A Not so Happy Mother's Day

Bowie Baysox (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Here is hoping that everybody had a very happy Mother's Day.  I would like to say that ours was spectacular, but unfortunately that is not the case.

The day started off well enough.  My wife got up with me early and we went to my new church.  After church we went to do the grocery shopping before we started our primary plans for the day.  Our plan was to pick up our son at school and take him to a Bowie Baysox game instead of our usual visit of taking him to Golden Corral for lunch.

The visit started our well enough.  We picked him up, and he was excited about going to the game.  We got to the stadium, and he wanted a hamburger and french fries for lunch.  He enjoyed the game, but unfortunately our Bowie Baysox lost the game.  When it was time to leave, we stopped by the restroom before starting our drive back to his dorm.

That is when our troubles began.  After my son finished urinating, he announced that he didn't want to go back to school and dropped to the ground in the men's room.  Thankfully, another gentleman asked me if I needed help with him, and I had him go to the first aid station to see if they could help.  He called one of the park policeman working security for assistance.

The three of us tried to calm my son down.  We even tried to get my son into a wheelchair to try to take him out to our car.  Eventually, we had to call the fire department and have them send out a crew with a stretcher to try to get him out to the car.  I got him to walk out of the restroom, but he dropped again.  At that point, the security officer, two paramedics and I carried him out to the car.

Once we got him to the car, he got up on his own and climbed into his seat in the car.  We then headed back to school without incident.  Once we got back to school, he ate the dinner that the had for him.  While we were there, they showed us the technique they use for getting him up when he drops.  I hope we never have to use it, but it was good info to know for the future.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mothers Day #family #fam #mom #dad #TagsForLikes #brother #sister #brothers #sisters #bro #sis #siblings #love #instagood #father #mother #related #fun #photooftheday #children #kids #life #happy #familytime #cute #smile #fun via dickster1961

First off, I want to wish all of the Moms out there a very happy Mother's Day.  This morning, we got up early and I drove my wife out to my son's school on the Eastern Shore so that she could have lunch with our boy on Mother's Day.  We decided to just have a little visit with him on campus.  We had a pizza delivered and after lunch we walked around campus and spent some time on the playground.  He was more interested in going back into the dorm to watch some DVDs that I had burned and brought for him.

That was not our original plan for Mother's Day, nor is it our usual routine when visiting our son.  Our original plan for Mother's Day was to pick up our son for an unscheduled weekend home and to take him to a Bowie Baysox game today, then drive him back to school.  Normally, when we visit our son, we take him off campus for lunch at Golden Corral and then either to Target or Walmart to get a new CD or DVD.

To explain why we changed our original plans and normal routine, we had to go back one week to our last visit with our son.  It started like several successful visits of late.  We picked up our son shortly after 11:00 and headed out to the Golden Corral in Easton, MD.  He ate three plates of his favorite foods from Golden Corral; pot roast, bourbon chicken, mashed potatoes, and macaroni & cheese.  So far, it was the start of a very pleasant visit.

After lunch, we got back in the car and headed to Target.  Once there, my son headed straight to the back of the store to the music department to find a CD or DVD.  He walked up and down each aisle looking for something, but just couldn't find anything that he wanted.  With my son's autism, even though he is very verbal, he sometimes has a difficult time telling us what he wants when he can't find it.  That is when things took a decided turn for the worse.

One of my son's undesirable behaviors is one we refer to as dropping.  If he doesn't want to do something, or is upset for some reason, he will drop to the ground, make himself dead weight, and refuse to get up.  When he drops, it can last for a few moments, or in some cases quite a long time.  This particular incident was one of the longer ones.  We spent over two hours trying to calm our son down, figure out what he wanted, and get him back to school.

We tried singing to him, stroking his hands, bringing him CDs and DVDs of acts that he has enjoyed in the past.  Nothing worked.  We got a few smiles and responses but we just couldn't get him off the floor.  At one point, we called the school to see if they could send somebody out to try to help get him back.  At long last, my wife came back to where we were with something that got our son off of the ground.

One of the things that my son likes to watch is, of all things, infomercials.  He particularly likes the ones that feature vacuum cleaners.  My wife came back with an inexpensive, rechargeable portable Dirt Devil.  That did the trick.  He got up, grabbed the vacuum, and headed to the front of the store just as the back up from the school showed up to help.  Now, he has his own personal vacuum in his dorm.

After an incident like this, it usually takes us a little while before we try to venture back out.  We were very hesitant to bring him home for the weekend for fear of a repeat performance at the stadium.  We were also very hesitant to try our usual routine of lunch at Golden Corral.  As it turned out, we had a nice little lunch and visit on campus, and he was in a great mood when we left.

Baysox Photos

I went to the Bowie Baysox baseball game on Sunday and took my camera with me.  Here are a few of the photos from that day.

