Archives June 2005

The rains continued for most of the weekend. We got more than 3 inches more over the 2 days to bring the total rainfall since last Wednesday close to 9 inches. Areas on our property that were dead grass and sand a week ago are now ankle deep in water. It really is an amazing transformation.

The weekend was very enjoyable despite the persistent rain. On Saturday we stopped by the apartments we lived in the first year we lived in Florida. I heard they were selling them as condos now. It was a nice place and I was rolling around ideas in my head about the possibility of maybe buying one and then having my mom live in it. I had called and gotten prices a couple months ago and it seemed like there was an outside shot that we could swing it. The place has over 360 units. They now have 4 left. In 2 months they basically sold out. Not only that but they raised the price 40k in that time frame. The sales pitch was non-existent. It was “here is the price”. When I ran the numbers through a mortgage calculator I quickly realized there was no way we could swing it. It’s disappointing.

On Saturday afternoon we did some rearranging of furniture. We moved the antique corner china cabinet that my mom brought with her, but didnt follow her to her new place, into the corner in the computer room. It looks surprisingly good in there. I also disassembled my 19 inch wide, 42 inch high aluminum computer rack and installed the stuff into a much more visually pleasing wooden cube shelf thing. When I set the aluminum rack up originally, I thought it would be cool to have actual computer room equipment in the office with a rack server, punch down block and rack. I now realize that it was just ugly in a home environment. I’ll shoot some pics of the new set up. I also redid the TV mount out on the lanai. I cleaned up the cables and mounted the remote receiver and IR transmitter in spots where they were much more functional.

Saturday night we watched Sea Biscuit. I heard a long time ago it was a good movie. I really enjoyed it. If you would have told me beforehand that I could feel such emotion about a horse racing movie I would have told you you were crazy. But damn when Sea Biscuit is racing War Admiral down the final stretch and Sea Biscuit turns on the jets and beats the favored horse easily, I felt like I just watched the final homerun scene in The Natural. It was a really, really good movie and like I said, envoked emotions you wouldn’t expect.

On Sunday we did our 4 mile walk to the convenience store and back. It was much tougher than in the past. It was very warm and humid. The wet conditions had brought out the bugs so we spent the first half of the walk constantly swatting at our face. It was pretty miserable. I normally wouldn’t break a serious sweat until well into the walk back. This time half way into the first half my shirt was starting to sweat through. When we got to the store I knew we had to get some bug spray. I didnt have enough cash so I had to pay an extra $2.50 to pull out 20 bucks from the ATM to pay for the stuff. ATM fees are a f’in joke. The walk back was much less buggy thanks to the toxic substance we sprayed on ourselves. However the sun started to peek out, making it even more uncomfortable. By the time we got home I was very ready to be in AC.

It started to rain again, delaying our plans to mow the grass that was not underwater. I spent the downtime playing WoW, something I did quite a bit over the weekend. When it stopped raining and dried up a bit we went out and knocked out the work. One of the things I had to do was relocate a few of the plants we put in the renovated garden. Even though we dumped all that dirt in there, the one end was still a soppy mess. We didn’t want the roots to drown so I hopped in there with a trowel in my flip flops since it was wet. I almost instantly lost both flip flops as they sunk a half foot into the muck and the suction pulled them off my feet. So I decided to just finish the job bare foot. Moving them 5 feet up further up got them out of harms away. It was easy to wash off my muddy sandals and feet by simply stepping into the ankle deep water right outside the garden.

The rest of the day/evening was casual with Ali reading and I spent most of the time trying to level my priest in WoW. I find that everyone in the game loves a priest. They heal you, remove diseases and generally make life in the game much easier. Playing as the priest isn’t the most exciting thing in the world but in certain ways I enjoy playing him as much as anyone else.

On Thursday nights we take out the trash. As I was pulling the bag out of the can in the garage, I was startled by movement I saw out of the corner of my eye. On the top edge of the open garage door was a long black racer snake. He was weaving in and out of the supports having a grand old time. I didn’t know if he had been in the garage for awhile or if he just hopped up there since we got home. Either way he had to be returned to the outdoors. So I looked around for a good snake removal tool and decided to enlist a mop. As I pushed him along he dropped off the garage door onto the hard concrete floor. I felt bad cause I didn’t want to cause any harm to him, just get him out. He seemed ok but he slithered under the shelves in the garage. I kept prodding him forward with the mop which he had taken a dislike to. He coiled and struck at the mop repeatedly. Eventually I got him outside and apologized for any harm I caused him.

Our property has been very very dry. You can tell from this pic how brown the grass was. Even though I try to hit it regularly with the tractor sprinkler, no rain for over a month takes it’s toll. However the past few days we have gotten dumped on. Our property has seen over 6 inches of rain during that time period. So we went from being a sand bowl to a swamp, with some standing water at various spots already. The areas where we brought in fill have held up well and performed as we hoped they would. The plants and grass are very happy with the recent deluge, the only negative is the standing water will probably initiate this years mosquito season. Time to get the propane tank refilled for the mosquito trap.

For me playing sports is all about being able to experience certain moments that make it all worth it. I’ve played many different sports and pretty much all of them have those type of moments, here are some.

In baseball there were 2 moments that I cherished. As a pitcher there was nothing better than throwing it as hard as I can, have the guy swing late and strike him out swinging as the ball makes a resounding crack into the catcher’s glove . As a hitter, of course hitting a homerun was as good as it got. My most memorable one was at some park where instead of a fence they had a creek. I swung and didn’t even feel the ball hit the bat, it just took off and got very wet.

In golf the moment comes when you hit the driver off the tee and the ball comes off low and hard a bit to the right and then the spin on the ball makes it swoop up and left, winding up down the middle of the fairway, far, far away. Once I get to the ball I enjoy looking back at the tee area and being proud of the distance the ball covered.

In tennis the moment occurs when I switch from my normal right hand shot to the left hand to wind up and hit a screaming forehand with downspin that just clears the net and settles down against the back fence before the opponenet ever got a chance to swing at it.

In bowling after I let loose on shot that I give a little extra turn to, that hooks hard into the pocket, makes a whole lot of noise and sends all 10 pins rocketing to the pit behind, the moment has arrived.

In racquetball the moment was when I was serving and hit a serve as hard as I could at a hard angle. The ball would dance around the other player as he tried to catch up to it which he rarely did. If he was lucky, the best he could muster would be a weak shot high onto the wall.

In football there were lots of moments. Juking multiple people out on the way to a score, throwing a long pass that hits the receiver in stride or snatching an interception and running it all the way back all gave you the rush.

In volleyball there are two punctuation marks for me. The first one is when the other team is going up for a hit, swings as hard as they can and my hands are in the proper position to send the ball back down on their side harder than it came at me. The second is when I get a set that is in front of me, in line that I don’t have to adjust to. I get a good approach, a good jump and hit the ball in rhythm, hard. The satisfying thump it makes as it hits the surface on the other side only milliseconds after leaving your hand is the feeling that I search for most on the court.

Maybe moments translate into simple adrenaline rushes, I don’t know. All I know is I yearn for them, I play for them and I remember them.