Hay Fever Opening Day Blues

Felt a bit of the hay fever a couple weeks ago. For one day then nothing since. I've heard of people outliving their allergies and was beginning to hope this was the case for myself. Until today that is. I have to remind myself every few minutes to keep my hands away from my eyes. But the temptation eventually overpowers a person. I thought I'd try a new medication this season. We'll see how that works out.

Past Life

In what now seems like a past life, I was a basketball referee. A pretty good one I thought. Fair, honest and possessing knowldge of the game and its intricacies. I took the duties seriously, worked hard at it both with preperation beforehand and in actual games. and never wanted to be the cause of one team gaining an advantage. You know how everybody has one or two things they have the potential to excel at? Well I thought reffing hoops was the one thing that I was really good at.

Not everyone agreed though. That's why I walked away from it. I would let critical reviews of my efforts bother me afterwards. For hours, sometimes even days. I took it personally. I've since realized that the referees that rise to the highest levels of officiating are the ones that are fearless, overflowing with confidence and that can shake off negative reactions to their work while always striving for improvement.

I used to visualize myself in situations, see it play out clearly before me and make the call. I thought the more I "saw" a situation, the more it would help to handle it correctly when that situation actually physically appeared again. I still believe in visualization.

I doubt that many people involved for more than a season are in it just for the money. You have to truly enjoy it to stick with it. I reached a point where I didn't enjoy it. I'd get nervous before my assigned games. Not like a player gets pregame "butterflies," but nervous to the point where I just didn't want to step on the court. Some of that is still with me .... I had a dream not long ago where I intentionally skipped out on game assignments.

The Comeback Yankees!!!

I realize that it's still early in the season but this team is beginning to assume appearances as being something special. This is the fourth time in the past week or two where the Yankees have been down late and looking dead and I've given up on the game saying to myself that it's over ..... Only to discover later that they came back in classic "Bronx Bomber" fashion for a dramatic win.

Fifty-three years as a Yankee fan and I can still get excited over a new season and its possibilities!!!

Latest Dilemma

This place I live in has a conventional type bedroom upstairs and then a loft room which is considered the second bedroom in the description, "two bedrooms" and which I employ as my music listening/reading room. This loft room has a slanted ceiling, of which someone once said: "Good luck with trying to keep that space warm." At the apex of that slanted ceiling are four adjacent windows at an estimated height of twenty feet. I should probably insert or mention here that I don't as of right now own a ladder of any length, just a stepping stool that might allow me to reach a point a foot or two outside of my personal wing span which if I was young and a blue chip basketball stud/prospect I'd most probably know that exact measurement. Anyway, I'm suddenly looking up to those windows wondering what sort of decorative objects I could place on those window sills all without falling to my death .... or at least extremely painful and quite possibly crippling injury.

So since I am six foot one and if anything shrinking with advancing age .... and assuming my wing span or reach above that is an additional two or three feet maximum on tip toes ..... and since vertical leap doesn't factor into the equation here ..... and even if it did, I'm still coming up an estimated ten feet short ..... well perhaps you see my problem. Yet I've now taken up a less than rational interest in the idea of using this available space ...... "interest" defined perhaps not by Webster but instead by myself personally as obsession.

Oh and did I fail to mention that I'm not fond of heights? Like anything above the third rung on a ladder, I start feeling a little shaky and uncomfortable.