Nothing to sneeze at!

posted by Bill

So I come in this morning to find out 3 Buzzards have transferred that were here at the beginning of last week, another is headed for the DL with some disc issues (pun intended but really not funny for him), and another is out today at the allergist (really, I couldn’t make this stuff up Phil). Another is on leave until the end of June and I suspect is on a honeymoon but I don’t know that for sure and since I wasn’t invited…

Fair winds to CaptK, Jason & Lon!

Anyway, so you’d think we might be a little short today on numbers right? Well, not quite. You misjudge the depth of the Buzzards roster. We had another, Brook, do his best Lazarus routine and he will be back on the field today. Hollan has also recruited one of the 6 interns in his office to come out. How do you get 6 interns in one office???!!!!! And apparently he’d already finished the projects they were hired to work on so they’re really getting paid to do nothing but he could only get one of them out on the field.

At any rate, Happy Belated Father’s Day to all you dads. If you’re not one and forgot to call yours yesterday, go ahead and call today. Trust me, he won’t mind it late. Better than not hearing from you at all.

I’ve been splashing around in my new Keens this past week. They perform fabulously in the river if anybody’s in the market for such footwear. I also think I could probably take them from the water straight to an Ultimate field if the need ever arose. They have a nice cushion to them and strap across the feet well. Plus, on those days in the fall and spring when we play on the field and it resembles a sponge, I’d be right in my element and I wouldn’t have deodorize my gym bag after particularly wet shoe days.

For you golfers out there…and I know there are several that read this…did you catch Tiger’s putt on 18 yesterday? This guy was playing injured and missed way more fairways than he hit and still was able to pull off that putt to send the U.S. Open to an 18-hole playoff today. Hard not to root for a guy named Rocco though, especially since he’s 45 (right Bob?) but man, the “Cat” came roaring back on that last hole right when it looked like he would lose his first ever major that he went into Sunday leading.

Speaking of exciting golf, I fired a 3 under on the Wii last night? Can you play this interactively with other people that own Wiis? Maybe that’s the way we can finally match up our schedules Todd? You guys need to go out and get one of these if you haven’t already.

Fore!

Surviving the oven...

Submitted by Bill

There is supposed to be a break in the weather today! After about 4 days of 100+ degrees heat indexes it’s going to be a relative “arctic” low 80’s today. The scorching weather had chased many away from the Ultimate field though I will give a big shout out to a few who actually rogered up for games the past two days….Tim, MattP, Bob & Eli. Thanks guys for being willing to go out in that “Africa-hot” weather to throw the disc around.

A few of us retreated to the volleyball courts the past two days. Todd was already a semi-regular out there but Bob, MattP & I took our questionable skills to the sand pit and actually held our own. They stuck all 3 of us on the same team on Monday and we actually won a couple of the games. And, truth be told, after about the 2nd game, when we were dripping sweat from every pore and taking a much needed water break, we confided in each other that we were glad we weren’t running on the Ultimate field. It’s not even officially summer yet after all but this weather has been crazy hot!

Today though, assuming I can shed a retirement ceremony early enough, I’m looking forward to getting back out in the cleats and run around chasing the disc. Wanted to say a fond farewell to CAPTKel as he was checking out early this week to transfer. Losing another great handler, fair winds!

I also will have the Most Outstanding Buzzard (“MOB”) and Spirit of the Game (SOTG) awards to present today so let’s get a great turnout for those out on the field today.

Pull!

It's a 10!

Ten! Not in the Bo Derek sense mind you (do people still know who she is or was?) but 10!!!!

We had a great game of 5 on 5 yesterday with two fairly evenly paired teams in beautiful sunshine and in the upper 50’s. Even missing many of the “regulars” the Buzzards managed to round up a great game of …well mostly regulars…which makes me ask…hmmmm, if all the regulars came out how many would we have?

Scott, perhaps the newest addition to “regular” status found that when you play with Todd, you get rewarded for all your running and cutting generally and found himself on the receiving end of many a score yesterday for the green team. It was nice to have Eric & CAPTK back out with us. Both are very good handlers who will get you a throw if you will get open.

Jason found himself out for a 2nd day in a row (separated by a weekend but 2 in a row none the less). When was the last time you were able to swing that? He must have felt buoyed by the fact that he made some of the few good throws for our team last Friday.

Rodney & I played a little game of bump & run yesterday with some friendly contact in this non-contact sport. But with two old and slow guys, bump & run is not usually that dangerous.

