Kevin's Ramblings…

I ended up umpiring 3 games on Saturday. I was scheduled for a double-header, but the league sent out an email looking for additional umpires so I picked up a 7pm game in the tier 3 division. It was actually a really good ball game, ended up with the home team coming back to win in the bottom of the 7th inning. It was a long day of umpiring though. I started at 10am and finished just after 10pm.

I went for breakfast yesterday to Phil’s with a friend. I had the steak and eggs, an 8oz sirloin, and I must say it was one of the tastiest steaks I have had in a long time. It was perfectly cooked as well, just a bit above medium. I wish I could cook a steak to my actual liking, but no – I either have a rare steak or a well done steak, not medium, it doesn’t seem possible.

I received an email when we were having breakfast that the 10am games were cancelled due to poor air quality in Calgary. The smoke was rather thick, visibility was only a few hundred meters. We sat and chatted for a bit since I didn’t have to be anywhere for 10am. I was sort of hoping at that point that the 1pm games would also be cancelled so I could head home early. I got back to my hotel room around 10am and my wish was granted – games for the rest of the day were cancelled so I headed home.

I picked up the dogs on the way home – they were very happy to see me and I was very happy to see them. It had been almost a week since I saw then, an age for them, I am sure. I am now home until the end of the month, no umpiring next weekend at all. The following weekend, I umpire some games for Baseball Alberta and then I head to Ontario for 6 days. I am looking forward to the trip, should be an excellent time.

So, not too much planned for the next two weeks other than trips to the lake with the dogs and I intend on getting Blondie to swim, so I hope that’s a success. I don’t want to have the world’s only non-swimming Lab. I am sure she’ll take to it with me in the water with her, time will tell.

Enjoy your week.

Today was a great day. I didn’t wake up until 4:50am. I know that most of you would think that’s pretty early, but for me, that’s sleeping in. Since I don’t have my dogs until Sunday evening, I didn’t have to get up and tend to them, so I stayed in bed until after 6:30. Pretty lazy. Pretty relaxing.

I had coffee with my across the street neighbour and we caught up. It was nice and cool outside, perfect for coffee and a hoodie.

I headed to Crowsnest Lake around 8:30, my friend and I were going kayaking. Two and a half hours later, we finished up, my shoulders and arms are sore, I have not kayaked in a LONG time and I was not used to it. It was a lot of fun though and I think I am going to buy myself a kayak at the end of the season.

I had a great nap in the afternoon, napped almost as long as I kayaked. Dinner tonight with a friend at an amazing Mexican place in Twin Butte, Alberta. Absolutely fantastic food.

I head to Calgary tomorrow for umpiring. I was supposed to do a double-header tomorrow but I picked up a 3rd game at 7pm to help out. I had no plans for tomorrow evening, so this will work well. I am now umpiring at 10am, 1pm and 7pm and again on Sunday at 10am and 1pm. I then head home after the second game and stop on the way to retrieve my dogs. I will be very happy to see them after 6 days and I am sure they will be happier to see me.

No umpiring next weekend, I am taking a weekend off. I was going to do a DH on Saturday, but no one is available to let my dogs out and I can’t board them as those friends are full. I don’t mind a weekend off, believe me.

The season is winding down already, seems very quick. I do umpire for Baseball Alberta on the weekend before I head to Ontario and that might be it. I am unsure what baseball will be left when I get back in the middle of August. If there is some ball, I am sure I will umpire some more games. I will take on some Fall Ball as well, pending what happens with Hera’s surgery.

Speaking of Hera, today marks 6 years since I took her home from the Calgary Humane Society. You’re a great dog Hera, and I am glad to have you in my pack.

My mini-getaway to Calgary is over. I checked at the hotel and to book another night last night would have been $135 plus tax, more than I wanted to pay for sure. I had booked it at pre Calgary Stampede rates, so I got a good rate but didn’t want to pay that much for an extra might. So, I checked out at 11am yesterday.

I visited a couple of malls and did some window shopping. I stopped at Thai Express for lunch. I ordered General Thai Mango chicken and ordered it very hot, but not hot enough to kill me, she laughed. Man, it was hot but good. I got a good sweat on, my nose was running like a faucet and my mouth was burning off of my head, but it was good. It took about 20 minutes for the burn to subside. I don’t know why I do this to myself.

I didn’t have much to do in the afternoon. I was remotely thinking of heading to the Stampede, but I didn’t have anyone to go with and it’s really expensive once you get in there so I decided to pass. Instead, I had a nap in my truck. I slept for about 1.5 hours and felt refreshed when done.

