Where One Plus One Does Not Equal Two

I love the rain.

I love Sunday mornings.

rain + Sunday morning = me as an absolute monster.

Basketball usually starts at about nine. Being the main point of contact, I usually wake before half past eight to check on the weather. If there is a rain that lasts past a quarter to nine, I will usually have to tell the guys (about 6 - 8 of them) that the game is cancelled.

It all sounds pretty simple and straightforward, right?

It is not.

To decide whether to cancel a game, I need to understand where each is coming from, understand their usual arrival times and then plan who to call or consult first. Some lived far to the east or north and they might have set off earlier. Others, given their usual lack of punctuality, might not be awake yet.

Imagine me sending out the first SMS to cancel the game at a quarter to nine, to find out that most have already left their house, and to have the rain stopping five minutes after.

Now, imagine me flipping the bird at the heavens.

What should I do? Do I cancel the game or not?

Or imagine, I message one of my players at half past eight, to ask him about the rain. And he replied telling that the cloud cover in the north is darker than that in the south and the winds are blowing in the north easternly direction, and that the rain should be over soon. All these time I cannot see shit because I live on the second floor of a building surrounded by other buildings.

I have limited time to make the call; the faster I decide, the lesser the chance that the players have left their house.

Or imagine one in Thomson telling you that the rain has stopped, another in Sin Ming telling me that there is still a slight drizzle, and one living nearest to the court is still asleep. Or imagine me trying to determine what cloud it is that is bringing the rain and the kind of rain, and through all that, predict the likely duration of it.

Imagine doing all the above within 20 minutes of you waking and your mobile phone going kookie on you.

I usually have gym on Friday and Saturday nights and the last thing I want to do is to drag myself out of the bed on a Sunday morning to talk about the weather. No one deserves to wake up early on a Sunday morning aching all over, to be forced to make intelligent and informed decisions and be ethically responsible for so many others.

Even if the game is to go on, I have to coordinate disaster relief efforts. We need to get people to bring newspapers to dry the courts, and ensure that there is enough newspapers at that. There was a time, we actually bought a mop for the purpose and broke it on the same day.

After drying the court, I will be praying that the rain does not return.

I fell asleep at a friend's after gym last night and was rushing back home this morning in order to change and go for ball when it started raining. To make things worse, my mobile phone was flat and I was isolated from the rest of the world. The only other sentient creature was the cab driver.

He was hardly encouraging, predicting that the rain will last till late afternoon.

The game was later cancelled but the rain stopped and it got so hot you could fry an egg on the road at ten.

What was worse was that being totally insensitive to the frustration and the anger seething from his backseat, he gave me my change of two dollars ten cents in a two dollar note and two five cents. At that point of time, I felt like bashing his face in, in the manner of Irreversible with my umbrella.

I should really take things easy. All these frustration accumulated during the lunar seventh month and the monsoon season will kill me, or kill someone one day. It is time I look for another hobby which will be less of a test on my patience.

Maybe I will go organize line dances.