Kevin's Ramblings…

Wednesday was cleaning day. Now, this doesn’t mean that I was cleaning, no. My cleaning lady was in. 🙂 Wednesday’s are also the day that the dogs go to doggie day care. They love the interaction with the other dogs and they come home exhausted and happy. Hera didn’t go, I didn’t want her to over-stress her leg/knee. She doesn’t understand this, of course.

Blondie and Twix happily jumped on the bus (the dogs are picked up and dropped off) while I was holding Hera’s collar, if there was ever a sad dog, it was then. I took Hera for a walk, I was initially going to take her down what’s called Miner’s Path, but when I started to walk in that direction, she wanted nothing of it, she wanted to go for a car ride.

So, into the Beast we go and head out to one of our regular walking spots. I think Hera would be perfectly happy being an only dog. She seems to have a great time with just me, no sisters around to steal possible attention.

I had a great nap, although Hera wouldn’t join me. Blondie and Twix got home and were happy and tired.

I watched the Rockies who won, on the road for, what, the 4th, perhaps 5th time of the season. It was against Seattle, so I am not sure if it really counts. They held on for a 3-1 win, I think it was. Good game anyway. Right as soon as that ended, the Astros game started in Baltimore. It was a drubbing, with the Astros winning 13-0. The Astros are hot right now, that was their 10th straight.

It’s almost time for the MLB All-Star game, it’s July 13 which also means it’s my annual MLB All-Star game dinner with my friend that I see once a year on this day. This will be the 10th annual dinner, it’s a great tradition. We stopped working together, 7 years ago, at least, and we catch up, once a year. We go to Boston Pizza, always good food and it’s a good price as well. I will be in Calgary for a few days, a mini-vacation. It will be a great time, I am sure.

Yesterday evening we had rain and thundershowers. We are getting that again all day today, so I doubt that slo-pitch will be a go tonight. One good thing to note is that Hera no longer appears to be afraid of thunder. She used to climb up on the couch beside me when it was thundering, no more. She’s such a brave girl.

Today is market day and the first market that is outside. Of course it is supposed to rain all day, why wouldn’t it. I have ordered a couple of key lime pies, I haven’t had one in ages, so that will be great.

Enjoy Thursday, it’s almost the weekend.

Other than my legs being sore yesterday, I had pretty well “recovered” from umpiring on the weekend. I am not used to getting into the strike zone, of course. When I bent down to get the dogs food dishes, my legs screamed at me. Sorry, legs. It will be better this weekend, for sure.

I am umpiring a double-header on Saturday and another on Sunday. Saturday night, I am heading out for dinner with friends so that will be good.

The dogs will be in boarding for the weekend. I will pick them up Sunday night on my way home. I am definitely not umpiring to make any money, it is really a near break-even position, or I might lose a bit of money when you consider wear and tear on my truck. But, I enjoy it.

Yesterday was a pretty relaxing day, not much going on at all. I did have an email exchange with my vet about Hera’s knee. We are thinking that it is indeed a tear that will need to be surgically repaired since her limp has really not improved. He is going to speak with the surgeon to see if it can wait until I get back from my trip to Ontario in early August as right now, they can’t fit me in until mid-July which would mean she’d be in the early stages of recovery when I was away and I won’t do that.

There’s a chance that the surgery may happen much sooner, like this week. I will hear back today and we’ll make a decision. The first week or two are going to be tough on both me and Hera. I think I will board Blondie and Twix for at least a week after Hera’s surgery so that there isn’t that distraction in the house. I plan on moving my bed (just the mattress) into the living room, that will give Hera a place to sleep right next to me – she won’t be able to get on the furniture at all, for at least 2 weeks. I also plan on getting a couple of dog beds and 2 baby gates to stop her from going into the kitchen and hallway.

I hope her recovery goes well, poor girl. We will tackle whatever comes up anyway. Wish us luck.

