Spring "Cleaning"/More Venice Growing Up...

It finally dried off yesterday, well at least it stopped raining...as far as drying, that is still going on....the next few days will be above normal with plenty of sunshine, then the rain will return for the weekend, and temps will cool down.

After Sunday washed out day, yesterday they were calling for sunshine, that finally came after 3pm...another miserable start to the week.  My game at Ada was a wash~out, which caused my game today at Paulding to be cancelled as well, as the leagues are scrambling to get games in....not to worry however, I quickly got a call and the Wayne Trace Athletic Director called asking me to travel to the north side of Defiance to Tinora High School for the completion of a GMC game...I had to scramble, but made the 67 mile drive, and arrived about 15 minutes before the scheduled game start at 4:30, my partner Bruce took the plate as he was already there...we started the game in the 2nd inning, and we were done within 75 minutes, a run rule win, 11-1 for Tinora.  I was home before 7:30pm, in time to watch the Reds slip by the Cardinals 2-1....

With tonight's cancellation at Paulding, so they can make up last nights game at Ada, I quickly picked up another make up game, this one as well is far north of Celina, the little berg of Continental.  The school has a nice field, it's been a couple years since I worked a game there, but I like the atmosphere, and will join my old comrade The Racster for a game with visiting Miller City tonight at 5.

Today, once done here, I will get to mowing the lawn...finishing mine this morning, and probably waiting until tomorrow to take care of mom's....both yards need it...but the heavy dew will slow things down.

Making Contact with the Past....

A few weeks back I wrote about receiving an e-mail from the son of an old Air Force friend of mine, Carol Marcelle, who had passed away years ago....Sunday his youngest son, Matthew, called me from Virginia.  We talked about life and his dad for about an hour....a good conversation, but saddened by the realization that "Yul" Marcelle had passed away nearly 40 years ago, just a few miles south of here, at Wright~Patterson AFB, where I organize the  Vietnam Security Police "Mini" Reunions each year...Carol Marcelle, Tech Sargent Retired, was but 45 when he passed away.

Matthew, the father of 4 with another on the way next month, also told me his mother had passed away some 20 years ago of cancer....time flies by in the blink of an eye.  Regardless it was good to talk the young man, who was born just before his father's death, and tell him what I could remember about his father....a man I considered a friend, back in those cold days at Griffiss Air Force Base, in upstate New York....

Back on the Plan....

For some reason{s} I gained weight over the winter...too much dark stout beer/Winter Ale, too much food/chocolate, too much sitting on my aging ass, or whatever the reason, the 40 pounds I had dropped between the fall of 2009 and 2011 came a creeping back.  No, I didn't gain it all, but I have gained about half of it back, peeking at 200 over the weekend...time for that to end, and yesterday was the beginning of the end.....

No more sweets, and back to the 2000 calorie 175 carb a day diet...a few less dark beers, and with the shoulder and elbow feeling better, it's back to the weight room, although not nearly as heavy on the weight, more on the reps....we will see how it goes, but the first day, I dropped 2 pounds, even though I had a couple of Sam Adams Cream Stout beers that were left in the frig.....

That will do it for today...time to put the mowing shoes on....meanwhile I will put up another in the "Growing Up in Venice, Florida, 1954-63" posts from 2008 back up today...here it tis:

http://patsdailyrant.blogspot.com/2008/05/growing-up-in-venice-floridapart-5.html

back later.....

Photos-The Inn at the Beach, the place in recent years we have called home when visiting my old home town of Venice, changed it has over the past 60 years....much like America, and not really for the better in either case.  Carol "Yul" Marcelle, my old supervisor and friend, passed away nearly 40 years now....and "The Plan"...my basic breakfast more or less, which I used as a start of the day on my quest to drop the 20 pounds I have regained over the past 18 months or so.....it will be gone within 6 to 8 weeks, bank that!