It seems like day 1,527 in the effort to restore Goodboys Nation weblog back to a pristine state. But at least, through the help of my DreamHost tech JJ G, we now know where my post-11/9/10 blog posts have gone – they’re actually on another server not related to the Blogs-About DNS servers (don’t ask me how that is possible). Unfortunately, the bad news is that there’s no way to log into that server without any kind of credentials, and worse, there’s a plugin on that server that’s generating an error when anyone even tries to access it. I’ve opened yet another case with the Blogs-About folks looking for assistance, but that ain’t likely to happen, so the most likely avenue is that this blog will end up getting re-pointed back to the Blogs-About name servers for a short time so I can extract manually the last ten months manually. It will be the doggiest of dog work, but it might be my only option.

Given that I’ll be spending the better part of this week in fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada, it looks that will happen next weekend.

This has been quite the logistical nightmare.

But The Great White Shank is not muzzled forever. Tou can now follow me on Twitter @GreatWhiteShank. So feel feel free to add me to your list of friends and tweet away!

Congratulations to Herman Cain for winning today’s Florida GOP straw poll. I’ve always liked and respected Mr. Cain; hopefully this will propel his candidacy to higher visibility in the polls and scare the dickens out of those two RINO front-runners Romney and Perry. Heram is THE MAN to get thisd country working again and bring it back together as one people.

Goodboys Nation weblog – still cruisin’ after all these years.

Still waiting to find out whether this blog will be intact after DreamHost tries to find my missing data.

Hard to really get jazzed about posting anything worthwhile not knowing what’s going to happen.

Until then, looks I’m..

Feel free to check back regularly, hopefully one of these days Goodboys Nation weblog will be back and intact. Until then, please visit Rob‘s and Dave‘s websites for your entertainment pleasure.

Sorry about this, folks – right now there’s no end in sight.

Another post destined to be wiped out whenever this blog ever gets back on its feet again.

I woke up this morning with this tune in my head. I hadn’t heard it for years, but I’ve always liked it. Love the way it builds to a very cool and dynamic crescendo before receding back into a mellow close.

Kinda like life itself.

Oh, did I mention the Red Sox stink? Forget about the Rays, look out for the Angels.

I miss blogging.

Hang in there, folks. Still waiting to see if I can get my 2011 contenmt loaded. I have a plan that, if enacted, would take the better part of my weekend and beyond to rebuild. No answer from Blogs-About. DreamHost and I have a chat tomorrow to discuss.

I know this blog is not the most important thing in the world. I hope my readers will be patient with me and check back in from time to time.

There’s really no need for me to be posting anything right now, as I think the effort to get my posts from November of last year to when things went south is going to wipe this out and be a massive amount of dog work, if it is possible at all.

This is a nice happy mellow tune for a night when I’m anything but happy.

Goodboys Nation weblog is officially on life support.

As the Grateful Dead once sang, “what a long, strange trip it’s been”.

Rather than go into a long discertation about where Goodboys Nation weblog has been, all I can say is that right now, I’m up on my new hosting site, DreamHost, who did a great job getting my site converted.

You’ll note the pic on the sidebar has been changed. Meet your 2011 Goodboys Invitational champions, Mike “Vegas” Clark and Ben “The Funny Guy” Andrusaitis. It’s only taken me the better part of two months (and two website hosting vendors) to get that picture uploaded.

You’ll also note that the previous entry to this is from November of last year. Somehow, my site content from November 10, 2010 to a couple of weeks ago is missing from the Blogs-About Hosting directories; I’m presently trying to find out where that content might be so it can be uploaded to the new DreamHost-hosted site. It would be heartbreaking if it’s gone forever. It’s obviously got to be somewhere, but to expect Blogs-About to respond to my inquiry when they haven’t responded to anything I’ve opened over the past month and a half may be asking too much.

Not sure where or how Goodboys Nation weblog will continue in its newest incarnation. All I can say is stay tuned and we’ll see what happens…

Not publishing anything of value tonight, I believe my blog is in the process of getting migrated over to DreamHost. Three quick comments:

On the Red Sox: how much longer will we put up with crappy managing just so Timmy Wakefield can get his 200th win? He sucks as a pitcher right now, and the pathetic attempts to get him # 200 are becoming embarrassing.

Watched the Republican debate tonight. While I don’t think you can say anyone truly “won” the debate, no one hurt themselves except Ron Paul, who is a total loon. Rick Santorum should consider dropping out, and there’s something about Jon Huntsman that makes my skin crawl. That being said, anyone up there tonight sounded like Thomas Jefferson compared to the blather we’re going to bet from Barack Hussein Obama tomorrow night. That’s going to be one angry, petulant Kenyan up there in front of the Tele-PrompTer tomorrow night, I guarantee you that.

