LJ sports et al: Timeline - 3/11

Good comfort food. Two of these saved a lost Wednesday.

By Ed Piper

Wed., March 11

Substitute-teach at La Costa Canyon High in math. The class has a student teacher, thank God, so he teaches the lesson, and I assist with classroom management. (Last period--a lot of acting up. I subbed in this classroom last fall.)

2:35 p.m. Last period lets out. Race down the I-5 to my mechanic on Morena Blvd. after school to get my driver's side rear view mirror replaced after accident during Spring Training in Surprise, Arizona last week. (Another story for another time.)

3:03 p.m. Arrive at Morena Blvd. Record time. (I won't say how fast I drove.) Mechanic has car from 3:12 to 3:23, approximately, new black rear view mirror (on a silver car--the mechanic asking me why I got it--"inexpensive"--$29) in place.

3:23 p.m. Left mechanic. Seeing time, I head up the I-5 and Soledad Mountain Road to the Viking baseball game at 4 p.m. I am amazed the car is repaired so quickly, and that I would have time to get to the game on time.

Change in plans: I see on ljvikings.com that the Viking badminton team plays at Kearny. Start time: 3:30. I can get there in plenty of time while the matches are still going on. (My son-in-law is a teacher at Kearny.)

3:55 p.m. I ask a student to remind me where the KHS gym is. I walk in. Kearny players warmin up. I ask a Kearny coach (turns out to be the assistant) what the etiquette is for taking photos. Go ahead, no problem. But: he says, "There's the head coach. He sets the rules."

Head coach: "Stay in the middle (at half court). No flash." I: "Then I can't take photos." (I have a point-and-shoot camera. Without flash, the photos will be unusable.) Head coach: "That's right." Jerry Tellers, the La Jolla coach, is sitting in the bleachers nearby, but it's not his home floor, so he doesn't have any influence. Jerry allows total access on photos.

Furious, I walk out. No photos of Viking badminton, as a result.

My attitude blown, I have an alternate plan. Comfort food. In-N-Out. I buy two Double Doubles with everything for me, a third without onions for my wife. Good plan. Soothing. (I haven't forgiven the Kearny coach yet--ogre.)

End of aborted sports afternoon. No trip to baseball diamond at Muirlands Middle School.