Buzzards go Cuckoo

There are new birds in the nest! Just when you thought it was safe for the Buzzards to stay in, the Cuckoos fly in.

By the way…as a small aside here. I have this blog as an RSS feed to my Facebook (just don't try to access this from work) page but it shows up as a note (which some of you only read it as) but it does not give any indication where it’s coming from (i.e. the blog is the source). So, I’m thinking about putting the hyperlink as the first line of each blog entry. Well, at least until somebody can figure out how to have Facebook credit the source and steer people to the BPUC page. I’m sure one of my friends (Kari, I'm thinking this might be you since you had Twitter updating your Facebook status from a train the other day) can help me with that but that supposes any of them actually read this.

I didn’t want to confuse any of the Buzzards who are reading this and wondering why I’m directing them to someplace they already are.

Anyway, back to the nest interlopers…

There are a couple of great quotes from R.P. McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest that I’m reminded of this morning as Brian fills in for the deranged Jack Nicholson. I got out of my car this morning at about 5:15 (that’s a.m for you Facebook readers) to walk into the building. I’m not exactly sure what the temperature was then but right now, as I write this (8:40 a.m.), it’s climbed to a “balmy” 25. Problem is, the winds are blowing from the NW at 23 miles an hour with wind gusts up to 36! That makes it feel like 10 degrees which ain’t Chicago but it’s still darn cold.

So, I figure “Okay, I’ve got my Ultimate gear today but there really won’t be anybody who wants to play.” I had already heard from a couple leaving the pitch yesterday that stated “for the record, I’m not playing tomorrow.” Thanks Todd for the heads up. You’re to be commended on your relative sanity. Unfortunately, that cannot be said of all your teammates. This is where McMurphy, a.k.a. Brian comes in.

Email at 8:03 – He wants to know if I’m calling a game for today. Or as McMurphy would have said “Which one of you nuts has got any guts?” Here’s the thing, it’s sometimes easier to ignore or assuage one loose cannon with misplaced bravado. But see Brian’s smarter than he looks, he’s got 3 other nuts with him already committed to play when he emails me (Jeana, Doug & John…you better show). Did I mention John's first two games with us will have been yesterday and today? That’s half the game right there and my obligation is to only come up with 3 more players assuming I’ve been guilted into going out myself (this is not one of the club leader perks they tell you about when you take this job).

And see I already know there is at least another one out there because Paul came out in shorts yesterday! He told me something the other day about family ancestry being tied into some Nordic fishermen or some such crazy story. Meanwhile I’m left thinking “I must be crazy to be in a loony bin like this.”

Brian chirps in a few minutes ago with another co-conspirator in Dennis and all of a sudden we’re at 7 and I have this awful feeling we’re actually going out to play today. I’m envisioning discs cracking in pieces when and if they actually land after getting caught up in the wind.

I think I’d rather face Nurse Ratched “You know Billy, what worries me is how your mother is going to take this.”

“P-p-p-please d-d-d-don’t tell my m-m-m-mother.”

Crap! There’s a positive response from Brad, now I’m going to have to send out the “Game On” email. Have the clinic standby for frost bite patients after lunch. There’s 8 flying over this Buzzards’s nest!

A slapdash kind of game...

There was indeed slapping and dashing going on yesterday…and kicking apparently. Some of the kicking was legal; I was actually able to kick block a pass which I will try from time to time when I don’t really feel like bending that far. The other kicking was compared to mule-like activity so I’ll assume there may have been some physical contact involved which, by the way, is not legal.

Apparently there was also some mocking going on when I explained that double-teaming was also not legal (even when you are down a player). The mocker in question shall remain nameless but he’s the one with the accent. George (so much for nameless) despite your incredulity there are, in fact, a set of rules for Ultimate and a (some would argue more than one) ruling Association. I’ll remind folks or tell them for the first time about the Ultimate Players Association where you can find all things Ultimate. For a small fee, you can join up which will allow you to play in most organized leagues and tournaments should you find yourself wanting something to supplement your daily fix with the Buzzards. In fact, I just got my renewal notice in the mail a couple weeks ago…it’s next to the Comcast bill. If this economic crunch starts to hit me too hard and I have to decide between the two, I’m sending in the UPA renewal and turning off cable and internet.

Now back to yesterday’s game. Did I mention it was a bit sloppy? We had another great turnout though with 6’s when Jeana finally got away from her office and came out to even up the teams. By that time though, we, on the gold team, had already gotten ourselves into a bit of a hole. When I say hole, I actually mean multiple holes that seemed to be in our zone defense. Green managed a couple of nice short pass drives up the field for scores.