I guess there is a time in everyone’s life that we have to admit that we are getting too old for some things. I will readily admit that I am too old to umpire two triple headers on back-to-back days.

As I have said, my feet were killing me by the end of Sunday. Now, the shoes that I was wearing behind the plate were brand new, that, I am sure, had something to do with it, although they are generally comfortable. Perhaps a nice gel insole would have helped. I am also not used to being on my feet all day for two days. I was a desk jockey, so I spent most of my work-days behind a desk and not on my feet.

My feet felt much better by yesterday morning. It was a bit sore to walk, but not too bad. My legs are also rather sore, crouching down to get into the strike zone is something that they are not used to. This coming weekend will be better, I presume. I am scheduled to do two double headers, Saturday and Sunday. I have asked to have Sunday off, but I don’t think they have the umpires to cover the games. I will not be staying over in Calgary, I don’t think though, I will come home Saturday after my games. I don’t mind staying over, but there isn’t a lot (or anything) to do in the evening. Driving home and back again is 5 hours and $70 in gas… So, if I stay, I am a bit ahead for the weekend (financial wise), if I come home Saturday and return to Calgary Sunday, it’s just about a break-even weekend. It’ll be a Saturday decision, I am sure.

Moving forward, I think I am going to schedule just Saturday, or Sunday, not both days. Baseball Alberta has offered to pay me my expenses, $70 in mileage, so that’s a pretty good deal as well – they are also very short on umpires.

I am unsure why the shortage of umps. Some claim that it is abuse from fans. If that’s the case, I really haven’t felt any. Maybe I have been umpiring so long and have such thick skin that it bounced off of me, I am not sure. Maybe, I am a perfect umpire so no one abuses me? Yeah, that’s probably it.

Well, this weekend will be better than last weekend anyway. I am sure of that.

I arrived at the park to umpire yesterday shortly after 8am for a 9am start. The diamonds were quite a ways from the parking lot, bad planning on someone’s part, I guess. It was a cool morning, a few clouds and a nice breeze.

I umpired the first game behind the plate. Both the first and second games were pretty good and I had about an hour between games.

The third game it had gotten hot and the wind had died down to almost nothing. It was going well and looked like it should have been a mercy for the visiting team, they were up by 11 or 12 runs in the 5th inning, but, bad defence and lackluster pitching allowed the home team to come back and only be down by 8 or so, forcing a 6th inning.

At this point, I was ready to go home. Totally ready. My feet were killing me.

So, we play the 6th, the home team scored a few more runs and were only down by 4 or so. I was hopeful that the time limit was up – NOPE. Who the hell decides that no new inning starts after 2 hours and 30 minutes? That’s way too long for a 7 inning minor baseball game and it’s ridiculous. No one wants to play that long, and I don’t want to umpire that long, either.

So, we go to the 7th inning. I opened up the strike zone, I don’t think anyone was complaining. Swing the bat kid, otherwise you’re going back to the bench.

The game finally ended after about 2 hours and 45 minutes. Sigh.

Now, a long walk back to my truck with feet that felt like stubs. It took me what seemed like forever to undress and get into comfortable clothes for the 2.5 hour drive home. I must be insane to drive that far to umpire, at the vert least, I am insane for umpiring two triple headers to open the season.

I stopped at Okotoks for a bite to eat and to change into my slippers. My feet were relieved. I decided to head south on highway 2 as opposed to driving down highway 22. I had arranged for the dogs to stay over until this morning but then figured since I needed to clean the truck anyway (Hera was in it on Thursday so it needed to be vacuumed), I would see if they were ok with me picking them up on the way home – yep, no problem. I stopped at a gas station to get a little bottle of 5 Hour Energy as I was dozing off while driving which isn’t any fun at all.

I collected the dogs and headed home – I think we will all glad to be back. I had a nice cool shower and crashed. I went to bed about 11pm and was asleep less than 5 minutes later and slept, like a dead rock, for 6.5 hours. Not bad at all.

