Kevin's Ramblings…

This was the final weekend for Babe Ruth Fall Ball in Calgary. I dropped the dogs off on Saturday morning at about 8am and headed north. I had plenty of time, so there was absolutely no rush.

I arrived at the park around 1030, the game wasn’t slotted to start until noon.

The first playoff game, a Tier 1 matchup was not much of a game. It was 15-0 after 2 innings and that’s the way it ended after 4. The starting pitcher left in the 1st inning trailing 6-0. The second pitcher was doing better, but got hit with a line drive and edited the game, he was ok, thankfully. The 3rd pitcher just couldn’t find the strike zone, even though I had expanded it beyond what it should have been. The odd time that he did throw a strike, it would get smashed. Just one of those games I guess, it could just have easily been the other way around.

The afternoon game was excellent. After 7 innings, it was all tied up, so, onto extra innings we went. The starting pitcher for the winning team threw a complete game. It was a pleasure umpiring that game and such a difference from the first one.

Since I had brought my trailer back to the Pass, I checked I to the motel I used all summer. Had a relaxing evening and went to bed early.

Sunday started out well, it was about 14C. The Tier 2 Championship started well, with the first place team holding a 6-3 lead. In the 5th inning, they drove in a bunch of runs and ended up winning 13-3 in a 5-inning mercy win.

The weather changed mid-game, the temperature dropped about 10 degrees. We decided to move up the start time for the Tier 1 Championship by 30 minutes.

It was a cold start to the game, temps around 4C. It back back and forth, but close. In the 3rd inning, the snow started, along with strong winds. At the end of the 3rd, my partner and I, along with the coaches decided to call the game due to the weather. The cold temps are not good for throwing arms and visibility was getting low. I’m unsure if the game will stand, I’d imagine it will though. This time of October, finding a warm day to complete the game would be tough. The game ended with th visitors up 4-3, so I figure they are the Tier 1 Champs.

All in all, Fall Ball was great. We had some bad weather on the first weekend (rain) but otherwise, the weather was great right until the final.

I’ll miss umpiring, it was a lot of fun, but I’m not going to miss going to Calgary every weekend. Now onto MLB Playoffs and football. Should be a good rest of Fall.

I am heading back to Calgary tomorrow morning to umpire the last of Fall Ball for Babe Ruth. It definitely won’t feel like baseball weather. Saturday’s games don’t start until noon, as opposed to 10am, and I can only assume it’s because of cold morning temperatures. At any rate, I have 2 games Saturday and 2 games Sunday. Two double-headers will be a breeze compared to last weekend where I did 7 games in 2 days.

Since the trailer has been brought back down to the Pass, I am staying in a motel on Saturday evening. It was cheaper for the motel room than to store the trailer for another month in Calgary and towing it to Calgary and back this weekend would have used at least an entire tank of gas, whereas just a return trip is about a half tank of gas.

I have really enjoyed my return to umpiring this season. I totaled it up and I have done 45 games this season. Not a lot, compared to some years. I did lose about 8 games due to rain-outs, smoke-outs and 2 games where I was “injured”. Speaking of being injured, I got hit in the facemask with a ball back at the end of June. In an, abundance of caution, I presume, someone called an ambulance that I really didn’t need. Well, AHA (Alberta Health Services) sent me a bill for the ambulance to the tune of $250. I thought this was odd as one might think this would be covered by our universal health coverage that we enjoy in Canada. No such luck. I have sent the bill off to Babe Ruth Calgary to cover. I was a bit shocked at receiving a bill and that the bill was as much as it was. Had they decided to take me to a hospital, I can only imagine what that would have cost. So, anyone who thinks Canada has “free” health care, think again. First off, nothing is free, it’s all paid for via taxes and second, even then we do pay for a lot. End of rant, if that was a rant.

So, I fully plan on umpiring again next season. I quite enjoy it and when you’re behind the plate, you have the best view of the game. The money isn’t all that bad either, it covers my expenses in going to Calgary and what not, so it’s not a bad deal all in all.

