We went for a ride yesterday. Well, I went for a ride. The Yankee is in training and so she did something called a brick. This involves swimming and riding and I’ve no idea at all how bricks have entered into this.
So she swam in the neighborhood pool. The Olympic pool was closed, on account of their being no Olympians there that day. (There usually are. We live in a place where she gets to be drowned in the wake of people showing off Olympic ring tattoos. Not a bad perk to the locale.)
We counted out the laps, measuring and doing math. The neighborhood pool is small; she did a lot of laps. And then she hopped on her bike and I hopped on mine and I chased her through the countryside.
She was moving on well. I had great legs, owing to taking a day or two off, perhaps. But I was also going on the longest ride I’ve been on in a while, so I wanted to pace myself.
I caught her on a hill after about eight miles. I’m a little bit stronger on hills and this was a series of three respectable climbs. She caught me again later, I let her play out in front and then chased her down just before home. She took the direct route and I meandered through the neighborhood. It was a 20.75 mile ride. Felt great.
I’d intended to take a few wide pictures to celebrate the day, but there was too much huffing.
Did take this somewhere along the way though:
Pretty as a roadside wildflower can be, it was the three buds on this one that intrigued me.
And now for something beautiful:
That is the Lyrid meteor shower, from space. Did you catch Florida as it moved by?
Astronaut Don Pettit on the ISS took the shots last month and they were converted into the inspiring quasi-video. The Lyrid meteors, dust trails from the comet Thatcher, have been observed from Earth for thousands of years. I learned all of this from a Huntsville reporter.
Finally: the grading is done. Now on to other things.
Today was Senior Day for Auburn baseball. The last game of the regular season. The Tigers, battling a host of injuries and displaying plenty of talented young players, are the 10th and last seed in next week’s SEC Tournament in Hoover, Ala. They’ve dropped two in a row to second-ranked Florida.
But today the sun was brilliant, the temperatures were warm without being overbearing. Eight young men had their name called as seniors and were given handsomely framed jerseys to commemorate their time playing for Auburn. Two trainers were similarly honored for all of their efforts.
And before the first pitch one of the players proposed to his girlfriend. She said yes. Someone in the crowd yelled “War Damn Wedding!”
So you never know.
Senior Caleb Bowen had just one hit, but as catcher he figured into this game plenty:
Auburn’s ace pitcher, Derek Varnadore was on the mound:
The senior has had a tough year of it. He led the team last year in wins, innings and strikeouts, making him the first Auburn pitcher to collect all three in more than a decade. He turned down a pro contract for his senior year, but things just haven’t worked out as he’d hoped. He found himself in the bullpen recently, but his name was called today. He scattered 10 runs across seven innings, allowing three earned runs and striking out three
Auburn trailed early, 3-0 in the second, and by the fifth inning it was 4-2.
In the seventh inning, still staring at a 4-2 deficit, Auburn collected three singles. The bases were loaded for another senior, Creede Simpson. He pushed in a run on a fielder’s choice. The lead was cut to 4-3. A few moments later, with runners on second and third, designated hitter Justin Bryant dug into the batter’s box:
And the senior created one of your more remarkable plays in baseball:
A ground ball to second that scored two runs? Fans were doing defiant muscle poses in the stands. Take that, Florida. Auburn took a 5-4 lead in the seventh, scoring three runs on four hits.
And then Bryant, as he’s done once or twice this year, went from driving in the potential game-winning RBI to working to collect a save out of the bullpen. He pitched a hitless eighth in relief for Varnadore. He returned for the final frame, which unfolded in high drama.
Florida’s leadoff batter was the first man up in the ninth. He grounded out to second. The next man to the plate singled to right field. There was a double to left. Auburn held a one-run lead in the ninth inning with one out and two runners in scoring position.
Don’t forget the injuries. The left fielder went down two weeks ago with a knee. The right fielder left this game early with a thumb. Auburn’s first baseman was in the dugout because of a oblique muscle injury. The shortstop didn’t start this game. The second baseman is now playing right field.
And so it was that a Gator named Brian Johnson, who has five home runs, 34 RBIs and a .313 batting average licked his lips and lobbed a ball into short right field.
Creede Simpson, who has played second all year but is in right field now because of an injury, made the catch for the second out. Now screaming down the line from third is Florida’s offensive statistical leader, Preston Tucker.
But Tucker forgot this was Senior Day. And Simpson long-hopped a ball to Bowen at the plate.
Auburn won 5-4. Here’s the play, with the Auburn Network’s Rod Bramblett making the call:
Senior Caleb Bowen got the putout. Senior Creede Simpson turned a season-ending double play from right. He also scored the winning run. Senior Justin Bryant got the save and the game-winning RBI. Senior Derek Varnadore got the win.
For those three innings, a struggling team were world beaters. They finished their regular season mobbing each other in right field with a 30-26, 13-17 record.
And now all they have to do is go to Hoover and … face Florida again in the first round of the tournament.
Tomorrow: Pictures of the second strangest thing I’ve seen in baseball all year.
As mentioned here previously we met a very nice guy at his barbecue joint for lunch. The owner, who was busy cooking in the back, came out to talk to everyone to check on our meals. Somehow we got on the subject of being from out of town. These folks are from Birmingham. He’s from Savannah. We’re from Auburn. There’s a wedding, and so on.
Somehow we got on the subject of The Yankee being from Connecticut.
I think he even called her a Yankee.
He then reached into the pocket of his overalls and pulled out a .45. She jumped. We laughed. It was a great joke.
