Greetings on this rainy afternoon from St. Helens, Oregon. We had a gully washer this afternoon that rated right up there with one of the best we’ve ever encountered in our lives. Except for the one in 1976

Thankfully, all that rain happened just about the time we returned home from our second day of a two-day softball tournament in Hillsboro and Beaverton. The St. Helens Varsity team played two games each day. The first game yesterday was at 11:00 am which our girls won 8-5 (I think). The second game was played at 1:30 pm and it rained the entire game so the girls were cold and very wet. The other team all had rain gear so they weren’t bothered as much. That’s as good a reason as any for our girl’s 10-1 loss. It was brutal. Below are Diane (left) and Jennifer (scorekeeper) trying to stay dry. It didn’t work well.

This morning the first game was at 9:00 am so we had to leave home at 8:00 am to get there in time. The weather was a bit better, just sprinkling a bit. That game got off to a good start when our girls rang up two runs in the top of the first inning. Then our opponents came back with 5 of their own before defense kicked in and finished the inning. There was no scoring in the 2nd, and only one by the home team in the 3rd making it 6-2. It stayed that way until the 7th when St. Helens got their bats working again and tied the game at 6-6. Our defense got 2 outs quickly, but the home team battled back and loaded the bases. The game ended when a bad throw to 1st for a sure out was dropped allowing a run to score making it 7-6. Still, it was a good game and fun to watch the girls rally back to tie it up.

We had to wait a couple of hours between games so we went to Panda Express to get something to eat. I’m not normally a fan of Chinese Fast Food, but this was pretty good stuff. We were in a hurry so Diane wasn’t too concerned about getting between the lines …

The last game, at 1:30 pm this afternoon, was very different. Our girls won it going away 18-1 in five innings. It was pretty awesome and we’re proud of our girls. What made the two victories especially sweet is that all four opponents were 6A teams and St. Helens is 5A. The higher the number, the bigger the school. So, they really stepped it up and should have gained a lot of confidence.

In case you can’t read the scoreboard numbers, the top row for guest is: 6 3 1 8 0. Pretty nice.

Now, about that rain storm in 1976 on Guam … it was in the form of Typhoon Pamela which dropped 33.7 inches of rain on us in three days. The official records report that the winds were only 150 mph sustained, for 18 hours, with no mention of gusts. What we on the island heard was 180 mph sustained, for 18 hours, with gusts to 220 mph. It’s more dramatic using our numbers. We went outside when the eye of the storm passed over us and experienced the eerie calm. Jeff was even wading in the street before the storm returned. We were without power for 9 days. A fun time was had by all.

That’s all I have for today except to note that our dogs, who were all alone for 9 hours today, were extremely happy to see us return.