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Well, for a while it seemed like this is "next year." Maybe even 1995!
It seems to happen every year. Some years it happens earlier than others. This year, it's later. Pennant fever this year. In contention. Leading in the wild card race over the hated Yankees. And, we get sucked in. It could happen!
So, I ride down to buy tickets for the first game vs. the AL West division leading Angels. Almost a sell-out, and the tickets I get are three rows from the top in the right field corner. Max and I go to Uwajamiya for snacks, and hike up to the third deck. Ten minutes into the game, M's manager McLaren is thrown out for arguing a third strike call against Ichiro. Garret Anderson hits a homer, and then a bases-loaded double. Angels manager Mike Scioscia calls for a squeeze play. The batter lays down a perfect squeeze bunt, another run scores, and the rout is on.
Ultimately, we get swept, now tied for the Yankees for the wild card, and have to go on the road for ten days, including another make-up game in Cleveland, a result of the snow in April.
So, once again, our hopes are crushed, "over, and over, and over and over and over....."
Art Thiel's take on the annual tight collar festival is here.
At least, the view of the sunset from our seats was great....
Started out on Sunday, 8/19 @ 4:45 p.m. to Seatac to fly to Jackson, MS via Houston's George Bush International Airport. Flight was uneventful, as was the layover, but on the 2nd leg we crossed over the Mississippi River and from 25,000 feet up, was quite a sight! Brown ribbon glistening in what looked like muggy sunlight all the way to the hazy horizon.
Landed in Jackson, and took a cab into town. $35 for a 20 minute ride, with a cabbie who corrected my pronunciation of the street where the Marriott was (It's A-Mitt, not Amity, sir...). Hot and muggy outside, air conditioned inside. After a spin on the bike, a quick swim and dinner (good gumbo!) I took a stroll around downtown. At 8:00 p.m, the streets were deserted, and the air was still warm. The amazing thing was the buzzing from the cicadas (what the bell-hop called locusts) in the trees. Jackson is the state capital of Mississippi, so there are plenty of government buildings and other historical structures. I must say that I found it to be a rather pleasant walk. Took a couple of pictures at the Capitol Building, which is noteworthy for the rotunda, the gold statue a top the dome, and the monument honoring the Daughters of the Confederacy in front of the steps. The Mississippi state flag still has the stars and bars in its design.
The workshop at Jackson State University went well. The local HMCO rep told me that JSU is a "HBC" an historically black college, for those unfamiliar with the acronym. We drove in on Walter Payton Drive, named for the famous Chicago Bear running back, who played his college football as a Jackson State Tiger.
There were 8 accounting faculty at the workshop, held in a new building, one of several on campus. Very nice looking facility, and the faculty and I worked well, with lots of good questions and comments about the software, how they would incorporate it into their classes, how to share curriculum, etc. One of the faculty, Bobbie Daniels was interested in developing online accounting classes, and I'll follow up with her. All in all, I was very impressed and had a great time.
View from hotel room at sunrise....
The flight back to Seattle was uneventful. A long wait at Jackson-Medgar Evers airport, followed by a short flight to Dallas-Fort Worth, where I had another long wait. There, I encountered something stunning, a Fox News Store! Had to wonder, what's next, a Nazi Party shop? The KKK emporium? Get me back to the People's Republic of Seattle, please!
A couple of rides this week get back into the groove after STP. Both just around Seattle. Did the Magnolia to Locks loop on Monday, another beautiful summer day here. Snapped a couple of photos while waiting at the Fremont Bridge, the first of the ship canal looking west toward Ballard, and the second of the neon on the bridgetenders' tower.
The Friday ride, on Max's birthday was the 30 miler down over Montlake, down Lake Wa Blvd, to the I-90 tunnel. At the top, saw the log boom set up for Seafair, and was there in time to see a bi-plane performing aerial stunts. Something of a sight, but I pushed on into downtown, past the stadium (Redsox vs. M's that night) through the crowds of Friday p.m. on Alaskan Way, and then out to the locks, where lots and lots of the king salmon were doing the fish ladder thing...
Maybe it was giving blood the day before, or maybe it was the end of a long week, but I was bonking at the end up the hill to VR.
Yes, a long week, and a long two months, actually. I wrapped up the two Seattle U MBA classes on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. Great classes both, with lots of high energy students, adults with professional jobs, careers, not afraid of college, work and many with high confidence, some with a little too much. I want to come back next summer and work the classes again, but they are a challenge because of the students (gotta be on my game!) and the time. One more week to go there, and that's just finals.
EdCC motors along. Summers are great, and I hope that I can do the same schedule there next year, with 1 in the classroom and then 3 online. Don't want to lose the classroom contact, but the three onlines are much easier than an extra 6 hours in the classroom during the week that one more F2F would demand.
The HMCO workshop in Jackson is looming on August 20. Have yet to talk to the local rep and am spending too much time fretting about the presentation. Will develop the agenda and email it to MMiller, Jackson State prof and rep this week for their review, and then will put this away for a bit while grading finals and the curriculum development project comes on stream.
Max is 16 now, and seems to be maturing. He's a happy kid by and large, fun to be with, easy going, and totally absorbed with music. No doubt, the challenges of high school life are looming in front of him, but I think that he should weather them with no more than the usual choppy waters.
OK, back at it.....
