College World Series

For many years, I have wanted to attend one or more games of the College World Series (CWS) in Omaha. Now I can cross this off my bucket list. Travis met me in Omaha on June 18th, and we saw three games, including one that day and two the next. It was really a fun time and especially fun to have the chance to share this experience with Travis. It would have been a tiny bit more fun if Iowa had made it from the round of 64 teams entering the tournament to the final 8 appearing in Omaha, but at least they were in that round of 64 this year.

Since we had a bit of time prior to the game on Thursday night, we decided to visit the site of the old Rosenblatt stadium, which was where the CWS was played for several decades before being moved to the new Ameritrade Park in downtown Omaha. The grounds for the old stadium are now part of an enhanced parking area for the Doorly Zoo in Omaha, but they preserved the significance of Rosenblatt by making parts of it an "island" where young folks can play if they want.

The original home plate is exactly where it always was at the park, and some seats, a sign, and the original foul line poles are still present. Johnny Rosenblatt was a baseball player who later became mayor of Omaha. His leadership convinced the NCAA to establish the CWS in Omaha, where it has stayed for more than 50 years.

It felt a little like we were paying homage to the tradition of the CWS by stopping at this site.

We also stopped to see the two historic Union Pacific engines on display at Kenefick Park. These engines are clearly visible on a slight hill near Interstate 80 just as you travel west entering Nebraska. The "Big Boy" steam engine is one of my favorite old machines, and Travis really enjoyed seeing it as well as an Electromotive Division diesel engine nearby.

We had built in time before the game to have dinner in the Old Market area of Omaha. There is a fun brew pub there called Upstream Brewery. They have good beers and excellent Omaha steaks and other goodies.

Then it was on to our first game featuring TCU versus LSU. The loser of this game, LSU, was knocked out of the tournament in this game. The tournament is a double elimination format, so all teams continue to play until they have two losses, with the remaining teams continuing to advance. Ameritrade Park is a very nice ball park. Didn't seem to be a bad seat in the place.

Travis and I saw two games from section 100 just down the first base line.

On Friday, we saw two more games. We stopped at the entrance to the park for a photograph near this famous bronze statue that originally stood outside Rosenblatt Stadium. It captures the excitement of the young ball players after winning a game. ESPN often shows the statue in its lead-in images when opening a broadcast of a game.

I took this panoramic photograph during the afternoon game between Virginia and Florida, which Florida won (although they lost on Saturday to Virginia in a second meeting, thus getting Virginia into the championship round).

The night game was between Vanderbilt and TCU. Vanderbilt won to advance to the championship round, which is a best two out of three series on July 22nd-24th.

I've watched lots of CWS and prior tournament games on TV each year, but being at the park in person made it possible to see more, including the beach ball frenzy that eventually erupts in the outfield seats at the end of an early inning. I didn't think to take a picture soon enough, and so this one doesn't quite do justice to the number of balls that end up on the field.

However, you can see here that after they are corralled by the staff into one or both bull pens, they do accumulate. Everyone seems to take this in stride and considers it part of the overall fun.

As I said earlier, I can now cross this off my bucket list, although attending games in future years would still be fun. Every time I have had a chance to do something fun and focused like this with one of my children, I have been richly rewarded by the experience and the time with them. Thanks to Travis for this one!

Catfish Hunter

Catfish Hunter: (a) the name of a huge catfish sought by the stars of the movie Grumpier Old Men, (b) the name of a professional baseball player from 1965 to 1979--a pitcher for the New York Yankees and other teams, or (c) Kathie and me this afternoon.

On only one prior occasion have we caught a catfish while fishing on our lake. I believe Donna and David were here at the time when I had a Channel Catfish strike my jig near the mouth of the river entering our bay. Well today, in approximately the same location, Kathie and I each had a Channel Catfish take our bait. Mine was first and was a very nice "eater"--just the size for a meal for one person, although we turned it loose. Soon after, Kathie hooked a much bigger one--something like 20" and probably three pounds. Again, we turned the fish loose.

People around here would likely turn their noses up at fish like this. Crappie, Walleye, and Musky are the preferred game fish. But, I grew up loving catfish, both to catch and to eat. We frequently have access to reasonably good farm-raised ones at our local grocery in Iowa and enjoy having them for dinner. I wouldn't mind at all being able to catch more of them up here. Maybe this afternoon's luck was just that, but if we work the same spot again and catch more, they might not be returned to the water.

