Totally at random & a winner

Though Comerica Park was only 2/3 full on Thursday, I find it hard to believe that all the people attending a mid-afternoon weekday baseball game had the day off work.  I'm quite certain more than 1 of them was playing hooky.  Lots of kids were there, too, and I highly doubt it was a teacher inservice day, but who can blame them?  It was the last home game of the regular season and it was a glorious day for a ball game.   It was magical to watch Doug Fister pitch a game in which he set a new American League Record. The Tigers did not disappoint and pulled a rabbit out the hat in the bottom of the 9th inning to save Doug's game.   I did not get to knit because while I had my remembered my knitting, I forgot the extra needle.  Duh.  That's OK, I was happy watching history get made.

I finally shook off my laziness and put some effort into my job this week.  In a no good deed goes unpunished sort of way, I've had my behind handed to me.  Late Friday afternoon, the triage nurse, who--praise be--is finally back to work, called and begged me to go see a patient in Detroit.  She was so desperate and pathetic, I caved.  The patient's home was in a rebuilt neighborhood near the river and was on a canal.  It was a beautiful setting, but the drive there was sad.  Most of the old homes are gone and either rebuilt homes have replaced them, or vacant lots take up the space where families used to live in modest Craftsman style homes.  The factories surrounding are seldom in use, but are instead abandoned, full of graffiti and scar the landscape horribly.  It bothers me that those businesses are allowed to make their fortunes and then close, abandoning the buildings and leaving the financially strapped city to figure it all out.  Who knows, I'm sure plenty of them left toxic substances behind, too.  Try as I may, I never see a city that can match Detroit in the scorched earth landscape type of way.

The above really bothered me.  So much so, that while stopped at a light, I scribbled 'scorched earth' on a notepad.  I got to thinking about those factories as soon as I got on the freeway ramp of my nightmares.  It's southbound Interstate 75 to the on ramp of eastbound Interstate 94.  I've had night terrors that I've driven off that ramp and soared through the sky right toward the bread factory that used to be there.  More than once I've awakened in a cold sweat from that dream right before impact. The building is of course still there, abandoned and full of graffiti, which is why I got to thinking about that in the first place.  I really need to give that hamster in my brain a break!

Still with me?  Finding Pam?  Random Number Generator selected your comment and you are the winner of a pair of Cloisonne mittens.  Just let me know your favorite colors, what size you'd like them to be and I'll get right to work on them!  I promise, your fingers will be toasty warm this winter.  Congratulations.