Today is the last day of the Mariner’s opening homestand of 2026. Opening Day seems so long ago, and it’s only been 7 days.
The house is getting back to pre-games status. The guests are all gone, and have been for awhile. Beds are remade or reconfigured.
I really need to figure out how to add some decor in here. We do have some pictures that could be hung.
There are things that are hanging on still. Thomas English muffins. You never know what to expect will get eaten, especially with kids involved. Family Arithmetic (bills, etc) is waiting until tomorrow. I really could jump on this, but there are a few new medical EOBs that I want to give proper time.
And there are the tasks that were started before the season that are still hanging around. Front yard recovery, raspberry patch improvements, and now major hedge trimming. Luckily for things planted at least a week ago, there has been steady rain events, so watering has not been necessary. Rain all day today, but better weather predicted for the weekend.
Broken record here. But other than running errands (Costco today) it’s what I have been doing. When I was working I never went to Monday games because of meetings or weekday day games because, well, work.
Everyone said retirement would be an adjustment, I just didn’t realize how cold it would be. Yesterday was not as cold as the day before, and it’s starting a few degrees warmer today.
Julio Rodriguez warming up
Ms lose 5-0. One more game in the homestand and then I can figure out what else I should be doing. In my defense, this is the first one of the season and it’s hard to remember that it started with houseguests. That seems so long ago now.
But on the train to the game, again. It’s a later game, but apparently will be warmer than yesterday at first pitch. I attribute my exhaustion to getting so chilled. I did some chores this morning, but hit a wall in the afternoon.
Today is the Yankees, who always draw a crowd. I am hoping the Mariners run last year will balance the supporters.
A granddaughter of a friend of ours threw out the first pitch.
8-year-old
5th inning. So far not quite as cold. I have a slightly heavier sweatshirt with a hood. We’re only up by one run. I don’t expect it to stand up, we need some more runs.
The man, the giant, Aaron Judge
From 6-1/2 years ago, a warm summer afternoon game. Carl catching a home run that Judge is wasn’t quite tall enough to get.
New pitcher, 2 hours in. I was pretty sure our 1 run lead was not going to stand up. Tie game in the 7th.
And the Yankee manager is bush league. He extends the game for no reason, by waiting until the batter is in the box, and then stopping the game to change pitchers. I’m about ready to call it a night. Still not as cold as last night.
I was starting to get really chilled again. I’m not sure I would have lasted through extra innings.
The game was made a bit more fun by texting with a Yankee fan in New York who we met at the Hall of Fame last summer. He’s hoping to make it to Seattle for a game, but the timing didn’t work out this year. He gave me an Ichiro Yankees hat at the Hall of Fame induction. Maybe I’ll wear it tomorrow.
Ichiro Yankee HOF hat. He was number 31 with the Yankees (not 51 as he was in Seattle)
Another ball game under our belt. Things of import:
Apples
Toss up ball catch
Man it’s cold
Light Rail catch
Ball distribution
Bus catch
Soup
We got to the game a little early and decided to walk around inside the park. We headed up to the 3rd deck and walked around the concourse, mostly out of the rain. Near the kid’s play area they were handing out baseball sized boxes. Our first thought they were giving out whiffle balls to kids. But no, they were giving out apples, individually boxed. Sugar Bee apples to be specific.
Sugar Bee apple, out of the box.
There was a family sitting next to us, including a young girl, maybe 8 years old. They had homemade signs asking Julio Rodriguez, Ms center-fielder to throw a warm-up ball to them. Before the start of 5th inning Julio threw the ball in our direction and Carl stretched to make the catch, and handed the ball to the girl. I’m not sure if his feet left the ground, but it was close.
One of the defining features of today’s game was the temperature, or lack thereof. It was in the 40s, and damp. 🥶 We shivered our way through 7 innings, and left with a 7-0 lead. We’re midway through the homestand and just wanted to be warm.
So we; Carl, Kevin, and I, headed for the light rail station. We were not alone. As we headed into the station we could see a train loading – so we “ran.” The first car was packed, so we kept heading down the train. About 3 cars down the doors started to close. I stuck my hand in and got the door to open so the 3 of us could squeeze in. Probably the latest catch of a train for me, although I did have a plane close the door just after I boarded once. It was crowded, but it was warm (body heat and all).
