Sunburn

Is it just me or does it seem like the sun has moved closer to the earth?

Coby and I travelled to Waco this weekend with Uncle Monty and cousin Ty "Bone" Meissner for a baseball tournament. Three games on Saturday followed by another on Sunday on a sun-drenched field. I made sure I personally was drenched with sunblock, and the moms in attendance made sure my son and the others on the team were equally protected as well.

Yet I come home with an apple-red neck and nice bullseye target on the back of my head, right where the little hole in my cap was. It's gotten quite a few laughs this morning at work -- which started at 7 a.m. as part of ETBU's summer hours, by the way. Monday through Thursday, 7 a.m. - 5 p.m., with Fridays off during the summer.

So I'm wondering what's the deal: is the sun about to fry us all or do I need to sue whatever sunscreen company was supposed to have been protecting my already dried up skin this weekend?

And it wasn't just the boys in the family. Jeannie had to stay home because Melody had her first All-Star softball tournament all day Saturday. The girls played five games Saturday, winning three, and Mel-Mel came home bruised and battered from the experience.

To wash off the long day, my girls got together with Aunt Nona and Kaylee after church for some swimming out at the Meissner pool. Jeannie swears she practically bathed herself and Melody and Abby with sunblock, yet Abby was getting her first aloe-vera bath late Sunday night when I called. Her first sunburn -- June 1, 2008.

Melody is having a tough time. The long day Saturday took most of her youthful energy, and now she's got a couple of layers of UV rays on top of exhaustion. And Jeannie looks like a red lobster, literally. An extremely painful one.

I've been sitting here at work this morning wincing every time my head hits the back of my high-back chair. That big red spot back there... if an assassin were to be hunting me today, he'd have a nice big target back there to aim at.

I've noticed -- my own family notwithstanding this weekend -- that ladies always seem to have it covered when it comes to stuff like sunscreen, or having Tylenol handy when it's needed, or bringing along fruits and snacks to stuff like ball tournaments. Our baseball moms on the Stix are really really good about that kind of stuff, but there's not a dad or husband in the mix who would ever remember those necessities if the ladies weren't around.

Why is that? I wonder what Adam did on this hot humid days in the Garden of Eden before Eve came along. He was either a very tanned sucker or looked like a peeled orange, I'm willing to bet.