Confessions of an Ex-Fat Person

myfitnesspal (Photo credit: oklanica)

Quite often, ex-smokers become the most vocal and ardent opponents of smoking.  I suppose that is understandable as they finally came to realize just how harmful their habit is and they want to, for lack of a better term, evangelize others to their side.  Still, it is almost like they have become too judgmental in their quest to get others to quit.

This morning, I hit two milestones in my use of MyFitnessPal in my weight loss goals.  First, I have logged into the app for 100 straight days.  Second, when I weighed in this morning, I hit the 40 pounds lost mark.  I now weight 190 pounds for the first time in years.   I still want to lose at least 10 pounds more, and perhaps another 20.  We will see how I feel once I get down to 180 pounds.

Hitting those goals is great for me from a mental point of view.  Continuing to see progress helps to keep me motivated to keep going.  But maybe more important than that is the reactions of some family members that I saw on Thursday that I had not seen in several weeks.  Their comments only further enforce in my mind that I am on the right path.

My youngest brother, who has never had a weight problem, asked me how much weight I lost.  When I told him, he said that pretty soon I would weigh less than him.  Right now, I am only 16 pounds heavier than he is.  My sister told me that I needed to go out and get all new clothes, which I don't want to do until I have finished losing.  My mother said I was now too skinny.  According to the BMI charts, 175 pounds is the upper limit for a "healthy" weight for me, which is why I may want to get down to 170.

Obesity Campaign Poster (Photo credit: Pressbound)

Later that night, my wife and I were attending the Bowie Baysox game.  As an aside, the Baysox won the game thus clinching a spot in the playoffs which begin next week.  At the game, we saw my brother-in-law and my father-in-law.  My brother-in-law told me he almost didn't recognize me.  My father-in-law asked about my weight loss and complimented me on doing so.

So what does the vocal ex-smoker's crusade against smoking have to do with my weight loss quest?  Thursday night, I had thoughts that entered my mind that made me think I may be becoming the same thing, only towards fat people.  As I sat in my seat at the game, I looked around and saw so many overweight people, many who were much larger than I was when I started.  I thought to myself, "My God! We do have an obesity problem in this country."

One thing that I will never do is be an advocate of the government stepping in and mandating behaviors in the quest of helping people. From my own experience, one must be mentally prepared to make the changes needed to lose weight.  For years I knew I was too heavy and needed to lose weight but just couldn't bring myself to do so. Education is the key to being able to make the right decisions to eat healthy.  It is one of the reasons I am such a fan of MyFitnessPal on my phone.  Having caloric information at my fingertips helps me to make wise food choices on a daily basis.

I have to confess that I was somewhat ashamed at myself for the thought because it was tinged with a touch of judgmentalism rather than thoughts of "there but by the grace of God go I."  It is one thing to make the observation about the obesity problem, it is another to think ill of those who need a change in their lives.  I never thought I would be that guy.  I also know that I could easily slip back into the behaviors that caused me get fat in the first place.  I hope that the realization that I have had those negative thoughts will help me to put them behind me.  I would much rather encourage and understand where others are at.

I haven't posted at DudeWrite for a while, so I am going to post this there as well.  If you haven't already, you should really check them out to see blog posts from other bloggers who happen to be dudes.  Read the posts and go back to the vote for your favorites.

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Picture This

Me and my Nikon, posted on Instagram

I have had a number of hobbies over the years.  Like a lot of kids, I collected a lot of things; baseball and football cards, stamps, and coins.  When I into my teen years, I moved on to playing the guitar and some organized sports.  One of my more favored hobbies over the years involved photography.  Photography really became one of my favorite activities.  I took a lot of photos back in the on a variety of subjects.  My favorite subjects, however, were sports and landscape photography.

During my film photography days, I started off with a completely manual Pentax K1000.  I loved that camera and it took some pretty good photos.  That camera went with me just about everywhere, especially to sporting events.  I bought as many telephoto and zoom lenses as I could so that I could take decent photos at various sporting events that I attended, mostly baseball and football, but also a few hockey and even a trip to the Ice Capades.

I read a lot of photography books and magazines back then to try to come up with new ideas and techniques to try out.  I experimented with a lot of different films and techniques to see what kind of images I could create with my camera.  The Cokin Creative Filter system became one of my favorite tools.  They had so many different filters that I couldn't get enough of them.  Black and white film was another fun thing to play with.

At one point, I actually considered trying to make a career in photography.  I had a friend who started taking ballet lessons to meet girls.  He had a recital and invited me to take some photos.  I shot a few rolls of film and he took them in to show people in his group.  A few of the people in his group liked them so much that they paid me for copies of the prints that they could have for their portfolio.  Unfortunately I never pursued it seriously as the guaranteed money of a steady job won out.

After I got married, and especially after my son was born, I lost interest in photography.  My camera pretty much set unused for months at a time.  During a particularly tight financial period, I took my now seldom used cameras to a camera store and sold them for some much needed cash.  Most of my photos at this point were simple family photos that could be taken with a basic point and shoot camera.

