Superstore

Barb was cooking Thanksgiving dinner this year.  She went to the Superstore to pick up a big turkey but she didn't have loonie to get a shopping cart.  So she had to walk through the giant store carrying a huge 18 pound turkey.

Pizza

I was at a tournament in Burlington and was staying with Sarah to save a little bit of the drive. On Friday night, the food stand at the ballpark was selling the extra pizza for a low price to get rid of it.  So I bought a whole pizza and brought it with me to Sarah's house.  I remembered the Advice From Your Mayor on Live 88.5.  If you not invited to a party just bring pizza. No one gets turned away with a pizza.

Green Bin

Our neighbour always puts out his green bin out early in the evening and puts it out on our side of the road right beside our driveway.  I found out tonight that every night that our neighbour puts out his green bin, Barb goes out and moves it away from the driveway so that I don't run over it when I back out of the driveway.  I would have never seen it through the rear view mirror.

Facebook

I got home after the ball games and Barb was still up.  I went into my room to look at facebook and there on my home page were photos of fire trucks outside our house and a long note from Barb.  I guess Barb had gone out to take some pictures of the barbecue all burned up.  When she went out on the deck, she heard a weezy noise and smelled propane.  I guess the propane tank wasn't empty like I thought.  She called 911 and they sent a couple of fire trucks and the chief of police came too with his girlfriend in his car.  The firemen cut the propane tank off and brought it away from the house and let all the propane leak out until it was fully empty.  All of the neighbours came out to see what was happening.  Our neighbour was so funny.  Barb told her about the fire and she said 'you weren't trying to cook again were you'.  Anyway Barb said in her facebook post that I had gone to a fastball game and would probably not find out about the firemen being at the house until I came home and read my facebook home page.  She was right. The next couple of days at the ball tournament people were coming up to me to ask me about the visitors that I had at my house on Friday night.  They had all seen Barb's post on facebook.

Screams

I was sitting in my study and Barb was making pork chops for dinner.  I heard a scream from the back door and a fierce roaring sound.  I went running to see what was happening and Barb was standing there at the door with the barbecue totally up in flames.  It was roaring and flames were shooting out of the propane tank.  Barb had tried to turn off the knob on the front of the barbecue but it just came off in her hand.  We stood there not knowing what to do and then the fire just went out on its own.  We were so stupid to run towards the fire.  We should have been running to the other side of the house.  Anyway I thought the propane tank had emptied itself and it was safe now.  We forgot about the barbecue and made the pork chops on the stove.  After dinner, I went out to the Friday night games of the ball tournament in Innerkip.

Listowel

I was in Listowel on a Sunday afternoon watching the Huron County League Playoff Tournament.  At the end of the day, I really had to poo.  So I was driving pretty quickly to the Tim Hortons around the corner from the ballpark.  There was a four way stop at a corner and I couldn't see a fellow and his girlfriend in their Mustang convertible because they were behind my rear view mirror.  When I stopped briefly, they pulled out of the intersection and I didn't stop for long because I really had to go.  When I finally saw them I had to swerve and they had to jam on their brakes.  I just kept going very glad I didn't get in an accident because I really had to go.  I got to the Tim Hortons and was in the stall for so long pooing that the lights went out because they were on a motion sensor.  I tried to wave my arms and get the lights to come on but eventually I gave up and sat there in the dark until I was finished and then I had to find the toilet paper in the dark.

Lady and Her Kids

There was a lady with her young kids sitting beside us at the Tiger Cats game.  They got up at half time and walked past us to get something to eat and later when they came back with a box of Timbits.  Barb jokingly said Thank You (for bringing us some Timbits).  And the lady gave the half full box of Timbits to Barb saying the her kids didn't want them.  We really enjoyed the free Timbits at Tim Hortons Field.

Surprise

Sarah wanted to surprise me for my birthday.  We went for a long drive on a Friday night and we were driving down Main Street in Hamilton and I saw a sign about the Hamilton Tiger Cats and I said are you taking me to a Hamilton Tiger Cats game.  She didn't say anything but we ended up at Tim Horton's Stadium and went to see the Tiger Cats play the Saskatchewan Roughriders.  I guess Sarah had wanted to bring me to a game between the Tiger Cats and Ottawa Redblacks but I had a tournament in Niagara Falls that weekend that I was actually playing in.  She got the seats online from a season ticket holder that wasn't going to the game.  They were right down at field level.  The best seats I had ever had at a football game.  We were right up close to see Pigskin Pete lead the crowd in a Oskie Wee Wee cheer.  Barb thought that was crazy.  Later Dale Haug, our former neighbour in Barrhaven, messaged Barb to tell her that he had seen her on television.