She was genuinely afraid, but he was just making a joke, of course. She tried to hide behind me. Someone pointed out she’d need to get more cover than that.
Sometime later he went back out to his truck and brought back his AR-15.
Not to worry. He cleared it. Someone else at the table cleared it. I cleared it. And then we gave it to her.
Several years ago someone let her hold a 9 mm and she felt nauseated. Two years ago she shot her first gun, a .22 rifle. Look at her now. (You should see the picture where she shows off her war face.)
The best part: Talking about it later she was recounting how truly scared she was when Big Will pulled out his pistol. The rest of us, all four from the South, agreed that there was nothing to this at all. He was, of course, wearing overalls.
But, yes, he was a very nice guy, with plenty of ammunition.
The deed is done. Wendy walked down the aisle on her father’s arm, in the same church where her parents were married 37 years ago. Her groom was down there, standing next to his sweating, gum-chewing best man, one of his brothers. Across from them was the maid of honor, of course, and between them all the old preacher, the man who married Wendy’s parents 37 years ago.
I didn’t take any pictures of the wedding. What I tried to shoot of the reception didn’t turn out very well. There is low lighting in the reception area of the 202-year-old country church. (I heard differing stories, but I’m going with this being the original location, but a slightly more modern building. I’m thinking post-1930s based on the architecture.)
This is the groom’s cake, a traditional thing I’ve come to loathe. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen one that looked nice. I’ve seen great feats of cakemanship, don’t get me wrong. I’ve seen Millennium Falcons, turtles and football stadiums all brought to life in amazing detail. At the end of the day, though, they were spaceships, reptiles and football stadiums.
And then there was this one. The groom is a Georgia fan.
But the bride is an Auburn alumnae. She secretly had the cake done up in orange and blue. The mother of the bride stood by me as they started to cut it.
“Watch this,” she said.
We thought she’d stab that dog in the eye, but it was a simple cut that brought about the desired reaction.
One of the groom’s brothers began to bark, because that’s what people from Georgia do. Someone started with the War Eagle reply, which turned into a loud cheer into on drowning out the offending canines.
One of the family’s guests took part, but he’s an Alabama fan. His golf cart, they say, is decked out in the script A and various other crimson clan signage. He found himself screaming War Eagle. Couldn’t help himself, he said. (Sometimes this college identity thing gets carried far, far overboard.)
The bride had a beautiful dress. Everyone looked lovely and happy.
It rained, which wasn’t ironic at all.
We met Big Will today. Brian, Elizabeth, Ashley, The Yankee and I stopped in his barbecue joint on the strength of reviews on Urban Spoon.
He walked over to our table to check on our lunch.
Big Will is a retired millwright, who walked away from the machining business after 23 years to open this restaurant last year. He started barbecuing, he said, after his son got in a car accident. He’d felt a need to come up with something his family could do together.
His future daughter-in-law waited on us. His daughter played a guitar and sang. She was great. She’d even appeared on American Idol, they said.
He’s working 17-hour days, making the most lean brisket you’ve ever seen. He’s got a great pork plate — the standard by which you judge any barbecue joint. It just got better as you went on.
His menu boasted the best potato salad in Jackson. I can confidently say it is the best potato salad I’ve ever had in that fine town. The baked beans were just about the best thing ever. It’s the toughest job he’s ever had, he said, and has brought his whole family together.
Just a super nice guy. Everyone there was great, genuine, earnest, good folks. You meet them and you realize how badly you want them to succeed. I’d eat there all the time if we were local.
So the next time you’re in Jackson, stop by for a bite. Tell Big Will hello.
Rode my bike yesterday. The Yankee and I set out to ride together, which is rare. Usually our schedules or her regimented training or my desire for long, meandering rides don’t allow us to venture out at the same time and going the same way.
She had trouble with her CatEye, the little computer that measures her speed and distance and time. There is a sensor attached to the bike’s fork and a little magnet attached to a spoke and the revolutions are beamed to the computer on the handlebars which do the math and, there you go, you’re cruising at an admirable speed. But she had problems. And then she fell over. She didn’t crash. She just fell. Still not sure how.
Did you know she was an All-American gymnast and a diver? She’s very graceful.
And so we pointed our wheels down the road chasing one another around the city’s bypass, through the subdivisions that dot the landscape, across the big intersection with the road that slices through the heart of town. After that we hit a new construction zone which covers about six miles of that bypass. Just under halfway around it we turned back in toward the campus.
And then when we hit the bypass on that side of things I called an audible and pointed to home. I did 10 miserable miles. This being the first time I’ve really been on my bike since April 9th. So while my neck and back finally feel better — I’ve tried to change my sleeping posture, which has been a big help — I’ve lost whatever little sliver of fitness I had built up.
Back to square one, then. And if you think that’s frustrating, well, you’re right.
Today is also a travel day. We spent most of the afternoon in the car, headed to Jackson, Ala., a tiny you-can’t get-there-from-here town to the southwest. Our friend Wendy is getting married tomorrow.
Tonight they had a little family get together at the bride’s parents’ home. There was also a shower, which I didn’t have to go to, fortunately. Instead I caught up with friends from Birmingham and Savannah and right there in Jackson.
This is the first time I’ve ever been to Wendy’s hometown. She has, for the entire decade-plus that I’ve known her, complained about how small it is. But they have 3G AND a Walmart. What else could they possibly need?
Tomorrow is the big day, though. We once counted up our friends and thought Wendy’s wedding would be the last one we’d go to for a long time. Never say this. This will be the second wedding we’ve attended in less than a month. We have another in three weeks.
