David Ortiz of the Red Sox. A classy guy.

A few days ago, (conveniently next door) Arlene's daughter Allison was speaking to her neighbor who lives is next door to them on the other side. Allison mentioned one of her friends, who was pushed into the shallow end of a pool and suffered a broken neck, was in the hospital. The neighbor who is from the Dominican Republic, mentioned that he had a friend, who is famous around here and in major league baseball, who he could contact to make a visit to see the young man in the hospital. Who knew it was slugger David Ortiz of the Boston Red Sox! Ortiz! Besides being a great hitter, is a great guy. He went and visited the guy in the hospital. Boy was he surprised! Ortiz spent time with him and autographed a few things for him and certainly brightened the young mans day. The young man now has regained the movement in his upper body though his legs are still paralyzed but his prognosis is improving.   A couple of photos came available and were posted on Allison's web site which features news about our local city. So I thank Allison for letting me use the photo's which I got off her web site. I asked her for permission to use them and she let me only asking me to mention her web site because the photos weren't taken by her but a friend of hers . So here you go, her web site is called Inside Medford. and I thank her for permission. Allison is a brilliant young woman who Graduated from Tufts University and now is studying at both Harvard and M.I.T. for post graduate work! Not too shabby! Thank You Allison!

 

Ortiz is a huge fan favorite around here. I think the Red Sox stole him 10 years ago! The Red Sox are not doing well this year but realistically  sports fans around here are spoiled rotten. Since 2001 our sports teams have won 11 championships so all I can say is shut up and enjoy it. When you're on top the only way you can go is down and we've begun the slide save for the Patriots who could do it again. Sports wise you could be living in Detroit!

So Sunday was another beautiful day. Arlene's brother had a birthday party for his 5 year old grandson in the back yard, which is next door to where I live. It's Arlene's and her brothers family house. A three family. There were a bunch of little kids and a bunch of big kids. Those would be the adults. They had a cookout with the usual burgers and franks plus sausage and peppers, a cold cut platter, grilled chicken, cole slaw, potato salad and a couple of things that I couldn't identify. The kids played in pool and ran around like little maniacs. Oh yeah there were three dogs as well. It was a nice time and most people had left by 7:00 and there was six of us left. It was a very pleasant early evening and  all was going swimmingly until I happened to look over at the shed by the fence and I see a family of skunks six little ones and what I assume was mama skunk. They apparently are living under the shed. This of course broke up the party. Fortunately two of the dogs had left already. Something about having to work early on Monday. OK I made that up. So the rest of us beat a hasty retreat and that was that. 

  
Today, (Monday) was mostly uneventful. I spoke to my auto mechanic, who still has my car, and he has diagnosed the water leak problem. Something the dealership was unable or unwilling to do. After all they are in the business of keeping you coming back so they can vacuum your bank account clean of money. Oh sure on occasion they actually fix something but their main job is to keep you coming back so they can keep charging you. Once again I will never go to a dealership for repairs. On the plus side I had my guitar amplifier fixed and I can pick it up on Tuesday. I have missed my electric guitar. Arlene and I took a walk around the block then settled on her porch. Though I have lived in this neighborhood for over seven years, I didn't know much about the neighborhood. She pointed out a house that dates to the 1700's. It sat on a what was at the time a plantation owned by the man who lived in this house. It was some six hundred acres. It is on the street where I went to elementary school. I had no idea that there was a house that old right around the corner from where I live. It was part of the Royall House plantation. This is not the house in my neighborhood but it was in the neighborhood where I grew up. I've shown pictures of it before. The photo below is not mine but from the web.

It was originally a farm house built in the 1600's. Washington was here during the siege of Boston by the British. It's on George St. Go figure?
So we sat on the porch with a refreshing adult beverage and eventually I went home and finished this blog that I started this morning.

Had enough? I have.
I'm outta here.




 She went upstairs and fixed us a couple of refreshing drinks