes for the green
a 'Monday Night Football': My Good Snooze Spoiled ... I've long looooooved Tony Kornheiser's commentaries. Long before he even set foot on an ESPN set and he was still writing HA-larious Sunday Style columns for the Post. And I'm thrilled that he's part of the MNF team ...
a YouTube: You're in charge
a 50 years ago, Elvis shook us up
a In the Concert Hall, It Smells Like Tween Spirit
a Where there's smoke, there's soul ... good stuff about John Mayer ...
a A Measure of Change in the American Home

Remembering

A rainy, dreary day here today ... hardly like this day five year ago ...

I got my news tonight from Brian and the crew at NBC. Great broadcast. ... To me, though, the standout segment was a fascinating piece about the remnants of ground zero. I got chills seeing some of that stuff and hearing Brian and the curators tell some of the stories behind some of the pieces ...

And finally, some of my favorite cartoons depicting this day from Cagle's Cartoon Index ...

The long season

Packers got crushed by the Bears yesterday. First time Brett Favre has ever been shut out. It’s going to be a looooong season …

Ugh.

At least the Colts-Giants game -- aka “The Manning Bowl” -- was fun to watch. Of course the importance of the game was way overblown, but at least it was a competitive game … And how cool was it to see Eli and Peyton spend several moments together in the middle of the field at the end of the game? I had expected the two to meet in the middle, pat each other on back and go their separate ways -- just like all the quarterbacks; forget the brotherly love stuff. Instead, the two met in the middle and spent more than a few seconds together, embracing and talking amid the hoard of cameramen and reporters, even graciously posing for pictures. Very cool.

… When a sideline reporter grabbed Peyton a couple minutes later, he told all of America how strong his bond with Eli really is, talking about the meeting at the end and saying how much he loved his brother. Sweet moment. … And when the reporter pointed out Peyton had never seen Eli play live, Peyton chuckled and said how impressed he was with Eli’s game, adding “he’s going to be in this league a long time.”

… Too bad it might be the most admiration I have for the game of football all season.
I’ve always known it on some level, but this weekend I realized straight up why I’ve never liked the game of football …

People who complain about baseball being too slow and boring -- good Lord! Have you watched a football game!?! … Football is such a herky-jerky, stop-and-start game, it drives me nuts. And I absolutely cannot stand to see a running back slam into a pile of 300-pound guys when there’s often a clear path to the end zone a few feet to the right or left. And there’s the waiting between plays… ugh.

With baseball, there’s a flow, a poetry. The battle between the pitcher -- not to mention the team in the field behind him -- and the batter at the plate is never ending. They’re constantly thinking about the opposing player’s next move. Add to that the elements of a defensive shift, or a base runner trying to throw off the pitcher… the only true break in the action comes every 10 or 20 minutes when the teams switch places in the field -- and then there’s always enough time to get up and raid the fridge.

…Football. There’s a play that lasts about 5 seconds, and it moves the ball two or three yards if you’re lucky. Then there’s a 10-second pause and the sequence begins again …

… Perhaps I’d like football a little more if ESPN didn’t beat it to death either. Aren’t there any other players or coaches in the league with some interesting stories aside from T.O. and Bill Parcells. … jeeeeeeeeeeeeeezzzzzz. I refuse to watch Sportscenter on Monday mornings to avoid Sean Salisbury and all of their football blow. … As if the Monday Night Football moments they showed on Sportscenter every day since 2005 season ended weren’t pathetic enough, they kicked off their coverage for tonight’s Monday night game at noon today -- ok, maybe it was like 2 or 3, but c’mon!

What channel is the Cubs game on?

Relief at the pump?

So they discovered a new oil field in the Gulf of Mexico?

Let's go bonkers ...

Game over

So it was back to playing baseball today ...

Round one of our MSBL playoffs ...

Guess what?

We lost.

Season's over.

