Whoever wound up there at the end of the season was the odds-on favorite to claim the second wild card slot, unless someone from the NL West put toget...er a 25-win September. Chicago, because of front-office ineptitude, and Pittsburgh, because of an ownership group that would rather pocket the profits than put them back into the team, were destined to be afterthoughts for the foreseeable future.The West looked identical at the start of September as it had at the end of the previous year. The. Adele introduced my family to her mom, ensuring that she mentioned her special friendship with my sisters. Her mom gave polite smiles to Kelly and Penny before giving me a piercing look and a slight smile that gave me the feeling there was an unspoken, "Uh-HUH," there behind her eyes. I could not help but believe that this woman had a pret ... ty good idea of just who the good friend in our family was with whom her daughter had been spending so much time. Of course, the adoring looks and the. The drums began to beat and somewhere nearby a piper was blowing a melancholy tune, sad to see the sun wink out. She felt an arm around her shoulders. Turning she saw a familiar profile, her consort on those long ago solstice nights. They had shared a wild passionate coupling, always aware that the heat of their love-making would warm the sun hidden in the earth on this longest night of the year. He handed her a cup of warm wine. “Remember when we would be the ones that all would gather around. He was a horny old guy, but he gave me a jacket, a pack of cigarettes and I only took 20 dollars from him before he drove me down to campus to pick up my shoes in the alley and drop me off at the frat house. The lump on the back of my head was huge and it still hurt. My fraternity boys were happy to see me, when I rang the doorbell and asked for their help, wearing only the short jacket with nothing on underneath. I was feeling much better and called the police to report my mugging and the.