Of the Games.

It has been a busy week. With little work and lots of play. Two Sundays ago our friends the Candlers came down from Illinois. When they come down it means it is ping pong season. This time it was not different in the least bit. On Monday we heated things up after I got home from having lunch and a business meeting with my boss and co-worker. We started it off with Texas Tornado, and we played that till they had to leave for Brownsville later that day. The following Saturday they came back, and we hardly skipped a beat. Frisbee was the order of that day. We played the first game of Frisbee, in the middle of the day, it was hot, and hot...did I mention that it was hot? Anyway we were burnt out before we had even reached the half way point in the game. After our second water break, both teams were tied at 3-3 and we deiced to play to 4. We finished up with our water break, and went back to the game. The rest of the game only lasted 30 seconds. Sierra started by throwing a fade out to Lena towards the left, and seconds latter she connected with a pass to me in the end-zone to end the game. It was rather anti-climatic. We went back to our house and after a little X-box we were recovered, and set up the Volleyball net. Some more friends came over, and joined in the game. We played a total of three games of Volleyball before moving on. The team that I was on won the first two matches, but took a crushing loss in the third game. The sun was lower in the sky now and we set out to play Frisbee again. This time we had more players, as my brother in-law had joined us along with our other friends.
Now I am not going to blame it on the fact that our team had a disadvantage in size, or that about half of them had never played the game before but...we were crushed. Flat out killed. 7-0. It was not even a near run thing.
Again we turned to ping pong...Yes! Texas Tornado was played till the rest of the guest had to leave late that night. At which point a challenge for a rematch between my older brother Calvin with Josiah Candler against each of their younger siblings. Two year back now we had played each other with those same teams and the younger siblings had won 2-1 in a best of three set. This time Josiah asked for a single game elimination. And that is what his sister and I gave him and Calvin. 21-11 final.
Yesterday we played Volleyball again, this time at the beach. Mr.Candler, Calvin, Johanna (my younger sister), and Rebecca (My youngest sister), against Josiah, Sierra, Lena and myself. We lost after we tied them up at game point. Final 16-14. Frisbee followed, and we kept the same teams. At the break, my team, or rather the team that I was on, was down, 4-3. But Lena found herself in the end zone three times in the second half holding the Frisbee. I through for three Touchdowns as well, while Josiah and Sierra both through and received Touchdowns respectively as we won 7-5. We finished up by playing Texas Tornado last night again...after several hours of X-box. Hehe...I think I have hooked the Candlers on it. The finals for Texas Tornado is as follows.
Rebecca 1.
Lena 3.
Josiah 5.
Sierra 9.
Calvin 11.
Johanna 16.
Robert L. 21.

Needless to say I am worn out...and beat.

End post.

Robert L.

I got your back!

Our pastor's son from G.A. came down this weekend to stay through the holiday. It is tradition that we play paintball every time he comes down and we did not break the streak. We brought in some new recruits as well. W.Daniels and K.Burk joined us. They are some of the newest members of our church. G.Rogers was also going to play for the first time but he had a job dropped on him for Saturday so he had to miss. But overall we had six players. K.Burk, W.Daniels, D.Otis, B.Otis, my brother and my self. We were going to play three on three, but when we got to our battlefield, we found it already in use. Eight other paintball players were just about to rape things up when we showed up. The "Battlefield" was and old abandon cotton gen. It is by far the coolest place I have ever played at. When we showed up however the players that had been playing before decided to stay if we wanted more players for our game. We were glad for the extra people, we knew that it would be rather lack luster with only three on three. We agreed and the teams were slit up.
We stuck together as the six of us went up against six of them. Sounds fair? Well they had been playing at this place every weekend for the past year or so. We were on their home turf. It was rough. The first game started and we all split our own ways. Two to the left, two down the middle, two to the right. I had played here before so I moved quickly up along a trench I knew of, staying under cover to the right side. At the end of the trench I got up and ran for the bunker. I got behind it without drawing fire. Moments later I felt a hand on my shoulder and W.Daniels said "I got your back." A three count later and I took off for the next bunker as W.Daniels put down covering fire. We had already spotted two foes and W.Daniels had one pined down. The other one was on the move by the time I had stopped. Three shots later from my M98 and we had a one to nothing lead as the target was hit. W.Daniels then asked for covering fire as he moved up. I did so and he made it safely. We spotted one more of the enemy moving far out to the right in tall grass. W.Daniels asked me to continue the covering fire and he moved up again. And then I blow it. The man in the tall grass could not get a shot at my teammate but the guy who had been pined down before could. He started fire at W.Daniels' feet that were out of cover. However that gave me a chance at the man's head that was fire at W.Daniels. I guest that it would take longer for our foe to hit my guy's feet, then it would take for me to hit my target's head. I was wrong. There was a bush that had small branches hanging over into my line of shot. My paintballs broke on them and never got close enough to make the other guy pull his head down. He hit my man in the foot, and he was out.
I had used my own man as bate so I could get a shot at a foe and I had failed. I could have shouted out a warning to my man, to pull his feet in but I did not. Now I had two foes to deal with. However that changed. I started taking fire from my left, where I thought my men were. I moved and the guy in the tall grass saw my. He started opening fire on me so that I could not raise my head to see where his two other teammates were moving to. But they did not have to move to get me. A shot from the other guy in the grass came through a crack in the bunker and hit my leg. Later I learned why I had been flanked when I got back to my base. Three others besides W.Daniels of my team had been taken out already. That left one other guy and he followed us soon after. In the end, we lost 6-1.
We avenged ourselves in the next game. I started by moving into the tall grass that my former foe had been in. I was some what separated from the rest of my men, with the closet being my fellow Ghost Squad member, my brother. It was not long before I had crawled on my stomach so that I had a good shot at my first target. My M98 did all the talking and she only needed two shots to conclude the conversation. However I was then in turn fired upon. The grass parted around my head as shots mist me, coming from a man that was taking cover behind a small bush. I crawled backwards as fast as I could. A shot glanced off my shoulder, but upon my inspection it had not burst, thus I was still alive. I roll behind a large bush, which turned the tables on the man that I was having a fire fight with. I found a nice hole to shoot from, so that my shots would not break on the branches. I put 10 shots into the other mans bush before he called out "hit".
By the time I fineshed working my way around to the main battlefield, my team had cleaned up on the rest of them. My old buddy W.Daniels and B.Otis, (our two military guys) were still standing. We won 6-3.
I sat out the next round so B.Otis could use my gun, as his had stopped working. I finished by playing the final round as we were out numbered five to four. We lost that one, 4-1. I got the only kill, and added a death to my total, to end the day with, 4 kills and 2 deaths. I was proud of that, as I was playing at the other teams home filed. Overall we did okay.

