***I attempted to post this entry a week ago, but computer issues kept me from doing so. I decided to post it in addition to a new entry.***

 

Greetings once again.  I am signing in on the morning of day two of a ten game, eleven day homestand.  The week and a half will be a welcome respite from the road as we make a push through the end of the season and hopefully into the playoffs.  The two upcoming days off will have to be cherished as well, as after this time at home we have 20 games in 20 days to wrap up the regular season, including a return trip from Northwest Arkansas to Midland with no day off for travel.  Anyhow, moving the focus from the future to the recent past, we at the RockHounds are coming off a forgettable road trip.  We pried one game each from Corpus Christi and Frisco, but in a week’s worth of hard fought games we would certainly have liked to take home a few more wins.  However, as it stands we are still in first place in our division with plenty of opportunities left to put space between ourselves and the res of the Texas League’s Southern Division.  Personally, I’ve had three outings since my last entry, running the gamut from poor to good.  The good news is that there are a few easily identifiable and correctable mistakes to be culled from my less stellar outings and some positive things to build on from my good outing.  I have also been throwing pretty well of late, which makes the occasional bump in the road a little easier to absorb.

 

Away from the field, there hasn’t been a whole lot to report of late.  Other than burying my nose into one of a couple textbooks I’ve been at work on and continuing to hop-scotch my way through the Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry, my main extracurricular has been tending to my plant collection.  I finally replaced my giant sequoia seedling and added a few pitcher plants as well.  Perhaps the development I am most happy about, however, is the germination of all but one of my monkey puzzle seeds while I was gone over the recent week-long road trip.  I also finally tied down the last couple loose ends of the plan for my trip to Slaughter Canyon Cave and Guadalupe Mountains in a few days.  Should be fun and hopefully I won’t get eaten by a mountain lion (just kidding, they are an extremely rare sight and I won’t be there at night when they’re active).  Anyhow, I suppose I should cut myself off there and leave you with the customary poetry (an old favorite of mine). Enjoy.

 

The Road Not Taken

by Robert Frost

 

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

 

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that, the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

 

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I marked the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way

I doubted if I should ever come back.

 

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.