Rain, rain, go away…

Posted on September 5, 2015 by kdarcy21

Yesterday was my last flex day of the summer. When I return to work, I’ll be back on my normal shift, 630-3. I enjoyed having every other Friday off. In one way, it is too bad it can’t continue, but I also wouldn’t want to get up so early come winter. 

It was a cloudy and cold day yesterday, highs around 6C and a windchill. Blondie, Hera and I spent about two hours at the dog park and they wanted to fetch the ball, constantly. I’m not sure that they’d ever tire of it. The rest of the day was spent like a typical Saturday, even though it was Friday, we napped.

The Bandits are supposed to open our Fall Ball season today with a double header. It isn’t going to happen, I don’t think. It has been raining pretty steady since yesterday evening and isn’t supposed to let up until sometime tomorrow. I’m not sure we’d play, even if it was dry being that it is so cold. Baseball is a summer game, although it is still summer, according to the calendar. Temperature wise, it is fall, late fall.

So, if we are scrubbed today, I won’t see the team play a game until I return from Ontario. Something to look forward to, to be sure.

Anyway, if you happen to know some sort of tribal sun and warmth dance, I’d appreciate it. Enjoy,your weekend.

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Vacation, finally…

Posted on September 4, 2015 by kdarcy21

Today is my first day of vacation and I am up before 3am.  What sort of voodoo is in play here?  It isn’t anything out of the ordinary really, I am quite used to it, I would just prefer to sleep in until, well, maybe like 5am.  Is that too much to ask for?  I guess, maybe. In the next month and a half or so, I will switch over to my winter sleep schedule which is best described as hibernation.  I guess I am catching up on missed sleep over the spring and summer, even though I am sure that isn’t possible.

The weather forecast has changed today, for the better. It is supposed to be cool, but no rain.  Good.  We will head to the dog park when the sun rises, 3 hours from now.  For now, I have coffee, which is the early morning risers friend.

Good practice last night for the Bandits. Did some infield work, hitting in the cages and some of the pitchers threw in the bullpen as well.  It didn’t look promising around 3pm when the skies opened up but the sun quickly won that battle.  The diamond was a little mucky but we made due.

The forecast for Saturday isn’t looking too good at the moment.  They are calling for rain, pretty much all day.  I am hoping we will get our games in since I am missing the next 6 after that.  I would like to see them play before I head back east.

Anyway, since it is a long weekend, and sort of the “last” weekend of summer, try to enjoy it.

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A long weekend and then a long time off of work…

Posted on September 3, 2015 by kdarcy21

One more day of work to go and I am off for a couple of weeks.  I do have to go into our National office one day while I am in Ontario, well, I don’t HAVE to, I am choosing to.  My boss has wanted me to visit the office since I was hired and although I’ve planned on going in, it hasn’t materialized.  Now, I’ve booked my bus ticket from St. Catharines to Toronto, booked lunch with some of my colleagues and I am set.

I don’t actually leave for Ontario for a few more days, early Wednesday morning actually. This is, of course, a long weekend. I have baseball tonight, a practice and a double header on the weekend.  The weather forecast doesn’t look good at the moment, 70% chance of rain on Saturday.  Of course, that doesn’t mean all day rain.  The weather has been odd of late, it is typically very dry in August and this August was rather wet.  September is dry as well and thus far has been, we will see if that keeps up.  It was about a year ago that we had “Snowtember” and a massive amount of damage to trees that still had full leaves.  I am hoping that doesn’t return.  We are supposed to have a good Fall, warmer than normal temperatures, that’ll be good, especially for baseball.

Nothing planned for tomorrow.  It is my last flex day for the summer. When I return from holidays, I am back to a 6:30 – 3 schedule.  No more 4:30 am starts.  I will likely go back to those early starts next summer.  Nothing going on Sunday either.  I guess, if the weather is good, I will take the dogs to the dog park and let them play around in the river. They are going back into boarding while I am away. So, some quality time with the pups is in order.

Monday is Labour Day and that brings the Labour Day Classic to McMahon Stadium with the home town Stampeders taking on the Eskimos from Edmonton.  First place in the West is on the line.  I am sure Calgary will prove that A) we are the better football team and B) the better City.  B has already been proven, but Edmontonians don’t seem to always agree.  A few years ago, I would have said that I was not a fan of the CFL, I would watch in passing.  Now, after going to games on a bi-weekly basis, I am becoming a fan.  I still love the NFL and prefer it, but I am starting to like the differences in the CFL.  I guess I am a fan of football, that is more like it.

Tuesday will be a rushed day I am sure.  I still need to get the dogs to their boarding, not sure how I am doing that just yet.  I could rent a vehicle, it would actually be cheaper to have the car all day then taking a taxi one way to where I have to drop them off.  I am going to see if I can borrow a vehicle – that might be easier.  It will work out, it always does.

