Entry 583: To Wimauma and Back

The kids had a long weekend, this last one -- two staff days plus Indigenous People's Day -- so we took them to Wimauma, Florida, the census-designated place near Tampa where my in-laws live. It was my first time on a plane since Covid rules went into effect, and it was remarkably smooth. No problems with the flights and no asshole travelers. I spotted a few folks wearing their masks like chinstraps, but people were good about it for the most part. The guy sitting next to me on the flight to Tampa did have to be temporarily pulled off the flight by security because he was wearing a vented mask, which isn't allowed, and was keen to argue about it with the flight attendant. But he quickly came back on wearing a new mask the airline gave him and was chill the entire flight, so whatever the security officer said to him -- probably "Wear this mask or you aren't getting back on that plane" -- worked.

In fact, the most eventful part of our trip there came after we got off the plane. S's parents don't really drive on the highway anymore, so they sent a car to pick us up at the airport. I would have just as soon booked a Lyft (as would have S), but S's parents haven't really figure out ride sharing apps, and they are often overly helpful (which, of course, ends up being not helpful at all). So they asked this guy they know who drives old people around for extra money to pick us up, but he couldn't do it, so he sent another guy he knows to do it.

"So... we're getting picked up by some random dude who knows some other random dude who sometimes drives your parents around?" I asked S.

"Yes," she replied.

The guy's name was M, and he kinda resembled Al Michaels but with a bit of a mob-movie affect. Like, I don't remember if he was actually wearing a leisure suit with gaudy jewelry, but that's what I picture him in. To cap things off, he picked us up in a 1986 Lincoln Continental. This is not a joke -- he literally drives a 35-year-old boat of a car. To make things even less comfortable, he brought his buddy B along, so all four of us -- S, the kids, and me -- had to sit in the back. It's a pretty spacious backseat, but there are only two seat belts, which we used for the kids (we have these travel car seats for them), so S and I squeezed in between them and "free-waisted" it the entire 40-mile trip.

 

It sounds miserable, but it was weirdly interesting and kinda fun. Traffic was really bad almost the entire way, which I actually appreciated because it made me feel much safer (M was a very slow, cautious driver in general), and B -- the random friend of the random friend of the random guy who drives S's parents -- was a total chatterbox, but in a good-conversationalist type of way. He went on and on about his life and his family and he asked us all sorts of questions. Including, hilariously, asking S if she is a housewife.

"No, I'm a CFO for a major foundation," she replied. I'm not sure it landed with the impact it deserved because I don't think they know what a CFO is.

B came off as gay, like very gay, he spoke with the stereotypical gay accent, and he told us that, although now retired, he was a hairdresser when he worked, and since I'm stereotyping -- what's more gay than a male hair dresser? -- but he also told us about his ex-wife and kids, so I don't know. The most likely hypothesis is that he's one of those older gay guys who came of age at a time when it was very difficult to be openly gay, so he denied it, even to himself, and adopted a heteronormative lifestyle -- marriage, kids, military service, etc. -- but that didn't totally take (because he's not hetero), and so now he's divorced and out, but kinda on the DL, because it's difficult to totally overcome a lifetime of denial in your late sixties.

Furthermore, it seems likely to me that M is B's lover, as B mentioned that he was in Tampa visiting M as a "test run" to see if they could peacefully cohabitate. It's possible they are completely straight, platonic friends, just enjoying each others' company in their old age, but that is not the vibe I got. I'll probably never know for sure, as we took a Lyft on our way back to the airport. As weirdly enjoyable as it was to ride with M and B, it's also nice to have space and a seat belt and safety features mandated within the last three decades. Also, M played country music the entire drive, and I despise most country music.

A-l-l my ex's live in Texas...

There is not much to do in Wimauma, particularly in a gated community in which 80% of the residents are senior citizens. We also didn't want to do things in public indoors because of Covid concerns. I mean, we were in Florida after all. Although I was pleasantly surprised by the number of people wearing masks inside public establishments -- around half, I'd say. I was worried we were going to be pegged instantly as northern liberal elitists for wearing masks to pick up our mobile orders at Dunkin' Donuts. But that wasn't the case at all.

