Livin' in the 'hood

Ever since Logan Square Times moved to East Garfield Park last year, I was asked by everyone why I'd want to live there. My response: it's cheaper and has greater potential for growth, with open lots and plenty of room for new construction.

Plus, EGP is close to the interstate, the green line and the blue line (a 6 block walk from home). Living twenty minutes by CTA or bike from the loop for the price is next to impossible anywhere else in the city.

Turns out, I really like living here. There aren't a lot of shopping choices, but that's fine, since it means I have to cycle that much more. But if I can't or don't want the exercise, the green line can take me to Jewel, Target, and Sam's in a matter of minutes. I'm closer now to Washington Park for summer league, pickup and other leagues are a bike ride away, and I'm easy to pick up for rides out to Naperville.

Heck, even when I had to go out to stupid Schaumburg for training in late September and rent a car* the drive out there was way better than I remember when I lived in Logan Square.

*I meant to take Metra and cycle most days of the training, and really wanted to bike the whole 26 miles back home one time, but I got injured at fall league the weekend before, and all the walking involved in taking two hours of CTA and Pace buses made it much worse. By the end of the week of driving, I was perturbed and remembered why I hate driving and should never drive, but I was also healed enough to play league that weekend.

Last Wednesday, I finally discovered the downside of the neighborhood, though I think this could have happened anywhere. At around 11am, I went out to pick up a bike from the shop, and when I got home, a bunch of my stuff was lying on the grass inside the front gate. Brandon, the first-floor neighbor, was walking around, and told me there was a break in.

Yikes! Turns out I just missed them running off. On the lawn was the flat-screen TV, my macbook, work laptop, digital camera and a bunch of cords and stuff. The police pulled up seconds later, and Brandon told them he was taking out his garbage when two guys ran down the stairs. They had trouble getting the gate open, so they dropped what was in their hands and fled.

Brandon gave to the police what little info he had on the suspects, and we carried everything back upstairs. The doorframe was busted in, but aside from what had been taken outside, nothing looked to be damaged. Turns out, the work laptop screen was broken, but the employer got that fixed the next day.

Anyways, the police came back later that day and dusted for prints, but I'm guessing that not much will come of it. They were all very nice and very quick to respond and seemed concerned, so that makes me happy. I'm sure it doesn't hurt that in each of the three houses to the west of mine, a police officer lives. In fact, Nora next door had stepped out for lunch, and she told me on Thursday how sorry she was that she wasn't there to look out for things.

I also met Alberto later in the week, and he seemed genuinely upset about the incident. Louis, who's been in the neighborhood for years, was as well. It's nice to know that my neighbors will be keeping an eye out, and I'm sure if there's a next time for anyone in the area, whoever they catch for it will learn a harsh lesson.

I'm guessing that the guys who did this were the same ones who had rung the buzzer a couple of time over the last few days. When I'd answered, they'd had a bogus story ready. On Wednesday, they must have assumed I wasn't home when I didn't answer the buzzer. Funny thing is, most of the time I don't even look out the window or answer the bell unless I'm expecting someone, so the biggest question I have after the incident is what would have happened had I been home and on the phone or otherwise ignored the bell?

Probably it's best to not think about it.

So now the door frame is replaced, with a new door, a stronger frame, and no longer a way for anyone to get a crowbar in between the door and the frame around the deadbolt. I still need to do some work on the wall and frame to make it look like it used to, but I feel just as safe now as I did before last week. Having ADT helps, of course, as do the wonderful neighbors I have.

I'm sure I could do more to secure the place, but I don't want to live in fear or be overly ridiculous about something that probably won't happen again. What I do know is that it could have been worse, and that I still really like living in East Garfield.

Ultimate update

I'm skipping league tonight, and instead going to Schuba's for some kind of hip-hop event that a friend invited me to. Actually, I'm not skipping league tonight for that, since two of my right toes are still quite purple from the head-on collision they had with a defender's leg last weekend. Biking is no trouble, but wearing shoes makes them hurt a bit, though today it looks much better than the last few days.

When I last wrote, it looked like I'd be playing with Off in the Morning a few times this summer. Instead, it will be only this Saturday and then a couple of times in September. But, July has made up for that with two straight weekends of Ultimate on the beach. Let's not discuss summer league, in which our team has three wins in sixteen games. Ouch.

