Warm and Wet Beginning to May?

Saturday dawned as one of the potentially most miserable late Spring baseball games I was about to embark on, umpiring-wise.....Sam was home, he had double header slated at Waynesfield-Goshen, but that was "killed" off early as they anticipated the coming rain mix, so he would head back to Columbus to work the video/audio play-by-play for the Ohio State vs Lewis final Men's Volleyball match for entry to the "Final Four" that night....Anissa went with Patricia as they headed to the Dayton area to sit with Grandson "The K-Man", while Hal and Lisa participated in a Autism Walk, in mostly miserable conditions.  Me? Well the rain was holding off, and I was out the door by 8:40am and heading north on 127 the 40 miles or so to Paulding.

I arrived at the diamonds in plenty of time...happy to be working the plate, because the extra gear was going to help keep me warm...Chris, the Paulding AD paid me, and commented, "Looks like we may be able to get this game in"...I wasn't so sure.  My partner Nick showed and we decided to see if we could get started a bit early....just as we headed to the filed, Sleet began to fall....and it was a hard sleet, the ice pellets sticking on jacket and in my hair.   We had the pre-game discussion with the Paulding and visiting Elida coaches, none of sure just how far we would get into this one.

Well we got to the top of the 2nd inning, I finally stopped play with 2 out and 2 on base...Elida had built a 4-0 lead, but with the mixture of ice pellets and large rain drops, it wasn't going to fly....we waited another 15 minutes but I finally called it off....from 80 miles away in Anna, Garry text me saying he had thunderstorms with some hail, and they never got their game started.  Seems Waynesfield was ahead of the game, they cancelled before having to pay the umpires.  Most everybody else, but not all, canceled as well....one of the few wash out days of the mostly dry season thus far.

Tonight is "iffy" game and weather wise....we have a 60% chance of storms, but the first batch moved north and east, and missed us....the next batch appears to be diminishing, but there is more coming.  I am at Lima Central Catholic tonight for a big NWC league game between two of the league powers, LCC and Columbus Grove, the bases tonight for me.....but that game status is in doubt.  To be honest, despite the windy and cool weather the past three weeks, I have not had a game canceled before starting it, and getting paid....pretty amazing streak, and the season is winding down, at least the regular season...Division Tournaments begin Saturday, when I am scheduled to work the D3 Sectional at Lima Shawnee.

A Warm Beginning to May_____

While the winter was much above normal, and March, along with the first week of April, was even more so....the last three weeks have been a mix of cool, windy, and at times seasonal temperatures....the lack of rain has been the most noticeable condition that one does not expect for West Central Ohio.

The forecast as we hit the last day of April is appearing to say, a warm first week of May is in store, along with some more normal rain potential....frankly I would like to see it stay dry for a couple more weeks...getting my tournament games in, and my Michigan Mushroom Hunt completed as well....but Mother Nature is going to do what she always does....and throw us a few curve balls....on that you can count.

Now that my cold, a rare one indeed for me, is about over, I am getting ready to plant the seeds from the flower packets....plenty of differing varieties of Sunflowers, we will try the Moon Walkers in a different location, they were successful last year, but I think we can do better with them elsewhere.  Hopefully we can have that done this week....a bit of rain won't hurt, but not too much.

On the other hand, the flowers that pop up on their own, as you can see from the attached photos, including some left over Sunflower seeds, are making themselves shown....Spring is finally here, and although a day or two in May is usually miserable, for the most part, we can count on "outdoor" weather between now and mid October....and I am ready for it!

back later>>>>

Photos-The March/early April backyard flowers have moved on, and the late April/early May Flowers have arrived....now time to plant those that will come up in late Summer, including my favorites, the different samples of Sunflowers in all shades and sizes.....below one, complete with bee, from the Summer of 2010 in my back yard.