Car Wash

My car was all dirty and I was bringing it in to the garage tomorrow.  So I decided to try to find a carwash on my way to the fastball game in Kitchener.  I had no idea where to find a carwash.  So I was driving around aimlessly up and down random streets around the ballpark.  Eventually, I found a carwash at a gas station on an obscure corner in a construction zone.

Big Computer

Laura was thinking of buying a desktop computer.  I thought that was very unusual because most people were doing everything on their phones now or maybe their tablets or if really necessary their laptops.  She was serious about getting a desktop.  Then one day she was looking around her apartment and she noticed her boyfriend's Macintosh sitting in the corner getting dusty.  She asked her boyfriend if she could use it and now she has inherited her boyfriend's Macintosh computer.  She was so happy to have a desktop computer that she could use to edit her photos and do her art.  She said never wanted to leave the house.

Birthday Present

Julia had sent me a book for my birthday with Daphne last month.  I had put the book on the filing cabinet to open it on my birthday.  The book was there for so long that it became just a normal piece of the decoration with its lovely wrapping paper.  One day Barb came into the office and noticed it on the cabinet and reminded me of it and I finally opened my birthday present.

Spirit

Julia received the Spirit Award at work at the Annual Sportsplex Awards Dinner.  The award said that she made the Nepean Sportsplex a better place to come to work.  We were very happy for her.

Sweater and Jacket

I was getting cold sitting in the shade at the tournament and I went to the car to put on a sweater and a jacket.  I put my Android and my cellphone on the front of the car resting against the wiper.  Later I searched my pockets and around my chair and around the car for the Android and the cellphone.  I went back to the park and then came back to the car and finally remembered where I had put them.  They were pretty hidden and I could have driven off with them on my car.

25 McMaster Avenue

I put 25 McMaster Avenue in Welland from memory and started driving to Niagara Falls to my Airbnb.  When I got there I couldn't find 25 McMaster Avenue.  I parked the car on McMaster Avenue and walked up and down the short street.  There was no 25.  I asked a kid but he didn't know anything.  Finally, I looked at the little piece of paper in my pocket with the address on it.  I found out the address was 24 McMaster Avenue.  I found it on the other side of the street and found the key where it was supposed to be and let myself in and unpacked.  I was lucky there was no 25 McMaster Avenue or I would have tried to break in and might have got in trouble.  I was also lucky that I had written the correct address on one of my little pieces of paper and had it in my pocket.

Passport

Barb found an Airbnb for me at the last minute in Niagara Falls.  I tried to pay for it but the new system said I needed to provide a photo ID and take a photo on the computer of myself to prove I was who I said I was.  So I tried to use my driver's license and it thanked me.  Then later it told me that the photo ID was not clear enough.  So I tried again and it said thank you.  Then later it said that the photo ID wasn't clear enough.  Finally I got out my passport and used it and it worked.  However, I had now paid three times for the same room and was going to be refunded twice.

Thanksgiving

I drove to my sister's to celebrate my 60th birthday with her.  On the way, I saw many many Mennonites out in their buggies.  They were all dressed up for something.  It wasn't a Sunday so they weren't going to church.  Later I was at a ballgame and one of the other guys watching the game had noticed the same thing and he found out that the Mennonites celebrate their Thanksgiving in September and they were all going out to Thanksgiving dinners.

Serena

Barb didn't know that Serena was pregnant until she heard that she had the baby.  They announced it during the US Open which was fitting.  I had sent Julia a picture of a nude very pregnant Serena on the cover of Vanity Fair magazine but I never sent it to Barb.  I thought Barb would have found out about the pregnancy from all of her time on facebook or the Yahoo news homepage that she uses.  Anyway Barb was mad at me for not telling her about it.