I got to the park WAY early for my 7pm game, over 2 hours early actually. That’s ok, I sat in the shade and used my phone. Thank goodness for phones, what did we do before them?

The game last night was excellent. The home team held a 5-3 lead going into the 7th and it looked like we would get out of there early, but the visitors wanted none of that and scored 4 runs off of the new pitcher who just couldn’t find the strike zone.

It was 7-5 going into the bottom of the 7th and although the home team threatened (they got a runner to 3rd), it wasn’t meant to be. The pitcher threw quite hard and I believe it was a complete game victory. Well played on both sides, few errors, just really good baseball.

I headed home at 9:30, stopped briefly as I normally do in Okotoks for a drink and a bite to eat and made it back to the Pass just before midnight. It was a busy few days.

Today, I need to bring my truck in for service. The doors aren’t unlocking when I put it in park and the drivers door won’t actually open from the inside. I called a few Ram dealers in Calgary yesterday, but none had availability. So, back on the road this morning to Fort Macleod. I hope it’s a quick fix, at least it’s under warranty.

I am heading back to Calgary this weekend for another couple of double headers. Umpiring is starting to wind down, I have 3 weekends left. It’s been a fun summer of umpiring for sure and it will give me some needed cash for my trip to Ontario.

Almost the weekend for any working folks, hold on, it’s almost here.

The first year I lived in Calgary, a friend from Ontario visited me during the Calgary Stampede. On the Tuesday night, he and I along with a friend/coworker went to Boston Pizza to watch the MLB All-star game. It was a good evening, chatting, catching part of the game as well.

The coworker and I continued the tradition and went out again a year later, back to Boston Pizza and watched the game.

She left BDO where we worked, but we remained friends and we have continued the tradition of meeting on the evening of the all-star game and going to Boston Pizza.

Last night was the 10th annual dinner, again, at Boston Pizza. We enjoy meeting and catching up. We chat occasionally on Facebook, maybe 2 or 3 times a year, although one of those conversations is always confirming dinner.

This year, I made a mini getaway out of it. I arrived in Calgary Monday afternoon and stayed over for 2 nights. I umpired a baseball game for the Babe Ruth league on Monday and I umpire another this evening. I will then head home. It’ll be a long day, the game won’t be over until 930 or so, I’ll get on the road for 10ish which means getting to the Pass by 1230.

It’s been a great few days, highlighted by dinner last evening. I hope the tradition remains for many years to come. We’ve joked that I’ll be 104 and ER will be 97 and we’ll still be at Boston Pizza. That would be sorta cool.

I woke up at my usually insane time yesterday, around 4am… I was productive, did a few loads of laundry. I had to wash my umpiring stuff for a couple of games, Monday night and Wednesday night.

I dropped the dogs off at around 10am for their stay in boarding. They are there until Sunday evening. I wouldn’t have been able to get them until Thursday morning and then I’d have dropped them off Friday evening for more umpiring this coming weekend, so leaving them the extra two days made sense.

I’m actually looking forward to getting back to a regular routine and not heading to Calgary every weekend. Only a few more weeks of baseball, the end of the month should likely be it for umpiring this season for me. I guess it’ll depend if Hera needs surgery in late August or not.

So, I headed to Calgary around 1230, it was an uneventful trip. No issues on checking into the hotel. I caught a short nap and had dinner. Last night was a Tier 2 Babe Ruth game, it was a good game, ended 7-6 for the visitors. Well played all in all.

The pool was closed at the hotel by the time I got back, do it was off to bed.

Today will be some running around and dinner tonight. It’s the 10th Annual MLB All-star game dinner with a friend and former coworker. It’ll be a good time, I’m sure. Nothing fancy, Boston Pizza, but it’s always good and inexpensive. We end up watching very little of the game, sometimes we don’t even know who wins…

More umpiring tomorrow and a late trip back home for a few days before two double headers on the weekend. The week will fly by.

Apparently, I should not stay awake all night any more. Well, I did have a short nap on Saturday evening after I got home, but only for about an hour and a half.

I headed out for my last volunteer shift for the Sinister 7 race around 1:15am. I stopped at 7/11 and grabbed a 5 hour energy and was surprised that they weren’t $4.99 a bottle, they were actually cheaper. Since when is anything cheaper at 7/11 than anywhere else in the world? Anyway, downed it and filled my Bubba with Cherry Coke, I wasn’t feeling coffee at 1:15am.

