This week in review

One benefit of coming off DST is that we can now display the correct time on our coffee maker.  When we went to DST last Spring, the coffee maker wouldn't update.  I tried the app, but it claimed it couldn't connect to the device, yet the Alexa Routine* worked every morning.  I didn't want to do too much troubleshooting because that might have made it worse.

Yes, I got an Alexa-enabled coffee maker, so I don't have to program different times for weekday and weekend coffee.  Yes, I still have to set up the coffee in the first place, but as a tired parent, it's still a time saver, so don't come at me. 

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On Tuesday, I was very angry at the backward state I live in.  I spent one hour and forty minutes waiting in line to vote. There were only 5 machines, and 2 were down for a couple of hours. I don’t know how they determine how many machines per polling place, but this seems intentional to me.

Mississippi-stan only has early voting under tight conditions and refuses to use mail-in voting because the “lying, petulant, insecure, thrice married, serial wife-cheating, porn star-banging, blue-collar-worker-stiffing con artist” in the White House says it’s fraught with fraud.

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"Thank you, America, you understood the assignment." - John Scalzi

On Wednesday, I was elated to find that not a Blue Wave, not a Blue Tsunami, but a Blunami hit the nation.  We evil Leftists, flipped the House and the Senate.  Some races are still being counted, including the Mississippi and Alaska Senate races, which could bring the Senate to 56 Dem, 2 Independent, and 42 Republican.  

Chicago Baseball Post Season Officially Ends

This should have posted earlier but I've been busy, lazy and otherwise other occupied.  

Last year the Cubs gave us 8 extra games of baseball.  This year we got 9 between the two teams.  

I didn't expect the Cubs to go deep, but I figured they would at least show up during the Wild Card round.  Nope.  Their bats went silent, and I think they scored 1 run during the two-game sweep by the Padres.

I also didn't expect the Sox to go deep so I was pleasantly surprised when they swept Houston.  Then I got my hopes up when they were up 2-0 in the ALDS.  Typical Chicago sports team, just need to win one out of three and they come up short.

Meanwhile, the Bears are doing that thing where they look like a legitimate team one week, and then look like a frosh-soph team that didn't practice together the next. 

I guess watching Chicago Sports won't be the bright spot it was last year.

Chicago Baseball Teams make the Post Season

Today the Chicago Cubs and the Chicago White Sox play their first Wild Card games.  The Cubs squandered their lead in the WC, so they have to travel to San Diego and play tonight at 8 pm CST.  The White Sox squandered their division lead, so they play the Matinee game at 4 pm CST.  

That it played out this way is so Chicago sports.

Last year the Cubs gave us 8 extra games of baseball.  This year we will get at least 4, maybe 6, between the two teams.  

Sportswriters are pointing out that the teams did well against their respective opponents during the regular season.  But that's the thing.  During the regular season, those games are spread out over 162 games and you might have caught them during a slump.  

In the postseason, they will be fighting to move on to the next berth.  And a team that limped into the playoffs isn't gonna do so well against a team that surged at the end.

Whelp, they are 12

The good news is they inherited my wife's brains. The bad news is they got my sarcasm. Still, having kept them alive for a dozen years is pretty good for a guy who grew up without a father.

Raising kids is no easy task and you hit milestones and level up like a video game. You are thankful when they start sleeping through the night. Then they get off formula, learn to walk and talk, and eventually become potty trained.

I wasn't expecting the Bobbsey Twins but I didn't realize how quickly they would diverge. They have different food likes, so much that sometimes I'm making three different meals.

This is what I posted to Facebook to let everyone know

Fun fact: Katness was pregnant at the same time as Nightingale, our twins being born a few weeks apart. She had to be diplomatic in who she told first, though we had met for lunch in March of 2014 and after I told her about ours, she told me about hers. Meanwhile, with my dysfunctional family being what they are, I didn't have to follow any rules. I posted the above photo and it was awesome.

I think we've hit the point where they no longer think we are cool but don't hate us yet. We started our family late in life because it took so long to find each other, so we are just hoping to be around to help them until they can fend for themselves.

stay tuned

2026 Bears Playoff Prediction: Was Last Year a Fluke

Last year I wrote, "I'm not sure I have it in me to do another one of these," and given that I buried this in my drafts folder, I think the same this year, especially since two games have already been decided.  So I'm already 1-1.  Nevertheless, I will stick with my predictions.

Looking at their schedule and based on how the teams they play did last year, I'm predicting they will again go 12 and 5, though I worry it might be more like 10 and 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.