GPS

I went to visit Daphne and brought back Sarah's bike on Daphne's bike rack on the back of the Yaris.  When I unpacked the car late at night I left Sarah's bike on the car planning to see Sarah sometime soon.  The next day Barb was going out in the Civic and went to look at Sarah's bike on the bike rack.  When she was going around the car to get back in the Civic, she noticed the GPS sitting on the roof of the passenger's side of her Civic.  I had put it there the night before planning to put it in Barb's car but forgot and left it on the roof.  Barb was happy she had looked at Sarah's bike because otherwise she wouldn't have seen the GPS and would have driven away and the GPS would have fallen off and probably smashed.

Charging

Barb charged the cellphone but it was working.  It said it wasn't charged.  She left it plugged in for days but it never charged.  Eventually, she got the brainstorm to take out the battery and put it back in.  Then it worked and said the battery was charged.  That is always the solution with electronics.

Goodreads

I am a member of a website called Goodreads which helps you keep track of the books you have read.  You can review the books you have read after you finish them and you can read the reviews of other members.  The website also recommends books to read based on the books you finish.  So when I finish listening to an audio book, I rate the book and write a review.  I wrote a good review of The Sleep Solution saying how I was trying the Ice Bucket Sleep Challenge and it was working.  A couple of days later, I got a message saying that someone had commented on my review.  I went to look at the comment and it was from the author thanking me for reading his book and giving it a good review. I guess he is a member of Goodreads too.

Alarm

I was gone to a tournament for the weekend and Sarah had come over to visit Barb and they had stayed up late at night.  Then the next morning Barb was woken by my alarm that was set to go off at 9 am for my sleep solution.

The Winner

We went to the park owners sponsored picnic which was indoors because of the rain outside.  There was a live band although they played mostly country music.  There was free food and drinks and cake.  The food was a roast pig which I thought was sort of funny because the owners of the park are Jewish. There were a lot of door prizes and the manager lady went around the large room asking people to pull names out a basket.  She came up to us and we were excited and then she walked right past us and walked up to an old fellow who had fallen asleep in his chair.  We all laughed and he woke up to draw a name from the basket.  We didn't win a door prize and we didn't like the music so we went home a little early.  The next day the management lady said we had won the prize for the scavenger hunt.  I guess they drew names from all the people who had identified all of the ornaments correctly and we were one of the names chosen.

Ivan

We were in Costco in Kitchener looking at something on the shelf as we were eating a sample.  This worker came up to us and said how good the sample was.  I noticed that his name was Ivan.  I was excited to meet another person named Ivan.  I can't remember where he was from but it was one of those Eastern European countries.  It was funny though that the last Ivan I had met was in a Costco in Florida.

The Sleep Solution

I had been having trouble sleeping.  I was staying up later and later and sleeping in later and later.  Some nights I didn't get to sleep at all and went to bed in the morning after Barb got up.  I found this book called The Sleep Solution in the audio books from the library.  So I listened to it right away.  The author said he had a foolproof method for solving sleep problems.  He called it the Ice Bucket Sleep Challenge.  He said you were supposed to pick a time to get up and then count back 5 and a half hours.  So I picked 9 am and counted back to 3:30 am.  He said you were supposed to stay up at least until 3:30 every night and get up every morning at 9 am.  If you didn't get up with your alarm you were supposed to get your wife to pour an ice bucket over you.  I got Barb to use ice bags for the cooler instead of an ice bucket.  Then after a few days of being really tired, you are supposed to go to bed 15 minutes earlier and do that for a few days.  And keep going to bed 15 minutes early until you can get rid of your daytime sleepiness and still get to sleep at night within 15 minutes from the time you go to bed.  I did it and it worked.  It was really hard to stay up until 3:30 am when I was getting up at 9 am.  But I was able to get to sleep every night.  Barb did have to threaten me with ice bags and sometimes she even followed through with her threats and put ice bags in my pajamas until I got up.

Taylor

We decided to go out for fish and chips at the chip stand in Kitchener.  The man took our order and asked me my name.  I said 'Taylor'.  And he said 'Taylor?'  I spelt it for him.  I guess he wanted my first name and thought that I was kind of an old guy to have the first name 'Taylor'.

