Earning my keep

Diane and I walked around the nearby lake at 10:00 am while the baseball guys worked out and had a good chance to get to know each other. It was so beautiful that I have to share another picture.

At 11:00, we, along with 6 other teammates, got put to work! We walked into the ice hockey arena and saw the floor was made of 4’x 4’ wood jigsaw flooring pieces, and our task was to remove them all and stack them in crates. THE WHOLE FLOOR!!! And the pieces were just heavy enough and just awkward enough to be too much for one person, so Diane and I used the buddy system to lift and stack. The Skovde team agreed to move the flooring in exchange for the city's funding for new batting cages near the field. Dad, I’m sure you’re thinking “wimp” in your head, and yes, I know you did manual labor every summer on the farm, but you coddled me too much when I was growing up, so this was hard! Aside from one ice cream break, we worked pretty steadily until 3:00. With our fingers blistered, backs broken, and quads burning from the squatting, we were happy to sit at lunch and eat delicious Swedish…calzones (?). I’m still waiting for some meatballs! Here are some photos of our labor from start to finish! I'll definitely sleep easy tonight. And good news--we are getting bikes!