Today, my feet feel fine, I am walking almost normally. My back and legs are a bit sore, my massager will help with that.

Remind me to not accept two triple headers in baseball, ever.

I opened up the 2021 baseball season by umpiring 3 games for Babe Ruth Calgary. I left the house at 645am, the dogs are at a friend’s place for the weekend.

The first game started out well, the visitors built up an 8 run lead and held that lead until the bottom of the 7th. The home team scores 8 runs to tie the game before the final out was recorded. The bottom of the 7th took about 45 minutes to play out. The game ended in a tie.

The next game was much quicker, an 11-1 mercy in 5 innings. That’s the way games should play out.

Right after the game ended, the skies opened up and we had steady rain for an hour or so. I got dinner (pizza from Domino’s) and caught a nap in the truck. I wasn’t sure if the 7pm game would play or not.

It did, we started on time. It looked like it would end in the 5th by the mercy rule, but the home team scores 5 runs with 2 outs to force a 6th inning. It ended in the 6th by mercy, definitely wasn’t a defensive gem…

All in all, a good day of umpiring.

I start a triple header at 9 this morning, it’s 13u ball. Should be fun. It might be a little hard getting into the strike zone since 13 year olds tend to be short(ish). My partner is a young umpire, only 14. I’m hoping he does well, we’ll see.

I should be done around 5 and the have a 2.5 hour trip home. I’ll pick up the dogs and likely crash for the night.

Happy Father’s Day to all the Dad’s out there. I lost mine nearly 16 years ago, think about him often though. If your Dad is around, be thankful, and give him a hug.

I mentioned that I am returning to umpiring. I have 3 games on Saturday for Babe Ruth Calgary and now I am umpiring some games for Baseball Alberta as well. I have 3 more games on Sunday, 13U just north-west of Calgary, so I will be spending the weekend in Calgary and area. The dogs will be boarded with my friends and they’ll have a great time I am sure.

I will be tired. Six games in 2 days will be a lot of umpiring to start the season. I will survive and it will be good money.

Last night we had slo-pitch. I guess they typically play 2 games per night so we played a double-header. We played well, mercied the other team in 5 innings in both games, it was nice to see. I played one game and went 2-3 at the plate, had one really good hit and a dribbler to the second basemen who bobbled it, almost got me out at first, despite my sonic boom type speed. It’s fun anyway, and I think that’s the point.

When I got home, I turned the BBQ one and made a steak, cheese and peppers sandwich. I seasoned the steak, a beef tenderloin, likely about 8oz with salt, pepper and Montreal steak spice. It was cooked perfectly and the sandwich was amazing. I really should not eat at 10pm at night, but what can you do when you’re playing slo-pitch?

Unsure when we play next, next Thursday I think – I may have recovered from umpiring by then. Maybe.

It’s Friday, enjoy your weekend.

Wednesday’s are the day that I sent my dogs to doggie day care. They get picked up around 930am in the dog bus and driven to the Crowsnest Pet Care facility and play all day running around with their dog friends. They come home around 330pm and are totally exhausted. I use Wednesdays to do my running around and what-not.

Yesterday, I put their collars on them and they know when we don’t immediately leave, that they are going to doggie day care. They then typically stare out the front window, waiting for the bus to arrive.

I decided that Hera would not go to doggie day care yesterday, I didn’t want her to strain her leg as her limp is getting much better. All three dogs were rather excited at the front door, I held Hera by her collar, Blondie and Twix zoomed to the bus and Hera was like “let me go, I have to get on the bus”… I don’t think I have ever seen a more disappointed dog in my life as her sisters took off in the bus. I tried to assure her that she and I would have a good day, I don’t think she was convinced.

We shortly headed for Lethbridge, but first, I gave her a good brushing and pulled out about a new dog in dog hair. She loves being brushed, I am sure she loves having the undercoat brushed out. We took the truck to Lethbridge, so she got another truck ride. I suppose I could have taken The Beast, but decided the truck was the better route.