We spent a lot of time at the pool, which is just about the only reason the kids don't go totally crazy from boredom when we stay with S's parents. We are so close to the point where we can toss the kids in the water and relax on a pool lounger without having to monitor them every second. But Lil' S2 still needs some help in the deeper water. He can get to the wall by himself now, but things can get dicey if he gets a little tired or is goofing off or what have you. All it takes is a lapse of, like, a minute for a kid to drown, which is so scary, and it's why I still insist on an adult being in the pool with Lil' S1, especially when there are no lifeguards on duty. 

One night we walked to my in-laws' friends' house for dinner. (They have a bunch of friends in their community which is part of the reason they moved.) It was a good Indian feast. Event like this always decompose into a group of women in one room, a group of children in another room, and a group of men in a third room. I usually fluctuate between the kids and dudes. That's one thing children are good for -- if I get tired of gabbing politics with a bunch of "uncles," I can go check on the kids, which actually means hiding away for a few minutes by myself.

Sunday afternoon we met S's cousin and his family in Orlando for lunch (outdoors) and then we went to an outlet mall. I hate shopping, but it's a necessity, so I figured I might as well get a few items. I bought some nice V-neck sweaters, a polo shirt, and a thin rain jacket. It was all so cheap compared to DC prices, and then things were on sale even more. Nevertheless, I got bored pretty quickly and sat in the car for a long time watching football on my phone while everybody else finished shopping.

Afterward we went to a little cafe selling rolled ice cream and boba tea. I had never had rolled ice cream before -- it tastes a lot like normal ice cream, but it takes three times as long to prepare. It was fine as a novelty. There are all these ice cream variants -- rolled ice cream, fried ice cream, vegan ice cream, dipping dots -- but for my money you can't beat normal ice cream. Two scoops in a cone, a hot fudge sundae, a chocolate milkshake* -- there are no better desserts.

*It has to be vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup though. Sometimes you get places that make chocolate milkshakes with chocolate ice cream, but that results in a far inferior (though still good) product.

It was a pretty quick trip -- Thursday to Monday -- and on the flight back we randomly ran into our neighbors who also went to Tampa for the long weekend. It was a weird coincidence, but I wish we didn't see them because they told us of our school's quarantine guidelines, and apparently kids who leave the DC-area are supposed to quarantine for ten days or for three days followed by a negative Covid test. They said that they were going to keep their kids out of school for one day (Tuesday) and get a rapid test and then say they came back Saturday if the school asked any questions. So then S wanted to do that too. I said we should just send them to school on Tuesday without a test, because we were pretty safe, and they weren't showing any symptoms. I mean, if we are going to lie about when we got back, then why don't we just lie and say we didn't know the guidelines, if need be?

Ultimately we did the same thing as our neighbors, though, because S cared more about it than I did. (Both the kids' tests were negative, as expected.) I talked to a few other parents about this, and every one of them, literally, had traveled out of the DC-area and fudged the school's quarantine guidelines in some way upon their return. That's the danger in having overly cautious rules -- people will lie to get around them and that will cause more problems than if you just had more realistic guidelines in the first place. (My friend is an administrator at a middle school in Connecticut, and he was bemoaning this very thing last time I saw him.) I mean, if a family drives to New York for a long weekend and stays with vaccinated family members and doesn't do anything riskier than what they would do in DC and aren't showing any symptoms, it's not realistic to tell them they have to stay out of school, solely as a precaution, for a week or two.

Well, hopefully this will all be over soon. As I said in a previous post, cases have quietly been dropping, slowly but surely, across the nation, and the trend has continued. The vaccine being approved for children can only help. I talked to a scientist who's really on point with a lot of Covid stuff, and he's convinced the kids vaccine will be readily available to any parents who want it by the end of November. From his lips to the FDA's ears -- if we could get it before our Xmas trip to the PNW that would be awesome.

Until next time...

Entry 582: A Not All Politics Post

I haven't written about politics in a while, so I figured I'd lead off this entry with some thoughts on the debt ceiling and the "infrastructure" bills and the like.

