That was fun. I spotted a pile of wireless USB keyboards at the thrift shop. They were all emblazoned with logos and names of MLB baseball and NHL hockey teams. The closest I came to finding a team about which I any connection was the Cincinnati Reds, the team that did its Spring training in Tampa when I was a kid growing up there. The Reds played the Kansas City Royals in the first baseball game I ever saw. I was with my father at Al Lopez Field on Dale Mabry Highway. I remember Johnny Bench hitting a home run and thinking that this was a big, fat, hairy deal. I took pictures that day. Just a few. I remember my father letting me, even encouraging me to take the camera closer to the field to get better pictures. As it is I ended up getting shots of the old Tampa Stadium, as seen from the old Al Lopez Field. A view from what is today one non-existent place to another non-existent place. Al Lopez was replaced by Legends Field, Tampa Stadium first by Houlihan’s Stadium and then Raymond James Stadium. The latter two names were for the same structure. My mother objected to naming it Houlihan’s, as that was a fast food chain. Why not just name it “Burger King Stadium?” she opined.
I don’t remember knowing who Raymond James is or was, though I may be among the few who knows the story behind Dale Mabry, for whom one of Tampa’s most frequently-referenced highways is named. His stature, while honorable, would seem hardly to be worthy of having such a major highway named for him. But I don’t have the story ready at the moment, and I’ve shared it before, so on to other matters of the moment.
I got the Cincinnati Reds keyboard home and sent an image to a friend who is originally from the Buffalo area. His first question was to ask if there was a Buffalo Sabres keyboard. I had not noticed, but then NHL hockey just as a general thing does not really register with me. I would have noticed the Rangers or the Islanders, and even the Lightning (from Tampa). But I don’t know hockey well enough for most team names to register as they did with baseball or as they would with NFL football.
So, without getting anyone’s hopes up I went back to the thrift shop and sifted through the stack of keyboards. Lo, there was a SABRES keyboard. I shot an image over and asked if I should buy this. Answer was a quick and resounding YES! followed by much thanks.
I also picked up a beautiful leather bag for $38. Cashier claimed it was a $400 bag. Add that to my arsenal of bags which might now number about a dozen. Baggage has been a lot simpler since leaving the big fat tablet at home. My dream of having one bag for all purposes and all seasons seems to have died. Now I think in terms of which bag is right for the mission at hand. Hah, such that I have the luxury.
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I don’t know if the PLEX is to blame but today saw a BSOD and post-mortem cleanup unlike any I’ve seen with this Window 7 PC. All seems well now. I was downloading 30- and 40-gigabyte discographies of bands I almost care about, and I think downloading that kind of tonnage can mess with pagefiles and such. I should clone the drive sooner rather than later.
I got the PLEX hooked in to the bigass 70″ TV last night. I guess I have never seen porn on that giant television before. I think I would remember seeing blowjobs at that palatial size (hah, almost said fellatial). Porn is not going to be a big thing for me and the PLEX. I installed the channels just because they were there. Evidently you can stream movies and TV shows directly off of BitTorrent. I had an episode of “Sherlock” playing at a perfectly respectable 1080i resolution, as if coming through Fios or even over the air. But it was apparently being downloaded and transcoded on the fly straight off of BitTorrent. Crazy how the future is here, has been here for a number of years, and I am just tuning in to it in 2017.
OK, it is getting cold, and I am getting restless. On from this Bakeway and its laughably unreliable coffee and back to Sorabji Central. Soraabji Centraal.
