Monday, October 30, 2006

Monday, October 30

500,000 Honor The Champs

A sea of red, an estimated 500,000 members of Cardinal Nation lined the streets of downtown St. Louis yesterday to celebrate the Cardinals' World Championship. Following the parade 50,000 people crowded into Busch Stadium for the rally which included the introduction of all the Cardinal players.

Busy Day

It is a busy day today getting ready to leave tomorrow for my trip to the Dominican Republic for the winter. I have a long list of things to do today including buying last minute things to take, cleaning and winterizing the apartment and packing.

As it always is, am anxious and somewhat excited for a new adventure and need a change of routine. I do have a bit of guilt (as I always do), leaving my mother to fend for herself through the winter, though my brother will be around to watch over her. She doesn't do much to ease the guilt feelings, however, yesterday she did say she understood totally and said that if she were younter she would be going south as well. But, she is 85 and I will worry while I am gone.

Sad

Most of all the toughest part is saying good-bye for awhile to Matthew. He and I are going to have lunch together tomorrow and then will have to give him a big hug as we go our separate ways.

This reminds me so much of when I deployed in the military overseas in 1969. It was such an unknown type thing for me and my family. The same thing is happening all over again a generation later. He will go to Germany and I will go to the Dominican Republic. I can come back anytime I want, but he doesn't know when he will return.

Of course the cloud over him being deployed from Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany into Iraq will be hanging over us and will be a daily worry. I have stressed to him the importance of daily communication through phone and e-mail. I will be anxious to hear him describe his life in Europe and will pass his comments, descriptions, plans and pictures along in this blog. I will be saving my money this winter and hope to make a trip to see him next spring if he is still there at Ramstein.


The Trip

After Matt and I have lunch together tomorrow, I will be meeting the bus in Columbia tomorrow afternoon at 2 pm for the trip to St. Louis. The bus will drop me at the airport and my daughter Rachel will meet me there.

We will go to the nearby Holiday Inn-Airport so I can check in for the overnight stay and then enjoy some time together over dinner.

I will need to be up around 4:15 am Wednesday morning, catch the shuttle back to the airport, get checked in and through security. My flight leaves for Miami at 6:55 am. After a 3-hour layover in Miami, will then fly on to Puerto Plata. Will get in there at 4:30 pm DR time (2:30 pm Missouri time). My good friend Bruce will pick me up at the airport. It is only a 15-minute drive into Sosua so should be at my apartment getting settled in by 5:30.

I understand that after a very rainy week last week, most of the humidity as moved away and the weather is sunny, warm and beautiful.

Stay tuned, my next entry will come from la Republica Dominicana.

Sunday, October 29, 2006

Saturday, October 28

Wow ... Awesome

The Redbirds delivered another World Series title to Cardinal Nation last night in Game 5 at the new Busch Stadium.

Now the current crop of Cardinals have the one thing that marks them as true, great members of the Redbird's fraternity: a World Series Championship.

The Cardinals won their 1st World Series title since 1982 topping the American League champion Detroit Tigers, 4-2, in Game 5 of the 102nd Fall Classic. It is World Series No. 10 in 17 tries for one of baseball's signature organizations .. the most of any National League team and 2nd only to the Yankees in the history of Major League Baseball.

David Eckstein's 4th-inning RBI groundout brought home the winning run as the consistently composed Cards kept capitalizing on Tigers' mistakes. Three St. Louis runs were at least partly set up by Detroit errors. Eckstein, who went 6-for-9 with 4 RBI's in Games 4 and 5, was named World Series MVP.

For me personally, I am a true member of Cardinal Nation, a Cardinal fan all my life. Winning another World Series is so exciting and today I have been almost as tired and emotionally drained as if I had played in the games.

In my earlier years I will admit to having been a fanatic sports fan who watched just about any sporting event I could make it to in person or witness on television. But, as I have grown older, I really don't watch or follow all that much sports anymore. Baseball is my sports interest and the Cardinals are my passion.

This past 5 months, while being here in Missouri, there were very few Cardinal games that I did not watch or listen to. Over the past 16 postseason games and even before that when the Cardinals were fighting just to win their division, I hung on every pitch. As Tony LaRussa has said so many times, it doesn't matter how you get into the postseason, once you qualify you have a chance. This was so true of the Redbirds this year. Everything came together when it counted and after a wait of 23 years, we finally won another World Series.

