{"id":3717,"date":"2020-04-19T21:43:55","date_gmt":"2020-04-19T21:43:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/?p=3717"},"modified":"2020-04-19T21:45:25","modified_gmt":"2020-04-19T21:45:25","slug":"we-are-living-in-bizzaro-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/?p=3717","title":{"rendered":"We are living in Bizzaro World"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

TERRY MOSHEER<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a weird, dangerous and horrifying world we are living in now with Covid-19 forcing divisions and shutdowns and blame being thrown at anybody that can be blamed. We might as well be in Jerry Seinfeld\u2019s Bizzaro World where everything is the opposite of reality because, well, that\u2019s what it looks and sounds like.<\/p>\n

Our President urges his supporters to liberate three Midwest states, says he\u2019s ordering the withdrawing of funding for the World Health Organization in the midst of a pandemic when it is needed the most and sports fans get their fix from replays of anything from soccer matches to boxing matches (Muhammad Ali still wins two of three with Joe Frazier) because the real ones are on hiatus while Covid-19 swirls about in the country\u2019s nursing homes ending patients life\u2019s sooner\u00a0 than expected.<\/p>\n

Then we lose one of our top country-folk singer song writer, John Prine, to that same Covid-19 before we want to let him go. It\u2019s a crushing blow to a tornado of crushing blows.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m listening to Hank William\u2019s Honky Tonk Blues at 4 in the morning because I can\u2019t sleep in our weirdness. Hank says, \u201cCity life has got me down\u201d and is going back to his pappy\u2019s farm to lose these Honky Tonk Blues.<\/p>\n

I have no place to go to lose them<\/p>\n

Prine joked that he should go back to being a mail man, which is what he started out to be because that is where he began his song writing and got inspiration and time to do them while walking his route and avoiding the boredom by thinking of songs that fit original life, not the weirdness he left us with.<\/p>\n

Most of his writing was sad songs, which he liked because he could explore feelings and emotions through them. Some of them were not sad but funny instead \u2013 Jesus, the Missing years; Other Side of Town (most men can smile at this one, but their wives, not so much) and Dear Abby \u2013 but he nailed what most of our lives are all about in simple prose.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s one that fits us as the virus bites us in the butt and kills the rest of us \u2013 Hello In There. He wrote this one as he delivered mail, often to older people who looked longingly out their windows, hoping somebody might stop and say, \u201cHello in there, hello.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cWe had an apartment in the city<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0Me and Loretta liked living there<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0It\u2019d been years since the kids had grown<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

A life of their own, left us alone<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

John and Linda live in Omaha<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

And Joe is somewhere on the road<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We lost Davy in the Korean War<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

And I still don\u2019t know what for, don\u2019t matter anymore<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Ya\u2019 know that old trees just grow stronger<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

And old rivers grow wilder every day<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Old people just grow lonesome<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Waiting for someone to say, \u201cHello in there, hello.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0Me and Loretta, we don\u2019t talk much more<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0She sits and stares through the back door screen<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

And all the news just repeats itself<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Like some forgotten dream that we\u2019ve both seen<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Someday I\u2019ll go and call up Rudy<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We worked together at the factory<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But what could I say if asks, \u201cWhat\u2019s new?\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Northing, what\u2019s with you? Nothing much to do<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Ya\u2019 know that old trees just grow stronger<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

And old rivers grow wilder every day<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Old people just grow lonesome<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Waiting for someone to say, \u201cHello in there, hello.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0So if you\u2019re walking down the street sometime<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

And spot some hollow ancient eyes<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Please don\u2019t just pass \u2018em by and stare<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

As if you didn\u2019t care, say, \u201cHello in there, hello.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s strange to watch horse race, which is about the only live sporting event on TV these weird days, in front of empty stands, the cheering as silent as the stars when night creeps in. Announcers and handicappers chat from their carved out small spaces in their homes and we see them by remote imaging with a five-second delay so unintentional bad works uttered when their horse fails to finish first crushes their wallet is as silent as the stands<\/p>\n

We have run out of Amazon (Prime Video) series to watch after binging on the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Larry David\u2019s Curb your enthusiasm and Making the Cut. After ten years of watching Seinfeld reruns we know their lines by heart and are getting bored seeing George be such an idiot.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve gone back to my sports games with a deck of cards that I used to do for years during my down times. In my latest basketball season I\u2019m averaging over 40 points and my team is scoring 108 points and is undefeated. My historical record, stretching back to my teen years, is 21,000 to 10 losses. That is just an approximate. I\u2019m still upset with the losses.<\/p>\n

We lost our Sophie several years ago and on occasion I still feel her climbing into bed with me. A Shih Tzu, Sophie was small enough when we bought her home that she could fit in the palm of my hand. I miss her. Mary even more than I do.\u00a0 For sure, we could use her company about right now.<\/p>\n

How many times can a person take a lap in the living room. I\u2019m about to find out. Got to do something, right?<\/p>\n

Okay, it\u2019s five in the morning. Time to go see if Sophie has returned. I\u2019ll be back.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m back and now I\u2019m watching live horse racing from Tampa Bay Downs, Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fl and Oaklawn Park in Hotsprings, AR. I also watch a bit of the trotters and quarterhorse races, but they really don\u2019t interest me much and I get bored real quick. If you blink you miss the quarterhorse races and the trotters just look funny, and it\u2019s difficult for trotters to come from behind in those races.<\/p>\n

At Gulfstream they have a Rainbow 6 in which you have to pick the winner of six consecutive races and the money keeps carrying over until somebody wins. The pot is over $7 million right now. It seems to me that you could bet every horse to win in the six races and make a little change. But the math doesn\u2019t work because you have to pick the winning combination before the first of six races. I\u2019m a good math guy, but I\u2019m not going to spend my boring days trying to figure out how many combinations you would have to get to cover all possibilities. You might have to bet more than you would win.<\/p>\n

I remember when Longacres had a pick-six a Bremerton bettor won twice the same racing season. I think his total winnings were just over $150,000. That should have been enough to buy me dinner (he didn\u2019t).<\/p>\n

One bet I\u2019m willing to spend is that our lock-down in the state won\u2019t last much longer. I think it will be a partial reopening, and I believe golf courses will be among the first to get the okay from Governor Jay Inslee to open. That will get a big hurrah from a lot of golfers, but not me.<\/p>\n

You see, I was the world\u2019s worse golfer. I could play basketball, baseball and football pretty well. I was a very good Ping Pong player at one time, I loved to golf, except golf did not love me. I was a very good baseball hitter and I tried to take that to my golf swing and it was a horrible mistake I could not correct. When I finally broke 100 at the old golf course at Gold Mountain with a 99, I quit. That was over 25 years ago.<\/p>\n

Okay enough. I\u2019m going back to the horse races.<\/p>\n

Be well pal.<\/p>\n

Be careful out there.<\/p>\n

Have a great day.<\/p>\n

You are loved.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TERRY MOSHEER It\u2019s a weird, dangerous and horrifying world we are living in now with Covid-19 forcing divisions and shutdowns…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-column","category-mosher"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3717"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3721,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3717\/revisions\/3721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}