Musings in the wee hours

It’s approaching 5 a.m. and I’m in that dreaded “physically tired, mentally wired” state.

But I usually get off work around midnight to 12:30. So if midnight is like my vampire version of 5 p.m. (when “normal” people get off work), right now it’s like 10 p.m. for me. Looking at it in that light always makes me feel better.

I just finished some of my CSS course homework and now I need to unwind. There’s no weekly due date for the homework, except of course for last week. Long story short, I crammed three weeks worth of homework into three days and now I’m caught up until Monday. Which is nice.

I have a list to the side of me of blog topics I’ve been meaning to bring up. I just can’t seem to find the motivation.

I’m a perfectionist, so I can’t just bang out some halfway thought-out blog about how bad the Rangers are, or how surprisingly competitive the Mavericks-Spurs series has been. I guess that’s a good thing.

But…

I guess I can make an exception this one time. After all, this post is titled “Musings.” And I haven’t posted anything in nearly a week.

*Vicente Padilla: We know he has the stuff. Is he really just that inconsistent? He is killing my fantasy team’s ERA and WHIP. Maybe I should drop him and pick up…

*Brandon McCarthy: If this guy has ONE MORE good start, I’ll officially renounce his status of “fool’s gold.” Why? Because of what happened last start to…

*Kevin Millwood: Ah, so much promise. Hopefully it was just one bad outing. Kind of like…

*The kid who debuted in Kason Gabbard’s jersey: I was halfway asleep, but I heard rumblings of this from Josh and Tom. I was interested in his situation and even drowsily considered blogging about him, but sleep won out. Speaking of winning, if it were opposite day, I could be referring to…

*The bullpen: One word – BLECH.

This is how all loyal Rangers fans have been rewarded this season: 6-10. Really? From 3-0 to 6-10. They won just enough to evoke dreams of red and blue November parades and shiny rings.

I guess the “best farm system in the nation” will get plenty of practice this year.

Remember, my fantasy team last year was named “Rangers in 2010″ for a reason. You gotta believe. Just not right now. (And I do hope they prove me wrong.)

Mavs-Spurs: As far as that series is concerned, I don’t have a whole lot to say. I’m not a huge NBA fan, but I do like Dallas when it is good, and I’m not ashamed to admit it.

I’m pleasantly surprised to see the Mavs lead the series, 2-1. It’s good they got that road playoff monkey off their back. They had lost, what, nine straight road playoff games, dating to 2006? (The best chance they ever had to win the title, in my opinion.)

Not sure what the deal was in the blowout game the other night. Why did Popovich sit his stars?  I didn’t see most of the game, and when I found out that not only was it on, but the Mavs were up by 32, I decided it was good luck that I wasn’t watching.

So, all that being said, it is clear that my knowledge of the series is seriously lacking. You can bet I’ll be paying better attention from here on.

Final thought: It’s kind of a fact that Dallas’ four major teams can’t all be good at the same time. I promise I will back this up in a future post.

Opening Day

So far, so good!!

The red-clad Rangers had a solid win yesterday over Cleveland. It’s an encouraging start to the season, especially after the last two dismal Aprils.

Millwood, Blalock and Andrus were impressive as reigning Cy Young winner Cliff Lee got lit up. It was much better than the lackluster spring training game against Kansas City that I attended on Saturday. I know, spring training doesn’t count and all the scrubs played, but still. The most memorable play was when someone stole third as a lefty was batting. The runner was out by a mile. I can’t remember if it was a Ranger or a Royal because they were both wearing blue jerseys and I was distracted by my friends and the sun baking my skin. Marlon Byrd hit a homer early, but we hadn’t arrived yet. Overall, the game was enjoyable though.

I’m eager to watch the next game so I can figure out whether this win was a fluke. I’m guessing no, though.

Anyway, hopefully Ron Washington can guide this team to a sneaky-good run this year. My fantasy team’s name last year wasn’t “Rangers in 2010″ for nothing. Maybe they will be a surprise in ’09.

Speaking of fantasy, my team is in first place! I need to appreciate it because it probably won’t last. Thanks, Hanley Ramirez, Adam Lind and K-Rod.

Flowers bloom as a season ends

I originally planned to write this blog on Sunday, but I procrastinated. Then I found out on Monday afternoon that a friend from college had died. So this blog topic  is oddly appropriate, and in a way, a tribute to her.
RIP Stefanie.

******

Well, I’ve had a lot going on since OSU’s hard-fought loss to top-seeded Pittsburgh in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Sunday. That’s why I didn’t write this sooner.

Normally, I get over season-ending losses pretty quickly, but I got really worked up and excited and dreams of the Sweet 16 danced in my head until late in the game and it’s kind of hard to come down from that without a thud.

You kind of have to put the end of the season into the context of the seven stages of grief. For example:

1. Shock and denial: (OSU is  down eight points with 17 seconds to go…) ::final buzzer:: “Are you serious? That’s it?… But they played so hard… What about the seniors? What about Byron Eaton and Terrel Harris? And Anthony Brown??”
2. Pain and guilt: “Ugh…. this sucks!! If only I had gone to more games, maybe I could have cheered them to more wins. Gallagher-Iba was so empty this year.”
3. Anger and bargaining: “Maybe they can send the tapes of all the non-calls to someone at the NCAA. The refs were awful!!!”
4. Depression, reflection and loneliness: “Sigh… Only seven months until the new season. What will I do until then? All my other teams suck.”
5. The upward turn: “Well, it was a hard-fought season… Look at how improved they are from two months ago. Keiton Page is just a freshman, and he will only get better with time. And what a great ending for Travis Ford’s first season, to turn around a team that had lost in the first round of the NIT three straight years. Oklahoma State will be a force in 2009-10.”
6. Reconstruction and working through: “What’s this? An email about fantasy baseball starting up again? Wow, didn’t realize it was that time of year already. That’ll be a nice distraction.”
7. Acceptance and hope: “Oh well. At least the Cowboys went down with a fight. A moral victory, I guess. And I hear they have some decent recruits waiting in the wings. I’m especially proud to wear orange after this postseason.”

So, in this postseason, winter is over and spring is here (although there’s a chance of snow later in the week).  It became apparent a couple days ago that those ugly plants by our front door are daffodils. I like them (and their yellow flowers) now that I know what they are. And I’m thankful for all the rain we have gotten, too.