Thursday night was the epitome of our season ... Since today marked the first time we'd played in three weeks, I was waiting to see whether Coach would call a practice. Sure 'nough, on Wednesday night he calls to say he was scheduling a practice at 6 p.m. Thursday ... So I go and it’s just me and one of my teammates. Fifteen minutes later, nobody else had come and I called Coach on my cell to ask if we were going to practice. He tells me he called everybody and then names three or four people who said they couldn’t make it. And then he says “and I can’t be there, but everybody else should be there.” … so why did you call the practice?!?!? Yeah. Me and the other guy promptly got in our cars and left.

After the trainwreck that's defined our season, I went into today's game relaxed as ever, knowing too well it was going to be our team's last game. Not just for the season, probably forever ... The team has been so mis-managed and divided that three or four guys are already recruiting and building expansion teams for next years. Other guys flat out aren't coming back ...

I started the game at shortstop because our regular shortstop, Johnny, was tardy. Guys have been doing that all season long, but they still got to play, and those of us who were always on time and warming up at least an hour before the game sat frustrated on the sidelines ... Finally today, Coach called Johnny out. So I started at short, and he sat in the dugout and pouted for the first inning ... In the second, Coach put Johnny in, but I barely spent 10 seconds on the bench as our third baseman started complaining of back pain. I took his place and played the rest of the game at third ...

Playing in the field, I took quite a few throws as guys were tagging up or pulling into the base after hits, but nothing close. My only error came as the bases were loaded in the third and the batter hit a chopper in my direction. I charged it and was looking to throw the lead runner out at home, but the ball took a hard bounce on the grass and skipped over my glove …

At the plate, I had another good day. I struck out my first time up, thanks to some more of the curveballs that have defied me all season long. But, during my second trip, I slapped a 1-2 pitch back up the middle for a single. I moved to third on back-to-back singles and there I sat with the bases loaded as the next three batters went down and we failed to score any runs …

When it was all over, all I could do was join the other players on the field, shake their hands and leak a smile at the way I hung in there all season long, through good and bad ... That and I'd gone 6-for-11 in my last four games ...

And now I start thinking about next year ... I'll have a new team. And I'll be better prepared.

A look back ...
a Game one ... we lost, 19-9.
a Game two ... we lost, 11-5 ... or something like that.
a Game three ... we lost, 8-5
a Game four ... we won! 10-8.
a Game five ... back to losing.
a Games six, seven, eight, nine and 10 ... all losses.
a Game 11 ... another loss.
a Game 12 ... Call it a tie
a Games 13, 14 and 15 ... loss, loss loss (although I won with the other team)

Night No. 2 goes to ...

Katie Couric.

Ok, Ok. So she had the better broadcast tonight.

Her exclusive interview with Bush was ... well, pretty good. And the whole broadcast was solid ...

It's still too peppy and glossy for me though ...

I think I'll be flying solely with NBC again by the end of the week ...

Good night and good luck, Katie

… Has there been a more anticipated night of evening news broadcasts!?!

… Knowing full well that Katie Couric was making her CBS debut tonight, I was eyeing the clock during a last-minute meeting at work and got home about 15 minutes ahead of the 5:30 start …made my supper (a bountiful salad) … and was on the couch in time to watch …

Brian Williams on NBC, of course. God Bless the DVR.

The NBC broadcast, to me at least, is clearly the more superior one. The focus is on news that matters to the common man. The NBC crew started the newscast with the new oil find in the Gulf Coast. Then some news from today’s Bush speech. And a segment about Ford giving up day-to-day operations of the motor corp. that bares his name. And they gave a fascinating story about the Army shunning a tool designed to combat RGBs. All of it came packaged with in-depth reporting and interviews, presented as news that should matter to me and you …

I kept wondering what, if anything, he would say, and as he closed out the newscast, sure enough, Brian welcomed his former colleague to the timeslot and wished her luck, but not too much of it …

A sigh of fulfillment.

