Spring flowers on a Plumb Tree 

They are 2 and 0

Happily the Mundale River Rats won another game. Sam made a run his second at-Bat. First at-bat he was beaned and died at third. Watched #14 on the other team who was a right fielder, spin himself around until he got dizzy and fell down, get up and stagger all over the place, during the game. His coach just held his hand up to shield himself from seeing #14 and prayed no one hit a ball to him. The 1st kid on Sam's team to get home went to the dugout instead of touching home plate and they called him out. It's a laugh a minute . I'll think up something for my next blog instead of baseball. Just thought you would like to know.

The 1st game

Just got back from the very 1st ever game for Sam and what a hoot! A friend of mine was the coach on the other team that was whupped by Sam’s team 15 to 2. Can’t wait to see him. One of the kids on the other team ran out on the field and up to the base umpire and said “where is left field?” Had us all rolling in the isles. This was the good game field and not just a practice field and don’t you just know it the outfield had holes where the outfielders stand because they “kick the dirt”. The infield was OK but they actually drag the infield with a tractor before the game and that fills in the other holes where everyone else “kicks the dirt”. Got to get a check list for my daughter because we got an emergency phone call that they had forgotten his hat. Remembered the jock strap and cup but forgot the hat. Also she forgot the gum. Had to borrow some from another mom. I watched and all of the kids chewed gum and “kicked the dirt”. Even the girls that played chewed gum and “kicked the dirt”. Here I thought it was just a guy thing. One of Sam’s teammates, who played left field, started running off the field just as the game started, running towards the parents area. The coach ran out of the dugout shouting “Huston what are you doing, the game has started” and Huston replied “I have to talk to my Mom.” Apparently the coach was aware that when and 8 year old has to talk to his Mom he has to talk to his Mom. Coach called Time. So both teams waited while Huston talked to his Mom and in front of all of the other Mom’s and Dad’s Huston said “Mom I can’t wear this cup as it pinches me!” Poor Mom was mortified as we all burst into uncontrollable laughter and she replied “go on back out and we will talk about it at the end of the inning.” I replied to her that “it’s easier raising daughters” and she agreed. At the end of every inning there was always a group of mothers at the end of the dugout saying things like “OK Billy it time to go back out on the field so find your glove”, “Brian find your hat, you have to have a hat, what did you do with it? Look inside your batting helmet.” “Justin your not playing this inning so sit down and behave yourself. You’ll play next inning. Next inning is when the other team gets three outs and it is your teams turn to bat again. When your team gets three outs on them then you’ll go back on 2nd base. Justin! Stop throwing rocks at him.” My daughter was over there a couple of times explaining things to Sam. The next inning, Huston had closed up on the 3rd baseman and was throwing dirt on him. The coach was furious. Not only do they kick dirt but they also throw dirt? I was really proud of Sam because he actually paid attention to what was happening and what the coach was saying. Progress is sometimes measured in little tiny steps. Sam and most of the others all chewed their gum like they had 10 sticks instead of just one. Helps them to spit more. The really nice thing about the afternoon was there wasn’t one parent that was mad at their kid, mortified yes, mad no. No one shouted and threatened the umpires and no parents were fighting. Every parent there had a big grin the entire time. I love little league baseball!

It's Baseball season

I had an interesting week when my wife and daughter headed for Ashville NC to the Billy Graham evangelical conference. We are Methodists but our church sent them as they figure it is something our church can use more of. They left Monday and came back Friday leaving me with my Grandson Sam for that amount of time also. You see, Sam didn’t have school this past week and I had to work. My wife is the Superintendent of the cemetery and I work for her so when she is gone, I also take over Superintendent duties. Needless to say, for an old man I was way over my head and there was nothing amusing about it. Perhaps I should change the name of my Blog to ………? Sam is 8 and baseball little League’s are in full swing so every chance we had we practiced in addition to the organized practiced sessions. Playing catch with him has taught me how to jump again. In normal life I don’t have much occasion to jump except in such situations as “Jumping out of the way” saves my life from some wild, woman driver trying to multi-task by smoking a cigarette, talking on a cell phone and trying to negotiate the parking lot and position in the drive-up line, all at the same time. Happened twice this past week at McDonalds. The jumps with Sam are straight up in the air or madly to the side to keep the ball from rolling under a vehicle. He lacks a little in his ball throwing control. On our first practice day, I figured I could catch him bare handed because I’m good and he doesn’t throw very hard. After 15 minutes I was looking for a glove. Dumb! This has been the first I have put on a glove in about 45 years and I have not forgot very much except the value of a good jock strap. 20 minutes into the third day and he threw me a hard grounder. The rest is history. No more kids for me. On our first practice session that I went to, with the team, the coach sent home a letter of regulations, rules and expectations. They were all to remember to bring a hat and gloves to each practice session and especially games. At the last session, 4 kids forgot to bring their gloves. They are not allowed to say “you suck” or they are sent home. One of the earlier practices, one of Sam’s teammates repeatedly kicked a mother, from another team, in the shin and didn’t even apologize. I’m not making this stuff up as it is verbatim from the coaches letter. He said jock straps are required and cups are recommended so we went out and bought Sam a jockstrap with a cup mounted into it. The thought of turning around in the seat and seeing him with the jockstrap around his head and the cup over his nose throws me into hysterics. Sam’s 1st time at bat, that I saw, he hit it and ran to first after some difficulty locating the base. [I have since found out that the reason for that is that the boys all tend to kick dirt wherever they are and they dig such a deep hole that they have to move the bases out in the tall grass to keep the runners from breaking their legs and no one can find them. Yup, kicking dirt and spitting are big. Sam has now taken up chewing bubble gum] The next batter got a little hit and as it was rolling out to right field, Sam, who is now running from 1st to 2nd stops, picks up the ball and fires it to 2nd for an out.? Some of them can catch but not throw, some can throw and not catch and some can do neither. In their simulated practice games the pitcher pitches the ball and the catcher misses the ball and runs back to the back stop to get it and fires it back to the pitcher who doesn’t catch it and being the 2nd and short stop are busy kicking dirt the ball rolls by them to the outfielder who picks it up and fires it back but once again 2nd and SS are kicking dirt so no one can catch it. It makes for long practices. I’ve noticed that, now one of the coaches is behind the catcher, with a glove on, calling balls and strikes and another one is out by centerfield to catch the balls that roll by everyone else. God bless the coaches. I can’t wait for the 1st game. In our spare time we laid around watching the Red Sox kick butt on TV.

