The Old Ball Game

Some of you know that I am a fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers and that this year, for the second consecutive year, they made it to the World Series. And yes, for the second consecutive year, they lost. Some of you may think that isn’t smile worthy but it is indeed the topic of my Weekly Smile.

Why would I smile about such a great loss? It was A record setting game, the longest post-season game at seven hours and twenty minutes and eighteen innings! It was a well fought game by both teams. As soon as one team got ahead, the other would tie! The two teams went through a combined eighteen pitchers! To say that the players showed stamina would be an understatement! Ultimately, the Dodgers did win! Yay Dodgers! It was the only game they won, unfortunately!And so I smile when I think about it!

What made you smile this week? Tell us about it! Take A look at the above link and join in this week’s smile!

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Whine, Wine & More-Opening Day!

Whine: I got a new phone last week and spent hours finally getting it all set up on Monday then on Monday I tried to use the camera and it wouldn’t work. It took the picture but when I went to the gallery to view, there was nothing there but a grey frame. No picture. So off I went to the T-Mobile store where they couldn’t figure it out either. They did a factory reset for me and it started taking pictures fine. Whew! But then on Tuesday and Wednesday, it kept doing the same grey frame again so I spent three hours at the T-Mobile store on Wednesday afternoon getting a new phone. First they tried to do a warranty return but the phone is so new and selling like hotcakes so didn’t have any to to send to me from the factory and I was not willing to wait two weeks so they got creative and I finally walked out of the store with a new phone and the old/glitchy one wrapped up and ready to go to the UPS store to ship back to them. Yay. So last night I spent hours again setting up the new one. But that’s okay because this one is working fine and I love my new phone! Yay again.

Wine: Well, after spending all that time setting up the latest new phone last night, I was ready for some wine but it was about three this morning and I was not going to drink wine at that time so no wine. Maybe another night. No rush.

More: Well, there’s lots more but I will be brief. First, a note about April. I will once again be participating in the Blogging From A to Z Challenge. For those not familiar with it, bloggers set out to write a blog post for every letter of the alphabet during the month of April, posting each day Monday through Saturday with a day off on Sunday. This year April first is one Sunday so we will be posting on Sunday of the first week only. My them this year is What’s In A Name? I will try to write about a different character (fictional) each day. The posts will be in order with the name of the character beginning with A on the first and ending with Z on the thirtieth. Wish me luck! I think it’s going to be more of a challenge than I expect. So you might see some badges or headers with A to Z on them if I can figure out how to add them to the blog before the end of April! Ha!

And hurray for baseball! Today is opening day and I am looking forward to watching the game. I think I might be able to. I signed up for a free season of MLB TV through my phone carrier who offered it as a perk this week so if i can figure out how to log in, I will be watching the Dodgers play the Giants. That will be interesting because I grew up in San Jose which is major Giants territory but I root for the Dodgers because I lived in Los Angeles from 1978 to 2004 so I bleed Dodger blue! Let’s hear it for the Dodgers! Go team go!

And even more: After asking her several times, my primary care physician finally referred me to an endocrinologist for my diabetes. I saw him this week. I really liked him and he listened to me. I walked out of there with very thorough instructions on how to use the insulin as I had never been told how to use it. I was just told to use it and given a range of 10 to 17 cc with no word on when to take the 10 and when to take more. He ironed all of that out for me and told me how many cc to take for each gram of carb and also how to adjust the insulin if my blood sugar is high before I eat. Yay! It has only been one day but I am very happy with how it all worked out yesterday. He also doubled the amount of one of the medications I was taking and added another which is a once a week injection. So far I am beyond happy with this doctor. And the bonus: he wore a yellow shirt when I met him on Tuesday! (Yellow is my favorite color.)

I have so much to write that I haven’t been able to get to because there is always someone else needing my attention and/or I am not near my laptop. I have too much trouble typing on my phone to do an entire blog post beyond a picture post or just a paragraph or two so I don’t usually post by phone. Hopefully I will be able to put up a couple more posts before the April madness begins. Believe me, it will be tough!

So go out and enjoy baseball. Root for your team but don’t forget mine!

 

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I Forgot

I forgot that I was going to try to post every day in November. I usually do it every year. I am still going to try, even if it is a short post or even a photo.

Today I don’t have much time to write the post I really want to write. I have about an hour before I have to be at my daughter’s to watch the crucial Game 7 of the World Series. We’ll see how long that goes. Last night’s game was short, less than three hours, if I recall correctly. However, there was also a game that ran over five hours a few nights ago. So who know?!

I will tell you that I am rooting for the Dodgers. I think I posted about them before. I haven’t had time to post a few choice Dodger stories but I might type them up if I get a chance and save them to post on different days to fill my every day in November plan. I’ll tell you that one of them involves my ex-husband and my late father-in-law attending a league play-off game back in the late 70’s. Another story involves my daughter’s desire to catch a ball from her seat…when she was all of about fourteen. I won’t spoil it and tell you what she came home with but I will tell you that I wish this mama bear had been there to fight for her girl! And yet another story involves what was then a record setting game for length of at home Dodger game that I attended when I was expected home much earlier and how mad my mama was!

