Monthly Archives: March 2018

A late start

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Not us, but Southwest Airlines.

We didn’t find out our plane was delayed until after we arrived at the airport, dropped off bags and hustled through security.

0940 Departure said the board.

Oh. Apparently there needed to be a plane change due to a pending late arriving aircraft.

Then it was a mechanical issue and a new plane was coming in from LA.

Meanwhile, we waited and waited. The flight actually didn’t leave till 1120 or so…. I entertained myself by talking to a lot of different people. A nice lady was headed to Oakland for a couple of days of meetings but didn’t actually have anything on the schedule today other than coordinating with the colleague who would have the rental car coming in from a different city. A gentlemen heading to Las Vegas for four days. Working for Staples – he will be manning a booth at some kind of convention. Several others headed back to the East Bay, most of whom had planned on being at work by noon….

Oh – I know what I forgot to mention! George has to be in San Diego tomorrow. In fact, he has a 1545 flight from Oakland to San Diego. Now, if I had originally known about this, I would have simply booked him from PHX to San Diego. He checked with Southwest; they would rather not retrieve his suitcase and change flights as they were now predicting at least two hours between flights. (Bags checked because we were far enough down the numbers I didn’t think there was going to be overhead compartment room on the flight – my bad).

It was about 1330 when we arrived in Oakland. After claiming the luggage, George headed for check in and I found the car in the long term parking, paid the ransom and headed for home. I didn’t even unpack tonight, just decided to get some sleep.

Ring…..

 

And the reverse

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Today was not the day for the White Sox. Just to let you know that up front. End score was 14:0 in favor of the As.

This was the final game of tickets provided on our Spring Training Package and we wound up seated in section 100 which is directly behind home plate. The various scouts were in the row behind us. The two closest were more than sociable; complete with their own radar guns. A good reminder that fast and control are two entirely separate entities. Duh, I think – that is more than obvious with cars and drivers – why wouldn’t it be the same for pitchers of baseball.

I just relaxed and enjoyed the game. Afterwards we joined a friend at the Culinary Dropout – fun restaurant located in a warehouse near the main ASU campus in Tempe. From there it was barely a 10 minute drive to our hotel for the night. I elected to not bother to return the car this evening as it ours till morning anyway.  This was after checking our plane tickets and finding we were not on the 0530 flight but the 0840 instead.

Wrong Ball Game

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In celebration of St Patrick’s Day

 

Today the As played two games in what is known as a split squad. Part of the team played at Hohokam against the Seattle Mariners and the other half traveled (not exactly far) to Scottsdale to face off against the Giants at 1605. Our tickets were for the first game. Admittedly, getting to see the whole ballpark on a private tour was pretty neat. Behind the fence where normally you can’t go are batting cages, extra training areas, an infield and a complete ball field

 

 

 

The visiting locker room where the manager spent time talking about how things have changed over the years and the filming of “Money Ball”-

 

After watching batting practice –

 

there was a chance to talk with three of the players – all of whom were extremely nice, professional willing to sign autographs

Should I mention some of the fans take the event rather seriously?

and lastly –

the fatal pitch

The As had been doing well. Handing the Mariners a pitch on a platter? Well, we lost.

The “Second Team” which was playing the Giants? Beat them 8-3… go figure. Should have braved Scottsdale.

Right Field returns!

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And there were the sound of drums from Right Field last night.

I went to investigate and there they were – two of the RF Diehards complete with drums right in front of the fence in lawn seating. Several others of the group were also there augmented by a couple of the LeftField crew. It is obvious that As rules apply to Spring Training and other home team affairs, at least as it applies to noise makers. Silly as it sounds, those drum beats make it easier for me to follow the action on the field.

No banners or flags, which makes sense. The only place to post the banners would put them on the right field fence in front of the lawn which would be encroaching on the playing field. And flags? again the same and inside the lawn area no one would see them.

Hohokam Field

Our tickets today included food and drink at the Right Field Lounge, from before the game start through the fifth inning which really meant that food for the rest of the day was really pretty optional.

the view from our seats

Tonight the crew landed in left field –

two drummers, flags

complete with an Indian’s Fan, flags, short seats and THE elephant hat routinely seen at home games. And I was wrong about the flags – they just have to be kept on the lawn side of the fence…

the after game shot

Oh. Yes, the As defeated the Cleveland Indians…

and back – OAK->PHX

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Neither of us got much sleep last night. As you noted, I spent most of the day running errands so didn’t get around to even thinking about packing till after 2200.

Have I mentioned how thrilled I get with getting up at 0 dark 400? At least this time I decided to be willing to spring for long term parking at the airport. Driving was amazing, the roads were simply not that busy. Of course this was still before 0500 so you can imagine that some, but not all of the commuters were on the road. Check-In went smoothly, we checked bags. This time my boarding card said “TSA Pre-check” so that portion of the scramble wasn’t an issue. Except for the person who don’t understand that you have to put your purse on the conveyor belt…

Not surprising, there were a lot of As fans on the plane as well as a scattering of those supporting the Giants with a few other logo items supporting out of Bay Area teams.