Roof Repairs and Shingling

Some of my faithful readers may recall that we had a pretty bad wind storm near our cabin early last September. I posted stories about the damage and our cleanup efforts in October and November of last year. Most of the local contractors, including the guy who has always taken care of our repair needs in the past, were unavailable then to help us out. Everyone was busy doing storm damage repair. Also, the economy has evidently improved, because lots of new house construction was (and is) underway. So, we had to wait until our return this spring/summer to see about repairs. For those of you who may not remember, here is an example of what things looked like after the September storm but also after some of the larger trees had been removed. Note the damaged porch roof.

As it turns out, availability of contractors this June has not improved. So as I looked at the damaged porch roof, and looked at it again, I started thinking, "I could do that!" I'm not very patient. I do like building things, as you know. It would be cheaper to do the work myself. Nothing ventured--nothing gained. Other rationalizations upon request. So, I bit the bullet and began by tearing off all the old shingles. Once that was done, we wondered how to dispose of them. The local lumber yard, where I buy most of our construction and repair materials, pointed us to a local sand and gravel company that accepts construction waste, so that problem was solved.

I made a list of all the materials we needed: sheeting, facia, soffit, drip edge, ice barrier (paper over the sheeting), shingles, and quantities of shingling nails. After the shingles were off, I cut away the broken sheeting, replaced that, and stapled on the ice barrier. Then I installed new facia and soffit and put a new drip edge all around the roof.

Kathie provided yeoman service by sorting out reusable nails. More than that, she made it possible for me to seriously reduce the number of trips up and down the ladder by passing tools up to me, cutting shingles to size, and handing up the shingles as I needed them. Tighe was quite curious about the whole process, but he loved simply hanging out with us (well, mostly Kathie) while we worked. Throwing one of his frisbees from time to time added to his enthusiasm.

I got one side mostly shingled yesterday, but as the sun and temperatures rose, the shingles became soft and were too easily marred by my boots, so I stopped working in the early afternoon.

From the lake side, the ladder reaches the roof easily, but on the woods side of the cabin we had to use the pickup to boost the ladder's reach.

Here I am earlier today reaching the peak with the last rows of shingles.

The view of the lake is great from up there. It was cooler today too, and a nice breeze helped.

I have all but the ridge caps in place, and I'll take an hour tomorrow to finish that off. Then I have to reapply a little stain to the new facia, and we'll be as good as new.

Truth is that I quite enjoyed this project, but I won't likely try anything like it again. My old 71-year-old body has really felt the work, so I'll look for someone younger and more spry next time. And maybe our contractor friend will eventually be available to us again.

First Fish (Alternate Title: Gomer Glasses)

I've been wanting to post something here since we arrived at the lake last Wednesday evening. My first catch of the season seems like a good excuse to do that. Got him or her on my first cast too! I know he looks a little small in this photo, but then I'm such a big guy that even this nice 11" Black Crappie seems small by comparison. When we keep Crappie to eat, we only keep them at 10" or better. I caught another smaller one on my second or third cast, but after that the action slowed to a crawl. It was beautiful on the lake though and nice to get out for a first time.

I know my kids will see these new sunglasses and may start calling me a gomer or a geezer for choosing this style. They are a brand called Fit Overs and are large so that they can be worn over one's regular glasses. I like this better than messing with clip-ons. Also, they are quite inexpensive compared to a new pair of prescription sunglasses by a factor of ten to one. The other things I like are the large lenses and the incorporation of side lenses; both of these things shield my peripheral vision. So, I may look like an old guy with these and you may wish to call me a gomer/geezer, but all I can say is that I am a geezer and keeping cataracts at bay is a reasonable thing to do. At least I am not doing comb-overs yet or wearing double knit slacks.

We are here at the lake later this year than normal by about the two months we spent getting Kathie those new knees. It is great to be here, and we have been sprucing the place up (mowing, planting flowers and a new tree, trimming, etc.) and getting some of our creature comforts in place (hot tub is cleaned and fired up, deck furniture is out and ready for use, boat is in the water, etc.). Really nice to enjoy these activities, but also really nice to just kick back with a book and enjoy the peace this place offers us. We look forward to the visits that many of you will be making up here to share some of that peacefulness with us.