Later we played basketball that evening, and that was not so pretty. I was fifth string in those games. And it showed. I made one shot in three games, and only tried three times. But I did have the most steals, I just never had the ball past my way so I could take more shots. But then the other players on my team were better options, to get the ball to. The team I was on won all three games, but I had very little to do point wise with that. By the way, did I ever mention that I do not like basketball. :)

Robert L.

P.S. I know I promised another Christmas post, but that will come later.

Lights. Lots of lights.

How many of y'all put up Christmas lights? I do not mean just on your tree, but on your house, or on the bushes out side. We do. Every year for as long as I can remember. We also reuse our lights every year. If you have every reused your lights before, you know what that means. Every year the lights need to be repaired, fix, but at almost any coast not replaced. This year we got a lucky break and bought some new lights, rather then fixing the same lights that we had patched up, rewired, rigged and beat into working condition for us the past ten years. For y'all that have never had the joys of fixing lights, I will give you a quick run down of what it is like.
1. You get down the lights from your attic or storage place. (Please note, if you are a A/C tech and work in attics a lot, you are now the favorite person to do this job.)
2. You unpack the lights and separate them from each other.
3. You pick up the first one and plug it in. It turns on.
4. You smile and say "So far so good." reach to unplug them and put it in the good pile, when you bump the lights and half of them blank out.
5. You find the lose bulb and wiggle, flick it, press it tilll it is in tight. The lights turn back on.
6. You plug in the next set. Only two out of three sections work. You sigh. But then you see the problem. A bulb is broken. This will be easy. You change the bulb, it works.
7. The next string of lights work. Good. You do not say anything like you did the first time, as you know the lights will hear you and stop working. You throw this set into the working pile before they have a chance to break.
8. The fourth string does not work. Only one section out of the three are working. No shaky bulbs that you can tell, nor are there any broken bulbs. Time to grind.
9. You pull out every non-working light from front to back, checking it to see if it is the bad link. It is a three hundred sting of light, with the sections divided up into three of one hundred each. You get lucky and find the bad bulb on the 11th light. One of the two small wires from the bulb is broken. You do not know how this happens every year, but it does. You replace it and the ten light behind you and the eighty nine lights in front turn on. Not to bad...Yet.
10. Two of the three sections of the lights are now on. But if you remember from #8 there is still one more that is out. You go to one end of the dead lights, and start pulling them out again. The lights are tight in there and you pinch your fingers often. By the 15th light your fingers are throbbing. By the 25th you have small blisters on your finger tips. By the 50th light the blister have fallen off and the is tinder skin exposed to these harsh conditions. By the 75th light you find the problem, at last! Another wire brake. You replace it. And stare in disbelief. There more then on problem. You try sucking on your fingers as you glare and the dumb lights.
11. You move on to 85th, and are still mad. 95th, and you cannot fill your fingers anymore so you do not care. 100th! And there is nothing wrong with it. You do not know what to think or say. You sit for fifteen minutes and say nothing. You do nothing. You just stare.
12. Then you start back at the beginning trying to find one you may have missed. You get to light number 33, and as you pull it out, a small wire falls out of the socket. You realized that you had broken it as you put it back in the first time when you checked it. You replace it. It works, the last one hundred lights turn on. You are done. Time to put the lights up on the house. You sigh. and suck you fingers.

