GOD MADE CONVERTIBLES
It has been eighteen years since the big day. Yep, that very important day in an American man’s life. The day he buys his first car.
For me, it was May 23, 1987. My father actually found the car for me. He had a co-worker whose father had a car that was just sitting in his garage and his wife said it was time to sell it. The car needed some work, but that is what we were looking for, a cheap, sweet car that we could work on and fix up.
So we drove from Longmont to Lakewood (funny since now I am living in Lakewood) to purchase and tow home my first car. To be honest, we did not expect it to be in as good as shape as it was, so we were real happy to see how nice the car really was. The pain of giving up hard earned money was erased when I saw how nice it was.
Then for the next month or so, dad and I worked on the car to get it in running shape. My dad and brother are very good mechanics and I am not. It was a pain for me to get everything working, but we did and now working on the car is a good memory.
Oh, I remember driving the car around the block after getting it running. That was a great feeling. The car has many memories for me. I remember driving down to Denver for a lot of Zephyr games, hanging out with friends, driving with the top down in the mountains just to see the stars shine, and getting soaked because the top was stuck down and the rain was pour. I was not happy about that last one, but it is a memory.
Now, the car, a 1965 Mercury Comet Caliente, sits in my dad’s garage. We hope to get it back into good shape someday so he can drive it in parades. I think my dad and the car will enjoy that a lot.
LOOK OUT
Well, I decided last week to take a day off for some fun. So I did, and I joined Stonestead for 18 holes of golf. So how did I do? Well, I had not played in 3 years, I had never played the course, I got a blister on my thumb, it was hot, the greens did not break, too many par threes, & I think the math was adjusted in Stonestead favor (just kidding). That is all the excuses I can come up with right now.
No, really, we had lots of fun even through we could not stay under 100. Stonestead was close through.
SOFTBALL UPDATE
Since the last blog post, we have played 2 more games. We lost one (20-8) and won one (22-8). So we are now 2-1 over all and all three games have been win big or lose big. As for my season stats, I am still hitting as the lead off man with an average .846, with five runs and four RBIs. It has been fun. The team is fun to play with as we are out there playing smart, but having fun.
LikeMonkey Meditations
- Congratulations to the KC Royals and Colorado rockies, both of whom finally got to double digits in wins before the White Sox got to double digits in loses.
- I saw a movie this weekend about a man turning to the dark side. I did not think the movie would be very good. However, it was very funny. I would recommending checking out Kicking And Screaming.
- It is very clean and funny, but Mike Ditka actually did a super job in the movie. I was very surprised.
- I am sure the other movie coming out where someone turns to the dark side will not have a good performance from Ditka.
- Well, I could be wrong about that.
- Only two more weeks and school is out for the kids. I am not sure who is more excited, them, Mindy and I, or the teachers.
- Softball news, when I wrote my first blog story, a guest appearance for The Diamond in the rox Blog, I mention I would be watching where free-agent Todd Nikkel signed. Good news people, he has a new team for the summer league. He is excited and it is not about the money like I hoped.
- Other softball news, after two weeks of games being weathered out for the team I am on, we finally played and won our first game!
- Sure it is no big deal for you, but for us, a horrible team last year, winning is big.
- The GM filled lots of holes for us and we played well. The bats were alive and we played something called defense.
- It was fun, and hopefully this week we can match the rox win streak of two and maybe the rox can at some point hit two again. Maybe.
DELIVER ME FROM ALL THE MADNESS
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE COLORADO EAGLES ON FOR THEIR CENTRAL HOCKEY LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP.
AIMLESS AND NOTS
Sunday, May 1, 2oo5, I was able to attend the 27th annual “Israel Awareness Day” at Faith Bible Chapel in Aurora. It was a night for Christians to honor the Jews. You can read a good review of the evening at the Stonestead Blog, May 2nd post.
The main speaker that night was radio talk show, Dennis Prager. He was very good and very insightful. The part of his talk I found most interesting was how the U.S. stands for something, but Europe does not stand for anything, they are just aimless and “nots”. Thus, the reason they can not stand us (whether or not Bush is President they don’t seem to like the U.S.) is because we stand for something and “nots” hate the somethings. I found that very insightful.
It reminded of the scene in Braveheart where Robert The Bruce’s not so good, well evil, father is lying to him about treason, compromise, and saying all men lose heart. I see the evil father as a “not”, someone not standing for anyting and avoiding fights that need to be taken up. I hope the U.S. is like Rober The Bruce and says:
“I don’t want to lose heart, I want to believe like [Wallace] does. I never be on the wrong site again.”
COLORADO rockies THOUGHTS
Colorado rockies fact that I hate, but are true:
- They have never finish above the LA Dodgers in the standings.
- If you compare Colorado Bullpen Stats vs. Trevor Hoffman who began in 1993, like the rockies, well Hoffman has been so much better. He has fewer saves than Colorado, but he did miss all of 2003 and did not get many save changes in 1993. So, he probably will have more total saves than the rox by the end the season. Hoffman has 50 career blown saves and rockies have 77 just since 2000. So one man can be better than many (and I mean many) rockies relievers.
- Speaking of one man being better than the rockies, Dontrelle Willis of the Florida Marlin’s has six wins this season which is the same number of wins as the Colorado rockies have. Ouch.
- If you combine the win totals of the rockies and the Royals, there are still 18 teams with more wins than those two teams combine.
- There are many more facts to share, but that is enough more sadness for this rockies fan. However, I do recommend learning more about the “Big Inning Syndrome” at Diamond in the rox.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
If George Steinbrenner’s horse does not win the Kentucky Derby, will he trade the jockey, trade the horse, or fire Joe Torre? Let just hope the horse does not need to testify in the Belco case.