Then came the digital age.  A few years ago, I decided to take the plunge and buy myself a digital single lens reflex camera, a NikonD40x.  With our love affair with the Bowie Baysox, I decided that I wanted to get back into photographing sports again.  There isn't a bad seat in the stadium so we are always able to get fairly close to the action.  We also were a part of the Bowie Baysox boosters which gives scrapbooks to all the players.  Some of my photos have been parts of those books.

About a month ago, I received an email from one of my trade journals.  They said that since I was subscribing to the trade journals, I qualified for a free magazine subscription.  I had been thinking a lot more about my old photography hobby and decided to try a subscription to Popular Photography.  I have received two issues so far and have read them cover to cover.

I was talking to my friend at work recently, the one that I talk about Bathroom Boy and Ms. Spectacular, about wanting to do more on the weekends.  With my son being away at school, I have been wanting to do more things on my days off.  In particular, I want to go out with my camera and see if I can create great photos instead of just snap shots.  At least, that is the goal.

I discovered that there is a photography club nearby in my neighborhood.  They meet on Monday evenings at 7:30 pm.  Their next meeting is on September 17th.  I am going to try to attend the meeting to see if it is something that would interest me.  Their annual dues are $25, which won't break the bank.  They also have several photo competitions throughout the year.  Their website says that visitors are always welcome so I can check them out with no obligation.

I have recently purchased a new camera bag that will allow me to more readily have my camera with me at all times.  Later this week, the family is heading to Ocean City for a few days before my son has to go back to school.  The camera will be going as well.  I have also started following a few different photography blogs in the hopes of getting some good pointers.

If all goes well and I follow through with all these grandiose plans of improving my photography, I hope to post photos here.  I am also considering starting another blog strictly dedicated to my photography.  If and when that happens, I will be sure to post about it here.  I have already created the URL in blogger.  I am leaning towards using one of Blogger's dynamic view templates for it.  Stay tuned for more.

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Fundamental Transformation

I am about to write a sentence that I didn't think that I would ever write. Barack Obama is right about one thing. We do need to fundamentally transform this country. Unfortunately he is dead wrong about the type of transformation we need.  I am not usually one that finds "messages from God" in everything that I see and hear around me. However, there have been two books and an event, the Cowboy Monkey Rodeo at the Bowie Baysox game, that I attended recently that have left me with the thoughts that I am about to share with you here.  I will deal with each individually and briefly.

The first book was On the Precipice by Chris Hambleton.  The book takes a look at the message to Israel and Judah from the Biblical Book of Hosea and how it could possibly relate to the United States of America today.  It addresses the consequences of how Israel turned its back on God and in turn, God removed His hand of blessing upon them.  As Israel continued to turn to idolatry and foreign aliances, God left them to their own devices leading to the fall of the nations of Israel and Judah and the eventual Diaspora of the Jewish peoples.

Hambleton then compares the message to Israel and taylors it towards the United States.  He argues that the United States was a unique country in history.  Unlike Israel who was chosen by God, the United States was founded upon Judeo Christian principals and relied on God in their early days.  As we have grown stronger and richer as a nation, much like Israel, we have turned away from God and rely on our own strength and wisdom. 

One cannot read our Declaration of Independence and the writings of the Founding Fathers without coming away with the notion that at the very least, they believed in a Creator and Divine Providence.  Our Constitution does not guarantee that people will be free from religion with no reference to God in the public arena, but that everyone was free to worship or not worship however they see fit.  Its purpose was to prevent the government from forcing everyone into the same creed such as the Church of England.  Sadly, we have twisted it such a way to push God further from the public square.

Which brings me to the second book that I recently read that has lead to this post.  That book was called Why Christians Can't Be Democrats by Michael DeLance Thomas.  I have to confess that I did not fully read the description when I downloaded the book.  Originally, I thought it was going to be a humorous look.  Instead, it was a serious look at the policies that the Democrats stand for and how those policies stand in conflict with Christianity.

The premise of Thomas' book is that Christianity is based on being under God's government.  God's government allows man to be free.  He argues that man's government is here to protect our rights under God's government.  However, the more we allow man's government to take control of things in our lives, the more we push God's government away from us, thus reducing our freedoms.  The goal of the Christian should be to vote for politicians that will promote God's government over man's government.

Thomas argues that the Democrats are more devoted to pursuing man's government over God's government.  Under God's government, we rely on each other to voluntarily pursue acts of charity.  Rather than to allow individuals to act freely to help others in need, man's government forces others to pay in the form of taxes to redistribute income to those in need.  The Democrats and their policies rely on man's government to a much greater degree.  To be fair, Thomas does not argue favorable towards Republicans, but does say that they tend to rely somewhat less on man's government.

You may now be wondering how the Cowboy Monkey Rodeo relates to these two books.  Fair question.  During the last segment of the Cowboy Monkey Rodeo, the man who works with the monkeys and dogs for the performance gave a little speech.  He said that we as a country had lost our way.  We had failed to adhere to our founding principals and that we had pushed God further away from our lives.

