Memory lane...

I had to slow down my stride during my run yesterday to traverse a very wet, mushy patch on the soccer field portion of my run. This spot happens to be right next to my childhood baseball field, Centennial Park.

I was just past the midpoint of my approximately 50 minute run up and down the hills of White Rock, so decided I would take a minute to catch my breath, and check out the old field. It's still a well used field during the spring and summer, and the surface is still almost the exact same as it was when I was 9-12 playing all my league and all-star games on it. It's where I hit my first home run, where went out to throw with my dad almost daily for a couple of years to bring me from the "minors" classification to the "majors", from a very so-so, non-driven 9 year old to one of the top pitchers in the province by the age of 12. It's where I began to love baseball.

I walked down onto the field, stepped on the mound, and shamelessly threw about 5 pitches, without a ball or glove, all strikes of course. I couldn't believe how damn close that 46 foot 12 year old mound looks now! I backed up a bit to right behind the mound... well, it's not much of a mound really, more flat with the grass making up the sides now.

This is a park that I still work out at. When I start my throwing program in January, I will likely utilize Centennial as one of the backstops I'll throw numerous beat up baseballs into for my regular off season arm building process.

It was a nice little 3-4 minute stop to allow my sweat to break and catch my breath. I guess you never forget some of those places that changed your life or sent you on a certain path. This is one of those for me. See you in January Centennial.

Life update, December 2010

Our first "family" picture...

Hello people.

I'm not going to apologize anymore for not remaining faithful to a daily or weekly blog routine, because, well, it's my damn blog and I can write when I want to.

Life's moving right along, I can't believe it's already the middle of freaking December. Where in the hell did November go?

Our (Shorty(wife) and I) November went something like this=

- Leon in Taiwan to finish baseball tournament (2nd in the ICC)

- Fly back to Holland for a day

- Fly to Oklahoma the next day

- Chill for a week with Shorty's family

- 40 hour drive in our trusty hybrid across the Rockies, Vancouver bound

- Claim a new dog, and love it to freakin' pieces

- Rekindle old friendships in Colorado

- Cross the border and officially make our car a Canadian

- Upon our return to Canada, freeze our asses off the first week

- Get back to work with pitching and hitting lessons

- Enjoy Canadian beer again

- Spend many hours and meals hanging out with my side of the family tree

- Hear some 'potentially' rediculously fantastic news from great friends

- December...

December = Similar to the last couple weeks of November =

- Lessons a few days a week to get by

- Planning for the new year

- Jam packing myself with 6 days a week of lessons for the new year

- Re-enrolling in University for Shorty, as well as working Softball lessons

- Drinking some more Canadian beer, maybe eggnog soon...

Life's going well. Basically right now we're trying to be there for our family member that need us, and raising a dog (who is freaking awesome by the way) to walk on a leash, interact well with other dogs and that's all going as well as we could hope. Time for a dog walk in the typical Vancouver winter weather, 8C and rain, weird (shaking head).