Peyton Manning possibly out for the season? What’s up with that?

Forget about tonight’s blowout of the Blue Jays, this is a team in deep trouble. Let’s take it from the top:

Starting pitching: You’ve got Jon Lester and Josh Beckett, sure, and that’s as good a 1-2 as any team has in baseball, but excuse me for thinking that you need four decent starters for the playoffs and (if you get there) the World Series, and the Sox have an awful rest of the rotation. I can’t watch John Lackey pitch – what GM Theo Epstein saw in this guy to give him a boatload of cash to pry him away from the Angels totally escapes me. He’s a glorified batting practice pitcher. Erik Bedard’s knee, which kept him out of a large portion of this season, is flaring up again (surprise!), Andrew Miller is not to be trusted under any circumstances, and don’t even get me started on Tim Wakefield. I don’t care that he needs one win to reach 200, he’s a four-inning pitcher who gets lit up as soon as the lineup sees him a second time around. If this is all the Sox have as rotation heading into the playoffs, expect an early exit, no matter who they play.

Bullpen: You’ve got Aceves, Bard, and Papelbon. The rest are pretty freakin’ useless as far as I can tell. Matt Albers had a great first half, but when the Orioles deem a pitcher worthy of release (the Orioles!) that should tell you something. Manager Terry Franocona has totally misused Dan Wheeler to the point where the guy has no confidence. And the rest of the bunch you can give away for a bag of balls in return. Do not get me started on Franklin Morales. Perhaps if you had a top of the rotation of Beckett-Lester-Clay Buchholz you could get away with this cast of characters, but with Buchholz out for the rest of the year, having only two dependable starters puts a lot of pressure on a bullpen. Especially this one.

Infield: I worry about shortstop – a lot. I’m no Jed Lowrie fan, and don’t quite understand Francona’s love of the guy. He’s nothing but potential, he’s afraid of going all-out for fear of getting hurt again, and he’s a lousy shortstop. So I guess it’s Marco Scutaro and pray like hell he doesn’t get hurt. First base (Adrian Gonzalez), second base (Dustin Pedroia) and third base (Kevin Youkilis) are rock solid, although I can’t help but think Youkilis is worn down from playing so many games at a demanding position like 3B. He looks sluggish to me. Pray none of these guys get hurt, or else we’re stuck with Lowrie.

Outfield: I don’t ever want to see J.D. Drew in a Red Sox uniform ever again. Ever. I’d play Josh Reddick for better or for worse the rest of the way, since he’s helped get us this far, and those are the cards we’ve been dealt. The less of Darnell McDonald I see the better I like it – the guy really can’t hit. Of course, CF Jacoby Ellsbury is having a MVP year both offensively and defensively. Which brings me to Carl Crawford. No one in Red Sox Nation – and I mean no one looked more forward to seeing him in a Red Sox uniform, as he absolutely killed us every year he was with Tampa Bay. But for at least this year the guy stinks. Takes pitches he should swing at, swings at piches he shouldn’t, and when he does it’s a horrible looking swing. He’s been late behind every fastball this year. He’s terrible and frustrating as all hell to watch, to the point where I won’t even watch him when he’s a bat. A huge disappointment.

Catching: A real bright spot this year. Except for that game two weeks ago when, after swinging at three straight crappy sliders in the dirt from Yankees reliever Boone Logan, I threatened to take up tequila again and toss my 55″ widescreen in the swimming pool, Jarrod Saltalamacchia has been more than anyone ever could have hoped for as a starting catcher, both offensively and defensively. And captain Jason Varitek has been awesome as a once or twice a week starter. Between them, the Sox have as good a catching tandem as there is in the majors.

What I worry the most about these Sox is that they’ve been maddeningly inconsistent over the past few weeks, and I’m not sure why. Yesterday they got shut out by the Blue Jays, today they pounded the crap out of them, would anybody be truly surprised if they scored only one or two runs again tomorrow and lost? I wouldn’t. Crawford is the real problem in that lineup; manager Terry Francona has done everything he can to hide him, but you can’t hide ugly. If he was having anything close to the kind of seasons he had in Tampa Bay, the Sox would have at least 5-6 more wins – perhaps more. But I don’t see any hope for him, so I don’t know what the Sox can do except head into the post-season with the cards they’ve been dealt.

I wish I could say different, but I’m not very bullish on their chances.

