A Great Run, But Unfortunately, It Is Over

The world lost a larger than life figure yesterday with the passing of Yankee great, Yogi Berra.

Whose most famous pronouncement was, "It ain't over til it's over."

But he had lots of others.  Although you can probably Google a bunch of them, I collected my favourites over the years.

They say he got the nickname Yogi from his kids because of all of his expressions made them think he sounded like an Indian Yogi.

And, of course, we never would have had Jellystone Park and Yogi Bear without the bearish shaped Berra. 

So back to those expressions. I had to dig mine out of an old file - okay, an old memory stick - but you get the idea.

So, presenting my Top Ten Yogi-ism's;

It's like deja vu all over again.
It's so crowded, no one goes there anymore.
It gets late early out there.
If you can't imitate him; don't copy him.
The future ain't what it used to be.
It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future.
90% of the game is half mental.
That's the earliest I've ever been late.
If people don't want to go to ballgames, you can't stop them.
If you come to a fork in the road, take it!

Can't Have Any Fun Anywhere Anymore

Went to the Jays game yesterday.

When did they add this rule about no guns?

We used to fire our guns off after every Jays home run.

[Ed. note:  What if the dome roof was closed?]

Yeah, they changed that rule, too.  The wusses.


And now no violence as well?   It wasn't a game if my Daddy and me didn't come home with at least two or three empty cans of Whup Ass.

Boy things have changed since I went to games.



Nobody Wants To Eat At A Fresh Market At A Jays Game

Come on!   You'd get beat up for that.

And nobody wants to eat whatever kind of sandwich that is either!

And I don't want any love in my sandwich.



A $10 Hot Dog?

 Come on!

Where's the......



Okay. Finally.

At least they didn't take this away.

So let's see where the seats are.

Not bad!

There's David Price!

Where?

There!

I can almost touch him.


I'm Crushing His Head

And you get a real good view of the scoreboard from out here, too!



The Mystery Of "The Batter's Eye" Revealed!

Out here you get to see behind the Batter's Eye.

[The Batter's Eye is dark area of (no) seating beneath the scoreboard.  For the batter to have a black background behind the pitcher, to see the ball better.]

It's just a blanket!


The Manalyst In Person!

And, get to see the Manalyst, Greg Zaun.  I can now join The Zaunbie Nation.

So, I guess I'll just have to get used to no guns and no whupping up on people no more.

But I bet Zaunie has opened up a can or two in his time.....

And There Are Lots Of Them

Not necessarily beautiful sunsets.  But.....

The Taking Of The Taking Of The Sunset

No self respecting cell phone owner could let this opportunity go by.


Going....

 Going....

Okay, I only thought of doing this post after and didn't get the "Gone".  So sue me.

No Doubt About It

[Note: cannot confirm that this has been verified by user testing.]

Hello Neighbour

I guess if you didn't know your neighbours before you moved in, you soon would.

I know real estate in Toronto is expensive - especially in The Beaches - but when roofs actually overlap.....

The whole neighbourhood was like this.

Hanging On By A Thread

Or at least a root.

I thought roots went down, but these are going up - the hill - to keep this guy from tumbling into the river.



"I'll Get By With A Little Help From My Friends"

They've built him a little retaining wall.

That's nice.

Shouldn't Need The Memo

"What?"

"Demolished?!"

 "I didn't get the memo...."

I love the little, red "Open" sign in the window.

"Hellooooo?"

"How come I'm not getting any business?"

I Knew Them When.....

Read The Fine Print

 

Hey, what a great Burger & A Beer Special!

Or is it......

 

Son Of Conrad

Well look who's back.

I guess it's not the same little racoon that graced our sidewalk a few weeks ago - 'cause he is long gone - but looks similar.

Suspiciously similar, as I pointed out to the 311 dispatcher when I called this in.

Maybe I wasn't the only one who thought that, because as the day went on, no flowers, no cigarette, no framed photo of this guy in happier days.

And by late afternoon, he was gone.

Wow, what a boring post.......

You Can Park But You Cannot Hide

Wow, this black car is tucked into a small spot that he had to parallel park to get into.

Didn't know tow trucks could get you in there.

But buddy had some cool adjustable rack that he turned and slid under the offending vehicle.

Other buddy is right there writing out a ticket to add insult to injury.

Took him only five minutes to slide in there, hook him up and drag him away.

Pretty cool (scary) how he got him out of that tight spot.

And ten minutes later.  I guess - as Jimmy Buffett sings - "Word got out all over the island" and other folks got the heck outta Dodge.

Making The Best Of A Bad Situation

As a follow up to an earlier post of coloured dots painted on trees (see here for a refresher).....

....came across another doomed Ash tree, identified by an orange dot.

Except this time at least this sprayer here has a heart (pun not really intended), trying to make this guy's transition into firewood a little more gentle.

It is a true shame about the Emerald Ash Borer, though, as some of these trees are huge.

And very old.

At first I thought these trees aren't dead, look at all the lush greenery.

But those are all from surrounding, smaller trees.

The spindly, dead tops of these Ash trees tower over their neighbours.

Like the pathetic tufts of hair sticking out the top of my sad, sorry head.  (Memo to self: check for orange dots.)

On a somewhat similar vein, this fellow looks to have had better days.

Although from the looks, he's also had at least one very bad day.  But again, on a similar vein, maybe 99% good.

Is my glass half full or what!

Better Than Born And Slaughtered, I Guess

I like the reference to "High Care".

"High Care.  Of course, until we kill them."

What's Wrong With This Picture?

A delivery vehicle (Canada Post) that's not parked illegally!

What's up with that?



Wait A Minute.....

Never mind.

Whew!

It's Always Fun Til Someone Gets A Blue Dot

Wandering, as I like to do, through one of Toronto's many ravines, I came across some trees marked with blue dots.

Does it designate a hiking trail?

Unfortunately no - these trees are being eaten alive by the Emerald Ash Borer.

These bug eyed green - er - bugs (or beetles) bore inside the ash trees and lay their little bug eyed babies.

And the city has almost one million ash trees!  Or used to.  And we are very likely to lose the rest of them.

The city is treating some of the trees with an injection to kill the Emerald Ash Borer ($300 a pop).  Successfully injected trees are marked with a green dot (I didn't see any).

 Blue dots mean, we tried our best, and we're watching you, but....

 ...chances are you're doomed.

Doomed!

Huge sections of trees are being cut down.

Orange dot trees mean we're through watching you - and you're next!

There were also some interesting orange markings intermittently along the trail itself.

I was disappointed when I found out these only meant; Watch Out Dummy - Don't trip.

Sheesh.  Ouch.

Still it was a nice afternoon for a hike.

Except now I just couldn't make eye contact with any of those Blue Dot fellows.