Saturday With Our Romanian Friends

Saturday, May 9, 2020

Day LXI of my International Coronavirus Lockdown was a relatively good one.

It started with a good two hour Zoom meeting discussing Offensive and Defensive Line play with . . .

. . . our friends with Romania's

Cluj Crusaders

It is always good talking American football with them.

I was still dealing with limited mobility today. The intense pain in my lower left leg are mostly gone but there still remains discomfort when I put weight on my left foot.

Wasn't My Left Foot a movie?

On to news from the net . . .

The Skorpions lost in the Quarter-Finals

of the FIDAF Madden Tournament

I do not know the final score of that game against the Torino Gaguari but at least the Skorpions lost to a club that made it to the National Championship game against the Modena Vipers.

Presidential

Maybe not so much in today's America

Both sad and discouraging.

Resting My Leg

Friday, May 8, 2020

Day LX of my International Coronavirus Lockdown was a quiet one spent at home mostly reading and resting my sprained ankle.

Too bad because it was a perfect day for a good walk in the neighborhood.

On FaceBook today I posted my 60th and final Coronavirus Song-of-the-Day, it was time to move on and I was running out of songs

We did have another of our Zoom coaching clinics in the morning.

Reedley College HC Eric Marty

gave a fine talk on the

"Boot and Sprint Out Passing Game"

Perusing the net brought these results . . .

Our good friend Alejandro

looks to be playing another season of

Guadalajara Stings football in Spain

The 2020 Los Angeles Rams

schedule was announced today,

Coronavirus permitting

It will be interesting, and probably painful as well, to see what the ticket prices will be as the Rams move from the venerable Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum to their new SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.

 It was nice of the Skorpions

to give a shout out to Laurie

Somewhat true . . .

. . . 100% TRUE!

A Scare and a Birthday

Thursday, May 7, 2020

Day LIX of my International Coronavirus Lockdown was a bit harrowing and a bit of a celebration.

Let's do the harrowing part first.

 A Coronavirus caused empty office

at Ventura's Grossman Imaging Center

The story of my mysteriously injured lower left leg got more bizarre today.

Heeding the advice of friend Susan D'Antuono who is a retired nurse, I saw my physician, Dr. James Sands in Ventura at 8:30 a.m.

After thoroughly checking to see if I had a human form of torsion bar suspension in that appendage, Dr. Sands concurred that I had somehow sprained my ankle in my sleep Sunday night.

Still, given my Coronavirus Lockdown imposed sedentary lifestyle the last two months combined with my age, a blood clot was still a possibility.

This was a possibility that we both wanted to address.

Thus at 10:45 a.m., I was down the street at this imaging center to go through a test for blood clots.

It was NEGATIVE!

So, yes, I sprained my ankle while sleeping . . .

GETTING OLD IS

NOT FOR THE WEAK!

The Ventura Freeway was

traffic light on the way home

I stopped at Camarillo's Ralph's Supermarket to buy a few supplies.

 They were not kidding about

the shortage of paper products

Now for the good part of the day, Laurie's birthday!

A small birthday cake, wine,

flowers, a dinner home

delivered from Ric's Restaurant

was the call tonight

The "Cuban Inspired Ham & Swiss" had nothing to do with Laurie's birthday but I just had to buy it.

Getting video calls from Andy, Jenn and Kevin in Las Vegas plus a hilarious one from the Murphy Clan was good for her spirits.

Having Michael, Vanessa, Jacob and Mary come over for a Social Distanced celebration was also quite uplifting.

Happy 29th Birthday Laurie!

A Day With Some Worry

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Day LVIII of the International Coronavirus Lockdown started with my lower left leg still in pain but not as much as yesterday which was a good sign.

I thought.

Then I got a message from blog

reader and longtime friend

Susan D'Antuono who is a retired nurse

After listening to her learned counsel, I called my doctor in Ventura and got the first available appointment at 8:30 a.m. tomorrow.

Better safe than sorry.

I spent a long time today working

on a Power Point presentation for

our Europe Warriors project

We can always use more financial and moral support as we prepare, Coronavirus willing, for three more Europe Warriors games at the end of 2020.

If we get the green light from the Health Departments in three countries, we'll be on the field in November and December.

Our tentatively scheduled Europe Warriors games in 2020 are:

U19 Warriors playing in Wroclaw, Poland on Nov. 22nd.

Women Warriors playing in Barcelona, Spain on Dec. 5th.

Senior Warriors playing in Guadalajara, Mexico on Dec. 20th.

Our new customs during the

Coronavirus Lockdown

Wish me luck at Dr. Sands' office tomorrow.

Margarita Tuesday

Cinco de Mayo, 2020

Day LVII of my International Coronavirus Lockdown was a painful one.

The mysterious pain in my lower left leg got worse today. I spent most of the day laying or sitting down with my leg elevated.

