practically fall

Okay, the equinox isn't upon is yet...so I'm leaving the sweaters packed away for now. One good thing about wearing sweaters in the fall is that it's less ironing to do. Shirts with nothing worn over them need to be ironed....anything under a sweater can be "as is".

Haven't gotten to see too much of the US Open....back in 1994, I had knee surgery and was laid up for a month, so I watched it every day, and so I usually watch at least one night every year, almost to say thanks to it for giving me something to do as a freakin' invalid that year. (I flew off an ATV and cracked open my patella upon landing....two stainless steel screws are still in there...yes I had a helmet on my head but I guess that wasn't the important spot....lastly, everyone who sees my scar wonders what ligament damage I had -- none, and also why the incision isn't straight -- it is, but the skin break from impact wasn't straight.) A couple of years ago I got tickets to a day session the first week in New York. First, ALWAYS buy the tickets ahead of time online, so you can save an hour in line. Second, if you have a softball playoff game later than night, try to leave early enough to get home. We saw almost a full match, and got to walk around, but we only got to enjoy about 2.5 hours. After the US Open, I convinced friends to drag me out mini-golfing, pretty much hopping around on one foot. And by late October, I was beating them at one-on-one basketball again.

We won the softball game in the 10th inning, and then won the division championship right after. The overall league/town championship is this Thursday.

My mother-in-law's chain saw was brought out to take down some dead trees in our front yard, but it only started up once. We had to call customer service to get a replacement user's manual emailed to us. Probably something stupid, but who knows. Anyways, this meant more work with an ax. The handle to the ax is now split a bit...it seems cedar trees have pretty hard wood. It's interesting enough to smell the cedar as I build up a pile of dead wood in the back of the house....cedar's supposed to be a moth repellent, no? So no moths in the yard then? Anyway, one tree is still suspended from the bittersweet vines above, so it's just kind of leaning in the yard. That's going to be a problem. Once most of the trees are down, I plan to rent a woodchipper or something and mulch them all up.

Flipped on the TV Saturday night to see the new Red Sox guy Clay Buchholz with a no-hitter through five. I would have kept it on, but since the Sox had gotten no-hit through 5 and 6 innings earlier in the week in New York, I just assumed Baltimore would have gotten a hit soon enough, too.