The slapping going on yesterday actually looked to be the result of some nice hustle. I thought we had people hitting each others arms and wrists (and ears?) as they were both going up for passes. And that kind of “incidental contact” seems to be generally okay with most of the Buzzards. In contrast to the just running through somebody because you're too slow (re:lazy) to get around them and front them on defense.

I was having some pinnie color recognition problems yesterday. On one early drive I threw a pass to the corner of the end zone that I thought I had gotten close enough to Jason that he should have caught it. Just when I was about to yell something about the lack of hustle, I realized we didn’t have the same color on. Ooops. “Hey Bill, you’re gold” Bob reminded me as we turned around after the turnover.

We got an unexpected visit from Kelly yesterday. Taking a break from the job search to concentrate on things much more important. Great to see you yesterday KG! And even though you gave a disclaimer when you got out there about not having played in “months” I saw you make several nice plays, including one really good defensive block.

But most of us noticed our own lack of execution yesterday…When I tried to pep talk gold one trip back down the field with “Okay, here we go, now we’re going to start showing them something!”

Matt replied “Does that mean you want me to leave the field? I just want to know now before I run back down there.”

Todd remarked after the game “I know I saw at least 2 discs coming straight for my hands that somehow did not wind up there.”

And Paul told me on the way back down the field after another score “You remember how yesterday we were saying what a great game it was? Today…not so much.”

“Yea” I conceded “but it still beat being in the cube.”

And you know, you all are just crazy enough that when I think we might take a day off…you know for the temperatures in the teens with the wind chill kind of days….like TODAY! I get an IM from Brian saying “Hey, we’ve got 3 (Doug, John & I) in my office ready to go today.” And I give in and send out the invite, finding two more immediate replies to take us up to 6 already.

Sloppy or not, we’re headed to the pitch.

Pull!

Muddy Monday

We’re only 2 weeks into January and really have hadn’t a long stretch of challenging winter weather but I’m encouraged by our 3 games and 39 people we’ve had come out so far. It was a great game of 7’s today. Welcome back Scott, good to see you. Soccer and basketball took the day off and we also got Doug and JQ. And while Leroy finished up his winter “break” at work with the Coast Guard last week, Carolyn is still with us as George Mason apparently doesn’t believe in school in January. Now that’s a J-term I can appreciate.

The pitch was a bit muddy today…I guess. I came into the locker room though having to carry my shoes in a Ziploc because I had played yesterday in Richmond on a completely grassless bog where my cleats were essentially useless but I wore them anyway and there was a coat of dried mud on them to start today’s game. But many of us were also in it today. I saw Carolyn diving for a catch across the end zone…or maybe that was the defensive play where she and Bridgette looked like a snowball picking up size as it goes downhill when they both hit the ground in pursuit of one throw. Jason fell straight back on another throw that was surely headed into his hands even though he was the defender. And so much so that Todd had stopped covering the deep guy and gold team got the first score of the game on a broken play.

Not all of us saw that play though. Remember the bit in the email this morning when I called the game about trying to start a few minutes earlier than we have been? Well, Brad apparently thought that was a personal affront to his civil freedoms and decided to not come out until 15 minutes later. So we, on the green team had taken our extra player advantage in George, the other late-comer, and didn’t do much with it.

It actually looked like we were gaining some reasonably approximation of a zone defense on a few plays as Paul was hustling up to get some good cup defense set. And it worked well for a while…or on some plays I guess. By the way…I noticed Mike that you were trying to exercise the “Phil” rule and swing the disc around hitting people on the arm to show that they might be in your “pivot zone”. A little clarification here may be in order. When you have a 6-foot plus wingspan or you’re able to pivot the length of a small child, you cede some of your privilege to that foul call. The defender gets to come close to you and you’re probably better off trying garlic, really strong onion or flatulence if you want to ward them off. We’re not letting you hit people with the disc anymore so just throw it already.

Brian seems to have ironed out most of the kinks of that reverse discus throw of his. It’s amazing what you can adapt to when you’re injured I guess. Now that Scott is back I can shift my missing Buzzards attention to other people. Eli, where in the world are you? I keep getting “No” responses from Tim. So much so that I wonder if he hasn’t set up an “Out of Office” rule on his email to anything Outlook sees from me. And Tom we haven’t seen you in a while though I did notice that you had RSVPd for Friday’s game which didn’t happen.

Okay everybody, don’t pass by too many opportunities to play. The weather could turn anytime (check out the 10-forecast…Thursday may be the turn day this week) so let’s take advantage while we can. Great, great turnout today!

http://bpuc.blogspot.com/

Buzzardgate 2009

So I’m thinking I might try and get sponsorship for the 2009 Buzzards Point Ultimate Club from Backpacker.com, REI, or even Garmin. A good 20 minutes of our lunchtime game yesterday was spent getting to and returning from the pitch. Rumors had been rumbling for a while about the pedestrian gate closure on McNair, presumably to warrant the months of new construction that produced one big new shiny gate 5-6 blocks up the street.

