Friday, July 27, 2007

Thursday Night Drive Game


I'll tell you what....I'm not a huge baseball fan, but you don't have any choice but to enjoy a baseball game at West End Field in G-Vegas. The stadium is awesome. It's a replica of Fenway Park, the home of the Boston Red Sox. Now, if you want to see good baseball....well, you might have to go somewhere else. The Charleston Riverdogs put a hurtin' on the Drive last night, and they're not having a great season overall. Still, the stands are pretty full, and I think that's in part because of the stadium itself, the location, and the general atmosphere. We started out in the County Square parking lot, which is about two blocks or so away from the stadium. My wife's company was sponsoring a cookout, and the burgers were fantastic! As we ate, an ice cream truck from Bloom's grocery store pulled up, and the ladies inside started handing out free ice cream sandwiches. It's just a short walk to the stadium from there, or you can take the trolley. The kids love that stuff. On the way, you pass by Shoeless Joe Jackson's house. Jackson was a Greenville native, and his house was moved to the site during construction of the stadium.
Last night was $1 draft night (they are usually $3-$4) at the tap below the Upper Deck. The Upper Deck is a great feature of the park. You pay a little extra to get up there, but it's a big patio with tables and it's own bar, flat panel televisions, and live music. I couldn't make it past the velvet rope, but I did catch a few bars of some Jimmy Buffet over the sound of the game. I think things like that help out with attendance when a team is in a slump, and attract people who otherwise wouldn't come to the games. This year they also have the Coca Cola dugout, which you can rent out and be right at field level. I've never heard of anything like that before.
We were sitting in right field. It's a small park, so there really aren't any bad seats. Over in right field there is a nice grassy area for people to sit on and for the kids to run around on, and a great playground.
Location is another thing the ballpark has in its favor. It's so close to downtown that you can easily hit a good restaurant and a couple of bars either before or after the game. I would think that would make it a lot more popular with the G-Vegas socialites that might not otherwise want to dedicate their whole night to a ball game.
Being my usual hard partying self, I topped out about 9:30, after the Riverdogs popped two homeruns in a row over the Green Monster, a 30 ft high wall in left field. On the way out of the stadium, we were handed a free loaf of bread, provide by the fine people from Sara Lee. Yeah, I know...sounds weird....but I thought about it on the trolley and the more I thought the better it sounded. I mean, I'll get more use out of that loaf of bread than I would out of a miniature baseball bat, right?
So, overall, a good night out with the family in G-Vegas. It also gave me a chance to meet up with Axe and his family. Axe and the kids stayed for the whole game, and Axe Jr. snagged three baseballs before the night was over.
That's almost better than a free loaf of bread.

(You're) Motorin'

When B-Rad approached me with the idea of killing off this humble corner of the web, I simply replied, "Kill it." I'm glad he decided against it, though I'm not really sure what I plan to do with my newly granted administrative priveleges. I'm not one to pour out my inner-most thoughts to many - much less on the not-so-anonymous web.

Some might be surprised that as a youth, I was a rather rabid follower of the political goings-on in the country. I thought it was good to be up on the issues, and as I was rather youthful, I thought it bode well for my future as a father and such. How ironic, then, that by the time I actually had kids, I could pretty much give a rats-ass what was going on day-to-day in DC. The Clinton years pretty much wore me down, and though it would be a few more years until George W. Bush was elected, by then, I felt that things were looking up. After all, adults were back in the White House. Don't get me wrong, I vote in the elections (to include primaries and mid-terms), and such, but that's pretty mucy the extent of my involvement in the political process.

So, maybe this isn't really political, but as I was out driving the paved roads of G-Vegas today, I came upon a vehicle at a stop light, and it caught my eye: it was a Prius hybrid. The car of choice of the left-wing do-gooder. The car that does nothing to help the environment, but let's the owner pat himself on the back whenever he needs an ego boost. I know I've seen a few before, but something intrigued me this time. It was a car length or so in front of me, in the next lane, I couldn't help but wonder who was driving it. There were three or four red-lights in the upcoming stretch, so I was confident that I'd see the driver at some point. (This is the point where I mention that his left turn signal was on, implying he wanted to make a lane-change. Not today, buddy. Or crunchy chick.)

Then I saw it - the drivers window was own, arm dangling out. Dangling... dangling... dangling... a cigarette. I could now narrow it down - seeing the hairy appendage, I could deduce that there was an 85% chance that the driver was a male. 15% that it was a crunchy chick. As traffic began moving, I confirmed that there was an older male pressing the pedal to the Li-Ion cells. Crunchy little wife in the passenger seat. Fuzzy, yellow dice hanging from the mirror. Yes, fuzzy yellow dice.

So we're at the next red light, and it happened. Yet again, Mr. Environmentally Conscious is in the lane to the right of me, car-length a head and he takes a drag on the cigarette, dangles his arm out one last time... and drops the smoking butt on the ground. Money shot!

This bugs the hell out of me. I really don't have as big of a problem smokers as others, but I don't want to pull up to any of the many medians around the Upstate, and see where they have emptied their ashtrays into the streets. There are places I've seen with thousands of cigarette butts laying around. And I don't want to see them thrown from their windows going down the road, either.

Then it occurred to me that I've heard commercials promoting clean roads in South Carolina and some hotline to call when you see someone litter, so I jotted down Mr. Prius' tag number and the next time I was in front of the laptop, did a search and came up with this. I looked all over the page for an online form to report the errant butt and, finding none, realized that I was actually going to have to pick up the phone, dial a number to report it. Jeez, what next? Am I going to have to actually have to talk to a live person and tell them that some bozo threw a cigarette butt out his window?

Yes and yes. And, yes I did.

After all that effort on my part, Mr. Holier Than Thou Pius Hybrid Owner is going to be getting this in the mail, informing him that he's a litterbug.

I just hope he gets it the same day his car payment is due, Al Gore hits him up for a political donation - and his Prius battery dies an untimely death.

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Epitaph

Die by my hand
I creep across the land
Killing first-born man
Die by my hand
I creep across the land
Killing first-born man

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Coast LED Dual Color Flashlight



Just in case anyone is looking for a great flashlight, I'd strongly advise you to take a look at this one. The Coast Dual Color LED has five white LEDs and one red LED, and it's the most useful flashlight I have ever owned and the only one I would recommend for travel. The white LEDs provide plenty of light for pretty much any situation, and the red LED is great for when you want to preserve your night vision, like when you are driving in the car and need to check directions. It's very light and compact, and uses three AAA batteries. Mine is still running strong on the original set after months of frequent use.
If you want to get really serious about it, there is a model that has a green and blue light as well, and models that have lasers that can be attached to your favorite pistol or assault weapon. The green light is supposed to be good for reading maps. My limited knowledge of firearms prevents me from commenting on how affective it would be for that purpose.
The Dual Color is available from Coast Cutlery.