I needed pants for umpiring. I have decided that after a 2-year hiatus, I am returning to umpiring. I have actually missed it, it’s something I really enjoy and I am pretty good at it. I am a far better umpire than I was a coach, I am sure, plus as an added bonus, I get paid.

Off to Moore’s Clothing and 2 pairs of grey dress pants on sale for $70 each and they tailor them for free. Not a bad deal and you can’t tell the difference from regular umpiring pants. I have new equipment, chest pad, shin guards, helmet and face mask. I actually need to find or buy a new black hat, I know I have one around, somewhere.

I have ordered plate shoes and base shoes, hopefully they will arrive next week.

Anyway, from Moore’s, we headed to Costco for gas – $125 some dollars later, the truck was full. I was going to go into Costco, but there weren’t any spots in the shade, I didn’t want to leave Hera in the truck, even with the AC on, it was a hot day. I didn’t really need anything anyway, not badly.

I stopped at Popeye’s Chicken, it’s decent, but nothing to write home about. Hera didn’t want any of the chicken strip, I should learn from her, if she won’t eat it, should I? Their biscuits are amazing though.

We stopped at a local dog park that is in one of the canyons in the area. Cool place for a walk on a hot day. We had a good walk and this time I actually remembered the portable water dish and water, Hera was thankful.

By the time we got home, Blondie and Twix were back already and happy to see us. I laid down for a nap and died – slept for about 2 hours. Guess I needed it.

I got a text last night from the President of Babe Ruth, they badly need umpires and he asked if I could umpire this coming weekend. I will take a look at the schedule and will likely drive up for 3 or 4 games. Will be a good start to the season. I need to fine the rest of my umpiring stuff and get organized, a job for this morning. I also need to ensure my friend can look after the dogs.

Lots to do to get ready. Slo-pitch tonight as well, I am mostly recovered from Tuesday’s game. I hope tonight it’s not quite 3 hours long though.

Enjoy your Thursday.

So, I joined a slo-pitch league here in Crowsnest Pass. We got together a few weeks ago to see what players were interested and what not. I am playing on a team with my former neighbour, so I know someone anyway. When I was in Calgary for Hera’s vet appointment last week, I stopped in at Tuxedo Source for Sports and bought myself a glove. All I had was a first basemen’s glove, which would be fine, if I was playing first, and I doubt anyone would complain if I used it elsewhere, but I decided to get a new glove. It was pretty well worked in, not a bad glove at all, a Mizuno.

We got rained out last Thursday, all day rain day pretty well. It was rescheduled for last night. Game time was 630pm. I left the house with plenty of time and headed towards the diamonds, about 10km east of where I live.

Half way there, I discovered that I had forgotten something that is needed when playing slo-pitch – my glove. Sigh. I turned around home to get it. When I arrived, my dogs thought that I was back, of course. No, I am just forgetful, you know that. LOL

They got another biscuit each when I left, again, this time with my glove. It’s now in the truck, so I can’t forget it next time.

I arrived right before 630. Typically, I would arrive early, I am always early. Our game was well attended by both teams, better than the 6 players total who showed up for the other game. The guy who runs our team put me at second base – a great choice for me. My throwing arm and shoulder are pretty well done from all the batting practice I threw when coaching in Babe Ruth, I can make the throw from second to first, most of the time.

I was comfortable, made a few plays. It felt good. Batting? Well, that’s something else. I coached baseball for 20+ years and I tell ya, I am not used to the ball coming in at the angle it does. I am sure I will get used to it, but it will take a while. I think I will hit the batting cages the next time I am in Calgary, much needed practice.

I did get on base a couple of times, hit into fielders’ choice a few times – all in all, not horrible. Please note, I have never played slo-pitch. It will get better.