CRV

Barb feels that driving all the way to Florida in the bucket seats of the Honda Civic makes her legs sore.  So she wanted to buy an SUV to sit up taller.  She did some research and decided she wanted to buy a Honda CRV.  She went to the local Honda dealer and he let her drive a CRV.  She liked it but she found out that it only came in white with a black interior.  The older models had more variety.  So she went online to look for used CRVs.  She found five possible late model CRVs with low mileage and a relatively low price.  There was one white one advertised in Burlington with a grey interior.  So the next day we drove to Burlington which is about an hour away to look at it and possibly buy it.  When we got there, the dealer opened the door and Barb screamed.  It had a black interior.  We took it for a test drive but we really didn't want a white car with a black interior.  So we drove home.  Barb was at darts and noticed that her friend Ross the handyman in the park was driving a green CRV.  She asked him how he liked it.  He said that it was great but that he was leasing it and would be turning it back in next summer.  He said that he could tell his dealer that we would buy it when he turned it in.  So Barb was happy she liked the colour and it was very low mileage and late model.  We decided to wait until next summer to get the CRV and we would drive one more year to Florida in the Civic.

Pay As You Go

We have a 'pay as you go' cellphone from Rogers.  However, whenever we want to change something in the plan, we want to talk to someone but the phone system that Rogers uses has no option to talk to someone about 'pay as you go'.  So Barb has to phone about one of the girl's cellphones and enter their cellphone number to get through to someone to talk to but then she has to explain that she is really calling about a different number and they have to transfer the call.  She spends a long time on hold and finds it all very frustrating.

Scavenger Hunt

The community management had a contest which was a sort of scavenger hunt.  We had seen people walking around the community and driving their golf carts around with papers in their hands looking carefully at all of the houses.  Barb realized they were doing the scavenger hunt.  So Barb went down to the management office and got a copy of the three sheets of paper with little photos of the lawn and house ornaments that we were supposed to identify and write down the address.  The first night we walked the whole park and found most of the ornaments.  We had a few that we didn't find on the first trip.  So the next night we went out in my car and drove around really slowly looking closely at all of the houses.  Finally, we had to find just one more ornament.  It was a little black and white cow.  We drove down this road slowly and saw two old people sitting on their porch.  They saw us driving slowly and looking out of the car windows carefully.  They asked if we needed help.  We said we were looking for a cow.  They said 'you lost a cow  Where did you last see it'.  We tried to explain about the scavenger hunt but they didn't understand.  They thought we were looking for a real cow.

Tia Chi

Barb was interested in trying Tai Chi at the community center with the group that meets every week.  The group did a demonstration at the recent community picnic.  I guess she has Tai Chi on her mind because she often calls Sarah's Chi Tea, Tia Chi.

Marlin's Son

One of the players on my fastball team brought his four year old son to the doubleheader tonight. Marlin didn't play the first game. So he could take care of his little boy on the bench.  Marlin was going to play the second game and was warming up while his son sat quietly on the bench.  Then he started yelling, "Daddy" and Marlin didn't reply.  So he yelled again, and still Marlin didn't reply.  When he yelled a third time, Marlin said "What?" a little annoyed.  And the son yelled, "I Love You".

Mental Block

For some reason, Barb always talks about the back of the house and the front of the house and gets them mixed up.  She talks about the garden in the front of the house and means the garden at the back of the house.  It is a strange mental block like her Bingo and Darts problem.

27 Minutes

I was recording an LP and sitting in my chair across the room working on the laptop.  I kept an eye on the screen of the desktop while I worked to make sure the album was recording and hadn't reached the end of the side.  After a long while, I thought something was wrong because the side of the LP was way too long.  I got up and checked it out and noticed that the LP was skipping.  I had copied 27 minutes of the same song skipping over and over again.

Five LPs

With my old desktop computer, I can not play the LPs while I copy them to MP3.  The computer is too slow.  So I have to record the LP without hearing it and then I edit it into its various tracks.  Today I was very upset because I had copied 5 LPs at 45 rpm before I noticed it was at the wrong speed.  Somehow I found out that all of the albums sounded like The Chipmunks were singing the songs.

