#365

I strategically over-bought footwear for Michael when he passed through size 11. He's a 12 now, and a few shoes I spent hundreds on are suddenly homeless and perfect-fitting (for me) and – the only gamble in my scheme – untrashed. Well played. Thank you.

The Kobe Bryant purple pair are a bit gaudy, but they're a very nice, light, athletic shoe. Too bad I don't play basketball anymore. A reason to start up again? Anyone know a 40-and-over league with games next to a hospital? I love playing basketball. I miss it like youth. Michael might go out for the high school soccer team despite a pretty glaring inexperience. He's not two-left-footed – how do you disparage a soccer player; I don't know the lingo? – or void of skills or anything; he's just low, as in none, on 'real' game experience. I hope he goes for it; it's never to late to start, especially at 14! The days of running and competing against strangers in refereed, win-or-lose, 'official' contests are fleeting... from my current vantage point anyway; although I played softball this week with my old team and we smoked some young guys. They weren't very good; a few wore soccer cleats, actually. No one's good at everything.

Not playing basketball but still writing... I feel like pushing for 400 posts now; I've been prolific lately; that's a good word for a hack to self-describe and commend effort (not quality) and feel good about himself. So there it is; I've been prolific.

M 'n' m are headed to Minnesota for their annual summer week (or two) visit. My parents and my sister's family are there. I'm grateful the kids love it and are loved and spoiled up nort' der in Minnah-soo-ta. We are lucky.

Megan finished up another softball season. She likes to pitch, and is tall and long and athletic (even if a little whiney when she doesn't get the calls or bounces). Maybe she'll be the next Monica Abbot. During her senior season in college, Abbot set the record for the most strikeouts in a Division I softball season and became the NCAA Division I all-time leader in career wins, strikeouts, shutouts, innings pitched, games started, and games pitched (that's from Wikipedia). She's an Olympian too. Monica threw the fastest recorded softball pitch at 77mph. According to the math, it would take a 77mph softball pitch the same amount of time to reach home plate as a 114mph baseball pitch. The fastest recorded baseball pitch is 105mph by Aroldis Chapman. FYI, an average highly competitive softball pitch is around 72mph which is the equivalent of a 110mph baseball pitch which softball players regularly hit and the defense fields and gets the runner out in less than 3 seconds! Here's to women's softball (that's from Tumblr).

I saw Aroldis Chapman throw for the Cubs last season. Our seats were on the 3rd base line and close. He throws hard. Really hard. I was like being at a car race; being there in person helps one really appreciate the speed; it's mind-blowing, electric. And everyone in Chicago saw him pitch – on TV at least; playoff tickets were too expensive for this guy – during the World Series run! Then he went right back to the Yankees. Effing Yankees. And now they have Judge and his 500 foot bombs.