Rained Out!

A small thunderstorm popped up at just the wrong time last night to rain out Collin’s game.  We were going to play what I think was a pretty good team, and we were looking forward to playing them.

There’s a chance of rain in the forecast every day this week – let’s hope that we’re not rained out Friday, because Paul & Marsha and the girls are coming to watch!

A Good Baseball Season

All 3 of my favorite teams are playing good baseball this year so far.  The Tampa Bay Rays are knocking on the door of first place in the AL East after they beat the Marlins last night (an ugly win, but they won).  The Pittsburgh Pirates are still flirting with .500 after they beat the Yankees for the first time since Bill Mazeroski hit the home run that won the 1960 World Series.

But those are only 2 of my favorite teams.  My absolute favorite team is also having a good season.  Collin’s PAL Club coaches’ pitch team is now 9-5 after winning another game last night.  And against a team that beat us pretty good earlier this season.

The kids played stellar defense all night.  They also hit the ball very hard and very well, scoring 16 runs.  They started by building an 8-1 lead, scoring 4 runs each in the first and second innings.  Then, they broke it open with a 7-run 4th inning that did not include very many cheap hits or errors on the other team.  Collin’s friend Micah cleared the bases with a double for 3 RBI, and then Collin doubled him in, and then Collin got doubled in.

Collin played his usual first base position and made some great plays over there, including catching a line drive that was headed to right field and extra bases for the other team in the bottom of the 4th inning.  That inning, we let the bases get loaded, but then got a strikeout and caught 2 line drives to keep the runners right where they were.  And one of our littlest guys, Christian, caught a pop up at pitcher and threw to first for a double play to end the game, which we ended up winning 16-3.

I’m so proud of this team!  I remember writing blog entries the past couple of years sharing my frustration with the team at times because they just weren’t “getting it.”  Not this year.  They’ve come a long way since last year, and even the beginning of this year.  They’re playing great TEAM baseball right now, and it’s a lot of fun to coach.  We play again tonight, but I see rain to our West – hope it doesn’t rain us out!

A New Job!

Yesterday, I accepted the position of Information & Technology Director at Hanfield UMC, the church Renee and I have been attending for the past 17 years.  It is a newly-created administrative position with lots of responsibility.  I’ll be doing some of the same things I’m doing now, such as managing their web site and computer technology.  But I’ll also be taking care of all the communications, marketing, and some other administrative tasks for the church.  It’s a big job, and I’ll be hitting the ground running with it, but I’m excited about it and looking forward to the challenge.

Many larger churches (attendance of 500 or more) have started hiring staff in the area of communication and technology.  They’ve started realizing that while volunteers are good (and still needed!), the church really needs a staff person that has the gifting and talent to oversee the areas of communications and technology.

One of the first things I’ll be doing is healing their web site – it’s sad and needs lots of help.

I never thought I’d ever work on a local church staff, but God works in mysterious ways!

We Had a Tornado!

First of all, no, we didn’t have any damage, and we’re all fine.  But I was checking out this National Weather Service story, which indicated that an EF1 tornado touched down briefly only about a quarter mile north of our house during the storms we had Friday night.

Here’s an excerpt:

Damage patterns indicate that at least one brief tornado did occur just to the northwest of Marion, Indiana in Grant county.  A EF1 tornado touched down around 733 pm EDT in a heavily forested area just south of the 4 Mile Bridge, west of State Route 15 and lifted immediately just across the road at 735 pm EDT. Damage was confined to mature trees and roof damage with a peak width of 50 yards and a path length just shy of two tenths of a mile. Extensive tree damage and terrain prevented a more accurate assessment of the path length. Winds were estimated between 90 and 100 mph. Wind speeds of a EF1 range from 86 to 109 mph on the Enhanced Fujita Scale (EF Scale).

The tornado mentioned above appeared to have occurred coincident with a microburst wind event which originated to the southwest in a subdivision north of West Harreld Road and west of Frances Slocum Trail. This wind swath widened out to three quarters of a mile after it crossed State Route 15 and impacted another subdivision with substantial tree damage. Winds were estimated at between 65 and 85 mph.  Additional sporadic wind damage was noted through the remainder of the county, with one more extensive area of straight line wind damage found near the town of Fowlerton. Winds were estimated at up to 75 mph.

We live in the “…other subdivision with substantial tree damage.”  The 4 Mile Bridge is only about a quarter to half a mile away from us.

And to think we were just looking out the window at the wind and rain to the north, and never saw the tornado!  Maybe we should have been a little further away from the windows…

Baseball, A Storm, A Hurt Owl, A Front Door, and A Wedding

We’ve had a busy couple of days.

BASEBALL:  Collin had a baseball game last night.  Collin had some good plays at first base.  His team was winning 10-3 going into the 4th inning when we heard the tornado sirens go off in Marion, prompting them to call the game and for us to get home before we got walloped by…

A STORM:  We just got home literally about a minute before a severe storm came through Grant County, pounding us with 80mph winds and heavy rain.  We lost power for about 5 hours – we finally got it back at about 12:30am.  But we were lucky – some people on our street are still without power because of some trees down on power lines.  We didn’t have any large limbs fall in our yard (like last Friday), but there was a large tree that uprooted and fell across a major intersection right near us.  The picture on the right shows some of the branches and limbs that fell in our neighbor’s yard.  We were out talking with the neighbors for a while after the storm hit.

