Back to "Normal"...or so to speak

Since I started to write this "Blog" five years ago, back in July 2007, this is probably the longest string of not posting....the last writing having been last Thursday June 28th....five whole days ago.

The Reasons for the Lapse in Posting_____

Where to begin.......?

First off last Friday morning, after Sam and I had worked a late and hot night game north in Kalida,  I awoke to the sound of Patricia on the phone talking to a Lima doctor about her  abdominal pain, which was quite intense...so it was off to the Lima Memorial ER...some 40 minutes away, the same hospital where I had my Carotid Surgery back in March.  Without going into major details about medical things, it came down to my wife having a sever case of Diatricalitis, and instead of being in 24 hours as we had originally thought, it ended up being 72 hours, with me driving back and forth, between Lima, various baseball menus, for tournament action{way too late to find replacement umpires by that time}, and back home to Celina, which was a story in itself...more on that later.

Finally, yesterday, after a particularly bad day on Sunday, Patricia was allowed to come home yesterday...in hand a new diet schedule, and some nausea meds, along with some other restrictions.  It appears that her summer vacation, is turning into a summer from Hell....or at least one of major pains in the backside.  Water leak, wife in hospital, recovering from my surgery, and on top of this, a major wind storm rolled through Ohio, the Midwest, and the Eastern Seaboard, on Friday.

Heat, then wind, and finally some much needed rain____

After spending much of the morning and early afternoon at Lima Memorial with Patricia, I had to head back, so I could work a game that evening in Celina, with Sam.  I arrived home in time to check out the Radar....and I noted some large red blobs heading southeast through northern Indiana, and straight towards our area....

I turned on the TV a few minutes later, and a "Tornado Warning" came out for Van Wert and Paulding Counties...those being the two counties being just to our north.   My old home town of Scott along with nearby small towns like Payne, Paudling, and Grover Hill, were in the line that was heading west to east across the Ohio State Line from Indiana.  No warning for Mercer County or Celina however, somebody had dropped the ball....

I opened the front door, Sam was in the still to be repaired/replaced kitchen studying for another upcoming Actuarial Exam, that when I knew, despite no warning, we were in for a good ol' fashion blow.  You could see the straight line winds roaring down Brandon Avenue from the north and west....debris was flying and it was heading right for our house at the intersection.  Before I could close the front door, the Plexiglas storm panel "popped" into the living room as I tried to close the door...I yelled at Sam to grab the damn cat and head for the basement...finally getting the door closed, I joined him....

After a minute or two...thinking to myself "Screw this, I'm 63 years old, what the Hell do I care about hiding in the basement"?   I headed back upstairs, with Sam behind me to see the action outside....the winds, which were clocked at over 80 MPH at their peak, were blowing debris, limbs, trash cans, and other junk by the house and into the bushes that lined the yard....the entire episode last less than 30 minutes....and sadly all that wind and eventual damage, didn't bring much rain, at least with the first batch of storms.

As the fast moving storms headed east, the power had been knocked out, and with the exception of a few hours overnight, the next 30 hours or so would be without electricity.....we were among the lucky ones.

The Damage Assessment____

The Fairgrounds, just a block away, received much damage, the rest of Celina had some structural damage, but most was limited to large trees and limbs....the County Fairgrounds had major damage to the Grandstand, several campers were destroyed, and civilian vehicles as well were totaled.....the city crews are still cleaning up the mess.

Convoy, Delphos, and Lima, as well as other locations north into Putnam, Van Wert, and Paulding Counties, were damaged, and some are still without power 4 days later.  The Freedom Days Festival in Celina was delayed, as was the St Henry Picnic...those finally got underway, including the Saturday night Fireworks on the lake....but, with folks cleaning up and power off for most of the weekend, the celebrating was muted, to say the least.

So here we are, wife home, power back on, and baseball back on track...despite the heat, and now the added humidity, baseball has continued in the various ACME and Junior ACME Tournaments....most were delayed, but are now back on track to finish with the Sectionals by weeks end...after games in Convoy,  at Lima Central Catholic, tonight and tomorrow Sam and I will finish up the Celina tournament...with St. Henry, Minster, and Coldwater, still left, Coldwater has clinched a spot in the District, and will face the winner of tonight's Minster/St. Henry contest for the championship...both final teams will head to the District at Parkwasy over the weekend.

Meanwhile we will continue to fight the heat, humidity, and work our way to repairing the kitchen...as the summer continues to weave a web through the curves, bumps, and pitfalls.

back later>>>>

Photos-Shots of Various Damage around the Fairgrounds, located just a block west of our place...weekend campers and some vehicles were destroyed, although thankfully the only injuries were minor...also damage was the large grandstand, and the fallen ancient Oak Trees destroyed the famous Horseshoe Pitching Pits.  Despite the delays, the "Freedom Days" Fireworks went off on Saturday Night....catching fireworks with a point and shoot camera is always problematical, but I took quite a few like the ones shown.