I found the checkpoint pretty easily. I really enjoy how dark it is away from the lights at night. Completely dark, even though I live in a very small town, there are still plenty of lights at night.

We weren’t waiting for too many runners. There were a lot of drop-outs, Saturday’s temperatures got to about 30C, that and the elevation likely contributed to people dropping out. I think we were only waiting for 6 runners to pass by in total.

By shortly after 3am, the last running checked in and continued on their way. The race HQ then asked us to pack up and head out. My truck was loaded with water bottles, jugs and all of the supplies for the check point. I headed back to HQ and unloaded. I was done shortly after 5am and headed home.

I went to bed until about 730am, got up and fed the dogs. I went back to bed until 10am or so, still felt out of sorts. An afternoon nap straightened that out for the most part. I spent the rest of the day just taking it easy, went out for a walk with the dogs in the late afternoon and went to bed at 10. I slept well, until 4am so for me, that’s not bad.

I hope on my flight back to Ontario in a few weeks that I can sleep on the plane. It’s the red-eye flight, so I should be able to.

It was a good weekend at the Sinister 7. I think I will see about being more involved next year, I had a great time.

Off to Calgary today. Umpiring tonight in my favourite ball park, Foothills Stadium. I umpire there again on Wednesday and then head home. That’ll be another late evening getting home. Oh well, I am getting used to it.

Yesterday was a busy day. It was house cleaning day to start with. I made French toast two different ways for breakfast – both with banana bread and with apple/cinnamon bread, it was excellent. I left for Lethbridge around 12:30 to meet a friend for a late lunch / early dinner.

We went to an event, a parade of old cars and what-not, it was busy and it was odd. They didn’t close down the main business street in town (Mayor McGrath Drive), wow, was the traffic ever insane. I was way later getting out of town than I wanted to be and didn’t get home until after 10:30pm. I let the dogs out and immediately went to bed.

Today is the Sinister 7 race in Crowsnest Pass. I am volunteering, not racing. There are two options for the race. You can either enter as a team (or individual) and have 30 hours to complete 100 miles, or enter as an individual and you have 24 hours to complete 50 miles. Either option sort of sounds insane to me, but, then of course, I am not a racer. I am definitely not a back-country, up this mountain, down that mountain racer either. The change in elevation is around 7000 feet. No thanks. I am happy to volunteer.

I head out at noon and work until 8 and then again early tomorrow morning, a 2am-6am shift. Should be fun. That will consume my weekend. No umpiring, it will be a bit of a break from that.

Monday morning, the dogs go to boarding and I head to Calgary for a few days. Have a good weekend. 🙂

I will be heading to Ontario in 3 weeks, for a week-long vacation. It is my 50th birthday in August and I will be spending my birthday in my home province. I am also going to see my Aunt who is 91 years of age and she recently broke her hip. She’s getting out of rehab this week and I want to see her, she has always been my favourite relative. I am really looking forward to the trip.

Flights right now are dirt cheap as well. This really helped with my decision to visit. Normally, I would pay $550 or so for a return flight. This time around, I am paying $222. Dirt cheap… I have a car rental for the week and it is costing me about 3 times what the flight is costing me. I need the rental though, I am going to be traveling all across the province to visit with friend and family that I have not seen in 2 years.

This month will more than likely zoom by. This weekend, I am volunteering at the Sinister Seven race in Crowsnest Pass. Should be fun. No umpiring though, which is OK, I can use a weekend off of that.

Monday, I head to Calgary for 3 days. I booked a hotel ages ago, likely back in November I would guess. It’s the 10th Annual MLB All-Star game dinner with a friend who’s a former co-worker. We get together once a year and catch up and spend the evening not really watching the All-Star game and eating dinner at Boston Pizza. It’s always a great time. I’ve also booked myself into 2 umpiring assignments, Monday and Wednesday. The dogs will be in boarding all week. I will head home on Wednesday after the game and then go back to Calgary on Saturday morning for a double-header and another DH on Sunday. So, next week will fly by.

I am off the following weekend as I could not get the dogs into boarding. I may take a couple of games on either the Saturday or Sunday, I know they need help.

The last weekend of the month, I am umpiring for Baseball Alberta. Two double-headers, 13U and 15U. Hopefully it will be good baseball.

After that, I head to Ontario for 6 days. My time is booked, just about down to the minute. It will be hectic, but fun. I am having a BBQ for my birthday that my brother in law said I could host at his place. Just a handful of friends and some BBQ. I am sure it will be a good time.

