Life of Wry

I say ish because it was actually twenty years ago yesterday, it being the day Jim and I decided to get married.

I always remember the day because March 30 was my dad’s birthday, so that made it easy. Not that our deciding to get married had anything to do with my dad’s birthday.

We just happened to be sitting on the wall in Central Park, on a Saturday morning in March, twenty years ago… and thought, hey, let’s do it, let’s get married! We’d been dating about fifteen months or so, had been living together for about six… and well, it seemed like a good idea. I had just turned 40, Jim was about to turn 43… it seemed about time.

I remember we’d wanted to settle the kid question first–to have one or not–but just couldn’t decide. Both seemed like such great options. (And we know how that turned out, and how we can’t even imagine not having a kid (exclamation point to the billionth power).) At the time, we’d enlisted the guidance of a therapist to help us sort through the pros and cons, but after six months hadn’t arrived at anything conclusive. It wasn’t a deal breaker for either of us, as it turned out. We finally thought, oh, what the heck, let’s just get married and we’ll figure it out later. Which, obviously, we did.

Anyway… twenty years ago. A lifetime. Peter’s as a matter of fact, as he sits on the cusp of turning 18!

So, we had a six month engagement, as it were. In September, we will celebrate the big milestone (our twentieth anniversary).

I went to the photo archive to find a nice picture of Jim and me, or two…  but oh how difficult that was. A few months ago, my photo archive was very well organized, I had dozens and dozens of sorted albums, including one called, “Best of Jim and Kari,” but, as I’ve lamented here before, I lost all of my albums a couple months ago when I moved all my data from my old laptop to my current laptop–the result of iPhoto becoming obsolete and being replaced by Photos (thanks a lot, Apple). I still have all my photos, I just lost the organizing metadata, so my 70,000 photos exist as one huge unsorted database (gratefully, they are in chronological order). Anyway… makes it hard to find particular photos.

Still…   I managed to find a few… and will post at least those, random as they are..

Here’s one at the beach, near Goat Rock.. this was just prior to our receiving a tsunami warning, as I recall (hmm, what to do, what to do.. think we oughta get to higher ground?):

Here’s one that Peter took after about an 11-12 mile hike up to May Lake and down Murphy Creek near Tuolumne Meadows:

This one’s near the grand arch in Arches National Park in Utah; I think Peter took this one, too:

And a couple of nice ones of Jim, just to show that he doesn’t always wear that hat… the first is from my Uncle Bud’s 90th birthday, just a little over a year ago. I like the unposed, uncharacteristic capture, even though blurry:

And this one… I forgot to note the time stamp on it… it’s near a window’s about all I know. I just like it, all nice and glowy:

Happy engagement anniversary, yesterday, Jim!

In my happy place for sure today…

Drove to Yuba City for a game this afternoon and the commute was farmland-beautiful. That means both baseball AND riding shotgun taking a million pictures, like some kinda National Geographic wunderkind (not a wunderkind in the age realm, but certainly in the photography realm). Two amazing loves. Not to mention in the car with another coupla loves. Happy place, indeed.

Jim pointed out this classic water tower… so hadda shoot it..

And this shot of the same tower from a different angle (the above was shot on the approach to the tower, made “nostalgic,” the one below as we’d passed it, shooting back over my shoulder, treated with a filter called Madison Avenue) …

There were road shots…

And this one of the Sutter Buttes…

(…Which I messed up by trying to zoom in.. forgetting I can’t really zoom and maintain any kind of resolution, so decided to just turn it into something more water color-y. I must say, though, those buttes are quite impressive, rising out of the valley as they do.)

I like the orchards, too…

Driving through town…

So, yes, we were there for a baseball game.

Peter, when he doesn’t pitch, has been given a lot of courtesy runner duty. So far this season, in ten games, he’s scored five times! Not bad for someone who is not a position player, who’s not getting regular ups. I think he’s having a lot of fun with it and will keep the job as long as he doesn’t get picked off.

More low-res shots…

On second, taking his secondary?

And now on third, beginning his walk down the line…

Here’s our approach to In ‘N Out… post game, of course…

Some bendy palm trees… #nofilter, I might add, just saw, pointed and shot into the dark sky …

And a goofy one of Peter and Solly in the back seat. They played chess the whole way up and back…

(must have been Peter’s move..).

So.. Yuba: we won 6-5 in our closest game yet. I actually thought this might be the one to break the streak, but round about the 5th inning, trailing 1-3, we put a run on the board, and in the 6th we added three more to go ahead 5-3. We added a run in the 7th which was enough to buffer us from their bottom-of-the-seventh two-run threat… but that’s all that happened and when Kreidler caught an infield fly for the final out, we were all pretty relieved, suddenly very reluctant to break our streak!!  Maybe we’re greedy.

