Finding nuggets along the path.

I can't tell you how many times in fifty seven years I've been at a fork in the road, wondering which path I should take.

 

 

 

Sometimes I've taken the path that looks easiest,

while on other occasions I taken the path that looks to be the most challenging.

 

More often than not it seems, I have been guided to the path for reasons that may or may not become apparent to me.

 

Having the day off today, I started the morning with a cup of coffee and was looking for one of the ESPN 30 for 30 Biopics to watch while the attic was being cleaned of cobwebs.

 

As I searched the Netflix catalog I came across a similar type of film, (the fork in the path), that looked interesting, and I decided to give it a go. The film was about a man who after loosing his wife to cancer and raising his three kids, decided to run what amounted to 75 consecutive marathons in 75 consecutive days. His cause was to bring awareness to the plight of single parent families.

It was a powerful message, an inspiring accomplishment, and a pretty good short film.

For those that are interested, the title was My Run.

 

Aside from the movie I was drawn to a snippet from a quote that was used at the beginning of the film. After watching the film I found myself being guided back to that fork in the path to look for the nugget I had seen at the beginning.

 

It turns out the quote was from Fr. Alfred D'Souza, an inspirational writer whose work I have enjoyed in the past.

As I read the full quote I felt as though it was being directed specifically at me, which I'm sure is the case for most anyone that reads the passage.

 

What compelled me to go back and look for the quote is what has guided me down so many paths in the past.

 

In keeping with the underlying tenet of the quote, I share with you the following:

 

“For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin - real life.

But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life.

This perspective has helped me to see that there is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way. So, treasure every moment that you have. And treasure it more because you shared it with someone special, special enough to spend your time… and remember that time waits for no one…

So stop waiting until you finish school, until you go back to school, until you lose ten pounds, until you gain ten pounds, until you have kids, until your kids leave the house, until you start work, until you retire, until you get married, until you get divorced, until Friday night, until Sunday morning, until you get a new car or home, until your car or home is paid off, until spring, until summer, until fall, until winter, until you are off benefits, until the first or fifteenth, until your song comes on, until you’ve had a drink, until you’ve sobered up, until you die, until you are born again to decide that there is no better time than right now to be happy… Happiness is a journey, not a destination.”

 

                                                                                                      Fr. Alfred D’Souza

P.S. Though this has perhaps removed a few of the rough edges, Texas I'm afraid, will forever be hard to love.

But I'm happy with that !

Tex.



GO TRIBE !

As you may recall from previous posts, we have been following the career of Thomas Neal as he worked his way through MLB's minor leagues, in the hopes of one day making it to the BIGS.

Well....
 

HE MADE IT! ~~~~ HOT DAMN!

 

 

We were introduced to Thomas through Susu's brother Jim who, as the story goes, bought Thomas his first baseball glove. Jim worked with Thomas' mom Vicky at AT&T in Southern California, and when Thomas was born Jim brought Vicky a baseball mitt for Thomas, apparently this was Jim's standard gift for newborn males. Well, there must have been some magic in that glove, and it finally paid off after 25 years.

Call it destiny if you'd like, but I must add that there was also a lot of hard work thrown in by Thomas that allowed his dream to come to fruition. I witnessed his work ethic in Richmond when he would be at the Diamond before the games for workouts and after the games as well. Seems there's something to be said for hard work, dedication, oh, and throw some tenacity into the mix.

Jim told Susu back in 2009/2010 that Thomas was coming to Richmond to play with the Richmond Flying Squirrels, the AA farm team for the San Francisco Giants. It was in Richmond we came to know Thomas, and meet Vicky his mom.

 





 