So, when I say that I believe we do need to fundamentally transform this country, it is in the form of a Spiritual transformation.  I am not saying that we need to become a theocracy.  Nor am I saying that everyone in the country needs to become a born again Christian.  What I am saying is that we need to return to the principals that this country was founded upon and that made the United States what it was.  With God's help, we can.

Cowboy Monkey Rodeo

I have been looking forward to this day since I first saw it on the promotional calendar for my hometown Bowie Baysox.  Today was Country Day at the ball park and as part of the entertainment between innings the Cowboy Monkey Rodeo was on display.

Let's face it.  I am a guy.  I like sports, and like most guys, I like monkeys.  If you want to have a hit commercial during the Super Bowl, you have monkeys in the ad.  Now, combine baseball and monkeys and you have the ultimate in guy entertainment.

Oh yeah, and there was also a baseball game which the Baysox won handily.  A great day at the ballpark.

Drop by Dude Write to check out this and other blog posts by the dudes that are participating this week.

Time for June Break

Tomorrow is the end of the current school year for our son.  My wife will be heading out in the early morning to go pick him up and bring him home for one of his longer breaks, two weeks.  He is set to head back to school on July 5th, which will allow a nice visit home.

The program that my son is on with his school is essentially a 12-month program with the new year starting in July.  The July session usually runs about 5 or 6 weeks and then a second summer break in August.  During the August break we will take our annual trek out to Ocean City.

With the beginning of this June break, I will be taking a rare weekend off of my weekend pizza delivery gig as we have a lot of activities planned over the next two weeks.  Friday night is Autism Awareness night at the  Bowie Baysox stadium.  It is one of the nights we make sure to attend during the season.

Saturday night, my in-laws are having a party to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.  My son is looking forward to attending the party.  I am just hoping that he will be well behaved.  Normally at events like this we have to worry about keeping him entertained.

Sunday, we have another Baysox game on the calendar.  As soon as the promotional calendar was released and I saw Sunday's promotion I knew that we would have to attend the game.  Sunday is country day and will feature the Cowboy Monkey Rodeo.


I googled Cowboy Monkey Rodeo and discovered that they have monkeys dress up like cowboys and ride dogs around like horses.  Let's face it, as a guy, you just can't beat a day of baseball and monkeys.  I will definitely be trying to get some good photos for the blog.


In addition to all the fun stuff we have planned, we also have a lot of other not so fun things we have to take care of before he returns to school.  Each year, he has to have a check up from his doctor and a form filled out from his dentist.  Both of those should  be an adventure.  We will see how the next two weeks impact the amount of time I spend blogging.

Feeling the Fool

Katy Perry - MMVA Soundcheck (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Did you ever have one of those moments when you felt like you simply looked like a fool?  I had one of those moments this afternoon.

I scheduled a personal day off from work today so that we could take care of some issues with our son while he is home from school.  We had met previously with a lawyer to discuss filing for legal guardianship of our son once he turned 18, which was this past Saturday.  The lawyer had provided us with some alternatives to guardianship such as a Power of Attorney and Advanced Medical Directive that we needed to have our son sign now that he is of legal age.

My son did an excellent job of answering the questions that the lawyer provided for him.  He signed both documents allowing us to handle decisions regarding his assets and his health.  These should be enough in the state of Maryland, but if by chance they are not, we will then proceed to the next step and start the legal proceedings to have us declared legal guardians.  We also need to set up another appointment with the lawyer for estate planning to put any assets into a special needs trust should anything happen to my wife and I.

Adele (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We promised our son that once we ran the errand of visiting the lawyer's office that we would take him to Target where he could use some of the gift cards and money he received for his birthday to buy himself some things.  He needed a new portable CD player because he broke yet another one.  He also wanted to buy himself some new CDs.  His musical tastes have grown since he has gone away to school.  He picked out CDs from Katy Perry and Adele instead of his usual country music. True to form, he also picked out a Kidz Bop CD.

After I took my wife and him home, I had a few more errands to run.  This is where the feeling like a fool part comes in.  My son wants to go to another Bowie Baysox game tonight, so I headed up to the stadium to pick up tickets.  I had eaten a protein bar in the car and took the wrapper to the trash can in front of the stadium.  Just as I was placing the wrapper in the trash can, a gust of wind blew it back out and across the front of the stadium.  I am not quite as spry as I once was, and as I chased after the wrapper, each time I reached down to grab it, the wind would send it out of my grasp.  I finally caught up to it after several yards, but I felt like an idiot.  At least I can't be accused of littering.

Spring Has Sprung

Image via Wikipedia

It is mid-March and temperatures today were getting awfully close to 80 degrees.  That is unusually warm for this time of year here in Maryland, about 20-25 degrees more than average.  It is definitely giving me a little bit of spring fever.  We have picnic tables outside of our office building so I took my lunch and Kindle outside with me to enjoy the nice weather.

