The Aftermath of Still You Gotta Try

I wrote about three opportunities that arrived in my LinkedIn message box in early August.  

It should come as no surprise that none of them panned out.  I cannot say what legitimate shot I had at any of these but for a hot minute, it looked like either Big Bank or Consulting Gig would have hired me.  I was feeling a little randy so I emailed the guy who went on vacation 2 hours after contacting me and he said the position was still open.  We spoke and I sent him my resume but no news.  Not unexpectedly, he is not a follow-through guy, and for recruiters these days, right or wrong (it's definitely wrong), they cannot expend any more time on a candidate the client isn't interested in.

Jeepers Creepers

The recruiter for the consulting job did follow through and it feels like he was more upset than I was about not getting the job.  The reason, I suspect, is that it is hard to fill some roles and when you have a candidate that is good on paper, what is the reason for not going with them if they do okay on the interview?  The reality is this was a case of the recruiter didn't understand the assignment.  They were looking for someone with a skillset that included a range of software tools that the last place I worked produced.  But I only had skills in one of them.  

This happened years before whe No-Name Software Company was acquired by a bigger company.  I'd get calls from recruiters saying I'm perfect for a role but if they had just spent 5 seconds reading my profile, they would see it was for the other side of the business.  Think Samsung TVs vs Samsung Washing Machines.

I have absolutely no way of knowing but I suspect the position at Big Bank went to a candidate who lived in one of the preferred cities.  

2025 Bears Predication Update: First Quarter Results

The NFL season is already 1/4 over, and the Chicago Bears are 2-2.  I had them at 3-1, and they would have been had they not melted down in the 4th quarter of the first game against the Vikings.  And they almost lost Sunday against the lowly Raiders.  

Instead, the Bears win on a blocked field goal and they are 2-2 going into the Bye Week.  I suspect the early Bye week is due to the Chicago Marathon -- the NFL ensures that home games are not scheduled during that event.

It's interesting to note that the NFC North "could" have had all teams at 2-2 this weekend.  The Vikings barely lost.  The Bears bearly won.  The Packers ended in a tie with Dallas.  Only the Lions played lights-out football. On the other hand, I have a 3-1 record in my predictions.

The good news is the Bears are still very alive in any playoff hunt.  The bad news is they have already lost to two division rivals and they have a history of losing tie-breaker scenarios.  

For their next four games, I predicted the following:

I stick to my predictions but note that the Commanders are maybe having a sophomore hangover in their overachieving starting QB.  The Ravens on the other hand seem to be losing games they should be winning.  That Bengals game is looking like it will be a Trap Game.  This time of year, good teams and coaches make adjustments so we will see.  The Bears may be 2-2 in these next four games, but just not in the way I've predicted. 

That would make them 4-4 with 9 games to go.  Down that stretch, I think they need to go 5-4 to make the playoffs as a wild card.  

As a side note, I've only been able to watch the first game because it was MNF and the 3rd game because it was a late afternoon against Dallas who is still considered America's Team by the Old Farts that run broadcast TV.

I should be able to watch the MNF against the Washington Commanders and I might be able to watch the following week against the Saints because New Orleans is in Louisiana, and that's the South.  I could be wrong about both of these things.  Most of their remaining games are Sunday Noon games which generally don't get shown here.  They do have a Friday game after Thanksgiving so I should get to see that one at least.  

stay tuned

Chicago Baseball in October

I never intended for this to be a Sports Blog but lately I haven't had much else to write about.  I do have to post an update to the bathroom remodel (it's finally completed and looks great). and I might have some other news to share this week.

I generally don't pay attention to baseball until at least after the All-Star Break and usually not until August.  I don't remember when I discovered Cubs Magic Number but I have been following it closer since moving down here.  In 2023 the Cubs outperformed so well in May and June that the owners couldn't justify cleaning house.  They faded in August.

So the Cubs fired the manager who made that happen and hired Craig Counsell, the coach of the Milwaukee Brewers.  The next year, they faded a little bit later in the season.  This year, they were better out of the gate.

After sweeping the Pirates, the Cubs got swept by the Reds, who squeaked into the playoffs, edging out the Mets, whom I would have preferred.  The Cubs have won 92 out of 162 games this year and swept the Cardinals (serves them right for intentionally walking Busch instead of letting him try to hit for the cycle). 

But here's the thing:  once the playoffs start, everything resets.  That's what the insufferable Baseball Purists hate about the changes to the baseball playoff format.  Over a 162 game season, teams have winning and losing streaks.  A team like the Reds, who are barely over .500, might just catch a team that had over 90 wins in a slump during the playoffs.

