Bad Old Days

I took BART to the Oakland Coliseum yesterday evening to see game 1 of the "Bay Bridge Series" between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland A's. Aside from having an excellent transit connection, the Coliseum reminds me of all of the worst parts of Candlestick Park: cold, windy, and poorly designed for actually handling crowds. But on the other hand, it rarely sells out, even for big games like this, so I could buy a ticket at the gate and waltz on in. Indeed, there were even some of the super-premium "diamond level" seats right behind home plate available if I'd wanted to drop $225, which I did not.

( Bad Night in a Bad Ballpark )

That exhausts my desire to go to the Coliseum for another season. And maybe my budget for seeing baseball games for the year, as I ended up buying a more expensive ticket than I originally intended simply because it was available. It was a great view of the field, though.

De-Cluttering

A local junior high school was running an electronics recycling event today. For a $10 donation to their gymnastics program, they took from me two old busted printers and an LCD monitor that would cost more to repair than it did to replace since monitors are so cheap. I deplore the waste, but I'm glad to get them out of my hands.

I revisited that old office chair that St. Vincent de Paul refused due to the damage on the arms. I fixed the tears with luggage-repair tape and took it to Goodwill. Their guidelines said, "Don't give us things that you wouldn't be willing to give to a friend or relative." Well, I'd give this chair to anyone who would take it, and would keep it myself it I wasn't out of space for such things. They took it from me; again, I'm happy to reclaim the space and I hope someone is able to make use of it.