The other I start thinking about when the weather starts to get a little warmer is baseball.  It is only three weeks until my Bowie Baysox start their 20th season in Bowie.  Now that my son is away at school, one of the first things that I do when the Baysox release their schedule is to compare their home schedule with his scheduled breaks home.  This year, unlike last year, every weekend he comes home the Baysox have games scheduled.

His next break happens to coincide with the opening week of the season.  It also happens to coincide with his 18th birthday. The Baysox have a game that day, and one of our friends with the team has arranged to let him throw out a ceremonial first pitch.  Naturally for this big event, we want to let our extended family know in case they want to come out to the park to help us celebrate and to cheer on our son as he throws his first pitch.

It was while investigating the schedule and looking for tickets to that game that I discovered a new ticket pricing policy that the team has implemented this season.  First, they have raised the price of all tickets by $1 per seat.  In these tight times, I am not happy about that, but it is also to be somewhat expected.  The price of everything is going up these days.

The other thing that the team did with ticket prices is something I really think is a bad move.  In addition to raising the base ticket price by a $1, they have now added a premium of $2 to the price of a ticket if you decide to purchase the ticket the day of the game.  So, if you wake up one morning and decide it would be a great day to go to a game, that ticket will cost you $3 more than last year, and $2 more than if you bought the tickets in advance.

I wrote an email to the club to complain about the new policy.  The general manager of the team emailed me and gave me a call to discuss different options for our family.  That is one of the great things about the team.  They really do go out of their way to reach out to the fans.  He sent me info about their flex ticket plans that will save us $5-$7 per ticket.  Today, I placed my order for a 16 ticket plan for the upcoming season.  As we use these, I will probably end up buying a couple of additional plans as needed. 

In addition to ordering my tickets, I also took a look at the Baysox upcoming promotional schedule.  As usual, there are a lot of great events scheduled, with the best fireworks show in the area.  One particular promotion that I am looking forward to is in June for Country Day featuring the Cowboy Monkey Rodeo, where monkeys dressed like cowboys ride dogs like horses.  It looks like that will be a fun day to be at the park. 

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Back to the Grind

Well, the holidays are officially over.  I know this for a fact, not because of the calendar, but rather based on the amount of cars on the road this morning.  For the past two weeks, traffic has been almost non-existent on the beltway here in the DC area.  Usually, I have a five mile stretch of the beltway that is bumper to bumper, but during the holidays there was no backup.  It was back in full force this morning.

I also know that the holidays are over because the house is a little bit emptier this evening than it has been for the past two weeks.  Today was the day that my son had to return to his residential school after the Christmas break.  My son gets several breaks home during the school year, but most of them are a few days for long weekends.  The Christmas break is one of a few long breaks home from school.

It is always tough when he has to go back to school.  It is much tougher after the long breaks home.  We always have a hard time getting him in the car whenever his breaks end.  My wife discovered that it is even more difficult when I am home as he knows something is amiss if I am not at work.  Consequently, I usually do not go back to the school with them when breaks end.

The other thing is that we can not tell him right away that he is going back to school.  Then he won't get in the car.  When I left the house this morning, I had to tell him "see you later," rather than "see you tonight."  My wife has to concoct new schemes to get him in the car under the guise of running an errand or visiting someone.  She does those things, but then once back in the car, she heads off to school.

He gets a little upset when he realizes that he is heading back to his school.  He will usually tell my wife that he doesn't want to go back to school.  Then he will sometimes say that "Mommy lied," but by the time he gets back to school he is fine.  He got out of the car when he arrived at school and headed to class.  Then he told his teacher all the things he did on break.

We will probably head out to school in a couple of weeks and see him when we have to go for his annual IEP meeting and to drop off medication refills with the school nurse.  His next long weekend home will be in about six weeks when he will be home for over the Presidents Day Weekend.  Then his next long break of nearly two weeks will occur around Easter, which also happens to be his 18th birthday.  One of our friends at the Bowie Baysox is saying she will have to arrange something special for him.

Also marking the end of the holiday period is the Iowa Republican caucuses that take place tonight.  It is the first in what promises to be a very long election cycle.  I will probably be checking out the results later tonight to see how things shake out.  Right now, I think I am like the 40% of Iowans who are still undecided as to who to vote for the GOP Presidential nominee.  Perhaps more on this tomorrow.

Bowie Baysox Ripped Off

Image via WikipediaThis will probably come across as a little bit of sour grapes, but being a rule of law guy here goes.  I have mentioned many times here that my family and I are huge Bowie Baysox fans.  As the baseball season was drawing to a close, the Baysox were in the hunt for a playoff spot.  Going into yesterday's games, the Baysox needed to win their final game of the season, but needed the Altoona Curve to defeat the Richmond Flying Squirrels in order to make the playoffs.

For those that are not familiar with the game of baseball, a game typically consists of nine innings played.  In the event of a tie at the end of nine innings, they do play extra innings.  However, their are occasions when a game can be shortened due to rain or other circumstances.  In order for a game to be considered official, at least five innings need to be played.  There are other rules that govern when a game is considered official.