To be continued in "The Twelve Things that Goes Wrong While Putting up the Lights."

Sports clip

Here is a video clip that is pretty cool. Click here.

Current pictures.

Here are some pictures of well...Me. I was asked the other day to post "updated pictures" of my self. I did not think that was going to be hard. But then there was the fact that I did not have any current pictures of my self.

Robert clears the flat to his left.
Robert moves up and makes sure the flat to the right is clear.



Robert slides into cover to avoid hostel fire.Robert looks at the camera and says..."This is stupid...It is just me and you out here, taking pictures so I can post them on my blog."

Robert gets the sign from his catcher (the camera).
Robert comes out of his motion to deliver the pitch.

Well that was so bad. As I said I did not have any pictures on this computer that was resent, so I had to update some pictures. Instead of posting paintball pictures from two years ago, I just geared up and remade the pictures to be current. Same with the baseball pictures.

Delta.

I am not sure how many times I have said it. But I will say it again. There is no telling what I might be doing on any given day at work. Sure most of the time it is A/C work...but then...there are those days when I find myself putting up Christmas lights, playing billiard or watching TV at my boss' house because we are in rain delay. Or it could be that I am painting a house, boarding up a house for a hurricane, mowing grass so on and so forth. But those things all have one thing in common. They have nothing to do with Air Conditioning work.
This time however, it was a side affect of doing my work. I needed to do this before being able to even start on my job today. Here is the setting. It is early in the morning. It had rained at the job site the night before. It is a new construction house that we had started on the day before. So far so good, what is not good is that since it is a new construction house, guess how many people are living there right now. That is right, zero. Now how do I get in. Both the front and the back doors are locked. So I try each window. No go. That is fine I know what to do, this is not the first time something like this has happened. I call my boss and ask him to call the builder, and have him open the house. At most ten minutes of waiting, and I will be in and working. My boss calls back. There is no chance that the builder can make it out to the site for at least an hour and a half. I am instructed to try anything I can to get in, short of damaging the house. Like cutting down walls or breaking windows. My boss suggested using a credit card to open the door. Does that really work? Well no harm in trying. I tried the front door first. It had a good sill on it. I could get the card in, but I was not sure what I was really supposed to be doing. I gave up. I was about to head back to my truck when I remembered a conversation I over heard the day before. What had the builder said??? "This back door does not stay closed all the way. You need to fix it." The Carpenter assured him it would not be any trouble, he could fix it without a problem. But that was late yesterday. The carpenter had to have left just minutes later. Could he have fixed the door so that it would shut before he left? did he have time? I had already tried it and it was locked, but was it shut tight. That was the question. I went to the back again, and pushed on the door. It move back about an inch and a half. It was still lose, but it was also still locked. I pulled out a card from my wallet. This time selecting something other then a credit card. I tried sliding it up. I tried sliding it down. I tried moving it back and forth. I tried a combination of the three. No go again. I tried one more time. I am not sure what I did, but... *Slick* *Click* *Swing*. The door opened.
So on this day I did do A/C work. But I also picked a door lock with a card. And I thought that was something you only could do in the movies.
Here is the card I used.

The day did not end there. When my co-worker, was cutting off the cap to the 7/8 copper line of the coil, things took a turn for the worst. Coils have pressure in them from the manufacture so that when we install it we know if there is a leak. You can cut the 7/8 line (what he did) or unscrew the 3/8 line nut (it is twice as slow, it is also happens to be the way I do it.) we now will be able to tell if there is a leak already in the coil. If pressure is released then there is not a leak and we are good to go ahead and install it. Most of the time when someone cuts the 7/8 line it only makes a small hole, and the pressure is released gradually. Then you just finish cutting the cap off and your done. But then from time to time that does not happen. This time it did not. The already weakened cap did not spring the small hole and leak out slowly. The hole thing popped, and the cap became a bullet. It busted the side of my co-workers lip open and shot down and hit the wall above my head. But it did not stop there. When the wall did not give way to it's high speeds, it turn around and came after me. I had heard it pop, and heard it hit the wall. But it was not till it zipped past my ear that I even had time to look up and the sound of it popping. Good thing to. If it was moving any slower, I would have had time to look up at the noise and turn my head, right into the path of the missile.
My co-worker finished with the copper and then, had to go home. His lips had swollen so that he was having problems talking. Not to mention the taste of blood in your mouth can drive anyone trying to work insane. I stayed and tyred to finish. But in the end I ran out of supplies and my boss told me to call it a day.



Here is the cap that became a missile.

Towards the split in the big wagon gate.

