Exhausting weekend -- fun, but exhausting. A bunch of people came to town to celebrate the birthday of one of S's oldest friends, N1. N1's brother, N2, drove up from North Carolina with his wife JN and his parents. The four of them stayed with us and N1 (who lives in NYC) stayed with a friend who lives in my old neighborhood in DC. Then, randomly, my brother-in-law was in the area visiting his parents (who live about an hour away in Maryland), so he came to visit Thursday evening, and it was a huge (by 2021 standards) get-together at our place. All the adults are fully vaccinated, so it was a mask-free affair. My first one in over a year, and I gotta say it felt pretty damn good.
It was a nice mix of people too. Sometimes when you have two sets of visitors in town, it can be awkward to get everybody together -- like you'd rather just see each set separately -- but this wasn't like that at all. The conversation was flowing all night. We ate, some of us drank, and a good time, I believe, was had by all.
Well, except for one small niggling detail in the back of my mind. I was nervous that at any moment I was going to get a whiff of sewage and find our utility closet filling up with with shit-water. It happened again Tuesday night, and it feels like a ticking time bomb. It's a good news, bad news situation -- or rather a good news, bad news, bad news situation. The good news is that we finally diagnosed the problem; the bad news is that it's not fixed yet, and the other bad news is that fixing it is going to be a massive undertaking both logistically and financially.
The problem is that the main sewage line under our house is severely corroded. In some places it's busted wide open and roots and dirt are causing clogs which are causing the disgusting backups. The clogs will usually work themselves out, so everything ostensibly works fine, until the next major clog. (Thankfully we didn't have one while people were here.) So, we can either spend the rest of our lives dealing with these clogs, or we can do what we are going to do and nip it in the bud, bite the bullet, and get them replaced -- and all that takes is many thousands of dollars to hire a crew to rip up our carpet, jackhammer through our foundation, and replace the pipes.
It's all pretty irritating, but what can you do?
Even more irritating is that before we bought the house, we had a plumber come out with a camera and examine the pipes, and he didn't find anything. Either a great deal of the corrosion happened over the past two years, or we unwittingly hired a plumber who isn't very good at his job -- either one is possible.
Anyway...
I also ate at a restaurant this weekend for the first time in forever. Well, that's not exactly true. I did technically eat at a restaurant last fall, but it was outside in a very socially-distanced manner. This time it was also outside (open walls at least), but everybody was packed together. Again, I gotta say, it felt pretty damn good. It was in a bustling part of the city, and people were out and about, and it was a lovely sight to see.
Some people still wear masks; some people don't. It's kind of a weird time where nobody is exactly sure of the proper protocols. I've pretty much ditched the mask outside. I was ready to ditch it at my two-week-after-shot mark, but a lot of people still had them on, and I didn't want people thinking I was some sort of anti-mask Covid-denier. (I fit the profile: white, middle-age, often clad in Cargo shorts.) But now enough people don't wear them outside that this is not an issue. Inside, I just play it by ear. If I'm supposed to wear a mask or if everybody else is wearing a mask, then I will wear one, but I don't feel I need to. Trust the science goes in both directions, and right now, from what I can gather, the science is that if you're vaccinated, you are extremely unlikely to get a serious case of the disease or pass it on to somebody else. So that's what I'm going with.
In addition to gallivanting in mask-free areas this weekend, I also went to two baseball games, one for each son. They went, okay. I pretty much judge success or failure on whether or not they strike out when they're at bat. In that regard, it was a 4-for-5 weekend. Lil' S2 made contact on both his at-bats (it's coach-pitch, and if they miss enough times, they use a tee), and Lil' S1 put the ball in play on two of his three at-bats (it's machine-pitch, and if they miss enough times, it's a strikeout). In none of the four cases did they hit the ball hard -- they were all weak grounders -- but so it goes. My expectations are low. I don't think I'm raising Vladimir and Wilton Guerrero here.
Youth sports are different now, and I don't think it's just my kids. It's so much harder to get kids to play sports. I think they just have so many more options and neighborhood culture is changed. When I was a kid, the vast majority of sports were played on the street or at the playground, and rec leagues were a supplement to that. Now, it's like rec leagues are the only time kids play, and only because parents "make" their kids do it. I dunno -- maybe I'm wrong about this. Maybe I'm remembering wrong or maybe it is just my kids. But talking to other parents, it doesn't seem like it. I'm not complaining, by the way, just saying.
Alright, the clock just struck eleven and I gotta get some good sleep tonight.
Until next time...
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