Month: July 2021

  • ODDS and ENDS – Euro Final: England v Italy, Now What… Olympics?, The Emotion of Summer Vacation

    “Odds and Ends” is my continuing series of random thoughts and follow ups…

    Shock beyond shock, I’m going to talk about the Euro 2020/21 Final on Sunday between England and Italy. Looks like I am only about 50% correct when it comes to picking finals, so I am pretty happy about that. It’s not a done deal for England, who I thought didn’t look great against Denmark, and now they have a real competitor, Italy, who is playing at the top of their game. It should be a good match, and no matter what the outcome, this is the best an English team has done is 50 years, so hats off to this squad.

    And then after Sunday… no real big sporting events to look forward to. Some of you might point out the Olympics, but man, should that even be happening? Shit is bad in Japan with Covid, and there won’t be any spectators, and as we have learned in the past year, sports without fans is kind’a dull. I’m not knocking any of the athletes in Tokyo, but this sure must be a little of a letdown for them as well.

    We are two weeks into Summer Vacation, one week in on the Summer Day camp, which leaves nine weeks until school starts up again, and according to my kid, Summer goes on forever. I remember that feeling of optimistic listlessness. Nothing to do, not wanting to do anything, needing to do something, and it felt like this wonderful inertia would go on forever. I thought I remember what Summer Vacation felt like, but I had forgotten. It’s like I knew the right words to say when an adult talks about it, but having the weight of the correct emotion behind it was lacking in me. Now I see it again, living through the excitement of my daughter’s vacation.

  • Again, Parking in New York City

    I have a love/hate relationship with parking the car in the City, and also a strange affinity for waiting in the car for the street sweeper to go by.

    I have issues when it comes to parallel parking, so I have to find a very specific type of spot for me to put our car in. Mainly, it has to be a spot I can just pull into, and not have to parallel park. As you can imagine, it is difficult to find these pull in spots, thus I am resigned to spending 10+ minutes badly parallel parking, blocking traffic, going up on the curb, and doing this “front and back” rocking of the car until I can settle into the spot. It’s an awful spectacle to behold.

    As for waiting for the sweeper to go by, that’s more like a coordinated dance of cars. If things go right, I said “if”, then everybody pulls out and then pulls back in, following a nice orderly fashion. Some people are even willing to help guide your car back into your spot. If we work together, we all win.

    And then there are days like today, when I sit in the car, waiting for the traffic cop and sweeper to go by… but they never show up. I got to our car early, and sat, and waited. Normally, you can see the traffic cop coming down the street checking to see if people are on their cars, if not, the car gets a ticket. Then, usually five to fifteen minutes later, the sweeper truck comes by. This fanfare usually happens within the first thirty minutes.

    Not today.

    A whole hour went by, and nothing. That left the final thirty minutes, which only made me edgier. Was this their plan, to catch people off guard? I checked 311 on parking rules, and they were in effect. What was happening? What would cause both the cops and the sweeper to be delayed?

    When we reached the end of time, 10am, I and everyone else on the block emerged from their cars, with a look of confusion. What is going on? Is this a trick? Do we have the day wrong?

    I mean, good things don’t happen when it comes to parking in New York.

  • England v Denmark Today

    So… I really don’t know that much about international football, let alone European football, but that isn’t a good reason to stop me from talking like I’m an authority on EURO 2020/21.

    In that sense, I was wrong about Belgium, and very wrong about Italy. It feels like it’s the 80’s again with Italy playing well, and maybe winning a championship. Also, Denmark is the sentimental favorite of the tournament. They whole thing with Christian Erikson collapsing and almost dying on the field is just crazy to begin with, but Denmark seems to have found their stride.

    Which does make me nervous for England. (It’s the Cub fan in me coming out.) Sure, the Three Lions beat up on Ukraine, but that match wasn’t as much as a test as compared to the Germany game. And England is playing at home today, which should give them an edge. But Denmark has the better story, and is the underdog, and they lost their best player but somehow keep finding ways to win.

    So, I’ looking forward to the match.

    Problem is that the game is at 3pm, and that is when I need to get the kid from day camp. And she wants to go to the park after camp today.

    I might have to bribe her with ice cream so dad can watch the match in air conditioning at home.

  • The Summer Day Camp Saga Concludes

    Today was the big day. It was the first day of Summer Day Camp for our daughter. After everything we went through last week, I was pretty nervous that it might all get derailed. But it worked out; Forms were sent, approval given, protocol followed.

    Yesterday, the wife took the kid out to get a new bathing suit for camp, as her current one is getting a little small. We hit the drug store for sun screen and other camp goodies. The kid picked out her clothes for this morning, and we all help pack her backpack last night before bed. I even got a surprise joy from making the kid’s lunch last night.

    This morning, it all went like clockwork. We all got up on time, without a complaint. Ate breakfast, brushed teeth, and were out the door like we planned. It was a fun walk this morning, just me and the kid, talking about what might be in-store at the camp; Would there be a water slide? New friends? Art classes? Building a robot.

    As we got closer to the camp, other kids began to coalesce around the entrance gate. I could feel the excitement in my daughter build. As we stepped onto the grounds, she asked me, “Can I go make friends?” That was the point, I thought, but I just said, “Yes.” Off she went to introduce herself to two girls.

    I checked my kid in with the councilors, and soon a gaggle of eight 1st Graders were all talking to each other, waiting for the camp to begin. The councilor went over to the kids, took attendance, and started to lead the kids inside for the day camp. My little one looked over her shoulder at me, gave me a quick, little wave, and was off with the rest of the group.

    And it was done. She was back with kids again. After a year and a half, she was with kids her own age, doing and talking to kids about kid things, all away from their parents.

    It honestly felt like we would never get back to something like this.

  • ODDS and ENDS – Euro 2020/21, Summer Camp, Sleep!

    “Odds and Ends” is my continuing series of random thoughts and follow ups…

    Again, I will be talking about Euro 2020/21. As of this moment, Switzerland just got bounced by Spain, and Italy and Belgium just started. Though I was completely wrong about Sweden last week, I still hold that the final will be Belgium against England. Yes, over the Fourth of July Weekend, I will be rooting for England.

    Finally, some good news with Summer Camp, as it has taken up my whole week. The pediatrician’s office got the revised vaccination form to me today; a whole day earlier than they said. The weight taken off, not only my shoulders, but my wife’s shoulders, is enormous! The kid will get to go to summer day camp! She gets to be around kids again! We all get a break from each other! I feel like I won the lottery!

    One last thing. After my wife’s birthday, which was in the middle of June, I decided that I would do another thirty days of no alcohol. I did it last year as a sort of detox and reset on getting healthy. I was told that when you stop drinking you begin to notice changes such as, the ability to sleep through the night, your complexation clears up, you become more focus, and relaxed, and you lose weight. When I did it last year, I noticed none of those benefits. Nothing. I couldn’t sleep, I had a bad complexation, I was foggy, not relaxed, and I put on weight. Sure, it was the middle of the pandemic, but I thought I would have got something. This time around, I can report that I am, in fact, sleeping better, and through the night. As for the other benefits, again, nothing. Seems to be that I might have to do this five more times before I start seeing all the benefits at once.