In baseball, the visiting team bats first and the home team bats second.  If the home team is ahead after the visiting team has their final set of at bats, they do not bat.  In the event of a rain shortened game, if the visiting team scores runs in the top half of an inning, the home team has to have an opportunity to take their turn at bat to have the opportunity to win the game.  In other words, each team should have the same number of at bats, unless the home team is ahead.

That brings me to the point of my rant today.  Both the Baysox game and the Richmond game were shortened yesterday due to rain.  In the case of the Baysox, they were the home team in their game.  Going into the final inning, the Baysox were ahead in their game 3-1.  The visiting team scored one run in the top of the inning making the game 3-2 when the rains came halting play.  The game was called due to the rain and the Baysox got the victory.

In the case of the Richmond/Altoona game, Richmond was the visiting team and Altoona the home team.  The score was tied 1-1 going into the top of the 8th inning.  Richmond took a 2-1 lead in the 8th inning when the rain started and halted the game.  It was determined that Richmond was the winner of the game, even though baseball's rules would dictate that Altoona would need to bat in order for the game to be considered official.

Now it is very likely that Richmond would have managed to hold on and win the game anyway to secure their spot in the playoffs.  Had the game not had any importance in terms of the teams that would make the playoffs, it would probably not be that big of a deal to me that it was decided that Richmond was the victor in this case.  However, I can not help but feel that my Bowie Baysox were royally ripped off in this case. 

Another Long, but Fun Day

Image by JasonTromm via FlickrWe have had a lot of activities this Labor Day Weekend.  Friday night was Autism Awareness night at the Bowie Baysox game, so we naturally had to attend that.  Yesterday was our day at the Baltimore Grand Prix.  We originally were not going to do anything after that, but the house was hot because the air conditioning isn't working again, so we headed out to the Baysox at the last minute for baseball and fireworks after the game.

The Baysox lost each game on Friday and Saturday nights.  They have been fighting for a playoff berth, but they really hurt themselves with the two losses the past two days.  Still, they have an outside chance of making the playoffs if they win their last two games and the Richmond Flying Squirrels lose their last two games. The Baysox did their part by winning their game this afternoon.  As I write this, Richmond is tied with the Altoona Curve 0-0 in the 6th inning.  Come on, Altoona.

We also went to today's game.  It was "Meet the Team Day" and "Fan Appreciation Day" at the stadium.  It was also the day they have their annual crab feast for the team, front office staff, and the Baysox Boosters.  The Boosters do a lot of work for the players that the team does not do.  They provide dinners after every Sunday home game, provide travel bags for road trips, and give each player a personalized scrapbook at the end of the season.  As members of the Boosters, we get to attend the season ending crab feast.

It was another hot day at the stadium.  Still, it was better than sitting in a hot house without air conditioning.  On this particular day, they have all of the players sit on the concourse level for about an hour before the game to sign autographs.  A member of the ground crew that we are friendly with gave my wife a game used, cracked bat used by Ronnie Welty.  We got to the game early so that she could wait in line to get him to sign her bat.

Another feature of Fan Appreciation Day is a series of raffles sponsored by the team.  There was no charge to enter the raffle, and they had a lot of different memorabilia from autographed baseballs and bats, bobble head dolls, and gift certificates to local restaurants and businesses.  My name was one of the first ones called.  I walked away with a black Louisville slugger baseball bat signed by the team. 

After the game, we were treated to an all you can eat crab feast. In addition to the crabs, they also had hot dogs, hamburgers, grilled chicken, assorted salads, and a lot of different desserts. Oh, and you can't have crabs without beer so they also had Bud and Bud Light on tap.  My wife provided a big batch of her chocolate chip cookies.  That is usually her contribution as a booster for the dinners each Sunday. 

We also had the opportunity to say goodbye to one of our favorite members of the Baysox front office staff. She has accepted a new position with a minor league hockey team and will soon be moving to Norfolk VA. We have known her for four years and she has always been very sweet to our son. She talks to him, and teaches him all of the between inning dance steps. When he nearly back out of his ceremonial first pitch, she was the one who got him down on the field. I nearly teared up when I thanked her for all she had done for him.

We left the house this morning just before noon and got home a little after 7:30pm.  All of that time was spent outdoors in fairly hot and humid weather.  My son usually would lose patience quickly on a day like today, but he was well behaved the whole day.  The Baysox have one more game tomorrow unless they manage to make the playoffs. We were originally planning to go, but they are saying that it may be stormy most of the day. We will either be at the game or at Dave and Buster's playing skee ball followed by wings at Hooters.  

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Labor Day Weekend

Image via WikipediaIt is the start of the Labor Day weekend here in the States.  For a lot of us, it means a nice three day weekend and the end of summer.  There will be a lot of cookouts and one more trip out to the beach.  We have a very full weekend planned for our family.

First off, tonight we have tickets to one of our favorite activities, the Bowie Baysox.  Tonight is their annual Autism Awareness night at the ballpark.  As the father of an autistic child, it makes me happy that they recognize those with autism.

