Hop and pop..

I once worked with a gentleman who was in the armed forces at one time as a Navy SEAL team member. I was young and full of vinegar at the time and was always bothering him about stuff that a person in that line of work did.

He referred to some missions as 'hop and pop', as in hop into a hot zone... do some killing... and leave the area.

These days I use the term for when I travel to Las Vegas or even Phoenix for just a day trip.

I had one such day yesterday and will be on another later this week. On Friday, my wife informed me that she really wanted to go to a baseball game in Phoenix to see her favorite Diamondbacks play and as luck would have it they were in town hosting the San Diego Padres. So I agreed yesterday to catch the game.

I was reluctant at first to go, but then I remembered that I'm a very lucky guy being married to a woman that likes baseball enough to want to go to games. I guess I was reluctant because I had scheduled an appointment with a potential client for today and didn't want to spend the night in Phoenix. I actually didn't want to go to Phoenix because of the heat I'd have to endure as well. I also have to be in Phoenix on Thursday for an AAR meeting (another hop and pop 'mission' -- except I won't be doing any killing).

Last nights game was worth attending, I'm glad I got over my reluctance.

The starting pitcher for the Padres was working a perfect game through the first four innings. The D-backs' hitters stood no chance to that point. By the time the bottom of the fifth began the Padres had built themselves a 4-0 lead on the back of three home runs.

The D-backs first baseman hit a high towering shot that barely cleared the right field fence next to the foul pole with one out in the bottom of the fifth to break up the perfect game, no hitter, and shutout. Because the Padres pitcher had thrown nearly 100 pitches by the end of the fifth he was taken out for the sixth inning.

The D-backs rallied on a bunch of station to station singles, plating the three tying runs on one of those singles and two sacrifice outs.

The home team took the lead in the bottom of the eighth inning, and their closer finished off the Padres in the ninth. Game over.

We didn't know at the time we arrived but immediately after the game there was a planned fireworks display. I figured that we would leave after the game and maybe benefit from not having to deal with the traffic from over 36,000 fans in attendance (there were more people at the game last night than live in the city limits of Kingman). Well, because we parked in the parking structure where the fireworks were being set off from, my hopes were dashed. The Phoenix finest informed me that nobody goes into the parking structure until the fire chief gives the okay after the fireworks are over.

So it took another hour longer than I expected after the final pitch of the game for the drive home. I knew that my lovely baseball fan wife would sleep on the way home, which gave me time to put some thoughts together -- which is the real point of this post (if you are still reading).

This morning I penned those thoughts that I have about some current issues going on with the Kingman Crossing proposed interchange and the possible sale of the city owned lands on the south side of the Interstate in that location. I've emailed the word document it was written on to the editor of the Kingman Daily Miner and said that they are free to use it as a column or a letter to the editor.

It is timely to tomorrows City Council meeting, so I'm holding out hope that it will appear in the morning paper. I do plan on presenting some of these thoughts to the public at the meeting, but realize that I don't have the luxury of time to make all the points I want to make during the comments from the citizens portion of the meeting.

If it doesn't appear I will share what I have done here on little old MOCO, but I honestly hope to link what I have done instead.

Heck of a game though, last night.