This will never, ever stop being completely awesome. 

Curiosity took this picture.  The furthest peak at the top of the image is 10 miles away.  This is awesome.  Hi-res, color pictures from the surface of another freakin’ planet.  If you don’t think this is the most awesomest thing imaginable then you are probably dead.

I am going to post some more pictures from our summer Sunday walk around Portsmouth.  I’ll skip the Strawbery Banke pics for now.

According to a plaque out front, this church used to be the New Hampshire state house.

There are some interesting stores downtown.

This place used to be The Elvis Room.  I saw Chelsea on Fire there once with Larry, and it turns out my beautiful wife used to go there all the time.  I wonder if we were both there that night.

As a former Bank of America customer who left over the whole charging for debit transactions bullshit, I found this little political statement amusing.

You can’t go to Portsmouth without at least catching a glimpse of the water.

You can’t go to Portsmouth without at least catching a glimpse of the bridge.

Always support your neighborhood street musicians.  Especially when they wail the way this guy was wailing.  I gave the kids a buck each to drop in his tip bag.  He totally bagged me when I took a picture.  I’ll put that one up on the private page.

There ya go.  A few Portsmouth pictures.  Eventually I’ll add the Strawbery Banke pics too.

I just had a cool idea for a possible thing to do on vacation next year.

On our honeymoon in 2009, Jen and I went to a Padres game in San Diego and just happened to see Adrian Gonzalez play 1st base.  This year Jen and the kids and I went to a Red Sox game and saw Adrian Gonzalez play 1st base.

If we go back to Southern California next year, we should time it so that we can see the Dodgers play a home game and see Adrian Gonzalez play 1st base again.

Three teams, three cities, one 1st baseman.

That would be pretty neat-o, right?  Sounds almost like a good enough excuse to go back to California next year!

Sunday evening, after we got home from our visit to Portsmouth, I had to go out and run a quick errand.  While in the car I had the radio on and I was listening to 98.5 the Sports Hub.  They were simulcasting a national Fox sports radio show.  I didn’t recognize the hosts’ names.  The time was probably between 7:00 and 7:30 Eastern.

One of the hosts was talking about “The Trade” and how it would affect Red Sox fans.  He seemed to feel that Sox fans would be very upset about the move as it would signify the organization admitting defeat and giving up on 2012.  I would like to take this opportunity to correct this radio talk show host who is so important and famous that I have no idea who he is’ opinion.

Red Sox fans are dancing in the freakin’ streets.  Maybe not literally, although there might be some, but definitely figuratively.

This is the best thing the Red Sox have done since 2004.  This is wonderful.  This is like baseball heaven on Earth.  The talking head actually said the Boston fans who still have tickets to games over the remainder of the season were not going to go.  Is he nuts?  The overwhelming majority of us were thinking the exact, 100% opposite.  People who had tickets before the trade were going to boycott.  Now there is excitement again.  Now there is optimism again.  Now there is no longer a bleak, horrid, empty black hole where the future used to be.  People calling into sports radio shows are saying that his is the best thing the team could possibly have done, and that they are going to show support for the team like they have not done since the collapse last year.  One person I heard on the radio even suggested going all in on pink hat activities like the wave and sweet caroline, just to say thank you to the management for actually doing something significant.

The Sox had the worst September collapse in history last year and all they really did to fix things was fire the manager and hire Schmucko the Clown.  They had to hire a new General Manager as well because last year’s GM got the hell out of town as fast as he could.  There were no real changes on the field.  Papelbon walked and Baily came in and immediately went on the DL.  Effectively, that’s it.

Now, finally, after a completely futile April through August that left us near last place, the management has done something substantial to show us fans that things will be different in the future.  Let’s be honest though, just because three of the four worst contracts are gone and the team now has zillions of dollars to work with in the future, does not mean that the future is set and another World Series is imminent.  Not even close.  What it means is, there is finally reason for optimism.  This season was written off by the fans as a loss almost since day one.  Hell, for many of us it was a loss as early as Spring training.

