It’s coming - September 19th is International Talk Like A Pirate Day! Yes, finally a day when I’m not going to be the only one running around and spouting off hackneyed piratical cliche’s to my friends and family!

Yet another one of those ideas that you find yourself - after a half a dozen or so beers - banging your head on the bar thinking “damn, I could have come up with that idea”. Much like I’m sure that my older relatives did years ago when Gary Dahl came up with the Pet Rock craze back in 1975.

So who’s in for TLAPD? It’s an excuse to drink, talk really funny, and (for the very brave) dress up like a pirate. What more do you need in a holiday?

That’s me on the left at 5:00 AM on Sunday morning. Note the glazed look in the eyes and the handsome farmer tan that starts right at the bottom of my jersey and meanders down my arm until it gets to where my gloves pull up to. You (thankfully) can’t see the bowlegged gait of someone who spend way to much time on a bike seat (or saddle, for those cyclists out there).

Attractive, eh?

A little less than 10 hours after this photo was taken we rode back into the Berea fairgrounds, closing out our team’s third run in the MS150 Pedal to the Point. It was a much reduced team this year - Beth and Dave weren’t able to take part - but Todd, Heather, and I did have a good time. Along the way we set several new Team Psychotic Pineapples records (unofficial, of course. You don’t think we really track these things, do you?) - earliest start, earliest finish, highest average speed. Of course, I also managed to set a few records that I rather would not have - on both days I had issues with my back wheel, one set of problems involving a 13 mile SAG trip to a mechanic.

The weekend was weird not only due to the people who weren’t with us, but also because of who we did get to see. Through some bizarre cosmic coincidence Jerry, Mary, and Jake Bellian were up in Sandusky as well to celebrate Jake’s first birthday. Which prompted Durfee to note that it’s odd that the last two times he’s seen Jerry - who lives in Texas - has been in Sandusky. We didn’t get much time to talk to Jerry or Mary - they were running around doing the parent thing - but we did get to chat with fellow Walsh Alum Mike Kramer for quite a bit. It’s odd in the fact that I don’t think I have talked to or seen Mike in about 15 years - my last recollection of him was from Prom back in 1990. Jerry’s been in touch with him though (he grew up with Jerry in Chesterland) so I vaguely knew what he was up to. It was nice to see him again, and meet his family. Of course, there was much speculation of how Mike is going to handle having three daughters when they decide to start dating. Jerry and Durfee suggested building up a good collection of guns in display cases by the door….

Being on a bike for two days was a nice change of pace for me. Your entire world shrinks to the bit of road right in front of you and the riders within 20 feet of you. And everything is very immediate - there’s not that much long term thinking going on - and once it’s past there is no dwelling on it, as it’s over and done with. If the conditions are just right you can ride for miles down country roads without seeing anyone either in front or behind of you. At these times, It’s really nice just turning the pedals over and over. You don’t need to think, just be.

The aftermath? I’m a slight bit sore today, but not as much in years past. I think it’s a combination of having done it before, not being sick with the flu (like that memorable 2004 ride), and having been able to train more this year. At the team dinner last night at Outback steakhouse, everyone was in high spirits and we’re already looking forward to next year’s ride.

It’s worth noting that the MS Society is still collecting pledges, so for those who haven’t pledged yet and are heartbroken in thinking that they missed the deadline I say “buck up, little trooper” because you can still surf over to http://ms150.psychoticpineapples.com and follow the instructions to get your pledge in.

I want to close out by sending a huge thanks to my two biggest donors for this ride - Bellian and Teichman, you are the shiznit!

It’s football season again, which means that Beth and I can be found down at Lockhart field every evening for two to three hours each night watching Alex and his team practice. Football - and youth sports in general - are very interesting events in my estimation. Parents can do funny things when watching their children play. Of course, they can also do some pretty disturbing things as well, as evinced by some of the baseball-related stories in the local papers this summer.

But all that is for down the road and future posts - for now, I just want to get the schedule out for everyone. Now, I did spam most of my address book with this already, but I did want to drop it online as well. At the very least I can pull it up when someone is on the phone asking me where the next game is.

So without further ado, here is the schedule:

• August 27th – Field
• September 3rd – @Kent
• September 10th - @Rootstown
• September 17th – Ellet
• September 24th - @Stow (night game)
• October 1st – Tallmadge
• October 8th - @Cuyahoga Falls (night game)
• October 15 - Springfield

All games start at 11:30 AM except those marked as night games, which start at 3:30 PM. (For the scores of international visitors booking their travel to the states right now, those times are given in EDT. Oh, and the closest airport is Canton-Akron, mates).

Home games are all at Lockhart Field off of Nimisila – basically you make a right at Nimisilla road at either Rt 93 (Manchester Road) or Main Street. The field is the first right between the Ameritech/SBC building and Manchester Tavern.

Directions to the away games can be pulled from the Manchester Youth Football website – look under “schedules”, then you need to drop down the boxes to select the two teams. Alex is on the Manchester C-Team. If two teams are listed (there is only one now) he will be on the “Saturday” team.