SandBlast was held here in Chicago on the 18th and 19th. Though we didn't get any returning Brits or Canadians from last year, we stuck with the Empire Strikes Back team name while recruiting players from Boston, Denver, Las Vegas and Chicago. Only a few of us had really played together before, and we started the tournament seeded 14th of 16 teams.

Pool play was disappointing, as we lost all three games, by a total of eight points. If not for some easy drops and mis-timed throws, we could have (and probably should have) won all three. Our last game of the day, the first of bracket play, ended with an 11-7 loss to the # 3 seed. In all four games we were down no worse than 7-9 but couldn't finish it off.

But, the Star Wars bobbleheads, Pimm's and strawberry gin and tonics were a big hit, and we could really tell how much we were improving throughout the day.

On to Sunday, and after a sluggish start against my old team, we went up 9-6, but proceeded to give away three straight points before finally winning on a bladey hammer. With the "learning how to win" part out of the way, we proceeded to win 11-5 in game two of the day, and suddenly we were playing for ninth.

This game was against the overall #1 seed coming in to the weekend, but we played like veterans and despite a furious comeback from MHC we held them off for a clean Sunday sweep. Ninth place didn't seem so bad at that point, though maybe our final opponents were more impaired than we were from the halftime apple pie shots.

Coming away from the weekend with only one jammed finger and one jammed toe (it got quite purple, too) plus an overload of dessert (yummy lemon bars and a blueberry birthday cake) from Cathy for the place to stay for the weekend, it was time to go to New Jersey for the Wildwood beach tournament.

(Also fit in before and after the SandBlast weekend: dim sum in Chinatown, a visit to the Field Museum to see a pirate ship, my first visit to the planetarium just in time for the moon landing's 40th anniversary, and my first trip to the botanical gardens in the north suburbs. Whew! Very tiring but lots of fun.)

SandBlast is 48 teams in two divisions. Pretty big, no? Not really. Wildwood had 380 teams across, uh, more divisions. SandBlast is 5-on-5, Wildwood 4-on-4. Four of our team had played together in Chicago, and others on the team at least knew each other, mostly.

In our division, we were seeded around 15th of 32 teams. Saturday had us playing three pool games and the first of bracket play. Our first game was close, but we pulled away to win late.

Game two was a blowout, 23-4. At Wildwood they play games to a time limit, not a score, so we just kept piling on. Our opponents were good sports about it, though. Game three was another close one, but we took the pool 3-and-0.

I forget how close our last Saturday game was, but we won that one as well, so we headed into Sunday in the top eight of the division. Unfortunately, given flight schedules, we'd be down to four guys in game one, three in game two and then just one in the finals, if we made it that far. We had enough ladies, but if we had a game three, the three remaining would have to play all game, with no subs, and one would have to match up against a guy.

Anyways, our first Sunday game was at 11am, and we still managed to almost be late. We won again, though we nearly managed to give it away. Up 9-3, we gave up six straight points before getting the last three.

A note about the rules at this tournament: any throw from one endzone to the other for a score is worth two points. If the horn blows, you play through the end of the point, and if neither team is up more than two, you play until one team is winning. Only then is the game over.

Semi-finals. Our opponents were rather jerky. Lots of iffy calls, contesting everything. And all the while, they keep saying, "it's only Wildwood", like we're the ones making the crappy calls and getting into it. One guy on their team pulled the disc so that it came straight down and tacoed. When I asked to get a new disc, they wouldn't allow it. I asked later if we were playing on grass what they would have done, they admitted they'd allow a new disc to be used. I don't get it. So they intentionally taco the disc but it's "only Wildwood."

It was a back-and-forth game, and we were down a couple when they did the taco thing again. While I was trying to get a throw off, the over-aggressive defense must have pivoted the same time I did, and I jammed my toes into his. F**k! That hurt. I hobbled off the field, and we were temporarily down to two guys. (Actually, this was the third team injury of the game. Amazing that we didn't really have any trouble until this game.)

