I finished up my portion of the combined ACME Sectional/District for Putnam and Paulding Counties on Friday night...things were supposed to cool down, and be less humid for the weekend, so said the NBC owned Weather Channel(How far as that dump fallen since the DNC tools from the National Obama Network took over?)...just like with their political and phony Global Warming BS, the Weather Channel got it wrong...Again! It stayed hot, and the humidity, if it did drop, didn't by much.Anyhow, I was sound asleep on Saturday morning, when the wife, already up and being productive around the house, brought my cell phone upstairs...and handed it to me. On the other end was Bob, the assigning umpire for the ACME and Junior ACME Regional and State games. Seems one of the umpires had bailed out on him, and he needed someone to work all 3 games of the Junior ACME Regional at Celina on Saturday. I was already slated to do games #2 and #3, he asked if I could take the first one as well. Since the weather was going to be cooler and less humid(Forecasters could never be wrong, could they?)..I figured, "What the Hell"?, bigger bucks and pretty good baseball in the cooler, less humid conditions....so I say "Yes", and committed to work the games from 12 noon through about 8pm.
For more thoughts on umpire work in the heat and humidity, check out The Official View on the MacOnline:
http://www.themaconline.com/macword/?cat=54
By the time I arrived at Westview Park, I had figured out, the day was still going to be hot(85 instead of the weeks low 90s) and humid, 50% as compared to 60% earlier in the week. With the bright sun, the days was going to be long and hot. Despite the long day, 3 games, 1(with me behind the plate) going extra innings, and 59 runs scored, 8 hours later I was sitting in the back yard, listening to the Reds continue to play bad, in what would be a 4 game sweep by the Phillies, drinking a few cold ones...it took most of yesterday for the 61 year old body to recover.
I was game free Sunday, and grilled out with Anissa and Patricia, caught a bit of the rather boring World Cup Final(Spain deserved to win), and some more pathetic Reds action(inaction?) in the run scoring department, before the All-Star Break. Later I did manage to drive out to Nick's on the south side of the Lake, smoke a cigar and BS with him, check out his garden, and then head home and pour myself into the leather recliner, where I watched the latest "Ice Road Trucker" installment on the History Channel(sadly the only good product that any NBC owned outlet puts out).
That was the weekend in a nutshell....the weather looks to remain hot, with a chance or 2 of rain all week...I'm off until Wednesday, when I'm scheduled to umpire a college summer game at Ohio Northern University...and then nothing until tournament action during the last week in July. The baseball season is winding down for me to be sure, but football is just around the corner. First high school scrimmage game is August 15th.
back later>>>>Photos-The Avatar for The Official View/Nick's Sweet Corn is about ready for harvest, growing tall, and the Ice Road Truckers, pretty contrived stuff, but one of the few shows on TV I actually watch...Sunday Nights on The History Channel.
