More Covid sports to play with Family

 

In most parts of the U.S. the virus is subsiding in relation to more people getting the vaccination. Where I am though, it is terrible. There are no hotels open or places to stay overnight. Ski areas for downhill are closed. 

My wife took our girls to the weekend cottage so they could take day trips to cross country skiing paths in the bigger hills. We were going to stay two weeks.  I came up on Thursday of the first week, but by then all the snow had melted and there weren't even any cross country trails available for skiing.  There was no more snow anywhere close enough. 

That is where I came in. Mission: to get the kids outside and exercising.  Getting them outside off their electronics and away from the TV.   Last year or maybe even  two years ago I taught them 2 square ball game. Good for two or more people. Me and Paul Kight in 4th grade were the school 4 square non registered champions. That was great fun. 

Now my youngest daughter is in 4th grade and she just beat me for the first time last week in 2 square. I  dont play my hardest, but, by the end of a 15 point game I am TIRED.  My older daughter is pretty good too, but their old man can still beat them most of the time.  hahaha

We also play some badminton and my younger daughter loves ping pong.  But those are for 2 people. 

But last week I introduced to them another sports game that needs at least three people to play and more if possible,  but minimum 3.  When I was looking up the sport so I could paste some pictures in this post, they only gave me pictures of baseball. But the game I taught them was BASERUNNER.

Baserunner was another great game I used to play with my friends in grade school. We lived on a street with a green parkway in the middle so we had a perfect area to play. The picture at the beginning of this post is the entrance to my street, down a block. That is the grassy parkway between the two sides of the street. The entrance from Main street pictured here is now on the National heritage land marks locations.  Interesting, because of the original wall made to signal you were entering a new village subdivision, the subdivision of Snyder. 

Anyway. We played baserunner sort of like baseball, but just running between two bases. Two catchers and the rest runners. Three outs or lives.  You had to be tagged to lose a life.  A run was running from one base to the other which the catchers protected and tried to tag you if you ran. The person with the most runs or last left in the game was the winner. 

We don't have baseball gloves here so we played with a big rubber ball not standing so far apart because we couldn't throw the ball so far. But we could throw the ball at the runner to tag them. There is just three of us but it worked. We would take turns being the runner, ten runs or three lives and then we would change runners.  Only once or twice did someone get to ten runs. Harder than you think.  

It was such a success, I am so happy.  Every day the girls would want to get out in the afternoon to play. We had to wait till my older daughter was finished with school and then we would get out around 4 pm to get in a full game, in which everyone had the chance to be a runner, before it got too dark or too cold.  I think that took about 40 minutes, 45 minutes. Perfect for a good exercise session.  The weather is still cold but no snow anymore so we could get a game in before it got too cold in the late afternoon close to supper.  

But if you haven't played a baserunner game you would be surprised how much fun it is, also because it is funny.  Funny things happen that you can laugh at like getting the runner in a pickle in the middle.  Or trying to keep the runner from getting the second run when you miss the ball, "here here throw it".  It was just good fun and funny adrenaline.  

Sadly we had to go home in the middle of the second week because of the worsening virus, we had to stay in our own region for three weeks.  So if we had stayed longer they may not have let us back into our city home and I had to go to the store. I couldn't be away for three weeks. My wife had left on Monday so I was with my daughters by myself for two days.  That worked out fine and my personal "dad ratings" climbed a bit. The problem was it was still cold and they watched TV for over three hours in the evening.  I have trouble stopping them because we watch the Simpsons for two hours and I love the Simpsons too, so I watched also. But that is too much TV. Its really difficult to limit their TV with their gadgets. So I was real happy that they wanted to get out and play baserunner. 

At least some small success against the demon TV and video games. Score two for stay at home dad!

Listening to more jazz these days.  During this writing I listened to my vinyl of the two albums pictured below. 

Pat Metheny's "from this place" released Feb 21 2020, a year ago. He always rides on the edge of classic jazz, easy listening, fusion, so that it all snowballs together and you dont know what to call it, if it matters. 

Paul Desmond classic alto saxist from Dave Brubeck band who did a lot of albums on his own or with other big names, like this one with Gerry Mulligan. They dont break each other, they compliment.  Only complaint is the album is too short even with two more tracks on the reissue. I still need more when each side finishes.