Category: Life

  • ODDS and ENDS: End of the Season, No Room, and 25-5

    (All This Can Be Yours…)

    Tottenham has two matches left to the season, and I think the best that they can do is 6th place. I predict that Spurs will lose to Brentford, and then end with a win against Leeds. There is still a chance that Tottenham will qualify for the Europa League, or the Europa Conference League next season, but being how tough the last several matches have been, they could burn out easily. I would like to see them win a trophy next season, any trophy. But all of that will depend on the next manager and if Harry Kane sticks around.

    I’m running out of room for books in my apartment. And, I have about nine file boxes in storage of more books that the wife and I have collected. I refuse to get rid of the books. That just feels like abandoning your child. Yet, I also feel compelled to go book shopping this weekend.

    I should get a move on, you know. I was able to write these first to sections of this post rather fast, and now, for the past hour I have been trying to come up with a third paragraph. Not sure why I hit this block all of a sudden. I started looking out the livingroom window, and everything just ground to a halt. I was thinking about the kid at school, and how close Summer is, and if we were going to be able to get a vacation up to Maine this year. (Rather late in the year, so I’m thinking not.) Just random idea after random idea, but nothing solid that would lend itself to a narrative. Has anyone heard of the 25 – 5-minute rule? You work for 25 minutes, and then give yourself a 5-minute break. It’s supposed to help you stay focused and not burn out. Huh?

  • What Does Malcolm Gladwell Know, Anyway…?

    I will be house husbanding it today.

    I also think the words, house husband should be spelled “house-husband,” but autocorrect disagrees with me. English is a strange language which never stops evolving.

    And when I say that I will be house husbanding “it” what that really means is I have a bunch of errands to run around the city for the family. Every now and then, a day like is emerges and I have to put a bunch of other things that I would like to do on the back burner. Life is about trade-offs, and today, I will be living the trade-off.

    But, one thing that I won’t let myself skip out on is putting down at least 250 words daily. I have been a little lax on the blog since the start of the year. I would post Monday through Friday, with occasional holiday breaks. But since the start of the year, it has been closer to four post a week. I still journal every day, which is how I normally hit my 250-word quota. A good day is 1,000 words, and bad day is 250.

    You know, I started all of this back in 2019. I’m four years into this plan. Outside of my marriage, this is the longest commitment I have ever maintained. I started to think the other day that I should be closing in on my Gladwell 10,000 hours. Now if I do some simple math, like saying that I write about 3 hours a day, on average for 21 days a month, for four years now which means…

    I’ve put in 3,024 hours…

    So… I guess I’m still in my beginner phase.

    You know, Gladwell said that the 10,000 hours was just a guideline, not a hard rule.

    Yeah…

    I need to get going on my errands.

  • ODDS and ENDS: Eyes – A Follow Up, NFL Schedule Release Videos, Up and Running, Mother’s Day

    (Education is Social Justice)

    Earlier this week, I talked about going to the eye doctor to get a new prescription for glasses. I also mentioned my thin-skinned-vanity about not wanted to get bifocals just yet. Well, I did not get prescribed bifocals. The Optometrist suggested that I get readers, and also gave me a prescription for that. So, I think I split the difference here. I don’t need bifocals, but I no longer can see close, nor far away.

    I didn’t know this was a thing, but I should have known it was a thing. When NFL teams release their schedules for the upcoming season, they make a little video for it. Makes sense as everyone releases a video for everything. Most are okay, but two stood out for me. First was the Chicago Bears which was a take-off on the show “The Bear.” (And if you haven’t watched The Bear, do it!) The other one that made me laugh out loud was the Tennessee Titans asking people on the street to identify other team logos.

    The A/C’s are up and running in the apartment. Summer has officially begun!

    Mother’s Day is this Sunday. Call your mom. Don’t text, actually call. And if you can, give her a visit. The wife and mother of my kid wants to go to a yoga class and have lobster rolls. I think I can do that for her. And let her know that we love her. Which is what mom’s want. That and visit more.

  • Air Conditioners

    It’s going to be 80 degrees in NYC today, and then 87 tomorrow. In other words, we are going to die from this heat. May, normally, is one of the two best months to be in New York – the other being September. May around here is pleasant, a little cool, and little warm, everything is blooming, and green. The City feels alive, reborn, and full of life. And rarely does the temperature get above 78. Anything in the 80’s is Summer Weather – which should be the sticky and awful July and August.

    But the world is warming, and the Summer Heat Creep has begun, or more accurately, started a few years ago. The Summer heat and humidity in New York is now June through August. Sometimes it starts in late May, and can linger into mid September. I find it a tad bit sad that the Summers of old are gone, and never to come back; hot in the day, cool at night.

    With the coming short heat wave, I have tasked myself with going to our storage space to recover our air conditioners. We are the people who remove our window units in Fall, only to bring them back in late Spring. Like changing out your wardrobe, or full house cleaning, the dance of the air conditioners is another seasonly ritual we partake in. We do this so we can have a clear view out our apartment’s windows of a cinderblock wall, and a construction site. Breathtaking vistas, to say the least.

    In the end, the gathering of the air conditioners is yet another sign that the year is continuing to move on. After the a/c’s are installed, soon school will be out, and vacations and camps begin. Only to lead to road trips, and attempts to escape the heat.

    How long until Fall?

  • Getting My Eyes Checked

    This is a long overdue bit of personal maintenance, but today I am getting my eyes checked, so I can get new glasses. My eyesight has never been awful, I’m just a little nearsighted, but I have noticed over the past three years that things are getting fuzzy far away. At night, lights are stars, and not balls. All the telltale signs that my glasses need an updating.

    The one thing that I am a little nervous about, and this is all vanity talking, is that I might need to get readers or bifocals. That’s what old people have. I’m not old. Sure I might be balding and my hair is all gray, but that is a common feature of younger middle aged people…

    My father has bifocals, and I was hoping that I could hold off turning into him for a little while longer. I don’t like to admit it, but some print is starting to be too small, and I think I need to get a phone with a bigger screen. And I started listening to more jazz. I think this all might be connected.

    It is a weird dynamic being in my forties. In one sense, I feel very confidant in who I am, and have come to accept that I’m not perfect, but I’m pretty good. I like me. And then on the other hand, I can tell I’m getting older; the hair, the eyes, the twenty pounds that just won’t go away. Once I really start liking who I am, it all starts changing and breaking down.

    But I’m going to pick out some cool frames.

    I gotta go here…