Two of my favorite plays from yesterday…who threw that disc half way down field that bounced off Frank’s chest? Hey, flatten that thing out some! Also, I may have found the key to slowing down Todd…when you’re running down the field with him, step on the back of his cleats (you know the old flat tire trick from middle school?). I managed to de-cleat him wrestle the disc away and make a throw to the end zone. I don’t often get that chance is why I’m going on about it.

Hey Tom! Quick…how many pivot feet do you get? :)

On the way back in yesterday the Buzzards had their own little “Sorkinese” comedy of walking banter on this week’s visit of the Pope to National’s Stadium. Just a little good natured irreverence but no lightening strikes. I guess the “Big Guy” has more important things to worry about…like polygamy in San Angelo,Texas; Mugabe in Zimbabwe, and of course this fiasco about the Harry Potter Lexicon…we were probably flying under the radar.

The weather is going to be great all week. There were even hints of a Friday BBQ for the BPUC. More to follow if that pans out.

Let’s have another great turnout today!

Old guys holding their own...

Sunny day, new players, 5 on 4…good day for Buzzards Ultimate.

We continue to enjoy the spring-like weather even though we’re still technically in winter. Thanks to MattP for selling Ultimate to his Flag Football corps on days they don’t play. We got some cross-over yesterday as Hollan came out and joined us. Welcome! And not to blow too much smoke up…well anyway, one of the better Ultimate debuts we’ve seen in a while (once he realized 10 seconds is a long time)…dude can run!

Speaking of runners, who was the ringer that came in at halftime? Rumor has it that was the office mate (re:boss) of Scott, Phil & Kash. Well, first off, congrats for being the best represented office on the Ultimate field and maybe in fitness activities in general. Secondly, and maybe Lon, aka “39” said it best “Why does the extra player get to go to the side with the young guys?”.

Of course, the green team, pre-qualifying for AARP yesterday, of 39, Bob, Bill, & CaptK had one of their best points against the extra-manned team by shredding their defense with short passes up the middle for an early score in the 2nd half. But the extra (and fresh) legs took their toll and gold pulled away towards the end.

We saw one of the best layouts of the season yesterday by Phil catching up to a disc that looked like it was sailing away from him for a one-handed fully extended grab. Well done!

Oh, speaking of the 10 seconds…We had one turnover yesterday on a stall count and were an "open mouth words about to come out" away from a 2nd one as the gold team decided to exercise all their time yesterday…or maybe the old guys were actually playing good D. By the way, because it doesn’t happen very often and we want to recognize the participants in that play, Bill got the stall turnover on Scott.

So Buzzards, it’s March Madness time and I’m a bit of a college basketball fan so look for my invite to a little online bracket challenge. If you did not get one it might be due to a couple reasons. I wasn’t sure about your email address (if you didn’t have a .uscg.mil address I wasn’t sure about using it ~ CaptK), you don’t actually come out and play with us so I may not really know you very well and didn’t want to bother you. If you think I’ve made an error and just plain left you out, send me an email, plead your case and I’ll reconsider my invitation list.

Going to be a great day today. We have a volunteer photographer so you have the potential (if Scott knows how to work a zoom better than Shadow) of seeing your photo up on the blog soon.

Super Fat Tuesday Game Day

Was it actually humid yesterday? Seems hard to believe but in the first week of February we were all in shorts and short sleeves and actually very warm yesterday during the game. Today is supposed to be even warmer.

While the temperature was great yesterday, the play was not…well at least not for the green team who, despite being a player up for the first part of the game, was getting beaten by gold’s quickness and accurate passing. Chasing Kash, Travis & Phil around is not ever easy but when you put me, Wings & MattC on the same team…well, we aren’t the fleetest of foot perhaps. Visor & Swinny were looking for spare parts.

So, it was a good turnout. CaptK & Conrad also joined us. Brook was a no-show…though he was careful to have an email waiting for me when I got back to the cube letting me know it was the first time he’d ever responded for a game and didn’t come out…and as far as I can remember, he’s right.

I understand the game on Monday featured new or returning players. Welcome BrianT & Chris. In fact I got emails from newer or resuming players yesterday saying Monday’s game needed recovery time before they could come back out.

Today should test your throwing skills if you venture out. The wind is supposed to be near 20mph. Don’t be intimidated though…that’s why Ultimate is played with that 175 grams of plastic…it can be done. So grab a friend or co-worker and come on out today. We’ll be missing a few regulars so we need some of you other, less frequent, or better yet new players, to come join us.

Happy belated Fat Tuesday Buzzards and readers…it was a Super Tuesday as well and while I’ll probably try and refrain from making any obviously partisan political comments here from time to time I may appeal to your social conscience as a citizen. For those of you that call the metro area home, the Maryland, D.C. & Virginia primaries are next week…get to your polls.