My Life in Sports

Call me a naive.
Call me a wild eyed optimist.
Tell me that I've lost my mind, my common sense and any sense of proportion.
I don't care.

This picture by Dejan Kovacevic of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette perfectly expresses my feelings about my beloved Pirates. (If you're a Pirates fan you should be reading Dejan. Good writer, loves the 'Burgh and is a straight shooter about the ball club)



Yeah the skies have been dark for the Buccos. Better times are coming. I BELIEVE!

In other sports news:

I played what is assuredly my last round of golf for the summer. (For the record I believe it was my THIRD round of the summer. Sigh). I lost 3 balls and shot +14.

And was thoroughly satisfied.

Since my goal is to shoot bogey golf (+9) on a regular basis, a 14 over with as little play as I've had was pretty good (and yes the scorer was slightly generous, but only slightly). I was working on a new twist for my swing and it showed marked improvement. If I can only get out and play a bit more I might not be too far away from where I want to be. And it was a GLORIOUS fall day to play.

Volleyball season has begun. Lots of new team mates and I am arguably one of the best players on the team. Yeah, that's not good. We lost our first match 0-3 came back the next week to lose 1-2. You gotta like the trend. It's a fun group and we can laugh at ourselves. So we end up laughing a lot. Good exercise too. I'm happy.

Football pool time. I do a "for fun" pool with an Episcopal youth group in Minnesota, all done online. Last week I missed only the Bills game (never fill out your pool with your heart) and thereby was only down 5 points for the week. And finished THIRD!! That's pretty good but still, you miss one game you figure you might finish first. Hasn't happened in three years yet. I'm currently 22 overall for the season out of about 90 players. Still pretty good, only missing on one game.

Peace

Bicyles, Theater and Golf

(Imagine my surprise when I checked in at MadPriest's blog this morning and discovered a link to me with the announcement of my "new project" starting tomorrow. Gulp! I thank His Madness for the prayers. Guess I better go double check my spelling)

In other news:

It was a great weekend for theater at Maison DaYouthGuy. We saw an adaptation of Edgar Lee Masters "Spoon River Anthology" done at our local cemetery. The venue was appropriate since SPR is really a series of epitaphs for the fictional people of his town. Many of the stories overlap and the local group who did it brought those stories together(review). It was very well done, at night lit by torches and lanterns (and a few carefully spotted electric lights). Nice to see something unusual and rather inventive being done around here. The next day we saw Tennessee William's "The Glass Menagerie", a very special play in my family. It was one of my best roles as a college actor and during the time of the show my wife and I (both in the cast - I as Tom and she as Laura) began to date. Really liked the show (although I had a few quibbles with the Tom portrayal, probably unavoidable, lol!) The cast was great as was the set. Don't know why I don't see more theater at Chautauqua it's just down the road and they have a great company and building. (Review - by a fellow Episcopalian no less!)

Finally got out onto the golf course for the first time. Golf is a wonderful, awful, magnificent, evil game. If you've ever played you understand that statement. Otherwise, just take my word. Given that I hadn't even picked up a club in about a year I wasn't too unhappy with the round. Hit a good many shots exceptionally well. But just one or two really bad ones will destroy your score. Curious moments. I lost four balls during nine holes. Yet I finished with the same ball I had teed up at number one. Thought I'd lost it several times only to find it again. After a fairly awful second half I played the final hole (a par 5) absolutely perfectly, gave myself a shot at an honest birdie and settled for a par when my putt came up just a few inches short. Weird game. I love it.

Rode the bike into work today. That's about 21 miles. Took slightly longer this time but I had to stop and get my sunglasses and bike lock from the kid and that slowed me down by about 10 minutes. Otherwise it was about 1:35 for the ride. Not too bad I think. I'm really hoping to get a lot more riding in but the schedule and the weather are not cooperating.

Peace