I am also not sure how I am getting to the airport but I have a plan and a back-up and a back-up to the back-up.  Getting home when I touch down back in Calgary is still in the air but that is weeks off.  That will work out too, it always does.  If I didn’t have a large bag, I could always take a bus from the airport to downtown.  I suppose at some point in the future there will be a train line out to the airport, I am sure that is on someone’s radar.  For now, for $3.15, I can take a bus back if all else fails. A taxi from the airport would likely cost me $70.  Again, I could rent a car cheaper than that.  I might take that option actually, since I will have to retrieve my dogs.  Thinking, thinking, thinking.  Again, it’ll work out.

So, I do plan on making some entries from Ontario.  They might be placed further apart, I don’t know.  I want to keep up to date with my baseball team that I have to miss 6 games and 2 practices.  I am thankful for the other coaches who have volunteered their time to take over the team while I am gone.  It couldn’t all happen without them.

Anyway, the weekend is nearly here.  I hope to enjoy mine and I hope you enjoy yours.

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Go Bandits

Posted on September 2, 2015 by kdarcy21

Last evening we had our first Fall Ball workout for the Babe Ruth League.  Although a few players were late because of traffic issues, all players we there.  In fact, I had a player show up that I didn’t know was on the team.  The travel teams had made final cuts and he attended so that is good.  Two more players were added this morning (or late last night) so the roster is now a large 15 players.

We have a good mix of infielders, outfielders, two catchers and a number of pitchers.  It is a big team, meaning they are big kids, no small boys – even the 14 year olds are tall.  I don’t know what parents are feeding their kids these days…

We have another practice on Thursday.  We will do a lot of work in the batting cage and some additional infield and outfield work.  We need to get ready for our double header on Saturday. Not much time…  Everyone who’s playing did play baseball in the summer so they should all be in pretty good baseball form.

I am looking forward to a good Fall season of baseball.  Go Bandits !!!

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Fall, already? In Alberta, for sure…

Posted on September 1, 2015 by kdarcy21

Happy September.  I can’t believe it is September already, where the heck is the year going?

My first Fall Ball season with Babe Ruth starts tonight with our first practice.  I am coaching the Bandits.  I don’t remember ever being this excited to start a season of baseball, not in a long time anyway.

I think I missed having the month of August off from baseball.  Both of my teams in Babe Ruth were also out of the playoffs early, too early.  Both seasons ended on July 10.  I’ve already written about that, no need to open those old wounds.

So, Fall Ball.  A fresh start.  A new crop of players.  I only know two of them, they played for me this summer. That is 10 new players.  Damn…  Gotta learn 10 players names. Hopefully I will have their names down by the end of tonight’s practice.  I am going to miss a total of 6 games due to my trip to Ontario.

I am really looking forward to heading back to Ontario, it will be nice to see family and friends, I just wish I wasn’t missing so many games. I do have some volunteer coaches who will handle things while I am gone, so I am sure that the team will be well cared for.  I don’t think I’ve ever missed this much baseball before, on any team I’ve ever coached.  When I commit to coaching, I normally jump in with both feet.  Life, and baseball, will go on however.

We have a 16 game schedule, ending in mid October and then playoffs.  I am unsure of the playoff format.  There are 5 teams in the league so the 5th team might be dropped out of playoffs with the remaining 4 playing on.  We have a young team by the looks of it, so it will be interesting to see if that makes a difference.  I am sure that when the teams are being put together, ages are balanced along with positions.  We do have a good mixture of position players and pitchers and 4 players who identify as a catcher which is amazing.  Seeing as the Rockies are in need of a catcher, who knows, one may be drafted in February.

We open the season with a double header on Saturday.  I am looking forward to it.  Hopefully the weather will cooperate, the forecast is pretty dismal.

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The Bandits

Posted on August 31, 2015 by kdarcy21

I received information and my team list for my Babe Ruth Fall Ball team yesterday afternoon.  I will be coaching the Bandits, sort of a cool name.  With a quick search of the Internet, here is a cool logo:

Bandits Logo 1

I have no idea what our team colours will be for the season, I have not seen the jersey’s as yet.  We start this week with a practice tomorrow and another on Thursday.  We will start play either Friday night or Saturday I would presume, no schedule released as yet – that will come today.

I am excited about coaching. The 6 weeks off of baseball has been good, but I need something to do with my time in the evenings. It is a good chance to scout out some talent for next years Babe Ruth draft, both from my team and the other 4 teams.  Several of the Rockies players are playing Fall Ball including two on my team.  One of the parents has volunteered to coach with me so that is great and one of the coached from the summer is coming back, pending his school and work schedule of course.  The parent coach isn’t concerned that I will be away for a couple of weekends for my trip to Ontario, so that is good, there will be coverage.  I was worried about that.

