Category Archives: Sports

Ashland Oregon

Holly Doyne Posted on by 1

A friend assures me is a lovely town, well worth a visit in non-Covid times. There is a Shakespeare Festival, historic inns. It might be lovely, it might be industrial, I have no clue. When arriving off I-5 around 1900 in the evening it was impossible to tell. Most certainly it is not a town that is spending significant resources on street lighting. Located 16 miles north of the California border, the sign for Ashland was a welcome sight.

The sun is setting earlier and I do not enjoy driving in the dark. Not in the dark, not up and down hills (mountains?), nor around curves. We will not speak of the fact that more than 50% of the vehicles sharing the road with me had twelve wheels or more. They sail down hills before gradually slowing as they grind their way up the next. Their head lights provide an unwanted glare in my rear view mirrors. The few other cars dart past, between the trucks sometimes managing a speed only marginally faster than required for overtaking.

This kind of excitement and stress do not bring me joy. I really, really no longer enjoy driving at night and have decided that I will not blow this particular popsicle stand prior to decent light in the morning.

In case you are wondering, I am currently headed to Portland. There is a knitting friend there who is also a weaver. He is a brother to a much longer known friend, indie.dyer and yarn shop owner in the San Juans. I have “toys” that have been occupying space in my life, our garage prior to our most recent move to Germany if that gives you an idea on the age. I am never going to use them again. Selling them is just too much of a pain. So why not give them to an engineer? Neither he nor his son have a clue as to what fills the back of our  VW Golf. But I was reassured that there was plenty of space in his great room.

We shall see….

A quiet weekend

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Not much happened and little to report.

I stitched, George got some work accomplished.  We took out the trash. One of those kind of weekends.  Then there were the Tampa Bay Rays who slid past the Yankees. That was a positive. The Minnesota Vikings who, as a result of really stupid coaching, lost their game on Sunday.

There was minimal organizing and cleaning other wise –

I have a lot of Zoom on the schedule for this coming week, along with a run to the Apple store since I need to replace my phone. I have had it for a number of years (replacement for the one that went down the waterfall in Iceland – or perhaps the one that was stolen in Nepal). In any case, the battery lasts 3-4 hours which is enough to drive any reasonable person totally and completely nuts. George has conference calls most of the week as well.

Bleh – it feels like ground hog’s day…. *the movie.

Stitching –

 

Advertising

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It was a lovely day – completely free of TV ads. The great thing about watching baseball was seeing the action – the downside was having to watch the same ad over and over and over again. For whatever reason, I seem to be able to tune them out when listening to the radio more easily than when watching.

Baseball games? The ads are fast food, cars, insurance, with occasional detours into mortgage companies. We will NOT talk about Ronan. 

Unless. of course, the game involves the Yankees. The total focus of the advertising change. Instead of pickup trucks, it is convertibles and high end SUVs (why do you even need a car in NYC?)  Obviously,  there will be investment brokers and high end vacations. (Note, the fanciest the As get are Toyotas, Ford pick-ups, and the local casino “resort”). 

Ah, well – it was time to watch the Oakland Roots – and hear from the community instead. 

 

 

and on the stitching front –

Out of the running

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Well, it was a good effort – at least through the first of the wild card playoffs – the As managed to squeak by the Chicago White Sox. Then, down two games in the second series, they managed to pull it off yesterday. Not so today. They tried, at least some of them did, and some of the time. It just didn’t click – with the final score being 11-6. Ah, maybe next year? 

Meanwhile, I can completely ignore baseball from here to February. Or perhaps later – it all depends. Basketball (Women’s) is also over. I am not for football (American).

So I can go back to my audio books – and stitching….

 

It just isn’t the same

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Yes, I am more than comfortable, sitting in our back bedroom/guest room/TV room with baseball on the television, but it just is not the same. Not like sitting the ball park. Not being surrounded by fellow noisy (and noise making fans) and most certainly not bothering to wear As logo gear.

Admittedly, I don’t miss the PITA of riding BART to and from the game.  Nor cmoming home late. But I miss my game day friends, cheap food & souvenirs, and the pleasure of driving the occasional  opposing side right fielder out of the game. 

But all of that is not stopping me from watching the As play. without yelling, cheering, or cowbell it is just too quiet. I am also keeping an eye on the Twins as a back up team to support. Angel informs me that the Mets have to figure out their bullpen before they have a chance – the absence of a closer is costing them.

So that is the update.

