Thursday

This morning there was a girl in the middle lane (3 lane pool) I'd never seen before. She had a cap from a popular open water swim held in town every year - only serious swimmers need apply - and a passel of swim toys - board, hand paddles, crotch float and training snorkel. And she was fast. I mean fast. She had nice routine fabulous form and was very fun to watch. She had the nicest, sleekest, prettiest, backstroke I have ever seen. She was in nearly as long as I was so I had nice entertainment for my whole swim.

I need bread. Why is it that every time I go to a grocery store, I get everything I need, everything on my list, everything EXCEPT that one thing I really do need?

My new Pebble will be here Saturday. When I first got the Pebble, I had a terrible time remembering that when I wanted to know what time it was, I did not have to pull out my phone, That I could just look at my wrist. Now, without it, of course, I look at my wrist a dozen times a day.

I bought a $120 Windows computer because I wanted a second Windows machine, and one with Windows 10 native. My Windows 7 machine has a lot of responsibilities so when I need a non-chromebook, I have to interrupt it. Most often that is to update the little iPod Shuffle I use when I swim. This uses iTunes which always makes my Windows 7 machine cranky as all getout.

So Amazon had this elcheapo little machine that fit the bill - usb/sd card/Windows 10 - small and bonus, powered by small a/c plug - no brick. I assumed it would be ridiculously slow or have some other major out of the box issues - I mean $120! And so I would just send it back to Amazon. But, turns out, it's not a bad little machine at all!

And, I have to say, out of the box, Windows 10 is pretty impressive. It didn't nag or make me do anything I didn't want to. I did not want to log on to a Microsoft account - ok, no prob. I did not want to lock the machine with a password - ok, no prob. I did want to see the other stuff on my network - ok, no prob.

iTunes didn't work very well. Ah... there's the rub. I fiddled with it for a while and then gave up. I decided to see how long it took to reboot. Oh, updates, eh? Why didn't you mention that? On the other hand, nice of you not to nag. When it came back, I tried iTunes again and all the problems were solved. I'm really quite taken with this little thing. I do plan to use it a lot for a couple of weeks to ensure that if it's going to fail, it does so before Amazon's window of return shuts down.

I found a couple of old windows games in my Amazon account and downloaded them. Flash back! And fun.

I got half the dolls/bears loaded into the car and now need to load the rest and make the delivery.

I have a green chair and a purple chair in my living room. When I finish the bears, they go on the green chair and the dolls go on the purple one. No particular reason. It's just handy. Right not, both chairs are empty and boy do they look bleak. There will be doll making this afternoon for sure and the next bear already has legs and a butt.

Very cool

Major League baseball teams have a bunch of minor league teams. Generally, kids get started by playing in a first tier minor league team. They used to call them pony leagues. Not sure what they call them now. As they get better they get promoted to the A team and then the AA team and then the AAA team and then, if they are still at it and good enough, the major leagues.

Those years from pony to AAA are lean years playing in small towns traveling from game to game in a hot bus late at night or early in the morning. The players get squat for pay.

In the early 80's I was living in Charlotte, NC which, at the time, was home to the Charlotte O's which was the AA team of the Baltimore Orioles. I was a season ticket holder. The stadium was an old wooden one in a neighborhood about a mile from my own. I sat in Section F with the other season ticket holders there. We were a family. Such great fun.

And we loved those players. I lived in a house with a swimming pool so about once a week, we'd have a pool party for any and all players who wanted to come. And we fed them hot dogs - by the fucking truck load. Those boys could eat.

They were so young and so eager and so hopeful. One of the ones who was a regular at our pool was Cal Ripkin, Jr. who went on to garner a bit o' baseball fame. He was as nice as you could imagine. Another one who played center field and had the best baseball name EVER was a guy named Drungo LaRue Hazewood. He was adorable, sweet and funny. He made it to the big leagues for about a minute. And died young-ish of cancer.

I had a 14 year old stepson who thought he wanted to be a pitcher. The manager of the team - who had been a pitcher - would give him pointers and work out with him in the back yard. SO SO SO nice.

Anyway... This whole entry is because of a tweet I just read. The Everett Aqua Sox are the A team of the Seattle Mariners. They are in the playoffs and they are getting to play their first playoff game in the Mariners ball park tomorrow night. Those kids must just be beside themselves in anticipation. I cannot imagine. What a very fun thing for them to get to do. Kudos Mariners.

I won't be there because I have an early hot chicken date with ljtourist. He called a little bit ago looking for swimming pool info and we talked ourselves into dinner at Henry's Chicken Joint with Ma'ono's Fried Chicken & Whiskey as a backup in case Henry's is crowded or closed or something.

I made a couple of dolls and some chocolate chip cupcakes (not pictured and not fancy - Paul and Mary would turn their noses up instantly but I don't care).





Baseball game tonight.