In MLB action, the Red Sox eliminated the Evil Empire of the Yankees on Tuesday evening. The useless Cardinals couldn’t do me the favour of getting rid of the Dodgers on Wednesday, unfortunately, so they are still around. Yesterday, my Astros took care of the White Sox and in the evening game, the Rays demolished the Red Sox. Today, there are a total of 4 games, I plan on watching 3, I think. Not much else going on. Gotta love October baseball.

I guess I was a bit tired from my umpiring this past weekend. I slept like the dead on Monday evening. I went to bed early, just after 8pm and slept until after 5:30am. Not bad at all, considering how I normally sleep. I suppose 7 games in 2 days was a lot of baseball. My feet were sore, that’s for sure. So is my upper left arm as I got hit with a foul ball on Saturday evening. I don’t bruise easily and this is quite the bruise and it’s getting darker coloured by the day. Hazards of the job, I guess.

Two more double-headers this coming weekend. The trailer is now stored for the season at a friend’s property, so I will be staying in a motel in Calgary on Saturday night. Saturday’s umpiring doesn’t start until noon, so I don’t need to get on the road until 8:30 or so Saturday morning. I will drop the dogs off and head north. I will be back on Sunday in time (I hope) for the Bills game on Sunday night.

I was invited out for Thanksgiving dinner, but I will be too late getting back I think, that sort of sucks. I was invited to another “late” Thanksgiving dinner though and I will be having a Halloween Thanksgiving dinner at my brother in laws place when I return to Ontario at the end of the month. All in all, I think I will get my share of turkey dinners, one of my favourite meals.

This week has been low-key thus far. Yesterday was a gorgeous day, felt much more like August than early October, I think we got to 22C. I have not as yet turned the heat on either. Every year, it’s sort of a game. I see how long I can go before I have to turn it on. It’s 0C this morning and the house is still warm, well, warm by my standards, 64F, which is warmer than I keep it in the winter anyway. In looking at the forecast, I will need to turn it on in the next few days I think, likely tomorrow, but we’ll see.

Baseball playoffs have started, I am talking MLB of course. Last night, the Red Sox hosted the Yankees and to my and many, many others happiness, the Red Sox eliminated the Yankees which is how the Yankees season should end every year. The Sox are going to have a tough time getting past the Rays I think. Tonight, in the NL Wild Card, the Dodgers host the Cardinals. I hope that the Cards will blow the Dodgers out of the water and eliminate them, nothing could be sweeter. Here’s to hoping.

Tomorrow, the Astros open their ALDS series against Chicago. Should be a good series, I think the Astros will take it in 4, time will tell.

Gotta love October baseball.

I headed to Calgary on Wednesday morning after dropping the dogs off at boarding. I needed to get my blown out tire changed on the trailer. I arrived shortly after 1pm, maybe 130 and called AMA.

The driver arrived after an hour or so and changed the tired pretty quickly. I got to the campsite around 330. Got all setup and headed into Calgary to umpire. Wednesday night it was a bit cool but it was an ok game, although a bit long.

Thursday morning I didn’t do a lot, I decided to return home on Thursday afternoon, as I need to be back on Friday to help someone move to Cranbrook.

I got to her place at 10 on Friday morning, the trailer was mostly loaded. We headed to Cranbrook and I was done by 3. I took highway 95 (I think it was) north to Banff, it was a beautiful drive. Made a stop in Canmore for a bit to eat and was back at the trailer by 8. It was a long but productive day.

I was scheduled to umpire 4 games on Saturday, all at Optimist Park. It was a long day, I left the trailer at 8am and didn’t get back until 10pm. I slept well, I think I was a bit tired. Today, I umpired a triple header, the quality of baseball wasn’t all that good, but the day zoomed by. I had dinner at Edo Japan, it was excellent and a nice change from pizza or subs.

I’m going to have a season ending bonfire tonight. Tomorrow morning, I’m taking the trailer home to the Pass and storing it for the winter at a friend’s place. Next weekend is the end of Fall Ball, but I’ll spend Saturday night at the Motel I used in the summer.