Hear is a run down of what as happened as of late.
The Phillies beat my Rays in five games to win the World Series.
Work has picked back up, and I am busy. Now that we have dropped two of our employees during the time that we were slow, things are really hectic.
We had a Reformation party the other night. It was a lot of fun as we played games long into the night. We played a game called "Bulls Eye Washers" which is similar to horse shoes. I bought the game some months ago, which in the end payed dividends as I had practice with the set for some time. There were at least three other people that had played one form or another of the game. But the games they had played were all different enough that I was able to keep my edge in the rounds I played in.
Barrak Obama won the election. This can have several ramifications for third party voter like myself. 1. Democrats hate us for our opposition to them. 2. Republicans hate us for not voting for their liberal candidate McCain. 3. Republicans will learn not to put forward such a liberal candidate, that would compromise our morals to vote for him. And insteed run a man that has real values.
The Republicans had eight years to show us that they were worth our vote. They failed. We lost more rights under Bush then we did under any president dating back to 1860-1865. Then after that what do they do...They run someone else out there that is even more liberal then Bush.
My message to the Republicans. Give us a real candidate that we can vote for with out selling our souls to the devil in four years.
My message to Obama. Hit me with your best shot. You have four years to do your damage, then if the Republicans have learned anything your out! This country, with Gods help, can survive you for four years.
God help us.

Robert L.

Houston.

Thursday Oct. 23, 2008. I left to Houston for a business trip along with one co-worker and my boss. It had been slow for the past two weeks in the A/C business and my boss had sold a job up in Houston. We would not have done the job for any other reason save for the lack of business here in Corpus Christi. We left around 1:00 PM Thursday after doing a real quick job for our new construction builders that we work with. That would end up being costly, as we arrived in Houston at rush hour. And we were heading towards the north side of Houston. As for you people that do not know, Corpus Christi in below Houston. So we were coming from the south. Thus we ended up going straight through Houston, from one side to the other. And as for those of you who have been/lived in Houston, you know that we could have done better for our selves going around Houston. In the end we got to the house around 6:30 PM. However we did the outdoor unit that evening, to give us a head start for the next day.
We stayed at the Marriott, and the next morning went to work early. It was a little rough, as the unit was a gas furnace in an attic. Those are always the hardest. But this one was easier then most, as it had a lot of room in the attic. It took us six hours in all to get the job finished. Compared to the nine hours that we spent on the road. Overall it worked out rather well.

Robert L.

Here we Go!

"Ground Ball to Second! Iwamura has it! Rays are going to the World Series!"
Yes they are! The Rays beat the Red Sox 3-1 tonight, with pitching, and just enough runs. It was amazing!

Robert L.

Second tag.

Alright now I have been tagged twice. As for everyone that I tagged before you will have to scroll down to the next post to find out the rules. But now on to this one.

1.What's your favorite movie? I do not really have one. But I like the movie Cromwell a lot.
2.What did you have for breakfast this morning? Breakfast Pizza.
3.How good are you at ping-pong? Well I've won five straight titles at the Family Conference in Bluefield V.A. And am second only to my pastor at my church. I think that puts me somewhere above so-so.

And I have already tagged everyone that I know so I am punting. No tags.

Tagged.

Well it had to happen sooner or later. I would get tagged in the end, one way or the other. Thank you Jessica! :) Now I need to post six things that I have learned in the past month. And then tag six other people. So here we go.

1. I have learned how to diagnose a circuit board failure on a AUX363624 Goodmen airhandler.
2. I have learned how to play an instrument. (It is called the X-box 360.)
3. I have learned how to deal with customers when my boss is not around. (And believe me, when a customer thinks he is right, there is only one way to change his mind. Show him he is not. Telling him does not work.)
4. I have learned a lot about the stock market.
5. I have learned not to post comments on pink blogs. (Hannah.)
6. And that I am not any good at story writing, and am about to scrap the past two years of it.

Okay, now for the people I am going to tag.

1. Yeoryia.
2. Jay East.
3. Jennifer Marks.
4. Josiah Candler.
5. Joahnna Martinez.
6. Lauren East.


Robert L.D.

It is time for your MLB update!

The Dodgers swept the Cubs out of the playoffs, as the Cubs repeated last year’s postseason performance. They did not kick the bucket, but rather as it has been put, "The Cubs kick the ball." (All right let me explain to y'all that did not get that. In baseball when an error is committed it is referred to in reference of the fielder as "he kick (or booted) the ball. And in game two, which was the pivotal game of the set, all four Cub in-fielders Booted/kicked the ball.) But all that matter is that the Cubs are out. Yes!
The same fate for the Brewers awaited them in the long run. They went down 0-2 in the first two games but won the 3rd. That set up game 4. In which that good for nothing commissioner of baseball throw out the ceremonial first pitch. And then stayed to watch his beloved Brewers get the fire beat out of them by the Phillies. Yes!
The Rays went up 2-0 against the White Sox and were not affected by the loss in game 3. They came right back and put the White Sox away till April. Yes!
But then the Angles... Down 0-2 to the Red Sox, they pulled together and won a very hard fought game 3. It would not make a difference in the long run. As they would loss in the Bottom of the 9th on a base hit by the Red Sox. Red Sox advance. No!

