swamprat

"But from where?"

"Just a bit outside." "Forget the curveball, Ricky. Give'm the heater." "When this guy sneezes, he looks like a party favor."

Give them flags.

If you do, please let me know. I will be at every Countryside game, probably for the next 4 years. Next Thursday, Clearwater is at Countryside. Natural rivals. It should be fun, though my feeling is that Clearwater will run over the good guys.

Nice rebound. A lot of good things can happen after that first win.

That is a huge win for Jesuit.

The Florida teams I follow for week ending 9/4 ... Boga Ciega 47 Countryside 7 Apopka 13 West Orange 0 Pinellas Park 38 Largo 14 Alonso 38 Spoto 0 Sickles 45 King 0 Gaither 27 Tampa Chamberlain 0 Freedom 22 Blake 6 Sarasota Riverview 14 Lehigh 2 Mitchel 28 River Ridge 0 Hudson 48 Sunlake 28 Fivay 28 Anclote 0 Clearwater 35 East Lake 28 Hillsborough 20 Armwood 14

Clip from Bull Durham comes to mind. Language, though.

By taking up hospital resources that are needed by people suffering from other medical conditions. Conditions that result in serious residual effects and/or death. Most of the current COVID patients requiring the most resources are unvaccinated or not completely vaccinated (hasn't had the second shot). Currently, anything that is not COVID related and not immediately life threatening is considered an elective procedure and all elective procedures have been suspended. Example. A person needs a heart catheter to determine blockage around the heart or to determine why pulmonary arteries are inflamed. Both conditions can lead to heart and/or lung failure. However, there is a moratorium on those procedures because of lack of hospital resources due to the influx of COVID infected patients. The heart or lung has to fail before the condition is considered an emergency and can be treated by hospital staff.

Actually it is 5 months for those with preexisting conditions, 6 months for all others. Mrs. S is eligible for the booster, now and will get it this week.

Down 1-0 most of the match, #15 South Florida, playing 10 on 11, scored goals in the 81st and 84th minutes get the win. USF's All-American goal tender, Sydney Martinez, spent a lot of time out of the game after a collision with a Kentucky player in the first half. USF's Cheyanne Dennis was given a Red Card in the 57th minute. There was a foul, but I didn't see anything that warranted a Red Card. It was her first foul, so that wasn't why. The ESPN crew agreed with me. South Florida dominated possession time and shots on goal. Kentucky had 0 corner kicks. That goalie, Nielson (sp?), she's going to be good, I think. USF is now 3-1-0 Kentucky is now 2-1-1 With today's win USF is 2-1-0 against the SEC thus far, including a 2-1 win over Florida and a 2-1 loss to LSU. They play their 4th SEC opponent, Tennessee next Thursday. UK hosts Dayton next Thursday.

We do this every year, but this year I have a grandson playing at Countryside (6A Region 3 District 9). He's not starting, but he made varsity as a freshman and is getting a little playing time. Here are some Florida scores of the teams I follow... Countryside 42 Dunedin 32 Largo 35 Winter Haven 14 Apopka 47 Colonial (Orlando) 0 Lakeland 42 Clearwater 19 Gaither 25 Bloomingdale 15 Sickles 33 Middleton 6 Seminole (Sanford) 35 Riverview (Sarasota) 6 Please feel free to add...

From the ESPN... The NHL is investigating allegations made by the wife of San Jose Sharks left winger Evander Kane that her husband bet on hockey and compromised games for gambling purposes. Kane denied the allegations and said he would cooperate with the NHL's investigation. What are the gambling allegations? Saturday night on Instagram, Anna Kane alleged that her husband bet on Sharks games "with bookies" and threw games for gambling purposes. She also claimed Kane had a gambling addiction that was causing the couple hardship. In response, Kane posted on Twitter that he has never bet on hockey, including Sharks games, and has never thrown a game. What do we know about Evander Kane's gambling? Evander Kane has a history with gambling. He gambled openly on table games at Las Vegas casinos. In April 2019, he failed to pay a $500,000 casino marker from The Cosmopolitan while he was in town for a playoff series against the Vegas Golden Knights. The Cosmopolitan filed a complaint in November 2019 and the case was dropped by the casino in 2020. In January, Kane filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. As part of his legal filings, he claimed to have lost $1.5 million gambling "at casino and via bookie" over a 12-month span leading up to his bankruptcy petition. According to Cap Friendly, Kane has lifetime earnings in the NHL of just under $56 million. He's three years into a $49 million contract with the San Jose Sharks and has $26 million remaining on it. More here. Kane apparently is not well liked by hid teammates, either, so it will be interesting to see how this plays out as training camp approaches.

the Hall of Famer, passed away yesterday from pancreatic cancer. He spent 15 years as a Chicago Blackhawk goalie, winning 3 Vezina Trophies. He was also instrumental in helping his brother Phil found the Tampa Bay Lightning.

