Ted Lilly

Ok ladies, here is Ted as an Oakland A.

Janis Joplin

Here is a video of the late great Janis Joplin, my all time favorite singer peforming the song Little Girl Blue. No other artist moves me deeply as much as Janis Joplin does, especially on a song like this one. She pours her heart and soul, her entire self into it. I always imagined that she did this song for herself, that it reflected her life and times, that with the all the fame and all the people that surrounded her, she was a sad and lonely soul.

Future Cubs

Hey, so I was going thru a box of some old baseball cards (one of many) that I have since I've gotten the collecting bug once again and I came across these three cards of some current Cubs Rami, Fonzy and MB.

I find the back of MB's card amusing and I'm sure you will as well...lol

Hot, hot, hotter than....

Well it was pretty hot yesterday, 106, supposed to be the same today. What I wouldn't give for a day in the snow. I took this picture of the General Sherman tree in the Sequoia National Park not long ago. The snow was deep and cold, we had a nice time up there. I slipped and almost fell, but I caught myself, with my right arm, which was still recovering from rotator cuff surgery.....ouch!. I felt it tweak a bit and it hurt for a little while, but it was all good at the end of the day. We try to go up to see the giant trees every winter and have a picnic in the snow, well more like sitting in the truck eating ......lol. We do hit the hiking trails, but with all the snow it's hard to tell where you are going or if you are even still on the trail, so we try not to stray too far from where we first came in from. There is still snow up in the mountains, but you have to go pretty high up to get to it, I guess I'll have to settle for ice cold water and the air conditioner.

Coyote run

The days have warmed up quiet a bit here in California, which has gotten me out and running again, it's been a long time since I've run, so I'm slowly getting back into it and enjoying the aches and pains that come with it. I was out running on Friday when I remembered something that happened to me a few years ago on one of my runs.

I was running at a long distance track, doing a 3 mile run on a Saturday. It was pretty uneventful, noting much going on just ground squirrels running around, red tail hawks soaring over head looking for a meal. I was just running along, when I saw a lady walking her three dogs, she was about a mile ahead of me, as I got closer to where she was I noticed she had one dog on a leash and the two others were loose, they were just playing and running.

This is a big open area track, so people normally let their dogs off the leash and let them run and burn off some energy, so it was not something out of the ordinary.

But the one thing that I noticed was how one of the dogs looked so unusual. I wear eye glasses, but when I run, I don't wear them, just sunglasses, my eyesight is not that bad, but I could not make out what kind of dog it was.

Well when I got to the end of the run trail, the lady was there at the water fountain getting a drink. I said Hello and asked her what kind of dog that was she had, the one playing with the black and white dog, she laughed and said.......lol....."that is not my dog, it's a coyote".

She said it just came out of nowhere and started to play with her dog. As we were standing there talking, her black and white dog came up to her as she was ready to leave. The coyote came towards us as well, but stayed back and just looked at us from a distance, then trotted off somewhere.

Well about a week later, I was on the same track, just started my run, I was about a 1/4 mile in when I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. I looked over my right shoulder and lo and behold, there was the coyote trotting along next to me.

It was about 6-7 feet away, just keeping pace with me. I did not panic, that would probably have been the worst thing to do. I kept my cool and just ran like there was "nothing wrong with this picture"......lol. It did not get closer to me or make an aggressive moves or what not.

It seemed like it just wanted to play, it looked young, but it was big. He stayed with me for about another half mile then it took off into a farm field nearby. I don't know if it was lost or hungry or just wanted some attention, but I will never forget that moment.

It was pretty cool to experience that. We are surrounded by farm fields and lots of open land out here, so there are coyotes everywhere, so it's not unusual to see them. But to see one that close was out of the ordinary. I saw it a few more times after that, but not have another close encounter like I did that day. I don't know whatever happened to that coyote, but hopefully it is still alive and enjoying it's life.

