"Most ball games are lost, not won."
Casey Stengel (American, Major League Baseball outfielder and manager, 1890-1975)
TIME: 7:47 PM
PLACE: Little League Fields
SUBJECT: Chain link fence
The boys probably felt a lot like this fence after tonight’s game. They lost 28 to 8. Ouch.
“Hit the ball over the fence and you can take your time going around the bases.”
John W. “Jack” Raper (American, journalist, 1870-1950)
TIME: 8:10 PM
PLACE: Away ball diamonds
SUBJECT: Field easement
MB's team had to forfeit their game this evening because we didn’t have enough players. The other team lent us a man and the two teams played an unofficial game anyway. I sat here, on the third baseline, which also happened to be the first baseline for the adjoining field. I was constantly having to keep a “heads-up” with the foul balls from both sides.
“The white zone is for immediate loading and unloading of passengers only. There is no parking in the white zone."
Airport “No Parking” announcemnent
TIME: 7:53 PM
PLACE: Little League Fields
SUBJECT: “No Parking” sign
This has to be the shortest “No Parking” sign I’ve ever seen. I wanted to get StellaDella to stand next to it for comparison but she was too busy running around the infield of the neighboring diamond. Kicking up the dust is much more fun than standing by a sign.
"The love of dirt is among the earliest of passions, as it is the latest….So long as we are dirty, we are pure.”
- Charles Dudley Warner, My Summer in a Garden, 1870
TIME: 8:28 PM
PLACE: Ball Fields
SUBJECT: StellaDella’s dirty knees
Whatever she had on her knees, it wasn’t dirt. It was some sort of soap-resistant type of matter. Scrubbing didn’t even help. *Sigh* On the bright side, MB’s team won! That’s one game more than what they won last season - they didn’t win a single game last year. Yippee!
“Trash has given us an appetite for art”
Pauline Kael (American Critic and Author, 1919-2001)
TIME: 7:09 PM
PLACE: West End ball fields
SUBJECT: Trash can
We had a beautiful night for playing baseball – it would have been even more beautiful if our boys would have won (we lost 12-11). The team played a good game and my MonkeyBoy had some nice hits and base running going on. This trash can was sitting outside our dugout – that’s MB’s water bottle behind the chain link fence on the left.
Grandpa Lou: In my days, all we did was throw rocks at each other. Big bag of dirt clods- that's what the kids want.
The Rugrats Movie. Perf. Joe Alaskey. 1998. Nickelodean Movies.
TIME: 1:21 PM
PLACE: Little League Fields
SUBJECT: Dirt
To StellaDella and the other siblings of ballplayers, this is the best thing about coming to baseball games – the gigantic pile of dirt used to dust the infields. They love climbing, sitting on the top and playing with cars and other little toys that they bring with them on it. Unfortunately, today, SD had a birthday party to attend at 2pm and therefore, much to her chagrin. she was not allowed to approach this dirt mountain. (And did you notice…BLUE sky! Amazing.)
“Safety first!…and I don’t care who comes second.”
HH’s co-worker whose nickname was “Safety”
TIME: 7:49 PM
PLACE: Little League Fields
SUBJECT: Hazard sawhorse
The weather co-operated and StellaDella was finally able to play her second rookie ball game of the season (we only have to make up a couple now). This hazard horse was covering a muddy depression between the fields where spectators walk.
“Anybody's best pitch is the one the batters ain't hitting that day.”
Christy Mathewson (American Baseball Player. One of the first five players admitted to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. 1880-1925)
TIME: 7:47 PM
PLACE: Little League Fields
SUBJECT: MonkeyBoy
Tonight MB had his second ballgame of the season and since StellaDella did not have practice, I was able to watch him in his pitching debut. He relieved another pitcher in the top of the 3rd inning with one out and was able to make the last two outs via a grounder hit to third (men on first and second) and a pop fly hit to the first baseman. Although he did well, we still ended up losing the game 15-3. I don’t know if I can handle him pitching…I was so stressed while watching. Taking his picture helped me redirect my focus and prevented me from becoming a complete nervous wreck.
“Don't tell me about the world. Not today. It's springtime and they're knocking baseball around fields where the grass is damp and green in the morning and the kids are trying to hit the curve ball.”
Pete Hamill (American, journalist, columnist, novelist, and short story writer. b. 1935)
TIME: 2:40 PM
PLACE: Little League Fields
SUBJECT: StellaDella
SD had her first T-ball game of the season this afternoon. This year, a pitching machine is utilized; the girls have 5 chances to hit the ball pitched by the machine. If they don’t, then the tee is brought out for them. SD made contact both times she was up to bat! I think she surprised herself.
"Baseball gives a growing boy self poise and self reliance."
Albert Spalding (American, professional baseball player, manager and co-founder of A.G. Spalding sporting goods company, 1850-1915)
TIME: 8:21 PM
PLACE: Bantam Diamond - Little League Fields
SUBJECT: MonkeyBoy
Tonight was the last game of the regular season. The Tigers won and ended the season with 10 wins and 3 losses. Woot! Woot! Playoffs begin a week from Saturday, so they have a practice next Wednesday evening at 6pm. I really like this picture of my boy - especially the Gatorade mustache he is sporting!