It was a good camping season and a good Fall Ball season as well. The money will go towards my trip to Ontario at the end of the month. I’ll miss umpiring, bit it’ll be back in 6 months or so.

Baseball playoffs start Tuesday (I think), so I’ll be glued to the tv for the next month. After next weekend, I can also start watching football. It’ll be a good Fall, I’m sure.

I will be dropping the dogs off early today as I am heading to Calgary for 5 days of camping and umpiring. I will stop off at the storage place and call AMA to replace the tire that blew out on the trailer. I plan on taking it into Kal Tire in Airdrie (very close to where I camp) to have them take a look at the other tires and replace the blown out one, at the very least. I can’t imagine that trailer tires are all that much, but I might be shocked, hope to be surprised. I am thinking $50-$75 per tire, but who knows.

I umpire tonight, a Tier 2 game. I am sure it will be a cool evening to umpire, the high in Calgary is supposed to be 15C and the game doesn’t start until 7pm so the sun will be mostly down by that time.

I am camping until Monday morning as I have 3 games on Sunday with the last ending at around 6:30 or so, don’t want to make a drive home after umpiring 6 games (3 on Saturday as well). I am sure I will be a little tired. I am unsure what I am doing on Thursday, it’s my “off” day, but I will find something to do. On Friday morning, I head back to the Pass and am helping an older lady move to Cranbrook. I am towing a trailer she’s arranged for the move. It’s a paid job, plus gas expenses so not too bad.

Hopefully the weather on Saturday and Sunday will be good for umpiring, the forecast is decent with temps in the upper teens. Should be a good weekend.

I will head home on Monday morning, stopping for the dogs along the way. All in all, should be a good 5 days.

I had an uneventful trip up to Calgary on Friday afternoon. I dropped the dogs off, they get excited when I make the second last turn to where they stay. I am glad they are happy to spend weekends there, they always enjoy going. I am also happy that I have friends that look after them on weekends for me so that I can umpire.

I setup the trailer for a couple of nights at Balzac Campground, just north of Calgary. I stopped by Foothills Stadium to catch part of the Calgary Dino’s Alumni baseball game. I chatted with a couple of people I met during my Babe Ruth coaching days and headed back to the campground when it got dark. I stopped by a trailer of a couple that I met a couple of weeks ago. They have an awesome Belgian Malanois dog, the first time I have ever met one of the breed, and she’s a sweetheart. We sat around the campfire, had a few drinks and some snacks and before we knew it, it was nearly midnight. I crashed about 12:05am, was asleep by about 12:06am and slept until after 7am, it was one of the first 7-hour sleeps I have had in I don’t know how long.

I had to umpire a triple-header on Saturday and it was 3 excellent games of baseball. Saturday night at the trailer was an early night, the 3 games wore me out. I went to bed by 930, I doubt it was even that late, but I woke up before midnight. At about 1:30, I was still awake and new I wasn’t sleep any time soon, so I went for a drive. Chicken McNuggets from McDonald’s at 2am are pretty good. I got back to sleep around 3 and slept off and on until first light. Coffee at the trailer, sitting outside, listening to music seems to taste better than it does at home.

I had a double-header of Babe Ruth Tier 2 Fall Ball to umpire on Sunday. Not bad games, the day zoomed by. I headed out towards where I store my trailer before 4pm.

While driving down Highway 201 South, a tire blew out on the trailer. I suppose I am lucky that I had my windows open, I was able to hear it. I pulled over to take a look. I called AMA (CAA), and as soon as I did, I realized they had a trailer package that I had not added to my account. After talking to my brother in law, he confirmed that yes, it would be ok to drive the 8km to the trailer storage place. I made it without any issues and it’s parked.

I will get the trailer add-on added to my AMA package and will get them to change the tire for me on Wednesday when I head back to Calgary to umpire again. I will be camping Wednesday until Monday morning, with a trip back to the Pass on Friday to help someone move, which is a paying job, so it will be worth the time.