We had an extra player on the bench so she and I swapped, she went into second base. A few innings later, one person had to leave, so I was put out in the field, rover position. Thanks, just what I love, outfield. It wasn’t horrible, but I was. I am sure I will get better there as well, it’s early.

This morning, I am stiff. I am sitting at my computer desk with my Obusform back massager working its magic with heat and massage. It feels great, loosening up my stiff back. Nothing to do with my neck at the moment, but it isn’t horrible. I am sure my arm and shoulder will be sore later on.

I have no idea when our next outing is, I hope it’s not Thursday, that’s not enough recovery time.

Today was really a day of nothingness. I’ve had them before, but today was something else.

I was woken shortly after 2am by Twix, my pitbull, falling off of the bed in a heap. I immediately got up to ensure she was ok, she was. Hera even came into the room to investigate.

Well, I tried to go back to sleep, but it didn’t work. I got out of bed around 3, let the dogs out and fed them, and decided to finish my movie from the night before. I had started watching the second of The Matrix movies. I had about another hour to go.

I found a great recipe for a coffee smoothie and made one of those. I had previously brewed a pot of French vanilla hazelnut coffee, it’s amazing, and made ice cubes out of it. Ten of those, some milk, a banana, a spoonful of natural peanut butter, some chocolate and blended in my Ninja blender until smooth. So good.

Around 6, I decided to go back to bed. We’ll call it nap number one. I slept until almost 9. I puttered about, not really doing much and had a second nap at 1130. When I got up, I was still feeling tired, no idea why though and had a 3rd nap in the afternoon.

So, you can see why it was a day of pure nothingness. My only accomplishment was the smoothie.

I watched TV for the evening, a mixture of old sitcoms and the 3rd Matrix movie. I’m just about to go to bed, 1145pm.

I hope to accomplish more tomorrow, I couldn’t accomplish less, even if I wanted to.

My friend, California #1, is a fan of the Cincinnati Reds, I don’t recall why, but we all love whatever teams we love, I suppose, and most of us are loyal, to a fault. My main team is the Colorado Rockies. On that, I am not sure why, but I have been since the early 2000s sometime.

Anyway, California #1 and I have a season series bet going on the Reds/Rockies. It was $1 per game, so, the stakes aren’t what I would call high. As a bonus to me, if I win, he pays me in USD and if I win, I pay him in CDN. Good deal, right? Well, perhaps, except that the Rockies are really, really struggling this year.

I owed him $1 already, I believe it was a huge football bet, I don’t remember, so I started behind the eight ball. The teams have already played a 4-game series in Colorado, which they split 2-2, so that evened out and I still owe that $1.

The series has now moved to Cincinnati this weekend, the first game was yesterday. The Rockies just came from Miami and they actually beat the Marlins on the road, it was their 3rd road win (might have been 4 but I am pretty sure it was 3), so, last night, playing on the road, going for back-to-back road wins, I didn’t think they stood that much of a chance, so, I didn’t turn the game on.

I was napping actually. When I looked, it was the 5th inning and the Rockies were down 8-0. How nice… I am glad I didn’t turn the game on, as it would have been turned off with a score like that. It finished as an 11-5 final, I think, meaning that I now owe $2.

California #1 wants a loonie and a toonie – the names that we’ve given to the $1 and $2 coins. Originally, he was trash-talking about the Rockies losing all of the games in the series (7) plus the $1 I owed him for a total of $8, he wanted one of our blue $5 bills, plus the loonie and toonie. Well, the Rockies might suck, but they’ve been decent at home, they actually have a winning record.

There is an afternoon game today which I will turn on – how long it stays on depends on how well they do, of course. I might be down $3 after today, might just owe that $1, but, winning road games so close together seems unlikely. I’d bet that he’s going to see his toonie and loonie when it’s all said and done after tomorrow.

Today, I am making banana bread French toast for the neighbour and her BF. It’s amazing, if you’ve never tried it. Should be a good day. Well, until baseball starts, I suppose.