[July 23rd] -- So, I'm fifty years old, which means that, sometimes, stuff just doesn't work right. I have a couple of broken teeth way in the back that don't bother me most of the time. I also have a nasty little arthritic condition in my spine that usually remains silent. My heart, 400 million beats later, has a saggy valve that only causes me discomfort now and then. I awoke this morning at 4:00 a.m. with all three flaring at their worst. Not wanting to wake my wife, I brought my pillow out to the couch and tried to go back to sleep.

No dice.

When I'm sick, I tend to think of baseball. I don't know why. I guess it's because I always tended to get "sick" during Senators' day games **cough cough** so I could stay home and catch the broadcast. I was watching ESPN News and I began to notice what everyone believes is true, that the American League is the superior league. You don't have to look at the recent all-star and World Series games to figure this out; just check out any slate of games on any given night. The American League is superior.

That figures.

The Washington Senators was, as we all know, an American League team. Year in and year out, the American League would get the stuffing knocked out of them at the All-Star game. The National League at one point won, what was it, fifteen out of sixteen games? Long after the Senators left town, I remained an "American League" guy. Even when I became a Braves' fan in the late 1980's, I still rooted for the American League to win the mid-summer classic. I didn't know the players, yet I rooted for them anyway. Some things are hard to change.

Ah, but I finally did. With baseball back in Washington, I finally became a "National League" guy, just in time to find out that once again, my league, was the inferior of the two. Crap. Oh, I know; it's cyclical. The NL was the best league for decades, and now it's the AL's turn. I understand that. I'm just wondering if they'll come a time when all the stars align and the league my team is in is the best. It hasn't happened yet.

Oh well, maybe one day.

Go Nats -- kill the Cubbies. Hopefully, I won't croak before the end of the game, which, at this moment at least, seems to be a 50-50 proposition. And to top it off, it's 9:00 a.m. and it's gotta be well over 90 already, and it's supposed to beat yesterday's high of 108. One of the few drawbacks of living in Idaho is the fact that it seldom gets this hot, so few houses have air-conditioners. Typically, a summer day reaches the low 90's and by mid afternoon and cools to the low 50's at night. Perfect weather. Except for a couple of weeks in July, that is, when the temperatures close in on 110. No matter what you do, no matter how many fans you put in the house, you die. You just die. Combine that with an aging body and .....

...well, you get the idea.

# posted by Farid Rushdi @ 8:50 AM