Palo Alto Sunday Baseball

 This afternoon Bob and I drove down to Palo Alto to go to two baseball/softball games of our grandchildren.   We arrived at Arne and Karna’s place to meet up and then Arne took Bob and me first to Elsa’s game.  It was down by the Bay in a Palo Alto rec. center area.  The girls were off in a distant field.  What struck me first was how the dusty the brown dusty infield was.  The girls’ team was the 10-12 year olds.  It was softball and so the pitching was to my eyes wonderful.  I love the  full shoulder wind up swing around and then underhand fast throw of the pitch.  Each pitch was a thing of beauty.  We learned there are some different rules for girls’ softball:  first of all, if a team makes 4 runs in their time up, the inning is over no matter how many outs they had and second, there can be 4 fielders in the outfield making a team of 10 players if they want.  The opposing team was from South San Jose and they were a much better team.  The girls looked older and much more experienced.  The Palo Alto team players, nevertheless, took the game very seriously and I was impressed by their knowledge of how to field the ball.  Elsa knew just where to position herself.  They just weren’t very good hitters, but never mind, playing the game with friends is still fun.  When we saw her at the house, she quizzed us to see if we knew what positions she played.  Amusing, I thought.  We passed the test.

After nearly four innings of Elsa’s team playing, we left to go to see Liam play.  He’s playing Little League Baseball (yes, actual baseball).  The field was beautiful and green. They used real baseballs, but they had a few different rules too.  First of all, if a player got four balls, normally a walk, they didn’t go to first base instead their coach came out and lobbed the batter five balls.  The batter got two swings.  Most of them hit the ball under these circumstances, but if they missed the two swings, they were out.  At one point, Liam took four balls, and the coach came out and pitched to him.  He hit the ball.  I cheered.  It went less than half way to the pitcher’s mound, really just a few feet out, Liam raced to first base.  The ball was overthrown, when he realized that, he raced on to second and then to third base.  The ball was overthrown to third base and Liam raced on to home plate.  He was totally thrilled to have hit a “home run”.  I loved it that when Liam saw us, he waved.  He did that several times, checking to see if we were watching him I guess.  

I love that the rules help the kids learn to play baseball.  They all seem well coached and to have good attitudes toward the game.  It was a thrill for us to watch the games of our Palo Alto grandkids.

Applesauce

 It’s fall when the house smells of cooking applesauce and apple cake.  Arne’s apple tree is filled with apples this year and they are falling off the tree every day.  So it is time to move into applesauce production!  I’ve just finished my 4th batch, plus I’ve made an apple pie and an apple cake to boot.  My right thumb has little cuts from the coring I do holding the apple in my hand.  Earlier this summer, Arne picked lots and lots of the little apples off.  I can tell where he did this because there are BIG apples down on the lower branches.  Interestingly the apples come in all sorts of sizes and shades of yellow, green and red.  There are 2 inch diameter apples, 3 inch diameter apples and a few even bigger.  I prize the big apples.  There are even cute little itty bitty apples, 1 inch in diameter clustered on a branch, like Brussel sprouts on a stem.  I like to do the preparation this time consuming way, rather than using an apple mill because I like chunky applesauce.  I make it plain with just the smallest amount of sugar added.  I make it with cinnamon and today I made the batch with lots of candied ginger in it.  I feel an urgency about doing this because in 10 days we’re leaving to spend two months in Michigan.  At the rate I’m picking the apples and producing the applesauce, the freezer will be full and I will have gifted nearly everyone I know a tub of homemade applesauce.  Then I’ll hire the neighbor boy to pick up all the fallen apples and into the compost they go.  

Rain

 Our minister prayed for rain last Sunday.  We need rain here where the ground and plants are bone dry.  I measured only 11 inches of rain during our last rainy season, November to April.  That’s only half our average rainfall.  No rain can be expected until November.  Thankfully it’s been a cool summer.  We put air conditioning in our house in early July and so far we’ve run it only a few days.  As summer ends and fall begins, I can only imagine rain but expect many hot dry days to come.  

In Tucson, it’s been a bountiful monsoon season this year.  Record rainfall has been recorded in S. Arizona.  This weekend as I was talking to my sister, a big monsoon rainstorm started and rain and hail poured over her house.  Looking at the video she sent, I could almost smell the rain in my parched California nose.  It rains in Michigan in the summer too, big thunderstorms mostly.  We’ve had trouble with a leaky roof in our new house and flooding in the basement of our old house.  

Here, this time of year, it’s at least two more months before we can expect rain.  It’s a long dry wait.