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Wednesday Morning, 11am (-ish)

I am taking a little bit of a slow morning today. I had two presentations yesterday, and I feel like I've been running on full burners the past days preparing for them. So today, I'm sitting anti-socially at the Temescal Cafe on Telegraph Ave., knitting and listening to Jim Powell and Bob Uecker calling the Braves vs. the Brewers via the computer-internet. It's turning into a beautiful day outside, but I am very happy at the moment to be sittin' and knittin' and rootin' (and a little tootin', but don't tell the other patrons).
I can't listen to baseball games without thinking about my family, whether it's Brewers' games as a kid with Mom and Dad and Aunt Julie, or talking about the Indians with Cousins Andy and Marty, or watching the Twinkies with Grandma Karlson... The very definition of bittersweet. Sometimes California feels very very far away, and listening to the familiar voice of Bob Uecker, describing a perfect spring day at the Park, just emphasizes that distance.
Ben Sheets is pitching a pretty good game--9 K's in five innings, so far--and the Brewers are providing some run support, which is a refreshing change from, oh, ever. The only detraction from this seemingly idyllic setup is that the internet radio feed cuts out every 25 minutes or so, and I have to reload the player. Also, the audio cuts out whenever Bob or Jim isn't speaking, so there're these jarring silences in between bits of commentary instead of the ambient noise of the ballpark. Two distractions. I gotta say, it could be a lot worse.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I remember listening to the Brewers in Rhinelander when we were up there cottaging...at Camp Stinky..that and the herbal tea lake swimming experience. Nothing like voices in a familiar rhythm to bring back other voices in other familiar rhythms and so starts the cascade of memory. I'm glad you can connect to Wisconsin through the mysterious internets - bandwidth issues aside. And I had to get my 92 year old mother to call me on my cell phone so I could practice answering it... I usually just use it for outgoing calls, but today I needed to make sure Aunt Kathy could reach me and I didn't really know how to answer it. So I called Mom who called me back and in my confusion, I hung up on her. Oh, my ring tone is the Flight of the Valkyries. Love, Mom

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