After sitting a couple of points, I made my way back in. Down 12-9, the horn blew (okay, they were out of air horns, but we decided to cap it), and we scored to make it 12-10. Still alive! But we needed a two-pointer.

This meant that we had to intentionally move the disc backward if we weren't in our end zone, and then huck it to the other end of the field for a score. After we quickly got the disc back, I passed it backward and took off for the endzone. I'm open. My defender is a few steps behind me, and only a poaching girl is between me and the disc.

It flies over her head. I'm in the endzone. I jump and reach out for the disc.

I drop it.

Crap.

We got the disc back, and moved it forward to the endzone line, but I yelled for BK to not score. He managed to stay out of the endzone and throw it backward to me. Unfortunately, it sailed, and I didn't know exactly where I was, and it went out the back for a turnover. One throw and the game was over, but it was fun.

It's probably better the way it turned out, since we wouldn't have had much of a team for the finals, but third place out of 32 is pretty good.

After a long trip back to Chicago (only a two-hour delay on the tarmac - BK didn't get back to Vegas until the next day), it was nice to get home, even with swollen, purple toes.

Other highlights: jumping in the ocean after every game, seeing jellyfish watching shells dig into the sand and being given a disc with a laying-out Homer Simpson (to match my tattoo!). It was great fun meeting and playing with everyone, so I hope that we can do it all again next year!

Back to India

This morning I booked a flight to go back to India for a week for work. Our group is off-shoring some work, and once the team in Baroda is hired, someone has to train them. Since I've been there already, I got volunteered. Not that this is a bad thing at all; I'm looking forward to going back, but it means I'll have to miss Cooler.

Add in that Hoosier Hoedown is looking less and less likely with Off in the Morning, and that makes for less Ultimate. Boo! There's still SandBlast and Wildwood coming up, though. Maybe I'll just have to take up my sister on her offer to come watch me play the weekend they visit. We'll see.

Today it's 60 degrees outside. Sweet! It's gray but not rainy except for some drizzles earlier. I'll be biking down to summer league, wearing my leggings to stay warm. It's July 1! It's supposed to be more seasonal for the holiday weekend, so I guess that's good. It can stay away from the 90s for the next few weeks, though.

I'm wondering if I should shower before I go to the park. I didn't yesterday, but I didn't go anywhere. If I do, I'll just have to have another one after I get home, and I don't think I'm all that stinky anyways. Of course, I wouldn't be able to tell, right? Maybe I'll just make my team suffer.

A couple of other random thoughts:

• Mmmm, snickerdoodles
• I really dislike spiral notebooks. Too often the spirals get bent out of shape, making it impossible to turn the pages around. Plus, when you pull a page out, the confetti gets everywhere. If the pages are perforated, it takes too much work to get the page out cleanly - fold along the perforation or it doesn't work. But getting it to fold just right never seems to take the first time. Ugh.
• I think I'm about ready for an iphone. With the India trip upcoming, I think it would be nice to have internet access, especially for the long layovers on my return - 4+ hours in Mumbai, almost 6 hours in Frankfurt.
• I might try to hook up with some friends in Frankfurt that day, though they'll be in Darmstadt 30km away for a tournament. Maybe I can get there for a game and get back in time for my flight back to Chicago. Yes, Wayne, it is very tempting. Let's see if we can work it out.
  

Off in the Morning

We're quickly nearing the opening of tournament season, and I finally have a team to play with.  Gambit tryouts didn't work out, but I didn't really expect to make that team.  I didn't get picked to play with Skyway, either, but I think they pretty much knew just who they wanted to play with, and the "tryouts" were just a way to get people out there for scrimmages and maybe to fill in the last couple of roster spots.

I don't know that I wanted to play with Skyway anyways, as their "tryouts" weren't very well run, and it seemed more like they'll be kind of lazy with practices and drills and such.  I say, either do it all-out or  not at all.

Which brings us to Off in the Morning, a last-minute conglomeration of random guys and girls who aren't with another team but want to play at some tournaments.   I don't think we'll be practicing or anything, and we may or may not get jerseys.

I could have gone with a men's/open team, but I much prefer mixed/co-ed since the open games are much more intense and competitive.   Too much testosterone in one place.

