For love of the Game

I don't remember the EXACT moment I started loving Major League Baseball.  I do remember it was sometime in the late 1980's, after I had graduated from high school.  I NEVER attended a game with my father( or grandfather). My family were casual fans at best. Anyway, because I lived in Southern California I had numerous teams to choose from. My first choice was the California Angels. They were a scrappy, gritty team that didn't mind leaving the field with a dirty uniform. I was drawn to two players in particular, one a pitcher with only one arm(Jim Abbott) and a small sparkplug of a shortstop(David Eckstein). Both got my attention NOT because one was missing a limb or one was so tiny compared to the other players but because they were playing a game they loved and loving every minute of it even though people had told them they would never play professionally.  I was always quite small for my age and had health issues as a young child and I HATED being told I couldn't do something.  It made me want to prove to people I could do things even if it was different.  I realized, just like Mr. Abbott & Mr. Eckstein probably did that I could do things others did, I just had to do it differently to accomplish the same goal.

This year, 2011 the Angels celebrated 50 years of existence as a Major League Baseball team.  I am always excited for the new season to start and was even more so this special year.  I took to twitter and Facebook on game days to vent frustrations with fellow Angels devotees when the team lost, and cheered when I heard " Light up the Halo", as that meant the Angels had won. This special year also allowed me to earn some tickets to see my beloved team play in Anaheim, which I did on September 25, 2011 during the last week of the season, where I got to meet some of the Angels twitter family that were venting & cheering right along with me.  So over 20 years AFTER I had picked the Angels as my team I finally got to see them play in person!!!  It was a day that I will always remember, even though the Angels lost, the memories of meeting new friends will last a lifetime.  Might not have met them if not for the love of a game and a team. Long after these pictures fade, I will have pictures on my heart of that day in September that I saw my Angels play. Thanks for the memories!!!!

  As iron sharpens iron,
      so a friend sharpens a friend.------- Proverbs 27:17(NLT)

Tribute to Moms

 I am finding it difficult to write about  Mother's Day(even though I really feel like I should) because I am NOT on speaking tearms with my own. Not sure if it's difficult because it makes me sad that I don't have the relationship others do or because it makes me mad that life choices made by both of us have lead to bitterness, resentment, and hurt feelings, maybe it's a bit of both.
Rather than go into any detail(maybe I will in another post), let me just give the basics.  See I was a premature baby with numerous health issues as an infant and young child, which lead to an introverted, shy, afraid of authority(like a teacher) child.  Because of the policies at the time, I was allowed to begin my school career at age 4, when I lacked the mental comprehension or the physical stature to handle the stresses. When issues arose based on my lack of understanding, I wasn't given any guidance as to how to handle it.  I lacked friendships in school that I needed for my social development because my mom didn't like any of the students that wanted to help me.  Also because of my lack of understanding, I was NOT raised to be a mom. I think I looked at kids as dolls that you play with not really understanding that they are dependent on me for the essentials of living.
Thankfully, after much soul searching and prayer, I realized that I had limitations, and those limitations prevented me from being the parent that my children needed, so they live with a swell lady(who is a sister in every way that matters, except by blood) who is an AWESOME mom.  I like to think that I am too, for I made the best decision I could for them and they are happy and healthy.  I wish my own mom had understood that.
As a Christian, I am commanded to honor my father and MOTHER. For many years, I found that difficult to do, especially with my mom as I was equating honor with respect.  I couldn't honor her if I didn't respect her.   I still think it's unlikely I will ever communicate with her again, but I think I'm beginning  to understånd what is meant by honor and why are are put in the families we are.  Without the mom I had, I would NOT be here. Without the mom I had, I would NOT have found an awesome mom for my kids.  So for that I say, THANKS MOM!!!

Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

Exodus 20:12 (King James Version)

West Virginia Winter

Over our Christmas break, hubby and I had remarked to each other and some friends that we had experienced a mild winter, with only a few days of rain and cold but NOT snow and how blessed we felt that our winter up until then had been relatively stress free and, well boring.  I didn't think about it at the time, but mentioning that was probably NOT a good thing to do.  From our ten plus years on the road, it serves us well to NOT become complacent or lulled into thinking we will NOT have a problem.

For the next two weeks after coming back, we still didn't have any real issues, but sometimes when you least expect it you get thrown a curveball. That curveball left us stuck on a slippery, snowy mountain with an empty trailer in West Virginia.

On Wednesday, I was awakened by hubby because it had started snowing pretty heavily, and he wanted me to get up and sit in the passenger seat.  I am sometimes up later than him, but he has ALWAYS told me  that if the weather is bad, he wants me sitting up front. I hurriedly got dressed and did what he asked.  The weather that day was NOT that good at all and it made more stress that we had an empty trailer.  We pulled into a rest area to wait out the storm, but it had tapered off some so we decided to keep going to our pickup point.  Less than a mile from the rest area, the interstate was closed due to an overturned truck that had spilled its load of canned goods. The cars had been allowed to continue as they were small enough to squeeze thru the lane that was opened, but partially blocked( The truck took up a lane and a half). After a long wait, a few hours at least, the lane was cleared enough for trucks to continue moving.  While the roads were snow covered in spots, it was okay to drive on.  About 40 minutes from our pickup point, the snow got really heavy again. To reach the shipper, we had to climb a long winding mountain, we were making it okay even at a reduced speed, but we had to slow down even further when the truck in front of us started sliding and got stuck, but was able to get free and continue.  For some reason, maybe because we were practically stopped and more than half way  up the mountain, we could NOT get enough speed and ended up stuck.

Thanks to the local fire department and a plow driver, we were able to get moving again, but I was getting worried that we might be stuck there all night.  We made it to our pickup point where they loaded our trailer and pointed us to a safe parking spot for the night. All of the help we received was greatly appreciated!!! Wish I would have been able to do more to show it as just saying "Thank You" doesn't seem to be enough in situations like these.


The point of this story is even though we had been doing this for years, we still had a problem, I'm sure some who might NOT have known hubby's level of experience would have thought he was a rookie, but these types of situations can happen to anyone at any time no matter how many years experience they have.  It happened to us and it can happen to you.  I hope that even non-truckers can learn by this experience, at least I hope so. I KNOW, this trucker's wife learned a lesson that night on a slippery, snowy mountain during a West Virginia winter.

Lamentations 3:22 (New Living Translation)

 The faithful love of the Lord never ends!

  His mercies never cease.