More Fastball Frustrations

As captain of my team in the Glen Cairn Men's Fastball League, I have to find spares if we will be short of players for a game.  We were down to six players one night.  I spent the whole day trying to find three spare players.  I emailed and phoned everyone on the team lists before I finally found three players for the 6:30 game.  Then when I got to the diamond at 6 o'clock, I found out the other team wasn’t going to show up.  What a drag!

Radar Chick

As the scheduler for my two fastball leagues, I have to be close to my computer on any days which might have rain.  Barb and I spend a lot of time looking at the radar on the computer trying to predict whether it will rain at game time.  If we think it will rain at 6:30, I have to call the captains and the umpires to cancel the game by 5 pm so that the league doesn’t have to pay for the umpires and the field.

I call Barb "radar chick" and always ask her opinion on the radar information.

One day Roger, a captain in the Trend Arlington league, called me around 4 pm suggesting the game that night should be cancelled because of rain.  Barb thought he was crazy.  She thought the rain would stop and the field would be fine by game time.  I drove to the diamond to check it out.  It wasn’t bad.  However, he convinced me to cancel the game.

The rest of the players in the league thought I had made a terrible mistake.  The rain did stop and the sun came out and dried the field.  I realized later why Roger wanted to cancel the game so bad was because he couldn’t field a team and didn’t want to default.

Emails from the Pickleball Ambassador

Barb and I get a laugh out of the emails the pickleball Ambassador sends out to everyone in the pickleball community.  They are very long and detailed.  She tries to micromanage things to the greatest extent we have ever seen.  She treats the pickleballers like children.

She organized a pickleball meeting at a church in Westboro.  She included a detailed description of the neighbourhood.  She told everyone where they could buy a cup of coffee and a snack (there were two or three places) and where they could have lunch if they wanted to (there were different places depending on what you wanted to eat and how much you wanted to spend).  Then she said you can either eat before the meeting or bring your lunch or snacks to the meeting.  There will be tables set up in the meeting room. 

Barb was laughing at first.  Later, she was just annoyed.

Barb went to the meeting and got roped into being on executive committee of the Pickleball Association.  So now she will get more emails like this one.

Barb’s Pickleball Frustrations

Barb played in a few pickleball tournaments this summer in Southern Ontario.  She was particularly frustrated with her partners.  In one tournament, her women’s doubles partner took some Benadryl before the finals because of a small injury.  When the game started, her partner was too spaced out to play.  Barb didn’t know what was wrong with her.  She thought her partner was nervous and choked.  When she found out her partner had taken Benadryl before the finals, she was very frustrated.

In another tournament, her mixed doubles partner took the first game of the round robin to warm up.  They lost and since only the first place team in the round robin advanced, they were eliminated from the playoffs.  Barb didn’t know if she was more frustrated with her partner or with the tournament format.

Barb in the Garden of Eden

I like to take afternoon walks.  Usually I walk somewhere such as the library or a store or the bank.  But if I have no place specifically to go, I walk on the bike path along the railway tracks.

Barb and Julia decided to go for a walk today.  Julia liked to walk along the trail in the Jack Pine conservation area.  Barb and Julia went out at around 4 pm.  They drove to the trail.  I was surprised when they were back after a few minutes.  Barb said the mosquitoes on the trail ate her and Julia alive.

So they decided to walk on the bike path along the railway tracks.  Barb was really impressed that such a nice walking area was so close to home.  It was shady from all the trees and there were lots of people out walking their dogs.  Barb said it was like the Garden of Eden.

Julia Garage Sale Finds

Julia found a shelf, table, cupboard and filing cabinet at a garage sale.  We had them in the garage for most of the summer.  Then we cleaned up and threw out the cupboard, the table and the filing cabinet.

Barb found the shelf unit to be very useful for her fabric.  So she kept it.

Julia also found a free lawnmower at a garage sale.  Barb thought it was great.  She threw out our lawnmower even though the used lawnmower, Julia got at the garage sale, was older than the one we had.  The newer old lawnmower had broken wheels that Julia and the next door neighbour tried to fix but couldn’t.  So Barb was very happy to get a new older lawnmower and Julia was very proud of her find.

Sarah Comes Back to Life

Sarah’s iPhone was broken.  So she borrowed an iPad from a roommate.  Unfortunately, it slipped out her hand one of the first days she had it.  The iPad landed on the kitchen floor and the screen broke.  That made her life even worse.

Meanwhile, I was busy researching how to break into an iPhone to get Ali’s sister’s iPhone transferred to Sarah.

Sarah came home for the weekend. 

Barb and Sarah spent some time talking to people at the Apple store about transferring Ali’s sister’s phone but found out that it was impossible unless Ali’s sister could remember her Apple password.  Ali’s sister somehow had a different password for that iPhone because the Apple people verified the password Ali’s sister was using worked.

I worked hard but wasn’t able to break into the iPhone because of the new security system that comes with the latest operating system.  There were instructions on how to break into the old operating system.  So I tried to re-install the old operating system. You needed a very old installation of iTunes and if you re-installed the old version of iTunes on your computer you would lose all your music and podcasts.  Since Barb’s computer didn’t have iTunes, I installed the old version of iTunes there but still had no luck.

That night Sarah’s iPhone mysteriously started working again. 

She was back in business.

Barb went to a computer repair shop in the morning and had the screen replaced on her roommate’s iPad.

So Sarah no longer wanted to kill herself.  It is amazing how technology now controls us.