Dink, Dink, Lob

Barb is very frustrated with the way the game of pickleball is changing.  Lobbing has become the most important strategy that players can employee.  It is very difficult for older players to get back to play a lob that goes over their head after they have been up at the net dinking.  Even if the player can get the lob back, they don't ever win the point.  Today she played a fellow who had mastered the lob game and when Barb did get the lob back over the net, he just hit a short dink and she couldn't get back up to the net to get it after being on the back line.  She wrote a notice on the pickleball forum about it and said that people shouldn't lob when the players are older.  They could get hurt running backwards. Most of the comments she got back said that lobbing was part of the game and she would have to get used to it.  Then later she got an email from Coach Maddy with a video attached talking about safety and he mentioned that someone had fallen going back for a lob and hit his head and later died in the hospital because of the injury to his head.  Still the old people keep lobbing.  Barb says not only is it dangerous, it makes the game no fun to play.  The only strategy you can use is to lob before the other team lobs.  There are no rallies anymore.  It is just dink, dink, lob.

First At Bat

I got back from Ottawa and played the second game of the double header in my league.  I actually went in to bat for the first time since I had hurt my thumb.  I wore my batting gloves and two thumb braces for protection.  But as it turned out, they didn't matter because I struck our without ever touching the ball.

Friend

I met many old friends at the tournament.  There was one guy who told me he was thinking when he put a team in the tournament that he should call me to come and coach his team.  He always credits me for his playing career because when he first started playing as an adult I was the first coach to use him seriously and believe in him.  There were at least two other players who have told me in the past that they are the players they are today because I believed in them.

Glasses

I was at the ball tournament in Ottawa and before our game I was standing beside the third base line fence talking to an old friend.  I went to scratch my head and I knocked my glasses off and onto the field.  Between innings, I had to jump over the fence to retrieve my glasses and I am not too agile.  I almost killed myself.

Carling Campus

I went to see the Carling Campus which used to be the Nortel Buildings and were being converted to take NDHQ.  I had a terrible time finding the entrance.  There were about four entrances that you could drive in sort of.  But the one that I wanted was way around the back of the buildings.  Then I was escorted into the buildings and it was about a 15 minute walk to the offices. The offices were very modernistic.  I had a nice visit there with some old friends and the boss lady told me that they had a lot of money to pay for part time employees and asked me if I wanted to work part time next year.  I said sure I would like that.  I have time on my hands to use for real work that I would get paid for.  Right now I just working on projects for fun and for free.

NDHQ

I went to visit my old work place in Ottawa, National Defence Headquarters.  I got escorted around to see old friends I hadn't seen since I had retired 5 years ago.  Two of the people that I talked to said that they were just talking about me.  The librarian about books I had donated that she was going to give back to me. And a scientist who had recently read an old report that I wrote and thought it was pretty good work.

Chrisy's

We were staying at Chrisy's house when we visited Ottawa.  Barb played some pickle ball with her old friends and I coached a team in the Gil Read tournament and hung out with old fastball friends.  One night we were sitting in Chrisy's living room and we heard a great crash upstairs.  Barb realized that when she hung up the towels on the curtain rod of the shower that the curtain rod was only held there for the curtain.  The towels were too heavy.  So the curtain rod came crashing down into the bath tub.

Freegal

Barb was complaining about the music that I downloaded legally from the library for her.  Some of her favourite songs weren't by the original artists.  They were cover versions and Barb thought they were not as good.  Also some of her favourite music was not available on Freegal.  It has a limited library. Then Sarah showed me how to pirate music using a YouTube to MP3 converter program.  Together we found a lot of music that we thought Barb might like.  It was definitely not Freegal.

Slow Down

There are signs all over our community that tell everyone we live at a slower pace here.  The speed limit is only 15 km/hr on the streets in the community.  It is hard to drive that slow especially when you are driving down hill.  Barb never drives that slow if there is no one else on the road.  She doesn't drive fast just not that slow.  She was driving home from the pool today and an old lady was sitting on her porch and saw her driving.  She started yelling at Barb to slow down.

Nithburg

I was going to be missing a ball game because of the tournament in Ottawa.  So I gave John, on my team, the equipment bag and the helmets but I forgot to give him the game balls.  So I contacted him and said I would drive over to his place and drop them off.  I set Betsy for his address in Nithburg and started out.  Betsy brought me to St Clements and told me I was there but I knew I wasn't in Nithburg.  I didn't know where Nithburg was.  Fortunately, the St Clements public library was open.  So I parked and went in and talked to the librarian.  She didn't know where Nithburg was either but she was able to look it up on Google Maps and print out directions for me.  When I finally got there, no one answered the door.  So I went around to the backyard and John's wife and kids were there.  John came out of the house and I don't know why he didn't hear me knocking.  But I gave him the game balls and we talked for a while.  I told him how my GPS failed me and he just laughed.

