Cup of Coffee

July 24, 2013: So Quiet

108 Comments

My girls have been gone for three days now, and the silence in here is deafening. I'm starting to miss them terribly - much too soon considering there are eleven days to go - but I'll admit the Milkmaid and I have enjoyed taking time off from a few responsibilities.

108 thoughts on “July 24, 2013: So Quiet”

  1. If y'all are near Park Rapids I have some work going up at the Nemeth Art Center in August. Details when I get 'em.

    1. I wasn't sure if I was near Park Rapids until I looked it up.
      Turns out that I am not.

    4. My mom lives a handful of miles away, and that's where my daughters are right now. Not sure when I'll get there again, though.

    5. My mom's in Brainerd, so it's close enough from there to make a trip. And my youngest daughter loves her art. She almost cried when she saw the Van Goghs in Chicago last summer.

      1. These may make her cry for different reasons. My recent work has been described as gross.

        1. Yeah, from what I've seen of your art, I wouldn't take my kids to your exhibit just like I wouldn't take them to the Francis Bacon exhibit. (Which was actually well before they were born anyways.)

              1. I had hogs head cheese for the first time last year. That shit is like crack cocaine.

  4. Turns out Mauer isn't unflappable for everything:

    Mauer, normally pulse-less in pressure situations, wasn't this time.

    ``That's probably the least calm I've seen him,'' said closer Glen Perkins. ``He was pacing around pretty good. Mike had gotten up to do something, and he was like, `Where's Mike? Where's Mike?' I was the same way, when we had our second one I was in Kansas City.''

    And:

    2. From farther down in the same blog post is this:

      There was speculation that Oswaldo Arcia would get the call, but Gardenhire mentioned that Arcia was removed from Tuesday's game for not running a ball out. And assistant General Manager Rob Antony confirmed that Arcia was not removed because of injury.

      Arcia, as already noted by Jeff, struck out in his only plate appearance in the first inning. In the top of the second, someone hit a fly ball to Arcia, but he caught it. I guess he caught it lazily? The top of the second went: single to left fielder, fly out to Arcia in right, ground out to second, ground out to short.

      1. The more quotes I hear from the Twin's coaching staff, the more I think they are just old-school robots with a set number of words.

          1. Man, that thing would have been way better at 3rd than Ulger. Couldn't possibly have waved in Kubel/Morneau/etc.

        2. So does that imply that there is little communication between the big club and its affiliates? This story is not filling me with confidence as more details emerge.

        3. remember late last year when that blurriness thing happened to Samuel Deduno? (ok, maybe 2 people remember because most everyone was tuned out of Twins games by August)

      4. Maybe he didn't run up to backup the second baseman on the grounder? Is that even a thing?

  5. At 4:00p today I am heading up north for my kinda-annual solo sojourn into the north woods. This time I'll be hiking in the BWCA. If I did this correctly, the link below should show you the general area I will be in. You can't tell from the map, but there is a practically 90 degree vertical climb (via steps) from Duncan Lake to Rose Lake, along a waterfall.

    https://www.google.com/maps/preview#!data=!1m4!1m3!1d20162!2d-90.4187094!3d48.0864217!2m1!1e3&fid=7

    The forecast is for rain, which kind of sucks. I have proper rain gear and it's kinda cool hiking through the woods in the rain, but if it lasts for more than a couple of hours, being wet for that long can put a damper on things :o).

    1. That sounds awesome. The one time I winter camped in the BWCA, I was in that area (we stayed on Clearwater Lake, but took a day snowshoe trip up to Mountain Lake, then across Watap and Rove Lakes to the long Rose Lake portage). It's a beautiful area!

        1. It was awesome. It was my senior year of HS, and one of my classes was outdoor adventures. Even though the class went up together, we planned and camped in small groups (3-6 people). We decided that we wanted to make a quinzhee for shelter, which was a really good idea. It was fairly warm (~30 F) the first two days, but the the second night to the third day brought insanely low temperatures (~-25 F with some strong winds).

          We did pretty well for ourselves, including the 8 mile snowshoe the second day. It's a different brand of camping, and some crazy stuff can happen, but it's a remarkably beautiful place. The quiet and sense of calm was amazing, and we were fortunate enough to have a few clear nights, so the stars were amazing.