Then, I curiously switched on the DVR to watch Katie’s debut …

… She looked good. And her delivery was alright, but as one story noted today, any trained person can read a teleprompter and deliver the news …

Other than that …

eh.

Katie and the heads at CBS are clearly shooting for the younger demographic. That was obvious by the endless plugs to go to CBSNews.com, to see more news, to leave opinions and even to make a suggestion for how Kati should end each night’s broadcast …

I thought ‘Hope to see you back here tomorrow night’ was just fine, Katie. Stick with that.

But C’mon. The portion about Vanity Fair getting the first pictures of Baby Suri made me want to throw up. If I wanted that, I’d flip over to “Access Hollywood” (but I won’t because I can hardly stand celebrity gossip …). Peter Gabriel’s “hit song,” as Katie so obviously pointed out, “In Your Eyes” was equally out of place introducing a segment about a Wisconsin man who gives paintings to orphaned kids -- which, by the way, along with Lara Logan’s face-to-face encounter with the Taliban, was the most interesting piece in the otherwise dull broadcast. And I didn’t get the new “Free Speech” segment either -- it played like any other talking head or political monologue across TV land …

… along with a 10-second blip about the Ford story and most of the solid news, Couric and her crew shoved the Gulf Coast oil find to the middle of the broadcast and even then it was portrayed as a savior to the country’s gas crisis, while Williams and company kept it in perspective by warning it won’t solve all our oil problems and reminding us it’s still four miles deep into the ocean floor …

… so call me a crusty old news junkie who likes it plain and simple …

… I may stick around for a few more nights to watch Katie …

… But I got a feeling Brian’s going to remain my man, whether you know who he is or not …

* * *

In case you missed it, and while I was still sticking with Williams, here's some of the good reads about how it all went down this summer at CBS and ABC...

April ...
a Katie Couric says she's leaving ‘Today’
a Face up to the perky: Katie Couric can't escape the adjective
a CBS' Public Eye Proves Partially Blind

May ...
a Katie Couric leaves 'Today' with tears, gratitude ... or as The Baltimore Sun called it, " a three-hour orgy of nostalgia and Katie-worship that showcased some of the best and worst of network television news."

July ...
a CBS begins promoting Couric's debut
a Katie Couric on the hustings

And meanwhile at ABC ...
a Charles Gibson to anchor 'World News Tonight'
a Morning and night, ABC's Gibson is on the air
a Good ol' Charlie, our favorite anchor dad
a Saunders: Gibson at home with anchor role

Back in the high life again ... ?

I had hoped to be writing this post from the in-laws farm and musing about the wonders of a glorious sunset, but Kates and I decided to save our gas money and forgo the three-hour trip, instead settling for a lazy Labor Day on the homestead, highlighted by late night excursions to Dairy Queen for Moo-Lates. To Wal-mart to experience some of the local culture and pick up some school supplies. And staying in the car long after it was parked in the garage to finish listening to the Rolling Stones, singing ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want.’

… and now it’s raining.

A cleansing, perhaps.

It’s been a refreshing and memorable end to what’s been a summer of everything gone wrong …

Dad arrived Friday morning for some quality father-son time that involved us putting the finishing touches on the deck/porch area we started at the beginning of the summer. The golden deck that wraps around the back corner of our house and highlights our back yard is now complemented by a full roof over our back door and a fully-working storm door (because the old storm door was such a wreck, it wouldn’t stay closed if you blew on it).

And on Saturday, I took Dad out to the ball game. The Cubs game. Wrigley Field. Cubs-Giants. Barry Bonds.

As I taught Dad about the finer points of a Cubs game day, and the tricks and trades of catching all the right trains, we caught the 10:10 train and rode it to the Evanston stop to pick up the CTA. At the stop I filled our CTA card with enough cash, while the PA blared “an inbound train is approaching,” then I grabbed the card, we put it through the turnstiles and I yelled to Dad, “Run! Run! Run!” We galloped up the stairs and barely squeezed through the doors of the el train before it left the station. Good times.

