After an early start on Friday to get to Upper Canada Village, we had an even earlier start on Saturday to get ourselves out the door just after 7:30. L13 and A11 had to be at their performance group retreat by 9:00, Andrew and I had to be at our softball team’s first play off game by 8:30 and they were in opposite directions. The girls were dropped at a friends’ with tent, sleeping bags, clothes, violins, food, music stand, life jackets and pillows. We arrived in time for our first game.

We play softball in the high tech league, tier B. It is a mixed league and every team has to have at least two women but three is preferable. Our team had three but is now down to two. Yesterday I was the only one available so someone had called in a friend. We barely won our first game, I actually hit the winning hit, which made my day and thrilled the team. Our second game went much better; another win, but after that the other woman left and it was just me. We still played but had an automatic out every eighth batter. Even though we didn’t win that one we have advanced to the semi-final on Monday night. While Andrew and I were playing B6 was wearing himself out on the adjacent skateboard park. He does not have a skateboard (yet) but was very happy on his Razor. When he wasn’t careening around himself he was watching everyone else’s moves. Needless to say he was a tired boy by bedtime.

While at the playoffs the convener dropped in with the trophies from the June tournament so I took the opportunity to get a photo of our team with the A2 trophy we won. Formidable looking bunch aren’t we?

Meanwhile out the other side of town, L & A were rehearsing with Stellae Boreales, the performance group they belong to. Generously, the parents of a group member agreed to host the retreat at their home. Everyone was made very welcome, copious amounts of delicious food was provided, the pool was heated to 85° and by all accounts everyone had a great time. Most of the kids slept in tents in the backyard, but somehow A11 managed to get a room and bed inside. Perhaps it was because the poor girl was the only one to end up in the river while kayaking!

I turned up this morning with chili for lunch and was able to listen to their last rehearsal. Although the group has shrunk since they last met in June they are sounding very promising. Both the coaches were impressed with their commitment and playing.

Our storm delayed game from Friday night was rescheduled to begin at 8:00 am Saturday morning so we dragged ourselves out of bed before 7:00. Play was delayed as there were large pools of water on the diamond. Thankfully someone arrived with a shovel and started digging a trench to drain the pool where the catcher, batter and umpire would be standing. He had been doing it at all the tournament fields since 6:00am. As I’m the catcher most of the time, I was relieved. It was still rather squelchy but the weather was warm and sunny all day and when we played there again later in the day it had all dried up.

We had perfect weather for a day of softball, warm but not sweltering, a breeze but not a gale. Our family applied sunscreen numerous times during the day but, as was obvious later in the day, some others on the team did not. We only lost one game during the tournament landing us in the A2 final which we won 20:10 at 8:30pm, tired but very satisfied.

During the afternoon, Andrew left to take the girls to their end of year violin recital. I was disappointed not to watch them but I had already heard them both perform their pieces where Andrew had not. He had also already played one game of hockey, one game of soccer and two games of softball in the last 30 hours!

The only other disappointment of the day was the language which bombarded my ears all day. Not just my team, they actually try to censor themselves a bit while our children are with us, but another team who was around most of the day. Certain members did not have the same respect for young ears. I found myself thinking at the end of the day, about the lack of creativity in using the same word over and over, often multiple times in one sentence as a noun, verb, adjective, adverb or interjection. If I came out with, “Beautiful! Did you see that beautiful batter hit that beauty straight over the beautiful centre fielder’s head?” people would think me strange. I just found myself very tired of hearing it by the end of the day.

I will say, though, that my team has endured my steep learning curve very patiently. This is our fifth season with the Lasers and if they had given me grief for my many errors I don’t think I would have lasted more than a season. I have improved and they have always encouraged.