Saturday, April 07, 2007

Losing My Religion

Yes, I know I'm a Grandpa Simpson type, and there is much that annoys me - and it doesn't have to take a lot. You're shocked - I know!

At my old job, one woman would always go around this time of year saying, "have a Good Friday". Not a 'good Friday'. Sorry, but keep your religion to yourself. I don't share in your beliefs - but more importantly, you are unaware of who does and who does not. I also don't (not so) subtley force upon you my beliefs....so cram it.

The woman at my parking garage says 'good morning' every day, but on Fridays it's: "have a blessed weekend". I say good morning to her Monday through Thursday only. I don't think she'll ever pick-up on my low key, non-verbal protest.

I do laugh when Jon (not Jon C.) tells his story of a woman he dealt with who would sign-off all her calls with "Yours in Christ", then hang-up. It surely would have annoyed the fuck out of me, but the way Jon told it, the story was hilarious. And to be honest, for fun, I'll sign off emails to him like that now and again.

Yesterday we got to leave work at 3:00p. Though it wasn't stated that it was for Good Friday, it probably was. I like to think it was because of that other religious holiday: The Home Opener!!!! You worship your false idols, I'll worship mine (c'mon....would you just look at Mr. Hafner up there in the picture?).

I know I have expounded here on my lack of caring about most sports. I do watch Ohio State football and root for the Cleveland Indians. That is about it. I love going to Indians games and I'm just as happy to watch them on tv.

I have learned never to go to a game before mid-May. Not in Cleveland. Take today. 27 degrees as the high. The first three innings took over 2.5 hours. They had to take leaf blowers to the field to clear the snow....multiple times!! Everyone understands 'rain-delays', but 'snow-delays'?? At times there were just complete white outs. It was crazy.

I sat through that once: on an Easter sunday (ironically enough). The Easter game wasn't worth it to me. They ran out of coffee, tea and hot chocolate by the 3rd inning....and I don't even normally drink hot beverages. I left by the 5th inning.

Another cold cold game I went to was Game 4 of the 1997 World Series. You endure the freezing temps because, well, it was the WORLD SERIES. And the Indians make it (on average) to that level twice in one's lifetime. Yes we won the game (not the series), but lost in the fact that we had to sit through Leah Thompson sing the national anthem! Damn NBC for promoting 'Caroline in the City' in such a heinous way! I had to pay $300 for my ticket and still be subjected to that shit??

So, back to yesterday. As home opener time neared and the weather continued to deteriorate, I got more and more offers to go to the game. Five in all. I kindly turned down each and every one. Hell, I didn't even have a hat or gloves with me, let alone a flannel union suit.

Here's a little peak at what it was looking like well into game time.

Though the game was technically sold out, I'd say that two-thirds of the Jake was empty. But I bet there wasn't a sweatshirt that went unsold in the concession stands.

As it turns out, we were ahead 4-0 when they called the game in the 4th inning. They'll try play again during a Sunday double-header. Good luck with that.

Good Friday indeed!

1 comment:

Sue said...

Gee. What is all that white stuff on the field? I thought baseball was played by the boys of summer. No?