It was far easier picking up the red line at Howard and we were getting off at the Addison stop in no time. We took a jaunt around the stadium, taking in the “world’s largest block party” and got a cheap lunch at McDonald’s before entering the stadium, grabbing our Mark Prior jersey scratch-and-win cards and finding our seats in the upper deck, just right of home plate. It was gloriously sunny, the wind was blowing in, and Wrigley never looked so beautiful … But I think I say that every time.

For the first couple innings it looked as though we would be in for some history as Sean Marshall was perfect for the first two innings and the Giants’ Matt Cain was perfect through the first four … Bonds got the Giants on the board in the fourth with a homerun that barely cleared the ivy in the right field corner. No. 728 on his career “whether you like it or not,” I said. It was interesting that the fans were booing when he stepped to the plate, and many of them were cheering when he hit the homerun. Even my eyes watered -- not sure though if it was joy that I actually got to see the great slugger hit one of his record homeruns, or sadness that every controversy-ridden homerun he hits puts him closer to breaking Henry Aaron’s respected record.

Later, we got to see one of my all-time favorites, Moises Alou, hit a homerun for the Giants in what was a fun inning to watch offensively (Alou’s homer came just a couple pitches after Ray Durham hit a two-run shot), but another chapter in the nightmare of the Cubs season. And in the ninth, Derek Lee popped a solo shot to lead off the inning and get the Cubs within two runs, 4-2. (It wasn’t until we’d returned home and I was going over the game that I realized three of the players I enjoy watching most -- Bonds, Alou and Lee -- all hit homeruns. How ‘bout that …).

The Cubs actually had a chance to win it in the ninth with runners on the corners, Ronnie Cedeno at the plate and Matt Murton on deck with one out. But -- story of the season -- Ryan Theirot made a rookie mistake and got picked off first. And a pitch or two later, Cedeno went down swinging to end the game. The Cubs lost 4-2.

Now, the chaos of getting out of Wrigley begins. The game ended about 4:15 and our goal was to catch the 4:58 Metra train in Evanston. If we missed it, we were stuck in Evanston for another hour. I didn’t think we were going to make it, but we had a chance … Step one is avoiding the clogs that occur while exiting Wrigley’s upper deck ramps, so Dad and I walked the ramp as far as possible and then cut down to the field level and exited there … Once you’re in the concession area, step two, is avoiding the home plate exit under the red marquee -- do that and you’re bound to get caught in the slow-moving single file line that stretches along the scorching heat of the waiting shuttle buses. So we stayed inside the stadium, walking along the first base side and exited out the right field corner where we could easily cross Sheffield to the CTA station … Step three is getting through the mob at the station and getting up to the platform in time for a train. And we succeeded, making it up the platform in record time and we immediately hopped on the waiting train to Howard … Step four, at Howard we had to wait a few minutes to catch the El to Evanston-Davis, but the worst part was over. From Howard, there were only four more stops to Davis, and we made it with 10 minutes to spare before the train arrived to take us home.

Good luck. Good game. Good times … The whole day, was a sweet, sweet ride.

* * *

Looking back on the weekend, and the good vibrations I’ve been feeling the last few days, I gotta believe things are beginning to look up.

Summer of 2006 = Summer of bad luck.

And I thought our bad luck had ended once the insurance claim from our January burglary was settled and we had our window replaced. Then I lost my cell phone in a load of laundry and little did I know it was just beginning …

* * *

In April, Kates and I signed a contract with a local roofing company to have the roof on our 54-year old home replaced. At that time, they told us the work would be done in about three weeks. Shah! …

The materials weren’t delivered until late June and they sat atop our roof for another week before a roofing crew finally started the job. …

Now, I realize roofing is a messy job, but we didn’t expect to come home the next three nights to piles of shingles that were so high and thick we could barely get to our door. The crew put a tarp down to try protecting our new deck, but otherwise left their tools and supplies scattered throughout our yard for days ….

