h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I had a fun evening yesterday. We went to the Cardinals AA ball park in Springfield to watch Chris Carpenter pitch. His first outing since his surgery. He should be back in the regular rotation next month. I hope he's ready when we go to St. Louis in a couple of weeks. The team really needs him. I wore my Cardinals Nation tee shirt and my Cardinals flip flops. Bright red nail polish, naturally. And I bought myself a new Cardinals visor.

It's a nice ballpark. Hammonds Field. http://www.springfieldcardinals.com/stadium/Pictures/ We both enjoy going. It's about 80 miles, so not bad at all. The tickets are reasonable. So it's a good deal for baseball fans in this area. There was a great crowd last night to watch Carpenter. 8700+ I think they said. This is the second time we've gone this summer. We'll probably go again before the season ends.

Minor League baseball is fun because there are all sorts of events between innings to keep the fans entertained. Silly contests, a tee shirt toss, etc. It's also rewarding to watch the young players when they start out and then follow them through their careers. And there is a lot of local flavor. For example, one ice cream parlor has a standing offer of an ice cream specialty for a dollar whenever the home team hits a home run in the fifth inning. And you can register for drawings. Last night you could enter a drawing for a bass boat.

There were two men directly behind us who talked through the entire game, imparting their baseball wisdom. Former minor league players of some kind from the conversation. They were old enough that it must have been a long time ago. One of them was sooooooo Southern that he was barely intelligible. I got the giggles listening to him and asked Syn if the guy came with subtitles. And we saw a woman who looked nearly as old as I am with a halter top and no bra and massive droopy boobs. Some people have no clue how they look, apparently. I imagine she was trying to look sexy. Sorry. That was gross, not sexy.

Sounds like good fun.

I know nothing at all about baseball - except from films.

I know nothing at all about massive droopy boobies - except from films

Sounds great, Hyp

There is something wonderful about being at a big event - particularly when it's sport or other live performance that everybody shares.

I love listening to people around me in crowds too

There's a minor league team just to the north of Austin - the Round Rock Express. I went there with BV four or five years ago hoping for something like Bull Durham - a run-down but friendly ball park, Max Patkin doing the crowd warm-up, that sort of thing, but I pretty much knew that wasn't going to happen. For one thing, Max Patkin was dead by then, and they play at a brand new stadium (being a brand new team, you see) called the Dell Diamond http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dell_Diamond

I still enjoyed the evening out mind you, even though it's in Williamson County, noted for its rather right-wing views and police force (I have an American Indian friend who won't set foot in the county because of the cops' views about Indians). I'd go again, but not having a car or a driving licence makes that pretty well impossible unless I was to find some friends who go there and would hook me up with a ride.

I really need to watch Bull Durham again.

There's a minor league team in San Antonio now, I think. It wasn't there when I lived there. I wish it had been. I need to check on it, but I think the season will probably be over by the time I get down there.

I don't know anything about baseball, but I enjoyed the droopy boobs bit
Some people just shouldn't be allowed to dress themselves!

I spent the summer of '85 on a USAF base, a technical course. They of course had their own beaches. Whooo-hooo, thinks I, Floridian beach babes !!!

In "brief", I learned that there are quite a lot of military spouses who should not be so brave as to try a skimpy bikini.

I see so many people who don't know how to dress themselves. It's not that they wear clothes which make them look awful, they just don't know how to wear anything but a t-shirt or polo shirt, a pair of cargo shorts and a pair of flip flops or Birkenstocks.

We've had Generation X, Generation Y and the MTV Generation. These are the Old Navy Generation. That's all they know in terms of clothes.

The differences in what is appropriate public attire is sure different than it was when I was young. For the most part, I like the idea of wearing comfortable clothes whenever possible. But there are occassions when I think things have gone too far.

About the most inappropriate thing I have seen ever was in the very late 80's. Skin-tight 'leggings' were popular, and if a form was generally trim, quite complimentary. One day I was off to the bank, and saw a 20-something come out with her 3 chap-friends. She was wearing a sheer and snug "butter-cup-yellow" thing, and a t-shirt. Nothing under the yellow, skin-tight, and quite hirsute shall we say? Very bad taste.

I've seen something similar. In fact, we've coined the term 'muffin tops' for those unsightly bits that hang over low-slung tight jeans.

Not an hour after I typed that, something worse passed by. Going down our street, about 350 pounds of smiling Lady, squeezed into the brightest pink tights and an off-white tank top. The rear view was not pleasant. But hey, atleast she seemed genuinely comfy in her own skin, so I guess that counts for something, eh?

Yeah, I guess. As long as they're happy. It's kinda amusing for us too, so I guess there's good points to all of this.

here was a 400 pound man next door in the State campgound I just left waddling around clad in just a tent-like pair of shorts...I had to admire his lack of self-consciousness...

(there will come a time when you won't even be ashamed if you are fat!) -Frank Zappa