Softball

Seeing as I have been in Dayton for going on 7 months we (by we I include myself Michael and SA from Pittsburg, and Akhil a consultant from Boston though the statement is probably true for the whole project team) have seen about everything there is to see in the area. As the project is getting dragged out – mostly due to client resource issues – we are trying to find more activities to keep us entertained. Due to the delays the amount of work to do has leveled off and we are more regularly finishing for the day around 6:00 to 6:30, which is nice. But now we have to figure out what to do with ourselves.

The first this we found is the driving range. We have been going about once a week for a month or so. The range is one of the craziest places I’ve seen. It’s called Utters and Putters and it is located in Yellow Springs, OH. Just as aside Dave Cheppel lives on a farm in Yellow Springs, though we have not run into him yet. Utters and Putters is located on Young’s Dairy Farm. No kidding an actually farm that has been turned into an entertainment establishment. They have 2 restaurants, a picnic area, a driving range, mini golf, and home made ice cream parlor. The driving range is a lot of fun. The heated stalls are literally in a barn that they cut the side open on for driving. The targets for the wedge are old farm tires and a couple of old grain trailers! The mini golf is also very farm themed. The prices aren’t bad either. Michael is looking into hosting a mini golf tournament for the client and the project team.

We also signed up to play on the client softball team. Now I haven’t played softball since 2001/2002 when I played on my dad’s church league. However, I can still through, catch, and hit. Which is more than I can say for a lot of the team, a lot of them are first timers. The league is coed and you must have an equal number of men and women on the field at any given time. I have to say though the women from the client staff are far and away better than the men. The consultants aren’t bad. Michael and I get by, by knowing the fundamentals, and Akhil is just naturally athletic. There is one superstar on the team but he is the husband of client staff. The coach is pretty good as well. She is a manager that is working with me on the reporting team. We only had one practice but it was a lot of fun. We may not get to play again though because they keep change the day of the week on us. If it is on Thursday (as of the last e-mail I received) we can’t play.

So if softball doesn’t work out, then our next venture is racquet ball. Unfortunately the only court we can find in town is 20 minutes away. Crazy, I am really surprised it is so hard to find a place to play racquet ball. Though; I haven’t played racquet ball since I was a teenager. We shall see.