It wasn't all that long ago when I'd be more inclined to admit to being a NASCAR fan before I'd publicly admit to being a fan of Texas Rangers baseball.
Say what???... Oh gawd... I'm lying... there ain't no way in hell I'd ever claim to like watching NASCAR. My apologies, I got carried away attempting to make a point about the Texas Rangers. In fact, I'll even go so far as to state that the only thing worse than having to watch NASCAR is having to listen to it.
Listening to NASCAR is cruel and unusual punishment and only the most heineous of criminals should be subjected to such hardship. But I digress... this blog entry ain't about rednecks carrying on about tire pressure and the confederacy. It's about baseball...
Baseball as in "beisbol"!!... as in the time former Rangers catcher Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez was once chastised by team management for not resting his knees in the off-season and of instead playing Winter League Baseball in Puerto Rico.
In response, Pudge was later quoted to have stated, "Some peeeple like to go feeeshingg... some peeeple like to go huuntinngg... I like to play BEISBOL!!!" . It was readily assumed that he was refering to fellow teammates prefering to go fishing and hunting in the offseason.
In any event, living aboard a sailboat implies having to do without a few creature comforts that almost everyone else takes for granted these days. Okay... perhaps more than just a few creature comforts.
Well you see... S/V Blondie-dog is as basic as it gets. For starters, I ain't got no TV onboard, nor do I have a VCR, or a microwave, fridge or even a flush toilet. I ain't even got someone to get up and fetch me a warm beer if I happen to be in need of one for that matter.
Onboard my boat insofar as electronics are concerned, is a cell phone for that random phone call and salacious text message, a handheld GPS for navigation, a VHF radio to plead for assistance when in distress at sea as well as a laptop with an ocassional internet connection, and lastly a CD player with a radio. Yes a radio.
Yeah dude... a radio. I'm sure you've heard of a radio before. It's an electronic device from way back in the day that precedes Ipods, CD players, cassette players, and even your dad's eight-track.
It's a device to let you tune into communications from some random distant radio tower. Nevermind that the communication these days is more often than not from some pompous, bombastic-lardass with an oxycontin addiction pontificating about so-called conservatism and moral values.
So yeah... I happen to be back on my boat and it's late in the evening and though the boat may be tied up to a mooring out in the harbor, I'm wanting to discretely tune in for some baseball. Not football mind you or preferably even NBA basketball but rather Texas Rangers baseball... as in the 2010 Baseball World Series!!... but please don't tell anybody... baseball just ain't cool.
However I've got one option for tuning in and that is to plug in my CD/Radio into an inverter and then plug that little device into a DC current power source. (feel free to google "inverter" and impress your geeky classmates next time you remember to attend science class)
Well I've got the radio plugged in and I'm ever so slowly twisting that radio nob up and down the dial searching for the ballgame. Surely somebody out in radio-land is broadcasting the 2010 Baseball World Series whether it be on the FM or AM dial.
I do eventually find a radio broadcast of the game. It is however in Spanish but heck... that's better than tuning in to some a college football game involving two teams no one has ever heard of before.
Besides, as a youngster, I use to tune the radio in to listen to los Cangrejeros de Santurce y los Senadores de San Juan battle it out at Bithorn Stadium all the time. The radio broadcasts were always in Spanish of course and I certainly had no issue with that back then so hell, I'll tune in and listen to the Texas Rangers play ball in Spanish.
I've got the radio dial set to Radio Marti and the fact that the broadcast is in Spanish is but an afterthought as I'm soon immersed in the ballgame but remember not to tell anybody that I said that because baseball just ain't cool.
Radio Marti for those of you who weren't around when the cold war with Russia was in full swing, is a radio station operating for the exclusive purpose of broadcasting news and commentary to the general population of Cuba. The station does not air any annoying radio commercials which can be thought of a good thing. Radio Marti is in all likelihood funded and operated by the CIA for all I know.
Incidentally, you should have heard those two radio announcers whine like malcontent little kids as the Texas Rangers were spanking the hated New York Yankees. Talk about a pair of crybabies.... muah, muah, muah.
Go Rangers!
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