Last night after grabbing a quick dinner and running some errands, my husband and I made a quick trip through Mount Muncie Cemetery just before sunset. I took several snapshots with my smartphone, and liked this one the best:
This morning, after commuting in the pre-dawn darkness and parking almost underground, I emerged to find this pink sunrise greeting me on this fabulous Friday morning:
And in honor of the World Series bound Royals (first game is here in Kansas City next Tuesday evening) enjoy this snapshot from one of my many lunch walks around the Country Club Plaza, where all the fountains are overflowing with Royal blue:
I took the weekend off from my gratitude journal, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have a ton of things to be grateful for.
Like most other weekends, I spent all of it with my hubby (shown eyeing me dubiously in the photo at left – I’m famous for my ‘candid camera’ approach to family photography). We took a break from our home improvement projects to attend my employer’s summer event at the T-bones baseball game Saturday night.
A short list of items I’m thankful for from the weekend:
free barbecue with free beer (if you drink beer – I had water)
free baseball
free fireworks
unKansas like summer temperatures in the 80s
not having to water my lawn (because it’s been raining)
Terry and I enjoyed all of the above, plus a good effort by the T-bones against a team from Fargo, who out hit and out scored them to win by two. Saw a couple of double plays and a lot of errors that went mysteriously unreported for both teams. I also enjoyed seeing the blast from baseball days past coaching first base for the T-bones:
Frank White #20 coaching 1st for the T-bones
Frank even stopped at the bottom of our section, 109, to sign a few autographs after the game. Almost made me wish I’d moved down a few rows since most everyone left the game after the seventh inning stretch.
Terry and I stubbornly stayed in our assigned seats until the lights were turned off and the fireworks began, only to discover that you can’t see the fireworks from the stands. We quickly vacated our section and left through the front gate in time to see most of the fireworks. We were home before eleven o’clock and I debated staying up to watch the Perseid meteor shower. I opted for bed.
In hindsight, I should have stayed up as Sunday night/Monday morning, during the peak of the meteor shower, we experienced a vigorous thunderstorm which dumped an inch of rain in less than an hour during my Monday morning commute. Thankfully, there’s always next year for the Perseids.
Sunset Saturday 14 July 2012 (click image for rest of album)
I can blame nobody but myself. I gave up the opportunity to sit in an air conditioned smoke-free bar (Woody’s Watering Hole in Leavenworth), where I could have listened to my husband and his band buddies perform classic rock to support A Ride for the Wounded. I could have supported a worthy cause through my presence and donations and had a great time with old friends.
But no, I thought I would have a better time with my co-workers at our firm’s summer event, where the beer, barbecue and baseball were all free. And so was the scorching heat and unrelenting sunshine beating down on us on the unshaded Bud Light Party Deck in right field at the T-Bones stadium.
Sizzling on the Bud Light Party Deck
Since I don’t drink beer, I walked back down along the concourse to purchase a very tall and cold glass of lemonade. The bottle of water I’d gotten on the Party Deck with one of my two free drink tickets had been warm. I hung out with coworkers, many of them people I see everyday, Monday through Friday, in our small corner of the universe called IT. I ended up giving my other drink ticket to my of my female coworkers, but not before attempting to exchange it for something first (like another lemonade?).
I hardly noticed when the game started. The T-Bones played against the Wichita Wingnuts (who used to be known as the Wranglers when I lived there in the 80s and 90s, but that team name has since moved to Arkansas). Staring directly into the sun from right field and unable to clearly see the scoreboard behind my right shoulder, I completely missed the Wingnuts scoring a run in the second inning. I did notice multiple rookie errors on the part of the T-bones. The only scoring for the home team came with two home-runs (with no one on base). I gave myself a headache staring into the sun for nearly an hour, when it finally hid itself behind a thin cloud bank approaching from the northwest.
With no comfortable seating available on the Party Deck (and because I’d opted to take a ‘left over’ ticket for the firm’s summer event), I decided enough was enough and left the park during the bottom of the fifth inning. Five innings, two runs and five errors on the part of the T-bones. The Wingnuts had no errors and two runs. I could see where this game was heading. As I walked to the van, I could tell the sunset was shaping up to be a fiery one (click first photo above for entire album).
After taking a few photos from West Mary Street, I returned home to discover the bass player’s car parked where I usually park the van. I thought that was odd, since it wasn’t even nine o’clock yet. I found Terry and Sean in the nearly empty band room, eating a late supper and reporting that the gig went extremely well. This perturbed me to no end. Since my home hosts most band practices for this group, I get exposed to the best and the worst of the amplified rock music. So I had a somewhat jaundiced view of this latest collection of musicians’ ability to pull it together. Who knows, if I had attended, I probably would have jinxed the performance. But it still would have been nice to sit in a cool air conditioned bar and drank something other than beer (or lemonade … unless it was Hard Lemonade) and listen to my husband sing Cumbersome (which he’s not).
Terry singing (and playing) Cumbersome (Sat 14 July 2012)
This morning, after commuting in the pre-dawn darkness and parking almost underground, I emerged to find this pink sunrise greeting me on this fabulous Friday morning:
And in honor of the World Series bound Royals (first game is here in Kansas City next Tuesday evening) enjoy this snapshot from one of my many lunch walks around the Country Club Plaza, where all the fountains are overflowing with Royal blue:
Have a great weekend everyone!
