Dishes

2021-0527 Thursday. 1028 PM. My bride recently observed that I watch sports to avoid undesirable conversations, as though it's my motivation for watching. I say it's just a perk. There are, in fact, many undesirable things that sports make better. Namely, doing the dishes. In my house, there always seem to be unwashed, scattered dishes about. Amongst my family of five, there isn't a single one of us who consistently stows their used dishes. Carmelo Anthony tied the game! Blazers! Don't get me wrong, I am willing to lap the living, dining, kitchen room, collecting stray plates and cups. I wouldn't claim that I do it consistently but, certainly more often than any other Baker in this house. My dogs never pitch in. If, however, I can put on sports while executing this chore, I am quite happy about it. Do not count on me to be efficient though. I can only do one thing at a time, so I wisely use the advertising breaks to do dishes. Jurkic fouls out! Damn! Not for nothin', it's very difficult for me to understand why my children cannot retain a simple directive to rinse a dish before placing it in the dishwasher. Time and again, I have begged them to do so, yet I find myself scrubbing dried milk, oatmeal, rice or tomato products from the "cleaned" dishes when I'm the putting them away. *sigh* I probably need a new dishwasher! Austin Rivers turns into Steph Curry... *eye roll* Undesirable conversations and chores are part of being alive, I guess, and we all have our ways of dealing with them. Disagreement is one of those things that will always be with us and often makes things undesirable. While there seems to be a consensus that we learn from mistakes, failures, challenges and loss, I also hear a lot of grumbling and entitlement these days. The line between challenging trial and oppression can be blurred, I fear and many seem quick to play the victim. Oh shit! Down 8, 3:00 to go. To mix metaphors, take the chip off your own shoulder, then knock everybody else for the yoke on theirs. The way it's discussed on sports talk, having a "chip on your shoulder" is some kind of badge of honor when, in reality, it's sophomoric dick measuring. (Look it up.) The Blazers lost game 3 of their series with the Nuggets, putting them in a 2-1 deficit. It's hard to believe the Blazers will get out of this first round when they can't seem to put four consistent quarters together. Their shooting in the opening minutes was atrocious and, while they eventually dug themselves out of the hole, it seemed they expended too much of their resources in doing so. In the last minutes of the matchup, even the vocal, live crowd at the Moda Center couldn't project enough muster for them to overcome the Nuggets' physicality and finish. Whatever may challenge, I pray we dig down, look up and press forward. Take care of others out there. This is bakesHere. 2021-0527 Thursday. 1028 PM. ACQUIRE as NEEDED. bakesHere.com