Anyway… we are now 10-0. Yuba duba do!!!

~~

Notes: This was our last commute to Yuba. The drive’s been one of my favorites, for its classic farmland beauty. Yuba’s also been the site of some memorable Peter moments, the most prominent of which was the game, nearly two years ago, when he got his “first look” by varsity as a pitcher, which, because of a great outing, sort of sealed the deal. Dan wasn’t even there, but the reports were so good, he was brought back for another look and off he ran.

I also was so impressed with the Yuba team last night. The announcers, coaches, especially, were such class acts. The announcer, before the game started, devoted several minutes to congratulating the Davis team on its Boras win last week (Yuba won three of four–a very good record there). He mentioned that Davis is ranked: #1 in the greater Sac/San Joaquin region; #3 in the state; #5 in the country … according to MaxPreps. Other rankings, perhaps more discriminating, have ranked us #20 nationally.

In any case, absolutely ANY case, we are playing well and it’s fun to watch. Last night, the play was not so impressive with a difficult pitching outing by Mort, usually so strong, and some silly errors, but they pulled it out, ending the night with 10 hits and great pitching by Bell and Gib. And that first inning home run by Kreider! (The story goes, Ryan texted or snap chatted, or something, the guys on the team in the morning saying he was going to get a home run that day, mark his words… that he just felt it coming on. Uh, wow.) He was amped; also made a killer throw to nail, just barely, a guy at first.. thrilling play.

Later note: Following our win in Yuba City, MaxPreps has ranked Davis, are you ready for this?, #1 in the country. Yes, #1. In the country. The entire USA. Don’t ask me how they come up with this, but there it is. 

Crazy, huh?

Recall a few months ago, I posted a picture of our fallen fence:

Jim has begun the process of fixing said fallen fence:

Here’s a close up of the rigging:

Not sure exactly what the plan is, but at least the fence is upright. That’s a good start!

Go back home day.

We decided to try a new place for breakfast. A greek cafe, down on Hermosa Ave, at maybe 4th-ish, a block from the beach. I’d driven by it on my way in last Friday, packed to the gills, people spilling out on the sidewalk, windows wide open… it was a very inviting-looking, beachy spot. Quiet today, I suppose, because people were brunched out the day after Easter Sunday, and it was a bit foggy along the coast.

A very good find. I had a tomato, onion, gyro omelet, sprinkled heavily with feta and served with tzatziki. Heaven for me. Served also with a homemade bread that is grilled and a little sinful. Mom had her usual very crispy bacon and eggs and we shared pancakes. Oh, and hash browns. We are good eaters.

I saw bottles of retsina up on the counter and moussakas and souvlakis on the menu. Definitely going back.

Here is the proprietor’s dad settling in after the last of the breakfast eaters (us) departed…

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen the bougainvillea blooming so thickly on the front fence. Looked great!

The approach to LAX, shot from the back-most seat in the rental car van…

Started the day with a text from John/Alexis that had this photo of River attached.

Our day was more grown-uppy… dinner at Matt and Mike’s:

Clockwise from bottom: Mom, Michelle, Chris, Matty, Michael. Not pictured: me

Mom from the front:

Clockwise from bottom: green beans, roasted onions, pork medallions, scalloped potatoes. Not pictured: baked apples chunks.

M & M have no kids, but they do have four dogs. Here are a couple of them:

Clockwise from bottom: Violet, Chris, Sophie.

Early this morning. Walked into the family room and got hit with the sun streaming through the front windows. Have always liked mornings around here.

Will be sad the day this house becomes somebody else’s. Been the family home since 1959.. fifty seven years. Yeow. *

There are so many things wrong with it, it’s comical… in spite of my mom doing an admirable job of keeping up with maintenance tasks. (More than keeping up!)  For example, I can’t get the light on in my room these days, and I noticed tonight there’s a nasty smell coming up through the kitchen sink when I run the garbage disposal; mom says the pipes are rotting. Eww.

It ’tis old.

* Fun LA fact: Fifty seven may seem like a very long time, but consider that when Vin Scully retires at the end of this season, he will have been announcing Dodger games for sixty seven years!  Now THAT is a long time.

I get so much flack for using filters in my photography. Honestly, it annoys me. There’s this whole thing out there in internetsville about real photographers who use real equipment and capture real scenes without the aid of filter enhancements. There’s even a hashtag, “nofilters” that gets added to photos out in social media land, as though the photo is more genuine and pure. It seems like an honorary distinction, one that confers upon the photographer some sort of elevated status.