Smoothie

Barb is always frustrated with all the commercials on the radio.  She likes listening to her Hedley CD but she was looking for a little more variety.  I had just started using the library, Freegal, system to download music.  So I downloaded some music that I thought she might like.  I wanted to write it to a CD for her but the only CD I had was a read writable CD.  When I wrote the music to that CD, I found that it wouldn't play in the car for some reason.  Then I thought I could put it on an old iPod shuffle that I was no longer using.  So I put her music on it and showed Barb how to use it in the car using the auxiliary plug.  Almost the first day she tried to use it, she was driving and fumbling around with the iPod and it slipped out of her hand and dropped, plunk, into her smoothie.

Canadian Customs

Barb went to Michigan to play in a pickle ball tournament and she was very disappointed because she didn't win anything.  In fact, in both events she went out early.  It was a long way to go to go two and out.  Anyway, Barb was coming back over the border and she was talking to the US Customs guy about where she had gone and how she was playing in a pickle ball tournament.  He said are you bringing back anything.  Barb said no she didn't win.  She thought he was talking about medals from the tournament but he was actually talking about booze or cigarettes.

Sarah and Haley Visit

Barb decided it might be nice to sit outside on the deck when Haley and Sarah visited.  So she put out the awning so they sit out and could stay out of the sun.  While they were in the kitchen talking, the wind started blowing and it started to pour rain.  Then we heard a crash on the deck.  We went out to see the awning was broken and half lying on the deck.  We never liked that awning because we never used it and the birds seemed to think it was a good place to roast and would poop all over it and on the deck under it.  So we decided we would just take it down but we didn't have the right tools.  So we asked our friend who built Barb's fabric shelves.  He said that it was too big a job for him but we could ask Ross who was the handyman in the park.  Barb knew Ross from bingo/darts.  So she phoned Ross and told him about the awning and he said that he had seen the awning collapsed on our deck.  He said he would come over when he could and look at it.  It took him a couple of weeks.  Then when he did come over Barb was out at pickle ball and I was still in my pajamas.  He went out to look at it and I quickly got dressed to go out with him.  He said he would come back with his friend Paul Taylor and take it down probably on the weekend.  I told him we were going to Ottawa for the weekend.  He said no problem.  We went to Ottawa and when we got back the awning was taken away.  I guess Ross put it out for the garbage and it was taken by someone for scrap metal.  Ross told Barb he wasn't happy with the sealing of the electrical system that was used to roll out and roll in the awning.  He told Barb to call another guy in the park to come around and fix it for us.  So Barb called the guy but before he could come over Paul came back to properly disconnected the electrical system.  Then Barb called the electrical guy back and told him he didn't need to come.

Pool

Barb has decided she would try water aerobics at the community indoor pool.  She went down for the first time and tried to exercise her knee without putting too much weight on it. When she got home, she noticed that her silver bracelet was all tarnished.  She realized that chlorine in the pool really strong and it had ruined her bracelet.  She got out her tarnish remover and spent hours rubbing the bracelet and the tarnish came off slowly and there was a lot of tarnish.  Later she noticed after going the pool for a few days that he bathing suit was a different colour than before and she noticed that she had lost all the hair from her arms.  She went to the office to complain and she talked to other ladies who use the pool and they said they had noticed the same thing.  Obviously they were putting too much chlorine in the water.  Barb kept going to the pool and eventually the water got better and the hair grew back on her arms but her bathing suits continued to get ruined.

Computer Battery

The lamp in my office is plugged into a wall plug that is connected to the light switch on the wall beside the door.  I had been using Laura's old speakers on my computer and the speakers and the computer were plugged into the wall.  I was working away and suddenly my computer said the battery was low and I should replace the battery.  I was freaking out.  I couldn't figure out why my computer wasn't charging even though it was plugged into the wall.  I didn't want to have to replace the battery.  After a while, I realized that my computer was plugged into plug for the lamp and since the wall switch wasn't on, there was no power coming out that plug.  So I went to the sun room and borrowed the multi-plug thingy and plugged that into the wall plug so that I could plug the lamp into one plug and the computer and the speakers into another plug and both of these plugs were plugged into the socket that worked.