Today is my last super early day on a Monday morning.  I’ve been starting at 4:40am all summer, well, all of July and August anyway. It worked well in the summer, I am up anyway, but now that we are edging towards Fall, I am not as eager to get up early.  This morning, I was woken up by my alarm at 3:15am, a rare event – I typically wake up before the alarm ever gets a chance to go off.  I didn’t want to get up so the dogs have suffered thus far with no walk – we will go at lunch.  My sleep was broken up though with Hera wanting to go out at 2am.  Who does that?  Hera, apparently.  Now, she’s peacefully sleeping of course.  Dogs…

Enjoy your week, and, wish this team some luck.  Any wishes given in the summer for the Rockies fell on deaf ears apparently.  🙂

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A good sports day on Saturday…

Posted on August 30, 2015 by kdarcy21

The air has finally cleared in Calgary and hopefully the rest of southern Alberta.  It has been lingering for a week now from forest fires in BC and in Washington. The winds have been relatively calm so the smoke stayed around.  When I was in Lethbridge for work last weekend, it was way worse than what we had in Calgary and Calgary was worse than Red Deer. Winds have finally picked up and cleared out the smoke – it no longer smells like a campfire is burning near by and the sky was a normal blue last night.

The city had some poor air quality and were advising people to avoid going outside unless necessary. On a scale of 1-10, at one point it reached somewhere in the 20’s – not good.  When it got higher, someone decided to check the recording equipment and apparently, a spider had taken up residence, skewing results.  So, Calgarians were not breathing in post-nuclear type air – it wasn’t quite as bad as originally thought.  Damn spiders…

Yesterday was a good day for my sports teams. The Jays were on first, 11AM my time. They ran over the Tigers by a 15-1 score. Encarnacion hit 3 home runs, a rare “hat trick” in baseball and was greeted to many hats being tossed onto the field and from the 5th deck into the deck below.  It took a few minutes for the crews to clean up the hats.  I don’t know that I have ever seen 3 home runs from a player in a game before – I know it has happened, I just haven’t been witness to it is all.

Next on tap, and right after the Jays victory, was pre-season NFL action with the Steelers visiting the Bills in Buffalo. The game was on one of the NFL networks which I was surprised I got.  It was a close game to start, didn’t end that way.  The Bills killed on home field, 43-19.  One more game in the pre-season on September 3, they have looked pretty darn good.  I was worried when they signed their new coach, Rex Ryan, but he’s looking pretty good and seems like he’ll be a good fit in Buffalo.  The only thing that may stop them from reaching the Super Bowl is a QB.  We will have to wait and see if the current crop of quarter backs is up to the job of getting them there.  One can hope.

Starting shortly after the Bills started, the Calgary Stampeders played the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.  I tried split windows on my TV to watch both games at the same time, but I tend to do something else when watching football and only listen to the commentators most of the time, looking up when I hear some excitement in their voices or I catch the replays. So, on a split screen, I didn’t have that – didn’t work for me.  No fear anyway, the Stamps blew out the Bombers after a close first half and won by a final of 36-8 and enough to have sole possession of first place.  This was a back to back road week so I haven’t been to a game in a couple of weeks. The Stamps host the rival Eskimos on Labour Day, right before I head out for my trip to Ontario.  I will miss their next home game when BC comes to town, but I have given the tickets to two of my baseball players – I hope they enjoy the game.

So, Saturday was a good day for my sports teams.  Too bad hockey hasn’t started yet, the Flames could have added to the day.  Soon enough.

Today will be a park day for the dogs and I – they need a good run around and swim in the river. With the poor air quality, we’ve been taking it easy this week so the fresh air today will be good for getting out.  Nothing else planned, going to take it easy.

It will be a short week at work, I am off on Friday and holidays start.  I won’t be back at it until the 22nd which will be nice. Fall Ball starts some time this week, not sure when exactly. I should get a team list today perhaps and games start by the end of the week.  No schedule or anything at the moment.  No idea if I have gotten any coaches to help out.  I hope the League has found someone, I will be away for 2 weekends of the schedule. The coaches from the summer will be able to cover but we might have some gaps. I am sure it will all work out, it always does.

Enjoy your Sunday.

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Sleeping in?

