Diary of a Diehard

It has been said that there must be opposition in all things otherwise we would be incapable of feeling. It is not possible for us to know happiness unless we have experienced pain. We cannot have joy without knowing sorrow. We would not know darkness unless we have first been exposed to light. The depths of our emotions are directly correlated to the polar limits we have experienced. Someone who lives their live in the middle of the road first will probably life a very short life since the middle of the road is not the safest place I have ever heard of living. Secondly and probably more applicable, someone who is emotionally in the center will not have much joy since they have not experienced much sorrow with which to compare it against. This is the philosophical premise that I have patterned my life against. There are both positive and negative aspects of such a pattern.

Continue reading ‘What’s the Score’ »

Yesterday was one of those days that you have every now and again where everything just seems right with the world. You are able to somehow combine the things that you love with the ones that you love. After spending several hours at Chase Field at the Arizona Diamondbacks Fan Fest it was time for us to bid farewell to the stadium that we won’t see for another 7 weeks (that pains me just typing that). Trina and the kids had a difficult time pulling me away from the Chase Field concourse. Trina firmly believes that the team will have some repair work to do since she is convinced that I left fingernail marks along the floor as the family forcefully dragged me out of the stadium. I think she is exaggerating just a little, I cut my fingernails so they could not have left a mark. I did notice that the ends of my fingers are sore today and I seem to have cement burns on the tops of my fingers. And suggestions that I cried like a baby when we left are exaggerated. I wasn’t crying I just had something in my eye. But as we were walking across the Gila River Casino Plaza something interesting happened.

Continue reading ‘Sounds Good on Paper’ »

At 3 AM I found myself lying in bed staring at the ceiling. At least I think it was the ceiling; it was dark so I can’t be sure. It was obvious that I wasn’t going to be able to get back to sleep I was way too excited. I’ve been looking forward to this day for quite a while and there was just no way I was going to go back to sleep and potentially sleep through the 3 alarm clocks that I had set around the room. No, I was better off getting out of bed and just starting my day a little earlier. I went downstairs and while I was waiting for my hot chocolate to actually get hot I decided to check my email and the web. Maybe there was an update to the Diamondbacks Fan Fest schedule that I needed to account for. Besides, I still needed to print out my map so I knew where to go and what time to be there. That sounds so funny; I need a map to Chase Field so I know where to go. That’s like saying I need to print out the instructions that tell me how to breathe. I am not positive but I think that after 10 years of trips to the ballpark my body is conditioned to the point that I could probably do it in my sleep. I’ll never actually be able to test that theory but I do have a degree of confidence that it could occur.

Continue reading ‘Fan Fest For Fun’ »

I am not exactly sure what it is about my personality but for whatever reason I seem to be fascinated with numbers and countdowns. At any given moment I have identified some sort of event and I am counting down towards it. When I was a kid I counted down the hours on Independence Day until I could light fireworks. I counted down the number of days until Santa Claus arrived on Christmas Eve. I counted down the seconds until the big mirrored ball fell on television at Times Square. I counted down the days until school was over and summer vacation would arrive. As I have gotten older I figured I would outgrow this obsession with countdowns but the fascination has persisted. All that has really changed is the event I am counting down.

Continue reading ‘T-Minus (X) Days’ »

Ever since Derrick Hall took over the reigns as president of the Arizona Diamondbacks he has made himself very accessible to the fans. Whether it be approaching him at the ballpark with a question or comment to making his email and phone number available so that anyone could contact him. The results of this openness is that the fan’s feel a stronger connection to the organization and that they have a vested interested in the molding their experience at the game. One of the more unique ways that Mr. Hall has provided for fans to ask questions is through his monthly chat on the Diamondbacks web site. This is always a good place to hang out and get a read on the pulse of the Diamondbacks fans and what is important to them. The chat is scheduled for the first Thursday of every month which according to my calendar is today.

Continue reading ‘Web Ramblings’ »

You know it’s kind of funny. When we moved to Arizona one of the big things that everyone told us was how great the school systems were and that we would be amazed at the level of education that our kids would receive. And the best part was that it was free! Wow, free school I bet that is what every kid dreams of. Why couldn’t it be free cotton candy or free baseball tickets now that would be something you could get kids excited about. But free school, I don’t think so. With the exception of my bookworm daughter there is probably not another kid on the planet who would be jumping for joy if you told them they could have all the school they wanted and it would not cost them a penny. I have to admit though I feel a little bit like a victim of a snake oil salesman. That’s not to say I don’t think my kids have gotten a good education; quite the contrary I think they have become educated well beyond my expectations. I thoroughly believed one daughter was destined to be a mainstay in the expedited food industry and now she is two semesters away from a college education majoring in a foreign language (which by the way I remind her that the foreign language would serve her well at any of the fast-food establishments immediately vaulting her to the level of assistant to the assistant manager). No, I have no qualms with the Arizona education system but I do have to take issue with the term “free education”.

Continue reading ‘Maybe a Fund Raiser?’ »

It’s always a great day when you get a letter from home. In this day and age we seem to have lost the significance that a card or letter delivered to our postal mail box can have on someone’s life. I know for me it is so much easier to send an e-mail or make a phone call than it is to take the time to sit down and write something out, find an envelope and stamp, and make a trip to the post office. That being said, I find it amazing how important my daily trek to the mail box is. When I get home from work; one of the first things I ask Trina and the kids is whether anyone has gotten the mail or not. If the answer is no (and it generally is), I will retrieve the mail key and make my daily hike down the street to the mail box. Each day as I am walking down to the box I go through the same thought process wondering at what point delivering mail got so painful that we as a society decided that we would be better served by having a single mail station in our subdivision rather than individual mail boxes attached to our house. I remember as a kid following the mailman from house to house as he delivered mail to all of our neighbors. Come to think about it at that time I wondered why we insisted on having individual mail boxes as it would seem much more efficient to have a centralized box to deliver our mail to. I’m not sure but I think I am in a thought-process infinite loop. Today at the end of that march I reached the mail box and retrieved its contents. Hidden among the junk mail and bill envelopes was a most pleasant surprise.

Continue reading ‘Evening on the Diamond’ »

Do you ever have one of those weeks where nothing seems to go right? You know one where you can’t find your favorite Arizona Diamondbacks Sedona Red pajamas and you have to decide do you resort to having to wear your Arizona Diamondbacks Classic purple and teal pajamas or do you sleep without pajamas? That might seem like a no-brainer as Trina would say but I have definitely seen a difference in my sleep patterns when I am wearing purple and teal pajamas in a post-Sedona Red era. It’s not just the pajamas though. There was more bizarreness that is normal in my life. That is saying a lot since Trina has long proclaimed that on a normal day for me I already peg the weirdness level for most of the population.

Continue reading ‘Happy Condiment Day!’ »

When we first moved to Arizona I was amazed to finally be living in what I considered a major sports city. My definition of “major sports city” left something to be desired I have to admit. This was a basketball town that was for sure. The Phoenix Suns were a season removed from a heartbreaking loss to the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls and we were in the midst of Charles Barkley mania. The round mound of rebound was everywhere; on the radio, at the airport, in shopping centers and restaurants. You couldn’t go anywhere in the valley without hearing about a Barkley sighting. The NBA was not the only game in town, there was also the Arizona Cardinals of the National Football League. Of course you would get an argument from many in the valley that the Cardinals did not classify as a major sport and barely classified as an NFL franchise. Not being a football fan I really couldn’t come up with a valid argument that they truly were “major sport” worthy.

Continue reading ‘Super Glad It’s Over’ »