After any type of practice Sam and I go to McDonalds for supper. Sam is in another growing streak and has moved passed the Kids Meals only so far as I have to buy the kids meal for the stupid toy and supplement this with extra hamburger or chicken. Meals tend to be quite expensive. Hopefully his new baseball spikes will last the season before he grows out of them. We managed to eat all of our meals out, for the week. This made for less dishes to wash on Friday but didn’t help with the laundry and the overall dirt that had managed to accumulate in the week they were gone. Friday was a little bit tough as the plane landed at 11:00am. Oh and by the way we had to paint the master bedroom, lay new carpet and have a new bed installed [one of those numbers things]. It was a busy, hectic,week but Sam and I, two dogs and the guinea pig all managed to survive and be stronger for it. Overall it was a really cool guy’s week.

I have been a bit remiss as-of-late with my postings but then so have a bunch of my friends in the blogosphere including my little brother. The only one that has posted has been English Peace Frog. Check him out as his postings are really good. This one is great as he discusses Bill Clinton's Penis. He really knows a lot of things but his knowledge about this subject puzzles me??? While you are there read "Slime & Punishment" about his early life in Mudpie Neb. Really worth the read.

Randy got sick again so back to the vets for a complete checkup. He can't stand up without help. Vet found nothing and we figure our daughter did it with some marathon walks they took. I think it is from the, now, 4 pair of my glasses he has eaten, large amounts of wood in the fence, my grandson's plastic toys and three beds. The last one is still holding up good. $87 to find out he is healthy and doesn't have Lime disease. Not to be outdone by a dog, I headed for my Dr. To find out that: the pain in my side [I am right now passing on a great lead in for the sake of holding my marriage together] is due to unloading a 200# bin of sand that I used for weight, this winter; Way to much coffee has created my urinary track problem; I don't have cancer like I thought; my weight loss of 12# is excellent; my cholesterol level [without drugs] is 160. My charge for all of these services was $5.

Success!!!!!

I have been trying to get Hokkaidoabbey's blog on my links list for some time now. I tried 3 times and got kicked off because of a "technical error". Tonight I tried again and success! Probably was due to operator error. I don't have a whole lot of faith in my computing skills. I thought his last posting about Mudpie Nebraska was tops. Take a look!! Try my new links posting. Interestingly he was posting on this blog about the same time I was posting on his Blog. Amazing, all those miles across the ocean and we talk to each other at the same time. I thought there would be a time delay or something. Maybe crossing the International Dateline would speed things up or slow them down, depending on which way you were going or am I in the wrong ocean?

Randy lost his eyes!

Poor guy, just couldn't see anymore. 10 months old and blind, or so it seemed. Kept running into things and when we played fetch, I had to go fetch, because he could never find anything I threw for him. Seems to like the new doo judging by the way he is prancing around. Now he sees everything.

Here is the latest Weight Watchers update. Lost 0.2 #'s this past week. Not as bad as my wife because she put on 2 #'s. It is her fault because she cooked to much food over the weekend. Too many leftovers and everyone knows you can't throw leftovers away but you must eat them until they are gone. Why else would you save them??Duh! When you walk into this place, they have a bunch of tables set up that you have to walk by to get to the weigh in table and the line is always backed up so it it slow going. Plenty of time to study the various food, books and merchandise, on the tables, available for purchase. Lots of low point snack bars [good for you and the kids], special deals on scales so that you can weigh your food [?????], books on slow cooking, soups, low calorie cooking etc. Titles such as: "How to loose weight and have fun doing it"; "The skinny person inside of you"; How to loose weight and train for the Boston marathon"; "Bicycle repairs made easy". Stripping was held to a minimum, this time, except for my wife who was desperately trying to get into the minus column but she stopped when I started clapping and whistling. She came up with a new saying about me this week.. She told some friends "When he gets like this, I just let him ramble on and not pay attention." She thinks I should change the title of my blog to "the ramblings of an old man". The thin man never showed but I know he has lost 10#'s so far.

Help me I can't see! 

Randy after haircut