Getting ready for bowling season

Historically, I've generally been a slow starter in my bowling seasons, mainly because I would rarely touch a bowling ball all summer. This year I'm making sure I go out a few weekends before league starts. We'll see how that works out, but I hope it doesn't hurt the golf game, what with the state Mid Amateur tournament coming up in three weeks. I'd sure hate to ruin my chances of missing the cut by less than ten strokes.

I took the kids to Cedarvale Lanes this past weekend. My son took a couple of poor quality (cell phone) videos. For the most part, I like what I see, but it seems I'm lofting more than I did when I was younger. I suppose it could be age, maybe my reaction to how the lanes were responding, or it could be that I'm throwing with more ball speed than I used to, and to do it I feel the need to really heave it out there.

Regardless, it's something I'll look at working on, at least to be versatile enough to lay it down more gently when the lane patterns call for it.

I'll try to post the videos when I can figure out how to convert them to a file blogspot recognizes. Next time, I'll try to get our video camera for better quality shots, and thus better quality analysis.

Duct tape Rx redux

In early June, I posted about a new use of Duct Tape of which I had not been aware. Well, it hasn't worked out so well, so we took our 4 1/2 year-old to the doctor today to have it removed.

When we told him we were taking him to the doctor, he wasn't too happy. He remembered the last visit, which involved shots. We told him there would be no shots today, yet neglected to tell him there would be some pain involved, as we expected to have to have a freezing procedure to remove the "bump," as he calls it.

As it turns out, the doctor recommended a liquid that would blister the skin and remove it somehow. But first, she had to scrape some dead skin with a blade, which was somewhat uncomfortable for him, but not terrible. The blistering is not supposed to happen for a day or so, and that may cause a little pain, but it's better than the freezing procedure.

Plus, we didn't have to lie to him. Although, telling him there would be no shots, and that "this won't hurt" when the liquid was applied, does seem a little like a lie. After all, it will hurt somewhat at some point, and that is really all a kid cares about when asking about shots at a visit to the doctor.

Aside from the fallibility of duct tape, I also learned that it is nearly impossible to find out online whether wart removal is covered by insurance, unless you have the policy manual (I misplaced it). We'll see if Anthem covers it after the fact, but if not, we'll at least get to use our flexible spending account money. We're in danger of having to stock up on ibuprofen in late December in order to use it up.

Bad game, bad ump, bad fans, great day!

I was at the Twins' 9-3 loss against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim today. I got a nice deal from a friend on two tickets, so I took my 11 year-old daughter to her first game at Target Field.

Despite umpire Jerry Layne blowing a call at home, much like a little league umpire would because the ball beat the runner, the Twins deserved this loss. This happened even though Layne was positioned to see it, as Jason Kubel slid under the tag.

I was more upset at a mother, who decided to take our seats with her daughter and two sons while we went up for some refreshments. There were five of us, including my daughter and me, and the mother simply had one of her kids move down a row when my daughter and I returned, while the rest of our party was in the Town Ball Tavern (for the air conditioning).

This was only the third inning. Then, when a different party returned to the seats to where her one son moved, she just moved her son to a different row and had him take her other son with. When the others in our party came back (the sun went behind the stadium, so we were now shaded), she and her daughter went with her boys to yet another row, several rows down from ours.

I would have been embarrassed if I were the kids, but they didn't seem to have a clue of what ballpark etiquette is. One of them stood up in front of my daughter's view for several pitches while he dug in his pocket for a dollar bill.

I should have said something, but I pitied the woman, with her horrible hygiene, her greasy, unkempt hair, and overall social deficiencies. Mostly, I pitied the children, who have to be raised by this woman.

Late in the game, a man and his three boys came down to sit in our row. That's a little more understandable, as many had left because of the lopsided score. Still, this guy looked like he should have had a clue, and he moved right next to one of our party members, while the other two were away getting more refreshments. He was told the seats were taken, and thus just moved down two seats.

I'm not going to be so kind next time this happens. If the stadium is less than half-full, like PNC Park at Camden Yards when I was there Thursday night (yep, I moved to better seats, because the usher told us to sit anywhere we wanted in that section), I don't have a problem with this. But when it's a sell-out, and you get busted once, move on. It takes a lot of nerve to just move over into other seats you also obviously did not pay for. Or just obtuseness. It's awful parenting, too.

Another reason I didn't say anything this time was because I was with my daughter, and nothing could bug me that much when I'm having quality time like that. I enjoyed the day. She got a nice lunchbox as a promo, we enjoyed some treats and sunshine, and got a few laughs over the odd woman and her odds-against-them-in-life children.

I recommend this to everyone: When someone is doing something that normally ticks you off, it's not too difficult to change your mindset and make it for an entertaining moment, or afternoon at the ballpark, even.