Game stitching is the Linen & Threads 2020 Mystery SAL

August Clue

Which, as you will see over the next week – is not a clock.

Otherwise I am making relatively good progress on my Tempting Tangles Coffee Sampler. Originally released in 16 parts, I have parts 1-4 completed (except for a small blank spot) as well as 5 & 8. Now to finish up parts 6&7 to claim 50% completed…

Coffee Compendium.

But there isn ‘t any baseball!

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Last year, or perhaps it was the year before, I added the Oakland Athletics Schedule to my calendar. It provided me regular notice on the games including whether they were home or away so that I could plan the rest of my life. Life does revolve around purchased tickets (baseball, other sports, theater, concerts, whatever) since taking full advantage of sunk costs just seems sensible.

This year, obviously there is no baseball. I am sure that it might give someone else comfort. But for me, it is just one more almost daily reminder that there is NO baseball. Or softball. Or soccer. Or cruises with Dani from Hawaii to Vancouver.

I have been trying unsuccessfully for weeks to get rid of this paritcular calendar. There is absolutely no point in notes that “there is a game tomorrow” or “your games starts in 15 minutes. Watch on MLB app…” since there is NO baseball. Unsubscribe on my computer? It repopulates from my iPad. and/or phone. And round and round. And if I take all devices off line, I can’t unsubscribe.

My last ditch attempt this morning was to unsubscribe each device in turn and immediately take it off line till the last one done.

So far, so good…

ahhhhh NOOOOoooooo

something else out there…..

And in Falcon Chick update
– the third hatched. The live cam is here for those who want to be entertained by something other than a screen saver. Warning, just because you don’t potentially hear some of those high pitched shrieks (GRINNELL – where ARE YOU???) doesn’t mean that cat/dog/or other person in your house is going to wonder exactly what annoying soundtrack you have playing.

It is not Opening Night

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Nor was yesterday Opening Day.

For everyone who hasn’t a clue – I am referring to the opening of Major League Baseball Season. Said season of which was to have started here with a day game yesterday afternoon between my old home team – The Minnesota Twins, and my new home team (is 2016 still new?) – the Oakland A’s.  Realistically, all professional sporting events are on indefinite hold.  The League has been making old games available for streaming, those who are fanatics are spending time on social media, blogs, and the phone talking about games, players, and what they re planning on doing when the season recommences.

Me? I am a fair weather fan. Or perhaps a, any weather fan as long as I can go to the game in person. I have season tickets to the As and had been contemplating whether I was going to wear my Twins Jersey or my As Jersey to Opening Day or Opening Night. But now, I don’t have to make a decision at all. Perhaps my only regret is not having made plans to spent a week in Scottsdale, AZ seeing the beginning of spring training (and inflicting myself on my sister who lives there). But that blasted paper, classroom obligations and family here took up my time the beginning of February. And then the window of opportunity closed. The closest I am likely to come is wearing an As sweatshirt

We are all slogging through daily life; I expect the same is true for all of you. As the numbers mount in the US, one can only wonder at the total disconnect between certain members of the leadership and the reality on the ground.

Having participated in major planning efforts with regards to pandemics (Avian Influenza, Novel Influenza) in both 2005 and 2009, I perhaps am one of the few people who think the world so far is faring better than might have been predicted. We still have power, the internet is still functional, food deliveries are still making it to grocery stores

as Donna says – I am not stuck at home – I am safe at home.

They are Owls

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What are those? I was asked at the Cal Women’s Basketball Game this evening.

It was a much more intelligent question that the previous – What are you knitting? Are those Warrior Colors?

the start of a scarf

Hello? This is a Cal Basketball Game. I am sitting the CAL Bleachers. I am wearing the exact same colors (blue, gold, and a bit of white). I have no idea where the Warriors got their colors, but, since Cal has had Women’s Basketball since the late 1800s – I have a feeling that Cal had these particular colors first.

Anyway – back to the Owls –

two small Owl Earrings

There is actually a nice history behind the owls. I purchased them in 2010 while on a P&O Cruise with Noah. We were headed up along the Norwegian Coast with with a great crew and a passenger collective that averaged age 74. Which doesn’t seem anywhere as old to me now as it was then. It certainly was a bit much for Noah who had age and interests in common with some of the crew. In Aleslund, after hiking to the top of the overlook to see all the islands which made up the town, I stopped at a Husfliden on the way down. Besides all the standard amount of Rauma yarns, fabrics, trims, and patterns for traditional garb as well as a number of lovely wooden handmade items, there was a case of jewelry off to one side. Sitting by themselves on the top shelf were these owls.

