Fall Sports...

Soccer – and ballet – seasons are upon us. Oh, so is fall – summer has come to an abrupt end. It's 47 degrees at midnight, and the overnight low yesterday was 42. To everyone who has asked me in the last week or so, "Is it snowing there yet? Ha ha ha," you can still go to hell, but the real answer is, "Soon enough."

Saturday was stunningly gorgeous, with a high of 65 – great weather to start the soccer season. It doesn't last – I'm told that by the end of the 6-week fall soccer season, kids are wearing their heavy winter jackets under their jerseys. You'll note from the photos above that people are getting ready: the kid trying to take the ball from Joey has long pants on. (Click on the photo itself – or any photo on this blog – to get a larger version!)

Katie and Joey are in the Red River Soccer Club, which has nifty reversible jerseys so one team can always wear white, and the other red, with only one jersey required. It's a very friendly style of soccer; Joey's team doesn't worry about offsides (which is good, because I haven't figured that rule out myself quite yet...) and is casual about "hands" violations, and they both play on half-sized fields. We missed the deadline for registering them back in April or so, and sent a check that included the late fee; the league refused to cash it – they don't charge Fargo newcomers a late fee.

Both kids' teams practice twice a week at local schools; games are held at the Pepsi Soccer Complex up on the north end of town by the airport. It's a vast, beautiful, almost brand-new facility with nine fields, most of which were broken up today into the half-sized fields, for a total of about 15 or so games going simultaneously and over several shifts. The West Fargo and Moorhead leagues also play there, and Katie's team played one from across the river in Moorhead.

Ellie started a pre-ballet program Saturday morning as well: 45 minutes in a very nice studio a few blocks north of us. It's weekly and runs $30 a month. She is very excited to be in leotards and all the ballet accoutrements.

We'll have an early indicator tonight of how Katie may tough out the winter: She and two pals, one from soccer and one from school, are camping in the back yard tonight in a tent. So far, so good.

I noticed something out in the soccer complex parking lot on Saturday:

The vast majority of vehicles out here are American-built; for instance, in the shot above, just about every single car you can see is from the Big Three. This is a complete reversal from where we live in Maryland, where I'd estimate the majority of vehicles are foreign-made, with an emphasis on Japanese makes.