Summer Vacation, Day 49: Two Thoughts

The first thought for today is what a tremendous sense of relief I feel knowing that, as of this evening, both soccer and baseball are done for the summer. Jodi must feel ten times more relieved, since my job was usually just to relieve her at one of the fields after work so she could head to the other. She’s been Supermom – she deserves our awe, my thanks, and her own comic book.

The second thought is that every time I read Hemingway, I want to go fishing, and every time I read about Spain, I want to go to Spain. So The Sun Also Rises is thus far making me restless. It also makes me want a drink every twenty minutes or so. They drink a lot in these books. Constant buzz. At one point, the characters notice that a busy French waiter has sweated through his shirt. The stains beneath his arms are purplish. The first assumption is that the waiter must drink a lot of wine …

Summer Vacation, Day 41: Birthday Boy!

Eight years ago yesterday, on her birthday, Jodi had an OB appointment, and the doctor had an announcement – the baby in her belly was bulking up fast and needed to come out. We were a only few days overdue, but all her measurements suggested that whoever was in there seemed content to simply expand. The doctor would induce the next day.

We postponed celebrating her birthday until after Gabe’s birth. He was 11 pounds 11 ounces, dwarfing his big brother’s substantial birth weight of 9-9. (Emma, incidentally, weighed a petite 9-5; Trevor frightened the hospital staff at 12-2.)

He’s eight. I can hardly believe how the time passes. Almost makes me want to run.

Summer Vacation, Day 39: Non-Stop Fun

Gabe turns eight on Monday, so last night he hosted a sleep-over birthday party. Bren went to a friend’s house, so it was our Gabe and his friends Gabe A., Jack, and Cole, plus Emma and Trevor. The boys were awake until around 1 a.m., and rose around 7. Ah, to have that youthful energy!

They left around 9:30, Bren came home around 10, and Bren, Gabe and I left at 10:15 for kung-fu class in St. Paul. (This is the first weekend in the last five or six that we’ve made it.) Then home again for lunch, then Emma and I left to get the oil changed in the Golf and finish birthday shopping for Jodi – hers is tomorrow. Returned from that in time to get ready for Bren’s final baseball game. They lost a great game tonight, 10-8. Well done, Radiators – kudos on a great season! Got home around 8 for supper; showers and baths and clean-up until right about now – quarter to 10 p.m.

Tomorrow looks like church, a special brunch for Jodi, gifts, yard work (a ton!), then a cookout at a friends place. Still haven’t gone fishin’. Still having a pretty good time.

Summer Vacation, Day 34: Unlike Father, Unlike Son

Brendan’s baseball team, Roger’s Radiator Repair, started the playoffs tonight as the six seed, playing St. Michael Legion, the three seed. The Radiators were up by one going into the bottom of the fifth, but couldn’t quite hold the Legion off – the score was 13-13 at the end of the fifth.

The Radiators won in the sixth inning – technically an extra inning, since no inning can start after 8:15 p.m., unless the score is tied and it’s the playoffs. Bren played the first three innings at first base, where he got three runners out, including a slow grounder which he charged and fielded, then tagged the runner.

He played catcher for the rest of the game, making a close tag at the plate to save a run in the fifth. He also had three singles, made no outs, batted in the winning run in the sixth and scored the security run himself.

The boy plays with amazing patience and poise these days. I hated catcher and first base as a player, because I never felt like I had time to breathe – always a ball coming at you …

Both he and the team are getting better every day. Go Radiators!