Early yesterday there were conflicting reports of the gate status as the game email was sent out and responded to and our 8 requisite players had all responded by about 0830. At 0908 I sent out the “Game On” email with a disclaimer about how we would actually have to access Ft. McNair. But quickly Brad responded that he had actually walked through the gate and Paul sent another email saying that he could “see” that it was in fact open at that time.

Well, first of all, what in the world is Paul doing with a window office! Secondly, Brad’s claims notwithstanding there were actually some emails and Special Notices that the gate was in fact closed. It’s possible, we thought that Brad could actually have been asleep when he thought he came through the gate this morning. I mean he even admitted that sometimes he could walk to work almost as fast as he could peddle to work when he took his bike. Huh?

So, with an email from Jeana (more on her and her credibility to discern gate status later) saying that she had heard the gate was now closed we were all pretty much up in the air as to how we’d get to the pitch. But the important thing is that we were going to play, after 2 days off during windy, rainy, sleety and otherwise perfect Ultimate weather. So with positive replies…and note these are in chronological order… from Jeana, Bob, Paul, Phil, Kevin, Jason, Brad, and finally Todd we readied for the game. Oh, by the way, Jeana, who we may be calling “Gatekeeper” from here on out sent an email saying “I may be a little late” with the obligatory sad face emoticon. Operative words here… “little late”.

About 1120 I got down into the locker room to find Phil, Paul, and Brad already there and almost changed. “Wow, you guys are early” I remarked, noting I’m usually the first one down there.

“We thought we’d get an early start, the gate is closed” explained Phil.

“But Brad, I thought you walked through it this morning?” I replied, somewhat surprised.

“Yea, I thought I did too” Brad deadpanned as he sincerely seemed to be questioning his own recollection of his arrival at work that morning.

“Fair enough” I said and began to put on my several layers for the game as it still seemed to be a bit windy and cool. “See you guys out there.”

“I’ll grab the bag” Brad said as he headed out to hopefully pass through a gate…again.

Bob and Todd came in shortly and I explained to them the gate situation. And we changed and made our way up 2nd St. about half a mile and then backtracking through the gate and over to the field for another quarter of a mile. Listen, it’s not a long walk but it was easily and extra 10 minutes both ways.

George wound up wandering out to join us and we had 9 to start the game and were waiting for Jeana to come out and balance the teams so Kevin headed over to Gold when we was the last one out and created the extra player situation. He joined Phil, Bob, George, & the phantom gate passer Brad.

I stuck Todd with the vertically challenged team of myself, Paul and Jason and after staking out what seemed to be the least swampiest area of the parade field and walking off a close to official length field for the first time in weeks we pulled to start.

Our green team had some initial problems defending some longer passes and Todd decided to drop back, play safety and see if he could bat down a few of those. We continued to give up more than we got and decided to accept the extra player flopping teams option. Brad came over to Green after Gold’s third or fourth consecutive score. Then Green began to gain a little traction as Jason came up with some improbable catches by continuing to hustle on plays and caught at least 3 deflected passes and then a 4th that just seemed to drop into his hands on the goal line on one play.

But George was also having a MOB-type game (oh wait, sorry, that title doesn’t exist anymore) and came up with several impressive one-handed grabs over the green team of “giants”. Todd had to leave a little early as his office had decided to invite him to a 1300 meeting on his way out to the field and considering the newer, longer trek to the pitch, needed to run back.

The green team took a major hit to their average height. Now, with just Brad, Paul, Jason and I coming in at about an average of 5’ 7” we finished off a game in less than impressive fashion. There were complaints that we didn’t get a “last 3” call and instead it was at 1233 a “last point” call.

“What’s wrong Bill, do you actually have to get back to work? I thought you were a Chief?” I was taunted as we picked up the cones.

“I don’t like the New Year Bill” Phil groused.

We packed up the gear and made our way back down the long journey back to the office accompanied by an appropriately complaint filled banter on our way through the new gate and back down the street. We are all sailors after all…or recovering ones perhaps.

“Hey, I thought Jeana was playing” Kevin noticed as she had not joined us.

“Well, she sent me an email saying she would be a little late” I said.

“We’re done, I’d say that’s more than ‘a little late’” …you can’t get anything by Kevin.

Well the rest of us had a good time and when I got back I found out what happened with “Gatekeeper”. Here is the transcript from our chat.

