5 things on my mind: Missing Robin Williams 10 years after his death

Welcome back, Jordan Walker. He can only help those troubled Cardinals.

Monday is here, and already smiling at us. The key to overcoming a case of the Mondays is simply knowing it will come and go like any other day of the week. 24 hours expires like any other set. It could move as fast as the weekend did, which turned the page from Friday evening to Sunday evening in seemingly a blink of an eye. As I sit here right before six in the morning rummaging through my brain for some topical discussion, the urge to not worry about the week’s punches is apparent.

After a rare article-less day yesterday (hey, the Cards didn’t even play), I do have a few things to say, so let’s get into the latest five things on my mind.

1) Dogs barking incessantly is stupid. I’m not talking about simply barking; the non stop kind is where I sit at the moment. When it goes on and on, like a politician speaking words without saying much, the fiercest lover of that animal will give in and do his own brand of barking… at the dog.

I get it. It’s their way of communicating with other hounds, but it can get out of hand when it’s happening early in the morning. A few licks after 6am and Captain Wet Nose won’t shut it down. With dogs, you never know if they’re talking shit with other dogs or just being a natural asshat. It just goes on and on. It can be loud, erratic, ongoing, and something a human can’t get too mad about-but we usually do.

Picture another couple of dog loving humans strolling by telling you that it’s okay the dogs are barking, and those are two people who should just keep walking. Does anyone else feel like their backyard is an amusement park to everybody but them? The dogs love it. As parents, we’re more like, “no, it’s not alright! Get a few loud barks in, lower the volume, and be a civil little animal.” My three dogs could start an orchestra with their barking, and it’s never an opportune time.

A bonus dog gripe: My chihuahua, who is trained to poop and pee on the puppy pads because he needs to go approximately 45 times a day, likes to take a nice, warm shit on my bathroom floor in the morning. That’s not a tootsie roll on the ground waiting to say hello to my foot; it’s a turd! Most likely a product of me petting the pit bull too much, but Jasper should just get over it.

2) Hearing a car accident happen isn’t as jarring as being in one, of course. However, it still rattles you. The sound of metal and hard plastic smashing into one another without intention can be something that snaps you out of a sleepy state of mind. Instantly, we imagine ourselves in that awful predicament. Talking to a stranger who immediately hates you, out in public where everybody is waiting for a UFC match to break out.

Saturday offered the unique fortune to see a person leave a store in sight and get into his car, and then pull onto the street and get into an accident. He tried to pull onto a street and execute one of those quick U-turns that would position them for the next green light heading in the opposite direction. They just didn’t see the other car coming down the opposing street onto the same lane, and BOOM-SHA-LA-LOCKA!

The guy I saw was just leaving a place with some goodies to a night full of doing nothing, and then it all changed. The reason was simple: you have to check every which way but loose and Sunday when trying to draw a circle with your vehicle on a busy road. If not, bad shit happens.

No one was hurt, just the evening egos of two men in their relatively young 30s. They were speaking as the green light came that one of them was hoping to catch, so at least the violence stayed away. Still, keep your cars away from each other out there. A simple fender bender turns into an entire ordeal of insurance exchanging, endless internal whining, and a bruised ego. U-turns are no joke.

3) Those fucking Cardinals. Can’t trust them. Can’t love them. Won’t quit them. After recovering their season in June/July, the post All Star Break blues have been apparent. A 10-12 record since the break to go with a much larger deficit from first place makes fans an angry bunch.

At their best, St. Louis was 3.5 or 4.5 games out of first place; today, they begin 7.5 games behind Milwaukee. In the wildcard standings, a place they once held a spot, the Cardinals are 1.5 games behind the third and final spot with another team in between. Oh, there are nine total teams going for those three coveted spots.

After the Cubs humiliated them at Wrigley, St. Louis came home to take two of three from the Tampa Bay Rays. But that came after a lousy one-game shutout loss to the New York Mets, and then they split a weird two-game set with Kansas City. Seriously, whichever MLB schedule maker had the Birds being off on a beautiful Sunday in August deserves a cold, flat fast food cheeseburger for lunch. Maybe throw in some warm soda too.

