Friday, May 31, 2019

New Job!

It’s been almost exactly 13 months since I lost my last job.  I was laid off when my company was bought out and my job moved to Texas without me.  During that time, I’ve worked two different temp jobs.  The first one didn’t work out, but the second one did.

In fact, this was my first week as an official employee of the company where I’ve been working for the past 9 months.  And I’m thrilled.  This is a company I’ve wanted to work at for years.  I’ve applied multiple times, but never heard anything back.  When I took the temp job, I was hoping this would be a way to get my foot in the door.  And it was.

I’m frustrated that I am just now earning vacation again, but other than that, I’m very happy with the rest.  Benefits have already kicked in.  I am getting a raise over my last real job (not to mention both temp jobs).  And I really do like my co-workers.  This is a job I intend to be at for quite some time.

And the best part is, it’s still in town.  The other side of town from where I work, but still, it is so nice not to have to leave town during commute times.  I don’t know how those who do it manage.  The year and a half I did it was more than enough for me.

Monday, May 20, 2019

Mud Factor San Bernardino 2019

I did my first mud run of the year just over a week ago on May 11th.  And it was a new to me mud run as well – Mud Factor.  It was over in San Bernardino, which was definitely a drive.  I was very happy to have an audio book to keep me entertained.

I must admit I was a bit disappointed by the mud run.  It was a 5K, which was the only distance they offered, but even for that, we did the same course twice.  That’s right, they didn’t have enough space to set up a 5K course.  And the obstacles were a bunch of climb over stuff.  Definitely not my favorite obstacle.  They did have us going through a couple of concrete tubes big enough we could stand up inside them, and that was cool.  There was an inner tube slide down a huge hill, but the line was long and I skipped it both times.  Honestly, it looked like it would probably freak me out more than it would be fun, and I was trying to get to some professional ultimate Frisbee games.

And then, they didn’t have anywhere for us to change afterwards.  Yes, we could get cleaned up, but no changing tents.  Seriously, that’s a minimum requirement.

This is on top of making us buy a shirt if we wanted one.  Yes, I did buy a shirt since it was a new to me mud run, something I wasn’t planning to do if I did it again.

Okay, yes, I would consider doing another Mud Factor mud run, but definitely not at that location.  It would have to be much closer and cheap (I did get a good deal when I signed up).  But this certainly isn’t one I’m going to go out of my way to do again.

What makes me nervous is that I am signed up for a second mud run in the same location in July.  Fortunately, it is a different company, so hopefully it will be better.  In the meantime, I’ve got Camp Pendleton and Irvine Lake on back to back weekends in June again.  Looking forward to them as always.

Thursday, May 09, 2019

Disappointing Beach Tournament, but Wonderful Weather

Saturday was the end of season tournament for spring beach league.  We went into the tournament in 3rd place.

And finished in sixth.

Of course, part of that is because everything comes down to the tournament.  We don’t get to count anything that happens in the previous weeks toward our ranking.  And we lost both of our games, so we wound up in sixth.

They were both close games, so that much isn’t disappointing.  We just didn’t manage to pull it off and blew leads in both games to wind up losing.

However, the weather was wonderful for a change.  There was fog when we got there, but that burned off early and we had sun and some warmth by the time we were playing the second game and by the time we left.  I couldn’t have asked for a nicer day weather wise.

And I know I say this every year, but I need to go to the beach more often.  It is absolutely beautiful down there.  It is a shame I only go during beach league season.  I’m thinking I may go down for some pick up again this summer.  Haven’t done that for a few years.  I just need to confirm times before I do since I will definitely be going with traffic on a Sunday afternoon in the summer.

Thursday, May 02, 2019

Final Regular Week of Beach League (and More Ultimate)

This last Saturday was the final week of regular games of beach league.  We had two games as always, and we once again had a mixed result, we lost the first and won the second.

My frustration was getting anyone else to focus on the game.  Our two captains and their usual sub were all gone.  The guy who is normally trying to lead things just wasn’t focused for that first game.  It was actually painful trying to get him to pay attention as he wander here and there talking about his past glories in the game and family history and this and that and anything but the actual game we were currently playing.  Fortunately, he did seem to focus more on the second game, which I think helped.

Not that he was the driving force behind our win, but we all seemed more focused that game, which helped all the way around.

And both were hard fought games.  We made the first game close, and the second was closer than I would have liked it to be even if we did win.

We are third going into the tournament this weekend.  Unfortunately, with six teams, only the top two teams get first round byes, and we are starting earlier than normal.  I’m going to have to be there are 9 AM, which means leaving the house even earlier to pick up the people I carpool with.  I’m not looking forward to that.

Anyway, that wasn’t all the ultimate I got this last Saturday.  After a couple of hours at home, I went back out to the LA Aviator’s game.  This is the men’s professional ultimate team, and I like trying to make some of their games each season.  This was their second home game and the first chance I’d had to watch them play this year.  It seems like I always go when they are playing San Diego, but they were actually playing San Jose this time, which was fun.  Even better, they won!  They got a few breaks, but the teams mostly traded points, so it wasn’t exciting in that regard, but there were some great plays and it was just fun.