Monday, February 13, 2006
Yet Another Word On Athletes
Wow, it's been a few days since I posted, hasn't it? My work has been so demanding over the past few weeks that it has grown increasingly difficult to find the time for anything beyond that and family. Hey, my blogging and my readers are important, but they fall down on the list of priorities just far enough that I haven't been able to devote a lot of time to either.
Many of you now know that Wayners and Janners are here for the week, looking for a home so they can go back to Dallas, close on the sale of their own home, and move out here for good. They've found a place they want to rent, but there are a couple of details that may or may not work out on it. The place is attractive for a couple of reasons, not the least of which is that it is on a golf course I know well. I've already got his scene in my head, where Wayners and I are out on the golf course, and Janners is standing in the backyard in fading light, hands on hips, calling out, "You two boys get in this house right now, can't you see it's getting dark outside?" It'll be like old times. Really, really old times.
A lot of our Parrothead Phriends met this dynamic duo at the dog track happy hour Saturday night, and they already fit in perfectly. That was my first trip to a dog track, or any track for that matter, since I was a kid. We used to go to the Juarez Race Track once in a while, which was cool. It was cool because I was maybe 12 or 13 at the time, and could place bets and buy alcohol to my heart's content. So I placed a lot of $2.00 "show" bets, but didn't care much for the hooch. Man, times have changed. Now I sit there and have a few beers and could care less which of those really fast-ass dogs wins the race, because I don't care to gamble. The dogs are fantastic athletes, if a dog or any other animal can truly be classified as an "athlete," that is. They seem to be very well trained, well behaved, and give 100% every time they go out there. That puts them ahead of a lot of professional human athletes, now that I think about it. At least they aren't whining about the officials, doping, griping about how some other dogs got more kibble last year but won fewer races, or otherwise letting their egos get them in trouble. Hell, I saw one squat and pinch a loaf right out beside the track before racing. No ego there. And that's an activity I hope to never see repeated by a human athlete.
And the hounds don't wear sequins. They got that going for them.
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Many of you now know that Wayners and Janners are here for the week, looking for a home so they can go back to Dallas, close on the sale of their own home, and move out here for good. They've found a place they want to rent, but there are a couple of details that may or may not work out on it. The place is attractive for a couple of reasons, not the least of which is that it is on a golf course I know well. I've already got his scene in my head, where Wayners and I are out on the golf course, and Janners is standing in the backyard in fading light, hands on hips, calling out, "You two boys get in this house right now, can't you see it's getting dark outside?" It'll be like old times. Really, really old times.
A lot of our Parrothead Phriends met this dynamic duo at the dog track happy hour Saturday night, and they already fit in perfectly. That was my first trip to a dog track, or any track for that matter, since I was a kid. We used to go to the Juarez Race Track once in a while, which was cool. It was cool because I was maybe 12 or 13 at the time, and could place bets and buy alcohol to my heart's content. So I placed a lot of $2.00 "show" bets, but didn't care much for the hooch. Man, times have changed. Now I sit there and have a few beers and could care less which of those really fast-ass dogs wins the race, because I don't care to gamble. The dogs are fantastic athletes, if a dog or any other animal can truly be classified as an "athlete," that is. They seem to be very well trained, well behaved, and give 100% every time they go out there. That puts them ahead of a lot of professional human athletes, now that I think about it. At least they aren't whining about the officials, doping, griping about how some other dogs got more kibble last year but won fewer races, or otherwise letting their egos get them in trouble. Hell, I saw one squat and pinch a loaf right out beside the track before racing. No ego there. And that's an activity I hope to never see repeated by a human athlete.
And the hounds don't wear sequins. They got that going for them.