My hope is that the Cubs beat the Padres this week and move on to the next round.  I don't expect them to do much beyond that, but there is always hope.

It's gonna happen

 As of Wednesday evening, after sweeping the Pirates, the Cubs secured a playoff spot for the first time since 2020.  

When it was 4 games to go, it really felt like it would drag out. Then it was 2 games, and that felt doable.  It took them winning each game on their own because the other teams are giving up, but that actually makes it sweeter.

Now the challenge is to get the Top Wild Card Seed.

The top Wild Card seed doesn't just get home field advantage in the Wild Card Series, they get to host all of the games in that round. The top two division winners get byes in the Wild Card round.

The Cubs hold a five game lead over San Diego for the top Wild Card seed and sit six games behind Milwaukee in the Central.

The Top NL Wild Card Seed CMN drops with any Cubs wins or Padres losses.

In a way, the Cubs were in the playoffs all along.  First to get a WC berth.  Now to get the top seed.  My prediction is they will make it to the division round.  Beyond that is hopeful but not completely impossible.  I do doubt they will go much farther than that.

With not much else going on in my life, besides recruiters dangling carrots only to pull them away, I have to admit this has given me something to look forward to.  I usually don't pay much attention toe the Cubs until August, but this year the Magic Number was dropping at a steady pace.  It almost mirrored the 2016 pace.  The people over at CMN are fun to chat with, and they are very helpful in filling me in when I cannot watch a game because it isn't on free TV.

I also predict the World Series will be between Philadelphia and Toronto, with Canada winning because we deserve that schadenfreude right about now.

McDonald's hates it when you do this

In an effort that can only be described as the laziest kid in the classroom attempting to show effort, McDonald's has come up with some(what) cheaper meal deals.

As I want and need to lower my cholesterol, I wanted an Egg McMuffin.  However, it costs $2 more than the Sausage McMuffin with Egg.  The Sausage McMuffin w/out egg costs $4.99.  So to be clear: with everything, it costs $5.  Without the Egg, you save a penny, but get only the Egg McMuffin and you have to pay $2 more!

I was hungry and about to cave when an idea hit me.  I ordered the SME but then customized it to hold the sausage.  Customizing sandwiches is meant to get you to order extras so the sandwich costs more but I gamed the system.  I wondered if the workers would give me a SME and remove the meat but no they did the obviously smart thing and just gave me an Egg McMuffin.  

Apologies to those who will suffer when McD Corporate finds out what I did and writes code to prevent it in the future.  And by the way, an Egg McMuffin without the sausage tastes like ass.  

Easy Come, Easy Go

Today was the last visit for the Research Study at the Eye Clinic.  It went quickly enough and was fun.  I've built up a rapport with the Researcher, who replaced the first Researcher a few sessions into this study. The first Researcher was very clinical.  The second one was more [word that means human].

When I started the study, I knew it would be for a year, but I didn't realize how long that truly was.  Every night for 462 days I had to put drops in my eyes.  It helped that I could set an Alexa reminder but it was still annoying to have to keep a log on a sheet of paper with small fields to enter information.

my blood pressure is doing better too

Also, when I started the study, I decided to use the $1550 for something either fun or to help pay existing expenses.  However, in November, our refrigerator and dishwasher went kaput, so the money was allocated to paying off the Home Depot bill that was on an 18-month interest-free charge.

That's how my luck work.  If I happen to come into some money, something happens that spends that money faster than I can enjoy it.  If I won a scratch-off lottery ticket for $1000, I'd come home and find out we need a $990 repair to our furnace.  So it goes.  

Anyway, they had my $1550 check waiting for me.  I thought it would be sent in the mail and I didn't realize I'd be paying taxes on it, but what can you do?  I have already scheduled the payment to pay off the charge card and since we have paid the balance down a bit since November (while modestly adding to it each month for those dam water cooler jugs) we actually have about $350 left.

We can splurge and get a couple of Five Guys cheeseburgers!

Something to look forward towards

It looks like the Chicago Cubs will at least make the playoffs as a Wild Card.  With 13 games left, they only have to win 4 more to make it in.  

Thus, I will pause my Chicagoan skepticism and think positively for this one.  They can clinch as early as Tuesday night.  They play the Pirates, who are already eliminated, and while they would love to be the spoilers, the Cubs have to win the series if not sweep.

Next, the Cubs play the Reds in Cincinnati this weekend.  They are 2.5 games back so they are still in it.  They will be fighting to win that four-game series.  