Alas, St. Louis is 60-58 heading into a series with the lowly Cincinnati Reds. Anything can happen, depending on which team shows up. Good old Great American Ballpark could be the stuff of dreams for a Cards lineup with some thump, or it could be the Rocky Horror Show of Cincy with bad chili thrown in for awful measure. This team has improved, but still average enough to miss the playoffs. Their starting pitching has improved from last year, yet not strong enough to win every close game. Same goes for the embattled bullpen.

Ryan Helsley is getting more shaky in the ninth inning for a simple reason: LOTS of work. He’s pitched in 50 games, and it’s only Aug. 12. That’s four less games than his career high of 54 back in 2022. He has thrown 50.2 innings, which is 14 shy of his 2022 total. He’s allowing a runner or two per save opportunity, something that will snowball real quick. The problem is his replacements aren’t the best suitable option, so Oli Marmol points at Helsley to finish things.

If St. Louis gets to the playoffs, their bullpen will be limping there. Outside of Shawn Armstrong and a rehabbing Riley O’Brien, they aren’t getting many new arms anytime soon. Stay tuned, keep the bourbon close, and don’t bet too hard on these Cardinals.

4) Robin Williams died ten years ago. Look, we all get that no one is sticking around forever, and that includes our favorite actors. Williams was a different breed of entertainer, someone who lived to make others laugh while quietly battling an awful form of dementia. They don’t get worse than Lewy Body dementia, something that turns your own brain into a terrorist. That’s what Williams went through before taking his own life a decade ago. I imagine it being like war on your soul, a daily one.

Williams was one of the few who could do it all. A comedian. An accomplished dramatic actor. A guy who entertained the troops whenever given the chance. The sole reason why Good Will Hunting got made and turned into a timeless gem. There were plenty of heavy hitters in that cast, but you felt closest to Sean, the therapist who went after a girl instead of Carlton Fisk’s big Game 6. That was due to how much compassion and genuineness he inserted into the role. Out of all of his roles, Sean was the most effortless looking. He wasn’t playing; it was more like, “he is that guy.”

People underestimated his dramatic abilities, especially portraying the antagonist in a thriller. Insomnia and One Hour Photo showed a different side of his dramatic repertoire, a chilling bad guy who had a backbone. Anything he did had a backbone and influence.

Dead Poets Society. Good Morning Vietnam. Mrs. Doubtfire. Patch Adams is criminally underrated. Robin Williams was definitely not. Rest in power, sir. Ten years later, we all wish you were here.

Jeff Chiu/AP

5) Hello, Mr. Walker. Fun fact: Between the time this article was started earlier today and now, the Cardinals called up Jordan Walker. Matt Carpenter was placed on the IL with an old man back strain. Thankfully, Carp’s bat had been as active as his Schnucks salsa line, so the change fits.

A change of scenery was the play for Walker, who has been at Memphis since April 24. After being sent down there with the task of hitting more balls in the air and driving them in that manner, he finally unlocked the code and has been doing just that in the minors. Big home runs over the past week pushed this move closer to fruition, even if it’s still too late.

Look, you go down to work on stuff, not stay there for months while your team struggles from the right side. At some point, you just need to unlock the kid and see what he can do instead of clinging to the hope of a third wildcard spot. Cincinnati is a good time to do it, though. Sandbox small ballpark, pitching staff with some bite but not much willpower, and a team that needs a fresh bump.

Tommy Pham came over and poured a Red Bull on the Cards, but it wore off and hasn’t propelled them higher. Walker needs to play every day, so the team can find out how far he can fly. Better now than at the end of the month minor league dump.

That’s all for now. Heck, this thing stretched to 1,700 words. I hope some useless knowledge and opinions were dispensed into your minds, perhaps kickstarting some conversations. If not, well, nobody’s perfect.