The Walks Continue

Thurs.-Tues., June 3-8, 2021

The tale of Sisyphus in Greek mythology keeps creeping into my mind every morning these days.

Sisyphus was the King of Corinth who was known for his dodgy shenanigans and the fact that he cheated death twice.

For these transgressions, the god Zeus castigated Sisyphus to Hades for all eternity with but one simple, laborious daily task.

Sisyphus had to roll a huge rock to the top of a large mountain every day. As soon as he got the boulder all the way to the mountaintop, it would roll all the way back down to the valley.

He then had to start the process all over again, day after day after day . . .

In my goal to walk 10,000+ steps every morning, I'm starting to feel a bit like Sisyphus.

That being said, here are some photos from some of my recent walks.

Community Garden for

locals to become mini-farmers

Some of our neighbors

definitely have green thumbs

What I that?

Decorative farm implements

Meanwhile in Las Vegas,

grandson Kevin has started

his Summer vacation by reading

by the pool

Is that a Sicilian arancini

from Catania?

Colorful wind driven wheels

A tile that reminded me that what is

now the city of Camarillo was once the

Rancho Calleguas Spanish land grant

On Saturday, we drove down to San Marino to visit my Mother and my sisters.

We stopped at Laurie's favorite

dining spot for lunch in Burbank

"Good afternoon, two 'Original' Big Boy Combos, please."

She still has a crush on the

Big Boy after all these years

Can't say that I blame her, we all know that ". . . every woman's crazy 'bout a sharp dressed man."

On to the EuroBall front . . .

The Varese Skorpions did it again!

They defeated the Cernusco Daemons, the second place team in their league, the Girone B, for the second time this campaign.

The Skorpions play their last regular season game this coming Sunday on the road against the last place Legnano Frogs (0-5).

After a bye week for all clubs, the Division II playoffs will start the week of June 26-27. The top two teams in each of the four DII Girones will enter the three week race to the National Championship.

With one week to go, the Skorpions

are ranked Number 1 in Italy's DII

Back to the strolling . . .

Interesting look in mailboxes

On Tuesday I had lunch with

Montpellier, France's favorite son,

Dario Viallet

I first met Dario back in 2013 when I was coaching in Lyon, France and Dario was heading up the Montpellier Hurricanes team. He has since suspended his coaching career to run Ridge, his sports clothing company.

He arrived in SoCal Monday to continue the legwork on other worthwhile project, a documentary film.

As American football continues to grow in Europe, players are increasingly pondering the idea of coming to America to hone their skills at the high school or college levels.

The problem is that most of these starry eyed athletes do not fully grasp the intensity levels both in effort, dedication and time demanded from them every day if they make the move.

Remember, most EuroBall teams only practice two or three times a week and attendance is always an issue. Thus the five-six day a week routine mandatory practices, weight lifting sessions, meetings all year around is likely a shocking eye opening experience to the average EuroBall player.

Dario's video plan is to get involved with SoCal programs at a public high school, a private high school, a junior college, a DIII college and a DI college level. His plan for the video is to give EuroBall players solid insights into all facets both on and off the field that they will have to deal with if they do indeed cross the Atlantic chasing their dream.

I think that it is a GREAT idea.

After meeting Dario in Woodland Hills for a Mexican lunch at the local El Torito, I stopped off at Oak ark H.S. on the way home.

Our friend Jason Sabolic is the

Head Coach at El Camino Real H.S.

They were playing their first 7-on-7 game of the Summer at Oak Park today.

El Camino is in the gray, Oak Park in black on offense in the photo above.

Time to COMPETE!

BOMBS AWAY!

This was a nifty 40-yard TD pass completion for El Camino.

I love and sympathize with the traditional look of despair on the CB's face knowing that he has committed the Cardinal Sin of his position -- he got beat deep.

It was a good back-and-forth, competitive situation and I know that Jason was excited by his club's opening efforts of the first 7-on-7 Summer since 2019.

Reading Is FUNdamental!

An interesting read if you are a

Cuban-American which I am

Set in both 1958-59 and current day Havana, it follows the story of a grandmother who left the island for Miami as a 19 year old living in post-revolutionary Cuba and and her 30 year old Cuban-American granddaughter who returns now to scatter her now departed grandmother's ashes somewhere appropriately in the Cuban capital city.

As you might suspect, it was a bit more complex than this and gave some nice insights into the minds of the exiled community and those of the Cubans who never left their homeland.