Friday, October 8, 2021

Three Beautiful Things 10/07/2021: Staying Home, Bringing Copper Indoors, Daring Baseball Plays BONUS: A Limerick by Stu

 1. I had planned to run some errands in CdA today, but I didn't get off to an early start and, then, I was feeling about 89% well and decided to stay home and rest up, drink lots of liquids, drink hot bullion, nap, and try to find Copper. I suppose I might have had a very mild reaction to my booster shot. Hard to say. What's not hard to say, though, is that I made the right decision. The rest and the liquids and a couple of Bufferin helped me feel better. 

2. I hadn't seen Copper for a couple of days today and I wanted to find him and, if nothing else, bring him inside to feed him. I went out back a couple of times and looked in the bushes and tall grasses and other untended vegetative growth that borders our lawn. No luck.

Early in the evening, I decided to look for him by standing on the front porch.

I heard him meowing -- kind of loudly.

He was at the street end of next door neighbor Jane's driveway.

I approached him slowly, quietly, and he moved away pretty slowly to the next house down, Terry Douglas's. Terry had a Jeep parked in his driveway and Copper darted in and out from under it. He wasn't making very quick moves, but quick enough to evade me.

Finally, Copper headed to Terry Douglas's front porch and I nabbed him and carried him back to the house.

I took him into the Vizio room, closed the door, and with Debbie's help, got him a bowl of food. 

Copper ate for a while, left the bowl, took a stress/ticked off crap on the rug, and returned to his bowl and finished his food.

I cleaned up his mess and, after a bit, I carried him to the basement and reminded him where the litter pans are located. I also know that he finds refuge in the basement.  I scooped out the litter pans and left him alone.

We have built in cupboards just off the laundry room in the basement. Copper likes to hide out on the bottom shelves, behind the cupboard doors.

Before going to bed, I found him there and scooped him up and carried him to the bedroom, hoping he might spend the night on the bed, where he feels secure, while I slept.

He scurried under the bed, but at some point during the night he came out and rested on top of the covers, joining Luna and me. 

During all of this, Gibbs was in the living room. That fact continued to freak out Copper. Will he ever get comfortable with Gibbs? I don't know. But, I do know that I was relieved that he didn't spend another night in the cold out of doors, that he ate, and that he had at least a few hours of peace during the night in the bedroom.

3.  When it had been discovered a couple of years ago that the Houston Astros had been guilty of cheating, the almost universal response was to hate the Astros.

I can't explain why, but I hated that they cheated, but I continued to enjoy watching them play.

This was confirmed today as the Astros coasted to a 6-1 victory over the Chicago White Sox.

I have in the past and again today I enjoyed the variety of ways the Astros score runs. For example, today Jose Altuve scored from third on a sharp grounder by Alex Bregman to third baseman Yoan Moncada. I loved Altuve's derring-do. He'd carefully measured his lead off of third base and at the crack of Bregman's bat he streaked for home. Moncada fielded the crackling grounder cleanly and made a quick throw to the plate, but Altuve slid around the catcher Yasmani Grandal and reached out for the plate with his left hand and touched it before Grandal could lay a tag on him. 

I suppose I thought Altuve's intrepid dash for home would be the day's most daring and thrilling play.

I was wrong, so very wrong.

Because of the attention I gave Copper, I was in and out of the Vizio room as the Rays and Red Sox squared off.

Luckily, however, I was in front of the tube in the bottom of the 7th inning. 

The Rays were already in possession of a 4-0 lead and were threatening to score again with Randy Arozarena on third and Wander Franco on second. 

The Red Sox brought in lefty Josh Taylor to face the Ray's Brandon Lowe.

During Lowe's at bat, Randy Arozarena studied Josh Taylor's delivery -- the amount of time he took to deliver a pitch once he was set, the time consumed by his leg kick, and whether Taylor was paying much attention to Arozarena at third base.

On Taylor's third pitch, Arozarena had concluded that Taylor was paying him little heed and he crept to a large lead. As Taylor came set -- and would pause before making his pitch -- Arozarena bolted for home. Taylor stepped off the rubber and fired a throw home, but Arozarena had belly flopped with a head first slide across home plate well ahead of the throw.

It's one of baseball's rarest plays and the audacious Randy Arozarena pulled it off.

He stole home.

The Red Sox would never score in this game and the Rays dismantled them, 5-0.


Here's Stu's limerick:

This game is older than old. 
 Played by kids in the hot and the cold. 
 Equipment, need none, 
 Free from “It”, you must run. 
 As quick feet in this game are like gold. 

 American Touch Tag Day

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