Clockwise from top left: Vicky (chartreuse blouse) takes in a Squirrels game with the King William Crew, Alex meets Darren Ford (called up to Giants and now with the Mariners) ~~ Alex meets Nick Noonan (now with the Fresno Grizzlies - SF's AAA farm team), Alex meets the man, Thomas Neal, and picks up an autographed bat, and trading cards. Save that bat kid!!

~~~~~~~~~

 

KW crew takes in a game at the Diamond... Susu goes Nutzy, Thomas sets up at the plate.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

A good natured Thomas, (and others), puts up with Susu and Vicky's goofy "Bobby" antics.

It's a long story!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thomas left Richmond in July 2011 to play on the Akron Aeros, Cleveland's AA farm team, when he was picked up in a trade with the Giants. The games in Richmond lost a little of their luster, but Thomas was on the move.

Thomas spent all of the 2012 season in Akron and on August 31st he was again in Richmond for a game, this time against Richmond.

Susu and some of the KW crew made the game, and Susu sent me the following picture along with the message "Put him in!" Seems the Aeros has chosen not to play him and everyone wondered why.

 

 

Thomas Neal #8 Akron Aeros

Turns out they were protecting their investment and within a couple hours of this picture being taken the Aeros manager was telling Thomas, "pack your bags kid, you're going to Cleveland".

Indians Press Release

09/01/2012 9:46 AM EST

Indians add three players to Major League roster

The Cleveland Indians today announced the club has recalled INF RUSS CANZLER and

LHP SCOTT BARNES from AAA Columbus and purchased the contract of OF THOMAS NEAL

from AA Akron.

*********** Neal, 25, has spent the entire season at AA Akron where he hit .314 (127-405)

with 24 doubles, 1 triple, 12 homers and 51RBI in 117 games. He also scored 77

runs and stole 11 bases (.400OB/.467SLG/.867OPS). He currently ranks tied for

4th in the Eastern League in runs, 2nd in OPS, 3rd in on-base pct. and batting

average and 8th in slugging pct. He has hit above .300 in every month of the

season with the exception of April (.278) and since July 23rd is hitting .344

(42-122) with 5 2B, 4HR & 10 RBI in 36 games. He has hit .317 (92-290) off RHP,

.304 (35-115) off LHP and appeared in games at all three outfield positions

(32LF, 62RF, 13CF). Thomas was acquired on July 30, 2011 from San Francisco in

exchange for INF Orlando Cabrera and will be making his Major League debut

wearing #36.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

 

Interesting to note there is another "Picker (Jim's last name & Susu's maiden name)" connection to this story. I was not clever enough to have seen it, but Susu pointed it out to me...

Thomas' number 36.

Susu's birthday 3-6.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

September 2nd Thomas was on the line up for an at home game against Texas, who was starting a left handed pitcher. It seems Thomas was picked up to be used against lefty pitchers.

I imagine Thomas was nervous that evening, but no more so than all his fans.

The play by play for the outing reflect the following for Neal's first MLB start.

Bottom 2

Thomas Neal strikes out swinging.

Bottom 3

Thomas Neal called out on strikes.

Bottom 6

Thomas Neal grounds out, shortstop Elvis Andrus to first baseman Mitch Moreland.

Thomas was robbed by a fantastic play by Andrus.

Bottom 8

Thomas has his first major league hit.

Thomas Neal doubles (1) on a line drive to left fielder David Murphy. Carlos Santana scores.

 

Pitcher     M. Lowe

Batter      T. Neal

               Speed    Pitch                     Result

1             83           Slider                    Called Strike

2             92           Changeup            In play, run(s)

"The hit" can be found at the following link, look for the videos under Thomas' picture.

http://indians.mlb.com/team/player.jsp?player_id=489166



 In the end it was a losing effort for Cleveland I'm sorry to say, and even sorrier that they lost to Texas!

Texas 8

Cleveland 3

 

HOWEVER

The story doesn't end there... and in fact, gets much better for Moi.

Once Thomas' game with Texas was over, I looked at the teams schedule and realized they had a 3 game series on the 11th, 12th, and 13th of September, with the Rangers here in Texas.

The wheels began spinning.

I mentioned the series to Jim who was coming back to Dallas in September to visit Hayden. Alas, his visit was not until after the series. I mentioned it to Susu, but she was going to be back in Richmond just prior to the series. That left Hayden and myself as possible attendees at the Indian's games down in Arlington. I asked Jim to work it out with Hayden, and I would take the time off work for whatever game worked best for Hayden and his class schedule.

Jim finally got back to me at what felt like the 11th hour and said that the game on Thursday the 13th was best for Hayden, and that Thomas was going to get us tickets.

Yeah!..... Holy Smokes is just what I said too, although my version can't be used in mixed company.

So it was all set, Thursday the 13th, I had the time off and was set to pick Hayden up at 5:45 that afternoon for a 7:05 game. I thought it odd at the time that he didn't want to go earlier and catch batting practice. I occurred to me though, that he was taking 17 units, and going early might not be an option.

September 13th arrives, it's around 3PM, and I'm lolly gagging around the apartment and looking forward to the evenings outing, when my cell phone goes off and continues alerting to incoming text's.Wow, what the heck is going on?

Sept 13^th 3:08 PM

Jim, Thomas just sent me a msg that if you can get there by 5:15 he can get you on the field for BP.

Sept 13^th 3:09PM

Hayden, Oh wow. I’ll text Matt right now.

Sept 13^th 3:09PM

Thomas, If you guys can get here by 5:15ish… I can get you on the field to watch BP… If I don’t  text back I’m probably busy but will put ur names down.

Sept 13^th 3:10PM

Hayden, Hey my dad just sent me a text saying if we can get to the field by 5:15 Thomas can get us on the field for batting practice. Would it be OK if you picked me up at 4:15 so we could try to get on the field. If you can’t that’s no problem at all.