The Dems recently passed a resolution to raise the debt ceiling to fund the federal government until December, which is good, I guess. The Reps made them do it alone, saying if the Democrats were going to be the ones doing the spending then they should be the ones to raise the limit. This is nonsensical because a) the Democrats haven't actually passed any spending bills yet (that's their whole problem); b) the debt ceiling applies to debt that's already been accrued (not future debt), and the Reps are responsible for more than their fair share of current debt, because, despite their rhetoric, they love the big-money programs (Medicaid, Medicare, social security) just as much as the Dems, but they also want to cut taxes, so their solution is to just not pay for anything and blame it on the blue team.

It makes no sense, but the point isn't to make sense -- it's to play politics. Although, I also don't really see what's to be gained politically, by making Dems go it alone. People hate shutdowns and it would be terrible if the US started defaulting on its debts (so say many smart people, at least -- nobody really knows for sure what would happen). So saying, Hey Democrats you have to avert disaster and take credit for it all by yourself, doesn't seem particularly smart to me.

The debt limit is such an absurd thing, anyway. It's a completely unnecessary annual political fight. Basically congress votes to run up the credit card and then also has to vote to pay it off. The much better way to do it: if you don't want to pay it, don't spend it in the first place. That's how it should be. I really wish the Democrats would just raise the debt limit to an unreachable number and effectively get rid of it.

And the debt limit was the easy vote.* The more difficult negotiations are going on right now with the Dems' dueling infrastructure bills. Basically there is a "moderate" bill for traditional infrastructure -- roads, bridges, and the like -- and a "progressive" bill for a bunch of stuff people like Bernie Sanders want -- basically a vastly expanded social safety net. The moderate bill has already passed the Senate and could pass in the House but for the fact the Congressional Progressive Caucus won't vote for it unless their bill is voted on first. They feel, probably rightly, that if the moderate bill passes, then their bill will basically be ignored.

*No, it’s not, apparently. I thought the suspension of the debt limit until December was law, but the bill only passed the House. Something still has to pass the Senate by October 15 and it’s not clear how that happens.

Meanwhile Biden is like, Please just pass something! My approval ratings are in the 40s, and I need some good news. That's where I am too, more or less. I'd be fine if the progressive bill passes, but I've become an ardently pro-compromise incrementalist as I've gotten older -- not because I think slow, little-c conservative fixes are inherently good, but because it's typically that or nothing. I've just become more of a realist. I mean, Joe Manchin -- one of the main senators against the progressive bill -- represents West Virginia. The fact a Democrat could win in such a deep red state is a minor miracle. He's not going to be Pramila Jayapal (Seattle shout out). You need to consider what you're working with. Maybe the progressives' gambit pays off, and they get their bill passed, but I think it's more likely that they don't, and they are then left to choose if they want a quarter loaf or nothing.

In non-politics news, I took another little trip to New York this past week. I rode the train up Tuesday afternoon, met some friends, saw a show, stayed the night, and then took the train back Wednesday afternoon. The train is definitely the way to go. I like it because DC to NYC is perfect movie watching length, so I get to cross a couple films off my (ever-growing) "To Watch" list, which is something I don't normally have the time to do. (Casino on the way there; Little Women on the way back, if you were wondering.) 

I got into the city a few hours before my friends, so I got a slice and then walked around a bit. That's really the thing I like to do in a city. The museums and landmarks and all that are cool, but they are mainly just an excuse to move through the city, watch the people, sense the vibe. The show was in Brooklyn, so I went down to Prospect Park and meandered my way through it.

After I met my friends DK and JR, we Citi-biked down to the Williamsburg waterfront, which provided some nice vistas and some nice places to have a beer -- we took advantage of both. We had an awkward moment in which we went to eat dinner at some sort of trendy Korean restaurant, lured in by their promise of rooftop seating, and then almost instantly realized it was a mistake. For one thing, we were the only patrons in the establishment, literally. For another thing, their "rooftop" was basically just another room, covered with a tent-like roof and walls. You couldn't see out over the city or anything like that; there was no rooftop feel to it. Also, they had a limited menu and everything was on the pricey side.

