Non-progress report

I didn't do anything at the house Friday due to sporadic rains that looked bad on the radar but in reality didn't amount to much. I didn't do anything yesterday because my blood donation took much longer than I expected, and I wanted to go to church in the early afternoon to leave this morning free. I left this morning free because I was expecting to go to see my nephew's first T-Ball game today. But that didn't happen.

It didn't happen because there was no T-Ball game scheduled at 1:00, as we had been led to believe. Instead there were team photos and practice starting at 1:00, and the opening ceremonies for Little League, "Farm" League, and the T-Ball League were to follow at 3:00.

My mom and I drove off into the country where my brother's family lives. We drove along the winding mountain road to the Little League field to find the parking lot completely full. Overflow parking was over a quarter of a mile away - too far for my mom to walk. I dropped her off at the main parking lot, parked the car in the overflow lot, and hiked down to meet her.

Weather was all over the place. It was cold and overcast when my mom and I left our house, but I had the presence of mind to grab a visor cap for myself. There was a bit more sun when we arrived at the field but by then it was very windy. As the practice wound down and the opening ceremonies began very large and threatening clouds began to gather and a few raindrops fell on the crowd. Shortly after a faint rumble of thunder sounded in the distance, the clouds parted and the sun began to beat down. One of the assembled ballplayers collapsed from heatstroke. The opening ceremony dragged on and finally wrapped up sometime after 4:00.

One thing led to another, and I didn't wind up over at the house until 7:00. What the hell could I do with little more than an hour of useful daylight left? I couldn't scrape, sand, and paint, and I wasn't prepared to do mortar work. So I only had one option: mow.

This was the second time I mowed that lawn this year. The first time was last Saturday, and the grass sure had grown since then. A manual (that is, non-motorized) reel lawnmower works best on relatively short grass, so I had to mow some of the taller spots several times from several different directions. But I got it done, and didn't use any gas or electricity to do it.

So. More classes tomorrow and the next day. Maybe I'll get some painting done after that.