The Aging Cubs Fan

I'm from Chicago...well the suburbs actually. I believe I was a Cubs fan since birth. When I was young I remember watching the games on WGN with Jack Brickhouse announcing (Harry Carrey would come to Wrigley later). I couldn't tell you how many wins or losses they had. I loved watching the games, that was all. I loved Rick Monday, Billy Williams, Don Kessinger, Jose Cardinal (with his wild afro sticking out both sides of his cap), Randy Hundley, Ron Santos. These were my Cubs as a child.

I didn't really know a lot about the World Series at that time, I just loved baseball, I loved the Cubs. Hated the White Sox because you couldn't like both teams. Living in the south suburbs, most of the neighbor kids liked the"south side hitmen", not me, I loved the Cubs. I never realized that the Cubs hadn't won a World Series in a long time. I didn't realize that my dad wasn't even alive the last time they won a world series. I just knew they were my Cubs, and I had to root for them.

And I loved Wrigley Field. I loved the vines on the outfield wall, the old clock on the score board. I loved watching the people sitting in lawn chairs on the roof of the buildings just beyond the outfield...there's actually bleachers there now. I remember Dad taking a day off work to take the family to see the Cubs; and as the older kids moved on, got married or went to college, it was just dad and me. I remember when Uncle Doug came for a visit and the three of us went to a game. It was magical. I think that was my last Cubs game at Wrigley. I've been to two or three Cubs games at Dodgers Stadium since moving to California, but it just isn't the same.

As I grew older I became aware of the Cubs' reputation as the "lovable losers" and I began to realize the meaning of "there's always next year". Still I cheered for the Cubs. I held out hope that one day the Cubs would in fact win the World Series. Last season was particularly exciting for me. The Cubs had the best record in the National league for most of the season. I was sure they would make it all the way. I was ready to print up bumper stickers reading " This is 'Next Year'". But alas it was not meant to be, and to make things worse, they were swept in the playoff by the LA Dodgers (my lovely wife's team).

My Dad is 81 and has never seen the Cubs win a world series, yet he still cheers for them. I'm not sure if any living Cubs fan remembers the 1908 World Series...I kinda doubt it. I don't know if my dad has conceded the fact that he will probably not see the Cubs win a World Series in his lifetime. When I set out to write this blog post, I was planning to tell you that last seasons disastrous finish had led me to concede that fact, concede that I would never see the Cubs win a World Series. But in writing this, I find I still have hope, beyond all rational thought, and despite 101 years of evidence to the contrary, that some day I will cheer my Cubbies to a World Series win. ...Maybe Next Year!

Scary driver

If you live in the San Bernardino area, you probably are familiar with Old Waterman Canyon Road. This is a road that heads from the lower end of Highway 18, to about a third of the way up to Lake Arrowhead, where it again connects to Highway 18. It is a relatively narrow two lane road, and is a bit straighter than the twists of the lower end of highway 18. Although there really is no logical reason to take OWCR rather than the highway (I've timed it, it save absolutely no tine unless there is an accident on the lower part of the highway), I usually take this route on my way up the mountain. I did so today after having my car serviced, and almost came to regret it.

You know those moments when you're faced with impending mortality and they say your life passes before your eyes? Well today there wasn't time even for the highlight real. I was coming up Old Waterman at about 55 (I go up faster than I come down, ask me if you want to know why). I was approaching the first bridge (I think there's three as you go up) which is barely wide enough for two cars to pass each other. The bridge was in sight, but not too close yet, but I started to slow down because there was a full sized pick up crossing the bridge coming down and I knew I could not pass him on the bridge. Suddenly as the truck came off the bridge and was nearing me, there were two truck. A smaller pick up apparently thought the larger truck was going too slow (or they were both racing?) and came off the bridge into my lane. I hit the brakes and started praying and bracing for collision (and all that a collision would mean...hospital time, more time off work, loss of income...no wonder I had no time for my laife to flash by). Then, just when I should have felt the small truck hit me, I saw him fly by the right side of my car off the road in the dirt, and in my rear view mirror I saw him getting back on the road in front of the bigger truck. After catching my breathe, and smiling in relief that I wasn't dead, I contemplated calling the police and realized by the time I got off hold, the two trucks would have reached the bottom, and who could tell which way they had gone from there. So I thanked God and continued my drive up the road. Will I let this incident scare me off Old Waterman Canyon Road..I don't Think so!

Just a thank you

No witty post, or confessions today. No humorous insights. Just a not of thanks to everyone who prayed for Cece, my niece's tiny baby girl who had surgery today to remove 20 inches of her colon that was not functioning properly.