No question, these were my souvenir of the trip, even if they were in a color that I rarely wore. So now, when I am stuck on land, they bring back a bit of my travel memories.

And they won

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George has been watching. various college and pro sports over the weekend. If I hadn’t out with him, it really can’t be avoided. Some won, some lost.

I hiked down the hill to the UCBerkeley Campus, then across the campus to Haas Pavilion to watch Cal play the Riverside Highlanders. As per usual, I was there for the band, but didn’t mind seeing the Cal Women’s Basketball team win their game. It is a rebuilding year since two key players graduated last spring and one transferred.  Plus  a new coach. There were definitely rough edges.

Cross stitch at a game doesn’t work – but knitting does. I hauled along the “Hitchhiking beyond” that I started while George was in the hospital. I didn’t like the way it was shaping up, so frogged it from 3/4 down back to about 1/3 and happily enjoyed my garter stitch while watching.

Cross stitch? –

Bouncing Balls

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Women’s Basketball (not dogs chasing toys)

Today marked the last of the exhibition games before the official opening of the basketball season. Specially the UCBerkeley Golden Bears. From here on it, I will generally refer to them just as Cal. Yes, there are other UC schools in the system. At last count there are ten campuses, five medical centers, three national labs, and the stray law school here and there. It makes for an extensive system, which, according to their press info covers more than 280,000 students.

Ok, that is a lot of information that you really didn’t need or care to know.

Anyway – we live up the hill on Euclid from Cal (UCBerkeley). It is a fairly easy roll down the hill to various campus events but a much more demanding hike back up. Since George is on limited house arrest (doctor’s appointments only) I look Maus with me. She is in town for about 10 days. Both spending time with her dad and considering the logistics of a move to the area.

The women’s basketball team was playing the Vanguard Lions. I will acknowledge that I had to look up the Lions (Costa Mesa). Their team over all was quite a bit shorter and incredibly scrappy. The Bears won.

More importantly, the Straw Hat band was there. I enjoy the band. For the last two years, I have made lapel pins for them. Miriam and Angel designed the pin for this year

Straw Hat Pin 2019-2020

Wandering over to where the band members were gathering, I ran into Benjamin. A trombone player and a sophomore, he is an occasional member of the Right Field Bleachers crew. He will delighted to get a pin and happily announced to the whole gathering that I had brought neat pins.  I get just enough made to cover most of the band members who play at the women’s basketball games including the alumni who cover during the winter holiday season.

Hiking all the way home got to me; Dani kindly rescued us partway up the hill.

Rememberance Poppies

And, if you can’t find a poppy, but know how to knit or crochet – go to Ravelry, there are literally dozens of free patterns. If you don’t do handcrafts, draft your nearest and dearest who does. A couple of suggestions include Carol Spillane’s crocheted poppy or Susan Resaul’s knitted poppy.

In spite of themselves

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Clearing off the baseball stuff first. Thanks to the records of other teams – the As will host the American League Wild Card game on Wednesday. Which is good considering that they lost the last two games of the season to the Mariners. Especially watching them today, I am not sure that their heads were really in the game. Best I can say is that they weren’t shut out.

Now, due to the fact that Tampa Bay is from the East Coast, the start time needed to be modified so that all those poor Floridians don’t have to stay up too much past their bedtimes. Rather that our usual 1905 first pitch, the game will start at 1700 PDT. That is right – 5 0’clock in the afternoon. Seriously. Not an afternoon game, not an evening game but a weird time in between. Personally, I think it has to do with sales of ads on the TV broadcasts, but what do I know?

Looking at Stub Hub, the only quantity of tickets are either on Mount Davis (upper deck in outfield) or plaza deck in outfield. But there are people who seem to think that their tickets are worth multiple hundreds of $$$. I wish them luck. Especially since you can buy tickets for Mt Davis directly from the As for less than ½ the Stub Hub asks..

In more important news, George is stable. Absolutely exhausted but holding his own.

My plans to take Alex (son-in-law) out for brunch on his birthday were partly thwarted by PG&E (Pacific Gas & Electric) which treated us to a power outage this morning. Affecting a goodly portion of Berkeley, Albany, San Pablo Avenue, El Cerrito, Kensington etc, all the places we enjoy going to for breakfast were without power. = no coffee….

We wound up in Emeryville as the nearest location that had power.