My mission continued: MLB replays

I've posted about this blown call by Bob Davidson on some chat boards, so I'm not going to go into detail here. I'll just post the photo I'm referring other people to.

I will say this: Replays show the ball bounced twice in the infield, both on or inside the chalk. This was the third bounce. What gets me so is not that he missed the call, but rather he is actually making the call and not following the ball as it lands in the outfield. Granted, it doesn't matter where it lands there, but for persepective, especially since replays show it on the chalk on the previous bounce, the ump should be following the ball. Ridiculous.

A Bargain at $30,000; a Shame at $8,500

Continuing from my previous entry, when I purchased a home in Ortonville, Minnesota, it was a nice, old, three-bedroom, 1 1/2 bath house, with a beautiful dining room, living room, and staircase. Purchase price: $30,000. Even for January of 1993, it was a bargain. The gentleman who owned it was a recent widower, which is perhaps part of the reason for the deal.

My ex-wife and I lived there only until August of that year, when we got married and moved to Iowa. Of course, it's not the relationship I get nostalgic about. It's everything good about living and working in Ortonville, especially this house.

Sadly, in my trip to Ortonville this year, I found the house for sale and in disrepair. It had been 16 years since I saw it last. (My ex and I visited the next-door neighbors once in '94.)

What also saddens me is that I had a dream radio job for my first gig in the business. Yes, it was 3 1/2 hours from the Twin Cities, the station was an old farm house, it paid $6 an hour, the music format wasn't my favorite (but not too bad for my taste: it was Adult Contemporary, with Oldies on the weekend), the equipment was old and not entirely functional, and because of the small market town of just over 2000 people, there were the Sunday AM church broadcasts, crop reports, and the Little Red Mailbox, which is still a daily feature.

But the beauty of the gig was that it was the perfect opportunity to learn by making mistakes, without getting fired. Further, and more importantly, my boss, while at times being a hard-nosed SOB (I don't mean that as an insult, necessarily; in fact, his dad, the owner, used those exact words to describe him while telling me the story of how his son saved the station), wanted me to push the envelope on the air. He actually encouraged me to be controversial as I was cutting my teeth in the biz. And he didn't mind a bit if I had fun with the Little Red Mailbox and made it "my own."

That kind of gig is almost non-existent in small-market radio (even prior to the Telecommunications act of 1996, which led to owners gobbling up multiple stations, like Red McCombs and Clear Channel, as well as, in my opinion, permanently damaging the quality of radio in this country). In the small markets, the last thing the owner wants you to do is offend a listener, especially since the listeners often are the owners of the businesses that buy the advertising that keeps the station afloat. (Or worse: an owner's wife!)

In my third and final gig in Carroll, IA, I recall a couple instances that still make me figuratively ill. One was when our program director had to apologize to a local merchant for suggesting that the winner of the $500 cash prize in the station's current contest could spend it in many different ways, and after naming a couple examples, added, "Or a trip to the Mall of America in Minnesota." This upset the local jacka...uh, merchant, because the P.D. was promoting, heaven forbid, shopping outside of the city.

Another time, a local car dealer, who spent big bucks with the station (small market stations really depend on car dealer advertising, especially when there is good competition among dealers in the market), was offended by an on-air conversation between the news and sports director and one of the air talents. Their offense: stating that they weren't big Nebraska Cornhusker fans. The car dealer was. (Nebraska borders the western edge of Iowa; Carroll is located in the western part of the state, so you find some 'Husker fans in Carroll.) He was so upset, he threatened to pull advertising from the station.

I don't know how that ever got resolved, but I've ever since been not such a fan of the 'Huskers myself, thanks to that whiny maroon.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, Ortonville. That bargain of a house we bought circa January '93 for $30,000 was listed for $14,900 this past May. It was later reduced to $11,900, and I just found it online tonight, reduced to $8,500. Just sad. It may have finally sold at that price, for I found it on a couple MLS-type real estate sites, but on most of the sites from the Google results, the listing was gone.

I don't know how much the low price is due to the economy, nor how much is due to the disrepair. But I took some photos, and while the main color of the house is the same uninspiring, but not too badly aged green, the rest looks awful, and I can only imagine how bad the inside got (from pets, perhaps?) to bring it to the cost of an old, used car. Hopefully, I'm wrong about my perception.

Below are the photos I took of my old, aging friend. Hopefully the new owners, whoever they are or are going to be, will bring it back to the condition I found it during the winter, some 17+ years ago, when I had my dream job.

From the front. The house never looked that great from the outside,

in part because of its old style and bland green color. From the

inside, it was a different story. I do hope it's still just as nice, and

is priced so low primarily because of other factors, such as the

economy. Someone will have themselves a bargain if so.

A little more close up from the front.

The garage is looking pretty rough. The top is still discolored from

the basketball hoop I installed. The driveway needed a lot of work,

too, but I forgot to download that photo. Lots of cracks and weeds.