Special thanks to Melissa Joan Hart who re-posted my prayer request on twitter, spreading the word to her 17,000 followers.
Thank you

Maturing Musically, Part 2: Under the Covers

It is my firm belief that most of the really Great songs have already been written. Hand in hand with this belief is a belief that at least 80% of the new music coming out today is pure garbage...of course this may be the ravings of a grumpy, balding middle aged man, but so be it. (If anything you read here sounds familiar, I think I posted a similar blog on MySpace about three years ago, but I'm not sure.) Ah, but my mind strays from my point. As I said, most of the great songs have already been written, thus the popularity in recent years of cover songs, and even cover albums.

A cover, if you aren't familiar with the term is when a current artist goes back and records someone else's hit. This is in no way a new thing. Many of the earliest Beatles hits, Twist and Shout for example, were originally hits in the 50's. Today there are for basic ways covers are packaged.

1. There are tribute albums featuring Various artists doing songs by one group or artist. Examples include Two Rooms, the tribute to Elton John's music; Come Together..Country Stars Salute the Beatles, and Common Thread the music of The Eagles. I have found most albums in this category contain a few week tracks, but are good over all, with a variety of artists spinning their style on songs we all know. A recent twist on this was the Across the Universe soundtrack, with various stars of the movie singing the songs of the Beatles...much more successful than the Sgt. Peppers movie in the 70's.

2. There are also what I call album reworkings. This is where several artists will record songs that were all originally on the same album, and release it as an album. A great example is Tapestry Revisited where artist from pop and gospel recorded the music of Carol King's Tapestry album. It's a really good collection. I've noticed in recent years that there have been similar releases of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of The Moon, Wish You Were Here, and The Wall. I have not listened to these, as I'm afraid they could only ruin, and not improve on Pink Floyd. (grumpy old man again)

3. Sometimes an artist will just record one or two covers and mix them in with there own new music. This has been the most common use of covers over the years. Sometimes this works well (The Beatles' Twist and Shout, or Sarah Brightman's way of turning classic rock hits into classical ballads) and sometimes these are just aweful (Think Britney Spears' version of I Can't Get No Satisfaction).

4. Last of all is one of my favorite kinds of albums, where a single group or artist sets out to record a whole album of covers. Some of my favorites in recent years are Mandy Moore's Coverage (Yes that Mandy Moore, yes it's GOOD); Wilson Phillips' California where they cover the bands of the late 60's early 70's California music scene; and the ever quirky Erasure doing Other Peoples Songs, a strange ecclectic collection worth adding to your library. Barry Manilow has releases a disc each of 50's, 60's and 70's songs, and I'm sure the 80's are coming, and they're actually pretty good. A few others that don't work as well are Big Band Theory by Styx, and the cover CD Rush recorded (can't remember the name). These two fall short in that they break one of the cardinal rules of covers...stick to songs people know. Each of the CD's sound good when they are doing familiar pieces, but then they dabble in songs by obscure bands or regional artists that most of the country won't know.

Oh, and I almost forgot my favorite cover CD of all time Phil Keaggy and Friends Acoustic Cafe. The guitar king is joined by a few friends and family members to cover music by Dylan, the Beatles, he Beach Boys, Billy Joel, Cyndi Lauper and more. A must have for any collector. I only hope he comes out with an Electric sequel. I could go on all night about cover tunes and music, but then you'd probably think the old guy was rambling, so I'll go plug in my headphones and Drift Away

Confessions of bad driver

I remember when I was young, cruising through the parking lot of any given shopping center at a speed that was probably nowhere near the posted 15MPH, with my windows down and the radio blaring WLS just as loud as could be. I would from time to time hear a voice from an older pedestrian over my shoulder, "Slow down, don't you know you're in a parking lot?" Today I was walking in the local Target center parking lot when I heard someone call out those familiar words. I looked around to realize it was me calling out to the mini-van cruising through the lot...I had become the cranky old pedestrian. I think I began slowing down in parking lots when my oldest daughter started walking. She never wanted to be carried and could never quite keep up with our walking stride, when walking to the car. It dawned on me that every parking lot was probably full of parents trying to keep the little legs moving while the child was more interested in looking at shiny gum wrappers, or the pretty flowers in the landscaping, or the cute little girl looking back at her from the shiny bumper on the vintage car she was walking past. I did not want to ever endanger one of these precious little ones, so I slowed down in parking lots.

Realizing that I had grown up from the young days of a parking lot terror I began thinking of how I drove in general. It wasn't good. I remember in my younger days very few accidents. I remembered years in my 20's and early 30's where I got the safe driver's discount on insurance. But those days seem to have slipped away. In the last ten years I've totaled no fewer than three cars, and had numerous fender benders. I've broken my wrist, collar bone and shoulder in car accidents. This is not a good track record, and I'm not sure if it is just due to getting more careless and easily distracted in my old age, or if I've just become a worse driver due to twenty years of driving the California freeways.

