Early Wednesday afternoon, Jared Hensley was keeping an eye on the kids and cleaning house.
His wife, Laura, was taking down the Christmas tree.
"Aw, you've got to understand. It's a Christmas tree that she decorates with red and pink ornaments, so it stays up till after Valentine's Day," he said in protest of the laugh that echoed through the phone.
On a normal day this time of year, Hensley would have been at Soddy-Daisy High School putting the finishing touches on a day of classes and preparing for baseball practice.
Like the rest of this week, though, Wednesday wasn't a normal day. There was no baseball practice because of the inclement weather and accompanying forecasts.
"We're so good we don't need to practice," he said with a hearty laugh. "We had a pretty good January weather-wise and team-wise in our preseason conditioning. We have some plans to get things done, and now we're stuck inside and we'll probably be inside till sometime next week. It's definitely frustrating."
Soddy-Daisy is better off than most. The Trojans have a heated indoor facility with enough room to at least get some work done -- that is, if schools are open or coaches get the OK from the central office to have practice.
"It's not ideal, but you make the most of what you have," Hensley said.
Area Georgia teams already are having to call off games.
Ringgold, for example, was scheduled to open its season today against Dalton. That game has been rescheduled for next Monday.
"We're supposed to play here on Saturday after going to Harrison (near Kennesaw, Ga.) on Friday," Tigers coach Brent Tucker said. "The coach in Kennesaw said their Saturday forecast is for 51 (degrees) and cloudy. We're juggling schedules right now just to see if we can get a game in this week."
The forecast through the weekend is dismal with the possible of snow showers this evening and sleet and or rain Saturday and Sunday.
"We've been doing the (team-sharing) shuffle for the gym when we've been able to practice," East Hamilton coach Steve Garland said. "And that may continue if the forecast holds up, because we might not be able to get on the field Monday or Tuesday and maybe not Wednesday."
The local baseball scrimmage weekend at Soddy-Daisy, Ooltewah, Red Bank and Lookout Valley has been postponed until next week.
"When the TSSAA says go (start preseason practice) on February 9 and open on March 9, you feel like you're on the clock," Garland said. "You feel like every day you don't get something done that you're behind, but I understand that students' safety has to come first."
"I'm sitting here pouting over the weather," McCallie coach Greg Payne said. "This is not baseball weather. It's too early to start and always has been. If I hadn't had to play in February when I was playing in college, I might have hit .500."
The weather is cause for concern. Hensley, Payne and Garland are worried about their hitters' timing. Tucker seems more concerned about arms. And there is the adjustment from behind inside to outside.
"Everything for whatever reason seems to move faster when you're outside," Hensley said.
"The thing that concerns you is the pitchers' arms getting out of shape," Garland said. "A day is not that bad, but then four or five days and you take a backward step, but if you're not hitting daily your timing and rhythm can be thrown off."
Added Tucker, whose teams always have hit well: "We're about three weeks ahead of the Tennessee schools, and we had gotten past the sore arms. I don't want to go back through that again."
There is the positive approach.
"You can't do anything about it, so you try not to worry about it," Garland said.
Hensley added, "The one thing that allows me to sleep better at night is knowing that everybody is in the same boat we're in."
McCallie already has postponed two scrimmages, leaving Payne to offer up one last thought: "Snow is fine as long as it's between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day. After that I don't want any snow."
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him at Twitter.com/wardgossett.