Play Ball!

The Bowie Baysox, the class AA affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles, hosted an Education Day today, and the 5th graders at my school went to see the 11:05 game as part of their Physical Education curriculum.   I was one of the chaperone's. Since the kids were very well behaved, the chaperone's fun, the weather decent, and the game interesting if not exciting, it was a good day.

The P.E. coach made a big effort to really teach the kids something about how the game was played, and I finally got the answer to the question that's bothered me at many a game:  How can you read the umpires gestures to understand his calls?  The answer: You can't; there's no set hand signals for umpire calls.  Oh, okay. Well then, I'll stop trying to read them and just checkout the scoreboard to see if a strike or ball was called.

These boys were hoping to catch a foul ball, but my hope not to be hit by one was stronger, and none came our way.

At home after school we had the first bike ride of the season.  Ben had come home early, Paul didn't have much homework, and the good weather beckoned.  Our ride was short; what with taking so long to get the bikes out, pump up the tires, find the bike gloves, and raise Paul's seat (he's grown taller!) we didn't get going for a while.  When we did we hadn't gotten far before it became clear that Paul's back tire either wasn't pumped up enough or had a slow leak, and we decided we'd better head back home.  But still, the important thing was that we got out.

Meanwhile, in Boulder, where we plan to move in a year or so, it snowed yet again today, this after a 13" snowfall Monday!  Yes, we are still planning to move there, but I'm wondering when spring actually comes to the Rockies.  We're watching with interest.

This photo from the Denver Post shows University of Colorado students biking to class today when it snowed about 4 inches.  On Monday, during the big storm the University did finally close for the afternoon, but the public schools never did!  Clearly it will be a whole new world out there.