Jeana [1:28 PM]:
so much for me being a "regular"
I went out to the back and side gates. Both were closed. Denied!
Bill [1:28 PM]:
How did you not get through the new side gate?
Jeana [1:29 PM]:
It was closed
I didn't exactly feel like clamoring over it
Bill [1:29 PM]:
Strange , that's how we went and came back.
are we talking about the same gate....you know the new one about 5 blocks back up 2nd street Jeana [1:30 PM]:
I believe so. There's only one side before you get to the front gates
Yes?
Across the street from that big parking lot?
Bill [1:31 PM]:
yea, as far as I know...It just seems weird that they would have closed it while were over there. Actually, there is one gate (it looks like an exit gate) that was closed, you have to walk past that one still even further
Jeana [1:32 PM]:
there's 2 side gates?
I stopped at the exit gate
Bill [1:33 PM]:
apparently, i wasn't really paying attention too much as I walked up. I saw a "Do Not Enter" or some such sign on that first gate, kept walking up and there was the new one where all the turnstiles, building, guards, and medians are...you couldn't have missed it had you gone that far.
Jeana [1:35 PM]:
Ah. I saw the first gate and the corner of the entire block. It's so close to the front entrances that I don't see the point in its existance. Anyway, I'm sorry I didn't show up. I'll try again next week.
Bill [1:36 PM]:
Okay...meanwhile I'm sending your excuses to Bob & Kevin...expect to be teased
Jeana [1:37 PM]:
& Paul. No worries. I can take them all with 1 arm tied behind my back
Just kidding

Okay, well we got word when we got back to the office that the old gate should be opened for business again next week. Hopefully this will put an end to Buzzardgate 2009.

2009 State of the Buzzards Address

I came in this week to jeers about not having given some sort of New Year’s greeting and so, after a surprising week at work in which I’ve actually been efficiently employed I find myself able to sit down and reflect some on the Buzzards 2008.

There are 65 people on our email distribution list and by my count 44 of them have come out at least once over the last year. Listen a couple years back we scurried around for 3 on 3 sometimes so my expectations are not high. Of those 44 though I would consider about half to be regulars, or to have been regulars at some point during the year. And of that 22 or so, I know of 8-10 that I can’t count on almost daily to come out and throw the disc around. That’s a great state to be in for the Buzzards Point Ultimate Club and I sincerely appreciate it.

You know the superstition about the thing you find yourself doing on New Years to be indicative of how your year will go? Well, from a personal standpoint, that was a bit disturbing. Some travel plans and conflicting schedules left me alone on New Year’s day. I had two five minute phone conversations and said hello to a cashier at Target and other than that had no human interaction. I’m not sure how to interpret that actually in New Year’s Lore but it was crazy quiet that day.

For the Buzzards, our first game of the New Year was this past Monday and we had 16 people come out to play! I’m hopeful that is indeed prophetic of the level of participation we’ll have in 2009.

In 2008 we have been able to survive a large turnover in personnel and a rash of injuries. Let me see if I can recall most of these without leaving too many names off. We lost Lindsay who may have returned for 1 or 2 games after the New Year last January but mostly he’s been gone all year, Travis, Kashyap, MattC, KellyG, Justin all not only left the Buzzards but the Coast Guard as well. I’m not sure what that says about the type of officers this sport attracts. Some players we both gained and lost this year; Conrad, Alec, Paul, Will & MarkR. We also said goodbye to several of our hard core regulars; Hollan, Frank, Rodney, Bryan, JasonN, and EricB as well as other players of varying lengths of stay and levels of commitment; CaptKev, Lon, MattM. Finally, we also lost the Buzzards Jukebox to ridiculously intrusive internet filters and the MOB & SOTG awards to extreme apathy.

We were able to offset those losses by a great influx of players; JasonK (actually an old new player…this is his 2nd tour here), Brian, Kevin, Carolyn, Leroy, PaulS, Jordan, Mike (a couple of them), Dennis, Bridgette, Jeana, JQ, George, Brook, ErikN, Scott, Brad, & MarkW, Fred, Tim, KevinR, Roz, & Rachel. I am sure I’ve missed somebody.

Who I’ve really left out so far are the folks that were here at the close of ’07 and still here at the start of ’09 and come out regularly and keep this team afloat. Thanks to Todd, Bob, Phil, Scott, Tom, & MattP.

All of you have made this arguably the best entity at Coast Guard Headquarters and around. I have thoroughly enjoyed hosting this blog and this club. 81 entries online this past year have not adequately encapsulated the amount of satisfaction I derive from the Buzzards.

Looking ahead I believe we are set to lose quite a few folks this year so make sure you put us on your internal check in/check out sheets so we can reach out and touch the new people coming in. Keep dragging your office mates out and reminding them they won’t die those first few games and to keep giving us a try.

Thanks for a great ’08 Buzzards
~ Bill