I call bullshit.

Number one, I have never claimed to be a photographer. I don’t have any photography education, know nothing about fancy lenses, and have experience with only the simplest of real cameras.

Number two, I have zero qualms about this. I may, one day, summon the motivation to learn more…experiment with some nice equipment and see how I like it…but I’m also happy doing exactly what I’m doing.. which is: looking at the world around me, with genuine awe and appreciation I might add, and attempting to document it in creative, fun ways. I like it, and often I really like what I come up with. I don’t have equipment (nothing wrong with equipment, I might like to explore equipment one of these days), but I like the immediacy and accessibility of the iPhone and think I’m pretty okay at composition and finding views that are pleasing.

I’ve spent my life being too uncertain and too self-conscious to risk doing “art.” From the time I was a kid, I’ve thought of myself as unartistic. Way back when, I labeled myself an athlete and just decided art was for other people. For artists.

Pretty much I still think of myself as not arty, but… I will at least say that I enjoy some forms of expression and even think I have a pretty good eye for some things . I think I (“I,” the person I am) come out in my writing a little. I don’t venture too bravely into creative writing (whatever that is), but public blogging can be a vulnerable place and at least some of who I am comes out here, for better or for worse. I think our house looks nice and I take some credit for that. I have a particular aesthetic bent, one that certainly appeals to me .. a work in progress, but I get compliments from time to time so it’s not just me who likes it.

And then there’s my photography, most of it on an iPhone, a lot of it filter-enhanced. I claim total credit for the ones that look great. I chose the subject, I framed and cropped my shots, I chose the colors and enhancements, and created finished images that convey whatever it was I was trying to convey. They speak to me, and they speak for me. That, to me, is art.

And it’s really, really fun for me. I’m not kidding: I just love it.

So please stop with the filter shaming.

~~

So hey, I bought some new filters for my Camera+ app yesterday. Spent $1.98 for eighteen of them!

The first two below are photostaken yesterday on the I-80 on ramp out by the bypass..

Played with them on today’s commute from Davis to PV…

Out the window of a vehicle moving at about 70 mph down I-5:

Off ramp at airport exit:

From the plane:

LA being LA… at the rental car place:

A few down on the Esplanade:

We won the Boras Classic. Given how these boys have been playing, winning was not that unreasonable an outcome, I mean somebody has to win, and this team… well, it’s just really well put together. So… we’re competitive, and why not us?

BUT, by game four, we were reaching the end of our pitching inventory, AND we were facing a team–Junipero Serra  High School in San Mateo, that 1) has a serious reputation and a long tradition for exceptional talent*, and 2) had saved its star pitcher for the championship game, betting on the probability that they would, in fact, reach the championship game. Which they, of course, did.

(* Barry Bonds and Tom Brady are alumni)

So, I don’t know.. but it seemed like the odds were not in our favor.

At this point, I wonder if it would be unethical for me to just paste the Enterprise article right into this spot, because I cannot do a better job of describing the game than Bruce Gallaudet whose sports writing and understanding of the game, combined with his history with DHS baseball, are incomparable.  It was such a good summary, I’m just going to do it, here it is:

Blue Devils rally to clinch Boras Classic victory
By Bruce Gallaudet  | March 25, 2016

SACRAMENTO — Sometimes words fail.

But newspapers are obligated to tell the story, so let’s push through this by starting with the simple facts …

Davis High beat Serra of San Mateo, 10-6, to win the north division of the Boras Baseball Classic in front of 350 fans at McAuliffe Field on Thursday.

Now the hard part. How to explain what transpired?

The Blue Devils were playing without front-line pitching available.

They were facing a St. Mary’s College-bound hurler who had allowed just two hits and fanned nine while the Padres built a 5-0 lead into the fifth inning.

Davis asked a just-called-up junior varsity kid to start on the mound. A guy who hadn’t pitched this season.

For long relief, DHS coach Dan Ariola gave the ball to a happy-go-lucky lefty who hadn’t toed the rubber once in the locals’ angel-kissed first eight games.

So, of course these Devils found a way to get it done. They always do.

On this night, it was the energy provided by starter Sean Finerty — the JV shortstop who was unlucky to allow three runs in two innings of work. And it was the I’m-always-having-fun presence of reliever Eton Tuttle, who baffled Serra hitters just enough to allow his brethren to catch up — and then some.

“I knew (Wednesday) I was getting the start,” Finerty told The Enterprise. “I was excited. But then I just wanted to throw strikes and help our team win.”