Count me as in a foul mood as we head out of Labor Day into the fall months. Oh, not because of the prospect of Arizona winter – I can’t wait for that, although I’ll certainly miss the pool as it drops from piss warm to refreshing to bracing to “oh sh*t, that’s cold!” in the span of just several weeks’ time. No, I’m bearish about a bunch of other things:

I’m bearish about this country’s future when I hear those like me who really just want the federal government to gear back on its reckless spending habits and (gasp!) live within its means be threatened with physical harm by a top union goon who’s sharing the stage with the President of the United States without any reproach whatsoever.

I’m bearish about this country’s future when I hear those like me who really just want the federal government to gear back on its reckless spending habits and (gasp!) live within its means be called “barbarians” by the Vice-President of the United States.

Look, I expect the likes of those in the Congressional Black Caucus to use over-the-top political rhetoric and accuse the Tea Party of wanting to take the country back to the days of lynch mobs; they’re a bunch of obnoxious and ignorant racists to begin with. But I do expect the President and Vice-President (elected, BTW, to represent all the people of the United States, even those who hold political ideologies they disagree with) to conduct themselves in a way and manner consistent with their offices. Instead, Barack Obama and Joe Biden have revealed themselves to be nothing better than the obnoxious goons they share the stage with and support politically. It’s disgusting, reprehensible, and demeaning to the offices they hold.

Every time I think there’s no way the Obama administration can go any lower in terms of its rhetoric and competence, every day seems to bring a new floor. I mean, think about it – even if you’re not a conservative or Tea Party member – what good does this harsh tone and lack of civility accomplish? Is it just to rev up the union base of the Democratic Party? Is that what this is all about? Does the President and the Vice-President really think they help their own cause by accepting and taking such a strident tone towards Americans who simply share a different political ideology than they do? Is that what the Presidency has come to? If so, the Obama administration has hit a new low in its “hope and change” message from 2008.

It’s disgusting and demeaning to what the Presidency should be and symbolize. I’m bearish about this country because of what Barack Obama is doing to it. In my view, he’s playing the class warfare card and instigating actions that could have implications far beyond anything he can imagine. It’s dangerous politics and it’s not right. In fact, it’s downright scary.

And don’t get me started about the Red Sox, I’m very bearish about them as well. But I’ll write about my grievances with the Sox and GM Theo Epstein in another post.

It’s Labor Day weekend and it’s still just as hot as ever: when you have air temps well over 100 and dew points in the low 50s it makes for mighty oppressive conditions. It’s been the hottest and driest summer we can remember out here. The monsoon season, which is now winding down, has been a huge disappointment – we’ve had lots of dust storms down here in the Valley of the Sun but precious little rain. We actually had a dust storm blow through here around 2 AM the other night that actually did bring some rain with it, but all that did was create splotches of mud all over the place. All the flowers in my pots have compressed the size of their leaves and foliage to conserve their use of water to the point where you can barely see them, and the grass, which I can normally keep green with two 7-minute intervals each day, has gotten crusty and in some places brown altogether. And the pool temperature has stayed stuck between 91 and 93 for the past three weeks. Unfortunately, the nights have been so warm during this heat wave that I just haven’t felt like using it.

Still, there are signs that the seasons are getting ready to change. The skies now feature the kind of less hazy, much clearer sheen of blue that you see before the onset of monsoon season, meaning we’re heading into that final stretch of blazing hot sun you get just before the heat breaks around the second week of October. You also see less people out and about – the folks around here are now past the tipping point of tolerance when it comes to the heat. We’ve been in it now for more than four months, and everybody just wants to be done with it. While the sun is still a blazer, its angle is a lot different, and the shadows of the lemon and lime trees against our east wall are much more apparent while I’m doing my afternoon work. Most especially, the first cases of Samuel Adams Octoberfest has shown up on the shelves at the local Fry’s. Picked up my first case on Saturday and quenched my thirst with one (OK, two) after cleaning the pool filter yesterday. Wish it could have been a little cooler (the temp was 110 at the time), but it’s my all-time favorite beer.

And there are the fall plans to start arranging for. Last year, it was re-designing the back patio – a lot of work but a lot of fun to see your design come true and look as good as you imagined it to be. This year, we’ll be having our house painted. Financially, we’d prefer to hold off for another year, but the wood frame above the stucco and under the roof is so weathered and cracked from the heat and sun we dare not let another Arizona summer have at it. I’ll be doing a brick border around the rocks that lie against our east wall, which I think will be nice – especially if I can get some grass to grow under the newly-pruned lemon and lime trees.

What have y’all got planned for your fall projects?