Category: Life

  • Doing Laundry

    Monday is laundry day around here. The family laundry has been my chore since the kid was born. I used to get up… Well, the new born would get us up at 6am, and on Sundays, I would head out around that time, and walk the one block to the local laundromat. We had been going to that place for years, and all the people who worked there knew me, so it was a friendly place. (In fact, before the kid was born, we used to drop our laundry off and use their wash and fold service. But with a baby, we stopped using the service, and I started doing it all ourselves.) That was six and a half years ago when I started doing the laundry. The laundromat has gone through a renovation and a change in management, but now every Monday, I am there doing it.

    Recently, I started thinking about my chore of the laundry. It takes up two hour of my day, and sometime longer if I do or do not get help folding. It would be nice to have a washer and dryer in our apartment, or at least in the building, but even if that were true, it would still be a chore that I would have to do, and it would still take up time. But, the time really doesn’t bother me, as I am writing this while all the clothes are in the dryer.

    What I started thinking about is how I sort of feel fulfilled doing this chore. Like making dinner every night, I like that I provide a necessary service for my family. I don’t feel like I am being taken advantage of, or that this is a thankless job. I like that I am doing something that helps the family keep moving forward. I never thought I would get to the point in my life where I would enjoy doing laundry.

  • ODDS and ENDS: Fantasy Football, Chopped Cheese Biscuit, That’s Not a Holiday

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

    This week, I received the email alerting me that the Fantasy Football League that I take part in is ready for the coming season. I have been taking part in this league for over ten years, and I’ve won it twice. Our group used to be twelve players, but now we are down to six; four of us went to college together, one guy is a friend I used to work with in New York, and the other guy is the husband of a college friend. I know that the six of us have never been in the same room together, but it does feel like the band is getting back together when fall rolls around.

    Do you know what a chopped cheese sandwich is? It’s a New York bodega thing, but I feel like people outside of the City are starting to find out about it. I say all of this because there is a food market in Harlem, Manhattanville Market, that has a joint called Butterfunk Biscuit Co. that is now offering a Chopped Cheese Biscuit Sandwich. This monstrosity might take 35 minutes off my life, but it looks comfort food amazing! I might not need an excuse to stop by there this weekend.

    Yesterday was “National Dog Day” or as my wife put it, “National Tell Me Your Dog’s Name So I can Try to Hack Your Password Day,” and while we’re at it, it’s also, “What’s Your Mother’s Maiden Name Day,” and “What Street Were You Born On Day” as well…

  • Summer is Almost Over

    We have eighteen days until the kid starts school, which means that we have eighteen days left of Summer. It was a busy summer with day camps, visiting friends, and a vacation to boot. This made those first nine weeks fly by. Looking at the final two weeks, I have this feeling that we don’t have enough time to get ready for school, and the new routine that will follow.

    We’ll have to do some school shopping. We were able to get a rain coat for the kid while up in Maine, but she needs a new winter coat and winter shoes. Let’s not forget that out kid shot up a whole inch this Summer, so we need to do another round of clothes shopping. And school supplies. Always needing school supplies.

    Then there is the anxiety of the Fall. We were told, and our planning, on having the kid attend in person class, but with everything going on, I don’t feel like that is a guarantee. I have this nagging thought in the back of my head that if things get worse with Delta, then we might have to do remote school again. This is one of the reasons why I haven’t taken the kids “school corner” down in the living room. The other is that I am lazy.

    I fear if we do remote school again, that it will just crush all of us. The kid has told me that she wants to be back at school to see her friends, learn, and have fun. She’s excited about being there, and I want her to have that. For the wife and I, school means a return to normal. It means the chance for me to go get a part time job, and help us dig out of the financial hole we are in. And also, school means that I get a little time to write as well.

    So much still feels up in the air, but everything has been up in the air for like two years now. I wouldn’t say we are getting used to it, but we would like a break from this ride. Just eighteen days till the next chapter.

  • Vacationing in Maine

    Our family vacation last week was in Maine, and this was the second time that we have stayed up there. The first time was three years ago, and that was along the coast, south of Portland. This time around we stayed up north in Newry, not too far from the Sunday River Ski Resort. We were sort of counter programming our vacation, as most people want to be near the water in the summer, and we did get a better deal being near the mountains.

    I’m not sure when Maine showed up on our vacation radar. We had visited Vermont before, and loved it. The wife’s extended family is from Connecticut, so we have spent time there with them, as well as in New Hampshire. A few years ago, I almost got a job in Rhode Island, and we went up there to check it out, and did really fall in love with that state. (Funny how two Texans fell for the smallest state.) Yet, Maine never crossed our minds as a place to visit.

    Then three years ago, my parents were taking a full East Coast road tour in their RV, and as they came through New England, we rented a car and joined them. This was over Memorial Day and the start of June 2018, and where we all ended up going was Rhode Island, which we all had a good time at.

    But when we got up to our vacation place at Camp Ellis, Maine, just four blocks from the beach, the trip took on a different dynamic for all of us. At night, you would go to sleep listening to the sound of the waves coming in on the ocean. The kid played in the sand at the beach, I had martinis with my folks, and the house we stayed in had a lobster pot, crackers and picks, so the wife tried her hand steaming lobsters for us. It was a good time, and a great vacation.

    It was also the last time I got to spend time with my mother before she died. I know you can never recreate past experiences or memories, but it was fun being up there again – with the cool evenings, and beach days, and even going to the L.L. Bean store in Freeport.

  • I Met Tourists Today

    Normally, I grocery shop for the family on Wednesday, but this week, I thought I would move it up a day. For me to grocery shop is an event that takes up a couple of hours. I hit up the grocery store in our neighborhood, but there are some staples that are just cheaper at Trader Joe’s. The nearest one is at 93rd Street, which means a subway ride. Having been vaccinated since May, I have returned to using mass transit to run errands, so I have been venturing out of our neighborhood all Summer.

    Today went normal. I took the local train down to 96th Street, walked along Central Park West to 93rd, and then cut over to Columbus Ave. It wasn’t busy in the Trader Joe’s, so I was in and out in about thirty minutes. Totally normal. I walked back to the 96th subway station listening to music while carrying my bags.

    I go down into the station, swipe my card through the turnstile, and then I hear loudly, “Good Morning!” shouted at me by a middle-aged woman in a mask. Then she shouted it at me two more times; “Good Morning!”

    Now, as any New Yorker would do, when someone shouts at me, I ignore them. The second shout, I will look at you to make sure you aren’t about to attack me. The third shout will be the closer look, to check to see if you are crazy or maybe a normal person.

    When I checked to see if this woman was crazy, I saw that she was flanked by a middle-aged man, and two teenagers – a guy and a gal – all in masks. When I stopped to look at them, that’s when the teenagers said in a very thick Italian accent, “We are looking for Brooklyn Bridge.”

    And it hit me – They were tourists!

    I mean, I didn’t think foreign tourists were allowed in the country, but that notwithstanding, I fell into the old role of “New Yorker Giving Directions.” Not that there was much I could do. There isn’t a straight shot to the Brooklyn Bridge. My thought was to go to City Hall on the N R W line, but that meant a transfer at 34th, if you took the B from 96th. See, not easy, and not easy to explain to people who aren’t that familiar with English. Anyway, I got them on a downtown B, and I guess they will figure it out from there.

    New York is Back, Baby!