Mission accomplished. A lost fly ball, an error, a walk and an infield single allowed the Padres to patch together that three-run second off Finerty. But only one ball was hit hard in Finerty’s outing.

As for Tuttle, he didn’t know he would be second up until just before the game.

“It was definitely surreal. It was a shining moment, I guess,” said the upbeat Tuttle after he and DHS third baseman Tyler Gibson shared game MVP honors.

Tuttle’s line read three runs and four hits, but he did enough to keep the Devils hanging around until they put up back-to-back five-run outbursts in the fifth and sixth frames.

Tuttle and Finery were pressed into service when ace Peter Frame (arm tenderness) was scratched from his usual start. Ariola said Frame “will be fine with some rest.”

Meanwhile, it looked daunting for DHS, trailing 5-0 and Vinnie Venturi cruising for Serra.

But the Devils began a different approach at bat. Ariola said he wanted his hitters to show some patience.

“We wanted to work (Venturi’s) pitch count … and then he got tired,” said the coach, who in two decades at the Devil helm has never won a holiday tournament. “We’ve done that a number of times this year where we’ve had three- or four- or five-run innings just like tonight.”

In waiting out Venturi, who entered the contest 3-0 with an earned run average at 1.68, Davis worked four straight walks to get on the board and send the lefty packing.

With one out and a run in, Reed Hessl tapped reliever Jack Petersen for the first of his two giant hits, making things 5-2. John Lagattuta’s two-run double followed. Ryan Kreidler got his umpteenth intentional walk of the year to reload the bases before a fielder’s choice by Ryan Holgate plated Hessl.

Tuttle’s quick sixth inning further energized the Devils, who got a leadoff double to the fence in left from Gibson before a hit by Griffin Duisenberg and a walk to Max Thompson filled the sacks for Hessl.

Again, the second baseball delivered: this time a two-run single to right-center and Davis was ahead 7-5. Kreidler added an RBI hit and Hunter Jury smacked a two-run single to put Serra in the rear-view mirror.

Gibson came on to efficiently get through the seventh.

“I feel like we play well as a whole,” explained Tuttle, still shaking hands with well-wishers 20 minutes after the final out. “We have really good chemistry and our offense is great — we put up 10 runs. And defensively we’re also very good. We’re just a scrappy ball club. We never think we’re out of a ballgame. We’re always going to give it 100 percent.”

Ariola was asked what he thought about the performances of Finerty and Tuttle:

“Just great. I save them for championship games,” dead-panned Ariola.

Like May 7 in Berkeley, when the Boras Baseball Classic “state championship” game will be played against the winner of next week’s south-division tourney?

“Probably. Yeah. We’ll pitch both of them.”

 

I hope that wasn’t cheating.  Great article, though, right?

Here’s the team following the trophy presentation, wearing their new Boras champion shirts.

Like a dream!

I love night games. This one was particularly fun, not just because we won–to earn a spot in the championship game–but because, and mostly because, it was a very pleasant, warm and still night, and the stands were densely packed with every single baseball family we’ve known and shared bleachers with for, oh, say the last 12 years. (And okay, not every family, but this year’s crop, which includes so, so many of the oldies.) It was just so sweet.

It helped that whoever was in charge of the music had a boomer sensibility, so not only were we all just primed for excitement, but we were listening to Bonnie Raitt, Fleetwood Mac, the Rolling Stones.. felt like a party.

Here’s a shot o’ the sky and field, just prior to nightfall. My view from my spot in the stands:

This is a shot taken by Korlyn, of the boys taking a group selfie, immediately following their third straight tournament victory, a 7-5 win over Maria Carrillo (of Santa Rosa).

This being spring break, it’s time for the annual Boras Baseball Classic. I don’t know how Davis gets invited every year, but we do. This fellow explains this prestigious tournament better than I could:

Each team plays four games over the three days. If you win all four, you are the champion of your division (ours is northern California), and you play the champion of the other division (southern California) for the title–what they consider best high school team in the state. This game happens later in the spring, this year at UC Berkeley.

We won our two games today and are in the hunt. Completely unexpected.

Our two wins today bring our season total to 7-0 (11-0 if you count the pre-season games). It sure makes a difference when you have a hitting team.

Here is a pic of the draw, at least a portion of the winners’ bracket side:

Boys between games, eating lunch, scouting their next opponent:

Peter was going to pitch today but had a sore shoulder. If it doesn’t feel better by day #3, he may sit out the entire tourney, which would be a bummer. He went to Hideshi today (maybe only his second time seeing a trainer/therapist in a 13-yr baseball .. uh.. do we call it a career?).  Hope he feels better tomorrow.

Anyway.

It was an incredibly beautiful day today in Sacramento.