Day two

Today I really wanted beach time, so as soon as I got up and eat some breakfast and then headed up to the nice part of the island. The sand in Clearwater is absolutely spectacular and it's wonderful just to feel it under my feet.

While I was lying on the beach I had a suddenly realization about why I ‘d been feeling so crappy and hadn’t felt like writing anything during the prior week. I was so busy and stressed out that my mind never had a moment to wander and free associate. Everybody needs something to keep them centered, and my stream of consciousness is what keeps me going and makes me feel alive. I have a very active and chatty inner voice and when I can’t hear it I kind of lose myself. Lying on the beach, with nothing around except the sun and the sound of the Gulf’s mini-waves, I could wander. I need to make sure that I take some time for that no matter what is going on.

I lay in the sand until around noon, and then decided I would go see another ball game after all. So off I went to Dunedin.

I was going to see the Atlanta Braves play the Toronto Blue Jays at their stadium in Dunedin, so I put Toronto Blue Jays Dunedin to my phone and followed the directions. Much to my annoyance, unlike every other team in Florida. The Toronto Blue Jays do not have to stadium anywhere near their offices which is where I arrived about 10 minutes before gametime.

Muttering under my breath, I tried another way of finding where the game was and found out I had to go back in the direction I had already come. This displeased me. Didn't help that half the roads were closed and I had to detour everywhere.

Call the parking lot attendants I saw this weekend were really pleasant and chatty. When that guy asked me how I was doing I said I was glad to be here after swinging buy the offices first. He nodded knowingly, and I said "it's especially annoying because I came right by here." He said, I know, I saw you. Cute.

Actually the whole thing was cute. They play in a municipal ballpark with the snappy name of Florida Auto Trader Stadium. It was generically pleasant and had one of my favorite minor league ballpark features, the Rotary Club barbecue. I had some grilled chicken and baked beans, so I was on my way.

At Bright House Field they serve Yuengling for the Philly folks, so here they have Labatts Blue for Canadians. Both parks had a new beer dispensing gimmick where the bottom of the cup has a magnetic seal which opens when inserted in a special apparatus, allowing the cup to be filled for the bottom up. Cool to watch.

The game itself was mildly diverting, with Toronto absolutely pummeling the Braves’ rookie pitcher. The most notable thing was that because of the preponderance of left-handed hitters in both lineups, the right field stands where I was sitting was getting peppered with baseballs. I nearly got hit when I had my back turned coming back from the bathroom.

Usually I like to stay until the end of games, but spring training doesn’t have rael games. They’re glorified practice sessions and the teams typically start taking their regular players after 6 innings or so. When the Phillies do that I’m usually interested in seeing the minor league replacements, but here I could care less, so I left after 7 innings. I cruised back through downtown Dunedin, which had the main street block off for what seemed to be a junk festival. Kind of like a two block-long yard sale.

The town was cute and I wouldn’t have minded hanging out, but it was difficult to get around with all the piles of knick-knacks lining the street. So I headed back to my room to ready myself for another night of beachness. I decided to walk this time, taking advantage of how much better my leg has been feeling to feel the air and see the people milling about. It was incredibly busy, not so much with spring breakers, but with what seemed like local families. My motel was full of such weekenders, large groups of large, loud people.

After about an hour of walking around, I decided to have dinner and went to the local landmark known as Crabby Bill’s. As I had the night before, I used my special party-of-one powers to sit at the bar right away while the hoards of larger parties waited outside. The food was informal and tasty and the bartender was surprisingly pleasant for a place called crabby. I hung out and watched basketball for a while and then walked back to my room and eventually went to bed.