Blue Balls

I recently picked racquetball back up and in the words of Loverboy, “I’m lovin’ every minute of it”. I joined the racquetball league at my local LA Fitness. We play for 2 hours every Monday and Wednesday. I was pretty rusty when I started back into it, but now I can hold my own. I just purchased a nice Head racquet. A Head Liquidmetal 170. It has helped me with my control and placement. I still have a long way to go I feel to be a serious competitor, but I look for that challenge every time I step onto those planks.

I am also grateful to all the new friends that I have made while playing in the league. The fella that runs the league is an incredible person as well as a player of the sport for 30 years plus. This opportunity has also introduced me to plenty of people to play with on the league off days, and I have been playing a lot of cut-throat with my neighbor and his buddies.

If you have not played in a while or never have, I truly recommend picking up a racquetball racquet and goggles and smack a few blue balls around. It is one of the best cardio workouts available. Burns more calories than aerobics, cycling or jogging.

Oh, and they now sell green, black, orange, red and purple balls if you don’t feel comfortable hitting blue balls.

Oh so sweet!

“The sweet doesn’t taste near as sweet without the bitter”, Jason Lee in Vanilla Sky. I have played 3 or 4 seasons with my division 4 co-ed indoor soccer team, the Rookies. And the closest to first place that we have come is I believe 4th place. Tonight we faced a huge challenge. We are tied for first with the Revolution with identical records of 6-1. Our opponent for our final game of the season is non-the less, the Revolution! In my previous seasons playing either here at the APEX Indoor Soccer Center located in Mansfield, TX or at Arena Athletics in Euless, TX has a championship game down to the last game of the season, were the two teams tied for first place face off head to head to decide the championship. Wow! And it was and exciting game.

Just coming off and exhilarating victory from the week before we learned to talk and listen to our teammates. During our game last week our Goalie, Rusty, was unable to attend a game, his first game to miss this season. Now this game is crucial to our standings. What to do, I was asked to fill in as goalie for this game. Now I have not played goalie, ever my soccer career, even dating back to my high school days. But with support of all my teammates, from Robert scoring 2 of our 6 goals and our defensive presence to keep pressure off of me, we shut them out and went on to a convincing win by the score of 7-0.

After having a week of walking tall we are here, last game of the season facing a great co-first place team. We gathered, went into this game as every other game, laughing and ready to have fun. Instead of sticking to our 5 minute rotations, we went to a 4 minute rotation. We started the game off very aggressive; we kept the ball down on the offensive side the majority of the first half. I had 3 shots on goal; however not one connected. Our defense swarmed on the defensive side of the ball. I felt like we dominated the first half but just could not get it past their all-star goalie. Nearing the end of the first half the game remained scoreless; however it did not remain scoreless. Revolution was pushing and had numbers down in front of our goal, we made a poor pass to our goalie and since rules do not allow the goalie to handle a passed ball from a teammate with their hands, Rusty attempted to clear the ball, once he kicked it a Revolution offender poached a header and it rocketed right into the top right corner of our goal. Momentum had definitely shifted towards the Revolution. So the first half ended up Revolution 1, Rookies 0. We grouped up during our 2 minute half and said we need to shoot, all of us. And I believe Robert said a thousand words when he said, “Let’s play smart!” And that is exactly what we did. We pushed, we talked and we listened to each other. Nearing mid-point in the second half we got a break on an out of bounds ball played off a Revolution player. Ball placed on the line in front of the Revolution goal, (approx 50 feet). I told Yanira to get to left side of the goal, with the ref counting my 5 seconds down, I notice nobody guards Yanira, they line up in front of me since the last 2 free kicks I had I took shots on goal ;-) So, on the ref’s 4 count I drilled right at Yanira, attempting to get it high enough for a direct header, I kick it a bit fat and the ball did not climb high enough. So, she used the next best thing to her head… her tits! And GOOOOOAAALLLLLLL!!! Rookies go up 2 goals to 1, (girl goals count as 2). Now that was exciting! About 4 minutes later Luis took a shot and we went up 3-1. Our defense kicked it up a notch as we went into a 2-4 formation, 2 forwards and 4 defenders. Revolution did get another score which made it 3-2 in favor of the Rookies. And when the buzzer sounded and the whistle blew, we found ourselves victorious and the Division 4 30 and over co-ed Champions! That was the way a championship game should be played. There was mild aggressions on the field, but all was forgotten when shaking the opponents hands. We played and won as a team. Now we may move up to the next level, we may not succeed as well as we did this season, but we all will always be champions!