 

 

So, we just got up and left before we ordered. It was kinda embarrassing, but worth it. It's one of those things where you lean in to a few minutes of awkwardness now to put yourself in a much better situation in the future. I need to be better about making that deal. Too often I don't do something because it's temporarily awkward or embarrassing (in my head, at least), and then later I'm like, Damn, why didn't I just do that when I had the chance?

The place at which we actually ate dinner was much better, although not totally devoid of weirdness. The guy at the table next to us was drunk, seemingly for the first time in his life, and rambling on to us about this and that. He told us about how great the TGI Friday's by MSG is, so I snapped a photo of it on my out of the city. Something tells me it's a lot like the TGI Friday's I worked at in Tacoma, Washington in the summer of 1997.

The show itself was awesome. We saw a band called Deep Sea Diver, mainly because we know the drummer, but they legit rocked the house (Music Hall of Williamsburg). The band that played before them was pretty cool too. I forgot how fun it is see live music. I haven't gone to many shows the past few years. Even before Covid, I didn't go very often. It was super fun.

We actually ran into the drummer P randomly on the street (actually it was in the street, in a crosswalk), so we chatted for a few minutes. That was cool as we probably would not have seen him otherwise. The venue is pretty big, so the audience and band members can't really interact, and P and I aren't, like, BFFs or anything,* so it would be weird to try to impose on his band activities pre- or post-show. So, it was perfect to just give him a high five and say what's up for a few minutes.

*I've long said that we need a word between friend and acquaintance, and P is a perfect example of why. I have so many people in my life where it feels weird to call them a friend because we were never that close and we don't really make it a point to keep in touch or anything like that. But acquaintance is far too impersonal. I sometimes hear people fill this void by saying "we're friendly with each other," which is an accurate way to described it, but it would be nice if we had a single word for this type of relationship. Frequaintance? I don't think that that's going to take off.

On the train ride back, I sat directly in front of this dude, who I think had Tourette Syndrome or something like that. He kept making spastic noises and muttering to himself, saying completely inappropriate stuff. He didn't seem to have control over it because when people would glance over at him, as I did once, he would say "pardon me," and then go right back to doing it. It probably wasn't his fault, but it was still very discomfiting for me. (You can have sympathy for somebody and still not want to be around them.) Thankfully, he slept for most the trip, so I could fully engross myself in the exploits of Jo and Meg.

Alright, I gotta go now. We are headed to a farm to sit on tractors and pick pumpkins and play farm games and whatnot. S said I don't have to go, but she already bought me a ticket, so I suspect it wouldn't go over well if I didn't. Plus, it's probably better to get out of the house this afternoon anyway. If I stay home, I'll just be watching sports and staring at scores on my phone all day. The Seahawks are playing today, and the Mariners, very improbably, have an outside chance at making the playoffs, but they need like three games to break their way. It probably won't happen, so I'd rather not invest hours in following everything only to be let down at the end. Might as well spend time with my kids and not feel like a deadbeat dad.

Until next time...

Entry 581: Socks

I bought some socks today and it was an extremely irritating experience. For some reason, socks, the seemingly simplest item of clothing, are very difficult for me to shop for. There are a few reasons for this.

The first is that just about everything is becoming difficult to shop for at big-box stores where is likeliest to find socks. They are so low on inventory and nobody is ever around to help you. They've been hit hard by online competition and Covid and it shows. It's a self-perpetuating downfall: The fewer customers they get, the more they cut, and the more they cut, the fewer customers get. Going into a big-box store now is like going into a really bad art museum--there's nothing really there but a massive amount of open space, a few roaming patrons, and one security guard in the corner with an earpiece who doesn't talk.

Another big problem I have shopping for socks is that I can almost never find my size. Almost every pack of men's socks you find in the store has shoe-size range 6-12. I usually wear between an 11 and a 12, so you would think, based on the range, that most socks would fit me. But you would be wrong. I have yet to find a sock that can actually accommodate the seven sizes they claim to accommodate. Every time I buy socks in this range, and I've done it a few times, thinking maybe it's different for different brands, they are too small -- not way too small but too small nevertheless. So, then I have to do that thing where you wear them anyway, because you bought an eight pack, and you tell yourself it's fine, but your feet are actually quite uncomfortable, so eventually you have to give in and put them in a donation box because life is too short to wear socks that are too small. I hate that. Never again will I be duped by the 6-12 range.