The Dodgers and Phillies start Game 1 of the NLCS tonight. Followed by the Red Sox at the Rays going head to head in the ALCS Fri. Don't miss it!

Robert L.D.

A perfect day.

Today is a day that has been remember by many over the years. Oct. 8. Most people celebrate it, and a few disdain it. But either way you look at it, there is something spacial about. No matter what side you are on. It was something that only happened once. And what accrued that Oct. 8 will sound down the corridors of history! And on that day, Oct 8, The man and the hour were about to meet. See it here. (If the link did not work, please read about it on the comments. Thank you.)

This is nice.

Hay y'all. Take my test that I have up it is at the top of the page you cannot miss it. I was not sure if it was going to work so I did not put up anything hard. At least for the first four Questions. My sibling should get the top spots for sure. I took the test already just to see if it worked and purposefully made only a fifty. That way the person that gets the most answers right will have their name on top, instead of mine.
Also I have two new songs on my playlist.

Update.

Three out of four postseason sets are going the way I want them to. As y'all already know the Twins lost to the White Sox in the 163 game of the season. It is hard when you play that many games to be watching come Oct. and the playoffs. But that has left me free to pull for the Rays. And they have responded. Beating up on the White Sox in the First two games. They only need to win three to advance to the next round. Other sets such as the Dodgers at the Cubs has gone the Dodgers' way in the first two games, and the Phillies have gone up on the Brewers 2-0. The one that is going against me so far is the Angles and Red Sox. The Red Sox won the first game and right now have a 5-2 lead in the second game. Thus the Baseball update comes to an end.

I will try to think of something to post that is not baseball next time. I know that a lot of y'all are being patient while I carry on in this baseball high.

Robert L.

It is Over.

Sat. night the Astros won. However so did the Brewers. It left the Astros 3 1/2 games back with two games to go. And that is where the Astros will stay for the rest of the year. Our season is over and now I need to find a new team to cheer for this October. Go Tampa Bay Rays!

My thoughts on your Votes.

This is a post on the last two polls that I had up on my blog. The first one "If you were joining a Medieval army, what would you like to be?" Well two of y'all went with horsemen and two for the archers and just one for the swordsmen. I was not surprised that the spearmen did not get a vote. Seeing as though the spearman's main purpose was to kill the horse that the rider was on, and I know for the most part that the followers of my blog love horses. I am not sure who voted swordsmen...It was kind of a surprise. Archers as I suspected was also a favorite pick.
However the second poll was not so popular. To which I have two words. "GOOGLE IT!" "What is Bobby Thomson's famous three run homer call?" The shot heard around the world. As much as I do not like the Giants, I must say that this is one of my favorite moments in baseball history.
http://mlb.mlb.com/media/player/mp_tpl_3_1.jsp?w=/library/open/moments/bbm_51reg_100351_bknnyg_350.wmv&vid=7808&pid=gen_video&cid=mlb&v=2
This is a link to the recap of that moment, for any of y'all that are interested. You may have to download an advanced video setting but it should not take to long.

Here we go Astros!

The Astros are four games back and have just seven games left. The good news is that the Mets who the Stros are trailing have four straight games against the Cubs, one of the best teams in baseball (this year). Between the Mets and the Astros are the Brewers, who have been free falling in the standings for a long time now. More good news is that the Astros have six "easy" home games against the Reds and Braves, followed however if it is necessary, by a signal game against the before mentioned Cubs. Right now with the way things are looking the best we can hope for would be a tie with the Mets and or the Brewers by the end of the season. I am not sure what happens if there is a three way tie, but if only two of us are tied we get to play one of the most fascinating games in baseball. A one game playoff. Winner takes all the loser go's home. The Astros have only ever been tied at the end of a season for a playoff spot once before. With three games left to the season the Stros held a three game lead over the Dodgers. All they had to do was win one game or the Dodgers to lose one. As it turned out the Astros would be swept in the last three games. But there would have been hope still if the Dodgers lost just one game. Unfortunately the Astros were playing the Dodgers in the last three games so as they lost the Dodgers won. And so they were tied. However this game 163 (it is called that because there is 162 in a season) was not going to be another Dodger win. The Astros pitcher shut them down as the Astros escaped a late season melt down and made it the post season.
But now I have left topic and will not be able to get back on it now that I have made this post to long.

Playing with toys!

