Opening day

Opening Day is one of my favorite days of the year. At long last, baseball is back. And even though it was cold and snowy across the Northeast this year, nothing can diminish my enthusiasm for the return of the national pastime. One week into the season, I'm generally pleased with the way things are going. Other than Monday night's irregularity, the Yankees' bullpen has performed as advertised, and their lineup seems to be largely avoiding the prolonged start-of-season thaw they've endured the past few years. It comes as a pleasant surprise, too, that perennial foes Tampa Bay and Boston have started the season a combined 0-11. 162 games is a long time, and anything is possible, but I'll take what I can get. (I am less pleased by Texas's red-hot start ... they don't seem to be missing a beat despite losing Cliff Lee to free agency.)

I was reading the story of the pilot who made an emergency landing on a beach in Queens earlier this week. Fortunately, no one was injured and it doesn't seem like there was any significant property damage. Still, it was a bizarre episode. One of the many questions running through my mind after reading the account of the pilot's conversation with the air traffic controller: How does enrolling in medical school make you a paramedic?

As best I can tell, the looming government shutdown (with the deluge of media coverage this possibility has received recently, I'm beginning to think it should be all one word) is not going to directly affect ambulance operations in New Hampshire. Medicare will continue making payments, at least for a time, drawn on money set aside previously. Should a prolonged shutdown occur, who knows how that might affect ambulance services? Not I.

In other news, the University of Connecticut and Texas A&M won the NCAA men's and women's basketball championship, respectively, this past week. Congratulations to them both.