Saturday, we have tickets to a new event in our annual, the Baltimore Grand Prix.  I attended a few local stock car and drag races when I was a kid, but this is going to be something new for our family.  We hope to see Danica Patrick practice and qualify for Sunday's Indy car race during the morning, and then a LeMans series race in the afternoon.  My son is excited to possibly see Danica drive.

Sunday, we will be headed back to the Baysox for Meet the Team Day.  We are also members of the Baysox Boosters.  After the game, the Baysox will be providing a crab feast for the team, staff members, and the boosters.  It should be a good time.

Finally, on Monday, there is one more Baysox game, weather permitting.  They are calling for a pretty good chance of storms.  Then it will be the end of my son's two week break before heading back to school.  One last hurrah as it was.  I hope everyone has a safe holiday weekend.

June Break is Over

Image via WikipediaI hope that everybody had a great 4th of July weekend.  All things considered it was a pretty good 4th for our family.  It was the last day of my son's slightly more than two week break between the end of the school year and the start of his summer session.  His next break will not be for another seven weeks when he will get another two week break.

What better way to spend the 4th of July with two quintessential American activities, a baseball game followed up with a fireworks show after the game.  It has become a family tradition of ours to go to the Bowie Baysox minor league park on July 4th.  The Baysox always have an excellent fireworks show, and it is even better on Independence Day.

Usually, this time of year, we run into the threat of severe thunderstorms or overly oppressive heat and humidity.  While it was a fairly warm day yesterday with a bit of humidity, there was enough cloud cover that it was not unbearably so.  In fact, it even got to be somewhat pleasant sitting in the stadium.  We did get a few sprinkles here and there, but no real rain.  We were pretty lucky, because I looked at the radar maps a couple times on my cell phone and it looked like rain was all around us.  There were some heavy storms about 30 miles south of where we were.

As I said, the Baysox always put on a great fireworks show.  Little did we realize that they would be providing a bunch of fireworks of a different kind during the game.  It may have been the highest scoring Baysox game that we have ever been to.  Fortunately, the home team ended up on the winning side of the scoreboard against the Reading Phillies.

At first, it didn't look like it was going to be a positive night for the Baysox.  They fell behind early in the game by the score 3-0.  The Baysox scored the next 5 runs to take a 5-3 lead.  The Phillies then scored 3 more runs in the top of the 6th inning to regain the lead 6-5.  The Baysox then score 7 runs in the bottom of the 6th and 5 more in the bottom of the 7th to take a 17-6 lead into the 9th inning.  The Phillies made it interesting scoring 6 runs in the 9th to get to the final score of 17-12.

The 4th of July game is one of the few games where the Baysox nearly completely fill the stadium.  There is only one road out of the stadium, so my normally 10 minute drive home from the stadium took considerably longer last night.  Combine that with the traffic leaving the community fireworks show a couple miles from the stadium led to gridlock.  The direction we had to travel was not as bad as the opposite route, but it still took me 30-40 minutes to get home.

After the game, I was working on burning a DVD of a Rich Mullins concert for my son to take with him to school.  I have bought three different copies of this particular video, but he has broken them in the past.  It usually takes me a couple hours to complete a DVD for him on my laptop.  Unfortunately, there was an error when it was burning, and I was unable to get the DVD burned for him before he left.  When he got up this morning, he was looking through his binder of CDs and DVDs and told me "Rich Mullins is missing."

I was a little disappointed that I was unable to get his DVD made for him before he left.  My wife had decided that she wanted to try to take him back to school by himself.  She has said, and probably rightfully so, that when I stay home from work on the days he goes back to school that he resists because he knows he is going back.  With his change of classrooms, I kind of wanted to go with them today, but it was probably best that I not be around to make it easier for her to get him back to school.  They made it back with no incidents.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

I generally don't like change.  I think most of us probably would prefer to stay in our comfort zones.  While I don't like change, I like to think that I am fairly flexible and can adapt to change fairly quickly.  Change to the routine is not something that is readily welcome in the world of the child with autism.

My son's two week break from school is just about over.  In the past, the summer session always started on July 1st.  One of our family traditions is to go to the Bowie Baysox baseball games on July 4th for the game and fireworks.  Thankfully, this year the summer session at my son's school doesn't begin until July 5th, so we will be able to take him to one more game before the session begins.

Yesterday, we received a letter from the school regarding his upcoming classroom assignments.  When he first began attending the school, he was assigned to the Pre-Vocational Class #2.  He has absolutely loved his teacher and his one-on-one aide in that classroom, and they have loved him. His new classroom assignment is the Vocational Class #1, without a one-on-one aide. 

My mother in law, who has experience with the school, says that the fact that they are moving him to Vocational Class is an indicator at how well he performed in the other classroom.  His yearbook had all of the classes grouped by their level.  They actually passed him over the Life Skills class level to put him in the Vocational Class.

