When I rolled out of bed this morning at O’Dark Thirty, I was almost immediately greeted by the sound of thunder in the distance.  I looked at radar, decided it would probably pass to the southwest of us, and went back to bed.  Now don’t get me wrong,  I wanted to ride with Pam.  With as much thunder as I heard, however, I knew she would be worrying that we were going to get caught in the storm the whole time we were out there.  With my stated goal of always attempting to make the tandem rides fun for her, we were better off laying in bed for an extra hour listening to the rumbles.

The storm did indeed pass to the southwest, leaving us high and dry. 

The commute to work was incident free, which is a good way for them to be.  The downside of that, however, is that there aren’t a lot of people out doing interesting things these days. 

By 4:00 this afternoon, I was warily eyeing my computer screen.  I planned to leave the office at 4:30, and I was concerned about this:

Luckily (taking the positive spin), I got held up a while, and by the time I got on the road, it had passed through and this was my view as I passed Hammons Field:

On the way in to work, I was kind of bumming because I’ve not encountered anything interesting lately.  Well, that was changed on the way home.  There are always several people sitting on parking lots around the ball park to collect the parking fee on game days, and today, I found this guy.  He didn’t seem to be making any money from baseball fans, but I don’t think it was bothering him!

Musical parking attendant

It’s stuff like this that make commuting fun!

God bless….

TW

The plan was to get up early this morning and take a tandem ride, but we had yet another storm during the early morning hours.  I got up long enough to see that the back patio indicated that the roads would have been a sloppy mess, then went back to bed and cuddled with Pam for another hour. 

By the time I left for work, the roads were starting to dry out but it was pretty foggy in some places.  I used every light I had and made it to work safely.

A foggy morning as I left the neighborhood

On the way home from work, the Springfield Cardinals baseball game was just ending as I went up the hill past the stadium.  I got stopped at the intersection just in time to talk to Brandon (my Dad’s step-grandson).   He was having a great time.  The Cardinals had won both games of the double header.  He caught a foul ball, then managed to get Pop Warner to autograph it.  What more could a baseball fan ask for? 

A Pops Warner Autographed baseball

As soon as I got home I changed shoes and headed out to pick up another 20 miles.  I really didn’t intend to, but ended up riding pretty hard the entire time.  I decided to go out on Sunshine, loop around Logan Rogersville High School, and come back over Kinser Bridge and up the honker hill out of the river valley to the house.  The wind was from the west so since the entire trip back would be against the wind I hit it pretty hard until I turned toward home.  It wasn’t long, however, before I spotted two specs way ahead of me that had to be cyclists and decided to try and chase them down.  I know it shouldn’t count as a chase unless they know they’re the target, but it gave me some incentive to ride hard.  I just put my head down, got into the drops and pedaled for all I was worth.  It took me nearly four miles, but I finally caught them on some hills.

Yes, it was a good day!  How was yours?

God bless…

TW

Just a Bit Outside

Originally uploaded by W.K.

Wow how I wish spring was here. Some people say that love is in the air. I believe that it is actually the smell of hot dogs at the first baseball game. Or the singing of the national anthem, and take me out to the ballgame. You are anticipating those wonderful words “Play Ball!”. I am a huge baseball fan and count down the days to the start of spring training every year. So I wanted to post this photo. It was taken at Hammons Field in Springfield. It is the home the Springfield Cardinals, the Double AA affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals. The big birds came down to play the little birds before the 2008 season started. I was able to snag tickets to both games before they sold out in a record 14 minutes. This is a photo of Yadier Molina warming up Todd Wellemeyer before the game. I hope you enjoy and get ready for baseball.

I got up and ran 5k this morning and was really amazed!  I’ve only run that far once since 11/20, and with this bronchitis I figured I would really struggle but I felt surprisingly strong….until I stopped, then I just about hacked up a lung!  Oh well, I expected that would happen.

My thermometer out back indicated 39 degrees this morning, with the forecast to be “mild but cloudy”, with rain beginning in the afternoon or evening.  We had clouds to the north as I headed to work on my bike, but back to the south and east it was only partly cloudy, giving rise to a pretty decent sunrise.  I carried my camera this morning, having lamented a few times that I was noticing some picture worthy sunrise and sunsets on the way to and from work, but I couldn’t find an uncluttered view of it the few times I glanced over my shoulder.  By the time I got serious about trying to find a clear shot, everything had gone completely gray!  The clouds made it dark enough that I needed my lights again this morning.

The commute in to work was uneventful, but I did use a trick I picked up on the last few times I rode.  I know people are just trying to be courteous, but when I pull up to a 4-way stop after they do, they need to go on through and let me go when it’s my time.   I’ve had several motorists cause confusion by trying to be courteous and letting me go out of turn.  I’m thinking “thanks, but no thanks!”.   I’ve started unclipping, standing down, and even releasing the handle bars to help them understand that I’m not going to move until it’s my turn.  Doing that the last few rides has eliminated that problem.

The trip home was nice in regards to temperature (50 degrees), but brutal in terms of the gusty south wind.  It was the hardest trip home from work that I’ve experienced in a long time.  I did take time to stop at Hammons Field and snap a twilight picture of the home of the Missouri State Bears and the Springfield Cardinals Double A baseball team.

Hammons Field .... no baseball here tonight

I’m awfully tempted to go add up my mileage for the year to see if I’ve passed my personal record yet.  The last time I looked, it looked like it might be feasible, but I told myself that I wasn’t going to let myself look or try to keep track of mileage until the end of the December.  Not that it really matters, but it makes the game a little more interesting!

Commuter Count:  1 (and he even had lights!)

God bless…

TW

Marlin’s quarterly meetings probably aren’t what most would think of as “business meetings.” Sure, we talk about business and yes, we are meeting, but we do so in places like Incredible Pizza, the Springfield Nature Center or in the case of the last meeting, Hammons Field, home of the Springfield Cardinals. That’s right, a company meeting at a baseball stadium. Don’t worry, we’ll wait for the jealousy to set in.

…

Okay, that’s probably enough. On to the meeting. After being escorted through the locker room, where we each got our very own t-shirt and cap, we made our way into the training room and caught up with all the great work being done by the whole agency.

Of course it wasn’t all fun and games. After getting a tour of the stadium we had to really buckle down, get serious and do some batting practice and participate in tricycle races.

If there’s one thing we learned, it’s that the trick to winning a tricycle race is using one foot for pedaling, the other for kicking and accompanying them both with an occasional high-pitched scream.

!!!

Chris Carpenter pitched in a rehab assignment tonight for the St. Louis Cardinals’ Double-A affiliate Springfield Cardinals.

The former Cardinals’ ace started against the Northwest Arkansas Naturals at Hammons Field in Springfield, Missouri.

Carp’s results:

Pitches thrown: 62

Strikes thrown: 33

Ground outs thrown: 4

Fly balls thrown: 4

Innings pitched: 4 

Batter’s faced: 17

Hits: 1

Doubles: 0

Triples: 0

Home Runs: 0

Walks: 4

Strikouts: 4

ERA: 0.00

Data gathered from Springfield Cardinals’ Official Web Site

Hammons Field in Springfield, MO.  Home of the Springfield Cardinals, Double A Affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals and member of the Texas League.

  Indoor training facility.

  Specialty of the house, the BEER float.

Pics taken beginning of August, 2007.