Posted on August 29, 2015 by kdarcy21

I was thinking that today I might actually be able to sleep in. No such luck. I was awake and up at 3:45… Let the dogs out, fed them and then let them out again. Hera seems to have a routine and she’s trained me very well. She needs to go out immediately after eating. Of course, she also needs to go out as soon as we get up…

It will only be a few weeks until I shift into winter mode and have to drag myself out of bed. Saying the word winter at the end of August seems like it should be illegal. I will also start work later in the day, 6:30 instead of 5:30. It was nice starting that early all summer while I was working flex hours. That’ll be over next week. Speaking of next week, only 4 days until I am on vacation. I know I’ve said that before, but I’m looking forward to it.

No plans for the day really. The air quality has improved and the lingering smoke should be gone by tonight or tomorrow. We will likely hit the dog park and river today and I do need to buy some food for the dogs. Such excitement, I know.

At any rate, it’ll be a relaxing weekend. Enjoy yours.

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Weekend is here, well, at the end of the work day…

Posted on August 28, 2015 by kdarcy21

The weekend is here, already.  I don’t know about you but this week zoomed on by. Monday and Tuesday were very busy days at work so they passed in a blue. I was off on Wednesday and taking it easy, catching up on sleep and what not.  I am not used to working 12 hour days, never mind 5 of them in a row.

Thursday was a bit of a slow day at work, I was able to catch up on outstanding requests. After today, I only have 4 more days to work and then off for two weeks.  I would like to have a clean slate when I finish on Thursday.  Should be doable.

So, the weekend. No real plans. I am hoping that the air quality improves so I can take the dogs to the dog park and river – temperatures are supposed to be nice. A week ago today, Calgary, or at least parts of Calgary, had snow.  Yes, snow.  In August. That is rather disgusting… I prefer my snow in November and beyond, ending in March.  But, that’s me.

Anyway, I don’t plan to do much. Maybe have a fire out in the newly constructed fire pit in the yard, presuming that the fire ban is lifted. I do have some stuff to do around the house as well.  All in all, it sounds like a fun and exciting weekend. No baseball as yet, I think it starts next week but I don’t have information as yet.  I am looking forward to it.

Whatever you do, enjoy your weekend.

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Ontario, here I come (well, soon)…

Posted on August 27, 2015 by kdarcy21

Another week of work and I am off for two weeks.  Mostly off anyway.  I am in Ontario for two weeks, I have enough lieu time and vacation time that I am only working one day while in Ontario as opposed to a whole week.  I am going to our National office for a day.  I will be able to meet some co-workers that I have never met before and I will see others that I haven’t seen in just about two years.  It will be a good day I am sure.  I also lost a bet to my boss two Super Bowls ago so I am finally paying the debt off – lunch. We are heading out with a small group to somewhere called the Irish Embassy – the menu looks good.

The primary reason for my return visit is my sisters memorial. It is being held in my sister and brother in laws back yard which, through a lot of hard work (and some efforts, apparently, from the Munchkins from Wizard of Oz) into quite an oasis.  It will be nice to see family and friends, wish it was for another reason.

I am also seeing people that I have not seen in a couple of years.  There are many planned meals with friends.  One of my favourite places in St. Catharines is the Mandarin, a Chinese food buffet. We are heading there for lunch the day after I arrive – no sense in delaying that. I am also planning a trip to Duff’s, the best pizza and wings I have ever had – I am hoping nothing has changed. I am also hitting up Carlos Cantina in downtown St. Catharines the day I arrive – it is amazing Mexican food and I am going with a former co-worker.  Red Lobster will also, hopefully, be having their Shrimp Fest – all-u-can eat Shrimp.  Mmm mmm mmm…  There are also the old breakfast places that I like.  We call one of them the Greasy Spoon, at the corner of Welland and Geneva in St. Catharines.  It is actually called Golden Brothers.  There is also The Lancer on Queenston St. My sister doesn’t care for it there, so she isn’t going.  🙂  It appears that I am hitting Ontario for the food.  Maybe…  I haven’t found places in Calgary that I love like some of the places in Niagara.  There are other places I like to go, but, unless I want to eat out 7 days a week, I don’t think I will have time – never mind the money.  I am also hoping to meet a friend from Ottawa for lunch – we meet at the approximate half way point, Peterborough.  There is a place there called Hot Belly Momma’s and it might be my favourite restaurant of all time.

I am also going to a Jays game with my brother in law. It is almost sold out and will be by game time for sure. I was able to get two seats together, in the 5th deck and because it is or will be sold out, there is no moving to the field level for us.  Oh well…  I can’t find my Jays jacket, I must have left it in Ontario when I moved and I am sure it was sold in one of the many yard sales my sister had.  I do have a Jays hat, guess that will do.

The dogs will be in boarding again.  They seemed to love it there, can’t blame them, it looks like they had an awesome time.  I will miss them over the 11 days I am away for sure, but, it will be nice to see my sisters dog, Chloe again.

All in all, I am really looking forward to the trip. Will be a good one.

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