July 29, 2020

I am not working again today, in fact, no one is working.  There are no scrimmages scheduled and this is a “dark” day for everyone.  I have had a few days off, more than I like to have, and I have no difficulty finding things to do.  After my morning routines were completed, the word came down that there would be whiffle ball game at COVID Field at Pandemic Park, sponsored by Hydroxychloroquine.  Yes, I work with a creative bunch of guys and all of us are on a group text link where the chatter can get quite humorous. Someone suggested playing whiffle ball at the grassy area outside one of the casita buildings.  It is a location where several of the team would show up and play catch, or toss a football around.  Because we were going to play whiffle ball, somebody called the patch of grass “COVID Field.”  That prompted another to pipe in “at Pandemic Park” then another closed with “sponsored by Hydroxychloroquine.”  The game would begin at noon, right as the sun began to pass overhead and the temperatures were climbing to their daily highs.  A wonderful time to play anything outside.

 

I showed up at noon with no glove, no bat, just the willingness to get some exercise in the Orlando heat and get my sweat flowing.  That’s what I really wanted to do.  Sweat.  I played catch with a few guys, and then more started showing up ten to fifteen minutes later. We messed around a warmed up, some taking batting practice, trying to hit the ball with a bat that weighed an ounce. It took several swings to adapt to such a light plastic bat, and we only had one bat so everyone had the same disadvantage.  After way too much warming up we formed teams, decided on the rules and we were underway.

 

Playing whiffle ball was a great idea.  It felt strangely comfortable to be dripping with sweat, chasing a children’s ball about the grass, with no mask constraining our faces.  We are allowed to take off our masks while exercising, providing we remain six feet apart and follow any other type of social distancing guidelines provided by the NBA.  There were only 10 of us playing, and with only five per team, we were spread out properly. Like an idiot, I didn’t bring any water out with me so I was slowly getting dehydrated.  I didn’t have any symptoms, and I didn’t think about it, but when the temperature is 95 degrees along with the humidity being close to that number, it is a hot mother out there.

 

After a solid hour of gaming, we called it quits.  There was not a dry piece of clothing on any of us.  None of us complained.  We all felt the same thing.  Wonderful!  As we packed up the gear and started heading back to our rooms to shower, we couldn’t wait for the next game and started to plan for that, once we checked our upcoming schedules. 

 

As I prepared to take my shower, I realized had we not been in this bubble, there is no way in hell any of us would have played whiffle ball at high noon in Florida in July.  No way!  Who in state of Florida to play anything? That’s one of the things I like about my bubble life.  I like that we find things to do together and find joy in doing them.  And we are all competitive and we want to win, but when it is all over and said and done, just doing things with the guys we work with, and enjoying it, is the result we are truly looking for.

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As I stepped into the shower, my head began to spin and I started to get dizzy.  I bent over with my hands on my thighs, stabilizing my uneasiness.  The water was running so I placed my head under the stream and was able to turn the water from hot to cool.  I just let the water run for a couple of minutes while my body temperature came down and the dizziness began to subside. Was I dehydrated? I didn’t feel thirsty but I had sweated a large amount of moisture from my body.  I dried off, didn’t really wash myself properly, pulled a few Gatorade’s from my in room refrigerator and sucked them down.  I guess I was thirsty.  I lay down on my bed and closed my eyes for a few minutes which turned to a few hours.  I must have fallen asleep extremely quickly because I did not recall trying to fall asleep. All I had on was a towel draped across my body and nothing else.  My drapes were wide open and I have no idea if anyone saw me in this repose but I didn’t care.  I felt much better and ready to get some food into my system being as I hadn’t had anything to eat all day, only the two Gatorades that I had consumed earlier.

I pulled the lasagna and green beans, and the minestrone soup from the warmers in the dining area, grabbed a couple of milks and two more Gatorades from the refrigerators alongside, and sat down to eat.  I drank one of the Gatorades, then a milk, then yet another Gatorade.  I was super thirsty but it was a thirst that was difficult to quench.  I love Italian food, and lasagna is my all-time favorite, but now I wasn’t even hungry.  I just wanted to drink.  I got up and got more liquids to replenish what I had eliminated during the whiffle ball game and drank until I started to feel a bit ill from too much liquid in my body.  I didn’t want to eat anything, and I was done drinking.  I wanted to lay down again, this time, with clothes on.  I plodded back to my room to lie down and watch the news.  Then my phone rang.

 

I answered the call and the person at the other end identified himself as Bruce Pascoe, a sports reporter for the Arizona Daily Star, a local newspaper in Tucson.  He had heard that I was in the NBA bubble in Orlando and wanted to do a story about my experience thus far in this rather unique environment. He wanted to know if I had time to answer a few questions, much like the zoom call that I had mentioned earlier.  I thought what the hell, let’s do this, so fire away.

 

We were on the telephone for ninety three minutes. He was focused on the various COVID related protocol that was taking place inside the bubble.  I tried to explain everything the best I could, offering to send pictures of the things I was referring, along with photos of me in my newfound environment.  We talked about my life prior to being here, like the pub we own in Oro Valley, and my experience with other sports production companies, even going back to my 31 years in the aerospace industry, and me playing professional basketball in Europe.  It was a very in depth interview and to be honest with you, I couldn’t wait to read it!  Like during the interview prior, I was careful to provide information I knew first hand, even though I was asked about players opinions and situations they were in.  I kept it first person but I knew he had plenty of information to pen a rather interesting piece.  At least I thought so.

 

After we ended our call, I headed over to the spa to rest my body.  Alas, there were a few players in the water, so I turned around to not press my luck and headed back to my room to watch a few episodes of “Queen of the South” and call my day complete.