Monday morning we awoke to a bit of thunder and lightning as Mother Nature made up for the glorious weekend.  Of course there is always a silver lining.  Since it was the 4th (an even number day) it was our watering day and the rain did the watering for us, saving Mary from dragging the sprinkler around the yard while providing dinner for the mosquitoes.  After waiting for the rains to subside a bit I went up to our Monday Legion coffee at the Vet Center.  When I returned from coffee I ventured back into my computer cave (as Mary calls it) to continue sorting through old magazines and putting some new books away.  It appears that I am in no hurry as I have taken my time with the project.  This was a good project but slowed by the fact that there were a few articles to be looked at as the sorting was being done. After dinner the weather was still threatening but the game at Wrigley started an hour early for TV purposes (ESPN I think).  With the CUBS trailing 2-0 in the middle of the 6th inning the storms came and ultimately resulted in a delay of two hours and 45 minutes.  During the delay, the winds came and the sirens sounded as there were tornados on radar in the vicinity of the ballpark.  At that point the fans had already been evacuated downstairs to the concourse in what some observers said was the worst conditions they had seen at the park.  The storm was not isolated to the ballpark area as it wreaked havoc across the Chicagoland Area knocking down trees, taking roofs off homes and cutting power across the area leaving as many as 200,000 customers in the dark.  Luckily we were not among them.  Particularly hard hit were Bolingbrook nearby where roofs were stripped off and some houses were made unlivable and Griffith Indiana which news reports indicate had much of one side of town destroyed causing the town to be declared a disaster area.  Luckily, it appears there were no serious injuries anywhere.
Play was resumed at Wrigley and about midnight one more storm with lightening and thunder arrived at the ballpark and the tarp was put on the field again.  It was not long before the umpires did what they should have done earlier and called it off with Houston winning 2-0.  When the first delay occurred, it was already an official game.  The arrogance of baseball towards its customers is mind boggling. In no other business would you allow customers to hang that long without some kind of decision.  Of course, there were some, who needing to be at work today, were intelligent enough to leave.  The others, the diehards, or those who wished to get their moneys worth, stayed to the bitter end for the same result. 

   The weather had settled down overnight (Mary tells me I slept through more thunder and lightning) and Tuesday morning we awoke to more storms to the south of us.  At one point it got dark and thunder was heard in the distance.  Now as I finish AM TV watching and get this page up to date the weather has appeared to clear for the time being and there is a hint of sunshine. I hope the weather holds as we have tickets for tonight's baseball game (the Windy City Thunderbolts) in nearby Crestwood. The weather did hold and we went off to Crestwood to see the Thunderbolts take on the Midwest Sliders.  The Sliders are an interesting team, having started as the Slippery Rock Sliders at Slippery Rock College in Pennsylvania.  The situation became too difficult for a bunch of students to compete and the team was changed to the Midwest Sliders and the team home moved to Waterford, Michigan.  Since there is not yet a Stadium in Waterford the sliders were required to play all their games on the road.  That is perhaps something that contributed to the Sliders less than stellar play in tonight's ballgame.  Without a home of you own it must be difficult to get much work on fundamentals when you spend the season on the road.  While there were some bright spots this evening the sliders had their hands full as they were shut out 13- 0 on a no hitter.  Defensively the team blew a couple of easy double plays and at times looked a bit disorganized.  Among the bright spots was Anthony Albano, clean up hitting right fielder who caught everything that went his way (except a home run ball) and showed off a nice throwing arm. Unfortunately he was stymied at the plate and was left in the on deck circle as the final out was made in the ninth.  Give this young grandson of my friend Grandpa Don credit for hanging in there.  Perhaps cream will rise to the top as the team evaluates talent this year and he will be part of a nucleus as the team returns in 2009 as the Oakland County Cruisers.

   Wednesday afternoon the elusive St Julie bulletin showed up.  At about the same time I received a revised copy ( I had called attention to an inconsistency) of the St Terrence (another parish whose website I maintain) bulletin.  The process of preparing the bulletins for uploading to the respective servers is so easy I can do it with one eye closed.  However, today I must have had both closed.  I usually check online after uploading.  I missed the fact that I inadvertently uploaded the St Terrence bulletin to both servers.  Having somehow missed my post uploading check (at least of St Julie).  I was unaware of my error until I received a phone call from my web team colleague and friend Grandpa Don.  Of course, as soon as I wiped the egg from my face I made the necessary corrections.  Tonight, we were scheduled to join our friends Mary Ann and Joe for the Pizza Buffet at our favorite Aurellios.  Mary Ann called Mary and said that Joe was hung up on a sticky problem on a service call. However, they decided that the three of us would go anyway so we met at 6 PM as scheduled.  After dinner and a visit Mary Ann took a pepperoni pizza home for Joe when he arrives home and Mary and I returned home where I of course caught up this page.

    Thursday I received an email from my friend Grandpa Don inquiring as to whether or not we had been at the Thunderbolts game on Wednesday.  His Grandson Anthony who plays for the Midwest Sliders broke a light much like the character Hobbs in the movie The Natural.  That was Anthony's nickname when he played High School Baseball.  Apparently they picked upon that at the park because as Anthony stood at the plate after breaking the light they played the theme from The Natural. This evening I went to the monthly Family Support Group Meeting at the Orland Park Civic Center.  This is a support group for families and loved ones of local young people currently in the military.  It is an opportunity to share the stories of the young people involved and feel the support of other parents and loved ones facing the same scary time.  As past Commanders of the American Legion here in Orland Park my friend Matt and I attend to offer support and thanks from older veterans.  I continue to be awed by the stories of the courage and compassion of our young people as they represent America.

   Friday I passed on the Legion coffee opting to have coffee with Mary and hang around home until later in the afternoon when we were scheduled to go out.  We did go out to a visitation for the mother of one of our friends Tony Ucho.  Tony and his wife Sherri are fellow St Julie parishioners and Sherri and Mary worked together for years at Liberty School as part of what I jokingly called the "Liberty Mafia".  On the way we picked up Sheri's mother so I had privilege of riding on the trip with two lovely Marys.  It was interesting to meet some of the family and friends and here folks identify themselves by their home parish.   I had not seen the Ucho's other than in church for some time and I was happy to see how well their "kids"  (Mary had met both when she and Sherri were at Liberty). Now, they had grown up to be caring young adults (Dawn is a teacher and Chris an aspiring police officer).  No I am not surprised, I would have expected no less having known them and their parents for years. The pastor of St Tiribius gave a glowing eulogy to Sophia (Mrs Ucho) and offered prayer for her and all present. In a wonderul display of emotion he explained how he was unable to celebrate the funeral mass because of a commitment made weeks ago to celebrate a mass somewhere else.  On the way back Sherri's mom insisted on treating for some dinner so we went to Ashford House where we all enjoyed the corned beef, the Marys each having a Rueben while I had a plain corned beef sandwich on toasted rye bread. We took Mary home and by the time we returned home it was time to turn in