Weekend blurb

I think I’ve mentioned before that I must have lost my ever loving mind to have volunteered to serve on the local pop warner board. Well, that theory has been further verified after this weekend. For the second time this year after spending all day on one of the hottest days of the year volunteering for the league, I was never happier to stand under a hot shower.

Wait you say! Hottest day of the year? On Nov 15? Oh yes my friends. I know I have mentioned before that fall is often hotter than summer in San Diego. This year though, it was a freakishly hot and then cold alternating spring, a very mild summer, and then THE hottest fall ever with a ending (I hope!) with a crescendo this weekend. You may have heard of all the wild fires which are burning up north. Same sort of weather pattern that burned our county last year. Still, this is at least 2-3 weeks later than usual for such a strong Santa Ana wind to be blowing. But, it is. At 8am yesterday when I arrived at the football field it was over 80 degrees and the sun was blazing. The wind started blowing hot at around 10am and the combination of sun and hot, dry wind really made the day all that more fun eh? Wearing my lovely *black* board shirt too. At least it is short sleaved, but it is still HOT. I had to man the ticket sales at the entrance for awhile, then migrated to the stands to watch my son’s game.

And they won again! They have reached their goal – a rematch against the same team that beat them last year 30-0 in the Western Conference Final. This time, the fact that there is no Florida is actually helping them focus. They have had ONE goal all year and that is to get to this game and then the season is over. Finish undefeated, avenge the loss to that team and walk away going as far as you could go at this level. They didn’t play great yesterday – perhaps were already looking to this coming weekend showdown, but this still won.

So after being fan mom for the noon game, I had to get back to work and went back out front to ticket sales during game #3. Then for the final game of the day which started at 4pm, I had volunteered to be on the chain gang. You know, where you carry one of these:

I carried one of the bulls-eye poles. It was awesome to be down on the sidelines so close to the action, even for a youth game. This was the biggest set of boys – 13-14 year olds almost as big as high school, but not quite. It was fun hearing what the coaches told the kids and just being so close to everything. The hits were hard!! However, what I was not prepared for was how much *I* would have to run!! At the end of an already long, hot day I had to run up and down that sideline with that pole. On top of that, we were getting yelled at!! Seriously! There was a measurement that went against the team whose sideline we were on so we then were showered with all sorts of wonderful “compliments” by the parents in the stands, some coaches and eventually even the players! Obviously that team was not the best behaved on the planet and they should not have been so vocal. We stayed cool though and mostly laughed at the ridiculousness of it.

That bit of drama at the end though really zapped me so I stopped off to have some pizza and a beer before heading home for that shower. I fell asleep very early and when I woke up I felt utterly dizzy and still zapped. Kinda like this:

Heehee – love that picture! Seriously, that’s how I felt most of today! I finally figured out that the dry wind had effed up my sinuses and I just could not breathe. Took some Claritin D and dragged myself out of bed to watch SportsBoy’s baseball game and then on to (where else), equipment drop off for pop warner since all the other teams are now done. Two hours there thankfully inside the storage shed vs in the hot sun again and then I was finally able to come home and do some cleaning. Finished right at lunch time and then plopped on the sofa to doze on and off in front of some NFL football on the TV. Still feeling alternately woozy though. SweetPrince came over and while talking to him things would spin and I’d just start giggling and he asked me when I had started drinking 🙂 Yeah well, I wish, but no, this was all me! I’m all limp and relaxed and just spent.

Damn pop warner football! At least that was the last set of home games and #55 only has one more game for sure. Then I will get another little part of my life back. For a little while anyway.