So what to do, now that Astros baseball is over but the hot stove hasn't started heating up? Well, there's Real Life to attend to. Now that Yom Kippur has passed, it's time to build our sukkah! If you don't know what that is - it's a little temporary branch-covered dwelling we build to live in (or at least eat our meal in) for the weeklong Jewish holiday Sukkot. (If you really want to know more, check out Wikipedia.) Here's your Fan in Exile in the sukkah - walls are up, but no schach (branches on top) yet. The holiday starts Wednesday evening.
Another, less joyous thing to do in the off-season: Read about the trouble that the Astros' youngsters get into when they aren't busy playing baseball. Two in the past week, one tragic and one just stupid, and both probably avoidable: The Astros' 34th pick prospect, 18 year old Dustin Kellogg, was killed in a late night traffic accident, after cutting across 4 lanes to hit an 18-wheeler head on. The reports didn't give a reason for why the accident occurred, but it's hard to keep from wondering what might be behind this driver error. Very sad anyway, whether it was vehicle malfunction or impaired judgement. The second incident was definitely impaired judgement: Our young center fielder, Jordan Schafer got arrested for felony possession of marijuana, while puffing away and driving his car. He's lucky that it was an arrest and not an accident that resulted. It's also idiotic -- with the field wide open for young players on a team that's rebuilding, this doesn't exactly help his chances.
I'll figure out some more things to do in the Astros Off Season and post them in future blogs. Meanwhile, reply to this blog to give me YOUR ideas for how to pass the time until Spring Training!
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