Spring Training Notes

There was an article in this morning's AZ Republic newspaper about the attendance at the Spring Training games this year. First of all, the games started 8 days earlier than usual as a result of the World Baseball Classic that is underway in Phoenix right now. That has taken many players from the different team rosters and is the reason the season has been extended. Another reason is the "foul" weather with snow covering some stadiums at the beginning of the earlier games. The weather has also been colder than normal so far as we reach the halfway point. Attendance is down by one third according to the article and the highest drawing team so far is the Giants with an average of 9708 fans per game. The lowest drawing stadium to date is the one in Goodyear where the Cincinnati Reds and Cleveland Indians are drawing an average of 3091 fans per game. The Baseball Classic has drawn over 115K fans and, as mentioned, is taking fans away from the regular games. What it means for us though, is that we get an extra week of work and the added income.

We made a trip to our storage unit yesterday and took a truckload of boxes to be stored - mostly Christmas decorations. There are still some things we will take on another trip after we reorganize our basement. That is on today's agenda. The extra day off this week will be a good time to catch up on some more chores we need to get done before packing up to leave. I also want to get the tires on the truck rotated but have to shop around for the best deal. The Ford dealer wants wants over $200 for the job which is complicated as a result of the duallies and the high pressure tires. Not every tire shop can handle the job as I found out yesterday when I stopped at the local Discount Tire store and discovered they were not certified to handle the job. They recommended a small, private tire shop not too far from here where they are certified. I remember that shop - S & S Tire - form last year where I stopped to get air in the truck tires which was complicated because of the difficulty in getting to the inside valve on the rear duallie wheels.

Temperatures are rising and it may very well turn out that we need the air conditioner on fairly soon. It is expected to reach into the 90's by the end of the week. Last week we couldn't stay warm enough, and this week we will not be able to stay cool enough. Comes with the territory...