spring winds

We know spring is approaching because the winds have begun.

The boys are signed up for little league. Ry had an "evaluation" to determine if he should be in either machine pitch I or II. It consisted of some very little toss and catch and some batting. One of the fathers was tossing the balls into the kid's gloves, and when it was Rylee's turn I told the father Ry could handle an overhand throw. I asked the evaluator later when we would know the results. He looked Ry up and said he had already marked him for the second level. He'll be young for that. His fielding and throwing is great for his age, but I wondered about batting. The guy said the batting didn't matter because they were both machine pitch leagues. Jackson had to tryout for the minor league teams. The coaches actually draft the players. There were almost 50 other boys the day we went for the tryouts. Jackson did so well. He surprises me. He's very competitive, skillful, and he hustles. I found out that he did get drafted by the coaches he's played with for all of these years, and so we are very happy about that. It's a good group of boys, and the coaches are great and appreciate how well Jackson plays. In fact, I saw one of the coaches last night at the gym, and he remarked how everything changes this season with the players pitching. Lots of walks and therefore less defense. A transitional season for the young players. Last weekend, the boys and I went to the field for the annual cleanup. The fields have gotten so much better. In past years, there was lots of weeding and field maintenance to do. This year there was lots of painting, a lot of Altamont Blue I call it.

I went to Albertson's grocery store this weekend and found a copy of Scientific American Mind, and there's a story by Ariel in this month's newest issue. I gave it to Cyndi and said, page 46. Ariel? she asked. Cyndi loved Ariel's article and loved the entire issue. Ariel and Chris are excited about the wedding. Lots of work to do. She mentioned they went out of town last weekend to do some bicycle touring in the countryside.

Jackson stayed home from school yesterday. I came home early, while Rylee and Cyndi went to the day care at the gym. Jack is such a charming lad. He was supposed to take another test today for the gifted program at school. We found out he did meet the initial screening criteria from an earlier IQ-like test he did a couple of weeks back. I think he is very excited about it. Jackson and I went to the gym later. He and Rylee had a swim lesson with Jordan, a teacher there. Jackson is really getting the hang of the swim strokes. Ry is struggling a little, but Jordan thinks he's improving and Ry is developing a good backstroke. I really want to get them into the summer swim team season at the gym. It would make a huge difference in their swimming skills. I think they have practices every morning, and of course there will be a few weekend meets. I'd be happy with three sports seasons of baseball in the spring, swimming in the summer, and soccer in the fall. Ry would like to add basketball. We haven't been doing scouts this year, and we haven't gone skiing despite some great snow falls in the New Mexico mountains early in the season. Ry is doing a hip-hop class on Wednesday evening that he apparently loves. There's a small group of boys his age from his class doing it, too.

We are going to try a new homework and dinner schedule this week. It's time for the boys to have a bit more regimen, and it wouldn't hurt me any, too. We'll incorporate some chores, too, including kitchen clean up. I'm looking forward to it, and I'm sure Cyndi is, too.

Jackson continues to go to chess tournaments. Ry is losing heart in the chess club. I'm afraid he's not really ready for it. Ry and I continue our weekend mornings routine of apple fritters and donuts from Smith's, espresso and hot chocolate from the Starbucks next door, and the skateboard park at the new Domingo Baca park being developed a block down the road from the Starbucks. (That's a pretty exciting development well

underway, with a multi- generational center with an abundance of community classrooms and meeting rooms, a cafe, computers, a gym, an indoor track, and a workout room, a separate outdoor pool complex,  library, a playground, a dog park, several soccer fields, a natural habitat area, picnic areas, tennis courts, basketball courts, and the skateboard park.) Jackson has been joining us more and more, and the boys mostly use their scooters. Sometimes, there's one or two other families there at that early time. Often, we will see hot-air balloons, as many as twenty or more, over the valley below us.

This past weekend was pretty nice. I asked Jack what we should grill on Sunday, our first outdoor cooking of the year. I knew what he would say before he said it. Ribs. So I made two racks of ribs on Sunday. They loved the sauce. I cheated a bit by baking them first. I was afraid of charring them too much on the grill. I managed to work around the outside of the house the last three weekends, cleaning out beds, pruning bushes and cutting back ivy, even a little re-planting, and filling, sanding and priming the posts. I'm so glad the winter is nearly over, but I'm not looking forward to three months of wind.