Wheeling & Dealing

Tuesday night Ceil went out to a birthday dinner, so after work I headed north to retrieve Matthew. Stopped by Park Avenue and saw several fun items: a decent pair of brown leather boots, a pair of the Nike Roshe Run shoes Anna liked, a Jason Heyward jersey, and a goofy pair of padded running shoes. None of the items were on sale but I might go back today to get the senior discount. NOTE: The boots and Roshes were busted and the goofy shoes not yet on sale, but I grabbed the jersey: a reasonably authentic looking Majestic navy road jersey with an official looking number on the back. HEYWARD is stitched with nice big letters but they might arch a little more than the real ones. Nice official looking tags. It’s nice and big – not tight – so I’ll probably start wearing it to games. My Uecker jersey is so nice that I hate to get it all sweaty. Now I can sell my navy Tiexiera jersey. I put a 1988 white jersey for sale on eBay for $40 and have seven watchers.

When I stopped at Goodwill I hit the mother lode: eight bobbleheads - the second largest amount I had ever scored. I had to go back and get a cart. Ben Sheets Team USA All Star Futures Game given away by the Brewers, a Brandon Webb 2007 Dbacks giveaway honoring his 2006 Cy Young Award, a big-headed Chipper Jones "Forever" bobblehead, , NASCAR's Dale Jarrett, DBacks catcher Chris Snyder, Tim Hudson of the Braves, and Thrashers all-stars Ilya Kovolchuk and Kari Lehtonen. I'll trade Huddy and the Thrashers for bobbleheads I don't have, but all the rest are keepers. Sheets and Webb are the most valuable. Since Tuesday is senior day I got a 25% discount, making it even more of a deal. Swells my collection over the 160 mark.

Matthew drove the 20 miles back to Roswell. Back home I watched Game Six with Will. Cleveland made a run at the end, and could have snatched the game had the Warriors not been making all their shots. Ceil came home and watched for a while. She showed us comedian Tim Hawkins singing songs atheists might sing in their churches, which were hilarious. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4syLS3-fdA I showed her Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers singing "Atheists Ain't Got No Songs" on The Late Show with David Letterman. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wogta8alHiU  Nice that someone is making fun of the atheists.

Stayed up past 12:35 watching the game and cleaning the kitchen and doing some laundry (and working on the computer). These youngsters are listing the greatest Falcon for each uniform number. They started off poorly so I decided to make my own list – 99 short essays. Did you know the Falcons once had a receiver who played without a facemask? Wideout Tommy McDonald was near the end of his Hall of Fame career when he played in Atlanta in 1967. He hadn’t worn a facemask as an All-American at Oklahoma but later wore a single bar in the pros. He won a championship in Philadelphia with Norm Van Brocklin in 1960. McDonald was the last non-kicker to play without a mask in the NFL. I had always thought Bobby Layne was the last, and that by 1960 all players wore masks, but no.

Wednesday afternoon I worked until six and stopped once on the way home. The detour has been fixed so that’s one less worry. Will and Anna were out so it was a slow evening. Watched the Braves beat the Red Sox and worked on the computer.

Bobblehead Wednesday: Traded for Manny Machado (Orioles) and Joe Maddon (Cubs) and picked up two from 1999: Pudge Rodriguez (Rangers) and Chan Ho Park (Dodgers). The Braves just added another bobblehead game: Freeman and Gomes hugging. Before the game the pair should go out to the mound and hug for the crowd.

One of the position players to pitch for Cleveland the other day was David Murphy.

For some reason Maybin reminds me of the receiver in the Keanu Reeves’ movie The Replacements.

ROB: I was tempted to say that Cameron Maybin has turned out to be the player we had hoped BJ Upton would be.  That would be wrong.  BJ was supposed to be a much better player.  In a little more than 1/3 of the season, Maybin has 5 HR's and 12 SB's.  In his last Tampa season, BJ had 28 HR's and 31 SB's.

ME: Saw where David and Mary Hurt put their house up for sale. They just want to downsize but stay in Milton. David has a long commute and East Cobb would be closer but I doubt they’d move over here. We’d actually like to move up their way. Haley’s Miss Georgia Pageant is Saturday night. No TV but you can watch it on line. Missy Simms’ parents finally closed on their house and moved, and David and Ivy Anderson are living with Whitney while their new house is built.

Reading the John Grisham novel Grey Mountain, about the coal mining industry in Appalachia. Lots of people thought it was preachy, but so far it’s not too bad.

Frances Green Wayt passed away and the service is Friday. She married my maternal grandmother’s brother John Wayt Sr., who lived for years on Stratford Road just down from the Church of Christ Scientist before moving to Northside Drive. My uncle John Jr. founded the Atlanta Steeplechase and was the inspiration for the Mark Trail comic strip. I lived with John Jr’s wife Martha my freshman year at Tech, in her house on Jett Ferry Road.

Are you following the SBC convention news? The AJC is loading up with articles on church’s response to the gay marriage issue. The fishwrapper knows readers will fill up the comments section, which means more of the page views and clicks their advertisers love. Bryant Wright was quoted. Tony Compolo recently changed his stance. A black church in Dekalb County welcomed same sex couples and lost 60% of their members as a result. In related news, Monday night Passion City Church had a large women’s gathering in Piedmont Park.

A new Del Taco opened in East Cobb, and some coupons caught my notice. I tried it out for the first time Saturday morning. The burritos were hastily prepared and poorly wrapped. The taste was just ok. The big difference between Del Taco and Taco Bell is the sauce Del Taco puts on their food without request. I'll try it out a few more times before making a final decision.

1976 – that summer I was working at Baskin Robbins, between my junior and senior year in high school. Lots of business during the summer, especially on the weekends. The line might stretch out the door. Mercer had an all-American basketball player named Cindy Brogdon who played on the US Olympic team. She later transferred to Tennessee. One day she came into the store and ordered a pint of ice cream – and a spoon. Back then few people ate so much at one time, but she sat down and enjoyed the entire pint.

I would also go up to school every day. Weightlifting was Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. On Tuesday and Thursday I would go down to the field and kick. If I didn’t kick year around I would get out of practice, and when I’d start back my leg would be sore and it would take a few weeks just to get back to where I’d been at the end of the last season.

That summer my family road tripped through St. Louis and KC up to visit my dad’s grandmother in Tarkio, in the far northwestern corner of Missouri.

This summer Anna is baby-sitting, though one of her main clients moved to Chattanooga. She has two days of orientation at UGA next week and our beach trip in mid-July. M will be out of town 2 straight weeks in July. School starts in early August so we’ll have to see. Ceil hasn’t said anything, but she usually spends a few days in SC during the summer, and A and M usually go.