I will have this special feeling every time I put my red Cardinal hat on just before leaving the house. Next for me will be following all the Cardinal moves during the off-season as we prepare to defend our crown next year.

Also next for me, once I arrive in the Dominican Republic, will be to follow the Dominican Winter Baseball League. It is such a big and important part of life for the people who live in that 3rd world country. The games have already begun and my favorite team, Aguilas de Cibao has won 4 and lost 5. The are presently in 4th place in the 6-team league.

The Cardinals in the postseason:

October 3 - St. Louis 5 San Diego 1 (in San Diego)
October 5 - St. Louis 3 San Diego 0 (in San Diego)
October 7 - San Diego 3 St. Louis 1 (in St. Louis)
October 8 - St. Louis 6 San Diego 2 (in St. Louis)

October 12 - New York Mets 2 St. Louis 0 (in New York)
October 13 - St. Louis 9 New York Mets 6 (in New York)
October 14 - St. Louis 5 New York Mets 0 (in St. Louis)
October 15 - New York Mets 12 St. Louis 5 (in St. Louis)
October 17 - St. Louis 4 New York Mets 2 (in St. Louis)
October 18 - New York Mets 4 St. Louis 2 (in New York)
October 19 - St. Louis 3 New York Mets 1 (in New York)

October 21 - St. Louis 7 Detroit 2 (in Detroit)
October 22 - Detroit 3 St. Louis 1 (in Detroit)
October 24 -
St. Louis 5 Detroit 0 (in St. Louis)
October 26 - St. Louis 5 Detroit 4 (in St. Louis)
October 27 - St. Louis 4 Detroit 2 (in St. Louis)

The wonderful truth: Wrigley Field, home of the Cubs, is the oldest ball park in the National League (92-years old) and has never hosted a World Series winner. New Busch Stadium hosted a World Championship for the Cardinals in just it's 7th month.

Friday, October 27, 2006

Friday, October 27

Cardinals 5 Detroit 4

The Cards battled all night from behind and found a way to win. They showed the character of a champion.

Cards lead the Series 3 games to 1

I think everyone in Cardinal Nation is holding their breath at this point, still not believing we are on the verge of winning the World Series. The Cardinals have been in more World Series than every baseball franchise except the Yankees, however this would be our first championship since 1982. Twenty-Four years! I was coaching at Eldon High School. Michelle was 9, John was 2, Rachel was a newborn and Matt wasn't born yet.

Tonight we have a chance to wrap it up at home and avoid going back to Detroit. It would be so nice to do this in front of the Cardinal fans. But, it is not over yet. Was reading today that there have been 42 World Series where one team was up 3 games to 1. Only 6 times has the team with 1 win come back to take the series, but 2 of those 6 times it was the Cardinals. We all remember 1985 and the I-70 Series when that very thing happened to the Cardinals. Not this year! We will find a way to win.

The winner tonight may be the weather.

The picture below is a view outside my kitchen door this morning. It is cold, dreary, a winter wind is blowing and it is raining off and on.

The forecast for today says: Nearly continuous rain will persist through the morning hours. Rainfall amounts will average around a tenth of an inch per hour with amounts of around one-third of an inch per hour in the heavier bands. Expect temperatures to be nearly steady in the upper 40s and lower 50s.

For tonight: Mostly cloudy early in the evening and then becoming partly cloudy with a low around 40. Northwest wind 10 to 15 mph. Gusts up to 25 mph in the evening.

For the Cardinals, Jeff Weaver takes the mound tonight with a chance to make history.

He has made a remarkable comeback after the Angels released him and the Cardinals claimed him off the scrap heap. He has been a major contributor for the Cardinals in the playoffs.

Weaver has made 4 postseason starts. He has lasted at least 5 innings in each start and has allowed 3 earned runs or less in each outing. In the postseason he is 2-2 with a very good 2.91 ERA. So far he has alternated wins and losses and took the loss in game 2 in Detroit, the Kenny Rogers smudgegate game.

Last night's MVP would have to be Cardinal Favorite David Eckstein.

The ultimate tough player with limited ability who always finds a way to excel, he is loved by Cardinal fans who have grown accustomed to him coming through in the clutch.