So, July will go by in a flash, I am sure. I hope you enjoy yours.

Yesterday was a pretty relaxing day. I drove a friend to work early in the AM and then went back to bed for a couple of hours at 7am. The hot weather that we had for a week finally broke and the house is back to normal temperatures. Crowsnest Pass hit 36C last Wednesday which is a record high by a few degrees. It was stinking hot, although I have experienced much hotter (and way more humid) in Ontario, I am just not used to it.

It did cool down at night, near single digits, but there was no breeze so the house didn’t cool off like I might like. I wish the house would retain heat like that in the winter. I did not too bad though. I opened the windows and blinds at 9pm or so and kept them open until 930 in the morning. The back door and front door are open at night as well, I am not too worried about security, Blondie and Hera are in the living room and Twix is with me in the bedroom, I highly doubt anyone would try to come in – I do live in the middle of nowhere after all.

Last night we had a make-up game for slo-pitch. It was a cool evening, 15C or so, and thunderstorms. We played in some moderate rain but got both games in. The league needs to put a time limit on games, or something though. We played until about 945pm, too long, I think for 2 games. A 1:15 time limit would be good, then you’re looking at 2.5 hours for a double header. I got a couple of hits and walked a couple of times – the pitches were all over the place, so I took my walks.

I had no fly balls at all to the outfield. That’s OK though, means I don’t have to attempt to catch any… LOL It was fun, we split the games.

Today were are supposed to get some more rain, I think. I would like to take the dogs down to the lake if it isn’t raining – they have such a good time. Otherwise, not much going on, I think it will be a relaxing sort of day, I seem to have those often.

Saturday’s double header of umpiring was some of the best played baseball that I have ever umpired in Babe Ruth.

The trip to Calgary was uneventful, as trips should be. It was partly cloudy with a nice breeze. The first game started at 10am. One of the coaches was a previous player of mine, he’s turned into a great coach. His team was ahead 5-4 going into the bottom of the 7th inning and they were able to shut the door and hold on for the victory. It was a great game, excellent defense, a pitchers duel, really. I was on the plate for the game, didn’t take any foul balls off of the facemask, luckily.

In the second game, I moved to the bases. It was a team where the coaches seem to whine about absolutely everything. They are a very young coaching staff though, early to mid 20s and it appears that they think every call is something against them, personally. They are a good group, except for this – I presume it will improve, as they get older, but who knows. Whiners, that’s how I know them, anyway.

We were off of the diamond by 3pm. It had gotten warm, but nowhere near as hot as it was last week. It was a pleasant day for baseball for sure.

I headed to my motel in the NW part of the city. I am quite happy with the find. From the outside, you wouldn’t think much of it, a non-descript two story motel. Once you’re in the room, it’s a haven. Comfortable beds (the most comfortable that I have ever had in a hotel), really nice bathrooms and water pressure in the shower that is amazing. The price is great as well, around $70 after taxes.

I had dinner at Denny’s. Excellent food, good prices as well. I stopped by Optimist and watched most of the game that was being played, it was great baseball as well – good to see.

We had rain overnight, no idea how much rain since I sleep like the dead. I headed to the diamond around 6am to see what the field was like. The gate was closed so I walked in. I checked it out from the outfield fence and it looked fine. I could not see that there was standing water at home plate though. At 715am, the city web site reported that the park was open. It would be a perfect day for baseball – cool and cloudy, I was looking forward to it.

At around 815, I got a text from the President of Babe Ruth that the park was closed – I was surprised. If the city had worked the diamond, I am sure it would have been playable, but, we all know how city workers can be. Since the diamond was closed for the 10am game, it meant it was automatically closed for the 1pm game as well and they’d re-examine it at that time to see if the later games would be played.

I was at a friends for breakfast, it was good to catch-up. I headed home around 930am with a stop in Okotoks at Costco for gas. I didn’t go in, didn’t really need anything and didn’t want to spend any money for no real reason. It was a great ride home.

There was an accident on Highway 3 in Crowsnest Pass so that delayed me by a few minutes. Traffic was backed up and the detour through one of the towns was slow, but, thankfully it was available as there isn’t often a way around accidents.

I had a quiet afternoon as the dogs were still in boarding. I picked them up about 630 and watched TV on Sunday evening. The end of a pretty good weekend.

Back to Monday now. I hope you have a good week.