Life of Brian

After a morning visit to Sally and a brisk couple mile walk around some walking paths in Lexington, we said so long and hopped in the car. Spent the first part of the trip on the Blue Ridge Parkway again before finally getting in some delay free back roads to Martinsville, VA. We picked this particular town because they were home to a minor league baseball that was playing a home game this evening.

Donna and I have been going to minor league baseball since the early eighties when we would drive from Meridian, MS to Jackson to see the Double A Mets play. We loved the old parks that had all kinds of character. Most started out with old concrete dugouts and concrete benches for stands. Our favorite place was Asheville where the “box seats” were metal folding chairs painted green that came with waitress service. Down through the years minor league ball has grown up and we thin not all for the good. Before, most of the teams had the names of the parent club, but since the movie “Bull Durham” and the success of marketing that teams merchandise with the distinct bull in the letter D logo every team wants a piece of that pie. The Savannah (GA) Cardinals became the Sand Gnats, my home town team the New Britain Red Sox became the Rock Cats, etc. A team of marketing people were brought in the create a cute nickname and mascot to go with it so money could be made. The stadiums themselves grew up. Leagues instituted minimum standards for seating. New stadiums had to be built or a team would move to another town. Prices went up, the $3 dollars we paid at Asheville for our box seats is now what it costs to park at the Columbia (SC) Bombers games. Instead of kids being taught to keep score to get them involved and give them something to do, now between every inning we play games, dizzy bat races, race the mascot around the bases, musical chairs, and rolling big dice for prizes. We missed the good “old” days. but still we go because it is a relative bargain compared to attending a major league game and there is still something special about hot dogs, nachos, cold beer and the crack of the bat.

We had a bad lunch experience, but the hotel was nice. They had a free internet terminal for guests to use (Ack! Dial-up, but beggars can’t be choosers.) so I checked on Lance’s Tour de France day (Ack! He lost time Jan Ullrich.) and went to the Photo Friday site to get my challenge (AK! Identity.)

After lounging in the room for a couple of hours we headed over to the ball field to watch the game. The Martinsville Astros were playing the Kingsport Mets. Well we were confronted with the past and now we are not so sure we like it. Martinsville is a short season rookie team in the Appalachian League, about as far down as you can get on the pro baseball ladder. Their stadium was small, old and looked thrown together from bits and pieces they inherited from the local high school when they got a better field. It was mix of cement bleachers, aluminum bleachers and old plastic movie theater looking seats planted on top of the dugout. There was one concession stand and the souvenir shop was a small metal building. The line-ups and league standings were hand written on pieces of paper and taped to a board. I think we may need to go to an Augusta (GA) Greenjackets, used to be Pirates, game this weekend, they are single A and have a nice 3 year-old stadium just to compare.

Purchased Today: $0
Money spent since 03/03/03: $897.13
Started up, went down, went up, went down, back up, still up.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 164

We tried to avoid the Interstate today on our way to Lexington, VA. Mainly because that is our preferred way to travel, but we also hoped to avoid the construction delays we seemed to encounter every 50 miles. Nice try. We found delays on the back roads as well, from slow drivers to lane closings with flagmen because of grass mowing. Turns out we made the best time on a road we normally avoid. Although beautiful to travel, the 45 MPH speed limit of the Blue Ridge Parkway usually means slow forward progress. I’m sure we weren’t going as fast as Interstate travel, but today compared to the trip thus far, we were flying.

Spent the afternoon wandering the quaint downtown of Lexington. I of course was hoping to replace my long deceased Washington & Lee trident sweatshirt while Stuart (the HS senior son of our friend) was looking for a feather for his cap, literally. Claire (the college senior daughter of our friend) was there too, but no fun at all because her allergies were in high gear and could do nothing but sniffle and wipe her watery eyes.

