Circle The Wagons

So late this morning, thejeepjunkie called me to invite me out to the Birthplace of Speed's sports complex to watch the Kid's sister play softball. Now I was pretty honored to be asked out. Usually she plays out of town and I have never seen her play. She, like the sungoddess, is quite an athlete, actually it runs in thejeepjunkie's family as the Kid made the varsity basketball team this year.

So I moseyed on out there and walked around a bit trying to find the field, among about 10, where the Kid's sister is playing. I didn't see the Kid or thejeepjunkie around and finally broke down and called him, just as I noticed the sungoddess watching her daughter play third base from behind the home plate fence. Turns out he had to run the Kid home so he could get some homework done.

Anyway, he popped up about two minutes later and we headed down the first base line to a couple welcome beach chairs.

We sat down and watched a helluva good ball game, and even though the Kid's sister's team lost, it was interesting to me.

You see this is a culture totally alien to me. My daughter is a bookworm as opposed to an athlete, although thejeepjunkie's kids are damn smart also. But as a result, I had not previously been exposed to this culture.

Anyway, these fast pitch softball families take this stuff very seriously. They travel great distances to gather, often, for a full weekend of kid's softball. Yesterday, the Kid's sister played three games. There were teams from all over central Florida and kids ranging from youngsters to late teens show up with their Moms and Dads to view the spectacle of girls fast pitch softball. They set up canopies to be sheltered from this Florida sun, pack coolers filled with waters, sodas, picnic lunches and wet washcloths to cool off. The youngsters have Matchbox sized toys for the boys and dolls for the girls.

And in an interesting "takes a village" type of thinking, one parent admonished a young girl not to throw dirt at a young boy. I always thought that was a gesture of affection but I suppose that also explains my current marital situation:).

So, as always, I am thinking of blog ideas knowing thejeepjunkie has the monopoly on blogging about his kids.

As I was walking around, I noticed that there were a bunch of these wire mesh wagons, one of which I own although it is currently in custody of thejeepjunkie.

Families and teams use these to get their legions of belongings to and from the car, no scratch that, SUV to the field and back again.

I mentioned to thejeepjunkie he could use mine to shuttle his stuff to and fro. He just laughed and mentioned these were suburban wagons while mine grew up in Sl-Ocala shuttling firewood and tree limbs and, as such, needed alot of bodywork to grace the sungoddess's family excursions to the ole ball park. I chuckled and agreed.

So I was comparing these wagons to each other to see which was the most desirable. The previous three images show "stock" wagons, however there were a couple "custom" wagons.

Including this double decker wagon that won the "Has The Most Bling Award" from this ole car junkie. If you click on the image, you can see this British Inspired wagon is also a dually, and how about those hubcaps.

Finally, I present you with a total one off custom wagon. This one is built completely out of diamond plate, has a built in stereo with speakers and hooks all around the second deck for hanging all the backpacks containing the equipment for these teams. All in all, a fine job and truly desirable to this old man.

After viewing these wagons, thejeepjunkie asked me if I wanted to go for a ride in the woods in the Kid's old CJ.

What do you think my response to that was?