I am umpiring 6 games next weekend, 7 when you include Wednesday night. It will be a busy week, for sure. I know the dogs will be well looked after and it will be like a mini-getaway for me. There are only a few weeks left of Fall Ball, and then only weather permitting, although the long-term forecast looks good, if you believe forecasts.

It’s another Monday, and I am awake stupid early. Oh well, I am sure a nap is in my future today. Have a great Monday.

I am dropping off the dogs earlier than normal tomorrow, around noon and then heading to Calgary for the weekend. I am camping Friday and Saturday nights. Tomorrow evening, I am going to the Calgary Dino’s Alumni baseball game at Foothills stadium. There are, or should be, a few former Babe Ruth players playing, should be a good evening.

I have been enjoying camping in my trailer. The bed is very comfortable, which is great and with no heat turned on, it gets nice and cold which makes me sleep really well.

I umpire a triple-header on Saturday, 10/1/4, 2 plate games and one on the bases and then a double-header on Sunday. I am umpiring both tier 1 and tier 2 this weekend, so it will be a nice mix. I have not umpired any tier 1 baseball yet this Fall, so I am sure the quality should be pretty good.

There are still 4 weeks left for Fall Ball, presuming the weather stays nice. It is supposed to be in the mid-20’s on Saturday, so that will be awesome.

The weekend will be here before we know it, enjoy yours.

Monday was election day in Canada. An un-needed election, I will add. The idiot who runs our country called one, trying to get a majority in government, which would have been bad. Right now, he at least has to get one of the opposition parties to agree with his lunacy before he can get something passed.

Anyway, I voted early, so I didn’t need to go and fight with lines of people, if there were lines of people. I was watch election results on Monday evening however, in between watching the first half of the Monday Night Football game between Detroit and Green Bay and then, the Astros and Angels. Anyhow, it ended up pretty much the way I expected it to, the Liberals won again with a minority government, in fact, very little change to what it was on Sunday.

So, the PM wasted over 600 million dollars on an election that no one wanted. As you might have guessed, I am NOT a Liberal, I have been a Conservative, well, ever since my brain developed, I suppose. I don’t particularly care for the Conservative leader, but, I was more than willing to give him a shot against the proven idiot in Trudeau.

We will know, in the next weeks and months if O’Toole survives as leader. The Conservatives have been, perhaps a little too quick, in getting rid of leaders who don’t win elections. I have read, and hope, that the Liberals toss aside Trudeau as well, but, I doubt that will happen. He seems to have some sort of mental hold on them, unsure how, it isn’t anything he’s done as PM, that’s for sure.

So, status quo for now, anyway. I do suppose that the Liberals winning is leagues above the NDP winning. Had that happened, I think the dogs and I would be relocating to Montana, which might not be a bad idea at all.

Yesterday was a day of pretty well nothing. I did some work around the house and watched baseball last night. I do need to clean my truck as the dogs rode in a few times and it’s a mess. I am back to camping and umpiring this weekend and am staying an additional night, both Friday and Saturday. I am going to watch the Calgary Dino’s Alumni baseball game on Friday evening, so I am camping that night as well. Should be a fun weekend with 5 games to umpire as well. The weather is supposed to be gorgeous which is awesome for this time of year.

This was a pretty busy weekend. I dropped the dogs off a bit earlier then normal on Friday. I helped with some technical issues (with a projector) and also helped move a new couch into their living room. The dogs are always happy going to boarding, they love the two people who look after them when I am in Calgary.

I went to bed around 9pm on Friday night, early, but I knew I was getting an early start. To ensure that I don’t sleep in (like that ever happens anyway), I asked Alexa to wake me at 5am. Not needed, not needed at all. I woke up shortly after 1am and could not for the life of me get back to sleep. I got up and out of bed at 2:20 or so. I wanted to leave the house around 5:30, so that meant I had 3 hours to kill.

