Taken Out At The Ballgame

          It was a typical Thursday night at Holman Stadium in Nashua, NH. The beloved Nashua Silver Knights were playing their fundamentally sound style of baseball. The crowd was larger than usual, as it was Department of Public Works Night at the stadium. I don't have to tell you how much those hard-working Public Works people enjoy their baseball. Comfortable in my usual Section 205 area in the upper level, directly behind home plate, I was enjoying another great night in the ballpark.
     Then it happened. I heard the crack of the ball hitting the wooden bat and the ball coming straight back. It just barely cleared the protective netting behind home plate, which has been protecting me for the past five years. I saw the ball coming at me at a tremendous rate of speed on a line drive. This is when things began to change. You know how you hear great athletes say the game "slows down" for them during stressful moments of their competition? Well, that is exactly happened with me! Initially, I thought the ball was coming directly at me, but as it got closer, I realized it was heading right towards the face of my beautiful special friend (wink, wink) Terry, sitting next to me. She was just finishing a sip of Diet Coke and not prepared to protect herself.
     I knew with the speed of the ball, if I tried to catch it with my bare hand, there would likely be some broken bones involved. There was also the chance that the ball could deflect off of my hand and still hit Terry in the face. I decided my best course of action would be to use the palm of my soft hand, to just knock the ball to the ground. As the ball got into range, I lunged at it and knocked it to the ground. I had no feeling at all in my hand after the ball hit it. I thought my entire hand was broken. The important thing was that Terry was safe. The ball was travelling so fast, the two guys sitting in the row in front of us, never reacted until the ball whizzed by their heads. A woman sitting nearby, noticed my heroic act, and admired my brave and selfless feat. She was staring at me with "wonton" eyes, as her man was busy checking his phone. Sadly, not everyone has a real Knight sitting next to them at the Silver Knights games.
       
          Update:
Since the incident, I have returned to my seat back at the ballpark. Outside of the occasional flashback to that evening, I am fine. No broken bones. I am not frightened by what happened, but I must say I have a heightened awareness of the things going on around me. Sort of like a hungry dog when the family sits down for dinner. Terry is happy that she didn't end up with Sammy Davis eye, or worse. She has been able to carry on with her life and a future modeling career is still an option for her, thanks to her Knight.

         PSA:
I tried to make this entertaining, but truth is it was pretty scary and painful. Someone could have really been hurt by that ball. All I can say is pay attention to the action on the field when you attend a game. Check your phone between innings if you have to. A bat or ball heading into the stands can hit anybody and they reach you fast! Just stay alert and enjoy the game and keep yourself and your friends and family safe.

Shazam

          Before we get started, let me give a brief description of "Shazam." It is an app on your smartphone, primarily used to identify music. You click on the screen, it 
listens to the music, and spits out the song title, artist, and maybe the album it is on. That is the informational part of this blog entry.
     Last week I was taking care of some important errands. I arrived at a little plaza in Merrimack with a Dunkin' Donuts and a dry cleaner. As I pulled into the parking lot, I heard a song playing on the radio in my car that I liked. I didn't know the name of the tune, so using my fancy smartphone, I Shazammed it and got the name of the song. That was cool. Prior to going to the dry cleaner to pickup my sexy shirts, I walked over to Dunkin's to grab a drink. Before I got my drink, I went in the restroom, because that's what I like to do at Dunkin' Donuts. While I was in the restroom, I heard the very same song that I had just heard in my car. In my head, I was thinking they must be listening to the same radio station that I was playing in the car. I took care of my business in the men's room, ordered an unsweetened iced tea, and completed my transaction. Next, I walked over to the dry cleaner.
     There were no other customers in the shop. I said "hello" to the woman working there, and she comes over and she says "oh, you're bringing music with you!" I was not sure exactly what she is talking about. Pausing to listen, I hear the very same song that I had been listening to in the car and then in the Dunkin's restroom. I glance around the place to see where the music is coming from. The clerk then says "the music is coming from your pants." I thought it was playing on the dry cleaner's radio, but apparently  I somehow played the song, after I Shazammed it! In actuality, the song was not playing in either of the shops I was in. It was playing in my pocket, on my phone! I turned off my phone and said "I have one of those Smartphones but, I'm clearly not ready for it." We had a good laugh and I grabbed my sexy shirts and headed home. Shazam!

PS the song that caused all of this was "Too Close" by Alex Clare

                       

The Beat Goes On... (Part Three of the Health Trilogy)

                      

          I would imagine that after reading the first two parts of my Health Trilogy, people have questions about how I am doing now. I have had to make some changes to my diet and my general lifestyle. One of the most important parts of me getting better is to deal with my Sleep Apnea. I was diagnosed with severe Sleep Apnea back in 2006 or 2007, but foolishly did not use my sleep mask. The doctor say not dealing with the Sleep Apnea probably caused my heart to weaken. Who knew they weren't kidding about the dangers of this Sleep Apnea stuff? I knew a lot of people that snored, so I wasn't too concerned about it. Besides, who wants to have something on their face all night when they're trying to sleep?

     I have had my sleep study and I picked up my sleep mask. I plan on using this mask and not just throwing it to the side. The doctors also seem to think if I was a little more active that would help my heart. I have been known to sit without moving for 11 hours at a time, so this will take some getting use to. I love going to places and doing things as long as there are seats there when I get there. I used to refer to my periods of inactivity as rotting. That can't be the best way for a human to live. These are things I'm learning today at age 52.
     Also, I have added vegetables and fruits to my diet. I am not going to lie to you, the first week my body rejected these items violently. For the past 4 months I have had no alcohol, potato chips, onion rings, hot dogs, salted pretzels, or deli meats. Nor have I watched any girl on girl porn. This has all been difficult at times.
     Since my second and third brushes with death in 2015, I have had one of my life goals reached however. I got to send dirty messages to a beautiful girl that I have known since grade school. For a solid 40 plus years, she has been out of my league as they say. But recently I achieved a dream of exchanging some naughtiness with her. I will not mention her name so she will not be embarrassed, but her initials are DL. For my sports friends that does not mean disabled list.                     
                            
Even though I live by myself, I am not alone. I am blessed with a loving and caring family, which includes a great group of cousins that love and care about each other. I have also cultivated some of the greatest friendships a person could hope for. I am a lucky man.
     Thankfully both of my hospital stays were relatively brief. I know a lot of people would have come and visited me, but I didn't really want too many visitors. If you were one of my friends somehow broke through my defenses and visited me, I do deeply appreciate that. I did want to mention two special people who helped me a lot. First is my brother. I only have one and when I saw him come into my room, I instantly felt more comfortable. Seeing his face helped calm me down immensely. He also told me that he loved me 2 times in 3 days which is a record. I don't count the 56 times he said it during his bachelor party for many reasons. Second was my Hawaiian, Amy Lasiter. She was with me throughout both hospital visits, and was a great companion for me. Amy has taken a huge interest in my health and nags me, I mean "reminds me," of what I need to do everyday to get healthy. This might shock a lot of you, but sometimes that can be difficult task. I know most of you think I am a low maintenance, carefree guy, but occasionally I can require lots of maintenance and attention.
     So, bottom line, I can definitely get healthier and that is my goal. Things are already getting better. I plan on writing more blogs, telling more bad jokes, posting odd things on Facebook, and being a part of all of your lives for a long time. Thanks to everybody for your concern and support. I love you all.