storm surge

At this moment, Hurricane Sandy is bearing down on the northern Atlantic coast. This is the one which has been touted as the "perfect storm." Ariel and Chris live right on the East River, so they were in the zone ordered to evacuate. Ariel told me they boarded a bus yesterday and they are staying at Chris's family in New Jersey. High tides and ocean surges are threatening low-lying areas around Manhattan. There's no transportation in the city; no airlines; no trains. So far I haven't heard of any power outages. Electioneering has taken a reprieve.

Cyndi has been making many apple crisps since Mom & Dad were here and has decorated the house for fall and Halloween. They boys are gearing up for Halloween. Rylee is a werewolf, and Jackson is a "phantom." We went to a party a couple of weekends ago, so the boys could preview their costumes. Cyndi went as a "hillbilly", and I went to the closet and tried to pick out whatever clothes seemed the most comical together and ended up looking like an eccentric Scottish duffer, so I took a golf club to the party to complete the look. The hostess's house was elaborately decorated for Halloween and there was great food. Lots of kids costumed. Not a bad party; not a great one. Pete & Dorie will have a pumpkin carving get-together Tuesday night and the kids will go trick or treating on Wednesday evening.

Rylee finished his baseball season. It was a good season for him, mostly due to the opportunity to play with the big kids and some really good coaching and regular practices. He didn't get to play many key positions often during the games, as the coach played the big boys a lot to complete an undefeated season but he did play second (or third or short) during the late innings of most games, moving in from left or center fields. Ry got many walks, having the shortest strike zone in the league, but in the last game he made contact with the ball at every at-bat. That was a great accomplishment, even though he got thrown out at first and didn't have a chance to run the bases, which he loves. He is very fast on the bases. He got a chance to play in some pretty serious games, with some real baseball, and see how the game is played at a higher level. The boys grew into a great cohesive team together. They included Ry wholeheartedly and he played with them as equals. He wasn't intimidated at all.

So here's something that struck me as humorous: Ry is younger than his teammates by three or four years. They are bigger and taller. A couple are serious pitchers; several can smash the ball with that resonant ping. But the coaches and the other parents in the bleachers really liked Ry. His fielding and throwing skills always surprised them. A couple of parents mentioned club ball, which is a huge commitment and a level of playing way above the little leagues around town. I've been curious but not especially motivated to start club ball. One parent, however, approached me during the last game to tell me about a ball club that was interested in Rylee joining them. Rylee was being recruited! He's in second grade.

This past weekend, Ry's last game and Jackson's soccer game were almost at the same time. I had to get Ry to warm ups, so I didn't get to watch Jackson's. He told me he got another goal, and no one scored when he was the goalie. I'm glad to see him love the game. He's very confident about his skills this year, loves practicing his footwork, and I think he must be playing at school, too. He seems to be especially good as a tackler on defense, and is really aggressive as a forward. He's the best goalie on the team this year. I don't know what to do in the future, however, as I think he will have to move into a more competitive league next year or, certainly, the one after. He does want to play baseball in the spring. I'm hoping he develops into a pitcher next spring, as I think that would be a good position for him and he had such a great success at it during his last game. But so far, he and Ry haven't been playing much catch as pitcher and catcher together, preferring to play soccer together right now.

It's great fun when they play together. They are often wrestling each other without it coming to tears. Ry often plays with Nico, our neighbor, often on scooters. Ry loves being outside. Jackson will sometimes join them, more so lately.

Jack's first love, however, is still the computer, and he's always telling me more about some software or something else that can let him do this, that or the other thing. I almost got a sense the other day that he may be on the verge of hacking as he was talking about networks and servers and codes. It's harder to follow what he is talking about. The great thing is that Jackson loves talking about it. Part of it is he wants to keep me apprised about what he is doing on the computer. He still asks me if it's okay to download anything new.

The school school year is getting better for him. I think it's a new crop of friends; some from his soccer team, too. He seems to be getting some higher level mathematics: some geometry this month. And now we practice spelling every Thursday night so he gets a perfect score the next day. He's getting recognition again for his computer knowledge. He's proud to be a bit "weird", it's the word he uses, in his interests. The Academy had an open house on Sunday, and we checked that out. I think he was excited. I know Cyndi is. It remains to be seen whether that is an option. It is not only very competitive; it is very expensive.

Ry continues to do well at school himself. I think his reading and math are way ahead of his level. He makes up math problems for himself, so he is constantly thinking about the concepts. He's big into square roots and multiplication powers, and he breaks down operations into parts so he can do them in his head. He reads ferociously. He gets Jack to check out books from the part of the library reserved for the older grades.

Ry and I watched a lot of the playoffs and world series games--bits and pieces mostly, here and there. He was for the Tigers, once they bumped off the Yankees (his first baseball cap) but he started getting into the Giants the more we watched them.

The leaves of the cottonwood started turning a bright yellow this weekend. The chrysanthemums are blooming, and so are the roses. The grass is turning brown in spots and, with other plants, has stopped growing. The leaves of the  little aspen have been turning brown around the edges for weeks, and someone said this is a sign of a cold winter. Generally, it was a slow growth summer, with very little rain. We took a beating with our water bill. Saturday morning was so cold that we had to close the evaporative cooler ducts and turn on the furnace. We only get about two weeks in the spring and again in the fall when we aren't running one or the other. These days, however, are sunny with crisp morning temperatures and sunny skies.