St Louis is hanging around because the Mets had a long losing streak, but the Cardinals failed to gain any ground during that time as well.  They lost a heartbreaker to the Brewers in extra innings that would have helped them and perhaps the Cubs.

The Cubs last two series are at home against the Mets and the Cardinals, respectively.  As of now both of those teams have something to play for.

Meanwhile, Milwaukee is already in the playoffs but can clinch the division by Friday.  They are on a bit of a decline down the stretch but there isn't enough stretch for the Cubs to take the Division away from them.  Other than the Padres, they aren't playing anyone really good but they also play the Reds and the Cardinals who might be still be in the hunt. 

I hope they can go deep in the playoffs and even get to the NLCS.  Given how they have been playing in August and September, I'm not confident they can go further than that but there is always hope.  

At the moment, I certainly cannot say the same for the Chicago Bears!

Overbooking my Thursday

 One of my superpowers is scheduling different things on the same day, which often leads to conflict.  I made an appointment to get a liver ultrasound today, not remembering that it was also the day our cleaning lady comes.  She doesn't have a set time, but it is usually the 9 am hour, often the last half of it.  

Fortunately, this is a small town and it doesn't take long to get across it.  Mrs E also came relatively early so I was able to give her some instructions that I needed to relay; otherwise, I would have left the garage door open and gone to my appointment early.  I also called them and they said i had a 15-minute grace period so no need to reschedule.  As it was, I got there at 9:35, no thanks to some black sedan that wouldn't make a left when the light turned green.  when it failed to move the second green light, I went around it.

next week I have my last eye clinical trial appointment.  It is on the day that our shower door is supposed to arrive.  The door was supposed to be here on Tuesday but they called and said it was delayed.  

Win some, lose some:  I paid my lawn guy an extra $150 to remove the weeds from the front of the house.  it might have been too much, but neither Nightingale or I were gonna do it.  I was so proud.  But after picking up the kids, I discovered that the stand-up freezer had been opened a crack all night.  For some reason, my kids (probably Boris) just cannot remember to close the doors correctly.  I'm not sure what we will do about all the food.  

This isn't the first time either.  Last week, they left the garage fridge wide open, and now NG won't let us use the 70 eggs for anything besides scrambled or hard-boiled.

Something to look forward to

 Eight days ago, I posted the Cubs' record.  Since then, they have only won 3 more games, lost a few heartbreakers and had a day off.  As it stands today, their Magic Number for the Division is 24, which they won't get because Milwaukee has a 6.5 game lead, and their MN is 11.

Happier Times

For the Wild Card the Magic Number is 10 and they have a 6 game lead for the top WC spot.  I believe there are 17 games left so if they go .500 and the Giants lose a couple, they are in.  The Cubs don't play a good team until they face the Giants in the last week of regular season.  They finish up against the Cardinals, who could make a run for the last playoff spot but doesn't seem likely.  They did take 2 of 3 from the Giants which helped the Cubs.

Meanwhile, the Bears managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.  I don't know what is worse: seeing them get spanked from the start or them playing good football for 75-85% of the game just to lose in the 4th quarter.  We even had a pick six!

I will say this. The Bears looked better than last year even with all of Caleb Williams' missed throws.  I think they will get better.  Playoff Better?  Not sure.  Winning record?  perhaps.  I'm still glad that I opted not to buy any streaming service to watch the games.

This crate literally arrived via a slow boat from China

This crate looks like one of those crates you see in old Mummy movies, filled with Egyptian artifacts.  This one contains our new bathroom vanity.  I ordered it on July 28, 2025, and it took until Sept 2nd to arrive.  

Better not be any mummies in here

We ordered it through Amazon, but it was via a 3rd party vendor.  On August 25th, I got the following message from the seller via the Amazon portal:

"Dear customer, your goods have arrived in the western port of the United States, is arranging for the driver delivery, the driver will complete the distribution will communicate with you by phone time to sign for, please pay attention to answer the call, thank you!"

So it took a month to get here from China and then another week to get to my house.  It was delivered in a semi-truck, which creates its own issues.

The road that runs parallel to my subdivision prohibits trucks.  I'm not sure about the one on the other side but the truck driver who called me probably didn't want to chance it.  he called the local police and got permission to ignore the sign.

This is a case of the Spirit of the Law overriding the Letter of the Law.  You don't want trucks driving on certain roads because of long term damage.  But you need to be able to transport things to homes without having to offload to a smaller vehicle.