  6. I belong to a veterans writing group called the Deadly Writers Patrol. DWP was started about a decade before I moved to Madison by some Vietnam and WWII vets, and mainly focused on translating the Vietnam experience to printed words on a page. Since I joined the group we have begun featuring more Persian Gulf, Iraq, and Afghanistan veteran writing. (We publish occasional issues of our small literary journal, creatively named The Deadly Writers Patrol.)

    I mention this because I just finished work on DWP's new website, which I'm hoping you might pass on to anyone you know – veteran or otherwise – who may be interested in reading prose and poetry written by Vietnam, Persian Gulf, Iraq, & Afghanistan vets. We're also on Twitter @DWP_Madison, which seems necessary these days.

            1. Nobody in the military has ever corrected me on that; I think you're probably right, but they're probably too polite to say anything.

              1. From what I've gathered from my brother-in-law and little brother, I think the breakdown goes

                Army - Soldier
                Navy - Sailor
                Air Force - Airman/woman
                Marine - Marine

                Then again, I may be wrong.

                1. Those are indeed the preferred nomenclatures. However, I couldn't tell you how an Air Force officer, pilot or otherwise, would react to being called an "airman," since that's an actual junior enlisted rank in the Air Force.

                  Don't forget the Coast Guardsmen!

                  1. Of course. I don't know how I forgot them. Boog wanted to be in the CG for a long long time before he decided on the Air Force.

                    2. Haha, he did not like it when I told him that joke. In face, I believe I got it from you way back.

                      He attended a week for high schoolers at both the CG Academy in CT and Annapolis, and he didn't like either. The AFROTC program at Drake was a better fit.

                    5. my h.s. athletic director tried to talk me into applying for an appointment at the Coast Guard Academy. I spent a week at the Naval Academy the summer before my senior year for a science & technology camp/seminar and already knew that I was not cut out for the military (or quasi-military) life.

                  3. One of my best friends from high school went into the Army to learn to fly, they made him a chopper pilot. After eight years of that, he did several years in the Coast Guard flying rescue missions, then was a contract pilot for the DEA, flying agents around looking for pot fields in CO, NM and TX. During the Gulf War he went to Afghanistan as a flight instructor (private contractor) to the Afghan military. We hooked up for lunch a couple years ago when we were back in Colorado on vacation. Dude has some great stories. Wish we'd had more time to catch up, but a couple of hours was better than none.

              2. Generally speaking I wouldn't correct anyone I'm not related to or very close friends with, unless they're introducing me at a public function or something, for exactly that reason.

  7. Listened to two Gleeman and the Geeks this morning on my commute, one with Geek and one without. The quality has gone up some, maybe because they aren't drinking during the thing since they are now on the radio for the first half.

    Aaron points out, though, that the Twins have very few pitching prospects. Of course, TINSTAAPP. Even still, it's hard to see the Twins being truly competitive in future years without some arms.

    1. The quality has gone up, but every time I hear their producer interject a talk radio soundboard clip I get this–><–much closer to writing a negative review on iTunes. The only reason I listen is because when G&G are actually talking about baseball they're better than anything I'll find on terrestrial radio. Between the inane sound effects and their other on-air proclivities, it's getting harder to justify a subscription to the podcast.

      3. If enough position players pan out, I see more trades for minor league pitchers in the future.

    3. I think TINSTAAPP is the biggest load of donkey manure to come out of the stat-minded camp. You might as well say There Is No Such Thing As A Good Pitcher. Yes, pitchers are at high risk of injury, so the longer you have a pitcher, the more likely he is to get hurt, but there is clearly a correlation between strong performance in the minors and strong performance in the minors for pitchers just as there is for position players.

      1. there is clearly a correlation between strong performance in the minors and strong performance in the minors for pitchers

        Can't argue with that! 🙂

    1. Weird, because I was wondering on Monday whether the Twins were going to sign him to a non-guaranteed deal or a 1 yr/$3mil Ramon Ortiz/Jason Marquis special in the offseason.