On the one hand, we are pleased that he is advancing to another level in the school.  We will miss his current teacher but we are sure his new teacher will be just as caring, though we are concerned with how long it will take for him to adjust.  Our biggest concern is the lack of a one-on-one aide, as it is something we feel he really needs.

Three Games

It was an extremely busy weekend for our family.  Our Bowie Baysox were in town for a three game homestand.  Since my son is a huge Baysox fan, we decided to attend all three games.  We usually would not have gone to all three games, but with my son being away at school and so few games scheduled during his breaks we just had to do it this time.

It was a beautiful weekend weather wise for attending baseball games.  The temperatures were in the mid-80's with low humidity.  Friday night's game was a birthday celebration for the Baysox loveable mascot Louie.  In celebration of his birthday, several of Louie's mascot friends were in attendance to play games with Louie between innings.  Since it was his birthday, Louie naturally won all of the contests, even though the Maryland Terrapin mascot got the loudest applause during the air guitar contest.  After the game, there was a great fireworks show.

 

It was Star Wars night for Saturday night's game.  I heard that R2D2 was in attendance roaming around the concourse, but I wasn't able to see him.  Between innings, there were Jedi knights dueling with light sabers.  After the game was over, there was a battle between the Jedi's and a disturbance in the force.  It looked like the dark side had won when all of a sudden Louie charged out with his own light saber to save the day.  The storm troopers were in attendance, and there was another post game fireworks show.

 

Today's game was the biggest game of the weekend.  My wife and I are members of the Baysox Boosters.  The Boosters do special things for the players like provide them with blankets and pillows for their road trips.  Our participation usually consists of my wife providing chocolate chip players for the dinner the Boosters provide to the players after every Sunday home game.Since we are up at the stadium so often, we have become friends with some of the team front office. 

There are two young ladies that are very friendly with our son, and he is very fond of them.  One of them made arrangements to allow our son to throw out a ceremonial first pitch.  He had been very excited about the prospect of throwing out the pitch.  Unfortunately, he started to get a little nervous before the game and thought about backing out.  Then one of the ladies, who he has known the longest and dances with him a lot, waved for him to go down on the field with her.  That was all it took.  Here he is with his souvenir ball from the event.

I think the smile on his face after throwing the pitch says it all.

It was a great day at the ballpark overall for our entire family.  First my son getting to throw out the ceremonial first pitch.  Then my nephew went on the dugout to participate in the Green Turtle Shell Shuffle where they show a video of a shell game on the video screen.  He guessed the correct shell so everyone in our section won a coupon for free wings at The Green Turtle restaurant.  Then my wife caught a frisbee to win a coupon for a free Dippin' Dots ice cream at the stadium.  Oh, and today's game was the only one that the Baysox won, so all in all it was a great day and weekend.

June Break

Well, on Father's Day, we picked up our son for his two week June break from school.  Since he is on an extended school year program, he gets a couple weeks off in June and a couple weeks off in August unlike a lot of kids who get the full three months off during the summer.  With his special needs he really needs the year round schedule so that he retains what he learned during the year.

We already had a busy two weeks planned for him while he was going to be home from school.  I have mentioned before how much our family enjoys going to Bowie Baysox minor league baseball games.  Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately for my wallet, the Baysox are only in town for four games during the entire 17 days he is home from school. 

I will be taking off this Friday and Saturday night from my pizza delivery gig in order to go to all three games this weekend.  Friday and Saturday nights games will all feature a post game fireworks show.  The Baysox always have a top notch fireworks show.  On Sunday, it will be a meet the team day, and the team has arranged for my son to throw out a ceremonial first pitch prior to the game.  He is pretty stoked about it.  Finally, we will also be attending the Baysox July 4th game for more fireworks before break ends.

The other day, we were going through a bunch of the papers that were sent home with our son.  One pile of papers was all the work he had done in class since his last break.  There were also a few awards.  He won Student of the Week honors just before the break.  He also won an award for "technical achievement" for his computer typing skills.  The Aquatics Department of the school gave him a certificate for being the most improved swimmer in his class.  Awesome work.

Then there were all of the other fun things in another packet that we have to get done before he goes back to school.  There is the list of supplies and clothes that need to be bought and brought to school after the break.  It has been a while since his last haircut, and he is getting rather shaggy.  He needs to get another physical from our family doctor.  While the haircut and physical are hard to get his cooperation on, we usually can get those accomplished.

However, the last thing that we need to get done will be the most difficult, a dental exam.  We had to try to get one before he started the school in November.  We got him into the office, where he promptly dropped to the ground and refused to get up.  He eventually got into the dentist chair and they were able to do a visual exam, however, we were not able to do a cleaning or x-rays.  So that one will be a real adventure.

Since he has been home, I have lost control of the television in the evening, I am using my computer to download and burn CDs and DVDs for him, and I am spending a lot of time with him sitting next to me playing Panda Pai Gow Poker on Pogo.com.  He loves it when we lose hand or guess wrong when trying to predict whether the hand is a win, lose, or push.  It is nice to have my time to myself when he is at school, but while he is home, I wouldn't have it any other way.