A HURT OWL:  A little owl was blown out of its tree when the storm hit, landing in our neighbor’s front yard.  We figured he broke his wing and/or foot.  He finally hobbled over beside a tree trunk.  We thought he wouldn’t survive the night, but we still saw him there this morning, and our neighbor Travis got in touch with a guy in Warren, IN that takes in wild birds.  They took him up there and they said they were going to take him to Fort Wayne to get his wing fixed and they would nurse him back to health there in Warren.  They already had about 6 other barn owls up there.

A FRONT DOOR:  We bought a new front door and storm door for our house with the Stimulus check we got from the government.  We’re having them install it, so we’ll get it in sometime in the next 2 weeks.

A WEDDING:  Our babysitter Lacey got married today.  Unfortunately, the storms took out the power at the church where the wedding was, and they had to get several generators to provide enough electricity for some lights, a microphone and the slide show.  And we heard rain and thunder from another storm that came through during the wedding.  But it was a nice wedding even under the circumstances, and I’m sure they’ll never forget their wedding day!

So now we’re sitting at home resting.  I did catch a shot of the rainbow that came out after the storm last night:

Not a Win, But a Great Game

Collin’s baseball team played what was probably the best team in the league last night.  And if they’re the best team, we’re not far behind.  In his league, you can only score 7 runs an inning, and we were the first team to play a full 6 innings against them (because we weren’t down by more than 7 runs).  Those guys have beaten teams 24-0 this year.

We actually had leads of 2-0 and 4-3, and were tied 10-10 at one point.  I would venture to guess that we might be the only team that’s held a lead against them, too.  But we couldn’t get any runs across in the 6th inning and we lost 15-10.  But I’m so proud of the kids.  They played great defense (with only a couple lapses in the 4th inning when we gave up 7 runs), and hit the ball very well.

We proved we can play with the best teams out there, and if we do what we’re capable of in the field and at the plate, we’ll have a chance to win any game we play out there.

I’m so proud of the kids!  They’ve already improved this year a lot, and are a much better team than last year.  Way to go, kids!

No More Pencils, No More Books…

…no more teacher’s dirty looks!  Collin officially finished 3rd grade today.  Then his baseball team celebrated by winning their game tonight, 12-4.  We’re celebrating ourselves by going to an Indianapolis Indians baseball game tomorrow night.  The Pirate Parrot will be there to entertain the fans, and the team is signing autographs before the game.  I think we’ll go down early with a few baseballs and Sharpies.  Some of those guys are good prospects that will end up in the majors someday.

So Collin survived Mrs. Anders, and we have committed to sending him to the new charter school in Marion next year.  He’s looking forward to summer without having to get up early and NO SCHOOL!

The Latest Sign of the Apocalypse

At least for one day, when you check out the MLB standings this morning, the Tampa Bay Rays have the best record in baseball.  Never thought I’d be saying that in my lifetime.  For so many years, you’d have to substitute “best” for “worst” in that sentence.  Way to go Rays!

Happy Memorial Day!

We finally got summer up here in Indiana.  A beautiful day yesterday in the upper 70s.  Although it will be warm today, we’re supposed to get some of those storms that have been plaguing the middle of the country with tornadoes lately.  We’re planning on going to the Peel’s house for a cookout later.

Yesterday we went to our friends the Clesters’ house and hung out for a while.  Then Renee and Collin went to a drive-in to watch Indiana Jones and Ironman.  Needless to say, they got home quite late, and are still sleeping in this morning.  I took Ian home (one of us had to) – I don’t think I could have stayed up anyway.

Saturday night we had a Euchre tournament at our house and I won.  I kept getting pretty decent hands.  Maybe that was my payment for making the Cavatini…

My softball team won both its games Thursday night.  I played the first game at second base, and surprised myself with some of the plays I made.  I felt very comfortable in the field.  And I finally got 2 hits to boot!  We won that game 6-2.  And I heard we won the second game (without so much good defense) 18-13.  And this was against the defending champions!  I did jam my pinky on my right hand, but it’s going to be fine.

I hope everyone has a relaxing Memorial Day.  And THANK YOU to all the veterans who have gone before us to preserve our freedom!

Won it By a Field Goal

Wow.  Collin’s baseball team knocked the cover off the ball last night.  They ended up winning their game by a football score of 20-17.  We had our first inning where we scored the maximum runs allowed (7) before getting 3 outs.  We still struggle with throwing the ball around the infield too much and letting runners score because of bad throws, which is a large reason why we gave up so many runs.

Collin had a good night.  We were at his RRR end of year party and had to go late to the game.  We showed up in the 2nd inning and Collin had to bat right away when we got there (we had put him at the bottom of the lineup).  He then promptly hit a double and got 2 RBIs.  He also got on base the 2 other times he was up and scored 2 runs.  he played first base again and made some good catches.

I’m proud of the kids.  They are playing so well!