When it was finally over and the debris was cleared, the crew had left a lengthy scratch on the deck and tore off a piece of our siding, which they discarded in one of their dumpsters and replaced with a completely different colored piece.

The good news? The roof replacement is top-notch and I negotiated with the owner to get a few hundred dollars back for the damage to our deck, but now we’ll remember his illustrious crew every time we set foot on that deck …

* * *

Then there was the issue of my Little Green Machine. As the summer started, it began sputtering a lot, especially when I backed from our driveway or flipped on the AC. So I took it to the local dealer -- the same place I’d been taking it for years, the same place that had always treated me respectfully and courteously. I even made an appointment and told them exactly what the problem was. They promised it would be finished by the end of the day …

Two days later, I had to call the dealer to ask where my car was and whether they had figured out the problem. Yep, it needs a major tune-up, they told me, and it was going to cost about $400. Oh yeah, and they were charging me nearly $200 for having the car checked over and inspected -- even after I told them exactly what needed to be checked and fixed. …

When I called the next morning to debate the issue with the service manager, he agreed to knock 10 percent off the cost if I had the work done and attribute the inspection cost to the thorough process the mechanics use and the computer technology involved. But I didn’t ask for that! I told you what the problem was!! …

Furious, I took the car to another auto shop where Kates has had some success. I got my car returned to me within hours of dropping it off, paid half the price and she drove like the first day I rode her from the lot.

* * *

On Thursday, we finally got our lawn mower back after it had spent nearly two months in a local shop. It was in need of a new spark plug and it was leaking oil from it’s back side, so I took it to the shop in early July. A young guy took it and said it would be ready in about three weeks …

Three weeks came and went and I started calling the shop two, sometimes three times a week asking “Is our lawnmower ready yet?”

“Nope,” they said.

“Well, do you have any idea when it might be ready?”

Long pause. “Ah, looks like it’s going to be a couple of days yet.”

For weeks it was the same answer. And on Thursday morning, I called again. Same answer. …

Then, out of the blue, while doing some errands Thursday afternoon, my phone rings and it’s the lawnmower guy telling me it’s ready to go.

“Excellent!” … I picked the thing up, paid the $60 bill, got it home and immediately mowed the lawn before our neighbors began asking whether we were protesting, well, lawn-mowing? I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited about mowing the lawn …

* * *

… In July, with near 100-degree temps outside, Kates and I spent more than a week living out of our basement rec room, thinking that our air-conditioning wasn’t working. We discovered after the temperatures dipped back down that the circuit breaker had merely been tripped. I flipped it back and -- poof -- the air-conditioning came on.

… Our dishwasher also has been on the fritz all summer long …

… I lost my camera at a Brewers game …

… My laptop, at just 6 years old, is already ancient. I’ve lost so many priceless photos and corrupted files in the last few months I’m gonna throw it out a window any day …

… And at times it seemed like the whole world was ending …

* * *

At least I can look back at everything that’s occurred this summer and laugh. All of these things were purely nuisances. Annoyances. People problems … I can still be thankful that I have a roof over me head. A secure job. Good health. Good friends and loving family. Food on the table each day. Money to buy extra things...

... Summerfest was as fun as ever. Kates and I both celebrated memorable birthdays. We saw lots of baseball games and I got back to playing baseball. And we returned to Pine Lake ...

Now as the summer comes to an end and I write all of this, I’m reminded of a classic opinion piece that appeared around this time last year in the Chicago Tribune, proposing that we celebrate New Year’s as the fall begins and the kids return to school. When the fall springs a renewal and new hopes and plans for these long northern winters …

After all that’s happened this summer, all the bad luck, all the hard work, I can’t remember the last time I looked so forward to the winter. In fact, I don’t know that I’ve ever looked forward to a winter … Yet this year, I am. I want to read more. Experience more. Work harder at my job. Write more -- for fun. Complete some of the other smaller house projects I’ve let slide …

And relax …