Smashed up in more ways than one, pressured, less than a week
So Saturday morning I drug myself out of bed at 5am to get ready to go to the volleyball tournament on the east coast. I had not touched a ball since the end of July. I took the Camry for the trip, something I haven’t done before because normally after a tournament I am a wet, smelly, sandy mess. To combat this I packed extra big beach towels to wrap around the driver seat for the trip home. Driving the Camry on open highway is nearly effortless. Going 80 mph feels almost the same as 30, very smooth and uneventful. Gas mileage suffers going that fast however. Instead of the 40 mpg we normally average, I could only garner between 35 and 36 mpg cruising on Alligator Alley.
I arrived at the beach around 8:15. I looked around the parking lot and didn’t see Randall’s truck anywhere. Son of a bitch, I beat him again. Randall lives on the east coast, about a half hour from this beach. Even though I live four times farther away, I almost always beat him to the venue. It has become more or less a tradition. Well luckily Jeremy and his partner was already there and they were nice enough to check us in already.
The weather was nice albeit a little windy for my tastes. We were playing BB and were on a 4 team net. I knew I was in trouble when after simply doing a warm up that consisted of throwing around the football and bumping a volleyball back and forth, my left shoulder was already feeling twinges of pain. We hadn’t even done any hitting in warm ups.
Our first match was against a solid team. One of the players was from Russia. He was funny to watch. Whenever he did something positive he would yell out different things in Russian, like “Boris stoopha!!!” (or something funny sounding like that) Randall and I played sloppy as hell. In true Christmas spirit we gave away points like presents, screwing up in almost every way you can imagine. We lost that first match by 6 or 7.
It wasn’t a good start and since it was only a 4 team net we pretty much HAD to win the next two games if we wanted to make playoffs. Our next match was against two young high school indoor players. Again they were a decent team but if Randall and played as well as we are capable of playing, we would have steamrolled them pretty easily. Instead we found ourselves in a close back and forth match. It ended very badly. With us behind 23-22 I served into the net, making it 24-22. We caught a break when the other team also served in the net, making the score 24-23 (game to 25 win by two) So Randall was serving, I encouraged him to bring us back to victory. He had a few runs of strong serving during the game that got us quite a few points. He serves…..into the net…. game over. If this was 4 years ago I probably would have been really pissed off. But I literally felt no anger, hell I had served into the net right before him, how could I be pissed? Well Randall was very pissed at himself. So pissed that as we approached the tent, he punted his volleyball down the beach and didn’t even bother to go retrieve it. I told him it was no big deal and to not worry about it. Randall almost put himself into one of the all-time vball tip list entries when he thought that someone walked off with the ball he punted away in anger. Luckily someone actually was nice enough to kick the ball back towards the courts.
So short of a miracle, we were eliminated from the playoffs. In our final game in pool play we were matched against another young team that also was winless. We played better and beat them pretty easily. It didn’t matter, we were done. Not making playoffs in BB, that is pretty sad. Like I said our net was decent for BB level but still….
Jeremy was playing on another BB net. Jeremy wasn’t doing all that well either and didn’t make playoffs. He did however do a great job of doing something that I used to rely on Rich for, nicknames. There were two kids playing on Jeremy’s net that were incredibly bad. In fact they lost their first game 21-0 which is virtually impossible to do with rally scoring. During the day Jeremy named each member of this team of misfits as Evil Genius and Vulture. Although those names wouldn’t immediately come to my mind looking at these kids, once Jeremy named them, it seemed perfectly appropriate. Vulture was skin and bones and had a funny voice that sounded like it hadn’t changed yet. He kind of sounded like Beavis. Evil Genius was short with short, black, curly hair and had on a pair of oversized black sun glasses that never left his face. We joked he used these glasses to see ahead 2 seconds in time so he always knew what was going to happen. When Vulture would hit into the net it was because he didn’t get his talons into it. Anyway, we had a good time joking about these kids, it helped dispel some of the bad feeling about our own play.
