Well this past weekend turned out to be one of the worst weekends in recent memory, although there were some bright spots sprinkled throughout it. Friday I dropped cousin John off at the airport as went on terminal leave as he is getting discharged from the Marines. Good for him! He made it through 4 years of military service including two tours to Iraq; he deserves to get a normal life started.
After that Flor and I started North in the direction of East Los Angeles to attend a funeral for a close relative to her family. This was hard as it came so soon after my own Grandmother's funeral and it was her first funeral for close family. I found it somewhat difficult to remain emotionally stable when everyone around was teary eyed and crying. It was a sad evening. Making it worse was that the burial was moved back to Saturday morning and I wouldn't be able to be there as I was entered into the PBA Regional in Visalia and had plans with my own family for Mother's Day weekend.
So after a good visit with Flor's family and meeting extended relatives of her family we went back to her parents house for coffee and pastries and general togetherness before finally turning in for sleep on the living room couch. I intended on getting up at 7am and getting on the road by 7:30 so as to meet my parents for lunch in Visalia but as I went out to my car I found the doors unlocked, the hood popped open, the back passenger side window busted in and all of my bowling gear stolen! Needless to say I ended up filing a police report, which seems meaningless anymore; do they actually do anything? I don't think so; it's all just purposeless formality... and then I filed an insurance claim. After doing all this I made a call to Gary Mage and let him know that I was coming up and could possibly be late to the tournament. He told me that he could help me out if need be.
Finally at around 12:30 I made it to Visalia, with duct taped windows and everything and I waltzed into the bowling alley. I didn't get to have lunch with my parents because it was so late and I had to bowl in just over an hour. Amazingly Gary introduced my to Eric, the Brunswick Equipment Rep for the tournament and he was immeasurably helpful as he went out of his way to give me a new ball free of charge and have it fitted and drilled for me as I lost all of my equipment. He game me a Brunswick Fury. It was the only ball I had to throw for the entire tournament so I didn't quite bowl up to the level I wished I had but considering the generosity of the gesture and my performance under limited resources I was pleased. Final results of the tournament can be found here, my complete bowling stats page can be found here, and my game by game break down follows:
After the tournament I ended up heading the rest of the way to Fresno where I spent the evening having a barbecue on the Airport Tarmac with my mom and the rest of her TSA co-workers. It was pretty funny, around 9pm TSA announced over the intercom that the security gate would be closed for one hour and at that point a police officer walked up to me and without making direct eye contact said in a low commanding voice: "Follow me."
I got up from my chair and was led out onto the tarmac and around to the backside of a building where there were many airline employees gathered with much food and a big grill full of meat. I had a good time but man, how often do civilians get to eat meat with their mothers on the airstrip of a major airport on Mother's Day weekend.
Anyway, to wrap up, I ended up sleeping that night on my parents couch and going to church with them in the morning. After a hearty Mother's Day lunch at a local steakhouse I started my long trip home in my busted up car. I picked up Flor and did Mother's Day dinner with her and her family and made it home just shy of Mid-Night. Whew, what a weekend. Hopefully the next tournament isn't so stressful and I'm crossing my fingers that insurance comes through for me with the car. Rest in peace, Ramon Salgado.
After that Flor and I started North in the direction of East Los Angeles to attend a funeral for a close relative to her family. This was hard as it came so soon after my own Grandmother's funeral and it was her first funeral for close family. I found it somewhat difficult to remain emotionally stable when everyone around was teary eyed and crying. It was a sad evening. Making it worse was that the burial was moved back to Saturday morning and I wouldn't be able to be there as I was entered into the PBA Regional in Visalia and had plans with my own family for Mother's Day weekend.
So after a good visit with Flor's family and meeting extended relatives of her family we went back to her parents house for coffee and pastries and general togetherness before finally turning in for sleep on the living room couch. I intended on getting up at 7am and getting on the road by 7:30 so as to meet my parents for lunch in Visalia but as I went out to my car I found the doors unlocked, the hood popped open, the back passenger side window busted in and all of my bowling gear stolen! Needless to say I ended up filing a police report, which seems meaningless anymore; do they actually do anything? I don't think so; it's all just purposeless formality... and then I filed an insurance claim. After doing all this I made a call to Gary Mage and let him know that I was coming up and could possibly be late to the tournament. He told me that he could help me out if need be.
Finally at around 12:30 I made it to Visalia, with duct taped windows and everything and I waltzed into the bowling alley. I didn't get to have lunch with my parents because it was so late and I had to bowl in just over an hour. Amazingly Gary introduced my to Eric, the Brunswick Equipment Rep for the tournament and he was immeasurably helpful as he went out of his way to give me a new ball free of charge and have it fitted and drilled for me as I lost all of my equipment. He game me a Brunswick Fury. It was the only ball I had to throw for the entire tournament so I didn't quite bowl up to the level I wished I had but considering the generosity of the gesture and my performance under limited resources I was pleased. Final results of the tournament can be found here, my complete bowling stats page can be found here, and my game by game break down follows:After the tournament I ended up heading the rest of the way to Fresno where I spent the evening having a barbecue on the Airport Tarmac with my mom and the rest of her TSA co-workers. It was pretty funny, around 9pm TSA announced over the intercom that the security gate would be closed for one hour and at that point a police officer walked up to me and without making direct eye contact said in a low commanding voice: "Follow me."
I got up from my chair and was led out onto the tarmac and around to the backside of a building where there were many airline employees gathered with much food and a big grill full of meat. I had a good time but man, how often do civilians get to eat meat with their mothers on the airstrip of a major airport on Mother's Day weekend.
Anyway, to wrap up, I ended up sleeping that night on my parents couch and going to church with them in the morning. After a hearty Mother's Day lunch at a local steakhouse I started my long trip home in my busted up car. I picked up Flor and did Mother's Day dinner with her and her family and made it home just shy of Mid-Night. Whew, what a weekend. Hopefully the next tournament isn't so stressful and I'm crossing my fingers that insurance comes through for me with the car. Rest in peace, Ramon Salgado.
Share this page on: