Author: Matthew Groff

  • I’m Done with Summer

    Yup, I hit the “I’m done with Summer moment” this weekend. We are currently in our third heatwave in NYC, which makes being in the City pretty unbearable. We have been inside with the a/c, which after awhile begins to feel unnatural and like we are stuck in a bubble. Then added on top of that, I got a summer cold. (We took plenty of Covid tests and they all came back negative.) This all culminated on Sunday when I uttered this demand to the gods, “I’m ready for Fall!”

    This declaration seems to arrive every year at the exact same time; the first week of August. Just like how I will ask for the end of Winter during the first week of February. It’s a pattern and also the rhythm that the clock of my life runs on.

    Yet, I read that from here on out, every year, Summer will start to get hotter and longer, and depending on where you live, you’ll either see more or less rain. Unless we do something, the hospitable human environment that has supported the development of civilization for the past 10,000 years is coming to a close. At least that’s what Neil deGrasse Tyson said.

    I know that’s a dark place to go, but I just want to put on a sweater cuz it’s cold out.

  • ODDS and ENDS: Farmer’s Markets, Premier League Starts, and Summer

    (Don’t jock my style!)

    If you were to ask me how old I feel, I would say 25 even on a bad day. But, there are a few things that do, unfortunately, remind me that I am a middle-aged man. The fact that my hair is gray, that I have enough ear and nose hair that I have to trim it, and I am balding. The other factor that most comes into play is my desire to go to a farmer’s market early on a Saturday morning. Not just a desire to go to one, but an actual level of excitement to be there. I think we’ll hit the one up in Tarrytown/Sleepy Hollow one (weather permitting), and I hear there is a pickle vendor there, which makes all the difference. The real honest goal is to get out of the City, but to also get more fruits and vegetables in our diet. The person in our household pushing for this is our daughter. The wife suggested we hit up a farmer’s market as a way to meet the kid’s request, and now I am looking forward to getting a bunch of produce. I guess there are worse things to get excited about in middle age.

    The Premier League starts today with Crystal Palace v Arsenal! Hopefully, and I am biased, Arsenal will go down in flames, as that will fill my Hotspur supporting heart with so much joy! Tottenham’s team has stayed pretty much together in the off season, so I am expecting a solid run from this club, especially with Conte in charge from the get-go. I have read all the predictions, and it seems like the whole world is either picking Man City or Liverpool to win the league, BUT just about everybody has the Spurs down as third or fourth on the table, so to me, that says there is hope, if nothing else, that Tottenham can make a run at it. And let’s not forget that this season there is Champions League play, and that break in the middle for the World Cup. This is going to be a crazy football season, and I am sure I will be writing about all of it.

    Go Away Summer! I’m tired of your shit!

    (Say! If you enjoyed the refreshing oddness and thirst-quenching blandness of this blog, please show some love and like, share, or comment on this post. It does a body good!)

  • Blog, Journal, and Fiction Updates

    Some funny things happened on the blog the other day. The first was that someone, or maybe a bot, sat on the home page and looked at it 55 times. It was great for my paltry stats, which if I am lucky, I will get four views/visitors a day. So, one person looking at my page 55 times was cool, but at the same time, if you were a person, what the hell were you looking for? The home page is pretty basic, and not very informative. Were you a person that I know? Were you looking for your name? Odds are it was a fluke, a bot, or something that wasn’t human related. I mean, who looks at a home page 55 times over the course of an hour? Anyway, just thought I’d get that off my chest.

    As for the journal, I have been having issues with it. The issue I speak of is writing in it. This is clearly an after effect of getting out of the habit of writing. Over the past two days, I have had opportunities to take a half hour and write in it, but I have passed. I came up with some excuse of why I should put it off, and I did. I wanted to blame the Summer schedule I have with the kid, as I am with her all day now, but that excuse comes down the blaming the kid, and well, that makes me a shitty parent. (I don’t want to be a shitty parent.) No, no this one is on me. Writing was easier when the kid was in school, that’s a fact, but back in the Covid days when we were all up on each other, I was able to make the time, and that also is a fact. I need to make the time, and on a small level, that annoys me. Making time, means that it’s work. And if work annoys me, then that means I’ve become lazy again. Hence, why I am annoyed.

