exhausted after a beautiful spring saturday...

I am exhausted after a beautiful spring saturday...

a saturday that has not yet ended
right now dean and grant are downstairs with friends from the block
they are watching a movie... Zathura
they already had popcorn
they already played a round of Apples to Apples
when the movie is over... one kid is going home... the other kid is staying for a sleep over

the day was pretty much scripted on the fly
initially lisa was headed to yoga and I was going to go to dean's first soccer game of the season
grant was set to go with dean and myself
due to grant's soreness in his leg from some shots at his four year old doctor appointment I hung back with grant and lisa took dean to his game

grant and I woke up slowly
well... let me say
we started our day slowly
grant got to watch some Spiderman 2 while I hugged the pillow for a few extra minutes

when dean returned there was some skateboarding and some lower than regulation basketball in the alley
after lunch lisa and I took the boys from the house by force
sometimes that is the way it has to happen

you are going
and this is what we are doing

dean did not want to go to get...
actually... dean did not want to do anything
adolescence starts early these days

it was a family trip to northern virginia
we wanted to get baseball gloves for the whole family
so that we can all get ready for dean's first season of baseball
having a left handed brother meant that I never got a baseball mitt
hand-me-downs were part of the world economy when I grew up

sports authority was madness
there were ten thousand gloves and no one in the store who knew enough to help us
we guess at some glove sizes
grabbed a couple of balls
ran our credit card and headed out

with skateboards in the car we headed to the park next to the skate park

the boys were stoked
we do not go to this park very often
it is a cool park

the boys played on the rope pyramid and all the other jungle gym stuff while lisa and I threw the ball
then dean joined in
it was going pretty well
a boy from the park joined in as well

so here it is...
the first father son game of catch between dean and myself
we have seven footballs, all sorts of basketballs, frisbees, and whatever else... but we never played catch
we have passed a soccer ball
but we have never played catch

it was going pretty well
by well... I mean that I was being patient
which for me does not come easy
patient is not my default setting

things were going pretty good
dean caught a few
and most of his throws were close enough for me to field
then it happened
I hit dean in the face with the ball

"how did that happen?
"am I bleeding?"
"this really hurts... is it going to swell up? I do not want this to swell up"

we stopped playing
we sat down
dean felt a little faint
sure enough he face was bruised and red

it was not till much later than I realized that there must be a child's baseball that is a tad more soft that would work just as well to play catch with a six year old child

after a minute or two on the bench
we went over to watch the kids on skateboards and bmx bikes
it was not long before the helmets and boards were out of the car and the boys were riding the ramps

not sure why my legs hurt so bad
no real activity today for me...
some yard work in the morning
a morning and afternoon short hike with the dog
and chasing the boys around the park
oh.... chasing the boys around
that is why my legs are tired

rode yesterday after work
hammered around on the karate monkey single
did a few hill repeats on the mountain bike
tomorrow I am headed to Schaeffer in the morning