The truck was already loaded and ready to go, so I didn’t have to take care of that at all. I decided that watching a Modern Family mini-marathon was a good idea.

I headed out on time and picked up by trailer right at 8am. I was early getting to the park to umpire, but arriving early is always better than arriving late. I was scheduled to umpire a double-header, 10am and 1pm. Both were pretty decent games. I picked up a 3rd game for 7pm as well.

I headed to Balzac (yes, that’s the name of the town I was camping in) and set the trailer up. I had some time to kill before I had to leave for the park so I stopped at Boston Pizza for dinner. The 7pm game was well played and was done in an hour and 45 minutes. I got back to my trailer around 930 and since I had been up for about 20 hours at that point, I slept like a dead rock until after 5am on Sunday, which, for me, is quite late.

It was a cold night, temps just above zero. I didn’t want to bother to start the furnace in the trailer, but the space heater I brought did a fantastic job of heating it up nicely. I went for breakfast with a friend (Denny’s, where else?) and umpired 2 games, both of which were ended by the mercy rule.

I headed back to drop the trailer off. I upgraded my site to a pull-through spot, so parking was far easier. I stopped at Costco on the way home, put almost 100 liters of gas in the truck and stopped on the way home to retrieve my dogs. They were very happy to see me, and I was to see them – seeing 3 waggle butts will make anyone happy.

So, the weekend zoomed by, that’s for sure. It was great weather, a little cool in the mornings but great for late-ish September. I get to do it all over again next weekend and I am looking forward to it.

If you’re Canadian, remember to vote today if you already haven’t done it like I have. I will stay up tonight to see the results, although by the time the polls close here, the decision has already been made. I hope that we rid ourselves of the governing Liberals and the absolutely corrupt Prime Minister. We’ll see. If you’re not Canadian, please, wish us luck.

The dogs and I made the trek to Calgary yesterday for their annual check-ups at the vet. It took me a long time to find a vet that I really liked, so, when we moved down to Crowsnest Pass, I decided that we’d continue going to Glamorgan Animal Clinic. I am glad we did.

We left shortly before 10am and stopped at Costco in Okotoks on the way. I wanted to get slightly cheaper gas (it was $1.27 a liter, I think) and return something – I used restraint though and didn’t actually buy anything, a miracle for me.

We stopped at Shouldice Park as well, the off-leash park that we used to go to daily when we lived in Calgary. The dogs had a good run around, well, Hera didn’t run around, I wouldn’t let her, she was on-leash. I avoided the river area, as I didn’t want them to get wet right before the vet appointment.

We arrived at the clinic a bit early and the vet tech suggested I bring all three dogs in at the same time – I think she wanted to punish our vet for something. Not that the dogs are bad, not at all, but all three of them at once? Anyway, so all of us went in.

Blondie is in perfect shape for a Lab and he’s very impressed that, for an older Lab, she is in such good shape. Her teeth are good as well, so that’s awesome. Twix is being put on an anti-inflammatory to help with her back legs, he thinks she might be getting some arthritis back there, although she allowed him to fully check out her legs without any issues. Hera is healing very nicely from her surgery which was just 3 weeks ago. He’s very happy there. She needs follow-up x-rays 2 months after her surgery, which would be the end of October. I will take her to Peak in Pincher Creek for the x-rays.

So, all in all, the dogs are doing well. They do get plenty of exercise where we are, it’s so nice being able to go out into the “wilderness” for walks.

I will be dropping them off tonight for the weekend as I am heading back to Calgary tomorrow to umpire 2 double-headers. The weather forecast is much more promising this weekend, no rain is forecast, so I am looking forward to actually getting 4 games in. I will be camping again just past Cross Iron Mills mall off of Highway 2, north of Calgary. It’s a nice campground and has great facilities. I have already packed the stuff that I forgot the last time, so I should be set for a good night of camping. I will miss the Bills game on Sunday, but that’s ok. I hope they start their winning ways, especially against the Dolphins. I will get back to football in mid-October, after Fall Ball has wound down.

The weekend is here (almost), so, enjoy.