It's awfully hard to do a full day's work in half a day. It's not impossible; I've done it before. But I spent most of the half day I was home yesterday getting myself ready to leave early. Then today I didn't have enough energy to keep my eyes open, so I worked at half-speed, even if it was a full day.

I'm still getting the bare minimum of work done. I'll be satisfied with that until two weeks from now, when I'm trying to get the office ready for me to be gone for a week. I told the Boss today about my vacation plans. He'll be away from his desk until August, I learned. That beats me, since I'm only going to be gone for a week.

Meanwhile, Tim, who's supposed to run the construction crews, is stranded on an out-of-state job. He doesn't bother to call me at all, except when he wants to phone in his time to I can write his paycheck.

With everyone scattered to the four corners, it's hard to pin people down and let them know what I need so that I can take a vacation. It's almost as if my needs weren't the most important thing in their lives. Imagine!

The game last night was uninspiring, as baseball games go. I mean, you always see something you've never seen before, no matter how many games you've seen. A great athletic play by a baseball player is like a kind of dance, a movement improvised to the tune of the flight of the ball. The fielder has to know how to make his glove intersect with the ball, even if he has less than a second to react. It's that kind of thing, and not the home run hitting, that's my favorite part of the game on the field.

The game is more than what's happening on the field, though. The crowd plays a part in the experience, and the atmosphere for last night's game was a bit flat. Games between the Giants and Dodgers should be the most intense contests of the whole season, but last night's crowd wanted to turn it into a tea party. There were people trying to start "the wave," for crying out loud! We don't allow that at Giants games. This, as they say, is the big leagues.

It rained lightly all day yesterday, at least here in Santa Rosa. When the bus left for the game it was pouring, and as we were traveling through the East Bay toward the Bay Bridge and Pacific Bell Park, the sky was not promising. But it didn't rain on us once we got to the park, and in fact sitting in the top level of the stadium, I was more comfortable than I'd been all day. Gray, heavy skies, but warm.

Our bus driver gave us a scare, almost as soon as we found our seats. His foot slipped awkwardly into a crevice between rows of seats, and he wrenched his knee badly. Instead of getting first aid right away, he sat for seven innings, hoping the pain would go away. Then as soon as he stood up, the swelling got so bad that he couldn't walk at all, even with help.

This was the first time I've been glad to see cellular phones at a ballgame. They're mostly a distracting nuisance, used by people who want to know if their friends at home can see them on TV. There's nothing more obnoxious than seeing a person sitting in the expensive seats behind home plate with a cell phone in his ear, waving frantically and ignoring the game.

But last night we were glad so many people had phones available. We got the attention of the Giants' medical service staff, and they brought a wheelchair to help him get out of the park. He had to hop down the stairs, slowly and painfully, to get to the wheelchair, but at least he didn't have to hop all the way back to the bus.

And another call was made to a relief driver, so that the bus could get home. Because the only way the passengers were going to get back to Santa Rosa was if the bus did. It all worked out, but without the cell phones we might still be sitting there in section 330.

I think the two hot dogs I ate at the game last night might have contributed to the queasy feeling I had all day today. I'd blame it on staying out late, but I was home before ten o'clock. So it must have been the hot dogs.