Month: April 2021

  • Edited Graduation Letter

    I have a niece that is about the graduate from high school, and I was drafting a letter as part of our congratulations to her. I cut a joke out of the letter, as I don’t think it fits with the rest of the letters tone.

    But, I’m not one to waste material…

    “But, you’ll be away to college soon enough, and I won’t bore you with advice of what to do, or expect.

    Okay, maybe just one piece of advice that I have been sitting on. Follow your passion, even if it changes over time, and though it might not always work out the way you think, you will meet the most important people of your life on that journey.

    That was rather more serious than I wanted, and I might have lifted that from Power of Myth, or Spock from Star Trek; I’ll go a little lighter from here on out.”

  • Sounds of New York

    There is a guy singing in the construction site behind our building. At least, I think he’s singing. It’s more like a deep belly “Huh!” followed by several other “huh’s.” With the construction site being a hollow cement post and lintel structure, that has yet to be filled in with walls, or pipes, or anything, so it just behaves like a big echo chamber. Every sound, hammer pounding, yell, or really terrible idea of signing, is just amplified in the neighborhood.

    When we were staying up at our friend’s house for the weekend, we slept with the windows open. Now, the house was not in the country, though it was a small town, but in a small neighborhood subdivision. Yet, for an occasional car passing by, it was very quiet out there. Nothing happening, just the sound of still.

    Last night, back in New York, we slept with the windows open. I woke up around 4am, and as I lay in bed, trying to fall back to sleep, I listened to the City. It was a quiet night, no weird honking sounds, or sirens going by, but there is a hum to the City. It’s like a white noise hum. I couldn’t place my finger on it, but it was there, just a very low humming; like a machine running automatically.

  • No More Late Night Snacks

    Spring is here and Summer isn’t too far away. The seasons of rebirth and change is upon us. I think I have mentioned that I have put on twenty pounds of the course of the pandemic, and before that, I had put on a stress ten pounds from my former shitty job situation, my mother’s death, and moving away and then back to NYC. Food was the only thing giving me any comfort, and ice cream was my best friend. So, I’m front loaded now; just completing my slow transformation to middle aged white male – balding with a belly. As you can read, I’m not too happy about this.

    I am trying to wrap my head around getting back to a healthy lifestyle, as I don’t think I have really ever had a healthy lifestyle. I just sort of lived, and it all took care of itself. Well… those days are over, and I have to move this to the forefront of my thinking. This week, I am starting small; no more snacking after 9pm. This might be low hanging fruit, so to speak, but I think it is the lynchpin of the issues I am having. Mainly, no discipline. I want to see if I can go a week without snacking, controlling my behavior. If I can do this, then I think I can move on to more complicated things.

    And the complicated things are; running, maybe daily; eating better, or at least what we all can agree on as a family; and the really ambitious one, hiking.

    But before I can get there, I have to say goodbye to my 11pm ice cream break.

  • Second Vax, Aftermath

    I was anxious the night before I went to go get my second vaccine. I can’t put my finger on why that is. I was anxious for the first one as well, but I chalked that up to anticipation of having waited sooooo long to get this process started. This time around, I knew where I was going, I hadn’t had any fever or anything from the first, and being that I never got Covid in the first place, the odds of me getting an adverse reaction were low. But there I was, up at 5am, thinking about the shot.

    The story that keeps, sadly, showing up in the news is that many people are not getting their second vaccine. The reason for this can be for a mirid of reasons; forgot about the appointment, couldn’t get off work, or got complacent. I think I saw on the news last night that 5 million people haven’t shown up for that second shot.

    My first and second shot were at North Central Bronx Hospital, and I am happy to report that the second shot waiting area was packed. Sadly, it was people my age and older, and I think out of the 40 people I saw, only two were, or at least looked, under 30. That’s not great, but I did take as a point of pride that NYC is taking getting their shots seriously.

    That was yesterday, and as of this morning, all I have is a sore arm. My wife, on the other hand, has a low-grade fever, body aches, and a headache. She did have Covid, way back at the start of this whole mess, so her reaction is what was predicted. Not that it makes her feel any better.

    But it’s done. We are vaxed.

  • Totally Vaxed!

    I got my second does today! I’m all vaxed up!

    Now, if you haven’t yet, go get your shot!