We have all played with them. Some of us played with guns and rubber snakes, others played with with plastic horses and dolls, but when it comes down to it we all played with toys. And in some of my reader cases, it may be that they still do play with toys. And after today so do I. I will not go into all the detail on how it came down to it, but as it turned out I ended up being put in charge of watching three young boys for about four hours today. I no longer have most of the toys that I played with when I was their age so for a while I was stump as to what I was going to do to entertain them. Fortunately I still had my Hot wheels sets from the old days. My brother and my younger sisters all once raced Hot Wheels together. For a time it was all that we would do, day in and day out. However I found that the track, that I had stored up in the attic over the years, were in fact all bent and warped by the heat. So I drove down to the store real quick and picked up 10 sticks of track and three new cars for the boys to use. It worked. The boys were so taken with the racing that I hardly had to do a thing at all. But do you think I did nothing? Nope. I was racing my old cars right next to their new cars. I had just as much fun as they did playing with those cars. However I think I had fun for other reasons then when I played years ago. Back then I played to have fun, win and make memories. Today I played to remember the fun memories I had made with my siblings, along time ago. I enjoyed the memory of having fun just as much as I had enjoyed the racing of the cars years ago while making those memories.

Do you get it?

A man is woken up in the middle of the night by his wife.
"Honey? If I died would you remarry?"
"What?" He asked half asleep. She repeats the question. And this time he gets it. "What type of question is that at 2:00 A.M.?" But when asked a third time he answers the question. "Well I am still young... I guess I might." A few seconds later he is asked another question.
"Honey? If you remarry would you let your new wife wear my cloths?" He groans and put his pillow over his head. But his wife ask him again. So he answers.
"I guess there would not be any reason to spend more money on new cloths, so...yes." He almost falls asleep again when he hears his wife again.
"Honey? Just one more question. Would you let her drive my sports car?"
"NO!" He answered.
"But why? If you let her wear my cloths why not drive my car?"
"That just it. If she was already wearing your cloths, she could not drive your car."
"Hows that?" She asked puzzled.
"Because she could not drive in a straight jacket."

Wrigley Field North - better known as Milwaukee’s Miller Park.

Somebody at the Commissioner's office must really not like the Astros. After having our games canceled at home they decided to move three of the two games to a "neutral" park. That is fine in and of it's self. But maybe some where like the Rangers park, or the Twins and even the Diamondbacks home parks would work. But no! They moved us to Wrigley Field North - better known as Milwaukee’s Miller Park. Wrigley Field being the home park of the Cubs the team we just so happen to be playing. Wrigley Field is just 90 miles away from Miller Park. It will be packed with Cub fans. And Home feild advantage is very important for those of y'all how don't know. I cannot help but think Bud Sileg had something to do with it. He being the commissioner of the MLB, was even before that owner of the Milwaukee Brewers. It is the Brewers and the Phillies that we (the Astros) are trailing, and if the Cubs hammer us at Wrigley Field North (Miller Park), then we will be less of a threat to the Brewers playoff hopes. The Brewers would be left to deal with the Phillies on their own, with two games left to a four games set they started over the weekend against the Phillies. Thing are looking a bit better for the Brewers. That was till they drooped the first game today against the Phillies. Oh well. That is my conspiracy theory for the day, that Bud Sileg and the Commissioner's office are trying to set up the Playoff hunt.

Robert L.

Strike three!

Ike swings and misses! Well at least he failed to get us. Not one drop of rain! Not even a gust of wind. Calm, that is the only thing that I can say about the weather, save for the fact that it is hot. It is a good thing that we never got the parts to put the wood up on the windows. Other wise we would still be looking at a lot of work we need to undo.

Robert L.

Four straight, three back and two "Down".

The Astros completed a four game sweep of the Pirates, putting them just three games back of the Brewers who fell to the Phillies 6-3. The bad news however is that the first two games against the Cubs (12th-13th) have been postponed due to Ike.








Oswalt #44 flips the ball to Berkman #17 from his knees after diving to the ground for the force out at first base. Berkman congratulates Oswalt on his second straight complete game shutout. In which he faced only 27 batters. Outstanding!

The Astros high five each other as the final Pirate returns to his dugout after grounding into a game ending double play.

Astros!

The Astros won there fifth straight game overall and third straight against the Pirates Wed. Pictured above the Astros Celebrate after Miguel Tejada #10 hit a grand slam. The Stros are now just four games back in the wild card race and are tied for second overall.

Robert L.

Hurricanes.

No we are not in any danger. We may lose power for a day. A tree might break. No need to fear. Just a reminder we are not in Corpus Christi, we are in Robstwon. The only thing that I am worried about right now is if the hurricane hits Houston. They might have to move the Astros game to another ball park. And with out the home field advantage...Gulp! We will see how things work out.

But there is no need for concern yet, we are taking every precaution to make sure nothing turns out worse then what I am making it out to be. So the boards go up on the house tomorrow, the chickens will have a place built for them in the garage, anything that might move an inch during 100 MPH winds is being secured. So like I said...We will be fine...in the end.



Robert L.