Baseball, the greatest game

Well it's almost time for baseball's regular season to start up again, it's just around the corner and I can't wait for our Cubs to take the field and start that march into the post season. Like the rest of Cubs fans, I hope that we make it further than we did last season.
I have always been a baseball fan since as long as I can remember. My Dad was a huge Astros fan and hated the Dodgers with a passion....lol. Growing up in Texas I was an Astros fan as well, still am to this day, but once I started watching the Cubs on WGN, I was hooked.
One of my fondest memories of baseball was when my buddy Rob and I were coaching a little league team called the Blue Jays. We had two second year players, the rest were first year right up from tee ball, and since we were the so called rookie coaches, we got last pick of players so needless to say we were more like the bad news bears. We had to teach the kids the basics, you could say we had to start from scratch with all of them.
I had a blast coaching, it was fun and the kids loved learning how to play the game. Our season was 13 games long, we finished 1-11-1 the first season. Not the best record I know, but the one win was like that out of a story book.
It was our last game, a night game, we were playing the Padres, they were 12-0, big favorites to win, they had all the best players and had a great offense. Before the game, I got a call from Rob, he was going to be late, so I was going to have to fly solo until he got there. So I went to the field, set it up, got all our equipment set out and ready to go for the game.
I went to sit in the bleachers and work on my lineup and just think about the game, who I would start, when to make subs since we had to play all the kids and what positions to have them play. So this guy sits next to me, introduced himself as the Padres head coach. He asked what our record was, I said we are 0-12-1, he said oh, we are 12-0, we will be 13-0 after we beat you guys today and walked off.
I blew it off, but inside I was like "what an arrogant bastard". Well the game started, we held our own, our kids played great defense, especially at 3rd, SS and 1st and our pitcher was in the zone, he was throwing strikes and baffling their batters.
The other team had a big crowd there, parents, friends, they had balloons, they had bbq grills going, big banners in the outfield. They were all set for a big victory celebration.
In the last inning we were up 5-4, they had a runner on first and moved him to third on two ground balls.
So now they have a runner on third, two outs. I'm signaling to my catcher Ian to make sure and block and pitches in the ground and telling my pitcher to keep it low and away and tell my infield to go to first if it's a ground ball.
Well their batter fouls off a few and takes a few, then he hits a grounder back to the pitcher, the runner takes off, our pitcher throws home, our catcher Ian blocks the plate, tags the runner, the Ump calls him out. WOW! talk about a big win for us, they way we ran onto the field yelling and screaming, the kids and parents going crazy, you would have thought we won the World Series......lol.
We were throwing hats and gloves in the air, jumping up and down, it was great. Rob got there just as the game ended so he got to partake in the victory celebration as well. I lost my voice that night, but it was well worth it.
The last I heard about some of our players, a few of them went on to be all stars on their high school teams and some even made it to state playoffs, that was good to hear, I hope that we had some positive influence on them and that they learned to love the game of baseball.
I will never forget that game, I can picture it like it was yesterday, I still get goose bumps when I think about it. The times that I have been back home to Texas I drive by the old ball field and remember that evening, it always brings a smile to my face. I have to agree with those that say that baseball is the greatest game ever played.......Go Cubs!!!!!!

My Oweee.....

Well it will be one year ago this Saturday the 7th that I went under the knife to get my right rotator cuff repaired. After a few years of on and off pain and not knowing what was going on with my shoulder and alot of "take motrin and ice it down" it'll be ok by military Docs........yeah right! I was finally examined by a civilian Doc, he did an MRI and lo an behold, my rotator is shot......nice huh? Well after fasting all night and most of the morning I finally got the call to go in early so I can get operated on, early meaning sit around and wait past your original appointed time as it was. I finally get wheeled in, get on the ice cold table, talk to the anesthesiologist and next thing you know I'm out cold. The Doc went in on the front of my shoulder as you can see by the pic, it's about a 4 inch scar, plus I have a smaller scar on my back where he went in as well. The picture is about 8 weeks after surgery. The Doc shaved down part of a bone that was rubbing against my rc and then put in a screw and some sutures to repair the tear. It was an in and out surgery which was nice, but once I got home I was hurting, especially trying to get some sleep. The first week I slept a total of maybe 10 hours, I went from the couch to the bed and back all night, I could not get comfortable at all. The surgery area did not hurt too much, but then again I have a high tolerance for pain, except for taking band aids of my arm.....that really hurts. I was put on vicodine for the pain, but I only took maybe three the whole time, no need for it. I had my arm in a sling for six weeks, so my arm from the elbow forward is what hurt so bad from not being able to extend it or move it around. My shoulder and arm where tightly taped up against my upper body to prevent any movement. So back to the lack of sleep, that was killing me big time, finally I spoke to a buddys wife who had the same surgery, she told me to prop some pillows up against the head board and just lean back. Well the first night I did that, I was out instantly, I slept like a baby, I was so very happy. I could not drive, so I was couped up at home during the day with my dogs while my wife was at work, so when she got home she would take me out just to get me out of the house.....like a dog.....lol. Physical therapy was tough the first few times I went, especially the stretching, that was a killer. I was going twice a week for an hour or so. Doc said it will be at least another year before my shoulder is back to a full 100%, I have not thrown a baseball or football since I had the surgery. I did throw a few rocks, but my throwing motion was all messed up. I looked like a little kid when they first learn to throw things. All this gave me a new perspective to what MLB pitchers go thru when they have a rotator go bad on them, no wonder they miss the entire season, dang. My scar has healed nicely, it is almost unnoticeable. I get a twinge in my shoulder every now and again, but other than that, it's all good............GO CUBS!!!!!!