Rock on Rooks!

Keep It to Yourself, Please.

Well, it’s been quite some time since I have had the time to blog. So I am going to make this short and sweet. I have probably received nearly 10 e-mails in the past 6 months. The kind that you answer about a “brazilin” questions about yourself, like “What was the first thing you did when you woke up?” Or “Do you like Coke or Pepsi products?” You know I really couldn't give a shit about those things and I seriously believe those e-mails are designed for people that are looking for attention or they want to see how cool the can be on paper, (or should I say monitor). So, please oh please, if you are reading this blog and are one of those people that send those e-mails, “How well do you know your friends?” Know this, for the question “Who do you think will not reply to this e-mail?” Go a head and put my name in there ;-)

“Stay classy San Diego.”

Treking Along

The time is upon me. I have noticed 2 things that are way too high for me these days. One is the price of fuel and the other is my weight. I had purchased a mountain bike (Trek 3700) about a year ago and have been crying wolf that I was going to be riding it to work every morning. Well, as a test I rode my bike up to my work on one Saturday morning. I live just over 3 miles from work. I averaged about 30 minute’s roundtrip. I have ridden my bike now 3 days last week and I am planning on riding it four days this week. (I was just running late this Monday morning so I took my truck). I figure that this will start some sort of trend and more citizens will follow my lead and save on gas and get back into descent shape and start riding more frequently. You don't have to ride all the way from your home, one can drive a certain distance, park, hop onto one's bike and pedal strong!

Yes, it may take us longer to get home in the afternoons, we will sweat a bit, but it is all so tranquil, exhilarating and way worth every drip and every minute we spend pedaling. I wish my ride was longer actually. I am considering a different route to get more cycling in on a day. Wish me luck, I wish you luck and looking forward to seeing y'all on the road.

Dollar Bill$

What is with all the wealthy celebrities donating their time and money for the Katrina relief efforts? It just lights a little fire under my bum when I see all the benefit concerts and telethons, during Monday night football none the less. They are raising and donating thousands, millions and even billions of dollars for the Katrina victims, which is out fricking standing. But the part that really burns is why it takes a national disaster of this magnitude to get these wealthy idiots to start donating time and money? Why can’t they set up shelters, offer room and board in their million dollar homes? Another question, why is it that people in the entertainment industry, being an actor, singer, director or artist, feel that they know everything there is to know about running a nation? Their job is to entertain, why do they have to be so political?

Men and their soaps.

I remember the days when guys would talk about their women and their sports. But those days are now just about gone. They are talking and giggling about Lost, Alias or one or all of the CSI’s. I come into work and they start, have you seen this, have you seen that. I too am guilty of watching and getting caught up in these programs. I am more partial to HBO programs and one or two local channel programs (the Office and Invasion). But like any program on local channels, they run their course within in 2 years, with the exception of Seinfeld. I have cable DVR, I love to capture movies and my sports, but I am hearing so many people that use it to capture Survivor or the Nanny. Is there much difference between General Hospital and ER? But yet men are so ready to pounce on women for watching their soaps, but cannot wait to come to work and discuss what happened on 24. There needs to be an acronym for ABC for stealing the testosterone from the American male viewers.

I on the other cannot wait until the Yankee – Boston series tonight! Now that is excitement that is real. I do wonder if there will be a brawl or if David Wells will pitch drunk. Dun-dun-duuuun! (Thrilling)

Spare Change!

Question! What's with all the window begging these days? I pulled up to 4 different intersections last weekend and at every intersection there where at least 8 people carrying either a bucket or a boot wanting donations. Now, I do not have problem with donating my money or my time to support a good cause, but at four intersections in a row! I donated at one, for a local fire department. And I’d be damned but, at the next intersection, not even 5 minutes down the road, another fire department had their boots out. And it wouldn’t be such a big deal, but they walk up to your window and stare at you and make you feel so uncomfortable. Besides, that it’s dangerous to be walking on the road with cars around, not to mention the poor example they are setting for kids watching these firemen, and women, walking in the street begging for change.
So my question is, why are the allowed to solicit like that? I would think that these organizations would have a better way to raise money besides begging at your car window, like a car wash or a garage sale at the fire station.

Answers

Well, I had my x-rays and my MRI's and the prognosis is that I'm old! Actually I had a budging disk in my lower L5 region. And with a little exercise and steroids I'll be young again and ready to play some more soccer!