Pirates

Pirates. When most people think of them they think of scum on the high seas. Although I do not have a much different opinion of them I do not think of them as being on the high sea. If fact during the next couple of days I will think of them as the road the Houston Astros have to travel over to make post season play this year. The Pittsburgh Pirates have been a thorn in the side of the Astros for the last two years, handing us more losses then another division foe. And we have seven games with them out of the twenty or so we have left to the season. And with the Cubs and Brewers stumbling as of late and the Astros playing the best ball in the second half, makes me feel that the six game deficit we have in the wild card race is not a long shot. The Astros won't give in and I will not give up hope. The Phillis and the Rockies had great comeback runs that lead to the playoffs last year, with the Rockies making it to the World Series.
So with those two teams in mind, along with the 04 and 05 Astro comebacks..."Go get them Stros!"

Helpful.

In the poll that just closed on my blog I asked the people that follow my blog to vote on what they would like for me to do next on it. In the end I had a tie at 5 votes for two of them. I noted that the first two people to vote, voted for all four of the options. Now I know I made that poll so that y'all could pick more then one answer...but really...When asking for advise it is common to help the person that is asking by narrowing down their question to one or to picks. You don't say all of them at the same time that helps about as much as a kick to the head. :) Anyway, as a result I have gone no where with this last poll. And obviously the people that vote for me to post "Anything and everything have gotten their wish.

Robert L.

Archers at the ready!

This is my bow.

A long shot.

I must say that I was disappointed by one of my last polls that I had posted on my blog. The outcome however I knew from the start was going to be disappointing. In the poll I asked my voters to chose their favorite bow. As I suspected the crossbow failed to get a single vote. However to my small surprise the compound bow received one vote, this I attribute to Jay East. And to my disappointment but no surprise my recurved bow received only my own vote. The longbow had won even before I posted the poll. My brother Calvin is one of the biggest fans of the longbow that I know. And my sister also are wrapped up in the romantic history of the slick weapon. I must also admit that I am a fan of the longbow, but use the recurved as my weapon of choice. So by their three votes alone the longbow cruised to the easy win. Maybe next time.

Robert L.

Six flags, five stars.

From the previous post you may have gathered that I and my three youngest siblings went to Dallas this past weekend. While we were there I had an opportunity to use two tickets that my boss had given me to Six Flags as a boniness. As for those of you who may not know what Six Flags is, it is a park much like, say... Disney World. (Or Disney Land. What ever it might be.) I had only been on roller coaster twice before, once up in Minnesota, and once again in California, so this was going to be good. But to say the least I had quite forgotten the joys of such rides. However there was still a few obstacles in our way before the fun could began at Six Flags. First I had to find the tickets before we left. That took almost 30 min. But I found them in the end and we set forth. The next obstacle was the waiting line. After about 10-15 min. waiting we were the next group in line to get on the ride. However it was canceled do to thunder storms in the area. It looked like it was going to be a short trip, when Mr.East (our host and a season ticket hold to Six Flags.) lead us to an indoor roller coaster. It was great! With one hitch, it was pitch black inside the indoor roller coaster. This as you might guess, was a good reason that I could not see the track in front of me. To make a short story shorter I thought that the first turn was to the left and set my self up for such a movement. It went right and I was jerked hard the wrong way. I aggravated a muscle strain on my right side, which had first accrued when working in an attic. When we got done with that ride and spent some time here and there doing other things the bigger rides reopened as the thunder storm had past, taking with it as it seemed most of the other people that had been there before. The rest of the group that I was with started running from ride to ride so that they would not have to wait in line as long. This however turned out not to be a problem as there was hardly anyone waiting for the rides. The only problem there was, turned out to be the one that I felt every time I took a step or drew a breath. The muscle strain had me far behind the group at all times. And after two rides on "Bat Man" one on "Mr.Freeze" and three (two of them back to back) on the "Titian" I learned to put mind over matter and forget about it for a time. It was however after the "Texas Giant" That I really felt bad. Matter won out in the end of mind. In the end we made that our last ride for the day and returned to less active hobbies such as X-Box.

Robert L.

P.S. I loved Six Flags...Thank you East for taking us, and thank you Joe for giving me the tickets!

The pitcher of recored?

Nope not me. The player of the game? Still nope.
The other day while up in Dallas visiting our friends the East, we (Calvin, their oldest boy Jay, their second oldest Daniel and myself) did so batting practise. I started and for the life of me I could not hit the ball. Maybe I did not swing when Calvin through a good pitch. Or maybe Calvin did not throw a pitch close enough for me to swing at it. Any how I did not do good. Then Jay came up and I took over pitching. I throw without winding up, which is the way that pitching coaches do it, so that the pitch is not to fast and more accurately thrown in the strike zone so it can be hit. This helped as Jay belted pitches left and right. Calvin went next and at first he was smoking them too. But then I got tired and started throwing them wide. And then Calvin had the same problem I did when I was batting. Daniel was next and that helped. I came in closer and found the middle of the plate for him a lot more then I did for Calvin. I had one more turn before we had to leave, Jay pitch and the first one was good. However I hit it straight back to the back stop. The next thirty pitches I either watched as they went wide, or I reached for the pitches, missing them more often then not. The only comfort that I could bring back in the end is that I was the best pitching coach. Oh, and that out of my five hits, three of them were bombs. Maybe not home runs in a big league park but in any little league park, they were long gone.