Fantastic First Inning

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Arranging to meet Noah at the Coliseum BART station from his flight from San Diego – I dragged him to the As game before releasing him to take a break.

It was a good game, with the As scoring an amazing number of runs in the first inning (7) and a final score of 12:3 over the Texas Rangers.

An up day is always good.

KC? Really

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I mean. Seriously.

I returned the rental car this morning at San Diego Airport. Picked up a physical boarding pass from Southwest Airlines and worked my way through the usual disorder of TSA. Of note is that the USO is at Terminal 2 (which makes sense as the “International Terminal). I decided it just wasn’t worth the hike over and back. My flight was on time and I arrived in Oakland with more than enough time that I could have gone home.

But since there was about 3 hours to this evening’s game; the final homestand of the 2019 season it just didn’t seem worth the effort. Instead, I hung out in the terminal long enough to make sure that my phone was charged before heading on the mono-rail to the Coliseum BART station and the overpass to the Stadium with plenty of time to locate both food and drink.

I lasted till about 2100 when it was obvious that this game was going to take forever. Two hours in and we were not even out of the 5th inning. Managing to miss the Richmond train by seconds (I just love people who block stairs, escalators with their intense conversations or cell-phone huddles) so had to wait 25 minutes for the next train.

I was home in time to watch the 9th inning. To watch the As lose to the Royals, perhaps the second worst team in the league. In good news – the Twins won. If the A’s can get it together, they actually may hang on to their wild card slot.

And tomorrow is another day. Another drive to UCSF.

Oakland Roots

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The East Bay has seen/will see the loss of two long standing major sports teams in the next couple of year: The Oakland Raiders – (US football founded in 1960) are moving to Las Vegas and the Golden State Warriors (Basket Ball – in the Bay Area since 1962) are moving to richer climes across the Bay to San Francisco. This leaves the Oakland Athletics (baseball) as the only professional sports team in the East Bay. In case you are counting – The Earthquakes (pro-soccer) and Sharks (pro-hockey) are both in San Jose (which assuredly does NOT consider itself East Bay).

That takes us to the present and the first match  of the Oakland Roots – a member of the National Independent Soccer League – against the Cal United Strikers (Irvine, California). The team is currently using the grounds of Laney College (part of the Peralta Community College system (Alameda County = East Bay). According to the signage – they sold 5300 memberships. According to Wiki – the stands at their (US) football stadium seat 2700. The math doesn’t commute, but the block party ahead of time was a lot of fun, adults, kids, stage with musicians, food trucks and brisk sales of logo gear.

I finally found the rest of the crew with whom I planned on sitting. Tucked in at the SW corner of the field near one of the goals (and the scoreboard) we were seated in one of the booster areas. There is cheering, there is chanting (but I do get irritated at noise for the sake of noise when it doesn’t have anything to do with what is happening on the field).

The game was a tie: Roots scored the first two goals followed by a Strikers goal and another Roots goal. After the half – the Strikers managed two more goals with the game ending in a tie. I like soccer, especially compared to US football (which is all stop and start, requiring that the team following the coaching directives from the side whereas in our current sport, there is continuous play and it is owned and controlled by the players on the field).

The hike from Laney back to the Lake Merritt BART station wasn’t that difficult, but I was more than ready to crash when I finally got back home via the El Cerrito BART station (which was where I had parked the car after a drive over to the Larkspur Ferry Landing. Steven from Southern California was en route to his brother’s and Hamilton tonight. I talked him into a short visit. The drive across the Richmond Bridge was comparable to a week day morning).

 

Too many appointments

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A long time ago – oh let us say May – I made a couple of appointments for myself. Figured that George would be well past the time that he needed to go to UCSF twice a week, and besides, his appointment days were Monday and Thursday. So here I am, end of August and needing to be at the VA at the same time he needs to be at UCSF. He did agree to be dropped off early so that I wouldn’t be late.

Imagine my surprise to find that there was essentially no traffic at all heading to SF over the Bay Bridge. I mean, zero back up at the Toll Plaza at 0815 on a Friday morning. There is normally more traffic that that at 1400 in the afternoon or 0200 at night. Dropped him off at UCSF, went to the VA.

In case you are wondering why we didn’t do it in the other order (besides the fact that I don’t really want him driving right now) it is simple. UCSF charges $4/hr for parking. Parking at the VA is free….

I finished with my appointments just about the time that the infusion center released him from transfusions

it is not ghee

(and a bone marrow biopsy).

traffic back was unusually light for a Friday afternoon.