I have come to realize I have multiple-driving-personality disorder. It seems I am two completely different and opposite drivers, depending on where I am. In the mountain, where I live, I drive at or slightly below the speed limit (to understand my caution, read the earlier post which discusses my road rage incident). If you are behind me in the mountain, and think I'm going to slow, and decide to ride my tail, back off, I will slow down. If I'm going the speed limit, riding my tail makes me take my foot off the gas and coast. If I'm in a stretch where I feel safety requires me to go slower than the speed limit, I will pull off and let you pass, if you stay far enough back that I don't feel I'll be clipped by your passing. This is mountain driver Steve.

Down the hill, especially when I hit the highways, it's totally different. Here the roads are much straighter, and driving off the shoulder doesn't usually end in a several hundred foot drop. On the highway I consider the posted speed limit as a minimum, not a maximum (always keeping eyes out for CHP officers). I generally set my cruise control to 78 or 79MPH. The reason for this is that most of the highway speeds around me are at 65 and the cut for a ticket being an infraction rather than a misdemeanor is 15 miles over posted limit. I generally will drive in the fast lane. If someone wants to zip past me while I'm going 80 I will gladly pull over IF it doesn't mean I have to slow down to 60 for the guy in the next lane. If I can't get over with out braking, the person behind me will have to wait until I can, or he can try to fly around in the micro gap and get past me. This is downhill driver Steve.

By now I'm sure you're glad you don't live near me, so you don't have to deal with my driving. I'll admit, I'm a pain behind the wheel. And I'm sorry, but I think I've grown too old to change. Oh, if I'm in a big hurry, all of the above rules are off, just get out of my way!

Bragging rights

One of the rights and responsibilities of growing older is becoming a parent; one of the rights of being a parent is the right to brag about your kids. I see it all over Facebook, pictures of kids starring in musicals, posts about the scores of your kids' games, "my kid's starting college", "My son is joining the army". I smile when I see these posts. At first it was scary to see that people I went to college with have kids in college, but then I realize again how long ago the class of '87 graduated.

I have many friends who started their families right out of college, and these are beginning to feel the nest emptying. As for me, I waited till I was over 11 years out college before I married and started having kids, and I also have many friends who waited and have younger kids at home. Either way, children can be a source of much joy and blessing, along with the sleepless nights and occasional headaches.

This is the first of what will probably be many posts about my children. I could tell you story after story about 4 year old Ireland, our littlest spitfire. She is so full of life and personality, although as of late prone to fit throwing...terrible two came late to this one. And I will undoubtedly brag time and again on my oldest girl, Dakotah who at 10 years old is reading at a 12 grade level and scoring 100% comprehension on her reading quizes.

But today I'm going to brag on my son Walker. He is just starting the 2nd grade, and following in Dakotah's footsteps. Dakotah and Walker just started attending the Awana program at my church, and in his first week he completed all the work for the first two weeks. (applause please) But that isn't all; today at school he had a special pizza lunch with his teacher and two friends he got to pick. I asked him what he did to get a special lunch. He said, "I answered a really hard problem and I was the onltyone in my class who could answer it." I asked him what the question was, and he said, "Mrs. Murikami asked, 'if there were three lines at the swings and there were three people in each line, how many people were in line?' and what you do is multiply three times three and there are nine people in line." So I got my second grade math lesson from the only kid in his class to get the answer. I love my boy...and my girls.

Now go hug your kids!

Blogging with the Stars

In just less than an hour the fall season of DANCING WITH THE STARS premieres here in California. Many out east have already watched. I am beyond excited. My family has been hooked on this how since season one. I personally have been a fan since season 4 when I first caught sight of Julianne Hough, she's just adorable...and not on it this season. I have suddenly become enthralled with all things ballroom. It is just such fun to watch...perhaps I'm just getting too old for regular TV. In fact in our house I believe the only first run regular show we are still watching is CSI Miami.

We had long resisted reality shows. We watched the first two seasons of Survivor, then quit. We watched most of season one Big Brother and then quit. Then suddenly when Dancing with the Stars and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition hit the airwaves, we got hooked. It wasn't an over night jump away from scripted shows into reality, but before long we added America's Got Talent. Then during the writer' strike we watched Celebrity Circus, Nashville Star, and every Game show that came to prime time. It was coming out of the writers strike last fall when all the shows were back from extended hiatus that we realized we actually preferred the non-scripted reality/competition shows. We followed Kris, Danny and Adam as they battled it out on American Idol, and were glued to our seats as Jeanine peaked at just the right time to win So You Think You Can Dance.

Have we left scripted TV behind for good...We'll see after we watch tonight's CSI Miami on our Tivo Thursday night (No Dancing on Thursday). Of course we still watch the reruns of Seinfeld, and our DVDs of Friends. And I've Got Alias, Dark Angel, 24 and Heroes to watch on my lunch at work.....Ah, but tonight is for Dancing with the Stars!!!