Ultimyelitis

ultimyelitis: an irritating, inflammatory condition caused by the flight of a flat ball. frisbee-on-the-brain. Peter Tosh describes a related condition in the tune "Reggaemylitis":

Woke up this morning
With a funny funny feelin'
And that feelin'
Was an unusual feelin'

Inna my bone yeah
It inna my blood
Inna my toes
Coming up to my brain

After playing soccer for many years, and alternating casual ultimate (frisbee) with soccer for a few years, in 2003 I joined a masters ultimate team. Old and In the Way has a proud tradition and great camaraderie. I have suffered from ultimyelitis since. At 40-plus, I train harder and with more dedication than ever. Or maybe it just seems that way because the time is more precious now. Last year the team won a National Championship in my third year, after two consecutive losses in the finals. It's borderline trite to say it, but the way the team reacted to the losses, and the glory in 2005, taught me a lot about winning and losing, particularly within the framework of this self-refereed sport we play. The team support, the enthusiasm and dedication to return and practice in the spring and play tournaments, the story-telling, the music, and the laughing, and yes even the occasional hate session in practice, have ingrained into me a new attitude: I know a bit about how good organizations respond to adversity, and how they achieve goals. I have seen the team repair itself from bitter losses, together all the way, and how to weave talents and egos together to achieve an end. I know what victory tastes like, something I return to now and then with a smiling inner satisfaction. Next year I will return to Colorado for the wedding of one of my best mates who talked me into joining the team.

Shortly after season's end, we moved here to NZ. I had hoped the fellows would make the long trip from Colorado to Perth for the WFDF World Club Ultimate Champs in 2 two weeks in time, but it was not to be. So I have joined the Kiwi masters team, Tuatara, for the trip to Perth, and it has worked out great. I now know a new community of players. There are 3 masters players in Dunedin, and 2 women's players, all going to Perth. Our little corps has trained together with dedication through the cold dark winter and now into the spring, and I can now call them a great group of friends. We've traveled to Wellington for three weekend training camps, and are on the cusp of leaving for the tournament in Perth in two weeks time. Before that, in a few hours time and back in the US, OAITW starts its title defense in Florida. I'm not sleeping too well these days--the inflammation is flaring up.

Somebody get me a doctor.

Serious Gamboling

Over the past year, we've encountered plenty of sheep, needless to say, and it's not uncommon to drive slowly around and through a flock whilst out driving on the motorway, as seen in the pic. It's now the lambing season, our first, so we are enjoying seeing the newborn lambs in the countryside. They are so cute and cuddly, and put on weight so delightfully rapidly in order to grace the dinner table after just a few month's growth. Yummy. Clay and I are fans not only of the lambs, but also their chops. Estin and Mary, on the other hand, are fans of only the cute lambs and ewes. Mary deigns to cook lamb because we need to fatten up Clay X, the micro-baby, who devours lamb chops with extreme prejudice. As it happens, Clay's attachment toy is a little fuzzy lamb called "Lammy" or "Choppy" depending on how seriously you are taking things. I doubt that X has made the connection between the darling baby creatures he loves to watch gamboling with their mamas, the favored fuzzy toy that he playfully chews on now and then, and that lamb chop he is voraciously tearing into at dinner. But I have and I secretly find it quite funny.



Choppy and Mono (Estin's pal), sunning after a bath.