    And if I haven’t been writing in the journal, then I clearly haven’t been working on the fiction. I got four stories that are still out with magazines. I am expecting to hear back from them in the next month. I’m not trying to be a downer, but odds are they will be rejected. What I want to do is go out and submit to more places, but I am coming around to the idea that I might want to do another round of rewrites. That will take time. I have a plan in my mind of what I want to do, and where I can tighten things up. But, again, I need to make the time.

    (Say! If this blog tickles you in a fancy way, please bestow me an appreciated like, share, or comment. It will make the bot-gods happy, and keep me on the right side of the River Styx!)

  • PACT Act Passed and Shame is Back for the GOP

    There are many traditions in the United States, but one of the longest running and most prevalent in our 250+ year history is screwing over veterans. From the Revolution to Afghanistan, the US Government has a habit of letting veterans down. I know no American, not one, who is opposed to helping veterans get health care, mental care, access to housing, food, and substance abuse help.

    So, when Republicans pulled their support from the PACT Act last week, sadly, I wasn’t surprised, and neither was every veterans group who has been pushing for the PACT Act. I am just dumbfounded that Republicans believed that they can get away with praising our military one moment and then turn around and fight against supporting that same military when they come home.

    But something happened this week that hasn’t been a part of the Republican party for the past six years; shame. The reason the PACT Act got passed yesterday was that the Republicans in the Senate got shamed. They were shamed by vets, their families, but especially by Jon Stewart. The Senate GOP tried to roll out their arguments against the bill, but no one was having it; everyone saw it for what it was – lies. The shame of telling lies became so great that they caved and passed the bill.

    I think this is important because over the past six years, the Republican party has had no shame. They have doubled down again and again on reprehensible positions and arguments, daring people to call them liars. This was Trump’s hold on the GOP – just lie and do what you want. At the end of the day, if you accomplished your goal, what does it matter what you had to do to get there, right?

    Could this be the crack in Trump’s grip on GOP politicians? Maybe. I know that Trump didn’t weight in on this topic, and that might have changed things. I also know the VA system is still a shit show, which was supposed to be fixed under Obama, so there is shame to be passed around. But, BUT, I think a few years ago, there was no amount of pressure you could put on Republicans to get them to change their votes.

    Change just might be possible.

  • After Effects of a Vacation

    I read an article yesterday that most people are happier leading up to their vacation, than actually on their vacation. I took a second to think about that, and I knew that this was true. Yes, the best part of a vacation is counting down the days. Once you get where you are going, then everything goes sideways.

    This year, we talked to kid about this. How, the one of the best parts of being on vacation is when things do go wrong, because that is when you make new discoveries. I know that isn’t 100% true, but I wanted to plant the idea in her head that when things go wrong, it becomes an opportunity to try new and different things. I think it sort of worked. There wasn’t too much complaining, but the trade-off was that she wanted to spend a large amount of time on the family iPad.

    Oh well…

    But we did experience something new with the kid this year when we came home from vacation; she was a little depressed. The kid is seven now, and not little anymore, both physically and emotionally. We all have known that feeling of coming home from a vacation; if you had a good time, then there is that feeling of letdown; a little sadness of having to come home and go back to the old routine. That’s normal.

    This year was the first time that the kid experienced that. And she didn’t know what to do with these feelings. She was sad, sullen, and even had a little bit of a breakdown, and cried in her room for a bit. The wife and I talked, and made sure that we were on the same page on how to deal with this. The most important thing was not to make her feel ashamed for feeling sad. We let her tell us in her own way what was wrong, and let her just experience feeling bad. Then when she calmed down, we started talking about the fun we had, the memories we created, and what we should do with the rest of our summer.

    I know we can’t stop her from feeling bad, or sad, or experiencing emotions that are hard to put your finger on. But we can help her understand that having strong feelings is normal, and can be a good thing. And that there are constructive ways of dealing with them.