They Don't Play Ball in Thunderstorms!

The weather forecasters had been predicting that the storm that hit the California coast yesterday would be here late this afternoon. Instead, it started raining hard enough about 3 AM this morning to wake me up. It rained hard all morning! Then about 10:30 it appeared to start clearing up. I had been checking the Mariners Spring Training web-site all morning. As it began to clear, the site said that the game was on.

It's almost an hour's drive from Valle del Oro in Mesa over to the Peoria Sports Complex in Peoria. We could see more and more blue sky as we drove, so we were feeling pretty good about the game. The field in Peoria was gorgeous today.

They are celebrating the twentieth year of the facility and it is in great shape --

The Mariners were playing the Oakland Athletics today.  Hector Noesi was the lead-off pitcher for the Mariners and the A's just ate him alive! The wind was gusty and blowing towards the outfield. The A's got two two-base hits and three home runs in the first inning. And the poor Mariners couldn't buy a hit. We have watched Dustin Smoak since he first came up when we were in Arizona two years ago. We'd read that he was doing pretty good this year, but today he couldn't do anything...

By the start of the fourth inning, the clouds around us had gotten very dark and the lights were turned on. Then we started seeing flashes of lightning over beyond left field. The umpires immediately pulled the teams off the field and the ground crew started pulling out the tarp.

The wind gave the ground crew and their helpers a pretty tough time. They had trouble hanging on to it -- and keeping out from under it.  About that time, it really started to pour. We thought it might just be a rain delay, but saw that the teams were not only leaving the dugouts, but were taking all their equipment with them...

Since the teams hadn't played a full five innings to make it a legal game, they later announced it would be considered a cancelled game. We should be able to trade our tickets in for another Spring Training  game in the next couple of weeks.

A VERY Busy Day!

I'm feeling like I got a lot accomplished today! Forry went over early to the mail box, then to the office with the pink slip to pick up our box of mail that Daughter MM had sent last Friday. While he was gone, I stuck the first load of clothes in the washing machine.

When Forry got back, I sorted the mail, then turned on both computers to pay bills. The stuff for our personal bills at the credit union are all on my computer, while the ones for the ranch are on Forry's. There are a couple of bills that Forry liked to pay by telephone, so we got those taken care of as well.

All the while we were doing the financial stuff, I was continuing to work on the laundry. It was a good day to be doing it as it was warm with a bit of a breeze. The clothes I hung dried very quickly.

This afternoon was the first of the season TV broadcast of a Mariner's Spring Training game. And what a game it was! The Mariners got quite bat-happy and ended up beating the Colorado Rockies 16-6. It was a fun game to watch. We have tickets for the Oakland Athletics game with the Mariners at the Peoria Sports Complex on Friday. I can hardly wait!