Anyways, so the tentative schedule looks like this:

• Bloomington, IN (July 11-12)
• Rockford, IL or Madison, WI (August 1-2)
• Delafield, WI (August 15-16)
• Chicago Heavyweights (September 12-13)
• Sectionals (later in September)

Around those are SandBlast July 18-19, Wildwood in NJ July 25-26, a visit from my sister August 1, and summer league tournament on August 8.  Plus league on Mondays and Wednesdays.

The first summer league game I went to discouraged me, since we made a very poor showing.  Since then I've been back twice, and we improved some, even if it was against so-so competition.  But it should still be fun, even if we won't win much.

So it seems that after the long holiday weekend coming up, it's an Ultimate summer for me.  And I won't be complaining about that.

Finally summer

As expected, after flirting with record low temps all spring, we jumped straight into summer this week, reaching the 90s with humidity. Hey, if I wanted St Louis weather, I'd move there. I really don't like it this hot, for many reasons:

• running the A/C all day - this isn't so bad now that I don't have west-facing windows, but to keep it comfortable, the air needs to run almost non-stop. Not only is it costly, but it's loud and sometimes sounds like it's going to break. At least in winter I can just put on an extra layer.
• sleeping - can't sleep when it's hot. The ceiling fan helps, but it's kinda gross waking up in a full sweat just before the A/C kicks on again.
• you can't go outside without sweating - if I'm going for a bike ride to run errands or to an Ultimate game, no worries, I don't mind. But what if I need to go to the office for work (rare occurrence these days)? A bike ride is a workout even early in the morning, but even taking the train in work clothes and walking a few blocks gets you all sticky. Gross.
• riding in a car - I don't do this often, but the first few minutes after getting in a car? Awful.
• being sick - I can't shake a cold I got a while ago, but to do so would mean taking it easy, not playing Ultimate, not biking and being lazy. So it hasn't gone away yet.
• bananas ripen in minutes - looks like I'll have to either fill the freezer with old bananas, throw them out or make a lot of bread, but having the oven on at this time of year makes it even worse
• rain doesn't help - it poured yesterday for about an hour. The temp dropped about 15 degrees, but quickly found its way back up to 90-something, and it was much more humid. Ugh.

I know it's early, but I can't wait for autumn.

Tons o' Ultimate

Wow, it's been a while since I wrote anything. I've got a full slate coming up, mostly filled with Ultimate. Since the surgery in December, my foot and ankle have healed wonderfully. For a while, I had some soreness after running on it, but it hasn't lasted, and it always seemed more like the muscles down there being tired than anything structurally wrong.

So good news, no? Three weeks after surgery I was back on the bike, sometimes inside on the new trainer I bought (nice!). As the weather slowly warmed up, there were more opportunities to go outside, play some Ultimate, run in the park and bike more.

Through early March, I was out getting about 30-35 miles cycling per week. Funny, that seemed like a good amount a couple of years ago. Since then, I've doubled that. Even last week, fighting off a cold, I got in 45, and I felt lazy. You know how every year, athletes come to camp and say they're in the best shape of their lives? Well, for me that's 100% true at age 37.

The last couple of years I haven't been at full strength, with minor foot, knee, hip or other injuries. None has been a problem yet this year, so I've decided that I'm going to play as much Ultimate as I can. That means going out for a couple of club teams, too. Club teams practice a couple of times per week and go to weekend tournaments throughout the summer in preparation for the fall series of sectionals, regionals and nationals.

There are quite a few teams in Chicago, but I really don't like playing open (men's), so that leaves just two mixed (co-ed) teams to try for. Gambit is likely the best mixed team left in the area (others have folded), so I have my sights set on that one. A fallback option is the new Skyway team.

Gambit tryouts started a few weeks ago, with some pickup games. I didn't really know what to expect, but it went fine. I think I showed off my strengths (running, getting open) well enough. Then came two days of actual tryouts, with drills and training for specific skills. The first round of cuts came on Tuesday, and I made it to the next round. Hooray! That's really all I expected or wanted going in, but now I want more.

Over the first four days of pickup and tryouts, I think there were about 40 guys going for 15 spots on the roster. Figure that at least five of the spots are taken by the captains and guys that don't really have to try out, and that leaves 35 men for 10 places on the team.

