I went 3-for-3 in a negative way last weekend.After what had been an extremely busy spring season at the sports desk, I was anxiously awaiting (for the better part of two months) the first official weekend of summer because of three outdoor commitments.Unfortunately for many others and myself, Mother Nature spoiled our best-laid plans.My disappointment began on Friday, after what was forecast to be a beautiful day for the Luverne Chamber of Commerce Golf Scrambler.I was genuinely excited when Tollefson Publishing General Manager Rick Peterson informed me back in May that we would enter the event as a two-player team.We did, after all, finish third in what I call the bottom feeder’s flight (also known as the third flight) during the tournament in 2005, and we were determined to prove that showing wasn’t a fluke.My expectations were high as I drove out to the Luverne Country Club late Friday morning. Before long, reality set in.I must have forgotten that I’m a marginal golfer at best, and it showed as I rolled my drives off the tee box and shanked my fairway woods into the trees during the first nine holes of play.I had my heart set on redeeming myself during the second round, but I never received the chance.After striking our tee shots on the LCC’s fifth hole (our 11th hole of the tournament), my ever-alert partner and the other members of our foursome (Amy Vande Voort and Calvin Morrison) decided it would be a good time to head for the cart shed as a storm was blowing in from the west.As it turned out, retreating to the cart shed was the best thing that happened to me all day. A drop of rain never touched my shirt before we reached our shelter, and I received a brief sense of satisfaction as I watched drenched players drive frantically into the shed when the skies opened and rained out the rest of the event.The second part of my much-anticipated weekend evolved around watching my son’s 12-and-under baseball team play at a tournament in Pipestone on Saturday and Sunday.It was the weekend of the Pipestone Watertower Festival, and I couldn’t think of a better way to forget about Friday’s debacle than watching the local boys play a sport I know more about than golf.Friday’s nightmare slipped my mind when our boys routed Toronto, S.D., in Saturday’s tournament opener, but it returned to my train of thought when fellow parent Tim Christensen received a phone call from his daughter, Stephanie, during the second game Saturday afternoon.Stephanie informed Tim that Lincoln County was under a Severe Thunderstorm warning as we watched the beginning of the second game under sunny skies.Then, for the second straight day, the rain clouds started to build to the north and east. All I could do is shake my head in disgust when a tournament official drove up to our diamond on a three-wheeler and sent us to find shelter from the hail and wind that was expected to arrive in five minutes.After an hour delay, play resumed Saturday afternoon. And, not unlike the fate Peterson and I experienced when the nine-hole scores were tabulated 24 hours earlier at the LCC, our boys came up on the short end of the stick.All I could think about on the drive home Saturday was that it had to be better on Sunday.Once again, I was wrong.The baseball boys did fine, winning games against Brookings and Annandale to place second in their division.It was my experience that was less than satisfying.After telling myself at 6 a.m. to bring my jacket for the 8 a.m. game Sunday morning, I forgot it and my customary lawn chair back in Luverne. With temperatures hovering in the upper 50s, I shivered through three innings of play before retiring to the car to watch the rest of the game through the fence.We returned to Pipestone (with my lawn chair in our possession) for a 3 p.m. game in the afternoon and were greeted by a sunny sky and comfortable temperatures in the low 70s.The conditions remained nice for about three innings, when the rain moved in and sent me scrambling for shelter for the third consecutive day.It didn’t rain hard enough to call the game off, but that didn’t matter to me at that point.What was supposed to be one of my best weekends of summer was nearly a complete washout.When it came to raining on my parade, it was Mother Nature that went a perfect 3-for-3.