No Lights

The captain of the team wasn't at the game tonight and we were supposed to be the home team and were supposed to set up the field.  We were supposed to turn on the lights but I didn't have a key for the door where the light switch was.  So one of the players on the other team called his Dad who came out and turned on the lights for us.  At the next game the captain was there and he was searching in the equipment bag.  I asked him what he was searching for and he said he was searching for the key to door for the lights.  He couldn't find it but he knew we had one.  After the game, he told me that he remembered giving the key to me and telling me to hook it on the equipment bag because I was taking the equipment now.  I said that I never had the key that he never gave it to me.  He said go and check your car.  So I went back and checked my car and found the key in the side pocket of the driver's door.   I then vaguely remembered him giving me the key and instead of putting it on the equipment bag right then I decided to put it on at the next game.  Of course, I forgot all about it.  I was embarrassed when I went back and told him I had found the key and I had had it all along just like he said.

Breakfast

I have been sleeping in until afternoon for the past few months.  Today I got up and had breakfast at about 1 pm and then went out to my dentist appointment at 2 pm.  When I got there, they put a rubber shield over my mouth so that only the tooth they were working on was showing and they wouldn't have to worry about chips of fillings going down my throat.  Unfortunately, I found that saliva formed under the shield and I couldn't swallow because my mouth was open.  I started choking on my saliva and then I puked my breakfast into my mouth.  They ripped off the shield and I swallowed all of my puke.  Then I got up and rinsed my mouth and brushed my teeth in the bathroom.  They did the rest of the filling without the shield.

Boom Box

I had been converting my cassette tapes to mp3 using my boom box and plugging it into the auxiliary plug on the turntable that was hooked up to the computer. I did a lot of cassettes and then I just had a few left and the tape player on the boom box broke.  So I decided to bring in the old stereo that Barb had gotten me out of someone's garbage when we were in Barrhaven.  It was a cassette player and CD player.  I moved the boom box into the sun room because I could still use it as a radio.  We already have a radio in the kitchen but it is dialed to a station that Barb likes.  I like different music.  So I dialed the boom box to the local alternative station and I play it when Barb is out and I am home alone.  Anyway, I had to unplug the boom box and set up the stereo on my filing cabinet in my office.  However, the plug in the wall was behind the big bookshelf that I use to store my LPs and my Scientific American magazines.  I was fortunate to be able to take out all of my magazines and find the plug behind the bookshelf because there was no back on the bookshelf.   Then unplugged the boom box and pulled the cord out from behind the bookshelf. Then I was able to string the cord of the stereo behind the bookshelf and plug it into the wall.  It worked great and I finished recording the cassettes.  I had over 120 cassettes and I had music on those cassettes that I didn't even know I had and it was some of my favourite music.

Tie Breaker

So there were only 5 teams in the tournament.  All the teams played 3 round robin games except one team who only played 2 games.  We lost our first two games and the team that only played 2 games lost their games.  I asked what the tie breaker was and the guy at the scoreboard said that if we lost all 3 games, we would be out.  Our third game was a fiasco.  The umpires were just ridiculous.  The other team had the bases loaded and the ball was hit to our shortstop but the runner from second to third interfered with our shortstop and was called out for interference.  So the runner at third base was supposed to go back to third and the runner who ran from first to second would be safe at second and the batter would be safe a first.  But the umpires couldn't figure this out and wanted the runner to go back to first and the batter to go back up to bat.  After arguing about it with the umpires and the other team for about 20 minutes, we had a meeting at home plate and the umpires asked me and the other captain what we wanted to do.  We told them what the rules were and they said okay and we continued the game.  But the game had a time limit and we had lost a lot of time. The umpires said they would add 20 minutes on to the game.  We had a 5-2 lead going into the fifth inning and they scored 3 runs and tied the game.  The inning was over and they started walking out on the field to shake hands.  We all thought the next inning should continue because of the extra 20 minutes but they didn't care because they had already had 2 wins and would cinch first place with a tie.  I didn't argue with them because I thought we had made it into the playoffs because we had a tie.  We had a team meeting and I told all the guys that we would be playing tomorrow at 9 am, I just had to find out which diamond.  Then I walked over the scoreboard and saw our names in fifth place and out of the playoffs.  I freaked.  I wanted to know what happened and asked the organizers.  They said the team with only 2 games was assumed to have tied their 3rd game.  So they went to runs for and against as the tie breaker.  And we lost out because of our stupid game on Friday night.  I was furious and embarrassed because now I had to tell all of the guys that we weren't in the playoffs.