There are 2 of them. One on North Clearwater Beach and One on South Clearwater Beach near Sand Key. I think the South Beach Boxer is the older of the 2, but I've only been by that one, never in it. I was in the North Beach Boxer about a year or so ago, just after spring break.

Didn't they steal it from the Cleveland Roller Derby team and are now in court trying to get the trademark rights and web url?

Many moons ago, my daughter told me she and her best friend were considering getting a tattoo on their back and she wanted to know what I thought. Missy poo poo was attempting to get a reaction from her old man. I just smiled and told her if she was going to do something like that to put sport trivia, the Magna Carta, or something else interesting for a guy to read. She just looked at me and said, "Eww!" and she never got a tattoo on her back. ?

I absolutely love the USF club hockey games. Top Shelf Sports Pub is right at rink side where the Ice Bulls play and the late starts work out great for us because the Center Ice is in Wesley Chapel, north of Tampa. I am looking forward to see them play this winter. They have Georgia and GaTech on the schedule. Should be fun.

I have not changed what I do at all. I could care less about the any current rule, mandate, or trend. I still wear a mask when in a public place or at work. I still social distance and isolate as much as possible. I knew before I was vaccinated that I could still get the virus, carry, and spread it. I have no desire to be sick with COVID, even if the vaccine makes its systems less prevalent. Therefore it makes sense, to me anyway, to continue to treat it as I have been. Also, I have not been sick with even the common cold in more that 2 years, now. Win! Win!

I was hospitalize twice in late April for a non-COVID event. At no time was I asked if I had been vaccinated or how long it had been since my second shot (it matters in the case of the Pfizer and Moderna). I was asked if I had had a flu shot. I found that kind of odd. I was also asked if I was currently participating in an ongoing medical drug trial. I responded with yes, I have been vaccinated for COVID-19. ?

As you guys know, I do not watch the news and do not pull my information from nationally published sources, so I don't know what is going on in Kentucky. However, I know what is going on here currently and hospitalization for COVID in the Tampa Bay area is much worse than at any point in this pandemic. The hospital ICUs are overrun at this moment. This is a quote I received yesterday, "We have critical care patients on medical floors with nurses not fully trained to care for them because there are no more beds and no more nurses." I asked if this was worse than last year. "This is much much worse than last year. I have never seen this many CC patients in beds that aren’t set up to manage them. It is the same, everywhere." As of yesterday, 89% of the patients in critical care were unvaccinated or had just gotten their first dose, leaving the remaining 11% as being fully vaccinated. Of those fully vaccinated, all were either elderly or had a compromised systems. The vase majority of the unvaccinated patients ages ranged from 22-59 with no preexisting conditions to contribute to the effects of the illness. Personally, I know of 10 people who are currently battling the disease. 3 of those have been vaccinated. 1 of those 3 has gotten it for the second time. The last time she had it was last summer, before the vaccinations were released for use. I know there have been deaths, but I have no numbers.

Isn't that where the UK hockey club team plays or played?

We have restaurants begging for staff down here. We went to a Carrabba's on a Saturday night a several weeks ago and they had half of the restaurant closed off and a hoard of customers waiting for tables. They simply did not have enough servers, bus people, and cooks to service more than what tables they had open. Even then, they were asking for patience due to being short handed. St. Patrick's day was worse. We were at the Lucky Dill, an Irish Pub/Deli in Clearwater, and half of their staff had called off that day. The place was packed and they only had 4 servers and 1 cook (an owner) working the entire restaurant. This place is not small, either. They had no bus people, that day. I frequent a breakfast/lunch place called Ellie's. Mike, the owner and a cook, has told me stories of how he has hired staff, only to have them not show up the first day. He's lucky in that his son is a cook, his wife bakes, and his daughters wait tables, or he would not have been able to stay open.

I'm not much of a sweets guy, but I prefer cheesecake over any kind of chocolate cake.