Playing in the rain

In the next few days I'll post some photos from Christmas and some more pics from the snow days.

This one is of Boyd and I, Dec. 29, a Tuesday, 7 p.m., over at the Hall of Justice. It was dumping ice cold rain at the time, and Boyd really wanted to play catch outside, in the dark, with his new glow-in-the-dark football.

So I told him to put his gear on and let's see how it goes. 

We played with that little $5 Walmart ball for three, four days in a row. Boyd can ZING IT. That's why I think he likes it so much, it fits his hand just right that he can really chuck it and compete with his Old Man in throwing long bombs.

But man, this was an awful night to go outside. But I was off work. I was stir-crazy, like Boyd. The girls looked at us like we were crazy. And I think they thought, 'they won't last 5 minutes.'

I had the right gear on (some new warm stuff from Christmas, and a waterproof jacket) and I didn't really get that cold. And it was nice to be outside. And you know, it was fun chucking that flashing football in the night sky. It's not really glow-in-the-dark, it has a light inside that flashes and is activated with impact. But it automatically shuts off after about 2.5 throws. So if we didn't time it right, that missile would be midair and go dark.

But the cool thing was, with the little light off the HOJ, and timing it right... we'd still catch the dark ball two out of three times. And that was cause for celebration.

I didn't want to go out there and drag Boyd back in after a few throws. I wanted him to relent, to say, "that's good, we're cold, let's go inside." We took a few breaks to play some songs in the HOJ and warm our hands. But I bet we threw the ball for a good... 40 minutes, maybe 45? We moved around the yard a lot and tried different tricks (running routes, throwing skyballs, etc.)

I doubt Boyd will remember the times we went outside in the soaking rain after Christmas 2020 to chuck a random Christmas present (that I forgot to put under the tree) but I think I'll remember it. It was a useful mental break, and something physical to do while the weather was bad. And it is pretty hilarious to see a 3rd grader zip a plastic football so hard that you know it might hurt a little if you don't catch it right...