Graduation at Ohio State/A Major-Minor Disaster @ Home

A fast moving weekend, full of baseball, food, college graduation, and a piece of plumbing that turned into a small disaster, but could have been worse....

Baseball...double headers and heat....

Friday night I worked a double header with veteran umpire Tim Copsey, fresh off another state appearance in Columbus....A Junior ACME/ACME double header at Coldwater, Tim working the JV game, I finshed up working the varsity contest behind the plate.  It was veteran appreciation night with the home team sweeping visiting Elida.  We finished up about 9:45pm...home by 10:30 I was faced with the prospect of a noontime double header on the rubber{artificial turf} at Celina the next day, in the 90 degree heat.  I worked those games with one of my District Tournament partners this spring, Ed Oberlander...the heat coming off the field was tempered somewhat by the breezes....but working the second game behind the plate in the 4 team round robin style weekend,, was pretty brutal...I was feeling every bit my age, and pretty washed out by the time we finished at 5pm.  I headed home, watched the Reds lose to Detroit{they would lose 2 of 3, all one run games, to the Tigers, over the weekend}, drank a couple of beers, and was in bed by 8:30...exhausted, knowing we would sit in the 95 degree heat for The Ohio State Graduation on Sunday.

The 400th graduation ceremony at OSU....

Ohio State University, founded in 1870, is the largest in the country....yesterday marked the 400th and last "Quarter" Graduation...OSU turns to Semesters this Summer and Fall.  Frankly I always like Quarters better....lots less boredom.  Sam Houseworth, the eldest son, wanted to finish up before the Semester thing started, and did so yesterday, along with 10,636 others....the largest graduation class in OSU history.  along with the 8000 or so Bachelor Degrees handed out, there were more than 2000 Doctorates, and Masters...over 8000 students actually showed up for the ceremony, and Sam along with his classmates actually marched onto the Ohio Stadium field, as 50,000 or so family and friends sat in the stands.

Ohio State President Gordon Gee is always a good speaker and entertained, before turning things over to Dr. Susan Rice, a UN Ambassador....who, after a good start talking about her parents and grandparents{her dad was a Tuskegee Airman in WWII}, turned into a typical left wing hack, straight out of the Obama Administration.  Giving glory to same sex marriage and other far left talking points, which we will listen to in the coming months of the Presidential Campaign.  I sat on my hands for that part....realizing she no doubt got her talking points straight from Obama and his Puppet Master, George Soros and Company.

Finally with the Ceremony two and 1/2 hours old, Sam marched in line with the others and got his Bachelor of Science in Actuarial Science....and now can continue the interviewing process, take a couple more Actuarial tests, and hopefully have a good job in place in the next few weeks.

The heat, along with the blazing sun, was pretty intense....one young girls in the row behind us, got up and promptly passed out....Patricia held the umbrellas over her, and we gave her some water, as the medics on hand came up and took her to a cooling room....

Overall the ceremony was worthwhile, but we were glad when it was over....

Olive Garden and the trip home to "The Flood"

We met Sam outside the ancient former basketball hall of St. John Arena...took some photos, congratulated him, and then in separate cars headed through the mass of traffic to an Olive Garden Restaurant, in nearby Dublin, where we met with 3 of Sam's friends for the post Graduation Dinner".....we had a great meal over the next hour or so, said our good byes to Sam and friends, as they headed back to Columbus, and we to Celina.

Arriving home at 7:45 we had been gone for 11 hours....as we walked into the back door, a strange sound greeted us.

That sound was the sound of rushing waters across the kitchen floor, and into part of the living room....it seems  one of the newly(10 months or so ago) installed lines on the kitchen sink had popped out of place, and the water was rushing out onto the floor...into the living room and pouring into our basement.  What mess!  And it is a disaster for sure...just how major?  Not sure, but we know there is a 10 x 10 space in the "TV" room that the 90 year old pine floors took a beating on...that portion is warped already.  The kitchen floor....the hard floor under neath took a massive amount of water under the lanoleium...and the water that seeped beneath the wood and into the basement, with even more in the crawl space under the kitchen was something to behold....

So, not knowing how much actual damage there is...Patricia was off to the Nationwide Insurance office, whom I have used for over 45 years, since my first car, back in 1966, to find out what our situation will be as far as getting things repaired and back to "normal".  Hey life is a challenge, and this isn't the worst of those.

More as I find out more...back later>>>

Photos-Sam's Diploma....finally in hand at the ripe old age of 30...joining both mom and dad, and being a "bit" older when finishing up school...Hal had is Masters by 26 but the first years "partying" extended his time in college, the rest finished up pretty quickly, albeit a bit older, which is sometime a good thing.  (2) Part of the 10,000 students{Sam is somethere on the left side of the black gowned crew} (3) Sam on the bridge overlooking the Olentangy River, with the Horseshoe in the background.  (4) Sam with parents, me and Patricia..(5) at the Olive Garden in Dublin with some of his roomates and friends and (6)  The water as it sets in the kitchen, sump pump working as Patricia pushes the mess of water towards the pump so it can more quickly get rid of the excess....damage estimates will be coming in the next day or two...and we can work on the repairs....it could have been worse, we could have been gone on Vacation, instead of a half day road trip.