Ales & Astros: Day 6

Today is more of a day of relaxing than anything else. Monday and Tuesday are kind of a blur. A pleasant blur, to be sure, but a blur nonetheless. I’m still annoyed at WordPress for eating most of my post from last night so I’m going to fill in some of the blanks from yesterday. Going to the game yesterday was a lot of fun. Then again, so was having this view for breakfast this morning.

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Does. Not. Suck.

I got in the pool, which is the first time I’ve been in a pool in I don’t know how long. It was glorious. I was able to stretch leg muscles that haven’t been stretched in quite some time. I’ve been getting a lot of walking (for me) in, and I can tell it’ll get easier the more I stretch. I talked about “the streak” I’ve got going last week and I’ve not had any trouble hitting the mark so far. I even upped it a bit on Monday. Today? I’ll make sure I hit it, but the closer to a mere one calorie over the mark I can get the better. I’m not exactly a go-go-go guy. Today I’ll be content to do the minimum required.

Yesterday was a lot of fun. I feel kind of weird saying that given how awful the news was from Belgium. I saw the news on my phone pretty early on since I wasn’t able to sleep much on the train. It was jarring to see the news footage in the Sanford Amtrak station on one set of monitors while other monitors were showing videos about Amtrak Security and their use of bomb-sniffing dogs. It was just coincidence. The day before at the Lorton, VA station they’d been playing the same video. And at one point we saw an officer come through that station with a gorgeous black Lab. It wasn’t a search or anything. They were just passing through. So this is the way I see it. Chances are my day yesterday was better than yours. And no matter how bad yours sucked, it wasn’t as bad as your average Belgian. Count your blessings.

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Local regulations require selfies be taken at all Spring Training games.

It’s just 11 days until the Astros open the season, so the starters are getting in a lot of work. It’s impossible not to be excited about this team. Altuve was on fire yesterday. Correa hit a monster line-drive home run that hit about 20 feet above the wall above the 410 sign in right-center in the batter’s eye. It have easily been a 450-foot shot had it not hit the netting. Both guys competing for the first base job played well. Mike Fiers got banged around in the fifth inning. I don’t know if he was trying something different that didn’t work, or whether he just didn’t have his stuff today. But hey! It’s March!  Go ahead and get it out of your system now!  In the end there was a five-run comeback and Good triumphed over Evil 8-7.

Jose Altuve takes a strike

Jose Altuve takes a strike in yesterday’s game.

One reason we were able to relax today is because the Astros played the Phillies today in an evening game. Before the game started I got to see super-fan Greis Pérez, known widely for her observation that following the 2013 Astros was better than buying heroin.

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The highlight of the night was Carla’s, though. She got to get her picture taken with Orbit.

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I feel very much the same about Carla. Ok. Orbit, too.

Oh yeah. We won. 2-1.  Good game.