Rental car, food stop at The Breakfast Club, stopped at the hotel where they actually let us check in early.

Sloan Field was on the way (well, sort of) so we took in the Cubs vs Diamondbacks game. It is a great park and essentially was sold out (had to hit Stubhub for tickets). From there it was just a short drive to Hohokam Park where we lazed around for a long time before the game. If you ever go to Hohokam and are willing to walk about 8 blocks, there is is free parking next to Finley Park. Just saying.

The As were not at their best. Their new young pitcher lost it at the end of the third inning. His relief managed to give up a home run which is not great if you have inherited two on before walking the first batter you face… making it a six run inning. The two single scores by the As just didn’t cut it.

And of course, I brought a USB 3 cable without the back up drive while not bringing the regular cable. So the pictures will have to wait….

Errands

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Not managing to crawl out of bed for the first “family taxi” run of the day I picked up the slack from there on out.

I will just give you the summary:
George to BART, San Pablo Ave (personal trip), Acme Bakery, Berkeley lighting for the last fixture, pick up Dani & Gwen, drop off Alex, pick up & drop off George, pick up Dani & go to Costco, drop off stuff to Shana, drop off rest at home, stop at Sprouts, drive back to Shana’s, drive home.

By this time it was close to 2030 and the last load was ready to toss in the laundry.

So that only left packing.

Believe it or not, there still was fuel in the car!

PHX->OAK

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It was a long day by the time I crawled into my bed at home. After waking to the morning bird chorus at my sister’s I managed to pack forgetting onky one thing. But it was an As hat. And it is not like I don’t have a few of those.

Meet a fellow traveler from our Belze trip for late breakfast. We ate at the Breakfast Club on North Scottsdale Road. She, like I, spent almost her entire working life post education employeef by the same company. Ok, not the same company as transfers, mergers and sakes saw numerous changes but it was the same building for 41 years. I can only claim 30 and it certainly wasn’t in one location.

Since I wasn’t willing to drive out to Surprise again I took the opportunity to watch the Rockies take on the Mariners at Salt River Fields. It is a great ballpark and I bought a hat before confirming that I was provided shade by the overhang. Ah well, Spring Training hat? Now I can buy pins…

From there it was rush hour traffic to the airport followef by what always seems like an endless wait.

But I meet the most interesting people. Obviously my flight to Oakland was full of both Athletic and Giants fans. Then you add some of the cutest kids headed for a grandma visit, two guys from Alameda who were into for their company (commercial chain link fence design and installation) and a minority of disgusyef business travelers.

George met me at the airport. Great guy, what can I say

Over the plate

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and not at the batter. The As batter hit by a pitch hopefully won’t have a serious hand injury. The Giants batter was hit in the butt. He was fine and later scored what turned out to be the winning run.

End score: 6:5 in favor of the SF Giants.

Otherwise, ran a few errands. Finished another small cross-stitch

 

And headed back to the East Bay tomortow

Two for one

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Sunshine + an As win. Ssveral home runs and a pitching staff that msnaged to keep its act together.

The Cub’s fans were stalwart and, with one exception, really nice people. Several were on break from Illinois bad weather while others were able to combine being snowbirds with supporting their team. I can’t say the peobkem person was anything other tgan oblivious. Otherwise why would you think it was alright to stand at the lawn railing directly in front of fans sitting on blankets?

Also in the mix were a couple of Diamondback fans, a guy with an LA Dodgers cap and an avowed Padres fanatic.

Otherwise, it is relax and finish the latest small cross stitch time.

Meanwhile- back in Berkeley

Inspection tomorrow

Ain’t no sunshine

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In Suprise, AZ. At least not on a Saturday afternoon when the Texas Rangers took on the As and proceeded to devestate the As pitchers. A few other acts of stupidity, error, and left on base didn’t help.

Do you supose it was all my fault for stopping to purchase sunblock on the way to the game?

PHX in the dark

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On approach

It was one of those exhausting days where you wind up deciding that not much has been accomplished. Not anyway in comparisson to the number of hours devoted to hanging and waiting.

It was a high speed pack this morning followed by hours at the VA where I managed to get most, but not all of an eye exam accomplished. I will skip the part about hiking afterwards down 19th toward BART with only those lousy rollup plastic shades for protection on what turned out to be sunny. Sunglasses? Of course, and forgotten at home.

I killed time at the airport. Managed the flight in the Southwest sardine can. Didn’t win any friends with the guy whi managed to wedge himself in the middle seat as the last paasenger on the plane when I insisted that the arm rest remain down.

So I was just recovering after picking up my rental car and heading out in the dark. Well, duh. It is night. But still no reason why the flipping GPS insisted on taking me the long way to thr freeway. A route which included a complete tour of parking lots, the cell phone lot and every single last one of the terminals. Argh.

New Window

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As it turns out, there was dry rot in the framing around our main living room window resulting in a serious additional expensive as this sucker had to be custom made…

But it looks nice

now and will be better once the wood is stained to match the beams….

and the stairs leading to the lower level….