Well, Well, Well.... Less than an hour to get cleaned up and ready, then over to SMU. Hmmm, can I make it?

HELL YES!

Hayden, I will see you at 4:15.

 

Got to Ranger Stadium in Arlington with time to spare and went over to the will call window where we encountered the only real snag of the evening. The visiting teams tickets left by players don't make it down to will call until about half an hour before game time. It didn't look good for BP!

 

I mentioned to the woman that the player leaving the tickets had told us to meet him for BP and he could get us on the field... I wondered aloud if there was some way to get in for the BP even when our tickets were still en route. She suggested, (I would have never thought of this), buying a couple of nosebleed tickets for entrance to the BP and coming back for our tickets afterwards.

Genius!!! Crisis averted!

I found it funny when Hayden suggested we didn't need to incur the extra expense and he would be happy just to see the game. God bless the young lad, must have heard how parsimonious I am. But not in this case kid. We are getting those tickets! 16 bucks later we were in!

 

We made our way down to the field near the Cleveland dugout and caught Thomas' attention. He waved us down to the entrance gate onto the field where the guard stopped us and chased us back up the stairs. This comedic skit was replayed at least three times before we finally made it onto the field. I'm guessing we did a half mile on the stairs before making it to the field. Good pregame workout!

 

Security had us roped into an area on the field next to the dugout, which was fine by me and meant I wasn't going to get in the way. I had been worrying myself sick that I would find a way to commit some breech in etiquette and get and get kicked off the field.

 

No surprise, Thomas was as gracious as he always is, or could be under the circumstances. He made his way over to briefly say hello and shake our hands, along with some other friends he had at the game.

Vicky, who's the tall, ditzy blond named Bubbles, that says she's close to being related to you?

KIDDING!!!

Being at the game was a treat, being there for BP was rockin, being there for BP and being on the field with the players was awesome!

Thank you Thomas for your kindness!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~ Slide show ~~~~~

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

The Hit...

 CAUTION... if you are susceptible to motion sickness you may want to take Dramamine before watching the following video:

 

 

Susu visits TX - Part deux.

On the Sunday of Susu's visit to TX, we spent the day with our good friends and neighbors the Belde's.

Dave, Amelia, Sophie, and Lily had moved to Austin for Dave's new job, and we are so glad they made the trip up to Dallas for a visit.

Susu and I both got our BG's hugs and smooches fix.

 

We actually met with them briefly Saturday afternoon at their hotel downtown while the girls and Dave cooled off in the pool.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

 

Sunday we went to breakfast with Dave, Sophie, and Lily, then grabbed Amelia, and headed over to the Dallas Zoo.

We finally made it, after several false starts trying to locate the entrance for the parking lot.

(Why would you have the entrance to a venue as busy as the zoo on a one way street?)
 

Once inside we found it to be a World Class Zoo. It's nice to see they have replaced the cages with enclosures meant to look and feel like the animals natural environments.

Even better, the monkeys did not throw poop. So well behaved these monkeys nowadays!

 

 

 

Thank you Belde's for a wonderful visit!

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

...and as Sunday rolled into Sunday night, (Susu's last night in Dallas), we went over to White Rock Lake and took a stroll before going to dinner at the Mi Cocina Restaurant in Lakewood.

The weather gods couldn't have been nicer to us during Susu's stay and had a fitting end in store for our stroll at the lake.

Good Night Susu, wherever you are.

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 



Susu visits TX, Busy Weekend!

Susu visited TX this month. 

A visit long overdue, only because I would much rather head back to VA.

It was a busy weekend that started with her arrival at DFW on Friday the 7th.

I hid from view until I knew she was through the security doors and couldn't flee back into the gate area.

We headed to the apartment first and got Susu settled in, then it was off to SMU to visit her nephew Hayden, who was kind enough to give us the nickel tour of the campus.

Then we all went to dinner at what I imagine is a one of the SMU student haunts near campus, Freebirds.

 

September 7th, 2012

Friday

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

September 8th, 2012

Saturday

The weekend weather turned out to be wonderfully comfortable so on Saturday we decided a visit to the Arboretum and it's Chihuly exhibit was in order.

First stop was Starbucks in the Lakewood shopping center, just a short drive up Swiss Avenue, which is listed on the National Register Of Historic Places.
Would you like to take an audio tour of Swiss Avenue Homes?
CLICK HERE FOR TOUR

After coffee we headed to the Arboretum with a few detours thrown in along the way to visit some of the surrounding neighborhoods. We also took a short drive along Lawther Drive at White Rock Lake so I could show Susu where I go to run and ride.

 

Our visit to the Arboretum started with lunch on the patio, then we were off to tour the grounds and Chihuly exhibit.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Saturday evening we went to the SMU game and watched the Mustangs tear up Stephen F. Austin College.

It was the first home game of the season and the tradition for the first home game is the "White Out".

Notice all the guys in white shirts, and girls in white dresses and cowboy boots.

The "Boulevard" was packed with kids and frat tents... there was no shortage of beer. I'm sure Hayden was studying and missed all the fun. Ha Ha!

Susu sent him a text from the game telling him we had binoculars and were watching his every move. She then worried for weeks that he might have thought she was serious. So silly!