A few people disembarked at the next station. (Probably to catch the 2 line to Bellevue) With a tad more room a nearby family could let their 2 young kids sit. They were a bit fussy. So Carl reached into our bags and pulled out 2 baseballs he had brought with us, handing them to the parents for the kids. This kept them occupied until it was time to disembark.
Getting off at Roosevelt Station we had just enough time to comfortably catch the bus that shortened our walk from half a mile to 2 blocks. We did not have to jam our hands in the door to get on either.
After getting into the warm house our thoughts turned to dinner. After a bit of dithering we settled on soup. Canned soup, but nice warm chicken noodle soup. It warmed our souls.
And the baseball game was good, if you could see past your breath. Ms win 8-0. They’re 2-2 on the season. Acceptable.
Here’s hoping tomorrow’s game is a warmer win.
And for those who have been trying to figure out where to watch a baseball game on TV, I share the following. The Mariners first 4 games have been on 3 different platforms.
Today was definitely a day of recovery. We were up relatively early after a late night because … houseguests.
We got to hang out, drink coffee, and chat. That was fun. After everyone left, Carl went back to bed. I just hung out some more, drinking coffee.
I didn’t feel too bad. Opening day, guests, out in the cold, crowded trains. All added to the tiredness. Plus I planted 3 raspberry plants yesterday. Trying to bolster our thinning patch. Digging, composting, planting, carrying, in short – exercise.
Raspberry Patch
See that looming hedge in the background? Pruning chore identified.
The day ended with another Mariner game, and this time they won.
They lost 5-4 to the Cleveland Guardians, but maybe we’ll win tomorrow.
It was fun to see a lot of folks that we usually see at the ballpark. Our seatmates, workers, vendors, and even the players. Plus we had a group of 44 sitting a few rows behind us, plus a few of my ex-coworkers stopped by before the game got started.
They had the Mwango Sisters, a trio of local teens, sing the anthem. (They sang several times last year at the end of the season, sort of a good luck charm.) They did a great job and got all the lyrics right, unlike a singer I saw for a different game on TV. And there was a flyover of one of the heavy transport aircraft. It did a low turn right over the stadium. I thought it was rather spectacular.
The game started late, so I’ll leave with this group picture.
We had to run an errand and walked through the neighborhood. Lots of cherry trees.
As the walk progressed some turns were dictated by trees on the block.
We started wondering how far we could go if we just followed blooming trees. There would need to be rules, like you could see them but they might be a block away.
It was nearing lunchtime and Carl is still recovering from a buttercup pulling project a few days ago. I would like to say buttercup eradication, but that would be lying. So we headed home.
The day started off with an early dentist appointment, scheduled. The plan for the rest of the day was to prepare the house for guests arriving for the Mariners’ opening day.
It was pouring. We drove, so not too big a deal.
The prep for guests included clearing one of the bedrooms of detritus from the initial response to the December flood. Most of that was cardboard boxes brought upstairs to keep them dry and out of the way. They were largely piled in the crib that was still set up from July family visiting with grandsons.
I went into the garage to do a little clean-up from the giveaway. AND THERE WAS WATER ON PART OF THE FLOOR NEAR THE WEST WALL. This was a repeat of the little flooding in December that started the work, ending with the giveaway.
Most of what was in the garage was off of the floor, or waterproof. But this distracted from the prime objective. There was no water in the basement, only the garage this time.
I consolidated the remaining items in the garage and put most things onto shelving units that will stay in the garage. The amount of water was limited compared to December, but I still had to dry the bottom of a few bins. Only one cardboard box was destroyed, and the large glass hanging lamp was relocated to a new box, and put up on a shelf.
Since I was there I moved one shelving unit back into the basement. It had been in the garage for the giveaway. Likewise the card table was taken down.
Finally back to the task at hand. The cardboard boxes were taken downstairs and put into the big storage cabinet. We still have way too many, but that’s a chore for another day.
Then the crib was disassembled and moved to the garage. It is in the garage because it is leaving. It was handy last summer but our youngest grandkids are turning 4.
The Crib
The beds are all made (not the crib) and the house is pretty well stocked with groceries. Tomorrow we’ll do some cleaning and thinking about what we need for the game. (Layers, layers, layers – night games in March and April in Seattle are not usually warm.)
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