The Yankees and Cardinals, the two teams this household are attached to, clinched their respective divisions.

It’d take a lot to happen, and as huge fans, we’d love to see a Cardinals-Yankees World Series.

The Dodgers will not be an easy out, and a lot of bats have gone silent for the Cardinals down the stretch, but anything can happen in the playoffs. And the Yankees are not guaranteed to get past the Astros if they face off. So, there’s that as well.

If you get some timely hitting, good pitching and solid defense, you can slay even the mightiest of regular season dragons like the L.A. team that crushed the regular season.

Anyway, we’ve said it here before, but this time of year is primo sports watching if you’re a fan at all. College football, pro football, and baseball’s pending playoffs are all vying for the bulk of fans’ available eyeballs.

Much has been said about the decline of college football attendance and I want to say that it is expensive to go to any college game when you factor in lodging (if from out of town), gas, food, tickets, parking and beverages.

I’m pretty sure we’ve reached the tipping point with how comfortable it is to just stay at home or go to a sports bar with a gazillion TVs, tons of chicken wings and cold beer. Oh, did I also mention you typically get free parking at sports bars, and you always get it if you’re watching the game at home?

And now for something completely different

Speaking of watching, I’m writing this and looking in the opposite direction of my better half, who is staining the fence.

Autumn is a time for sports of course. But it’s also a time to prepare for winter by getting the place as winterized as possible.

I’ve lagged behind this year on the fish pond.

It’s a lot of work and I’ll use the same technique I did last year–taking a huge bucket, filling it up from the spigot and dumping it and some water treatment when the pump begins to suck air during winter.

It’s not the high tech solution many employ, I know. But, it gets the job done, especially when the hose is frozen beyond use.

I’m thinking of toying with a pond bed vacuum cleaner next year so there’s not much algae. I’ll probably have to fish the fish out of the pond and put them in plastic bags to make sure no problems occur while vacuuming

We do have one gold fish, Big Red, who is ten years old. I will take special care with him as I do not want to stress him out.

Hopefully when I do the vacuuming attempt next spring it will help with algae accumulation as the season winds down.

I’m thinking I’ll still have to do the bucket trick when it gets cold, but I’ll cross that bridge when we get there.

Right now it’s a beautiful fall day.

And we know what happens on beautiful fall days.

The better half continues her staining labors and I remain available to help her aching back by being available to lift heavy objects.

There aren’t any games on now so this will not be a problem.

There should be a game on later that we can both enjoy, but for now I better leave you to go see what all the banging in the garage is about.

Have a great one.