Summer colds suck

There is nothing worse than have time off and being sick all those days, especially in the summer.

… I can’t remember the last time I saw the San Francisco Giants win a baseball game in person. I saw them lose on opening day this season at Dodgers Stadium. I didn’t go last year and the last time before that; I had stuff thrown at me. I honestly can’t remember the last time they won.

So it was fun to watch the Giants beat the Padres at Petco Park in San Diego at a different place. This was this first time I went to Giants game outside of Dodgers Stadium since I saw them in 2001 at what is now AT&T Park. In fact, when I discussed it with my friend Eric who came with me I discovered I’ve been to every current MLB park in California now. I’ve also watched the Giants play at Candlestick Park.

But what made this game so fun was the mascot to end all mascots – San Diego Chicken. It was very entertaining, although there were two moments that were kind of scary, each involving children.

The first was a parent gave their baby to the SDC to hold on top of the dugout while the game was going on. It was cute, but you just hoped there would be no foul ball hit that way.

The second involved a skit where they get four to five kids dressed as chicks and they walk around during the inning break. I had seen this skit before and knew that they usually walk in front of the pitcher as they warm up. Well I guess the SDC didn’t warn them and the pitcher was halfway through his wind up when he saw them and stopped. Pitcher wasn’t too happy.

But the SDC was very entertaining and of course it was nice to see the Giants win.

… I spent a day working where I used to earlier this week. I was designing the Olympic special section for the Press-Telegram back at the Arco Center.

It was strange since I remember a full sports staff being there. I also had what was the entire sports area to myself. I was there for about 12 hours, mainly because I wanted to make sure everything was designed before the following day’s deadline.

It was sad since I remember what it was like when there was a full desk working and all the laughs we had.

I had a chance to get dinner at one of our old haunts, but decided it just didn’t feel right with everyone gone.

… I recently signed up for Netflix mainly to see two movies I knew I would have a hard time finding at a video store.

The first movie I checked out was the documentary “The Bridge.” One of my sisters told about when I went to San Francisco last year and walked half way across the Golden Gate Bridge. The movie told stories about people jumping off the bridge in 2004. For those of you that didn’t know, the Golden Gate is the most popular place in the world to kill yourself. The film actually captured jumpers. Some from the moment they jumped following them down and others where they just has a wide view of the entire bridge and all you saw was a big splash.

But before you condemn the film as being another snuff film like “Faces of Death” it isn’t. They talk to family and friends of those that jump along with people who were on the bridge when they saw people jump, like a family on vacation. There is another story is of a person that pulled someone back on to the bridge. One of the most memorable stories is of someone that survived the jump.

It was a good documentary, and gives an idea about what a person would think before taking their life and the people they left behind and what they think.

The second movie was much less heavy called “Zero Hour.” It’s a drama about a troubled war pilot that has to land a passenger plane where the pilots became sick and are unable to fly. Of course, everyone knows the movie by the comedy remake of it “Airplane!”

I’ve seen Airplane more than probably the average person and watching Zero Hour was difficult. Zero Hour is a serious drama and most of the dialog of Airplane comes from the movie with the jokes added after each line. I heard the lines and was expecting the punch line to come, but it never did. But it was just odd on how similar the two movies were, yet so completely different. If anyone is a big Airplane fan, give Zero Hour a look.