I still have no idea what is going on and if gets worse tomorrow, I may head up to Ventura to see my doctor.

Despite my ills, it was a day of celebration . . . 

. . . as Grandson Jacob reminded me

Laurie made margaritas to go along with an excellent tacos and taquitos dinner with lots of salsa choices.

It was a maximum effort on her part during these less than celebratory time.

 I'm thinking about doing this for

the next 30 days, what do you think?

I hope that you had a fun day today!

A Predictable Monday

Monday, May 4, 2020

Today, Day LVI of my International Coronavirus Lockdown, was yet another calm day at home.

On a down note and for no apparent reason, I awakened with a great pain in my left arch and ankle, a sure sign of old age catching up to my chiseled body.

Damn.

Meanwhile, in Italy . . .

The 2020 FIDAF Madden Football

Tournament Playoffs began with the

Wildcard Round

Can Coach Filippo bring our beloved

Skorpions one step closer to a title?

It was the 13-3 Varese Skorpions, #2 in the AFC North, against the 9-7 Chiavari Predatori GdT, #1 in the AFC South.

 The Skorpions led from wire to wire

Varese's impressive 41-6 victory today moves the Skorpions, now 14-3 on the season, into the Quarter-Final Round against the AFC North Champion Torino Giaguari (14-2).

I had more video calls with Jacob and Mary today.

It started out

somewhat normal but . . .

. . . digressed throughout the day

We ALL need to get out of the

house sometime soon!

Laurie and I still plan on lagging behind any announced easing of California's quarantine rules for at least two weeks to see how things play out.

We continue to maintain our "Err on the Side of Caution" policy when it comes to the Coronavirus.

 Laurie constantly reminds me

about this law and it implications

in 21st century Casa Contreras

Then there was this news today

as if things were not crazy enough

May the Fourth be with you!

A Lazy Sunday

Sunday, May 3, 2020

Day LV of my International Coronavirus Lockdown was fit for a slug.

So I was.

Thus, not much to report today.

The highlight of the day was

a phone call with grandson Jacob

He was using some of those crazy phone apps to change his appearance into a God knows what creature.

The Italian FIDAF Madden Tournament

playoffs are starting

Varese Skorpions (13-3, AFC North #2)

vs.

Chiavari Predatori GdT (9-7, AFC South #1)

The winner of this Wildcard Game will play the Torino Giaguari (14-2, AFC North #1) in a Quarter-Final game.

Go Skorpions GO!

A Nice Saturday

Saturday, May 2, 2020

Saturday was another Chamber of Commerce day in Camarillo and Day LIV of my International Coronavirus Lockdown.

 One of the Skorpions posted this

picture of the entrance to Skorpion Field

Looks like it was a BEAUTIFUL day for American football in Varese.

Oh, what might have been . . .

I spent much of the day reading

about the life of Michelangelo Buonarroti

Good point from the net

Spain's Guadalajara Stings

declared that they are a family affair

Guadalajara is located near Madrid and provided me with one of the most rewarding experiences of my coaching career.

Go Stings GO!

I had a weird phone call

with grandson Jacob today

One of two good works of art

on my two mile walk around

the neighborhood tonight . . .

. . . and the other

My favorite sight though was a hop scotch game drawn in chalk on a sidewalk.

Normally hop scotch has nine squares.

The one I saw this afternoon had THIRTY-SIX.

Camarillo can be wacky that way.

May Day, 2020

Friday, May 1, 2020

May Day, 2020, was also the Day LIII of my International Coronavirus Lockdown and a good one at that!

As has been the case, the day started with yet another Zoom coaching clinic.

Coach Martínez is the WR Coach

for high powered UDLAP in Mexico

Universidad de las Américas Puebla (UDLAP) is one of the powerhouse programs of American college football in Mexico located about a two hour drive southeast of Mexico City.

Our Europe Warriors coaching staff had the chance to spend a few days observing their program in August, 2017 after our club played against the UNAM Pumas in Mexico City's Olympic Stadium.

We were all highly impressed by every facet of Head Coach Eric Fisher's program.

 Coach Martínez did a great job

detailing the fundamentals of WR play

Since May Day is a day of unity for workers throughout the Communist world, I opted to make Laurie dinner tonight as a thank you for all she does for us.

Rigatoni it was with my sauce full

of secret ingredients

The red wine was not one of them but maybe it should have been.

Voilà,

Dinner is served!

 Gelato for dolce was a MUST!

Half Stracciatella and half Strawberry Balsamic . . .

YUM!

After dinner, and a lot of good red Rioja wine from Spain, we sat in the living room listening to music.

For me, music often transports me to other lands as they trigger fond memories from our various travels.

The Playing for Change version

of Guantanamera flooded us both

with the joy of our April, 2017

trip to Cuba

It was May Day after all.