"There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly."
R. Buckminster Fuller (American Inventor, Designer, Poet, Philosopher, 1895-1983)
TIME: 9:55 PM
PLACE: Little League Fields (again!)
SUBJECT: Caterpillar
We spent another night at the Little League ballpark. MonkeyBoy's 8pm game was a winner this time: 14-5...yea! Our Jeep was parked in the wrong spot apparently and got hit on the luggage rack area with a foul pop-up. It only made a slight indentation and it's on the top of the car where you can't see it...those are the chances you take when you park in that section of the lot! Oh well. His last game is tomorrow night at 6pm.
StellaDella and DramaQueen found this caterpillar while playing during the game. SD comes running over to me and tells me to take a picture of him. Some of the ballplayers' little brothers tried telling SD that it was poisonous. She didn't care - she picked it up and told the caterpillar that he was cute and fuzzy. He looks a little "Emo" with his fur over his eyes. Oh, did I mention that last night we had a little "incident"? Apparently, one of the boys was giving SD grief much of the night and she finally had enough and told him "If you don't stop it, I'm going to kick your a--!" He promptly came and told me what she said. HandsomeHusband and I told her that if someone was bothering her, she needs to come get mommy or daddy - we would handle it and what she said was unacceptable. Then she had to sit by us in the lawn chair for quite some time. Sigh. Am I a bad mom if I was amused by what she said? I'm glad to know she sticks up for herself!
"Slowly, silently, now the moon
Walks the night in her silver shoon;"
Walter De La Mare (1873-1956), British poet. Silver (l. 1-2). FaPO-. Favorite Poems Old and New. Helen Ferris, ed. (1957) Doubleday & Company.
TIME: 8:42 PM
PLACE: Southwestern night sky
SUBJECT: Moon
Where did this Monday go? It felt like I accomplished nothing that I really wanted to today. I did get some errands run and made spaghetti and meatballs with garlic cheese bread and a salad for dinner. But the next thing I know, it was time for MonkeyBoy's 8pm ball game. They played a challenging team tonight and lost 14-9. Bummer. But, it was a beautiful evening, with mild temperatures and a breeze. The moon was lovely as well. I'll be able to see it change the next 2 nights as MB has another 8pm game tomorrow and a 6pm game on Wednesday. Got to make up all those rainouts!
BTW, waxing and waning are used to describe the moon as it looks between its full and new phases. Waxing is when the part of the moon that you can see is increasing (getting bigger) while waning is when the part of the moon that you can see is decreasing (getting smaller). Tonight's moon is First Quarter - which means that 1/2 of it is illuminated. The next phase is called "Waxing Gibbous" which means the lighted part will be greater than half. The next Full Moon will occur on July 7th.
"I knew, of course, that trees and plants had roots, stems, bark, branches and foliage that reached up toward the light. But I was coming to realize that the real magician was light itself."
Edward Steichen (American photographer, painter, and art gallery and museum curator, 1879-1973)
TIME: 7:28 PM
PLACE: Little League Fields - by the Bantam Diamond
SUBJECT: Tree Bark
As I was busy today getting ready for the big yard sale tomorrow, I have posted a picture that I took yesterday. The weatherman informed me that tomorrow should be the hottest day of the year - with highs in the upper 90's and heat indexes of over 100. That is just lovely. Boy, do I know how to pick a date for a sale or what? Sigh. My cousin Kathleen called me and asked if I could her and our friend Michelle for a quick drink at a local bar tonight. You know what...I think I just might do that!
“Who gathers thistles, may expect pricks"
Proverb
TIME: 7:23 PM
PLACE: West Monroe Street by the Richland Creek bridge
SUBJECT: Canadian Thistle
A double-header tonight for MonkeyBoy - they've quite a bit of rainouts to make-up. The only catch - it was still 95 degrees at 6pm when they started. By the time they finished at 10:00pm it had cooled down all the way to 84 degrees! Ah, well, they won both games so that was good.
This is another noxious weed that I think is quite lovely when not irritating the farmers. I think it looks like the Truffula Trees in the Dr. Seuss book, "The Lorax". At the risk of being politically incorrect, I never thought the Lorax character was a hero - I always felt that he was too big on complaining about what was happening to the trees and way too ineffective in actually doing anything to help save them. It was the Once-ler who saved the last Truffula seed and gave it to a child in the hopes of growing more. I think that this post at Super Punch really hits the nail on the head.
"I kneel down to peer into a culvert.
The other end seems far away."
Robert Bly, “Keeling Down to Peer into a Culvert” , l. 1-2 from The Man in the Black Coat Turns. 1981
TIME: 8:32 PM
PLACE: Little League Fields
SUBJECT: Culvert pipe
This was not the image I wanted to capture tonight. There were a ton of fireflies and StellaDella was catching them during MonkeyBoy's late game (8pm). I tried and tried to get a photo of a firefly while it was glowing but not luck. Oh well, try, try again tomorrow. This is a culvert pipe that you cross to get to the fields. My mom had told us when we were little that alligators lived in these pipes so we should never crawl in them. I have passed that little bit of false information family tradition to my kids. It still works - they have never tried to crawl into one!