Airbnb But Not Me

The morning after my sleep test, I got a call from Will Lowe's Dad asking what was all this about a tournament in Richmond Hill.  He wanted to make sure that Will would be okay and that I would take care of him and make sure he takes his pills.  I said I would take care of him.  I had booked a place for me and Will Dunk to stay in Richmond Hill through Airbnb.  It was just a small room in the basement of a house with two single beds.  I thought maybe I would let Will and Will stay there and I would commute back and forth to Richmond Hill which is over an hour drive through Toronto.  I drove to the Airbnb and booked in but I didn't tell the lady that I wouldn't be staying there.  Will and Will arrived a little later and the landlady never saw them come into the house. I read the riot act to Will and Will to ensure that they didn't wreck anything in the Airbnb.  Then, we went to the ballpark and lost our first game at 9 pm.  It was a stupid game because it was time limited and the time ran out half way through the inning but because we thought the tie breaker of runs for and against might be important, we let the other team bat in the bottom of the inning even though they had already won the game.  They scored a few more runs and ended up beating us 9-2.  But we never should have played the bottom of the inning.  We should have gone back to the last complete inning to determine the tie breaker runs for and against.  Anyway, I drove home and got home at about 1 am.  I was really tired because of the sleep clinic the night before.

Sleep Test

I needed to get another sleep test to get a new CPAP.  I am allowed by OHIP and my insurance to get a new CPAP every five years but I need a prescription from a sleep doctor.  I have to go in to a clinic and get all wired up and sleep at the clinic over night while they take readings of various pressures on the CPAP.  I was just entering the clinic at 9 pm on a Thursday night and my cellphone rang.  It was Will Lowe, a pitcher from Ottawa, who said he wanted to play for us in the tournament in Richmond Hill that started the next day.  He said he was trying to get a ride with Will Dunk.  I said we could use him and he could come.  Then I went in to the sleep clinic and Will Dunk texted me asking why Will Lowe was texting and phoning him and if he was coming to play too.  I said he would only come if Dunk wanted to have him there and to drive him there.  I got all hooked up at 11 pm and tried to get to sleep but couldn't sleep.  At 2 am, I asked the technician to come in and get me a sleeping pill.  Then the next day, they woke me up at 6 am to hustle me out of the clinic because they needed my parking spot.

150th Birthday

The community had a party for Canada Day.  We all were outside and dressed in red and white.  We formed up in a big 150 and a fireman on a high ladder above us took our picture.  Then there was a barbecue and we watched a funny movie about being Canadian.  Later that night, we went out to the New Hamburg Fairgrounds and watched the fireworks.  It was really excellent for a little town.  Then as we were walking home, we stopped in at McDonalds for a McFlurry and watched all of the Mennonites dressed funny and with all of their little kids at McDonalds.

Saviour

I was watching a tournament in St Clements on a Friday night.  I was sitting behind the home plate on diamond 1 and the game was not too close.  So I decided to see how the game was going on diamond 2.  The diamonds are parallel.  So the outfield fence for diamond 1 is beside the home plate stands for diamond 2.  I was standing there talking to an old guy, who I see at all of the tournaments, and suddenly somebody says "heads up".  I turn around and see a ball coming over the fence and right at this old guy sitting in his lawn chair and with his cane.  I knew he wouldn't be able to get out of the way of the ball.  So I stuck out my hand and blocked the ball.  The ball hit me in the thumb.  The same thumb that I had gotten hit during my game a few weeks before.  This time the damage was much worse.  My tendons and ligaments were totally screwed up.  Basically I was out for the rest of the season.  Barb took some pictures of my bruises and I posted them on facebook.  Nobody was too sympathetic.  Most people thought I should use a glove to catch the ball.  I didn't explain that I was just watching the tournament.  They thought I was playing in the tournament.  And I didn't tell them that I was saving an old guy's life.  Barb had to explain it all in a comment.