The Week Just Keeps Getting Better
This entry was posted on 7/23/2010 7:36 AM and is filed under blather.
After my awesome Tuesday, it was hard to imagine how things could keep getting better.
Wednesday dawned clear, blue and hot. Another perfect summer day.
How could it top the day before?
Let's start with a job offer.
My better half (some folks would debate this but they are wrong) has been in negotiations with another school in the system. As I've mentioned before, his basketball program was dropped last year, after being National Runners Up, apparently because sports are too scary. Not all the presidents in the system are as frightened of competition as others and there is one in the area that recognized a golden opportunity to snap up a Hall of Fame Coach to help build a brand new program. Jay wasn't sure that starting a program from scratch was what he wants to do, so he made it very clear how much work it would take. He outlined what his plan would be, how he would implement it and how he would need it to work. Without meeting his demands, the job would be way too much heavy lifting with no reward. If, however, they agreed to his plan, he was their man.
Wednesday morning, Jay became the new Head Coach at Dakota County Technical College.
To celebrate, we hopped on our bikes and rode the Cedar bike trail down to Target Field to catch the noon Twins game.
It's an eight mile ride from our house and all but the first mile is on spectacularly beautiful bike trails. Minneapolis does many things well but it does bike trails darn near perfectly. Hard to even argue with property taxes while you're riding.
(don't get me started on the dumb ass concrete sphere's currently littering the lake parkways. WTF? Those things are neither useful nor beautiful and they sure as heck weren't cheap.)
The Cedar trail runs through southwest Minneapolis, between lakes, amid woods and hills with beautiful neighborhoods glimpsed through the trees. Very easy to forget that you're in the middle of the city until you come out of a stand of trees and there's the highway, high above you. A mile further on and the Twins sign atop the gorgeous new ball park beckons like the Emerald City. There's an exit off the trail one block from the field and a rack for about 50 bikes right there. We locked up and walked to the will call window, where we met our friend, the Lovely Mr. Curry. We also gave a holla to Tony Oliva, who was picking up tix.
It was Navy Day at Target Field. Four SEALS dropped into the park before the anthem; the first had the word NAVY on his parachute, and landed right on second base. The other three had SEAL written on theirs and came down trailing different flags, the final bringing with him the Stars and Stripes. Those guys all came down fast; so fast it's like they didn't think even the ground could hurt them. But all four landed softly in mid field, and kept their feet. Those guys know what they're doing.
Inside the stadium, in one of the clubs, who do we immediately run into? Two sports reporters for the St. Paul Pioneer Press and one for the Star Tribune. All wanted to know what Jay had cooking, but he wasn't ready to spill the beans.
Our seats were ten rows back, right behind home plate.
Not too shabby!!
The game was fun, we won 5 or 6 to nothing. No homers but plenty of fireworks at the end, anyway.
It was in the high eighties and we were in the sun until the 8th inning, so we had to drink plenty of beers. It was a health issue!
We also had Kazmarzcuks brats for lunch.
Seriously, it can't get any better.
I've been saying it since April; the new ball park is a work of art and everyone should go see it, any way they can. The first time I saw it was on my 50th birthday weekend and I was painfully hungover and I still loved it. After a beautiful bike ride, it's even better!
The game ended around 3, we hopped on our bikes and tooled on back home.
We got home, hot tired and triumphant only to find that the kids weren't home.
Well hot damn.
Later on, we grilled up some burgers and corn on the cob for dinner.
Beat that.
