Speaking of closed track racing with the BMW X5, I thought I would post a nice little video of a Porsche Cayenne GTS vs BMW X5. A friend of mine at the tennis club has the Porsche Cayenne GTS. I am not really all too fond of the body style. I think the X5 is a little taller and I’m pretty tall. Also, I don’t like the Porsche hood. Unfortunately, the Porsche won this race.
If you live in the northeast and haven’t looked out the window yet, let me be the one to tell you that it’s snowing again. Ah yes, the snow.
I was talking to my sister last night and mentioned that I have pretty much isolated the things I don’t like about winter. I told her it’s the darkness and the overcast skies. The past week has been cold and sunny here and I have been totally fine. Neither the snow nor the cold bother me in the least. The main thing that gets me down is the darkness and it is actually starting to get lighter in the evening now. Come March and daylight savings, we’ll be back in business.
I crawled out of bed this morning and was really hoping to play tennis. I took one look out the window and came to the conclusion that it wasn’t happening. I began my usual morning routine with tennis completely out of my mind. Then, the phone rang. It was the tennis club asking me if I would be coming to the clinic if they could gather enough people. I said yes and hopped in the shower. I was excited to drive in the snow again and to play some of the game I love so much.
Well, while I was in the shower, the tennis club called back and informed me that there would, in fact, be no clinic this morning. That’s a shame, because I really enjoy the Wednesday clinics.
The lady who called me was worried that I had already left, because I didn’t answer the phone. She showed such concern and sincerity. I loved that. She is really nice anyway, and I really like her. I gave her a call back to let her know that I was only in the shower and for her not to worry. She chuckled, I chuckled. It was like a chucklefest.
So, that’s my story. I almost played tennis today.
Many of you may have noticed that it’s winter. Yes, the good ‘ol freezing cold air is back. If you aren’t enjoying the air, maybe you’ll get a kick out of clothes that almost electrify you. I’m talking about static, folks. Yes, static.
I have these long Nike warm-up pants that I sometimes wear when I am playing tennis. They are pretty cool and crazy comfortable. I used to wear them in the summer sometimes until I realized that while they were cool looking, they weren’t all too cool on my legs. My legs are at the pinnacle of muscular perfection and insist on being able to breathe.
Since it started getting colder outside, I have been wearing my warm-up pants more often. I would wear them every time I play tennis, but I am being inhibited by one issue – static electricity.
I am not kidding when I tell you that I have shown up to the tennis club with these stupid pants completely stuck to my legs. I stand there laughing while I try to pull them away from me like that lady on the static commercial on TV. You know the one…she is grabbing at her skirt, trying to get it straight. Yeah, right. Good luck with that.
It gets even worse when I actually start playing tennis. For those of you who haven’t been to an indoor tennis facility, I’ll tell you that there is a very fine layer of “tennis ball dust” covering almost the entire floor. This dust is really the neon yellow fibers that come off the tennis ball when it is hit by a racquet. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that all that tennis ball dust is eventually going to find its way onto my magnetic pants. It’s a wonder I still wear them at all. By the time I am finished playing, my pants are covered with yellow from my knees down.
Needless to say, I hate static.
I’ll tell you one more story before I get to the point.
I have this nice black zipper up fleece that I bought from L.L. Bean a few weeks ago. It’s a very handsome fleece and I really like it. Actually, I did like it until I washed it. You should have seen my eyes when I pulled this thing out of the dryer. Forget about the lint catcher, my fleece caught all the lint. The fleece is pretty much unwearable now. I don’t know what I am going to do about it.
To deal with this problem, I started looking at anti-static remedies online. I went through the traditional fabric softener and dryer sheet thing, but I didn’t think that would really work. There were a bunch of people out there that said they had no luck with dryer sheets on fleece. They said that nothing works. Not cool when you have three cats adding to the problem.
I also came across those reusable dryer balls. I think they are made of rubber or something. People said they had mixed emotions about them, but there was a consensus about putting tennis balls in the dryer with your clothes to reduce wrinkles and static. Since I have an ample supply of tennis balls, I decided to give it a shot.
Tennis balls in dryer
I did a few washes and dried the clothes with the tennis balls. Of course, Laura didn’t try this home remedy with her clothes. She lost faith in my laundry capabilities (and tips) long, long ago. Let’s just say there have been some issues. I believe I don’t need to explain any further, because anyone out there who lives with someone, surely knows of the damage one can cause in the laundry room. Especially, when that someone has an imagination like mine. Just look at me trying to blow snow with a backpack blower in the next post.