When Sally (friend) arrived home from work we had just enough time for her to change before we headed out for Fridays Alive in Davidson Park, a short 5 block walk from their house. Tonight’s free music was provided by the Ammon/Bassett Band. They played what we in South Carolina call “beach music,” you may call it 50’s Rhythm ‘n Blues. We hung around for about 1/2 of the three hour show. Just about as much of that as a person could stand, unless of course you live to shag.

Purchased Today: $10.50 in gas
Money spent since 03/03/03: $897.13
Started up, went down, went up, went down, up, down, back up, still up.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 160

For the second day in a row I put the top up with less than an hour of the work day left. Unlike yesterday, this time it was a very good thing. It poured. It was a mini gale. At quitting time it was still coming down very hard, but because we were leaving town to go on our long weekend we left promptly, instead of the sensible wait it out we would normally take. We got soaked walking to the car, even with an umbrella.

Maybe later I will enjoy the irony of this evening’s drive to Statesville, NC, but right now I am cursing the North & South Carolina Departments of Transportation. As we traveled north on I-77 towards Charlotte, we couldn’t help but complain about the sorry state the pavement was in. The concrete was full of potholes and big cracks caused by the passage of huge number of 18-wheelers and heavy SUVs not considered in the initial design studies. Plus, where they had made an attempt to fix these defects, they did a lousy and/or cheap job, making it no better and sometimes worse than before. Where we could get away with it, we drove in the smoother, because of less traffic use, left lane. Later in the drive while in NC we encountered 2 places where the Interstate was narrowed down to one lane which caused a 20 minute 1st gear creep to cover 2 miles. The reason that they had one lane closed was of course to repair the very damaged road surface we had been complaining of earlier.

Purchased Today: $12.50 in gas
Money spent since 03/03/03: $886.63
Started down, went up, went down, back up, still up.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 154

Going away for a few days starting right after work tomorrow. Burgular Notice! My mother-in-law is staying home. She is pretty good about aiming for an extremity with the shotgun – that is when she remembers to put her glasses on first.

So tonight I worked on the car topping off the fluids (oil, gas, coolant & windshield washer) and filling the tires up to 35 PSI. Our bags are packed and all we are doing is coming home, changing and heading out – destination Thursday evening is Statesville, NC. Friday morning we finish the trip to Lexington, VA. We are staying there until Sunday morning when we will drive the 8 straight hours to get home. Don’t worry I’ll analog blog the highlights so I can fill you in later.

Purchased Today: $0
Money spent since 03/03/03: $874.13
Started down, went up, went down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 151

Just another spectacular day in my home town. We (Donna, I, Fellow ABCers Chuck and Cindy) went for a 25 mile bicycle ride this morning. Got at it early to avoid the traffic and the heat. The sky was beautiful, in that religious cliched sort of way, sporadic big clouds covering the morning sun, but allowing streaks of sunshine through to illuminate the green fields. Just awesome.

The rest of the middle of the day was spent indoors in front of the computer. I finished up the mix for my upcoming CD swap. It is supposed to be “music that makes you hot. Music that makes you sweat. Music that turns you on.” I don’t know any of the music titles from those cheesy porn movies of my youth, so I made up a mix of songs that have the word summer in the title.

Tonight around 8 o’clock Donna wanted a top down drive in the Miata and being the accommodating guy I am, I agreed. After the first turn out of the neighborhood we knew we couldn’t go north, dark ugly storm clouds were brewing. I headed east and then south. After a 20 mile loop or so we headed back into town to stop at the store to get some odds and ends. As soon as we turned north we realized that all the while we were driving east and south those clouds we saw earlier had continued their relentless march south. We needed gas anyway so we ducked into the first station available to top up the tank and put the top up. We made it into the store before the rains came, but had to use the little emergency umbrella to get back to the car without getting entirely soaked. The drive home from the store was very similar to the drive home from work on Friday.

Purchased Today: 14.50 in gas
Money spent since 03/03/03: $874.13
Started down, went up, still up.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 144