Tag Archives: soccer

A Totally Wasted Frustrating Day

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I have to admit that today started out ok, I knew I had to get certain things done today, since I am flying to England tomorrow morning, however no sooner had it started than the frustration set in, and at this point in time, almost 2pm, I haven’t really achieved a lot.

On Monday I had an interview for my Naturalization (US Citizenship), and all went ok except that I had to provide proof that I am paying child support, which I am.   I expected the form providing details to arrive after some weeks, but no, when I got home Wednesday night there was a letter, telling me what I needed.

Reading the details of the forms they sent, which were rather vague, it seemed that I needed to provide a notarized letter from my ex-wife as evidence of my payments, so we arranged to meet up this morning close to where she lives to get this done, and then I would take the forms into the Immigration Office where I had my interview.

We were due to meet between 8am and 8:30am, after she took my daughters to school, but no sooner had I started my 25 mile journey south on I-95, than the radio announced that the road was completely closed southbound due to an earlier accident.   Well there was no easy way to avoid the block, and I know from previous experiences that the radio is usually a good 30 minutes behind with the status of accidents.   I mean, just how long can they leave a major highway completely blocked?    As I got closer and sat in traffic, the radio gave out more information, advising people to use alternative routes, but I stuck to my guns and sat in traffic doing a very slow crawl.   It seems that at 5am there was a head-on fatal crash, and although it was a few minutes to 9am when I got to the point where they were directing traffic off the highway, the road was still closed.

The trip, which would normally take 30 minutes on a good day and 45 minutes on a normal rush hour one, took me close to 2 hours!   Of course my ex-wife was peeved since she had a busy day lined up, and I knew that I would have to maybe sit for hours in the Immigration Offices, before heading back down there to take my daughters out tonight.

Well we got the documents notarized, I headed back north, traffic a lot easier this time, and arrived at the Immigration Offices.   A rather rude lady insisted that the form they sent me was an interview date, not the date that I had to have the forms returned by.   The documentation was rather vague, but it said in block capitals that “the documentation must be returned by 29th May 2009 at 7:15am.  It did not say this was an interview date, it said disctinctly to return BY THIS DATE!   So having got nowhere with the rude lady, I headed home, where I grabbed some oatmeal and a banana, it now being after 11am and I hadn’t had a bite to eat yet.

It was after 11am by the time I got home, and by the time I had eaten, changed the bed ready for when I come home from England in 3 weeks time, put some laundry on, and then Debbie came home from work.   I explained the situation with the papers to her,  and she suggested writing a letter and sending it off.  “Great idea” I thought, so I composed a letter explaining how vague the instructions were, enclosed the documents, put it in the mail, and at the same time turned on the sauna in the small fitness room on the 1st floor of the condo building.   I then did a bit of work online, watched some fo the American Idol show I taped earlier in the week, and went to take my sauna.

“Oh great!”  I get down to the sauna to find that someone has gone in and turned it off, it’s only lukewarm in there.  It needs a good 45 minutes to warm up, so I headed to the pool, got chatting to one of the residents here who is down by the pool most afternoons, did 20 lengths of the pool, and by that time almost an hour was up.   Headed back to the sauna and “oh yeah” nice and hot.  I knew something had to go right for me!   Had a good sauna and steam, then realized the time, hit the shower, and had to head out to see my daughters for the evening.

I normally see my daughters ( aged 4 and 8 ) on a Saturday and take them to breakfast and to the park, but sometimes, like today, I take them out for pizza.  Of course this meant a 25 mile drive south for the second time today, I picked them up, took them to the park at the soccer fields where they play, had a good kick around, then out to the pizza buffet, and back to their house.

I had to leave them early, because I had remembered earlier that I had to pick my suit up from being altered.  It wouldn’t be ready until 5pm, and of course I would be with them at that time, but the store was open until 9pm.   Of course the store is 5 miles north of where I live and also west, so I had an hour to make the 35 mile trip.  All was going well until just before I had to exit the highway, when I came across another accident which almost blocked the road.  I had a minor panic for a minute, thinking I would be stuck and not able to get to the store in time, but the traffic kept flowing and I made it.  PHEW!

Now I don’t need the suit for my trip to England.  I need it for a dance the night after I get back.  My 8 year old is in the girl scouts, and they have an annual “Me And My Guy” dance where the Dad’s take their daughters to the ball.   She enjoys it, but I feel a bit awkward not really knowing any of the other Dad’s.   I suppose I could have picked the suit up the day after I return from England, but the last thing I want to do is to have to worry about that when I have jet lag and am about to have a late night.

