With snow on the ground, tryouts for Owensboro Southern Little League moved
inside to the gym of Owensboro Middle School South, the 5-6 Center. These are
now actually tryouts because no children will go unchosen, rather this was more
a skills assessment. This league has four divisions; major, minor, machine
pitch and coach pitch. As seven year olds, we are moving up to the machine
pitch division this year. Having played on six t-ball teams already, the boys
are ready for this next challenge. Due to the weather, we only had the
opportunity to practice baseball once before this tryout and the boys were a
little rusty, but I would rate their performance as average.
My neighbor across the street, Rose Helwig, took this photo of our house
after a foot of snow fell on Owensboro last night. You’ll notice no footprints
in our snow yet as we are still snuggles all warm in our beds. This is the
second big snow to fall on us in three weeks. On days like this I know Sandy
loves having a home office. Like most of our neighbors, I filled my grocery cart
at Kroger Tuesday in anticipation of a large snowfall. In fact, they closed the
schools Wednesday before the first flake fell because the forecast called for
heavy rain turning to sleet in the morning then to snow after lunch. It looked
early yesterday like an overreaction, but then the snow started falling heavily
in the late afternoon. The beginning of spring is just two weeks away.
Today the boys have been with us 87 months, which makes them seven and a
quarter years old. Their lives right now are filled with first grade, cub
scouting and swimming lessons. Currently on a break between upward basketball and
spring Little League Baseball seasons, the boys have spent a lot of time trapped
inside lately by snow and extreme cold. This captivity has produced an
interesting crop of new drawings, Lego creations and model train layouts. They
have continued to play learning games on the computer as well as search the net
for “new” old television programs featuring westerns and super heroes. As
always, they are very active.
The stomach flu is going around. Davey had it last Thursday night and
missed school on Friday. Last night (Tuesday) was Benji’s turn to be up all
night vomiting, and he would have missed school today (Wednesday) too had classes
been in session. Due to approaching inclement weather, the superintendent
proactively cancelled school. This created a problem. When Davey had this 24
hour bug all he wanted to do was sleep all day, which was easily accomplished
with Benji at school. However, with Davey home on a snow day, Benji had nowhere
quiet to sleep. We solved this problem by making him a bed on the living room
couch, well away from his brother’s noisy playing. The rest did him good and he was back to
normal by Thursday.
Kim Haire Hardy has cut the boy’s hair since the beginning. I think it
has been as much a learning experience for her as it has been for them. She has
always been so patient and creative at finding ways to help them relax and be
still. One method she has used for the last few years is the privilege of
playing a train game on her phone while she cut their hair. As they got older,
the boys began paying too much attention to the phone and not to her
instructions. On our last visit, she told them that from now on they could play
train games on her phone AFTER they sit still for a haircut. Here Davey is
toeing the line by sitting like a stone statue waiting for his turn on the
phone game. Nicely played Kim!
Scouting is something our boys usually do with their mother. Sandy is a
veteran of many years of scouting. As a girl, she achieved the First Class
level, the Girl Scout’s top honor. She usually takes the boys to their weekly
Monday night meetings, but I filled in for her tonight as she had a conflict. Their
den meetings are held on the second floor of First Baptist Church’s Christian
Life Center. Pat Bowlds, their scout leader, is an extremely patient man who
always organizes interesting meetings for the boys. Tonight only 4 of the 9
boys were in attendance, and this led to a very productive meeting. I expect
these boys to have several more awards earned by the next pack meeting.
Yesterday was a busy day. We began our morning at 8:00 am with our final
Upward Basketball game. Ironically, the next thing on our agenda was to register
for Southern Little League, with baseball practice beginning in about a month.
Once that was done we had a few hours break so the boys and I drove over to
Evansville to catch a model train show. The boys love these. Trains of all
scales are for sale in all price ranges. While it’s fun to look at all of the
trains for sale, seeing them running is even better. Davey spent almost his
entire visit watching the trains while Benji and I toured the vendor booths.
The boys are not yet old enough for electric trains, but when the time comes we’ll
be ready.
