Good On You, Colin and Liam

15 -16 November
A little aside: After tucking the boys into bed, I headed upstairs to boot up the laptop and log on to Skype. No friends or family are logged on now. My Google home page updates me that the time is 2:30 am on the east coast, 1:30 am in Texas, 12:30 am in Denver, 10:30 pm on the West Coast, and 9:30 pm in Alaska. My brother and I are only an hour apart, but today is his Friday and today is my Saturday. I am sending sleep tight wishes to all of you. While you sleep, I watch the sun lower over a white-capped lake. The shadows slide longer and the landscape softens. Except for the mountain ridges, their jagged edges stand out in high definition, backlit by a pearly and cloud hazed sunset.

Colin and Liam are playing cricket. Colin joined a Milo Have-A-Go programme with one practice each week for wee players, ages six to eight years. Liam is playing in the Junior programme with one practice and one match per week. Both boys, but especially Liam, have to retrain themselves. In both baseball and cricket someone throws a ball and an opposing player bats, but that is the end of the similarities. In cricket the pitcher is called a bowler and he pitches with a running wind up and straight-arm throw. The batter tries to defend the wicket and hit the ball. If the batter hits the ball, he runs between the two wickets to accumulate runs. Okay, I’ve exhausted my knowledge. Liam is working on a blog entry on cricket details.

The players wear whites, white polo shirt and white pants. This is the only time I have ever seen Liam and a group of his peers hanging out all dressed in white. What crazy person chose white uniforms for a sport played by running and skidding on grass? But, I have to admit that looking out across a field of nine and ten year old boys in white polo shirts and pants is definitely cute. From a distance they look so proper and civilized. Up close the grass stains tell a different story.

Doug, Colin and Liam are all fired up about cricket. They all want to learn this new sport and they’re making friends with like-minded people, sports nuts. I suggested cricket could be their enterprise. I love watching the boys play sports, but I was stunned to learn Liam’s games would be three hours. Three hours is a bit past my attention span. I am trying to at least learn the basic objectives of the game. Colin’s practices are just my speed. They last an hour, 10 – 11am on Saturday. They start at a civilized hour and don’t consume a half of day. Given a choice, I like sports that I can participate in with my children, like skiing, especially if the time commitment is big chunk of the day.

Cricket is just another example of Liam and Colin’s pluck. Liam and Colin have no idea how to play cricket, but they are giving it a go. Liam had his first practice on Thursday and his first game the next afternoon.

Here are some photos from the cricket.