Baseball Season Begins

It was Monday and the beginning of another work week. This work week, however, would be much shorter - just two days given Mindy’s upcoming surgery. I had Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday scheduled off to tend to her recovery. Meanwhile, Monday’s weather forecast wasn’t pretty. If correct, this would be the crappiest day in the last 25 or so. We were expecting rain and the temperature rising barely into the mid 50’s. But each May we get a stretch of undesirable weather . The typical scenario goes something like this: after a stretch of exceptionally warm weather that lulls one into believing that summer’s made an early appearance, the weather suddenly turns on a dime. Instead of waking to summery conditions, one wakes to temperatures 20 degrees cooler generally accompanied by a chilly rain storm that seems stuck in a perpetual loop over Ohio, Pennsylvania, and lower Michigan. Checking the radar and then the extended forecast causes only more consternation. Depression soon sets in as there’s no end in sight. The pattern doesn’t end abruptly. Instead, it’s a slow process once the improvement begins. Waiting on the other side is generally the “real” beginning of what we in Ohio know as summer. I started my exercise regiment soon after 5:30AM. I felt pretty good after a fantastic night of sleep. I soon headed out into the crappy morning weather with Ykraps in tow. It was raining. I made good use of Mindy’s large green & white stripped umbrella. Blah! Finally back at home, I poured myself a cup of coffee. Never has it tasted so good. After coffee and internet I delivered Mindy’s coffee. Not long after I was meditating and then stretching. I made a conscious decision to further extend the one mile reduction in my daily run. I could feel the difference a week made in my gait. Why not extend it one more week? I am very interested in putting this entire pain thing behind me sooner rather than later. To that end, I set out knowing that my run would be 3 miles. My run went quick. After hitting what is generally considered the halfway mark the run now goes extremely fast. After all, now there remains but a single mile. Upon my return, Mindy had my scrambled eggs ready for consumption. And the fruit tray was laid out with fresh everything - pineapple, strawberries, cantaloupe, and water melon. I much enjoyed the fresh fruit. The eggs were good, too. Mindy & Bella set out at their usual time. It must’ve been about 7:20am. After a shower, Jacob and I walked to the bus stop. It wasn’t raining any longer, but it was still chilly. Soon he was off to school and I was on my way to work. As ugly as the weather was, I was hopeful that the Tuesday forecast would come to fruition enabling perhaps the first BM’er day in quite some time. I arrived at work before 8:30am. I felt very much like I never left work behind. But truthfully, I hadn’t. My on-call kept me plugged in for much of the weekend. The upside of that was that I didn’t have the usual weekend hangover (not the drinking kind). Work went well. I worked straight through, stopping long enough to get my packed lunch from the fridge. I left work around 5:35pm. I had a very short drive ahead -just up the road to St Brendan’s ball fields. This was Jacob’s first official game of the season. As luck would have it, it was very cool, gray, damp, and dreary. I called Mindy, who informed me that my dad was there, and so was Olivia. Her nephew Joe was planning to join us, too. Sounded like we’d have quite the crowd. I arrived just a few minutes later. I carried my three camping chairs. It was something like 55 degrees, but it felt even cooler. There was a chilly wind blowin’ from the NW. The game went on as planned. The day long breeze did a good job of drying out the ball field. I greeted Dad, Mindy, Olivia and Bella. Joe arrived a few minutes later with his two Schnauzers. Jacob got to play several positions: outfield, short stop, and third base. His first two at bats netted two strike outs. Mindy said later that she thought that he would cry. He never did. The other team batted much better, at least early on. After the first inning things seemed to even out. During Jacob’s third at bat he finally got a hit and eventually scored a run. He was elated. It’s worth mentioning, the little bit of work he and I put in throwing and catching Sunday afternoon paid big dividends. The changes I made to his throwing technique stuck. He made a couple really good defensive plays. Being coach pitch instructional league, they don’t keep score. Finally, the game ended. We were chilled to the bone. We took our separate vehicles home, Mindy, my Dad, and me. We weren’t home five minutes when the neighborhood kids came running down. Mindy was really tired but still mustered the energy to make them all ice cream cones - another reason that I love her so much. That made all the kids very happy. Ashley was already waiting at the house for our return. She and Olivia left immediately. Mindy put a time limit on the neighbors visit. She sent everybody home by 7:45pm. She was eager to get the kids to bed, and so was I. We stayed up no later than 9:15 ourselves. We sought another good night’s sleep.