And so I finally return home at 9pm, tired, sticky, frustrated, actually really tired, and the guy I rent with wants to know if I want to take a walk.  Having eaten way too much pizza and needing the exercise I agreed, so we took a good 4 mile walk around the lake and through part of the golf course, which is always nice.  We both enjoy walking in the evenings, the exercise is good after a meal, it’s nice to be off the road where there are fewer lights and the stars are clearer, and fortunately tonight we were a bit later, because if we don’t time it right, we have to dodge the sprinklers.  It all adds to the fun, but these walks are great for clearing your head and letting off steam as well.

So 9 hours after I started this article, it’s about complete.  I am exhausted, ready to hit the hay, and hopefully tomorrow will see a couple of good flights, no delays, a smooth ride, and a happy Debbie waiting for me at the other end.

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The Soccer Game

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I was just about to leave work tonight when my ex-wife calls to ask if I want to take my youngest daughter (4 1/2) to her soccer game, seeing as my eldest (8 1/2) had a fever and she wanted to look after her.   So I drove straight from work, somehow managing the 30 miles in traffic in a little over 30 minutes, picked my daughter up and went to the game.

Although it was 73 degrees, sitting on the sideline of a soccer field with a chilly wind blowing and only a thin sleeveless shirt on, I was getting quickly F-R-O-Z-E-N!   Fortunately I remembered that I had a rolled up throw blanket in the trunk of the car, untouched since I left Indiana three years ago (you don’t usually need them in Florida), and so I wrapped that around me to keep the wind off, but by the time I did I was already too cold to save properly, struggling to keep my hands and arms inside the small blanket by clutching it tight the whole time.

The soccer team was comprised of 4 and 5 year olds, but the other team looked more like 5 and 6 year olds, and definitely had more experience.  I don’t think that more than 3 of my daughter’s team had played before this season, and I think this was only their third game.

Well they started off ok, but the other team kept pushing them, and them broke loose down the field, kicking the ball towards the goal.  Our goalie, who was so small he hardly made a difference, came out and picked the ball up, then proceeded to run the twenty or so feet back to the goal with it in his hands and over the line.  That was the first goal!

Another soon followed, with the goalie standing motionless on the goal line, or maybe even behind it, not coming out towards the attacker, and dodging the ball as it went towards him.  Goal number two…

My daughter actually came out onto the field for the last 2 minutes of the first half, and of course by that time she had lost her concentration, besides which she still doesn’t really understand what she is supposed to do.   And then no sooner had she come onto the field, than it was half time.

So the teams switch ends, the other team kick off, head towards our goal, but one of our platers gets the ball, and proceeds to head towards OUR goal with it.  “WRONG WAY” everyone yelled, but the ball went off the sideline most of the way to our goal.  Some of our players were getting well stuck in and tackling, but two of them, although they were right next to the ball and in a perfect position to do something, just stood there, and the other team got the ball of course.  They kicked it towards the goal, the keeper caught it, then dropped it and over the line it went… Goal number three…

Well you get the picture by now, it was a comedy of errors the whole way through, would have made some good clips for America’s Funniest Home Videos if I had the camcorder there.

My daughter only played for the last 5 minutes of the second half too, and since she didn’t get a chance to touch the ball, I reckon she had to be the star player, since she did nothing wrong…  The final score was 0:5, and the game was just horrible, but at least she enjoyed herself.

The team finished off with hot-dogs that one of the Mom’s prepared there, and one of those was my dinner too, since I went there straight from work, and by the time I got back home it was too late to eat before bed time.

Well I drove the thirty miles back home, had trouble parking at the condos.  I have to use a guest parking place when there are people in the next condo to us, but otherwise I use their space.  Tonight seeing as how I didn’t get home until 9:30pm and all the snowbirds are down from New York and Canada, I had to park right around the front of the building, almost the only guest space left, under a tree, so no doubt I will be washing the car at the weekend to get the sticky resin off.

I live on the seventh floor, and although at the weekend I usually walk up the stairs, tonight I felt tired and just wanted to take the elevator.  Well two men have been modernizing the elevators since the end of July, and although one is fixed (supposedly) the second is still being worked on.  It surprises me how long it takes to do this, it’s now six months since they started!  Well anyhow, into the elevator I get, press 7, the doors close, and the elvator makes a bouncing motion as if it’s climbing, yet the floor light is still on 1.   I press the Open Door button, the doors open, and I am still there!  Close the doors, press 7 again, bounc bounce shake bounce, same thing.  Open the doors, and give up and take the stairs instead.

I just find it amazing that having worked on a single elevator for four months, it’s still not working.  Apparently it wasn’t this morning, and it wasn’t yesterday evening either.  Now since the average age of the people in the building must be at least 60, it’s pretty critical if there are no elevators working.  Several of them use wheel chairs or walking frames, so without an elevator they are trapped.   Seems that some technology zips way ahead every year, yet some of the older technology that you would think would be tried and tested just doesn’t work.

Well now it’s gone 11pm, my bed time, so I will end here before I zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz