Streams of Consciousness

When putting together our itinerary, and researching how and when I would get from San Jose back to Kansas City, I discovered that the Pirates would be playing in Denver during the weekend of my return.  So, I figured, why not?!  I might as well fly through Denver on the way home, stay a few nights and catch a few games as a nice way to wrap up my sabbatical. For some reason, I could not sleep on Friday night/Saturday morning.  I had to be on the shuttle from the Hilton Garden Inn to the airport at 4:30 AM, so around 3 AM I decided that it would probably be less risky to just stay up instead of going to sleep.  I knew I would be tired, but the ballgame in Denver didn't start until Saturday night, so I would have time to take a nap.  I lugged my bags down to the shuttle around 4:15 AM.  Some guy noticed my statistics book that I had bought from the Stanford University bookstore, and he suggested to me that we all have a lot to learn about Baysian statistic...

After staying awake until 4 AM Saturday night, I slept until 12:00 noon.  I debated on whether or not I wanted to go to the baseball game, and in the end decided that I shouldn't pass up the opportunity to see another Pirates game.  Looking around the room, I realized I was out of clean underwear, so it was time to go commando.  The game started in the middle of the afternoon, so prior to walking over to Coors Field, I walked down the 16th Street Mall.  I was in search of an additional duffel bag for my accumulated luggage.  I found a nice outlet store where I found a cheap Nike bag, so I purchased it along with some cologne.  On my way to the stadium, I bought a club-level ticket from a scalper for $40.  The game did not go well....again.  The Pirates got on the board first, and I got to see Pedro Alvarez hit a home run early in the game, but a series of walks and miscues allowed Colorado to take a 3-2 lead by the bottom of the 8th.  Uninspi...

I rode the shuttle from the downtown Westin to the Denver airport for an early flight.  After 30+ days away, and nearly a week since my family had left me, I was ready to go home.  I was too exhausted at the time to do much reflection on how the previous month unfolded.  I would do that after being home for a few days, and really over the course of the next year.  It was a short flight from Denver to Kansas City.  My ankle was still extremely sore, so it was difficult hauling my excessive luggage around.  Once I was in the terminal in Kansas City, I called Sharon to ask her to come pick me up.  I waited for my luggage at the carousel, dragged it outside along the curb, and decided that I would go home to take a nap.  Sharon arrived, gave me a hug and a kiss, helped me load up my luggage and drove me home.  Honestly, walking in the front door, it felt like I had never left.  The dogs came and jumped on me and licked me.  It's weird a...