A Week-long Day

Friday, October 23 2009

It's been some day! Before I lie or even exaggerate, let me tell you that this "day" has consisted of two full days so far. I'm planning on going to bed any minute now so I will be writing most of this in a third "day." Why don't we just agree that I'm using day as a figure of speech here and that such things are okay. The day started off with the 11-0 shellacking the Phillies put on the Dodgers in Game 3 of the NLCS. The idea was to go from there to bed and then to a complicated day intended to end in New York. Intent matters or so they tell me.

The so-called plan for the day (in its final form) was to start off in a session between Karen and me. She offered to cancel and make things a little simpler but I wanted a session before going on a painful trip and spending a week with the in-laws. I love spending time with my in-laws even though I know that's weird and backwards. Even so, I have territorial issues and I'm a hermit most of the time. The idea of a pep talk before it seemed smart and my regular scheduled appointment landed perfectly.

The next thing to check off the list before leaving was a quick stop to the pain doc. My breakthrough pain meds didn't come in to the usual pharmacy on time. Therefore, the script expired and I needed a new one. I also needed permission to use a different pharmacy than usual. For once, I had no surplus and would have run out while on this vacation. Had I gone to a different location of the same company, I would have violated my narcotics contract and risked being cut off from pain management care. It's another hoop to jump through but I try not to let this one bother me because it doesn't have much effect on my life.

I knew I was in the Twilight Zone when I got the new script and permission with no hard time at all. Unfortunately, I was disgustingly sick and getting worse by the minute. The prospect of a 6 hour car ride, likely missing at least part of the NLCS Game 4 and doing so with digestive issues put me in a foul mood with a capital foul. That's when things started to get a little squirrely, of course.

During our previous trip to New York, we ran into a strange combination of financial and technical difficulties that put us in the red with EZ-Pass. In fact, we knew we owed $25 for using a depleted/non-functioning EZ-Pass to cross a toll. It was no big deal and we thought the plan more than covered any problems that might have come up as a result. Dad had given us travel money that was going to cover that and our new deposit.

Wrong! It turns out that there were charges in Delaware from something unknown and we were never notified. Therefore, all our travel money got us to the Delaware side of the Delaware Memorial Bridge and no further. Honestly, I saw the humor in this. I was sick and miserable but left to solve the exciting problems that crept up. I suggested that we gas up the car and get money for the trip from the ATM at the gas station. When the ATM informed us that we were broke, Melissa lost her sense of humor and I'll admit to being a bit annoyed.

Either the ATM "lied" to us or Dad hadn't given me my birthday money yet. I got home and got on the phone to resolve these questions. The ATM was lying but not by enough money to make me feel comfortable traveling. Dad had not yet transfered my birthday money and took the opportunity to make a number of mildly insulting questions/comments about how I live my life. He repeated several times that I seemed too sick/poor to be going anywhere. I might have agreed but I considered it a family matter and a point of honor.

As usual, you could say that Dad earned the right to approach the point of insult over years spent as my father. He also helped fix the problems so I'm going to consider him on the side of right and goodness unlike the evil Student Loans trolls. The real point was that we were done traveling for that night. I needed sleep and I needed to watch the Phillies win NLCS Game 4 but not in that order.

I'm an old school baseball fan despite my age. Years of listening to legends like Harry Kalas, Richie Ashburn and Chris Wheeler have made me appreciate good baseball. Game 4 was a good game that looked as if it might have a bad result. Melissa likes to watch good baseball but hasn't learned to love the game enough to accept bad results. I can be just as bad when I'm not worrying about things more likely to get blamed on me.

I saw Game 4 as a game that could turn out to have an amazing ending if a few things went just right. We went into the bottom of the ninth inning one run down and with Feliz leading off the inning. His error was more or less the reason why we were down by a run instead of tied. I think he's a championship quality player and, therefore, I expected him to be raring to help recover from his mistake. Carlos Ruiz had been making the Dodgers miserable in all four games. After them, we had a pitcher's spot and former MVP Jimmy Rollins.

The game wasn't exactly in the bag but I believed we were well within reach. Pedro Feliz got on base, Ruiz followed suit, the pitcher's spot got an out but that left Jimmy hitting and the tying run in scoring position. Well, Jimmy "overachieved" and hit a gapper scoring not only the tying run but the winning one as well. Melissa got a lesson in how good baseball and good results can be related. I got a good end to a rough day.

Day 2 of this interesting "day" got off to its planned start after I got what I considered to be plenty of sleep. I felt much better and was eager to be off on the road. When we hit the first rest stop, the energy drained out of me. I've been in and out of sleep pretty much ever since. It was still a pleasant trip but I arrived only to fall on my face here. Chiarians, please note that I mean this in a literal sense onto a hardwood floor.

I was ushered to bed where I stayed until what you might call bedtime with a few "awake breaks." The great pain medication crisis was resolved while I slept. A lot happened while I slept. When it was time to go to bed, I felt well rested enough to take a two hour nap. After that, I got up and started this entry and took another two hour nap where I noted it. I felt as if I were going to be just fine for the trip.

Immediately after breakfast, I was so tired that I didn't know what to do. Melissa all but led me by the hand back to bed where I remained until it was time for the Phillies' Game 5. My beloved was kind enough to remind me that this sort of thing happens to me especially while traveling. Sleeping is perfectly acceptable on vacation according to her.

I'm hoping to get a shower, sleep and continue this later but I don't know what I can or will do.

Game 5 was a thing of beauty marred only by the fact that Charlie Manuel can't let Cole Hamels pitch. He had the lead in the fifth inning and only needed one or two more outs to get the win. Instead, Manuel went to the bullpen and brought out another pitcher to give up the runs Hamels had on base. That was Wednesday night and today is Friday so the details of the game are more than a little shaky.

The Phillies showed, once and for all, that they were the better team in the NLCS. (Note to Dodgers' fans: that doesn't mean LA might not have been better the previous or next week. We were just better long enough.) It was a case where we out-hit, out-pitched and out-played the other team in four out of five games. Our much maligned bullpen even held up its end quite nicely. No one had a bad series for the Phils.

The Dodger dugout was the most dejected bunch of folks I've ever seen. They have no reason for shame since it's not like they were kicking the ball all over the field. They sent out a young pitcher in Game 1 and he got overmatched. Vicente Padilla may have gotten lucky in the final result but he sure stayed right there with Pedro Martinez in Game 2. Game 3 was a blowout between Cliff Lee's masterful pitching and an offensive explosion. Former Phillie, Randy Wolf, pitched well to a hard luck loss.

The Dodger offense didn't get much result but they were no slouches. Good pitching can beat good hitting for long stretches at a time. James Loney and Casey Blake did well. Furcal must be getting close to 40 but he's still a threat both on offense and defense. I don't think much of Manny Ramirez but he's only one guy and he did get some decent hits. I wish I had a lineup handy but I don't. The Dodgers played well.

It turns out that I'll be back home before I get around to posting this and it is just as well. I prefer to keep it a mystery when I leave home. I know this entry hasn't exactly been up to par but I've been using my sister-in-law's keyboard and a dial-up connection. Please excuse the obvious factual errors. In fact, if you disagree with what I've written, feel free to believe I was poorly informed. I'll know the truth.

See you when I'm home.