What a week

By Ed Piper

What a week it's been.

On Friday, I downloaded Windows 10. (Microsoft people: I'm not blaming Windows 10 for all my challenges.)

I couldn't write on my blog, so I thought this would solve my problems. I couldn't update Internet Explorer 7, which apparently now won't work with my blog. (I didn't think of Google Chrome.)

The moment I returned from Spring Training, my desktop--which prior to the trip had worked for three months the best it has ever worked--began freezing and shutting off on its own.

But whatever ailed the desktop before the download, ailed it afterwards as well. As my dad used to say about computers, junk in, junk out.

Finally, on Tuesday, I sent up flares for help. On Wednesday night, our friend, who works on our computer, deleted the partitions Windows had created on the computer, and reinstalled Windows 7. Voila. I can now process my sports photos without the desktop freezing. I can also resume writing you sweet prose.

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What a three weeks it's been.

Three weeks ago, I drove to Spring Training in Phoenix for five full days. (See previous posts on buying game tickets in advance for the first time.)

I went to six games in five days at six different ballparks. The highlight this year was realizing I could visit baseball practice in the mornings--at least at some of the 10 parks--and visiting three of the remaining four parks to see major or minor leaguers working out.

That was fun, because, potentially, there is no charge for parking or for entrance into the training facilities.

It didn't work at Tempe Diablo Stadium, where the Angels have their Spring Training complex, with five diamonds in addition to the stadium diamond. The day I went--Tuesday, March 8, my departure day--the Angels had a home game and no players were out on the practice fields before the game.

I did hear what sounded like throwing and/or batting from inside an enclosed building around the two buttes that stand beyond left field of Tempe Diablo. But no way to see in.

It did work, kind of, at the A's facility in Mesa, where my housing for the five nights was. The A's had a 1 p.m. home game--again, it was my getaway day, March 8--so you couldn't approach Hohokam Stadium without paying for parking. Which I didn't want to do. Instead, now having mobile Internet for the first time in my life, I looked up information on the A's Spring Training facilities and located Fitch Park, down Center Street from the stadium.

There I walked and talked with another Spring Training attendee, this one a devoted A's fan, and watched minor leaguers going through training stations. It was just like the classroom: On this diamond, work on pickoffs and rundowns (it was a group of pitchers, I believe). Rotate after 45 minutes, and work on another specific set of skills on another diamond.

I wasn't watching major leaguers, which is what I went to Spring Training for. But at least I was up close, mingling, standing right next to the fence surrounding the field.

It worked the best at Camelback Ranch, which is the Dodgers' and White Sox' training complex. I went two different mornings. At 9 a.m., the complex opens--even on game days. You can park for free, right near the entrance to the practice fields. There is a nice walkway to the fields, where I stood against the backstop, with only a short distance away Yasiel Puig, Dave Roberts, the Dodgers' new manager (a former Padre), Corey Seager, their star shortstop prospect, and all the rest.

That was probably the baseball highlight of my trip.

My sister's family, who are not particularly baseball fans, drove from Wyoming to be in Mesa for a shooting competition my nephew was taking part in. He is an expert marksman. So, we all met at Peoria Stadium on Friday night (March 4) to see the only night game scheduled during our respective stays in the Valley of the Sun.

The outfield grass, where we sat, surprisingly was wet. My niece, always the planner, made sure the family brought a blanket to sit on. The temperature in the air was perfect, in the 70's, with not a person in sight wearing a coat.

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What a four weeks it has been.

It all started with my purchasing my first smartphone. (Kyle and Reagan Jetter's mom couldn't believe I had never had a smartphone before, when I told her at a lacrosse game this week.)

I started slowly, but going from a mere cellphone to a smartphone is quite a leap. That fed right into my Spring Training trip, which began exactly a week later. To negotiate the 101 Loop and the 202 and all the other intertwining freeways in the greater Phoenix/Tempe area, I used Google Maps for the first time.

Fantastic. It reroutes you within a few seconds, when you miss a turn or when construction means a street on the scheduled route is blocked.

One thing using Google Maps does is chew up tons of data, so I was freaking out and calling in to increased my data amount for the month more than once.

It also uses up tons of the battery's charge, and having just bought the phone, I didn't have a charger to use in the car. (And being a rarer phone, an off-brand, it wasn't one I could pick up a charger for at the local store. You know, come to think of it, I probably could have.)