Winning the Division:

As always, the Chicago Bears have two ways to make the playoffs: Win the Division or via the WildCard.  Last Season was an unexpected, exciting and pleasant surprise.  While some fans were optimistic the Bears would do better than in recent seasons, none expected them to go 12-5 and win a playoff game.

That said, I don't strongly believe they will repeat.  I didn't get to watch the first two games (because of broadcast rules) but they gave up 37 points to Carolina -- even though they scored 59 of their own -- and strugged to score against the Vikings at home.  So best case, me thinks, is WildCard.

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 Future:  I didn't get around to finishing this until two games into the season but apparently Google has fixed the bug where your schedule post will postdate if configured as such.

How About Those Cubs Now?

 About two months ago I asked AI, specifically Gemini, how the Cubs would do this season.  The results were not kind but also not inaccurate based on their standing at the time.  The Cubs were 7.5 games behind the division-leading Milwaukee Brewers.  

Two months later, the Cubs are doing better.  As of today (edit 8/11/26), they are 5.0 games back.  That's still a lot to overcome in two months but not insurmountable.  They play the Brewers seven more times this year and they have to take at least four, maybe five of those games.

Gemini and Google AI say they could have as many as 94 wins this season.  I think it will be closer to 90, but I also think their postseason hopes have increased in the last two months, especially with the moves they made at the trade deadline.

Baseball is very cyclic, and teams go through win and lose streaks throughout the season.  They had two 10-game winning streaks that were followed by a very rough May and early June.  It looks like they righted the ship, but who knows what the final 40+ games will bring.

As a kid, I never watched spectator sports.  When I reached adulthood and got more interested in sports, I still waited until midseason to really pay attention to baseball.  But living down here, watching Chicago sports is one of the few connections I have to home.

I've seen the Bears go to the Super Bowl twice.  I've seen the Bulls win 6 championships.  I've seen the Blackhawks win a few Stanley Cups, and I've seen the Sox and the Cubs win a World Series.

The only thing left is a Chicago Subway World Series.  I'm certain the Sox can make the postseason, but I don't think they can make it to the WS this year.  And I'm running out of time.

Mid-Summer Check in

 With the kids home for summer break, I skipped a lot of June and July posting.  Yeah, that's the ticket.  It had nothing to do with my laziness or lack of anything eventful to write about.

The kids start middle school two weeks from today, and they are getting Cabin Fever and on each other's nerves more than usual.  

It's the Hot as Hell part of the year down here. This summer seems even more so. June was Hell's porch.  July is Satan's crotch.  August will likely make us long for June. Which makes it harder for me to do some much needed tasks outside or even in the garages.  Don't even ask me to go up in the attic.  

I did manage to fix another hole in the wall my kids created by slamming the door when they go to the backyard.  I'm sure it's more one kid than the other but I won't say which one.  It was simultaneously tedious and fun to be able to take my time on this one.  After wedging a piece of spare wood (Dad Skill Unlocked) I applied a generous coat of spackle.  Too generous, as the thickest part couldn't get enough airflow to dry, but I was able to fix that with the second coat.  Then, using the sander I bought from our MAGA neighbor at his garage sale, I was able to sand it down.  Because the chair rail is in the way, It was hard to get it perfectly plumb and smooth but it is good enough.

I'm not sure why the door stopper had been removed...but it's back now so hopefully this doesn't happen again.

When we got back from our relatively new, annual Michigan-Chicago excursion, we discovered our Water Heater was shedding water.  Our house is dual zoned for heating and air conditioning and we replaced one water heater a few years ago.  Now it was time to replace the other one.

We went with a tankless option this time.  It was more expensive ($6500), but it should pay for itself if we are stuck in this Hellhole State for the rest of our lives. 

We also had to fix the brakes on Nightingale's car, along with a few other overdue maintenance issues, another $1100.  It's times like these that I really feel terrible about not having an income.  There was also a little drama with the company that installed the heater; I'll try to do a separate write-up on that for posterity's sake.  

Our washing machine has been giving us grief for a while now too.  It started slowly.  Certain cycles wouldn't complete, and the vague error code didn't tell me much.  I would restart the load, and it would work.  Then it started being more consistent and on any cycle.  I'd have to do a Rinse and Spin on most loads to get the soap out.  Finally, after Google searches and YouTube videos, I learned that the machine wasn't draining properly so I had to manually drain it.  

Yesterday a YouTube video took me through a few things it could be.  I didn't want to take the machine apart to change the drain motor (or whatever it is called).  I recalled that a previous video said that you should unplug the machine for 5 minutes.

This worked!  We are still likely on Borrowed Time but if we can get another year or more out of it, I will consider that even more of a win.