Ryan continues to improve at baseball, hitting power isn't his strength right now, but the concepts of what he's doing and how to do it are getting better & better. Last week he was a little down because he was on a strikeout streak - and here's a little detour towards an explanation why. It's machine pitch, basically a series of levers catapults the ball towards the batter. However, it's not consistent and Ryan, being short, has a considerably smaller strike zone than many others. So sometimes the ball is over his head, other times it's a worm shagger and bouncing in front of the plate. There's no such thing as a "ball" in machine pitch, maximum 8 pitches and you're out of luck if not one is hittable.
So Ryan is telling me he doesn't like baseball because he never hits and never fields and I understand why, but after a few words of encouragement we go to the game in the evening and at the end he walks off 4 for 4 and he's a totally different kid, he's excited, he wants to play again and he knows he's going to get more hits. Right now his season stats say 6/14, 2 RBI, 2 runs which for him is very good indeed.
As the days get shorter he's only got 3 or 4 more games to go - and having to skip a game on Tuesday because our door latch broke and Jessica/Hannah couldn't get in, leaving me to return for some B&E, which let me assure you is a lot less fun when it's your own house and you have to spend the evening fitting a new set on the door, was a real shame.
Hannah is now up into the next class, all that means is she's gone over the wall in her classroom, still causing us to frantically look and see what terror she's up to on many occasions this week we almost managed to trade her in as Jessica called me on Thursday when I was on the way to speech saying "Tell me you have Hannah!", Nope, I've got the other one, and we're going to speech. "But she just got signed out by Chesterbrook, I got her report" led me to "suggest you call them and ask where she is then, perhaps we'll be able to trade up!" Jessica wasn't happy at that prospect, I wasn't going to say we have to accept, just that it would be smart to at least look at the alternative option :-) However by the time I got there, all was resolved and the deal was off the table and we had to bring back the original.
My parents made another trip to USA, only this time they ventured round the West Coast enjoying the sights and sounds of various states & cities, haven't caught up with them yet, they blame WiFi but we'll have a conversation and see how they enjoyed it. They're in danger of having seen more states than me!
Finally the prospect of voting in my first Presidential election should be exciting, but the comedy show playing out is actually rather depressing, we all have our opinions on the electoral options of each party, and most of us can be relatively engaged & informed about what the key voting issues are for us individually but this election is a shameful embarrassment for The Republican Party and how they arrived at such an obviously unacceptable candidate, in time I hope this represents a low point. Politics works best when you have multiple parties offering key alternatives working for the improvement of the country & its citizens. A close election between two qualified candidates arguing about important topics is a good thing, ridiculous pissing contests in House & Senate see everyone lose, it's time to work together and drag the country forwards.
If I wasn't at risk of being under "birther" status I'd put forward my manifesto and show them all how it could be done!
J,J,R&H
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