May 2010

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New C9’s and Strobes have arrived: Our order of 150 C9 LED’s retrofit bulbs and another 24 strobes arrived from Action Lighting. I must say, at first I was not too impressed with the C9’s, but once I setup a test strip, I was impressed with the colors. I have yet to test them on a controller yet, but the specs do say they are dimmable and will do what we need. One nice feature with any LED bulb is the power consumption; each C9 LED will only consume ¼ watt (37-Watts total display) versus 10-watts for each incandescent bulb (1,500-watts total display), giving us a savings of 1,463 watts, that’s like turning off 37 40 watt light bulbs…..I’m impressed!

We ordered 90 new power cords for all the new controllers. We saved quite a bit of money on the cords from Mono Price, but the cords were not stripped or tinned, and we had to strip and tin 270 wires, then install quick connects……what a tedious project, but that is done, and now behind us now.

Little League:
18 games in, and we are still in first place, with one loss.
What a season so far! The Quartz Hill Little League Major Dodgers just keep going and going. We finally faced off again with the Major Rays; whom we were tied with at one time, news of their key pitcher had fingertip issues (blisters) gave us added hope for a win, we knew we could take them with or without their key pitcher. I have coached long enough (15 Years) to know that one player does not carry a team, and I have learned that one pitcher is not strong enough to pitch every game in an entire season; they just break down about mid-season. Unfortunately, the way the pitching rules are written; if a pitcher keeps his pitch count down each game, he can pitch every game. Unfortunately, this rule does not help develop other potential pitchers on the team, and actually harms the pitcher in question in the long-run, I have seen many young men over the years; pushed by their fathers, only to quit out of frustration, or get permanently injured from over working and poor mechanics.

Anyway, we faced-off with the Rays (Dead tie for first), and yes, we saw their key pitcher, but we were ready for him, remember, you can teach anybody to be a fastball hitter, it’s hitting the junk pitches that are hard to teach a batter, but the boys practiced hard over several days and we lit up the Rays pitcher pushing us one game up to take first place. We took four runs from their pitcher, and only gave one in return, dominance from the start of the game.

Since that game, the Rays tied with another team, putting them back another ½ game in the standings, and making our position much stronger. We see the Rays one more time, which I am not worried about, but it is the other teams we need to be cautious about; We have told the kids that they are now the bulls-eye for every other team, there is no greater pleasure in Baseball than beating a first place team, and we are the target! Now is the time to focus, to have purpose, and to get better at this sport.

Our team batting average is still in the high .475 after 16 games, with 21 home runs by seven of our twelve-man roster. We have a team on-base average of 59%, and a whopping 125 RBI’s. Our runs ‘For’ verses runs ‘Against’ is a staggering 167 to 39.

Nate:
I have been catching for my 18 Year-old in the bull-pin this season to keep him honed, and he is just beating the heck out of this old man. Catching an 83 mile-an-hour fastball really makes you think about your skills as a catcher, but it is all for the good of both of us, we are both working out and getting better. It will be nice to see him play again this summer.
High School Graduation is just weeks away, we are waiting with great anticipation, getting the pool ready, cleaning the backyard, and tuning up the margarita blender, so that Laura and I can celebrate that another child is through the system, and one left to go.

Household Projects (Honey-Do’s):
1) Pool Pump manifold rebuild.
2) Hedge Front and back shrubbery (we have a LOT of bushes, over 40 in the front alone, and the backyard is 10-fold).
3) Fix A/C compressor fan.
4) Replace pool chlorinator.
5) Fix upstairs heater igniter.
6) Something is wrong with the lawn sprinklers, very low pressure, and must checkout.
7) Make and replace patio furniture swags.
8) Put my LT500R top-end back together, and get ready to ride.
9) Fix upper pond waterfall cracks.
10) Strip, stain, and varnish front doors.