Last night "Eck was superb," as described by teammate Aaron Miles. Eckstein was 4-for-5 with 3 huge doubles that carried the Cardinals to their 5-4 victory over the Tigers in Game 4 of the World Series.

Said Cardinal Manager Tony LaRussa, "He is the definition of a clutch performer. He is the toughest guy I've ever seen in a uniform."

Eckstein already has 1 World Series ring after playing with the Angels in 2002. Now he has pushed his teammates to within 1 win of adding another.

It is amazing that we have scratched and clawed our way to this point without a whole lot of input from the greatest player in baseball, superstar Albert Pujols.

Cardinal fans are waiting and hoping for "el hombre" to break out of it and begin hitting like he has taught us to expect from him. Perhaps he is waiting for the most dramatic moment to launch one of his awesome shots high up into the left field seats.

So far though, in 4 games, Albert is hitting only .167 in 12 at bats with 3 runs, 2 hits, 1 double, 1 home run and 2 RBI's. "Sir Albert" has walked 4 times and struck out twice.

After today only 4 days until I make the trip south for the winter to the Dominican Republic.

The picture below is from my front yard before all this bad weather began. It is definitely fall in the midwest. In another week or so, winter will set in here (jeez I believe it already has) and it is definitely time for me to flee back to the warmth of my winter home.

I have been here for 5 months and it has been a very nice time in my life. Life has been slow and easy with lots of family time. It has been everything I had hoped it would be.

I am a little sad that I will not see my brother, my mother and my kids for awhile, but at the same time, I love the time I spend down in the Caribbean, have lots of friends there and it is time to move forward and enjoy a change of the routine.

I will be especially sad to say farewell for awhile to my youngest son Matt. Matt will leave on November 7 for his permanent duty military assignment at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany. It may be awhile before we see each other again. I will give him a stern lecture to keep his head down and not volunteer for anything while he is over there. As usual, he probably won't listen to "ole Dad."

I plan to stay until the end of March, but often end up coming home early. We will see.

On Tuesday the 31st, I will meet the transit bus (MO-X) in Columbia at 2 pm for the trip to the airport in St. Louis. Rachel is going to pick me up at the airport and we are going to enjoy some time together over dinner. I will be staying the night at the Holiday Inn-Airport so that I can easily catch my early flight leaving from St. Louis at 6:55 am on Wednesday the 1st of November.

My flight takes me to Miami for a 3-hour layover and then a flight into Puerto Plata. I will arrive there at 4:30 pm local time and my good friend Bruce is going to meet me at the airport.

There is a 2-hour time difference between Sosua and here in Missouri.

As of this writing, almost all my tasks on my list to get ready are completed and for the most part the only thing left are the good-byes for awhile and packing up the suitcases.

The picture below is from the deck of my last apartment outside Sosua.

I will not be going back to the Portofino Apartments (below) because of the distance from downtown Sosua and because the prices have suddenly skyrocketed. When I first started living in Sosua, I could live in most any of the nicer complexes in town for incredibly little money. But, as the outside world discovers the north shore of the Dominican Republic, rentals have more than doubled.

I have a number of goals for the winter in la Republica Dominicana:

Though lately, I have not been very good about making frequent entries in this blog, I do hope to keep a daily journal during the winter. I want to carry my camera more than I have in the past and take lots of pictures of daily life to share with those close to me.

As usual, I have gained a bunch of weight up here in "The Land of the Incredibly Obese." Unbelievable how morbidly fat Americans are these days. I always lose weight in the Caribbean because there is no "fast food," very little processed food, much more exercise since I don't have a car in Sosua. So, as usual, I hope to lose weight and get back into decent shape for an old guy like me.

As always, it is a goal to live the easy, laid back Caribbean life. I will go to bed when I want, get up when I want, hang out in the mornings at my favorite internet restaurant, spend the afternoons either reading by the pool or on a lounge chair at the beach, enjoy a quiet dinner at one of the little restaurants around, some television or time in the evening with friends. Life is good.

