Bale
Despite today’s 3-3 draw, it was quite a moment to see Gareth Bale return to Spurs.
He started his career the same year (2007) I started following the English Premier League, and Tottenham Hotspur.
At that time, Robbie Keane and Dimitar Berbatov were the top players on the team, so I gravitated toward rooting for them.
Bale slowly became a favorite of mine, and then he left for Real Madrid, another team that I followed back then.
I certainly don’t follow Real Madrid as closely as I do Spurs, so I don’t know all the details of the rift between Bale and Zinedine Zidane.
So seeing an OG Spurs player who was there at the beginning of my being a Spurs fan is pretty cool, especially a favorite player.
And yeah, he should have scored on that great move near the end of that match.
#COYS
Stones
So I’ve been nursing a kidney stone at home for the past few days, and yesterday was by far the worst day.
The pain wasn’t as bad as I’ve had in the past, it was just THERE. Constant. Throbbing. And no amount of water drinking or ibuprofen seemed to make it go away for more than 1/2 an hour or so.
Because of the pain I was pretty lethargic, trying to fall asleep and nap throughout most of the day. I think I did manage to nod off a few times, only to wake up with the dull pain still there.
I also watched the pilot episode of The Greatest American Hero on Peacock. That show hasn’t aged well. Or at least the pilot didn’t. That used to be one of our ‘must watch’ shows back in the day. Dad loved it.
I kept moving from my bedroom to the living room throughout the day to find a comfortable spot to sit or lie down. I managed to watch both the Red Sox-Mets game and the Padres-Giants game.
I didn’t really eat much during the day, either, just some cottage cheese and Belvita biscuits for breakfast, the last slice of frozen pizza from the night before for lunch, and for dinner, some shredded chicken from the chicken broth I made the night before. Don’t ask.
I tried to fall asleep after the Giants walk off win over the Padres, but I couldn’t, so I decided to stay up and watch Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. which I probably would have done anyway.
During the episode the pain faded, but came back almost at the end of the episode, so I took another ibuprofen with a cup of milk, and that seemed to do the trick, though I did get up around 2 am to pee.
This morning? Pain is much more manageable. I think it’s about to pass, like its about to drop into my bladder.
Here’s hoping.
Update?
What a month, amirite?
Aside from working at the office every Tuesday, I’ve been working from home every weekday. The Tuesdays feel the most ‘normal’ since I’m at the office, though it’s weird walking the floors wearing a mask, with hardly any employees around.
I’m not quite back to playing my sports replay projects regularly, though I have played a game here and there.
I’m doing my best in utilizing home delivery for necessities instead of going out shopping myself.
I dove into yet another new hobby, 3D printing, and so far I seem to be enjoying it, stumbling my way through frustrations and successes.
I got to see my sister and niece when I dropped off a gift for my sister’s birthday. I had also seen them when I picked up some cookie dough from the now-defunct Specialties Café.
I really miss baseball.
A crewed commercial spacecraft launched from American soil for the first time, and a first for a crewed spacecraft since the last shuttle mission in 2011. I cried tears of joy.
June is here.
Everyone stay safe until next time, okay? Love you all.
Grab Bag
I ordered a t-shirt grab bag from Ebbets Field Flannels, and I got:
And a Barbers Point Pointers (Hawaii) t-shirt, which I couldn’t find an image for online.
None of them are available on the website. I guess it was a clearance sale on these shirts.
I was hoping for at least one Pacific Coast League t-shirt, maybe the Seals or the Rainiers. Ah well.
Rule of Two
Except for basketball and soccer, I root for two teams in every sport that I’m interested in.
Giants and Mets.
Sharks and Flyers. Maybe the Maple Leafs.
49ers and Broncos.
I root for my local/home teams unless it’s the Broncos or Mets playing the 49ers or Giants.
Just ask anyone who was around for Super Bowl XXIV, when I was probably the lone person in the city of San Francisco wearing a John Elway #7 Broncos jersey, rooting against the 49ers.
Or the postseason Giants games against the Mets.
As for this season, I threw my support for the Broncos out the window when they signed Joe Flacco. They’re still my team, but everyone knew that Flacco was not the answer. Hopefully Drew Lock will lead us into a better future.
So I climbed back onto the 49ers bandwagon, which has been a team I’d been a fan of since freshman year in high school, when this happened:
This year’s squad is full of likable guys, like George Kittle and Jimmy Garoppolo.
And Richard Sherman, that guy you hate, unless he’s on your team.
So while I can say I’m a bandwagoner, I can sorta kinda claim the ‘Faithful Then, Faithful Now’ moniker as well. From a certain point of view.
Randomness
I don’t recall if I ever read “Call of the Wild”. And if I did, I can’t recall most of the plot.
At the moment, I’m about as enthusiastic about the announcement of the new Star Trek film as I was about the announcement of the first J.J. Abrams Star Trek film.
I blame Star Trek Beyond and Discovery. Maybe Into Darkness as well.
Project: Blueberry Pie was a semi success. The pie was okay, just more watery/runny than I was expecting.
The little voice in your head is wise. Listen to it.
Come ON, you Spurs! #mourinho #really
The Saga ends in a month. I’m ready and not ready for it to end.
Star Wars will live on.
Buh.
1977
1977 was not just the year I turned 10.
Or the year Star Wars first premiered.
Or even the year I got Baron Karza for my birthday (he was in his box on the kitchen table when I came downstairs for breakfast).
1977 was the first year that I seriously started to pay attention to baseball.
I considered myself a baseball fan since I was 4-5 years old, because on weekends we seemed to live at the ballpark, especially if there was a Sunday doubleheader. I never paid attention to the games as much as my parents and my brother did back then. I was more interested in when the next time the food vendors would come by our section (General Admission 28).
But two things happened in 1977 that changed the way I saw baseball.
The first was the premiere of “This Week In Baseball”.
Aside from the occasional Giants game, and that day in 1974 when we saw Hank Aaron break the all time-home run record, I’d never seen anything like TWiB, a weekly recap show of baseball, much like the older “NFL Game of the Week” show that would come on in the afternoon on Saturday, after cartoons.
TWiB introduced stars of the game who I was not familiar with, since we only ever saw the Giants on TV. And the dulcet tones of Mel Allen’s voice made the recaps somewhat exciting.
How about that?
The other thing that happened in 1977 was Chris Speier being traded away from the Giants to the Expos.
Speier was my favorite player on the Giants since my first exposure to baseball, which started my ‘root for the Giants player with your first name and last initial’ thing.
I don’t know if I ever rooted for Tim Foli. I simply couldn’t, because he took the place of my boyhood idol.
I think I ended up picking either Johnnie Lemaster (another shortstop) or Jack Clark or Bill Madlock or John Montefusco as my new favorite Giants player, mostly because they had cool sounding names.
Years later Speier came back to the Giants, just in time to watch them become a contender in the late 1980s. By then my ongoing love for baseball had become a permanent thing.
