Month: September 2022

  • ODDS and ENDS: The Queen, and Tottenham Updates

    (Hey! Ho! Let’s Go!)

    I don’ think there is any way to avoid this story, which is that Queen Elizabeth has died. And I don’t think the story should be avoided. In a world history sense, a head of state has died, will be mourned and buried, and a new head of state will be put in place, through a very long and old ceremony. A Ceremony that doesn’t happen very often. The Queen was of the World War II generation, though just barely, and as of such knew and participated in a world of empires and colonies. For that reason, I understand why there are people out there who have no intention of mourning her. (I am not surprised that Irish Twitter is behaving in that way.) For me, as an American, I have found the British Monarchy odd and fascinating. I fully believe, as all good Americans should, that there is no need for a monarchy, and cannot understand why a nation keeps a family in ceremonial power though they serve no functioning constitutional purpose. (I guess that makes me a pragmatic America.) Yet, as an American, I understand that there wouldn’t have been a US if not for a UK and that monarchy. But at the end of the day, I can’t shake the acknowledgment that the Queen was someone’s wife, and someone’s mother, and grandmother, and great grandmother.

    Yes, Tottenham Hotspur has yet to lose a match, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to complain about the team. On Wednesday, Spurs kicked off their Champions League campaign against Marseille, and I noted earlier that I know absolutely nothing about Marseille other than they are from France. But I was able to easily watch the match live on Paramount+ while my kid was running around the playground. (You hear that Peacock?!?! Take a lesson from Paramount+ and learn how to stream matches live!) What I saw was Tottenham starting off shaky again, but holding it together, again. Thank god for the Richarlison pick up from Everton during the off-season, as he was the only player showing some life out there. I apricate the win, but I’m beginning to get nervous for Son. For the past couple of seasons Kane/Son was an unstoppable team on the pitch: If Kane wasn’t scoring then it was Son, and vice versa. Hell, Son was tied with Salah last season for the Golden Boot in the Premier League. But, thus far, Son has had seven appearances and 0 goals. I was looking forward to this Saturday when Tottenham played against Man City, to see if Conte was going to make more of an effort to get Son involved, but with the Queen’s passing, all matches this weekend have been postponed. Just going to have to wait another week and wonder.

    (Yo! I see you! And if you want to help me out, then take a moment to like this blog, or share it, or leave me a comment about how Dejan Kulusevski is the real difference maker this season for Spurs. All would be apricated.)

  • School Has Started! AGAIN!

    School started today in New York City. I know we start later than most of the country. My nieces and nephews back in Texas started school in the middle of August, and just about everywhere else gets their kids back into class before Labor Day. Either way, today was the day that the kid went back to school.

    The kid was ready to explode this morning! When I went to wake her up, she was buried deep in her blankets. I opened the shades to let in the sunlight and got a weak groan from her. But when I announced in her general direction, that today was the first day of school, she shot up in bed, eyes wide, and told me what friends she was hoping would be in her class. Her backpack was packed, and lunch made. She picked out what she wanted to wear the night before. This kid was ready.

    It was a calming reassurance getting ready for school. We brushed our teeth and took the first day pictures. We held hands as we crossed the street, and said hello to the same crossing guard who has been on that corner for years. We saw friends and parents of friends walking to the school. It was a cool, slightly cloudy September morning, but it felt perfect for going to school.

    A few things were different about this first day. There were no masks. We didn’t have to fill out a health screening. The kids weren’t kept three feet apart as the lined up to go into school. It was what I would come close to calling normal, though I am aware that this will not be a normal year. COVID isn’t fully gone, and the ramification of the past two years are still present. Students are still playing catch up, both academically and emotionally. There’s a lot that we all need to pitch in and help with.

    But, the tumbler of life has clicked into another season of the year, and things begin anew.

  • Sports and Autumn

    Chelsea fired their manager, Thomas Tuchel, this morning. A little surprised, but Chelsea is having a pretty rough start to their season. Their loss yesterday, in the group stage of the Champions league, didn’t help, but still, it’s just the group stage. I would have thought if they didn’t make it out of the group, that that’s when I would have fired Tuchel. This is the one aspect of the Premier League that I don’t understand: you can be a manager with a winning record and still get fired. In the US, you have to lose first, then get fired.

    Enough of Chelsea!

