The radio triangle

Saturday we went to a (half arsed) football party, almost everyone left after the first footy game and didn’t stay for the 2nd. It was kind of odd, but oh well. Then New England just thrashed Jacksonville so there was no fun in that.

Sunday was quieter, the same couple invited us again, but I declined because I really had things to do yesterday. I had bills and other paperwork stuff to do, and then had to work out some details with my uncle John in Melbourne. Turns out he can’t make my cousins wedding (his niece) so we’re going to go down there and stay a day or two with him. He’s married with 2 girls, they must be teenagers by now. It’s possible that I haven’t seen him for 10-15 years, I can’t remember precisely. He’s a big cricketer, so I am really looking forward to catching up as an adult now. In fact, he can’t make the wedding because his cricket team is in the Finals, and in his competitive league if you drop out, you could be out all season. His wife also has things to do.

I also talked to my dad some yesterday to work out plans. He’s taking all of February off, and might be joining us on our entire trip. He’s unsure, as he lives in a small town and is the only licensed printing press operator. He’s been given the time off, but is still essentially “on-call”, so if he is called back quickly he wont join us. If not, he probably will.

As we’re now going to do that, I need to research rental cars that will fit the five of us, 3 adults and 2 kids. That means we need to get a pretty big car. I tried to do it at home, but dial-up is so painfully slow, especially with these high graphic websites like the rental car sites.

Oh, funny story. So, I was listening to the cricket on internet radio the other night. I was laying on the floor in my office, concentrating on the audio. Jenifer was on the futon in the office reading or something, the two boys were playing. Suddenly the commentators read out an email:

Commentator 1: We have an email from a listener in Durango, Colorado.
Commentator 2: Durango? Never heard of it.
Commentator 1: His name is Michael and he plays in the Colorado Cricket League, and thanks us for the coverage of the cricket. He writes – I am listening to the cricket while my American family wonders what the hell I am listening to.
Commentator 2: There’s cricket in Colorado is there?

And they read a little more from my email talking about the cricket over here. Ok, so when that came on I was like, “Jen! Listen, they’re reading my email!”

You’d think that would be the end of it. Oh no, I get this email the following morning from a fellow Australian who lives in Fort Collins and also plays in our league. In fact, he’s one of the founders some 20 years ago.

Mike,
I was quietly enjoying listening to the commentary of the exciting last stages of the third test when the commentators read out an email from this wacko in Durango who said that his family couldn’t understand why he would listen to such goings on. Well before you name was mentioned I knew it could be nobody but you. Now you’re famous! Good plug for the CCL too.
Mike.

So that cracked me up. But it gets even better. My dad calls me, he was busy working listening to Grandstand on the radio while he works. In Australia you often don’t listen to music as you work, you listen to the cricket. As cricket is an all-day sport, it’s a perfect fit to listen while you work. When they said they had an email from Colorado, my dad joked with his co-workers that it was probably his son. He about flipped his lid when they read my name and that it was his son they were talking about! I guess it made his day. This small world of ours huh?