Lastly, finding the style I want can be a problem. This was especially frustrating today, as I just wanted plain white ankle socks. That's it--nondescript white socks that stop at your ankles. I didn't want those super low-cut liners that make it look like you aren't wearing socks at all; I didn't want those "ankle" socks that resemble baby booties and actually come up to your lower calves; I didn't want them in black; and I didn't want a visible Nike swoosh or any other corporate logo. (I haven't worked out the terms of my endorsement deal yet.) I went to three -- yes, three -- stores today trying to find socks like this in shoe-size 10-13. I couldn't do it. The best I could do are ones that say PUMA across the top. They didn't have just plain white.

And this is why Amazon is taking over the world. 

I mean, I definitely don't like seeing the demise of the big-box store, but it's hard to pass up a 15-second search and a swipe of a button, when the alternative is a multi-stop excursion that takes up my entire lunch break and still leaves me with something other than what I really wanted.

In other news, S is visiting a friend for the weekend, so I have the boys to myself. Naturally, I get two invitations to do things that I have to turn down. Some neighborhood dads are getting together for beers tonight and my friend R asked me if I want to go to the DC United game tomorrow. Weeks -- nay, months -- go by without me doing anything social that doesn't involve my family. I'm almost always free, and then when I'm not, this happens. It's like rain on your wedding day.

Until next time...

 

Entry 580: Back to Life, Back to Reality

Trivia question: Who sings that song that goes Back to life, back to reality...

Answer: I believe they were called Soul 2 Soul. Let me me check on that... Yep, I got it. Well, I stylized it wrong -- it's Soul II Soul -- but close enough. It's a good tune. It also has that hook However do you want me, however do you need me...

Anyway, we had a blitz weekend in New York, New York, this last one, no kids, but now it's back to life, back to reality. And that's probably a good thing. I pretty much hit my alcohol quota for the month in two days. We stayed with S's childhood friend N, and that dude loves to paint the town red (being a recent divorcee surely adds some fuel to that fire). So, it was a boozy (excellent) dinner on Friday evening, another one on Saturday, and then a visit to the club as a nightcap. At least we balanced things out with a museum trip for some culture and a whole lot of walking for exercise (about 35,000 steps combined on Saturday and Sunday according my health app).

We took the train up on Friday evening, marking the first time I had ever taken a train to NYC. It's pretty expensive on the weekend (like $150 a ticket), but it's so much nicer than taking the bus and much less a hassle than driving or flying. We watched this movie called Promising Young Woman, which I was not into at all for the first hour or so (it didn't help that we were doing that thing where you each get one headphone), but then there's a little twist, and I found it really compelling after that. Thumbs up overall.

N happens to live like a quarter mile from Penn Station, so it was super easy to get to his place. This is good because we were running late for our dinner reservation. (Train was delayed a bit.) I literally went straight to his bathroom without even taking off my shoes because I wanted to get a quick shower in. (I'm a night showerer all the way.) We hustled to the restaurant, and, of course, it took them a half-hour to get our table together after we arrived. At least we could enjoy some delicious $20 cocktails at the bar while we waited. And the food was so worth it -- tapas. We ordered two dishes too many though. We could have done without the morels, and we barely touched the octopus.

The next day my friend DK came down from his place in Hartford. We grew up together and both ended up on the East Coast but just far enough away that it's impractical to get together too often. It was great to see him. The four of us (DK, N, S, and me) went to MOMA and perused the museum for several hours. We also ate lunch on their rooftop cafe, which is lovely. I don't really "get" art (does anybody?), but I still enjoy walking through the exhibits. I started playing a little game with myself where I'd see how many artists' names I recognized just from crossword puzzles -- MIRO, DIX, ERNST, PIET, WYETH, etc.

