Tipping the Batters

I was the first base coach of my team in the competitive fastball league.  In the playoffs, we were playing Micksburg.  They have one of the best pitchers in Ontario.  I could see the signals of the catcher to the pitcher.  So I told the guys that I would tip them when a rise ball was coming.

It didn’t seem to help, we still lost 3 games to 2 but we didn’t strike out as much in the games I was tipping the batters.

When I told Laura about tipping the batters, she thought that was just like in the movie "Bull Durham".

The Fastball Fan

Laura had a great time following me around to fastball games during the week she was in Ottawa.  One night she was meeting an old friend.  He had some time off work.  Then he went to work and Laura came home to go to my fastball game.  Her friend asked her if she could skip a game to meet with him after work.  She told me no way would she miss a fastball game.

Laura came to Micksburg to watch a playoff game in the freezing cold.  She enjoyed watching her heroes, Corey and Chad Costello, the pitcher and catcher for Micksburg.  All of the boys on my team made her feel welcome after the games.

Laura thought it was great how everyone at the ballgames that we went to all week, all over town, knew me.  They all said ‘Hi Ivan’ when I walked into the park.

Laura said that by following me around and going to all the fastball games, she couldn’t have had a better time.

Birthday Surprise

As my birthday was approaching, I talked to Laura and asked her if she was visiting me.  She said she sure was.

Then it was my birthday and no sign of Laura.  Barb was out playing pickleball.  I was looking at Facebook and saw some photos on Laura’s page about packing and heading for the airport.  I started looking at flights that she might have taken to Ottawa.  There were some early morning flights but then Laura would have been in Ottawa by now and she wasn’t.

Barb came home and wished me a happy birthday.  I said that I saw some funny posts on Laura’s Facebook.  Barb went out to the backyard and let Laura in the house by the back door to surprise me.

Half Price Half Cooked Hamburgers

Julia and Sarah and Barb went out The Works for dinner.  It is usually so good there.  However, this time there hamburgers were only half cooked.  They sent them back to be re-cooked but they were still raw when they got them back.  Then the manager gave them half price on the half cooked hamburgers and coupon for free hamburgers when they visited again.

Best Laid Plans

Laura had made complicated plans to travel to Montreal and Ottawa on her way to Vancouver to work at the end of the summer.  She was going to go to Montreal for a Metal concert.  Then take the train to Burlington where I would pick her up and take her to my ball tournament in Kitchener.  Then she would come back to Ottawa and go to another Metal concert.  Then hang out in Ottawa for a few days before heading back to Vancouver.

I was supposed to have a meeting up north with Max the week before the tournament in Kitchener.  Unfortunately, they postponed that meeting for a week so that now it feel right in the middle of my ball tournament.  When I told Laura that I wouldn’t be able to attend all of the ball tournament, she cancelled her plans.

Then Max's meeting was postponed again until September.  Now I was able to go the ball tournament.  Unfortunately, Laura told her work that she was available now and they scheduled her to work.  So she couldn’t change her plans back.

Bad Times in the Bathroom

When we got back from Florida, Barb was disgusted with the state of the shower in the bathroom.  She called a company to come and replace the shower stall but they were very busy and couldn’t come until August.  In the meantime, we had to live with the moldy baseboards under the shower stall.  We knew that we had problems when we found a mushroom growing out of the baseboard one morning.

When the guys finally came to replace the shower stall, they didn’t do a very good job.  The first thing we noticed was that they punched a big hole in the dining room ceiling when they put in the drain pipe.  They had to get their specialist to come and cut the pipe.

Then we had to wait for the caulking to dry.  I became the shower tester. The caulking wasn’t done right and they had to come back and fix it.  Then we waited for the caulking to dry again.

Then we noticed that they door wasn’t installed properly and water was pouring out under the door.  They came back and fixed that.

Then it was time to fix the rest of the bathroom.  We got our next door neighbor to put in new tile floor and baseboards.  Then Barb painted the walls and baseboards.  Now she is happy with the bathroom and it should last until we sell the place in a couple of years.

Barb’s Large Frame

Barb and her female partner went all the way to Windsor to play in a pickleball tournament.  It was a big event with lots of sports for seniors.  Barb and her partner won the women’s doubles.  They played in the finals against two sisters from Windsor who had never lost a game.  It was a big win.

At the banquet during the games, Barb was sitting with a group of friends from Cornwall.  Barb was saying that she and her partner had no competition.  The man sitting across the table from her said that Barb could hit the ball hard because she has a "large frame".