37 thoughts on “May 11, 2021: Sobering”

  1. No Twins affiliates played yesterday. Today's schedule:

    6:00 Clearwater at Fort Myers (Hunter McMahon)
    6:30 Cedar Rapids (Ben Gross) at Quad Cities
    7:05 Iowa at St. Paul (Randy Dobnak)
    7:05 Amarillo at Wichita (Cole Sands)

  2. I love when organization higher-ups schedule meetings last minute and make us scramble to reschedule our existing meetings that are at the same time.

  3. Yesterday I got to drive down to the Iowa border (in fact, at one point, while heading East, I was technically in Iowa I think!). I got to see a number of birds, and so I decided to do a quick check on the number of birds I positively IDed yesterday. I ended up with 29.

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    Notably, I saw no raptors other than the GHO and Turkey Vulture, which was odd (normally on a drive like that there'd be a half-dozen or more Kestrels and at least one Red-tailed Hawk). I also saw none of the usual woodpeckers or nuthatches at my feeders yesterday, so this number definitely could have been up. I'm also reasonably confident I saw a few different swallows and sparrows, but never got a chance to positively ID.

    The Great-horned Owl is a lifer for me. I've almost certainly seen them before, but have never positively IDed them. This one flew right in front of my van and landed in a tree about 100 yards away. Through my binoculars I could see the "horns". I snapped a photo on my phone (through the binocs) but it was pretty blurry. Still, that was really cool.

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    1. The cabin on the lake we're staying at has a little book called something like "Critters of Minnesota" -- have to admit, I'd never heard of a "fisher" before.

      Looking forward to taking the canoe out soon, hopefully. It's been a bit cold for now, plus of course just as we were exiting allergy season in MO I'm now solidly hitting allergy season in MN.

      1. They're pretty much between a weasel and a badger, right?

        We have a mink that lives in the stormwater drainage pond down the road. That's fun to see from time to time.

      2. You're staying up near Alexandria? Watch for all sorts of different waterfowl. You might be a bit late on a few, but there should be a good number still - lots of different types of ducks to see!

        1. Big Sugarbush, north of DL. Mrs Runner unknowingly rented a lake house about 3 houses down from the cabin my family had in the 70s/80s.

          Nowhere in JeffA's league, but saw two pheasants between my parents' home and the cabin.

          1. Oh yeah, I'd imagine there'd be a lot of good waterfowl.

            Pretty cool about the coincidence with the old cabin.

          2. Big Tamarack always gives me a laugh when I'm going through our local lake maps.

    1. Friday night Saints game and cocktails. I'm thinking this could become a regular thing at Twayn Manor.

    1. Holy cow, OKC! At first I thought that was a designer’s logo down in the “footer” or something. What happened to them?!

  4. Soliciting thoughts on how/whether to deal with:

    A) An assistant baseball coach who, after his own son got hit in the face by a hard-hit ball, dropped a (very very harsh, but quiet, thinking no one else would hear it) "don't you dare" when the son started to cry (note - this wasn't like a "shake it off" "tough it out" "you're okay" kind of thing... my impression was the dad was angered/embarassed by tears ). In my observations he has not treated any other kid even close to this way - it seems restricted to his own child.

    B) The same coach who seems very clearly interested in only working with/encouraging the best players. These are 6/7/8 year-olds. Note - he has been generally supportive/helpful for the best players, and works with the other ones to the extent that is required but doesn't give them extra attention like he does the best players.

    This individual is a high school coach for not-baseball too. He has had some success in coaching his other sport, and seems generally respected for his coaching ability. I'm starting to guess this may have something to do with hitching his wagon to the more talented athletes, and less to do with coaching.

    1. My advice is to cuss him out, but that approach doesn't work for everyone.

    2. He's telling his 6/7/8-year old kid to suppress his feelings? OFFS. And compounding that by openly favoring the "talented" kids?

      FWIW, I would advise keeping your kid as far away from that person's oversight as possible. Short of that, maybe a quiet conversation with the lead coach about philosophy. Kids that age should be given the support they need to learn and enjoy the game.

      Good lord. I can't decide which part bothers me more.

      1. Lead coach is doing a great job. But he coaches under this individual in the other sport which they both care more about, so I'm not eager to bring it up.

  5. CH, your migas post has led to me looking at a bag of chips in a whole new light. I got down to the crumbs of one just now, and I mouthed to myself "I know what I'm having for breakfast tomorrow."

    1. I had them for lunch today! And yesterday!

      I’m still trying to find a tortilla chip that I truly love. There is broad disagreement about preferable tortilla characteristics in this house.

        1. I would certainly consider it, but I have a fairly intense dislike of the fried food smell that lingers in the house & on my clothes. (Unfortunately, this also caps my consumption of schnitzel. And doughnuts. And chicharron. And falafel. And loukoumades. And Scotch eggs. And churros. And…)

          If we had a proper patio, I’d be inclined to do more frying outside, either on a portable induction unit, or using my turkey fryer.

          1. You don't have a good hood vent?

            Mine's not perfect (and I don't deep fry often), but it is pretty effective.

            1. No, the vent hood is as mediocre as the range. I suspect they came together, although I’m not familiar with the model of the hood. It works sort of okay for rising steam from boiling liquids, but is overmatched for things beyond that. My usual remedy is simply to open as many windows as I can and light candles afterward.

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