I will be moving into a smaller, less luxurious studio apartment this time. The price is right, the location is perfect (downtown Sosua), but it is going to be spartan without many amenities to begin with. Being a single guy and being totally non-materialistic, I don't need much to be happy. The little apartment I have here in Missouri is not large, but it is perfect for me and I have it fixed up just the way I like it. So my goal for the winter is to find a nice little out-of-the-way downtown apartment and get it all customized so that I will have a "nest on each end and can freely go back and forth without worrying about housing.

It will be important to be in daily contact with family through phone calls, e-mail and of course this journal.

I love living within the latino culture and am looking forward to getting back into that atmosphere. I have many Dominican friends and am anxious to see them again.

After having spent 3 years learning to speak Spanish, I am sure my speaking ability has slipped while living up here this past 5 months. So it is a goal to brush up on my espanol and continue to move toward fluency.

Friday, October 06, 2006

Wednesday, October 4, 2006

Valuable time with the kids and time to return to the Dominican Republic is drawing near.

Had a wonderful lunch with my daughter Rachel today. It is great to have her back in Missouri . after she lived in Charleston, S.C. for the last couple of years. I hope I can see a lot of her before I head south for the winter months.

We met today at the Longhorn Restaurant in Columbia, had a nice lunch and even better, some much needed father-daughter time. The highlight for me was the big hug I got from her.

Proving that it helps to be young, attractive and female, Rachel informed me that one of her friends is taking her to the Cardinals Division Playoff game Saturday at the new Busch Stadium. The Cardinal fan in me is feeling jealous. The father in me is happy she gets to experience what should be a great afternoon.

She will begin her new job in St. Louis soon and will be a Regional Manager for the same cosmetics company that she was employed by in Charleston.

Last weekend I was able to spend some time with Matthew. He had a day pass from his company at Fort Leonard Wood. Matt was anxious to show me his new tattoo, so I had to get my camera out. He asked me if I liked it. I replied, "yes Matt it looks good on you, but not sure it will be all that attractive when you are my age and don't quite have the chest and arms that you have now." Oh well, he likes it, I guess I do too.

Matt's Advanced Training is coming to an end and he will be graduating on October 17. His mother and I plan to attend the graduation ceremony at the fort.

Following his graduation, Matt gets some leave time before he departs for his permanent duty assignment at Ramstein Air Force Base in Kaiserslautern, Germany on November 7.

Matt and Rachel are planning to fly to Edmonton on October 18 to spend a few days with John and his fiancee Sherry. I think this will be a great trip for both of them.



The days are passing quickly. Soon it will be time to return to la Republica Dominicana for the winter months. I feel ready to head south for some more of the Caribbean life, 3rd World existence for awhile. I love the fall weather we have had here, but when the stark reality of winter arrives in central Missouri (usually in November), it is my fervent wish to be far south passing the days in shorts and t-shirt weather.

For the most part, it has been a good time spent here, which I needed. It's been, overall, a very positive experience.

There have been some negatives about it regretfully. I had hoped to enjoy a lot of special quality time with my younger brother and tried my best to encourage that happening. However, he hasn't had much time to spend with his 'big bro.' Whatever!

The only other 'downer' was the predictable weight gain that comes from a much slower lifestyle here and of course living in the American culture of great taste, fast food, high calorie, fat gorged, rich foods. I seem to join right in with it when I am here. Each time I return to Missouri I see more and more terribly obese people. It is now nothing out of the ordinary to pass multiple 300-pound people as you go from place to place.

I am determined to get rid of some of this excess before the end of the month.

On the positive side, this past five months has allowed me to accomplish quite a lot. I have not spent nearly this much time back here at home since I first went to the Caribbean in January 04. I am thankful this has been a positive period in my life.

Emotionally I needed some time to step back and come to grips with a couple of traumatic things that I was going through, namely the death of my father and the breakup of a relationship I was involved in, in the DR. I definitely needed to set new objectives for the future. I have done that.

The past few months have been wonderful from a family perspective. The older I get, the more I desire the closeness of family. My oldest daughter and I have forged a new and better relationship. I have spent as much time with my youngest son Matthew as I possibly could while he has gone through his military training. I have made an effort to spend regular, quality time with my mother and I know that she has appreciated the attention I have given her.

I will enjoy this last month and then it is off to palm trees waving in the ocean tradewinds, lounging in the white sand while gazing out at the ocean, reading by the pool, smelling the vibrant tropical flowers, spending quality time with friends and practicing my spanish.