"Baseball Daddy?"

After a long, January day filled with freezing cold tempatures, snow, work, attic remodeling and toddlers who weren't as enthusiastic about their dinner as they should have been; I was going about the task of getting the children's room ready for bedtime. At least one of their toy buckets was emptied all over the floor, the bathroom was soaked from bathtime (how DID water end up on the far wall?) and their blankets were hardly to be found. With a bit of a sigh I opened my mouth to utter an old familiar phrase, "OK, I want both of you to get this room picked up so we can get ready for bed," or a variation thereof. Right at the instant I was opening my mouth, my two-year-old son trots into the room with a soft-ball sized ball of packing tape, a tiny black baseball glove, a short plastic bat, and shining excited eyes. He holds his treasures up towards me and says "Baseball Daddy? Baseball?"

Who could resist that? I'm afraid bedtime was postponed a bit this evening...


After a long and glorious absence, I am back at my keyboard. Sickness, travel, holidays and an attic remodeling project have conspired to keep posts from going up here at Country Roads. In my absence so much has happened that I'm afraid the next post will be rather lengthy and rambling. That should be no suprise to regular readers... At any rate, I have not abandoned the effort, simply put it on hold for other things. In the meantime, take heart! Pitchers and Catchers report for spring training in 30 days, 12 hours!

~ Gabriel