Then we watched the As defeat the Yankees for the fourth time in a row (three in Oakland and now the first game in the Bronx).

More purple

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There was something I read the other day about the change in colors in the evening sky. Comments about more of a purple hue after sunset.

So, for a few days, I took a picture (please ignore the lights – as you can guess, sitting in a baseball stadium gives a certain perspective).

August 13 – Oracle Park

mostly, we were looking at the almost full moon and wondering why the bullpen gave the game to the Giants.

Aug 21 – still looked blue to me.

24 Aug – still looking at the orange

today was a day game. But still – the sky has been fabulous in the evenings – at least for those where the fog has not rolled in or the marine layer dropped.

Missing my kitchen fairy

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some how, in my willingness to ship off Engineer Guy to six weeks of internship in Connecticut, I forgot an import point. One of his main contributions to the household since returning from school in San Diego has been taking over most of the routine household tasks. Those simple but annoying things. He was taking out the garbage (this is California – recycling here requires sorting), 90% of the cooking and, most importantly, cleaning the kitchen.

He caught a flight on Saturday, spent the weekend with his sister in New York, then caught a train on Monday morning. Happily back working  But not here. So there I am, washing dishes, loading and unloading the dishwasher, and taking out garbage, trash, and watering the lemon tree.

(whine, whine, whine)

Yesterday I worked on sorting out and cleaning the studio/sewing room/storage area while the Eldest did some sewing. I had been thinking about doing a bit more today, but abandoned the idea in favor of heading to the Coliseum to watch the As wipe the Mariners off the map and out of the park. Our pitcher was, frankly, not great. Theirs we’re worse. Two of the As clobbered  a pair of home runs each. End result? 10:2 with 10:8 as far as hits. And, amazingly enough, no errors on either side. For the fans listening on the radio – RF149’s apologies for the lack of drummers. Four cowbells and a woodblock just can’t carry the same level of sound.

you light up my night

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Yes!

the solar collector works!

both heads and bodies!

 

Not bad for 0dark30. The birds don’t provide enough light to be able to navigate, but, hey – they are fun!

I am thinking about getting

 

(the game was much harder fought today with the As pulling out a 3:2 victory in the bottom of the 9th thanks to the White Sox’s short stop who bobbled what should have been a double play ball, with the subsequent throw being off. Pinder meanwhile blasted past second and kept on going. Crossing the plate with the winning run – it was secondary to an error rather than a hit, but no one cared. It was incredible to watch and it is great to have the Sweep. Jon Jay? Left field today – but we chose to use his name rather than Tilsen who pulled right field duty. Never let it be said that we don’t know the name of the opposing team’s right fielder.

 

two is a lonely number

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I looked at those two flamingos – and all the empty space around them.

Sad.

two for the price of one

 

so there are now four birds (these two also have solar cells attached).

I am taking my entertainment where I can find it – and it normally is in small and quiet moments. These make me smile.

(As did the As game – it was a 13:2 rout.   Then there was the issue of the White Sox’s right fielder. Jon Jay. Apparently he couldn’t understand the post run cheer – “we love you Oakland, we do (x3), not you [right fielder’s name]” and filled in something else in his head. Complained. Security came to talk to us. We looked at them like they were insane. Said they should talk to any of the security who had been working the park for more than a day. Like the cheer hadn’t changed in at least 10 years. The end result is that there was a replacement right fielder starting with the 7th inning. Didn’t change the cheer – nor several repeats of “we want Jay….

I don’t think the White Sox have been in Oakland for a few years. Certainly this particular right fielder seems to have played for enough different teams over the years that he should have know about RF149. My prediction is that he will be in left field tomorrow. Since the left field bleachers had been know for flags, chants, and noise makers, I don’t think that will be any more peaceful….

Too far to the game

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Since yesterday was a holiday – the waiting room at UCSF was jammed to the gills with both the Friday and Thursday patients. Since there was little to no traffic, the drive in went smoothly, the clinic was running at full speed and we were able to get out of San Francisco before what would normally be Friday afternoon traffic.

I was tired when we got home. Heading upstairs to finish off (finally) the one quilt, I pulled out the stitching and redid the quilting.

all but the binding

 

and then I moved on to this –

another Liberty Puzzle

with a lot of fun pieces

and decided I was just too tired to think about going to a baseball game. Sent off a message to a fellow member of the group that I wouldn’t be making the game. Then I pulled up At Bat (the app) and sent her off a second message. She concurred as well; Seattle was just to far to go in the next 30 minutes….