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Odds and ends:

See that lemon tree in the middle? She’s growing pretty fast lately, though in something of a checkmark shape which I don’t think is ideal. I’m just going to let nature take its course, or at least as much as nature is involved with that LED grow light up there.

Note too that she’s perched up on top of some books to get closer to the light, and to avoid competition from the purple shamrock and aloe. Those books are reference books for a programming language I don’t use much any longer, and am unlikely to again in the future. Metaphors abound.

We got some unfortunate, puzzling news from the high school this week. The entire athletic conference is doing away with sophomore baseball. All the sophomores now have to try out for JV, which means they are competing against juniors and seniors in addition to the other sophomores. The result will be a dramatic reduction in the number of sophomores playing baseball, from about 20 to only a handful. I can’t figure out their motivation for this, except to identify the most extraordinarily talented kids early, and to focus resources on developing them. So the rest of the kids can get fucked? Seems contrary to the purpose of high school athletics as I understand it.

He’s saying all the right things about needing to work out harder this off season, and to really kill it at tryouts, etc. But I think he knows his odds just got really long. He’s good, but not elite, and that’s all they have room for now, looks like. Fortunately, he’s taken a shining to playing Ultimate this fall, and if he doesn’t make the baseball team, he can continue Ultimate in the spring. It’s a way cooler vibe—better kids, more human[e] coaches. And there’s no risk of getting hit in the face with a 90mph fastball and dying from it. Circumstances change, and how you let go of your old biases and adapt is what matters.