John Clayton died yesterday. I loved that guy. When we moved to Seattle in 1995, he was just starting to do shows on KJR, which was then one of the few all sports stations in the country. Think I first heard him as a regular contributor on The Fabulous Sports Babe show. She was not fabulous, and certainly not a babe, but he caught my ear immediately as a guy that spoke about football in a way that was knowledgeable and fair. He got a 3 hour weekend show soon after that and I had to be doing something really important to miss it. And once podcasts became a thing, I never did. Not once. He's had a lot of the same callers for almost that whole time and hearing from them every week was familiar and comforting. He also did a 20 minute spot every weekday on one of the shows and never missed those either, so in the last 25+ years, I listened to this guy for a good 4-5 hours a week every week. His wife developed MS over this time and while he didn't dwell on it, it got through that she was bedridden and very hard to keep healthy and happy, and also that he loved her more than football, which he obviously loved a lot. He was on the air last week and the news says he died after a 'brief illness'. I worry about his wife and am gonna feel this loss every day for more than a while. Loved that guy.
Watching the covid news around here and how Hong Kong is struggling mightily with it currently. The statistic I've seen that I found astonishing was that only 30 some-odd percent of people over 80 had received full vaccination. Old people afraid of the Chinese vax apparently. If I haven't said it for a while, fuck you China. And here, they still are having less than 10 a day with a few zero case days recently. Still doesn't make sense to me. We do have the skeptics here too though. At the track where I walk, a dude I haven't seen for a while that likes to chat sidled up to me the other day. Side note: I hate chatting when I'm doing my laps at the track cause that is my time to listen to my shows (John Clayton) and meditate, so am not my usual gregarious self. Anyhoo, talk turned to covid and I mentioned the low percentage of vaccinations in HK, and this guy tells me about some relative in the States who knows doctors and says that a "lot" of doctors know but don't want to say (immediately know that something nutty is about to follow), that the vaccines are causing huge numbers of miscarriages. I hadn't seen anything like that and a quick search later shows that to be made up bullshit, but knew that already and told the guy that sounds like made up bullshit and that he should go do some homework. He peeled off shortly thereafter. Mission accomplished.
Here is another statistic that is puzzling. 35% of people over 40 in Taipei are unmarried. That is up from 12% from 20 years ago. They have a monthly lottery for newly married couples to incentivize them to get busy, but the rate continues to decline. It's a big national security issue to be sure.
Another local development is that it is getting hot. Not hot as balls hot, but enough where we broke out our fans. Have to have one going in the bedroom while we sleep and now we wake up with a headache and snootfull full of mucus. Our departure for the States is May 18th.
Until then, still a ton of baseball to go. Next weekend is our weekend trip to Hualien, so this space may be delayed or off for a week. As it is hot, need to drink a bunch more water and at one point during practice I said I need a minute cause "I'm thirsty". A couple of the fellas snickered and said "for who coach". I sorta knew that thirsty to these kids means to be hot/pining for someone, so there is another normal word that is ruined for us oldtimers, but one that I now have to use sporadically with them cause they love when a old guy uses a dirty phrase in conversation.
And yesterday was our last JV game of the year. That bunch is made up of Freshman and Sophomores, so they are extra squirrley. On the bus about 5 minutes from the field, one of the zanier boys screams from the back that he has to go to the bathroom. The look on his face is the classic 'I am gonna take a dump real soon, bathroom or no'. We get there and he jumps off the bus and butt clench waddles in a hurry towards the field. We all know there is no bathroom there, but he is determined. The rest of us grab our gear from the bus and start walking over and all of a sudden, he comes flying around the corner on the back of a scooter (without a helmet and still grimacing) driven by some girl associated with the opposing team. We all laugh. He comes back a while later looking much relieved. He doesn't have his belt on and we ask where it is, and he says that it broke as he was ripping it off in the 7-11 bathroom.
Lastly...haven't mentioned how my knee recovery is going. Knee is pretty good. Other parts still suffering. Had a recent x-ray and it showed something irregular.
Enjoy your day
No comments:
Post a Comment