The games last approximately an hour or so, and most fields have concession stands that sell snacks, hot dogs, pizza, etc. Hope to see you all there.

The quote below is from CS Lewis (pictured to the left), author of the classic children’s series Chronicles of Narnia as well as such theological books as Mere Christianity and Screwtape Letters, and was delivered in 1939. The calamity referred to is the Nazi aggression that was then sweeping over Europe in general and the invasion of Poland in particular.

“I think it important to try to see the present calamity in a true perspective. The war creates no absolutely new situation: it simply aggravates the permanent human situation so that we can no longer ignore it. Human life has always been lived on the edge of a precipice. Human culture has always had to exist under the shadow of something infinitely more important than itself. If men had postponed the search for knowledge and beauty until they were secure, the search would never have begun. We are mistaken when we compare war with “normal life”. Life has never been normal. Even those periods which we think most tranquil, like the nineteenth century, turn out, on closer inspection, to be full of crises, alarms, difficulties, emergencies. Plausible reasons have never been lacking for putting off all merely cultural activities until some imminent danger has been averted or some crying injustice put right. But humanity long ago chose to neglect those plausible reasons. They wanted knowledge and beauty now, and would not wait for the suitable moment that never comes. Periclean Athens leaves us not only the Parthenon but, significantly, the Funeral Oration. The insects have chosen a different line: they have sought first the material welfare and security of the hive, and presumably they have their reward. Men are different. They propound mathematical theorems in beleaguered cities, conduct metaphysical arguments in condemned cells, make jokes on scaffolds, discuss the latest new poem while advancing to the walls of Quebec, and comb their hair at Thermopylae. This is not panache: it is our nature.”

I had initially written several paragraphs about this quote - fairly long winded and indulgent, to be honest - but they didn’t seem to be working. So in the interest of brevity here’s what I was trying to say in a nutshell - this is a quote that had quite an impact on me when I read it for the first time years ago - to me, it’s basically saying “things are never going to be perfect so get on with it”.

Well - this post is setting all sorts of new records both for amount of time to complete as well as for number of opening lines tried and discarded. Which is odd, because I’ve probably written about 1,000 lines of email in the same amount of time that I keep switching back to the Ecto window I’m writing this post in. Email - no problem. Blog post - complete brain lockup. So the decision has been made to just go with a full-on brain dump here and hope that it makes sense. Insomuch as anything I write makes sense, I guess…..

Last night in Montrose Beth and I caught up with a number of our old friends from the Olive Garden at - where else - a bar, in this case the Winking Lizard. It was an odd night - I would see someone out of the corner of my eye, walk over and start talking to them - and realize midway through that I probably hadn’t seen them in over a decade. Damn do I feel old.

This all came together due to the efforts of Jen Paknik, Katie Phillips, and Diana Ruegg who went through all the trouble of tracking everyone down and coordinating the event. Having organized similar things in the past with friends and family, I can appreciate the amount of effort that goes into this.

Mike Madonia - mentioned back in this entry here about his wedding - was there with his wife Colleen, and I spent most of the evening over talking with them. Mike used to work as a server at the Olive Garden, was fired, then rehired a year or so later to work as a cook where him and I worked together for a year or so. Until he was fired again. But that’s another story. I miss talking with Mike - he has a very cutting wit and can be very insightful.

Famous Scribe and former Server/PastaMaker/Bartender Mike Buckley was unable to make it - something about his book signing tour and upcoming wedding - but he did send a big old bag full of Sister’s Grimm buttons. It was fun sharing a few stories about him, while everyone surreptitiously made notes for their upcoming unauthorized “Tell-All” biographies on him.

John and Katie Bokas were there as well - although John never worked at the Olive Garden he went to so many OG parties and post-work bar crawls that he may have well worked there. John works in the funeral business in the area - he’s done it for years - and I remember many conversations at Rockne’s and Brubakers about that whole area of work. I don’t know how he does it, because I couldn’t. At one point in time John made the mistake of telling me about his college band Combine and their album Winter Wheat. So of course I try and manage to fit that into the conversation each time I see him. This probably means I’ll be chloroformed and embalmed one of the next times he sees me, but I’m a risk taker.

Jen Paknik was there with her new squeeze. I thought we had something special with that whole near death experience thing we shared due to her driving, but I guess not. It’ll take time, but I’ll get over it…..maybe….

The evening went by way too quick - there were people there like Jackie, Diana, and Jen who I only managed to say a few words to before we needed to go, and others who I didn’t get to talk to at all. Mike Ruegg was in Germany on business so I didn’t get to see him, and Hanna and Matt Eckhart weren’t there. So in that respect it was a bit bittersweet - but hopefully there will be a next time in a few months.

Madonia made a great comment when we were talking about getting together and how it seems to be so difficult (and downright impossible at times). I’m probably mangling it like crazy here, but more or less it was that “life keeps moving on”. Thought about it on the way home and realized how true it was on a number of levels in my life.