I have some good news and some bad news, and I’ll give you the bad news first. My fleece still has visable lint all over it, even when I washed it with only dark stuff. The good news is, the rest of the laundry is almost static free and virtually has no wrinkles. I used to have a wrinkle problem, but since I started using the tennis balls, no more wrinkles. I think that’s fabulous. Also, the rest of the clothes seem to be really lint free.
So, my conclusion is that tennis balls work in the dryer to help out with static reduction, wrinkle reduction and lint reduction. What works on a handsome black fleece? Who knows. If you know, trust me, my ears are open.
I just read an article about “Lipstickgate.” I am sure you know what I am talking about. Obama said, “You can put lipstick on a pig…” and McCain is allegedly crying about it. Well, this is what it’s come down to folks. While a friend of mine is waiting to see if his house will be foreclosed on, we are arguing about pigs wearing lipstick, 55 days away from the presidential election.
Now, let me first tell you that I have mixed feelings about the whole mortgage issue. I don’t feel like getting in to them here. My point is, the mortgage thing is a valid issue that we can and should be discussing instead of beautiful pigs. Catch my drift?
I remember waaaay back a few weeks ago, right after the Democratic National Convention, I told my mother that I was finally proud to be a Democrat. I wrote an email to an old colleague the same day and ended it saying, “It’s a great day to be a Democrat.” Man, it felt great to say that. After eight years of cowering in our unpatriotic caves, someone with some guts was standing up to all the nonsense in this country. Sure, I wasn’t flying one of those ridiculous little flags on my car, but I still felt proud and (finally) patriotic. We had a good ol’ fight on our hands.
Oh well, I should have known that sort of pride and confidence in politics wouldn’t last long. Now we have the tit-for-tat that will bring us all the way to another election day. Anything to stay away from the real issues, I suppose.
I have already been to the tennis club three times since I joined. I took one lesson and went to two clinics. There were about twelve people in the first clinic and four in the second. The clinics don’t give me as much individual attention as the private lessons, but they do keep me on top of my game. I also get the opportunity to meet and play against a wide variety of people, which is important. I like the clinics, but I think I prefer the private lessons more. My goal is to go to both the Wednesday and Saturday clinics and have one private lesson per week. I hope to also get some matches, or just hitting, in too. Without a doubt, I am having a good time, I just wish I was there more.
If you have been sneezing or have felt allergies more than normal lately, that may be because of our good friend, the Ragweed. Our other good friend, the Goldenrod usually gets blamed for the allergies, but it isn’t the most likely culprit, due to its heavy pollen. Both plants bloom at the same time, so it’s hard to tell which one is causing the issue.
Goldenrod
I took this photo in the side yard this afternoon.
I have been thinking lately that I need some more clothes. I probably have enough, but they are getting kind of old looking. I was actually on the Old Navy website yesterday with my shopping cart full, when I started having second thoughts. I remembered back to my disappointment every time I buy something other than jeans from that place. The clothes really aren’t quality.
I left that website and went over to L.L. Bean’s website. I found a few things I like and then changed my mind again. I looked at a few of their models and thought I would have to stamp a big “L” on my forehead to wear some of that stuff. Why do their models look like such herbs? They need some new ones (call me).
I decided that it might be best to go out and buy some clothes in person. Maybe tomorrow we can take a trip up to the Prime Outlets in Lee, MA. Those are usually pretty good and I find good stuff up there. It’s not too far from here either. With the crisper air now, it can make for a good day.
Other than that, I am not sure anything too interesting is happening. Any questions?
As I was walking out on the court this morning with the tennis instructor, he asked me where I lived. I told him where I live and then informed him that I just moved here a few months ago. He asked where I had come from and why I had moved. I told him because there were no tennis clubs where I used to live. You think I’m kidding.
I suppose that was just the icing on the cake or perhaps an indication of the type of area we lived in. I think the only indoor tennis court within 30 miles was inside some old barn. This guy I used to work with told me that someone had redone a barn and put a tennis court in it. That wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.
You would be surprised at how many dinner conversations Laura and I have about life. We are real thinkers. I probably over-analyze more than she does, but we do have some pretty worthwhile conversations. One of the topics we talk about is what we could do in the recreational arena. I mean, we probably do more walking, hiking and biking than anyone I know, but it never seems to be enough. We work out on the Bowflex, but that doesn’t seem to be enough. I work around the house cutting down trees and spreading mulch, but still not enough. We even wrestle, well, you get the picture.
