Things That Worry Me in 2008

My 60th birthday is in October. I don't know what we'll do to celebrate (or fend-off, perhaps I should say). There are too many events, one of which in May is very important, between now and then to worry about and engage.

The Oakland Athletics. ARRRGGGGH!!! Thank you. I don't feel better. Billy Beane, the GM, decided one winter meeting day to suddenly pull the carpet out from the team. One day he decided Dan Haren and Joe Blanton were expendable for younger, untried players. And then, one month after trading Dan Haren for a handful of terrific prospects from Arizona, he traded Nick Swisher for three prospects to the Chicago White Sox. I loved Nick Swisher. I'm now looking at my A's calendar, a giveaway I got at one of the A's games last season, and the centerfold (Esteban Loiaza), July (Shannon Stewart) September (Dan Haren), October (Nick Swisher), centerfold (Joe Kennedy, now deceased), and December (Marco Scutaro) are all gone. And any months left are currently on the block and may be gone by spring training in March. Billy is serious. The worst part of all this is that I understand and agree with what he's doing: The only way to compete is to start all over, and plan for 2009. If anything, he may have started too late. It just kills me when I look at my calendar, not to mention my A's shirts with names on the back.


Okay, not worry. Concerned. Concerned. The presidential race. Wow, this is really exciting if not going exactly the way I would want. I never paid much attention to it before, not because I didn't care, but I just felt I didn't have the time. But it is so interesting to watch our process play out. It certainly is flawed -- I mean, a caucus in Iowa?? Just for Democrats?? -- but it certainly is fascinating.

We're fixing up the house on Circle Hill. It's going fairly well. Faster in some ways, slower in others. This coming week we have the refinishing of the hardwood floors and the beginning of a major project involving seismic updating. It's exciting, especially when you can see all the planning borne out in something about the house that's been improved, that's been made safer. And that's terrific. But it will take at least another month, I think, before the whole thing is finished. I should say, before what we had planned to achieve at this phase will be completed. An old house like that always faces updating. But it will be livable within days.

Who picks the ties these presidential candidates wear? They should all watch Boston Legal and Frasier to see how it's done.