Technically, the delivery guy was supposed to leave it at the curb but he was nice enough to bring it up the hill (with my help) to our detached garage.  My contractor and his crew got to work on it the next day and it mostly went off without a hitch.  There are some issues and we are working on them.

Begin Rant: so while in hindsight I know there were things we could have done better and faster and maybe even cheaper, I refuse to let this damage my already life-long beaten confidence.  The learning curve is high and I did not get a lot of help from my contractor.  For something like this you need input from a designer and the only contractor to offer that was the guy who quoted twice what our contractor quoted.  I'm not saying Obi-wan wasn't helpful, he's been terrific, but I feel like he could have helped us more with the tile selection.

End Rant.

An Unhealthy Relationship with Chicago Sports

In past years, when I lived in Chicago, September signaled a key sportsball time.  Both baseball teams were still playing ball (occasionally still in it for a playoff spot) and Bears football was just starting, so they also were still in it, at least until October.  I recall once watching the Cubs game on one screen and the Bears game on another at the Cubby Bear while having brunch with a few friends -- Cubs were on the road that weekend.

This year the Cubs look like they will finally make the postseason, albeit as a wild card.  They had a division lead up to the All-Star break but had a weak August, while Milwaukee had two great win streaks in a row.  With 24 games left and the Cubs are looking like they are righting the ship.  In the previous two years, they came close but faded in August and by late September were eliminated.  That could still happen but I like the odds.

Watching games down here is challenging.  The Cubs put the majority of their games on the Maquis Network so you have to pay to watch, even if you live in Chicago.  I think there are some other streaming services that carry some of those games but the point is, there are less and less Over The Air games carried on my local network (streamed through Fubo).  

I often "watch" the game online at either Yahoo Sports or MLB.com.  These virtual games combined with chatting with the people over at Cubs Magic Number get me through the games I cannot watch.  It's kinda like the olds days at the No-Name Software Company where I would read the live blog of a game at the long defunct ChicagoSports and make a few comments while waiting for customers to get back on the phone after a long hold.  

Meanwhile, this region of the States doesn't usually carry Bears games so I usually get to watch a third of the season.  We are not gonna pay for the YouTube TV package this year because it is ridiculously expensive, not sure how the Bears will do and since too many games are Sunday at noon, it cuts the day in half when I need to be more productive.

The thing about Chicago Sports teams and their playoff potential.  It takes an entire season to get there and that means time is moving on.  There are more days behind me than ahead and investing in a whole season of games just to see them tank is frustrating.  Let me clarify that last sentence.  Of course I'm gonna watch the games regardless.  But I only have so many years left to see another Bears Super Bowl or Cubs World Series.  

2025 Bears Playoff Prediction: Who the hell knows

I'm not sure I have it in me to do another one of these.  Every year before the season begins, the Bears look good on paper.  But then the season begins and they find ways to snatch defeat from the Jaws of Victory.  For the last few years, most of the disappointment was because of organizational incompetence.  Mostly.  

Looking at their schedule and based on how the teams they play did last year, I'm saying they will go 9 and 8, though I secretly think it might be more like 7 and 10.  The two uncertainties for me is the game against Dallas and Green Bay at home.  SBNation analytics says they win 8.6 games and our picks match except they think the Bears will also beat the 49ers and the Steelers, but lose to the Bengals.  

That can be 8 or 9 games...or 7

A lot of winning in the NFL depends on when you play a team as much as how you play them. Catch a team before they find their identity and it looks like an easy win. Catch them during a winning streak and they blow you out. Or if they haven't won in 5 or more games, you are the trap game.

The Cowboys usually start off good but then get shaky as the playoffs draw near.  The 49ers are usually the opposite.  The Bears have a tendency to meet a struggling team after they have worked through their struggles.

Anyway here is my 2025 prediction.  I'm not planning on buying the expensive YouTube TV package this year.  I cannot justify the expense.  

Winning the Division:

As always, the Chicago Bears have two ways to make the playoffs: Win the Division or via the WildCard.  Given how well the other teams played last year, the odds are not in their favor to win the division against the Lions or Packers. The Vikings are a question mark because they have a rookie QB but they seem to have built a team that doesn't require an elite QB so they can plug almost anyone in and win. 

WildCard:

To earn a Wildcard seed, the Bears need to be in a position to win any tie-breakers.  I have been a fan long enough to see them miss the playoffs with a winning record because of losing tie-breakers.  And the NFC North is good enough that if all four teams have winning records, the Bears would likely be watching the playoffs at home.  

Note from The Past:  writing this in July, scheduling for Sept 1.  If anything significant changes between now and then, I reserve the right to edit.