"I'm shakin' the dust of this crummy little town off my feet and I'm gonna see the world."
Frances Goodrich (1891-1984), U.S. screenwriter, and Frank Capra. George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart), It's a Wonderful Life, to Mary after the dance (1947). George says this, or a variation of it, a lot in the first part of the movie. additional scenes by Jo Swerling. Based on a story by Philip Van Doren Stern.
TIME: 4:35 PM
PLACE: Little League Field - Bantam diamond
SUBJECT: StellaDella kicking up dust
I don't know what she likes to do more, falling down each and every play or kicking up dust running for the ball. Whenever she made a move on the field today her feet were dragging. She was dragging them so she could watch the dust puff up around her. Whenever her team was on the field, she would fall down in the infield dirt on each and every play. Her teammate would be on the other side of the infield making the play and SD would fall down. She would be nowhere near the ball and down she would collapse in the dirt - she did it in empathy for her teammate I guess. Sigh. She has just 2 more games to play until the end of her T-ball season.
I objurgate the centipede,
A bug we do not really need.
At sleepy-time he beats a path
Straight to the bedroom or the bath.
You always wallop where he's not,
Or, if he is, he makes a spot.
Odgen Nash (American poet, author, lyric-writer, 1902-1971), "The Centipede"
TIME: 8:01 PM
PLACE: Little League Field - Bantam Diamond
SUBJECT: Light Pole
This is my second attempt at taking a picture of the light pole at the Little League fields. I was not happy with this one that I took at StellaDella's ball game on May 9th. In fact, I will be the first to admit that it was rather boring. I think this one is just a titch more interesting. I'm definately getting a centipede-like vibe from it due to the climbing pegs. BTW, MB's team ended up losing tonight's game, by 6 runs.
“Baseball is a slow, sluggish game, with frequent and trivial interruptions, offering the spectator many opportunities to reflect at leisure upon the situation on the field: This is what a fan loves most about the game”
Edward Abbey (American Writer whose works, set primarily in the southwestern United States, reflect an uncompromising environmentalist philosophy. 1927-1989)
TIME: 7:36 PM
PLACE: Little League park, Bantam field
SUBJECT: Shadows of HandsomeHusband, me and DramaQueen
Monkeyboy had one of his make-up games scheduled this evening. He was batting clean-up tonight. At his first at bat, he smacked one way out in center field. He is a fast runner and it should have been a triple, but he misunderstood the third base coach, who was yelling "Round (the bag) and hold!"...MB thought he said "Run for home!" so he did. Luckily the throw at the plate went over the catcher's head; MB slid into home plate; and he was safe. He was pretty proud of himself. After the inning was over, the coach took him to the side and had a little talk about what he actually said and how he needs to listen while base running. He was lucky this time. I'm still proud of him though!
“A cloud cannot cast a shadow unless the sun is shining beyond it."
Unknown
TIME: 4:30 PM
PLACE: The sky over the Little League Fields
SUBJECT: Cloud Shadows
Sometimes you look up and see something so beautiful, you catch your breath. I did today when I saw these cloud shadows that appeared as we were watching StellaDella's T-ball game this afternoon. I googled the Internet to find out the scientific explanation for these (I'm nerdy like that). I learned that the shadows are due to a haze layer that is under the cloud. The darker shadow is actually projecting below the cloud. In the top picture you can also just make out another shadow that is due to a second haze layer that is lower than the first. Way cool.
On a related cloud note...we returned to the movie theater to see "Up". It was worth it. I think my favorite part of the movie was in the beginning which told Carl's (the old man) and Ellie's (his wife) love story. It opens up with Carl as a child in a movie theater watching a newsreel and how he met his wife "Ellie" that day. Then the dialogue stops and the most sweetest montage begins and tells the story of their life together. I cried for Carl when his wife passes away and he is left alone in the home they built together. The emotion that Pixar placed into this opening sequence is amazing. The remainder of the film is wonderful as well. I highly recommend you all go and see it on the big screen.
“I wish I had a kryptonite cross, because then you could keep both Dracula and Superman away”
Jack Handy (American Writer and cast member of Saturday Night Live from 1991-2003. Famous for his Deep Thoughts comedy sketches.)
TIME: 4:08 PM
PLACE: Little League Fields - Monroe Street
SUBJECT: Ballfield lights
I took many photos at StellaDella's T-ball game this afternoon. The clouds were white and puffy, the sky a nice blue, but I just couldn't capture what I wanted for some reason. *shrugs* What are you going to do? It was bound to happen sooner or later.
I am going out with the girls tonight. The group I ran around with after graduating from college is meeting up and hitting the town. I'm looking forward to it...and It should prove to be an interesting evening!
