Somehow, the monkey in charge of Amtrak’s central super computer was struck by lightning and this had jacked the entire grid.  A 10 minute rain shower sabotaged every train–well, not every train.  Just the ones going west.  If you were one of the seven passengers boarding the “Silver Meteor” for the 18-hour journey to Miami, your vacation plans were still solid.

This gave me a window of time to read about how cool John Wall is (I never would have guessed!), what kind of music the Dodgers listen to in their locker room, and to pen a three page diatribe about how I would blow up a train if I could (it centered around robot minions).

He's really very cool.

And then, many hours later, I took pause from stalking the train conductor with a rolled up magazine to wonder, “Oh, shit… did the Phillies win?”

(more…)

Jimmy Rollins had just dove to his right to put the brakes on a screamer up the middle.  The Indian heading for home suddenly had a crosshair on his back, and Jimmy, already hearing the initial rumblings of thunderous applause for the play, reared back and fired a bullet home.

It whizzed past a bumbling Brian Schneider and hit the backstop.  The run scored.  Everyone sat back down and quietly returned to their helmet sundaes.

“Hoooo…” Roommate muttered.

It looked like Jimmy’s chance for a big play had expired.  Oh well.  We flipped back to “Sea Turtles: The Ancient Mariner.”  A baby sea turtle was caught in a fishing net and struggled to break free, with its ultimate goal, the inviting waves of the warm ocean, were just several yards away.  He eventually choked to death.

JUST... GIVE HIM A CHANCE...

It was the single most depressing thing I have ever seen.

(more…)