Opening Day BBA 14 – Rain 2 – Wind 1

Weather can be like a woman. Generally unpredictable and when you try to forecast a result, you end up making an ass of yourself. Those poor weathermen, I had been cussing them out all week. As last week progressed, the chance of rain increased to the point of 70%. Friday’s forecast was not much better. Well, Friday came and we got all the preparations finished. The evening ended with a cold beer and a gaze up into a clear night’s sky. Saturday morning was beautiful. We got the parade in and all our opening ceremonies. We also got all our games in, except one. An instructional game was started but not finished.

We had two rainstorms come through the complex, one at about 1:30pm and another about 3:00pm. The first rain lasted about a half an hour, just as our juggling act was starting. After it blew through, the games were completed and the juggling act performed on the grass next to the t-ball field. The second rain lasted about as long as the first one but we got the 4:00 game on and finished. That’s the parade, opening ceremonies and 12 games. Bauerstown scores 14. It rained twice, rain scores 2.

So how did the wind score 1? At about 10:58 am, I am a little full of myself with the success of the events leading up to the beginning of the 11:00 ceremonies. I am beaming with pride as Bauerstown members made our complex look absolutely spectacular. There were people here all day Friday working and on Saturday morning, members were arriving two hours before the parade started to help get everything ready. Then, just before I am ready to turn on the microphone, I noticed a voice mail message on my cell phone. Since our representative from Senator Jane Orie’s office had yet to arrive, I decided to take a moment to listen to the message. At that moment, I believe God had the need to send me his own little message. While listening to my voice mail (Orie’s rep was lost and couldn’t find our complex) a gust of wind picked up the two tents (we use for our executive board members and dignitaries to sit under) and brought them both crashing down on me. There I was with the phone still to my ear, completely covered and wrapped in canvas and bent metal. Stunned, I remember hearing people saying “don’t worry Jim we will get you out of there”. Within seconds our board members, and others along with Township Manager Tim Rogers and Commissioner Ed Duss, had removed the mess. Thank you God for the quick humbling before I was about to start.

So was there a moral to the wind story? A sort of epiphany realized? The canvas and metal wrapped around me can be a metaphor to running a volunteer organization. You sometimes get completely inundated. Standing there under the tents, I was stunned, overwhelmed and needed help. The help came in the form of our members, my friends and our township representatives to pull everything off me. And that is what made me the luckiest man in the world this past Saturday. We have a wonderful thing going on here in this organization because we have great people involved and a township that appreciates the work we do. I am honored to be President.

Soon, it will be time to step away for others to have this opportunity. Metaphorically, I will always look back at this little comedic event to remember that any time I get myself too overwhelmed, I always have my BBA friends who volunteer to help. I also would like to thank God for keeping my wife in the concession stand during this time. If she would have be witness to this, she would still be laughing at me.