Storm the Field

Houston gonna shatter the previous record for 9/24 by a good 4-5 degrees today. Line of storms tomorrow should bring temps back down to earth, but still no sign of any legit cooldowns in the making. Still not a single number starting with a 6 all the way out to 10/8. If nothing materializes in the next week or two, it's becoming increasingly likely we'll set a new record for latest first cold front. We're already a couple days past the usual arrival. GFS models have some Canadian fronts heading south over the next 2 weeks, but they all seem to slam on the brakes north of the Red River.

Not ready to start writing the offseason to-do list, but several moves are incredibly obvious regardless of what happens the next 2 weeks. Dusty needs to be fired off into the sunset. Maldy needs to never be behind the dish in an Astros uniform again. I only want to see him at MMP if some shit team picks him up and he comes up and hits into the easiest inning-ending GIDP of all time. Cut bait on Meyers, quit trying to wish Brantley back to health, relegate Dubon to a permanent bench role. Shit or get off the pot with Chas. Either make it clear to whoever the next skipper is that he's a starter or trade him. Also, sign/trade for another everday OF. We need 3 starters and 2-3 subs. Not 1.5 starters and 4.5 subs. On that same note, maybe invest in some decent backups. Championship teams don't rely on a stable of Julks, Hensley, Kessinger, Singleton and the Ghost of Michael Brantley (not to even mention the other no-names we've trotted out this year). Sacrifice a chicken/pray to whatever god of your choosing that 2023 was a freak year for Altuve and Yordan injuries and not a sign of things to come in 2024.

Going today to what very may well be the last game played at MMP in 2023. I've had a very lackluster record attending games in person this year, but then again, with a losing home record, that goes for most Astros fans. ON the the other hand, we've avoided the sweep in 3 straight series, and might as well win a Game 3 for the 4th straight. Cannot believe the defending champs, with more or less the same squad (albeit injury-depleted at times) is shitting the bed in the manner we've seen over the past 2 weeks. After annihilating the Rangers and taking 2/3 of from SD, it genuinely felt like we were hitting our stride just in time to comfortably wrap up another division title and get ourselves ready for the post-season. I've said it all year, but the magic just isn't there this year. We've had so many losses by 1-2 runs where we came out in the 9th and put men on base and never brought them home. I think we've only had either 3 or 4 walk-offs all season and have been absolutely atrocious in extra innings. From 2017-2022 you just assumed that the big hit was coming exactly when needed. Now it feels like the opposite. Screw getting the big hit, lately we can't seem to get the routine hit. We've had innings this weekend where we managed to strand Tucker after a leadoff triple or failed to advance a runner after starting with 2 straight walks.

My boy Tyler (pink nose with the elf ears) made friends with the new kid at school today.

Patch 2.0 Summary Here: https://www.cyberpunk.net/en/news/49060/update-2-0

Necro-bump. They just released Patch 2.0 which was more or less complete overhaul of nearly all of the game systems. A lot of reviews I've seen are basically "this is finally what Cyberpunk 2077 should have been when it was released 3 years ago." Re-installed from my PS4 disc last night and then did the free upgrade to PS5 version and downloaded the patch. Gonna give it another go this weekend. Put in about 15-20 hours a few years back but just lost interest as it was so janky to play on PS4 at the time.

If you thought we were done breaking records this year, looks like we've got at least 1 more to go. 98/76 forecast in Houston on Sunday. Would beat the previous record high by 3 (set all the way back in 2022). Yippee!

Love when the weather gets extra shitty just in time for the weekend, and then improves on Monday and Tuesday. It's so ideal. Dear God, please let this be the last weekend of 2023 where my AC runs 24/7.

Now this is the time of year I really wish I was in Denver or somewhere similar. Sunny, 80/50 pretty much every day for the next 2 weeks. That'd be heaven on earth. Shit, the CO mountain towns are already basically in Late Fall, getting to where it never makes it above 70 and drops to high 30's when the sun is down. They'll start getting snowfall before too long.

Not hating the extended forecast after Sunday, but would sure like to start seeing some 8's and 6's instead of strictly 9's and 7's.