Okay, enough teasers. It’s on to wait for that last game that will have a lot of fans in tears and a lot others in cheers. I hope I will be on the right side!

 

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Tuesday–Game Day!

Today is the first game in the World Series! My daughter and I will be watching from her home. We’ve prepared for the event with Dodger Dogs (very long hot dogs), sodas, pretzels, beer, and It’s It (a delicious ice cream cookie confection). We no longer have our Dodger t-shirts but we’ll be cheering them on anyway!

Before the game starts, I’m explaining the simple workings of the game to Anderson. I found a seven minute video on youtube that does a pretty good job of the basics so he’ll know what is going on!

In any case, I’ll be thinking about the old days in Los Angeles and the life I left behind when I left there in 2004. Memories. Lots of them.

Crossing fingers. Sending my Dodgers good mojo. And if you are a Houston fan, I hope you have a great time watching the game. As long as it’s a good, clean game, it should be fun!

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29 Years

That’s how long it as been since the Los Angeles Dodgers made it into the World Series! I remember that series. I lived in Los Angeles. I was married to a die hard sports fan and had myself become a Dodger fan since being in Los Angeles back in the mid 70’s. We used to go to games a couple of times a week, at least. I remember the hey days of the Dodgers with Ron Cey, Steve Garvey, Rick Monday, Davey Lopes, Steve Yeager, Dusty Baker, and so many more star players. Wow! They were smokin’ hot in those days.

It has been a long, long time since I’ve been to a Dodger game. I think the last time was around 1994 or so. And it has been even longer since they’ve been to the World Series. Twenty-nine years! So it is about time. I hope they win. It has not even been decided who they will play but I hope they win. If not, well, at least they made it there. Maybe this will start a streak.

For those fans who wanted a different team to go to the series this year, I am sorry that you are disappointed. I hope other fans have not been mean to you. I won’t be. I know how it is when someone else’s team wins and then teases the heck out of the fans of the losing team. So I won’t do it.

I’ll just say, “Go Dodgers!”

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Then There Was the Time…

Yesterday I told you about a near disaster involving World Series tickets in 1978. Today, another ticket mishap.

It was, probably, the summer of 1979. We lived in Santa Monica and were attending a rare day game at Dodger Stadium. We got all the way to the stadium and into the parking lot and a parking spot. When my ex grabbed for the tickets, they weren’t in his pocket. He checked the glove box of the car. Not there. Behind the visor? Not there. He asked if he had given me the tickets. Nope. He had forgotten them at home. Luckily, I didn’t get blamed for it. Tickets were his responsibility. So there we went, driving back to Santa Monica for the tickets. And because it was a weekday, in the very early afternoon, there was no traffic so we were able to make it back to the stadium in time to catch the bottom of the first inning.

After that, it became kind of a joke. Before leaving home, I always asked, “Do you have the tickets?”  Chuckle. Chuckle.

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Take Me Out To the Ball Game

My ex-husband has always been an avid sports fan. He follows baseball, football, and basketball. At least when we were married that was all he followed. Of course he also watched tennis and golf and every other sport on TV, but as for attending games and really following on the radio (ooohhh what’s that?) and TV, it was baseball, football, and basketball. We lived in Los Angeles (Santa Monica to be exact) so we were Dodger fans. He still lives there and is still a huge fan with season tickets and all that. I still love the Dodgers, too.

I remember going to as many games as we could afford. We went in triple digit heat, in rain, in wind; we went all the time! As soon as there was a hint of post season play, he would mail in the postcard to win the chance to buy tickets. And he would use every name he could think of, his, mine, his sister, his niece, his brother-in-law, friends, on those post cards so he would have more chances of winning the right to buy the tickets. One year, I think it was the first year we were married, 1978, he got tickets to the World Series against the Yankees. He invited his father to drive up for the game. It was a huge thing to have his dad come. Hid dad was a big fan too so he really appreciated the chance to go to the game.

So the day of the game arrived. His father drove the three hours that day and was in town in the early afternoon. When the time arrived, off the two went to the game. Then a couple of hours later, I got a phone call. It was from a pay phone (no cell phones then). It was my husband. He was out of breath and upset. I think he called me just to vent because there was nothing I could have done. It seems that his dad was holding the tickets and put them down to buy a program then forgot about the tickets (his dad was elderly, tired from the drive, and excited about the game). When they got to the gate, they had no tickets. They retraced their steps but the tickets were gone. Stadium police were called and because my husband had looked at those tickets so many times since they had arrived in the mail, he had memorized the section and seat numbers. So Stadium Police (and they are definitely Police, not just security, with the right to arrest and their own jail inside the stadium) went to the seats, got the people out of the seats. They didn’t have the right ID. The stadium had a record of who the tickets had been mailed to. So the people that were in the seats were taken away by the Stadium Police and my husband and his dad got to watch the game in their seats.

It’s one of those things that sticks in your mind and pops up every so often. They were lucky that he remembered the seats and had the receipt in the envelope in his pocket to prove he was the rightful owner of the tickets. They missed the first inning and a half but that was okay, they were relieved to be able to enjoy the rest of the game…a World Series game…against the NY Yankees!

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