During the entire time I have been back from Madagascar, the As have been on the road. That might not seem like much, but it actually has been just about a month since I have seen a baseball game live.  Admittedly, the entire time they have been on the road,  their record actually has been decent. Of, course, that includes their tendency to get behind then bail themselves out in the last one to two innings.

A while back for some reason I went to the ticket office at the Giants Stadium. Wait! I know why – the As are playing over at AT&T Park the weekend of the 13-15th of July. The 14th is the annual RF149 outing to play the Giants. Unfortunately it is the same day George is having his 70th birthday celebration. But I will have other baseball fans in town that weekend. I was purchasing tickets for the 13th and thought – why not? I can go to a day game as well while the As are out of town. Which is why I found myself sitting on a lovely sunny afternoon watching the batters of both the Giants and the Rockies proceed to make the pitchers very unhappy.  Or something like that.

This was the view that I wished to enjoy.

Unfortunately, I had forgotten that stairs in the stands are essentially roadways that see a constant stream of fans and vendors. I am used to sitting with a group that makes a once a game run for beer. Or rather, maybe since I know them, it just doesn’t bother me. I also don’t have this problem –

as you can see – anyone heading up or down blocks my view of both the pitcher and the batter, never mind first base. Perhaps if I had chosen a seat in the middle of the road I wouldn’t have had as many people blocking my view. 

But, as we were fond of saying in Madagascar – that is really a first world problem, now isn’t it?

Both at home (where they are almost done blasting out the foundation. I will try to post the “completely hollow” pictures tomorrow and at the game.

It was a fireworks night. George came along, we drove and were able to escape the noise and madness actually rather easily. Unless going with a group that actually wants to see fireworks – it was a much better option than either leaving early before the BART overpass is closed or attempting to catch the shuttle busses which turn out to take longer than just staying for the fireworks. Of course, my decision might be easier if I wasn’t sitting in the bleachers which have to be cleared prior to the fireworks start.

Anyway – there were actually over 30k worth of fans, at least a third of which were rapid Yankees types. With the exception of one complete dick. Aaron Judge tossed a fly ball that he caught into our section of the RF Bleachers. An “adult” looking somewhere in is 30s grabbed it out of the hands of a young kid of about six who was looking just totally stunned with happiness. There was no question in our minds he took it away from the boy. His excuse that he wanted it for his son (aged 2) just didn’t fly. Security attempted to get him to give it back, then they invited him to leave when he refused.

Will, one of our regulars, had caught a ball during batting practice. He dug it out of his bag and gave it to the young man. It wan’t the same, but much better than going home without anything. Another ball tossed up, caught by a Yankees fan was traded for the batting practice ball. The Yankees fan was perfectly fine with the replacement ball for his nephew; it was fair to him that the boy who had actually caught a ball should have one that was thrown.

Yankee fan – terrific kudos. Will – always generous and long standing member of the Right Field Bleacher Die Hards. The As fan who grabbed the ball? Needs to find a moral compass. It is one thing to tussle with your peer group over a ball. And completely something else to steal from a child.

Oh – the As actually won 7-6! And Cassilo managed to actually hold off the Yankees in the top of the ninth.

If you are from a country where the merchants want to charge you $1.50/AU skein for embroidery floss? Why shopping at JoAnn’s of course. There is something fairly pleasing about paying $0.40/US instead. I had made a list of the colors of which I was short. Jill had her list. We had decided that these couple of days were going to be low key, low stress and sight seeing only on this side of the bay.

And so it was that we spent a few pleasant hours both looking for things we really didn’t need, relaxing with cross stitch. Well, mine is relaxing, Jill’s – at 350×350 is a much more challenging fractal…

Jill’s complicated cross stitch

They had dinner with Dani and Alex as we had a business dinner obligation.

My brain is no longer used to having to concentrate for multiple hours in a row. There were four panels today, each with 4-7 presentations. All were technical, loaded with jargon and data heavy slides. Coffee breaks insuredthat my eyes stayed open, but I am really not sure that I wanted that level of detail. 

Tomorrow will be more of the same + posters. Most of those with whom I worked have allretired andthose young researchers and officers seem really young. 

Since my internet access is only through my phone, mailing out won’t be possible for a few dats yet. 

And here I am in Bavaria, and I don’t drink beer!     

It was night, it was morning but it was really afternoon. It was still breakfast on offer.  The flight was fine, my friend was at the airport to pick me up. 

I am now headed to the SanAk to sleep. 

Breakfast in the main dining room ran until 0830. Our transfer to the airport was to depart at 0945 (all of those with flights after 1600). It was a pleasure not to have to be up and out of the cabin at 0600. OTOH, this is not Pier 29 at Port Everglades where the ship using that terminal is first in (oh, lets say about 0400 in the morning) and last out due to safety and positioning.

Makes all the difference in the world. So does, as it turns out, having a port which is still using a tent. The nice guy behind the immigration table said that until San Pedro has a building that can be wired they won’t be using mobile passport. The physical set up may also explain why luggage pick-up was after immigration rather than before. Then there were more than one pup happily sniffing its way through people and luggage.

We road the nice coach bus to Terminal 1 and headed to the full service line at Southwest. With more than eight hours before our flight I didn’t see any other way to potentially dump our luggage. There was an earlier flight in just under two hours and the cost difference was well within the range of what I was willing to pay.  I guess I am permanent TSA preCheck tho I have no clue why. I suspect it has something to do with profiling (gender, age and race); I am still not turning it down.

We arrived at OAK to rain and the information that the As game had been cancelled. It was certainly nice to be home….

That’s what you call it in baseball right? When the game goes beyond your standard nine innings.  Not overtime, like fußball with ties not allowed like in many other sports. The terminology finally came back to me, but not because I figure it out, but because a baseball announcer provided it as I was listening on the way home. There were some really amazing moments. Like getting tagged out because you are parading the baseline. Hint, it was a double – not a home run. A few stolen bases here and there, an error on both sides.  Lots of pitchers.

It made for a long day. A very long day. 

Oh, and Oakland actually managed to pull it off. First tieing the game in the bottom of the ninth