Hiatus

This will be brief.

A week ago, I had a visit with my ophthalmologist. That very day, I had laser surgery to heal a retinal tear, and I had no idea that I would have this surgery when I went to work that morning. In the meantime, I'm not supposed to read or spend any time in front of a computer. That might explain why I haven't posted in a while. This is the same eye I had cataract surgery on in October.

It didn't work - and by that I mean the laser surgery. On Thursday of this week, I will have the full retinal surgery which involves them draining my eyeball and filling the cavity with gas to keep pressure on the bad spot.

They tell me it's 90% effective, and the recovery involves me lying down on my left side for at least a week. I will have no ability to read or post anything during that time, so I'll be back in a week or two.

In the meantime, visit Yorkshire Pudding, The Last Visible Dog, and Rhymes With Plague to keep yourself amused. And know that when I come back, I'll have stories....

The Columbus Clippers

Saturday: A beautiful day for the first baseball game played in Huntington Park, home of the Columbus Clippers.



The opening day ceremonies were full of fanfare. A color guard posted the colors. Local, state and federal dignitaries walked onto the field to be introduced to the fans. Of note: all of them received a smattering of applause, except Congresswoman Mary Jo Kilroy, who was loudly booed.

Bob Feller, the great Cleveland Indians pitcher, was there to throw out the first ceremonial pitch. Feller is 90 years old, so he needed some help with that pitch. I once met Bob Feller and got his autograph for my mother, who kept a Bob Feller scrapbook in her younger years.


Columbia Gas supported the construction of the new ballpark, and in return we were given naming rights to the left-field foul pole. Our sign is not as prominent as others in the park, but others gave much more money to the cause. That's just the way it works.




Then there was the real first pitch, thrown by Jeremy Sowers...

Not a good way to start the game. That single led to the first run of the game, and the Clippers ultimately lost by a score of 3 to 1.

The Stanley Cup Playoffs

The Columbus Blue Jackets played their first regular season game on October 7, 2000. They played in their first Stanley Cup playoff game last Thursday, in the hostile environment of Joe Louis Arena. It is a high achievement to make the playoffs, but we had to go up against the Stanley Cup champions of 2008 (and many other years), the Detroit Red Wings.

Six of us made the drive up to Detroit for the game, and our seats were on the glass, which is exactly where you want to be for a hockey game. The Detroit fans were, for the most part, civil. I say that because some of the fans were not. We were booed as we walked through the arena to our seats, and I was pelted once during the game. I did my best to make light of it, telling some of our tormenters, "That's not very sportsmanlike...we're just here to play hockey." Some of the Detroit fans said that we should be glad we weren't playing the Chicago Black Hawks -- if you want to see a rude home-team crowd, Chicago's your place.

Detroit hockey fans are serious about their Red Wings. Here's the evidence...




The Red Wings are an old-school hockey team, and as you might expect, there are traditions galore. During the pregame festivities, a giant inflated octopus was lowered to the ice, and a real octopus was thrown from the stands onto the ice. The Legend of the Octopus is a sports tradition dating back to 1952. Go here to read about it.




The game was scoreless at the end of the first period, but the Red Wings started to dominate during the second period, and we lost the game. But some good came out of it. I was able to attend a Stanley Cup playoff game for the first time, and I also learned why hockey is better than golf. Listen to my friend Dan explain that in this short video.

Happy Easter!