And The Rain Rain Rain Came Down Down Down

The weather for this week off has really been lousy.  The kids have been unable to play outside because of the constant rain.  Yesterday was the first day that had any kind of promise… until lunchtime.  Then it started to hail.

Both Ane and Tad were enjoying watching it come down thickly on the lawn and deck… and then it stopped.  And then it rained.  And then it stopped.

And then I decided that we would go to Auntie’s softball game at her school after all.

Right after Rerun woke from his nap, I packed the kids up and drove over.  The game was supposed to start at 4 pm, and we arrived late, but the game hadn’t started yet.  The teams were all ready, but there were no umpires.  Small problem!  This was a game that had been postponed previously due to bad weather, and I’m not sure if the umps weren’t notified properly or what, but the game started almost an hour late.  And it was chilly.

Then it started to sprinkle.  But we’re in the Pacific Northwest – sprinkling?  You don’t even bother putting the hood up on your raincoat for that.

Then the hail began.  And it kept hailing.

Remember that I have all three kids with me.  Rerun was up and walking around for a while, then I had bribed him back into the stroller with animal crackers, but once those were gone, he wanted to be up and moving again.  Then the hail started, and he got kind of excited.  It was small and round, and falling from the sky.  “A ball!”  he crowed as he tried to pick up the hail.

Ane and Tad, who were both in their rain boots, tromped around getting wet without a care in the world.  The hail didn’t let up, and the chill got icier.  Then the hard, pelting rain began.  My hands went numb from the wet and the cold.  I threw in the towel.  Auntie was about to go up to bat, but Rerun was screaming and my hands were aching.  I also had a gut feeling that the game wasn’t going to continue on if the weather didn’t let up.

Grandma helped me herd the kids to the van.  I actually raced ahead with Rerun (and had a horrible time trying to unsnap him from the stroller with my frozen hands) and got him buckled down, then turned the car on and jacked the heat up while Ane, Tad and Grandma loaded in.  Grandma was attempting to thaw out when we saw a flash of lightning and a loud rumble of thunder.  And the players running off the field.

I sat, thawing out my hands and trying to warm up my feet while the older two played on the iPad and Rerun played with a few toys while Grandma went to find out what happened.  She called me from her van – the game was having an automatic 30 minute lightning delay, and Auntie told her to go on home.  We followed Grandma there, and Auntie showed up a little later.  The game had been called, and unfortunately, there weren’t enough innings played to make it an official game.  However, Auntie was hopeful that the game could maybe resume from where they were (her team was ahead, 5 – 0).

So, I fed Rerun his dinner, and the Webmaster came over after work, and we all went out to Red Robin to reward ourselves for our efforts.  Rerun ate fries while the rest of us had a warm dinner.  It had been a very wet experience.

Next time I try to take the kids to a game, the weather is going to be warm and sunny.  Which means I might not get to another game this season.  Hmm… I’ll go for dry.  I can do cold as long as it’s dry.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 7th, 2011 at 2:06 am and is filed under Children, Family, Life in the Pacific Northwest, Sports.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed and Both comments and pings are currently closed.