Lightning, thunderheads and baseball: September 20 2024

Sometimes the sky brings us amazing, wondrous displays of color that take our breath away. This happened when we went to my son’s baseball game, with the sky threatening a storm that magically stayed on the horizon so the game could go on.

For the record, my son is that dot of red in the center of the field. He is a left-handed pitcher, and loves this elite role as he is always in demand, since right-handed pitchers are more common and typically have fewer surprises to throw off the batters.

Here, let me zoom in a bit.

The reason I was standing so far away was because my husband and I were walking on the path around the ballpark to get our exercise while we were waiting for the game to get underway, and we suddenly realized our son was on the pitching mound.

This was exciting! Sometimes he plays and sometimes he doesn’t. It depends upon how many pitchers are available for the particular day, and the whims of the coach.

So instead of rushing back to our strategically placed folding chairs directly behind the fence near the catcher, we stood there and watched that half-inning from the far side of the outfield.

It turned out to be a very good vantage point for watching the game, and we had the bonus of the beautiful backdrop of brilliant, billowing pink clouds, which were slowly changing as the sun slipped lower in the sky.

The park is huge. It is called Andrews Park and is located in the town of Champlin, Minnesota. (Must remember to do pinmapple!)

All around us were baseball practices, soccer (football) games, runners jogging the paths, and dog walkers getting their doggies out for one last walk of the day.

Here’s what was amazing. The thunderheads were clearly harboring a storm. And in fact on one of our loops around the park, we saw that lightning was flashing all across the cloud bank. I remembered the ballgames when the kids were younger and the officials would call off the game and clear the field in the event of just one lighting bolt in the distance.

But in this case the storm was probably eight to ten miles away, so everyone kept playing.

I managed to capture a short video of the field, with my son pitching and the lightning flashing in the big puffy clouds. I am thrilled to see that Actifit now allows video uploads! (This was not a feature when I broke my foot almost two years ago and quit posting on Actifit due to two surgeries a year apart and a long recovery after each of them.)

So here is the video, with lightning flashing in the sky in the background.

Shortly after that, the light completely left the sky, and all the field lights around the park began shutting off, and our field had the only remaining lights. It was nearly as dramatic as the clouds!

That’s all the news that is fit to print, my friends. Thank you for visiting!

Photo credits: All of the photos in this post were taken by me and belong to me, unless otherwise noted.

My bio: I am a fiction writer and photographer based in Minnesota. I have had a lifelong love of fiction writing. I earned my MFA in writing from the University of New Hampshire. My short stories have appeared in a range of literary journals and anthologies, and my first short story collection, Somewhere in Minnesota is available on Amazon US as well as international Amazon sites., Barnes & Noble or from the publisher.

Want to know what I'm publishing and where? Visit my website, www.jaynalocke.com, or follow me on X, aka Twitter, at www.twitter.com/@jaynatweets or on Instagram at www.instagram.com/authorjaynalocke.

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This report was published via Actifit app (Android | iOS). Check out the original version here on actifit.io

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