The Wet Easter Weekend, with more rain on the way....

With the exception of about 6 hours on Saturday morning and afternoon, it's been a total washout since Thursday night, and it looks like that trend will continue up until and through at least Wednesday.  The extended forecast doesn't bode well either.  This spring reminds me of 1981, when the entire month of June was wet....few, if any, days of sunshine were to be had that year.  Going back even further to 1974, after a cold, snow filled winter, April was cold and wet, May was just plain cold for that time of year, and even June was well below normal.  I remember heading to Riverfront Stadium on June 21, 1974, and the thermometer on the scoreboard read 62 degrees during the game...this was the first day of Summer, in Cincinnati, where the average temperatures are 5 to 10 degrees more than here in west central Ohio.  This Spring may challenge those days for being one lousy spring.

Easter Weekend____

Saturday I managed to get our yard mowed, after my double header at Van Wert was rained out...against Delphos St. Johns(who else?  Now 6 of 7 DSJ games washed).  Sam and Garry managed to get their JV double here in Celina played on the artificial turf.   We may not get any more in anytime soon.  I'm scheduled at Bluffton for a NWC game, while Sam is back in Columbus, and is to work in Upper Arlington, neither of those is likely to happen.  Nor are any contests until Thursday at the earliest...the Midwest is going to continue to be a Monsoon like water wonderland.

League games will be pushed into Tournament time, and the other regular season games will not get played....the starting pitching will be put to the test and limits by the gaggle of games strung together to finish off the High School season.  Summer baseball cannot come soon enough....I'm pretty well sick of the cold and wet conditions of this spring baseball season, which is usually my favorite, but not this year.

Saturday afternoon we headed over to sister Marty and brother-in-law Pat's place for an early Easter celebration....of the kids, husbands, and wives, of all were there, except Marty and Pat's youngest, Mikki, who lives out in L.A.  The food, fixed by my wife and Marty was excellent, and we all had more than out share...a few beers were shared, and I gained 4 or 5 pounds back....

With this 20 month old diet, I am still holding my own...but on many weekends, I gain a few pounds...only to fight to lose them back during the week....this week, we will battle it once again.  The 25 pounds lost has slipped to 20, but that will hopefully be taken care of this week....gotta figure out a way to unstrap the feed bag on some of these weekend get togethers.

The Surprise!

With Easter candy and baskets being handed out en' mass to the kids, even the older ones, youngest son Hal and his wife Lisa told us they wanted to look at the newly purchased Dodge Nitro that we picked up on Thursday....once outside they open the hatch of their car and handed me and Patricia our own Easter Baskets....I'm thinking to myself "What the Hell?  I don't need any more treats or fat building food".   Finally, because I hadn't figured it out,  they showed me the button on the tin basket, which read "World's Greatest Grandpa to be"....Patrica, Sam, and Anissa, received similar candy filled "baskets" with similar greetings designed for them.....

So, my youngest son and his bride, who were just married in early February, have announced that they are expecting...late November, around Thanksgiving is the time of expected arrival.  We pray that everything goes well for Lisa and the baby between now and then.  If all goes according to plans, I will be a first time Granddad at 62 years old.

On Easter morning, we all got up, had a special Easter Breakfast, Hal, Lisa, and the dogs headed to West Chester, to spend the Easter day with her mom, Sam stuck around long enough to watch the Flyers upend Buffalo in overtime, to tie their NHL Stanley Cup quarter finals at 3 games apiece, before he headed back to Columbus...and Anissa returned to her house at 6pm.  The wet, but quick moving Easter weekend had finished it's course....now, we will wait out the rain.

I'm working on the 1977 Buick in the garage...and the lousy(but at least it's not cold) weather is a good excuse to decide which "extra" vehicle to keep.  The Jeep Wrangler or the Buick, both need work, but one has to go...just for garage room, repair costs, and insurance savings.  So I plan on getting the Buick running, it only has 62,000 original miles, and I am leaning towards selling the Jeep off, and fixing the classic land cruiser....but have not decided 100%.  The next couple of weeks should decide that....the weather will help keep me focused on that decision.

back later >>>>

Photos-(1)Patricia's Pineapple Upside Down Cake for Easter....(2) Umpires,Terry Knebel left, me right...on the one warm, non cold or wet baseball game we have had of late...not many of those on the horizon either...(3) A few beers over the weekend, actually more than a few, didn't help keep the holiday weight gain down...(4) Even our Flowers, while in bloom, don't seem to want to come out, no sun, why bother?  they seem to be saying...(5) Son Hal and his wife, Lisa, has a special announcement over the Easter weekend....(6) And will it be the 77 Buick or the 1998 Jeep Wrangler that becomes my "other" car....one will go, I've just got to decide which it will be.