The Downside to Tranquilo

Baseball practice was canceled this afternoon because the gardeners, who are in charge of cutting the lawn, did so, very beautifully in fact, but did not finish the job. I saw them working at 2 PM when I went to pick the kids up from school. Why they did not do the little extra to place the mounds of grass clippings in the wheel barrow and remove them from the field, is a mystery. We showed up at practice and those little mounds (as you see pictured) sat all over the outfield.

The caretaker, a military appointee, said we could not play for that reason. The infield was perfect (all the mounds being in the outfield grass), so I tried to convince him to let us do infield practice, but he would not, or could not…was acting on somebody’s orders, I suppose. No one seemed uptight about the cancellation, though it affected about 30 kids. I suspect the gardeners didn’t sweat it either. And there you have it. This seems a fitting follow up to my last posting. My efficient, American brain was blowing a gasket. I fought the compulsion to get out there myself and do the work…just to show them…

Instead, Gabe and I hung out and talked baseball for a half hour, then returned home.