Now there is hope in Red Sox nation.  Now there is something to look forward to.

Red Sox fans could not be happier.  Maybe if the Fox sports radio Sunday evening show host didn’t have his head up his ass he would have seen that without me pointing it out to him.

Our last weekend of summer vacation adventure took us to Portsmouth, NH, and the Strawbery Banke museum. Many pictures were taken, from all different periods of US history.

These are from the garden at the Governor’s mansion circa 1870.

We saw this cool fire escape while exploring Portsmouth, NH.

Today is the last weekend day of summer vacation.

Let’s go find some adventure!

So how did things go on day one of the post Beckett/Gonzalez/Crawford/Punto era?

The Sox blew a six run lead against the awful Kansas City Royals and ended up losing in 12 innings.  Wait, which team is awful?  Oh yeah, the Red Sox are the awful team.

And for the other side of the trade coin?

Adrian Gonzalez hit a three run home run.  Welcome back to Cali, AGon.

It’s okay.  This trade isn’t about this season.  It’s about the future.

Right?

Right?

Take this hitter…

And this picture…

Along with an injured outfielder and a part time infielder, and…

Ship them off to this place.

I think back to the day that Nomar Garciapara was traded.  That was a huge risk.  Theo Epstein rolled the dice by shipping out an all star caliber player while the team was in a pennant race.  It worked out gloriously, but that doesn’t change the fact that it was a major gamble.

Today we see a trade that will possibly go down in Red Sox history as an even bigger deal.  Three all star caliber players, all traded at once in the same deal for essentially a handful of prospects.  I really am sad to see Adrian Gonzalez go.  He’s a hell of a player, and he should have been a bigger factor with the Red Sox than he was.  Who knows, maybe if the team’s culture had been a little better last year he might have lead us to great things.  Still, he was never going to live up to the expectations, and more importantly he was never going to live up to the tons upon tons of money he was being paid.  Carl Crawford had no business coming to Boston.  He was a great player in Tampa Bay and I am positive, without any doubts, that he will be a great player again.  We just didn’t need him.  We already had Jacoby Ellsbury to fill every role that Crawford could have filled.  Also, like Gonzalez, Carl was never ever going to be able to live up to the tons and tons upon tons and tons of money he was being paid.  He came to Boston with huge expectations and he crumbled under the pressure.  Again, I am sure that eventually he would have come around.  In fact, the 31 games he played this year were pretty positive.  It doesn’t matter though, for the money he was making he had to be a hall of fame quality player and he just isn’t.

Beckett… Oh Josh Beckett…

I’ve been bitching a lot about Josh Beckett for the last year.  He’s been awful since the September collapse began last year.  He’s come off like a total asshole too.  Every time he opens his mouth you just want to yell at him and call him a douche.  Despite all of that though, I will go to my grave as a Josh Beckett fan.  The way he destroyed the Yankees in the World Series when he was playing for Florida.  The way he dominated the universe in 2007 and was utterly unbeatable in that post season.  When he’s on he is the man.  The problem is, he hasn’t been the man in 12 months.  He’s been an ass.  I hope this trade shakes him out of whatever was holding him back this year.  I hope he becomes the great pitcher he was even last season.  Let’s not forget that he was having a great season right up until the September collapse last year.  He’s still got it in him, he just didn’t seem to care this year.  For Boston fans, not caring is an unforgivable sin.  All we Boston fans ask is for you to play like your life depends on it, and if you don’t do that then we will voice our displeasure.  Josh Beckett has been hearing a lot of that this year.  Hopefully this trade will re-light the fire for him.  I hope he is great for the Dodgers.

Oh yeah, and Nick Punto too.  Ummm… yeah.

As for the players the Red Sox get in return?

I really don’t care.  Maybe I’ll care another day, but for now I am just so happy that management actually did something that I just want to enjoy it while it lasts.