Who could have ever seen this coming?!?!?!?!?

LOL. Last post on their IG was about 7 weeks ago. Video update of construction progress through end of July. Still had some work to do, but the inside looked like it couldn't have more than a few weeks remaining. Haven't walked by in a while, but last time I did there were a bunch of guys working in the backyard pool area. Not a clue when they plan to actually open.

Astros getting pretty good at winning Game 3 to avoid the sweep. Let's maybe try winning a few of these final 3 series.

Love when people wander into the "thread exclusively devoted to complaining about the hot weather" and are shocked to discover there are complaints about the hot weather.

Is this the longest a restaurant has ever taken to re-open? https://houston.culturemap.com/news/restaurants-bars/baba-yega-reopening-delay-renovations-fire-2024/ Baba Yega burnt down way back in 2018, and was supposed to finally emerge from the ashes late this Summer. Apparently they had another fire while wrapping up construction a few weeks ago and will remain closed until sometime early next year.

Hot and muggy AF again. No lows below 77 through Sunday. Forecast for First Day of "Autumn" on Saturday is 96/78 and humid as shit. Average temps on Sept 23rd are 88/68, so about 9 degrees warmer than it should be. "Less bad" weather next week, but still no sign of any cold fronts making it down through the first week of October. In fact, currently not a single number starting with a 6 anywhere on the 15-day forecast. Anything after 10/13 would be a new record for latest first cold front. Still a long ways to go, but setting a new record becomes easier to imagine with each passing day.

Despite the pleasant weather the last few mornings, it seems almost a lock that this will be one of the years where we have to wait until well into October to get our first "fall cold front" (i.e. sustained temps at or below 85/65 for a couple days) in Houston. Over the last 125 years, 9/17 has been the average day of arrival, with 10/13 being the latest. Last year it showed up on 9/27. GFS models seem to think there might be a mass of cool air moving down towards Texas around 10/5, but that's way too far out to have any kind of confidence. Until then, gonna continue to feel like Late Summer through the first few days of October.

Another highlight of the trip was that Dad informed us that he's been building a new stand for me and my brother's deer lease. Just sent us some progress pics from his workshop earlier this morning. Will try to remember to post some photos when he finishes up later this month.

Got pretty lucky on the weather. Only rained on us for about 20 minutes during the Friday afternoon hunt. Stayed dry the rest of the weekend. Still pretty damn hot in South Texas though. Did a ton of sweating out in the fields this weekend. All in all, a solid trip. Friday afternoon was the best. All 3 of us more or less limited out, though couldn't find a few that we downed. Field was planted with knee-high goatweed, and if you took your eyes off where you marked a downed bird for even a second, you'd lose it. Lost a couple over the fence line too. Think we ended up with 38 in the truck on Friday. Rest of the weekend was slower, but still productive. Ended up with about 65 breasts when it was all said and done (out of probably 80 shot down). Saturday afternoon was the only true disappointment. Still some birds, but very sporadic and no real pattern to where they were coming. Obligatory tailgate pic from Friday:

Pretty decent stretch of weather coming up next week. Still a bit warmer than I'd like to see, but a couple of sunny, 92/72 days on the board, and nothing over 94 at the moment. Need some more rain though.

Got in a cheap day hunt out near Sealy last Thursday. Decent amount of birds, but the field we were hunting didn't have anything planted, so they were just passing over with no intent of landing anywhere nearby, which meant flying very high and fast. We ended up with 7 dove on maybe 40 shots. I'm not a great shot, but my buddy is a competitive clay shooter and even he was averaging probably 5 shots/hit. 4 proper hunts scheduled in the Alice/Kingsville area this weekend. Looks like we might catch some passing showers, but doesn't appear that it'll be a total washout or anything. Fingers crossed.

More details out today:

Warm and extremely soupy here in H Town once that first round of rain moved through and the sun came out. Looks like we're about to get another round of showers though. God knows we need it. Keep the rain coming, just tell the sun to take a day or two off. Don't need the steam bath treatment.

Get ready for Mandela's release from prison, the Exxon Valdez spill, and the reunification of East and West Germany. It's officially '90 again!