We decided after our matches that we would play some fun matches against Jeremy and his partner, Jason. I agreed to do so even though I had substantial pain in both my knees and both shoulders already. I didn’t give a F, I knew it would be months till I entertained the idea of playing ball again anyways. I wound up playing an additional SIX games back to back, more than I normally would play in a full tournament. The first four were a mix of Randall and I against Jeremy and Jason and a couple King of the Beach style games. Ironically, whether it was some of the rust coming off or just the no pressure situation, Randall and I played much better in every way. We both said it was too bad we couldn’t have played like that during the tournament.
Our play with Jeremy and Jason was very good natured and fun. Jeremy came up with a couple more nicknames for Randall based on his attire. Randall was wearing red shorts with a plain yellow t-shirt and a matching red baseball hat. Jeremy alternated between calling Randall, The Hulkster and Human Torch. He would drop in funny lines while Randall was playing like “good hit BROTHER…” (like Hulk always says) or “FLAME ON!” as the Torch does. We got the last laugh when Randall was serving for game point in a couple matches. Before he served he would say “Good game” and then I yelled “FLAME ON!” Randall delivered with a game winning ace both times. It was classic.
So after our fourth match Jeremy and Jason headed out. Randall and I played two more games against two guys that had been waiting a looong time to use the court. I felt bad that we made them wait so long. If it wasn’t for that guilt, I would have never agreed to play more, my body was toast at this point. So we played the two games, winning both easily. As the second game was winding down it started to rain, hard. Game point came during a pretty steady downpour. The guys thanked us for sticking around to play and then we all quickly grabbed our stuff and headed for the parking lot.
I was a big sandy, wet mess. After hosing off from the knees down, I tried to brush off as much sand as possible with a towel and then put on my tournament shirt to wear on the trip home. I thanked Randall for playing, wished him Happy Holidays and I was ready to go. During the day I had various episodes of pain shooting throughout both knees and shoulders that I knew I was going to be paying for.
I had not checked my cell phone all day and it was about 3:15. Normally I call Ali at least once to fill her in on how things are going. Well during the day things were going poorly so I didn’t really feel inclined to report that. After pool play was done, our games were back to back so I really didn’t have a chance to call her. So when I saw four missed calls from her on my cell I knew it wasn’t going to be good. I called her up and she immediately started crying. She was worried something happened to me. Of course I immediately felt shitty and apologized for not calling her and I tried to explain the time line that lead to me not calling. She settled down eventually and after one more apology I told her I would be home in a couple hours.
So when I got home I still had ideas in my head about going to see the Demolition Derby that was Saturday night at the fairgrounds right down the road from us. I got home about 5, checked on the computer and saw the derby started at 7. That gave me just enough time to pop some Advil, ice both my knees for a little bit, take a shower and go.
It cost $10 each to get in which is just about the limit of what I would be willing to pay to see a redneck sporting event. I told Ali as we pulled in I would be pissed if they were charging parking in addition. Luckily they didn’t. There were quite a few people there, if I had to guess, close to 500. Before the race started I grabbed myself a beer even though dehydrating myself further was not a great idea. I just felt naked being at a demolition derby without a beer. I also grabbed a hot dog. At the beer van I was served by a cute girl that kept calling me “Darlin…” in a pronounced southern drawl. I discovered I like being called “darlin…” in a southern drawl.
Pre-race there was lots of people watching to be done. The funniest sight that made me wish I brought my real camera was a pot bellied, older guy that came stumbling along the fence line. He had on no shirt and bib overalls. He was obviously drunk as some woman sort of held his arm to keep him steady. It just looked so appropriate for the venue we were at.
So before the racing started they brought out a group of ATV racers whom also were a large part of the festivities. They had several races around the wet sand track. The ATV racing was pretty uneventful as it seemed like each time they spread out and there was very little changing of position once that happened. The cars were a different story.
It was hilarious seeing the different vehicles participating. Most of them were predictably, big rear wheel drive boats. The funniest of them was the Iron Rhino, a full size domestic car with white painted traffic cone stuck on the hood along with two big coconuts hanging from the rear bumper. The other one that made us laugh was the number 4 car, a tiny old Datsun station wagon. It’s driver side front wheel was bent out at a 45 degree angle. It seemed practically undriveable. It putt putted out on the course and seemed to not be able to get out of first gear.