      1. Well, he's under contract for 2014 at $7.5 million with a team option for 2015 with a $1 million buyout. I'd think the Twins could get him for the minimum when the Angels let him go right?

  9. I am in the process of JB Welding mc's laptop case. A long time I ago, I lost a screw while I took it apart to clean out the air intake and reapply some silver paste. Over time, opening and closing the screen caused it to crack apart. Oops. At least the JB Weld seems to be setting up nicely. Hopefully it'll hold.

      1. I got the cracked case fixed, only to find the little brass bit (a nut of some sort, I guess?) the screw attaches to on the mating face of the case had broken free of its plastic, so more JB Weld for that bit. Then I figured, what the hell, and replaced the thermal paste while I was at it.

  11. Tonight on "All Things Considered" (MPR) at 5:30 there'll be a piece on my company, Mental Health Resources. They didn't interview me, but if you're interested to get a slice of what our agency does, I welcome you to tune in!

  12. Spooky - I don't know the origin of your avatar (I should, but I don't). However, this tweet

    “@BradBiggs: Catching some minor lg ball tonight at Kane County and Scott Baker was tattooed by Razor Shines-led Loons. 2.2 rough innings”— Howard Sinker (@afansview) July 20, 2013

    led me to this and this...first time a tweet has ever prompted an internet search out of me.

    3. Razor Shines was a legend for the (Indianapolis) Indians when I was growing up. He was there pretty much my entire childhood. I have a bobblehead of him somewhere in my parents' house.

  13. Philosofette is looking for something in the world of prose that addresses the issue of beauty. Ideally it would either be a description of a beautiful female (a fairytale perhaps?) or a critique of the standards of beauty. I'm coming up with nothing, but my brain is currently exhausted. Anyone have any recommendations?

    1. Shakespeare's Sonnet 127:

      In the old age black was not counted fair,
      Or if it were, it bore not beauty's name;
      But now is black beauty's successive heir,
      And beauty slandered with a bastard shame:
      For since each hand hath put on Nature's power,
      Fairing the foul with Art's false borrowed face,
      Sweet beauty hath no name, no holy bower,
      But is profaned, if not lives in disgrace.
      Therefore my mistress' eyes are raven black,
      Her eyes so suited, and they mourners seem
      At such who, not born fair, no beauty lack,
      Sland'ring creation with a false esteem:
      Yet so they mourn becoming of their woe,
      That every tongue says beauty should look so.

      1. Okay, so...this is clearly not prose. By the time I read the end of your email I was so excited about the Bard that I forgot what you asked for.

    2. Zadie Smith's novel On Beauty comes immediately to mind. The title is from On Beauty and Being Just, a nonfiction work by Elaine Scarry, so that's another idea. Or there's Naomi Wolf's classic The Beauty Myth. And going back to fiction, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison.

    3. Well, there's a certain book by Nabokov, but uh...

      This is a good question. I'm positive that I've read a lot of great prose about beauty, but nothing is really jumping from my memory. I will keep thinking about this.

      1. I suggested that one to my wife (along with Fowles' The Collector), but for some reason she apparently wants to avoid creepy.

  14. Insane comment of the day from Posnanski's blog:

    I do watch Trout a lot, almost every game. He looked terrible in left field earlier this season. Once he moved to center he looked much better. He doesn't look great, but like a good CF. Mark Trumbo was better in left field than Trout was to start the season.

    Say what? How is this even considered? My guess is that Trout dropped some balls that Trumbo could't get within 10 feet of, so Trumbo is better in some inane logic.

    1. Well the point was: how does Trout have negative fielding WAR this season?
      Looking for reasons...

      1. Because I think DRS isn't that great. UZR has Trout as a positive in left field this year and just barely negative in center. DRS has them both negative while TZ has them positive.

        1. Well, that's a better response, but I can't fault a guy as much as socal does for trying to fit anecdotal observation data (even watching every game) with some actually (potentially) useful fielding statistics.

          1. but sean's datums don't address Trumbo. Hard to evaluate without comparing their stats too.

            1. Fine! 2013 only stats below. Note that Trumbo has spent only 58.1 innings in left this year.

              Dude TZL DRS UZR
              Trout 4 -3 2.7
              Trumbo 1 0 1.1

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