And then we're going to the baseball game

On a more upbeat note ...

Remember Bill Cosby's Special Class routine from his album, Wonderfulness? It's the one about being jealous of the kids in special class because they were always going on field trips. You know:

We're going to the zoo today! And then we're going to the baseball game and then to Hong Kong and Tokyo, and we're going to a lot of places. Yep, yep, yep.

I was thinking about that this morning because Rachael and I are going to a Mariners game Monday night at Safeco Field. It's our first time in the two years we've been in Seattle, actually our first time to any major sporting event in the ten years we've been together.

Neither of us are big sports fans.

But we're going to the baseball game because it's a new experience and because we have free tickets. Yay, Kirk!

We're making it an all-day activity, too. Lunch someplace downtown. A few beers at Pike Place Brewery, where we haven't been in months. Some poking around at Pike Place Market. Maybe an hour or two at Seattle Art Museum and then a leisurely stroll down First Avenue to the game.

Dinner will be beer and hot dogs. Maybe we'll get lucky and catch a foul ball.

Baseball is the game with foul balls, isn't it? Nine players to a team, nine innings, three strikes and the batter is out. Or is it three bats and the striker is out?

Whatever it is, we're going to the baseball game. And then maybe we'll go to Hong Kong or Toyko. One thing is certain. We're going to go lots of places and we're going to have a good time. Yep, yep, yep.

Service with a shrug of indifference

Ride the bus often enough on a more or less regular basis and you begin to recognize faces. See them often enough and you start to talk to them.

At least I do.

I call them Bus Buddies. I have three or four and it's become a pleasure to see them. They smile when they see me climb aboard, too, but one of my buddies wasn't smiling Thursday.

I'll call him Diego. He's a lovely man with a courtly manner, living in the United States on a visa. I see him on the bus on Thursdays because he is returning home, at the time I board the bus, from one of his twice-weekly workouts. He usually is quick with a smile, but a bad thing happened to him Thursday.

"What's the problem?" I asked, when I saw his sour face.

"Someone broke into my locker and took my wallet," he said. "I'm not that concerned about the money but it had all my identification. My driver's license, my green card. Everything. And they took my cell phone, too. It had all my contacts on it."

"Did you report it?" I asked.

"I talked to the guy at the fitness center," he said. "He said there was nothing he could do, said it happened all the time."

'Did you call the cops?"

"I will when I get home. The guy wouldn't even let me use the phone to call the police."

I won't even ask why someone would steal his things because that sort of thing has been going on since there have been people. We all covet things and some of us can't be bothered to acquire those things honestly.

And I won't tell you the name of the fitness center. It's part of a chain and I'm certain they have more money to pay attorneys' fees than I do.

But the fact that this sort of thing happens "all the time" at this business and nothing has been done to curtail it makes me angry and the thought that this sort of response may be becoming an accepted way to do business fills me with despair.

And I wonder what sort of world are we leaving to our children.