Snowy Day

I must have the February heebie-jeebies. Snow last week, snow now, snow forever, or so it feels. Good thing I can remember softball. There was snow when Clare practiced with her travel team and snow when the varsity season started in late February. There was even snow during the season. One day early in the spring of Clare’s sophomore, her coach recruited me to help him shovel out the dugouts so they could get a game in. So, obviously, there had to be snow in college. Elven years ago last week, when Clare was a freshman Blue Jay, it snowed just over twenty-one inches in and around Chicago; that had to make getting to the gym for practice a whole lot of fun. But it all melted, more or less, once the regular season kicked off in April. Thank heaven for Florida. Four straight years, the Blue Jays flew down to start things right. The first year, six weeks after we shoveled out a good thirty inches of snow that had buried the basement stairs, Michele and I were walking around Claremont, Florida, in our shorts. The locals could tell we were from out-of-town. It was “only” eighty degrees out. The Blue Jays had to cancel their Florida trips in 2020 and 2021 on account of COVID, but I see they’re going next month. Good for them, good for their parents. Way good for their parents.