Not being a demo derby veteran I didn’t know what to expect. I thought they would just be smashing the hell out of each other right away. Actually the big smash up doesn’t happen until the very end. There are many rounds of more conventional circular racing first. There is smashing during these races as well just not total destruction. The number 4 car went down early after getting involved in a T-bone. Many of the cars looked like they were barely in running condition before even driving on to the track, as a result many cars were knocked out early. Disabled cars were unceremoniously pushed off the track by a Bobcat. I have to admit, it was funny watching the chaos ensue. Watching cars smash into each other touches the inner 5 year old that used to enjoy banging his toy vehicles together for hours on end.
The worst part was all the downtime in between races. It took awhile to clear disabled vehicles, remove debris from the track and water down the track in the middle of the event. There were various delays getting races started as the car owners tried to make frantic repairs to their cars in between heats to get them driveable again. We didn’t stick it out to the end. The combination of being drop dead tired, sore and sitting on metal bleachers for 2 hours was enough for me. We left fully satisfied with getting 20 dollars worth of entertainment. It was a good time, good enough that I would definitely go back to see it again.
I woke up Sunday morning sore as hell. I definitely would have preferred to just back burner my plans for cleaning the pool cage and lanai area. However I knew if I didn’t do it Sunday it wouldn’t have gotten done until 2008. So I limped outside and got to work around 9:30. I started off cleaning the eaves around the pool cage, something that has not been done since moving in. It was not a fun task. As I stood on a step ladder and brushed they dirty metal, sudsy water ran down my arms, soaking my shirt. I was a wet mess in no time. Trying to apply pressure to the brush over my head with two sore shoulders was not easy or fun.
Next up I pulled out the pressure washer and hosed down the furniture on the pool deck, the pool cage itself and then finally the pool deck. I worked non-stop till just after the Eagles kick off at 1pm. I was tired but felt satisfaction as I admired the pool area looking cleaner than it has in quite some time.
So I sat through yet another frustrating Eagles game. Just like so many times this season, the Birds managed to snap defeat from the jaws of victory. They just can’t make the plays necessary to win games.
I was more pissed about Fantasy Football than the result of Eagles game. I squeaked into the playoffs for our league as the number 8 seed which meant I had to play the number 1 seed. I had set my line up on Thurday based on the injury reports at the time that indicated Brett Farve would “probably start” and that Marc Bulger was cleared to start. I decided to start Bulger since Farve would surely not play all that well coming off an injury against the Raiders whom have one of the top rated pass defenses in the league. Bulger was playing the Bengals whom have had a porous pass defense.
Well Sunday morning I was too concerned with getting my project started to bother checking the latest injury news. It turns out Bulger did not play and Farve played and threw two touchdowns, scoring 21 points! I was so pissed at myself. The number one team has Tom Brady which is almost unfair. Brady racked up 51 points…. Even with that huge number, if I would have had Farve starting I would have only been 9 points down with my wide receiver yet to play, a realistic win scenario. Instead, because of my stupidity, my wide receiver has to somehow come up with 30 points tonight to tie, a near impossibility. I could have shocked the world, instead I exposed myself as a fantasy football numb skull. To start a QB that doesn’t even take the field for a ff playoff game, inexcusable.
I was beat Sunday night from Saturday’s athletic activities followed by Sunday’s work schedule. All I wanted to do was veg and play some WoW. However Ali had a bunch of things to do and I would have felt like a schlub sitting there playing WoW while she trudged along. So I helped her fold and label entry forms for The Run for the Paws to be mailed out and then later folded up our homemade Christmas cards while Ali addressed the envelopes.
The weekend pretty much flew by but it was filled with activities both fun and not so fun that at least made it feel worthwhile.
Another chore Ali had was to do the bills. We are in a less than rosy financial situation right now. The crush of holiday spending coupled with Manor Care not being prompt in paying Ali’s invoices has put us in a tight squeeze. It isn’t a great time to be going out to Vegas.
We are now down to less than week until my 40th birthday. I could rant and rave about how I feel about this event and not much of it would be positive, well probably none of it would be. But’ I’ll hold my tongue, at least for now.
Palm finally got around to releasing the WM6 update for Treo 750’s. About f’ing time. We have heard “any day now” for the last 4 months. I installed it onto Ali’s phone without incident.