This type of thing becomes very important to me when the bad weather sets in. I get the Winter blues easily and need to be constantly entertained or else people are going to hear me complain. No one wants to hear someone else complain.
I used to work at the Carmel Fitness and Racquet Club over in Carmel, NY. I worked there for about four years as the head life guard from 1993 to 1997. I loved that job because it would allow me to do all my homework for college when no one was in the pool. I credit that job for helping me graduate Westchester Community College. I also loved that job because I got free use of the gym and the indoor tennis courts. I love to play tennis and having indoor courts at my disposal year round was the best thing to happen to me. Also, to have a life guarding job year round was great too.
At the Carmel Fitness and Racquet Club, I played a LOT of tennis. You couldn’t keep me out of that place. I get bored very fast, but back then, I had something to do about it. I would hop in my car and go play tennis. If there was no one to play with, I would practice my serve or just hit against the ball machine. Those four years taught me a lot about the game and I actually got pretty good at it.
When I went to college at Binghamton University, I stopped playing. Twelve years have now gone by and I have only casually played tennis a few times, but nothing to write home about. I really miss the game.
Living where we used to live didn’t help. Since people were more into farming than tennis, I had a better chance of somehow driving a bulldozer across a field than to actually play some indoor tennis. Year after year, I got more and more sick and tired of putting up with the lack of recreational activities in the area. There is only so much of walking up and down the road someone can do. I mean, people can say, “Oh, we have this and we have that,” but really it’s the feeling you get when you are somewhere. It’s the culture.
So when I gave the tennis instructor that answer this morning, I wasn’t kidding.
Yesterday, as we were out and about, I decided to take a different way back to the house. I drove through a back road (Oak Street) in Glastonbury to hop on Hebron Avenue. As I was driving down Oak Street, I noticed a sign on my right. It said, “Glastonbury Tennis Club.” I almost fainted. I had planned on joining the tennis club up in East Hartford when the weather got a little cooler, but this was a heck of a lot closer to where we live. I drove a little further and turned around.
Glastonbury Tennis Club
We walked in the club and talked to the front desk person a little while. I eventually signed up for a membership and scheduled a lesson for this afternoon at 12:30. I thought this was just great.
This club has six nice indoor courts and four pros for lessons. I thought a few lessons would be a good idea, since I hadn’t played in such a long time. I didn’t want to jump right back into playing matches with strangers when I wasn’t sure of my abilities.
Glastonbury Tennis Club indoor courts
I had my first lesson with John, the Tennis Director. He was pretty cool and probably got a kick of how fast my face turned red from all that running around. I must say, I played rather well. I hit some great shots and was consistently “OK.” Let’s just say that I could hold my own against an intermediate player.
This tennis club has a bunch of clinics where there is a pro and about five people per court. They hold the intermediate clinics on Wednesdays and Saturday mornings. I will most likely go to all of them. I want to get back in shape before the Winter comes because I want to start playing matches. The instructor told me that in a few weeks, I should be ready for the advanced clinics.
We had to wake up extra early today because of a few chores that needed doing. The first thing was to drive Holly to the vet. She has been there a few times since we arrived in this part of the world. Apparently, she got some wound on her tail that needed tending to. She went in this morning to get a little operation, but when the vet looked at the tail, she decided not to go ahead with it. She thought it would heal by itself. That’s good for Holly and good for the wallet.
After that, we ran up to Super Stop and Shop in Glastonbury for some food shopping. Laura’s family is stopping by for a visit in a few weeks and that is going to require an entire Costco ordeal. In the meantime, the local food store is good enough to hold us over.
I stepped on the scale yesterday and noticed that I weigh 190lbs. I am not sure what the ideal weight for a strapping 6′3″ genious is, but I feel like I am five pounds overweight. I am really going to have to hit that indoor tennis center in East Hartford soon. After all, that is about 90% of the reason I wanted to move over here. It’s the little things with me. I am serious about the tennis though.
Since I am waiting for the cooler weather to come to join the tennis club, and possibly because Laura thinks I am getting fat, we decided to go for a nice long walk down the road today.
In general, I usually have no complaints about walking down the road, except for the hill. The hill is where I usually begin to sweat and I hate that. The reason I hate sweating on the walk up the hill is because I cool off on the way down the hill and that usually means another shower for the day. If you are anything like me, you understand multiple showers per day during the Summer.
I thought we could beat the sweating today because it is cooler than it has been lately. Unfortunately, with all the rain, it is also very humid. I didn’t beat the sweating. Either way, I did take some nice nature pictures along the way.