Funny?

My family is rather funny sometimes. If fact more often then not someone is saying something or doing something that is funny. Sometimes it is funny right then and there, other times it is something that we laugh at later. For instance the other week when my mother asked Rebecca (my youngest sister) why the kitchen had not been cleaned all the way, Calvin (my older brother) interjected teasingly that she had slept through kitchen clean up time. She tried to defend herself and made the profound statement "I have not slept since I woke up." We all found this very funny.
Then there was the time that Rebecca decided to do her school work up in my parents room. And she decided to open the window. This time it was not funny till it was over. She left the room for lunch and when she came back, a whole hive of Yellow jackets had found there way through the open window and were making themselves at home in my parents bedroom. Twenty or thirty of them if I recall. She called for help and I responded. The Yellow jacket problem was fixed finally when I turned on the fan and shut the door. Five minutes later all but two of them were gone. The air being disturbed made it hard for the Yellow jackets fly around at will and they high tailed it back to the outdoors. We then shut the window and killed the last two. At the time that it was happening it was not funny at all. The thought of battling twenty-five stinging insects for the rest of the day did not sound funny. But after the crisis was over...it seemed a lot easier to laugh about it.

Ping-Pong.

My brother in-law taught me how to play ping pong. In fact the single most important part of my game comes from him. That is as those of you who have seen me play know, is the way I hold my paddle. It is a very good defencive method.
He taught me everything I knew...that lasted for as long as it took me to learn everything he knew, then I started teaching him what I was learning on my own. Then pastor Otis came down from Georgia. And every thing that I knew from My brother in-law (Christopher Marks) and that I had picked up myself did little to no good. It took a year, but I finally beat Pastor Otis, once. Then back to the same old same old of losing. About a year ago now I started beating him every so often. As hard fought as are games are now days and as much as he says we are even with one another, I still believe that he has about a 3 to 2 advantage over me. This is best shown in a tournament that we held lately.
Pastor Otis and I as expected blow past everyone else in our respective brackets. He was in the top Bracket and I was in the lower. And we were set up to play each other in the Winner Bracket's final. First however me and my teammate in the doubles bracket played pastor Otis and his teammate in that bracket's winner bracket. Me and my teammate got hammered and we were sent down to the loser's Bracket where we pulled out a near run victory. So back up we went, to face Otis' team that had just beat us, in the final. We had to win twice and they only had to win once because they were from the winner bracket and were undefeated to this point. We changed that with a turn around win to force a winner takes all rubber match. They won in convincing fashion again.
Back to the singles match, where the two of us squared off for the final battle. I fought tooth and nail to get back with in striking distance and tied it up at 20-20. He had been playing better then me for the hole game so it did not come as a surprise when he rolled off two quick points to win by deuce 22-20. I had to play in the loser bracket after that but was able to carry the momentum from my 21-9 victory over the runner up of the loser bracket, into the championship against pastor Otis. I took a 3-2 advantage during the first serve and never looked back. Having anywhere from a 1 to 2 point lead the hole game. And I never had any doubt after the first round of serves as to how it would turn out. 21-19 was the final (yes that is close in score) but I really did not feel like I was being out played that game. The final game was a no doubter as well. He out scored me 3-2 every serve and the game ended 21-14. If we had played two more games I thing I would have won the fourth and been outscored 21-14 (or there about) in the fifth game. He will beat me 3-2 no matter how you look at it. I will one day hopefully (soon) turn the tables on him like I have to both my brother and my brother in-law. But till I can hold at 1-1 against pastor Otis there is no point in thinking about beating him 75% of the time. Let get 50% before the 75% shall we.

Robert L. D.

Pics From trips.

Me and my Aunt at Stone Mountain Park.
My Mom and my Aunt at Stone Mountain Park.
Me and my Mom coming down Stone Mountain.
Me and my Aunt on the river boat at Stone Mountain Park.
Me and my friends the Anderson family from left to right: Molly, Bryan, Courtney, William and me.
Pic from the ski trip that we took when we were up in C.A.

Pitcher of Record.

You may wonder why I picked the name for my Blog that I did. But then you might not. There is not any real deep reasoning behind it. Nothing profound, nothing that would be the reason for hours of conversation. And as everyone has already assumed, the name has to do with baseball. In every game there are two pitchers of record. A pitcher that is recorded as the winning pitcher, and one as the losing pitcher. There are two other records kept in the game of baseball for pitchers, though they are not always recorded in all games. Saves and Holds. However the pitchers that acquire these records are not call "The Pitcher of record", I thought it best to explain that to my already asleep readers.

Robert L.