    Today starts Tottenham’s Champions League campaign! Spurs will be taking on Marseille, and… I know nothing about Marseille, other than that it’s a city in France. The match is on at 3pm today on Paramount+, and there is a slight chance that I will be able to watch it. (If it rains today, I will be watching. If the skies are clear, I will be at the playground with the kid.) I’ll see how it goes.

    As for sports, the fantasy football league that I play in is about the start up. I haven’t paid any attention to what is going on in the NFL. And I really haven’t paid any attention to what the Dallas Cowboys are up to. The only thing I head this summer is that the Eagles should take the division, and that the JETS and GIANTS are BACK! Mind you, the local NYC sports news always says this about the JETS and GIANTS every year. Don’t worry, the press gives up on the JETS after the third game, and then they dump the GIANTS about half way through the season.

    The older I get, the more I enjoy the rhythm of sports leagues being rolled out in the Fall. The ramping up of both of the footballs, and the winding down of baseball. Basketball will start soon enough, and I again will flirt with following the Knicks. (My New York friends will talk me out of it.) In one sense, it gives me something to do on the weekends when it starts getting too cold and rainy to go out. I never really thought of myself as a sports fan, but since I moved from Texas to NYC, sports has given me a way to stay connected with friends and family. It’s an easy conversation I can have with people, and it’s also an easy excuse to send an old friend a text message, or when I talk to my dad, we can complain about the Cowboy’s O-line.

    I wonder if any of this sports watching will pass on to the kid? Right now, she finds it boring, but every now and then, she curls up with me and watch what I’m watching. Sometimes she asks questions, most of the time she doesn’t. Maybe what she’ll take away from sports is that it’s a chance to hang out together.

    (Speaking of which! If you are enjoying this, please take a moment to like, share of comment on this blog! I hear it helps needy people like me!)

  • Going Back to the Gym

    Not many people know this about me, but I haven’t been to the gym in almost three months. And now that I say it, I think I have told people this information before. Anyway, let’s all act like this is new, and not me rehashing a subject to meet my daily blog quota.

    I got in shape for “Swimsuit Season” by not getting in shape. I know that this was a bold choice, but after spending the Summer at the beach and water parks, I can see that for other middle-aged men, I was not alone in this decision. My dad bod is stellar!

    I stopped going to the gym because the school year came to an end, and I wanted to spend my time with the kid. And I also wanted to sleep in. But, I admit that was not the correct decision, as now I have to redevelop my habit of going to the gym.

    And I hate going to the gym.

    But I go to a nice gym in the neighborhood, which makes it not so bad.

    Yup, come Thursday, when the kid is back in school, I will be able to drop her off in the morning and then head over to the gym, which was the old system. And I do need to get back into it. I don’t like working out, but I also don’t want to die early. All the extra time I can have with the wife and kid is apricated, and the easiest way to attain that is just go work out for thirty minutes a day. So, it’s a pretty good deal.

    But I am lazy. I mean, I will do it, but I am really lazy. And I will hate every minute of it. And I will come home and the wife will ask me how my workout was, and I will shrug with an expression of not caring either way.

    My wife, on the other hand, when she come back from a yoga class, she’s all jazzed up, and excited, and happy, and full of energy. Good for her, and I’m happy that she gets that out of her workouts, but that’s not for me.

    Maybe one day, but not today.

  • It’s Labor Day

    I feel like I have achieved some sort of accomplishment for making it to Labor Day. Then I’m reminded of the Chris Rock joke, that you can’t be proud of something that you’re supposed to do. Like make it to Labor Day, or not go to jail.

    So, in my achievement/not achievement morning that I am having with my wife on the couch as we watch “The Price is Right,” I am thinking about how we got to the end of June, and I thought that this Summer would never get started or end for that matter. Yet here we are. The wife goes back to work tomorrow, and the kid is in school by Thursday.

    For me, I have to start looking for a job. Or at least, I have to start exploring ways to bring money in to help out the family. Won’t lie, I’m not looking forward to it. Part of it is that I have been out of work for so long, I have a little anxiety about returning. Also, I have this nagging feeling that I have started entering the realm of being just a little too old for certain jobs. And then there is what set of skills do I have? What I can do really only applies to theatre and non-profit arts groups.

    I talked about this with the wife last night, and we are in agreement that though another income stream would help the family, there is no rush for me to go out and take the first job that comes my way. I can take my time and find the right fit. That does help me relax a little.

    But, alas, for today is the end of Summer in our house. We most likely will do nothing but watch TV, and let the kid do what ever she wants. We will give ourselves one final day to relax.