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    Recent iRANTs

    Failure to fail (’cause sometimes winning is too much)

    Remember that movie “White Men Can’t Jump?” Rosie Perez broke up with Woody Harrelson and for some reason he was really upset about it. Woody reflected upon the break up by saying “Sometimes when you win, you really lose. And sometimes when you lose, you really win.” Not only does that apply to breaking up with Rosie Perez, it can also be used to describe rec league softball.

    In the city which I play softball, there are about 50 teams a night. Since the teams represent a wide range of talent (über competitive tournament squads to church-sponsored rookie teams), the league is broken up into divisions of six teams. The good teams play against the good teams. The bad teams play against bad teams. Every division winner is crowned “champion” and wins a t-shirt at the end of the season (and now you know my motivation for playing).

    At the start of every season, each team plays what’s called a ‘classification game.’ The results of that game determine which division you’ll play in. My Tuesday team has been around a long time and we’re in the upper-third divisions of the city. When a new team comes into the league, they . . . . .

     

    June 12th, 2009 | Category: iRANT, Softball | Comments are closed

    The Craigslist Deadbeat After-Hours Sales Spectacular

    Sunday night around ten o’clock, I received a call from a guy who is interested in buying our used Ford. He wanted to come see it that night –an idea I wasn’t too enthusiastic about. I had class early the following morning and was hoping to be in bed before midnight.

    “I’ll be free to show it anytime tomorrow after two,” I told him. Despite my offer, he wanted to see the car immediately. Ten o’clock at night meant nothing to him because he worked nights and would much rather see the car now than in the daytime.

    I contemplated my options. The first rule in buying a used car is to never look at it at night–it’s a no-brainer in my book. When the sun’s down it’s a lot harder to see and you might miss something that would otherwise be obvious during the daytime. If this guy wanted to look at the car three hours after sunset, that’s his business. If anything, he would make life easier for me because I wouldn’t hafta wash it.

    “I can be there 20 minutes,” he assured me.

    Against my better judgment, I relented. I knew I shouldn’t be picky because . . . . .

     

    June 5th, 2009 | Tags: , , | Category: Car Hunt, 2009, iRANT | Comments are closed

    Bargain huntin’ in the Craigslist bin

    Now that our car quest is over and The Wife has a suitable vehicle, I am in the process of trying to unload her car on some poor, unsuspecting sucker. Not that I’m trying to scam anyone–I’m very clear about the process and have no intention of hiding the blown head gasket (it’s not like you can hide a blown head gasket anyway–the car shakes like a earthquake when you drive it).

    In the past, I’ve always used Autotrader to buy and sell cars. But about a dozen years ago something called the internet got invented (by Al Gore) and launched all sorts of wonderful free services–most notably, Craigslist. Craigslist has been in the news an awful lot lately. For those unfamiliar with the service, Craigslist offers more than overweight strippers and dirt cheap hookers–you can also buy and sell goods. So instead of plopping down 50 bucks on Autotrader, I opted to try posting a free ad on Craigslist.

    They say in life you get what you pay for. Perhaps that’s the attitude of Craigslist shoppers: they figure since the ad is free, the product should also be available at a significant discount. I can’t believe the riffraff I’ve . . . . .

     

    June 2nd, 2009 | Tags: , , , | Category: Car Hunt, 2009, Complaints, iRANT, Real Life Adventures, Social Observations | Comments are closed