Baseball, Football, Soccer, Flowers and Diet Coke

How's that for a title? It's that crazy time of year where seasons collide. I could have added softball and volleyball to the title too...but I didn't have pictures and there wouldn't have been room. Today's post is another one of this and that and just my daily photos. And a little story about some Diet Coke near the end.

I never know if I should put the captions above or below the photos. Today they are below. Billy played football in Minneapolis last week. The Mpls. Washburn kids had really bright uniforms....it made my camera a little crazy. Something about orange. Billy's team won. He kicked 2 extra points and missed one....and recovered a fumble. Go Billy!

Petunias in my hanging baskets in the front of the house. I've neglected them this summer...there aren't many left. I've neglected my blog this summer too. Maybe it's the petunias....maybe Pat's Patunia Patch wasn't a good name. Maybe I'm a slouch.

Brian's soccer team was short a few players last week...so Billy filled in. Brian played great, I think he was trying to make a good impression on his brother. Billy played goalie. No one else wanted to. He hasn't played soccer in a lot of years....it was fun to see him playing again....but it was especially fun to see how happy they were to be playing together.

It rained last week, rained and rained and rained. We got somewhere between 3.5" and 5". One farm in southern Minnesota got 13" in 12 hours! Wow. Rain, floods, damaged homes, crops under water, closed roads....rain. The weather has been strange.

Molly is afraid of storms. She didn't like the rain. The rain fit my mood though. My good friend Sarah moved back to Connecticut last week...it was hard to say good-bye.

It's not all bad. There are still a few flowers blooming. This rose waited until now to blossom. It was worth the wait.

Billy had a double header on the other side of the cities...almost half way to the farm. Since it wasn't very far, my mom drove to a nearby shopping center where I picked her up and brought her to the game. She doesn't get to watch Billy play very often, it was a warm sunny day....so it was a real treat to have her there!

Unfortunately, the baseball day wasn't all sunshine and happiness. Remember I mentioned the Diet Coke story? See the photo above? Well, thanks to some Diet Coke, that is probably one of the last pictures I will take with that camera. Sigh. The parking lot was a ways from the field, I had too much to carry so at the last minute I decided to shove some things into a bag....sort of a beach bag. Billy's Power Aide, sunflower seeds, my phone, a jacket, the camera, and a screw top Diet Coke. I walked to the field not realizing that the screw top of the Diet Coke was loose....and that half the bottle had spilled out, onto my camera. Oye. We dried it off as well as we could, I tried it, it sort of worked...but not really. At first it seemed like it might be ok, but the liquid must have seeped in further and now only half of the features are working. When I got it home I put it in a container of rice over night hoping that would help to dry it out further....it's still not right. Ugh, what a sickening feeling. Now what, big bill for repairs if it even can be repaired? Big bill for a new camera? Not my finest moment. In the mean time, I do have my old camera to get me through. The remaining pictures were taken with that.

The inside of the late blooming rose.

A backlit cosmos.

And the sunsetting behind some weeds and a grasshopper. With that I think I'm caught up....not recovered from the week....but at least caught up with my blog! Whew. I think I better go take care of my petunias now. Till next time.