A Canadian and America's Pastime

PLAY BALL! (So to speak).

I was, ahem, thrown a curveball in the last week of my vacation when I was told that I would have to travel to the Chicago area to cover our city's baseball team.

I've covered them at times during the season at home, but I've never gone on the road with them. And due to a scheduling snafu, I'll be heading out of town later this week for about a week.

The first destination is Joliet, Ill., a suburb about an hour out of Chicago, where they play their final three games of the regular season.

Then I'll be travelling to Gary, Ind., for the first two games of the playoffs.

So instead of the home confines of home below...

...I'll be covering the team whose logos follow on the road (I'm not writing the team name here because fans could google the name and find this blog post).


I've been to Chicago a few times before to cover Stanley Cup final series. It's a spectacular city. Unfortunately, I won't be there except to land at O'Hare, rent a car and drive west to Joliet, then back east to Gary.



But, such is life. I'd rather be at home, but a road trip is nice every once in a while. It's always good to get out of your comfort zone and your natural environment and open your eyes to something new.

I wonder what kinds of team mascots await in these two cities? Our team's mascot (below) was voted the best in the league. I can only imagine what's in store in these two burgs in the Excited States.

So I'll be around, but I won't be.

I'll be motoring around the U.S. Midwest, covering a team almost entirely made up of Americans who play for a Canadian team in the lowest level of professional baseball.

I hope I hit .500 at least.

Spring Cleaning in late August -- Part 2

SUBTITLED: THE BIG SCREW AND THE ELUSIVE LOST NUT

So, when we left you last, I explained that a problem emerged while I cleaned and polished Florence the Fan, thereby eliminating several pounds of dust from my two-bedroom-plus-den apartment.

When I undressed -- I mean, disassembled -- Florence, I had to remove the ring that keeps her front and back covers together.

In an apparent moment of charged, passionate excitement, perhaps like fumbling with a bra fastener in the height of passion, which I have never quite been able to master, I made a mistake.

I lost the nut to the screw below. I looked high and low outside on my patio, but could not find it.
So rather than taking 10 minutes to go to the local hardware store to find my nut, I spent the next hour or so retrieving all of my tool boxes, screw and nut storage cabinets and other sources to find the right replacement nut.

All of these things are located in a gigantic box in my storage room. Living in an apartment, I don't need them, of course. But because of my lack of care in disassembling Flo, I made a horrific boo-boo.

The cabinet above was my first place to look for a nut that could fit the screw. I couldn't find one. I was distraught. The next series of pictures, as you will see, made my search for a nut even more upsetting.

I never did find a nut that fit the screw that came with Flo. However, I did find a longer screw -- a MUCH longer screw -- that was a bit wider and for which I DID find a nut. That picture is below.

So in the picture below, after finally getting Flo back together and lying prone on the floor with me over top of her, I declared victory.

Having done that, I plugged her back in and got her going again by flicking her switch. She was humming like a charm. I realize the pic below is sideways, but get over it. Turn your head to the left 90 degrees.

So here she is in full splendor.

The shot below is in fact an action shot of her blowing at full speed. In fact, she has three speeds, she's quite a fan of mine. And she goes back and forth if I press a button, but she doesn't go up and down.

SPRING CLEANING IN LATE AUGUST -- PART 1

AS A SINGLE CANADIAN MALE, EVERY YEAR BY AUGUST MY THOUGHTS START TURNING TO SPRING CLEANING.

Whether it's because there's a young lady I want to impress with my domestic capabilities, or my kids are whining about the mess or simply because humans can only exist in SO much filth, I launch into cleaning mode.

And with only three days left in my two weeks of vacation, my attention first turned to my fans. No, not all of you people, all 3.6 of you. I mean my fans, which keep me cool during the warm summer weeks between mid-June and late August.

I do have an air conditioner, but I haven't cleaned out the filter in years. That's my next project. No, my focus fell upon the beautiful big floor fan I go to bed with every night in my bedroom. I couldn't see her any more for all the dust on her.

I neglected to take a before shot, so here's a shot of another, smaller fan I must clean before September. I'm not sure if you can see all the dust on the blades and on the blade cover. Well, my floor fan was much dirtier.
So I took Florence, my bedroom fan, outside and disassembled her. I didn't want all that dust to get in my apartment and it was a gorgeous, hot day. So here she is, with her cover off and all ready for some TLC.

Yes, that is dust. She's a bit of a dirty girl.

You can see my dirty lawn chair, my tools and the pail of hot, warm water. I needed to be soft and gentle but still restore her to her normal self.

Oh, and here's her cover. We'll address a specific situation regarding her in Part 2.

Anyway, I first took my broom to her and swept off as much dust and dirt and stuff as I could. Then I started washing her with soapy, hot water. And I had forgotten how breathtakingly beautiful she actually is.

So the rest of Florence's story will follow in Part 2. But while I was out on my exceedingly scenic ground-floor concrete patio, I noticed there were a few spider webs on my windows.

Actually, it was like the movie Arachnaphobia.

Oh, and just as an aside? Going back before the spider segue? This is a clump of dust from Florence. I know it's out of focus. Give me a break.

So anyway, I used my broom and my wet cloth and I destroyed all those spider webs, as the following pictures illustrate.

Generally, I value spiders. They're perfect predators. But these guys have to go. And one of them was fleeing along the wall below. I know the spider is not, in fact, where I say it is. It's a bit below the No. 1 and to the right.

Just believe me when I tell you, it's there.

GRAVITY