Last night I counted 25 guys there, and with the next round of cuts coming on June 8, I'm guessing I have about a 40-50% chance of getting to the final tryouts, and then maybe cut those odds in half for making the final roster. I'm fine with that. Really, it depends on what the team needs. I am reasonably fast, can play good defense and can run all day, plus I have decent to good throws. But there were plenty of others with speed, too, and they're mostly taller than me. However, I might have better throws than them, so maybe that gives me an edge.

Anyways, I like my chances, and if nothing else, I'll have learned something about my game and how to improve it. Already I'm working on at least four small adjustments, so I should be much better by the end of the summer.

Here's a question: if I don't make the Gambit squad, do I take a spot on their practice team or still go for Skyway? Skyway's talent levels will be lower, but they'd be tons of fun to play with, and it would be weekend tournament Ultimate. We'll see what Gambit says first.

In addition to all of this, summer league starts next week, and I'm playing in a men's league the next couple of Thursday nights. Add in some pickup on Saturday, Skyway tryouts on Sunday and maybe a surprise trip to Ohio the 13th-14th for Poultry Days (with Russ and Lori!!), and that means I could be out on the field 14 of the next 18 days. Wow. Looks like I'll need to be in the best shape of my life to take this on.

Tell me if this solution makes sense

So I'm guessing everyone knows about the mortgage crisis and the bailout by the federal government?  I have what I think is a perfect (okay, mostly perfect) solution to much of this mess, but I haven't heard anyone suggest it yet.  Here goes:

Let's say you bought a house (or two) in the last few years, when lenders were giving away money and selling loans and basically making up new rules and guidelines so that anyone could buy a million dollar home without a job.  (I know, that's stretching a little bit, but not much.)  Anyways, during this time, property values were skyrocketing, in large part because people were speculating and buying for investments because no one needed any actual equity or collateral to get loans.

Once the bubble burst, and this seems so easy to see in hindsight, these same investors and interest-only borrowers had no out.  They can't sell for profit anymore, since property values are down and no one's buying.  Or at least, it's harder to get a loan and you will likely need to have cash to put down before a bank will give you money.  Imagine that.

So, defaults and foreclosures are a-comin', no?  Makes sense, since the adjustable rates will be adjusted upward, and at some point people will have to start paying down the principal on their interest-onlys.  And this is why Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac needed $700 billion dollars of our money, right?

(Note: I may have some things not quite right above, but the general ideas are right, I think.)

I have no idea what these institutions are going to do with the government's money, and it sure seems like the government doesn't have a clue, either.  I'll guess that nothing good gets done, and that they'll through with the foreclosures and end up with worthless real estate that they won't be able to sell.

Here's my solution: make some guidelines, based on location, purchase date and whatever other factors, and simply change the loan amounts downward by the appropriate percentage.

Say I bought a house in Indianapolis two years ago for $150,000.  (I didn't.)  Also imagine that for my neighborhood in Indy, it's determined that the bubble increased values by 30% on average over the studied time period (whatever that is).  Whatever my principal value left on my loan would then be reduced by 20%, with payments adjusted downward but without refinancing.  So if I still owed $115k, my new balance would be $92k.

Why not adjust it downward the full 30%?  I think at least some of the blame for the bubble needs to be put on the buyers.  But the bulk of the blame should go to the lenders, who were making money by selling ghost money.  Want to take this loan off my hands?  I'll sell it to you...for a price.

Anyways, why would this not work?  It would keep people in their houses, so many fewer people would default.  It would keep banks from having to foreclose and resell at a further loss, which would likely keep the real estate market in a downward spiral.

It would salvage a bulk of the loans that they gave out, so the banks would be getting a large proportion of their expected return.  Plus, coming up with the guidelines and determining how much to devalue each loan would give them something constructive to do.

In addition, this would likely save the government a shitload of money.  Rather than giving financial institutions almost a trillion dollars, we wouldn't have to give them anything.  Sure, these institutions would cry bankruptcy, but they'd be fine after a while, especially seeing as more people would be able to, you know, make their payments.

So how would this not work?  I'm sure I'm missing something, so let me know what it is.