After MOMA, we went to some district where there are a lot of boutiques. (I can't remember the name of it; I have a terrible sense of direction and never pay attention to my surroundings.) S went shopping and the three or us went to a cafe/bar, where we had drinks and met DK's brother-in-law J. We had a few more drinks and then DK and J went to see a show (My Morning Jacket, I believe) in Queens. S returned from her spending spree, and we went back to N's to watch Ted Lasso before dinner. (We only watched the first episode, so I can't speak to whether or not it's actually worthy of its hype.)

Oh, I almost forgot to mention, on the way back to N's, we got gelato. It was possibly the best part of the entire trip. I got two scoops -- coffee and eggnog. I was most excited for the coffee, but the eggnog turned out to be the real winner.

Two of N's other friends met us for dinner, and we stuffed ourselves to the gills with paella and sangria. It was a long leisurely dinner (we were at a Spanish place, after all), and then afterwards we went to a gay club. In retrospect, it was a curious choice given that N was the only gay man among us, but he was kinda like our leader for night, so, when in Rome...

The club was packed, and while I was there I had my first Oh shit, that's right, Covid! moment of the weekend. We were always outside or masked before, so I kinda forgot about it. But the good thing about NYC is that you have to show proof of vaccination to get into most places (such as this club). To me, that's sufficient. As best I can tell, it's not that different than being in a club during flu season, and that's a risk most people are willing to accept personally, and one we are willing to accept as a society. I mean, it might even be safer than being in a club during flu season, since not many people, particular young people, get a flu shot.

DK and J met us in the club after their show, which was kinda funny, because we are all straight family men at a (very) gay club. But it was fun. I don't think they were there too long, but I was already many drinks into the night, so my sense of time could be warped. I do know the four of us left together (N and his other friends stayed), and then they split off, and S and I walked backed to N's apartment.

The next day N, S, and I went to brunch (alcohol-free for me), and we walked around a bunch more, including a jaunt through this old elevated railway track called The High Line. It was opening day of the NFL season (which used to a personal holiday for me), so I was periodically checking my phone to see how the Seahawks were doing. (They won if you were wondering.) I don't really like doing that because I hate how much everybody looks at their phone now, and I don't want to add to the antisocial mania. But I also have to feed my addiction for NFL football. At least I was with my wife and friend and not watching it alone in a sports bar, which is what I might have done a few years ago. So, it's getting better.

In addition to look at my phone, I also spent a good amount of time looking for the cleanest public toilet I could find. My guts were gurgling something fierce. I settled on a chichi looking hotel (just walk in and pretend like you belong), which was a good choice, as it had some fine facilities. I can't say I enjoyed my stay, but at least I got things settled before the train ride back.

It was an uneventful ride. S slept almost the entire way, and I watched Hell or High Water, which also gets a thumbs up from me.

We finally got home around 9:30 Sunday evening, and then Monday morning I woke up to take the kids to school -- back to life, back to reality.

Until next time...

Entry 579: New York, New York Bound

Probably a short entry today, as we are headed to New York, New York anon. It's a weekend without kids; the first one in a very long time. After our Covid-related misadventures in North Carolina last month, I'm a bit apprehensive about traveling right now, but we have to live our lives. We simply cannot shut down and shut in like we did last year. It's not feasible. It's unhealthy from the standpoint of societal functions (the economy, schools, religious/social groups, etc.), and it's unhealthy from a personal standpoint. We learned a lot about the mental effects of being mostly isolated for an extended period of time, and what we learned is that it isn't good.

So, at this point, I think we need to do our best to strike an imperfect, ever-changing balance between doing what we want and being safe. Concerning a trip to NYC, S and I are both vaccinated and we also both tested positive to Covid within the past month, so our levels of immunity should be sky high. We are staying with a friend who is vaccinated, and we will be outdoors and/or masked almost the entire time we are in public. Also, NYC has guidelines in place, and we've been instructed to bring our vaccination cards because you can't get into most places without one. That seems to me to be about as good as we are going to get for now.

In fact, I'm more worried about an October trip we have to visit S's parents in Florida than our NYC trip this weekend. But we will cross that bridge when we come to it. (A lot of family dynamics and feelings are in play.) I'm hoping somehow things magically (or scientifically) get better by then, even though that is totally unrealistic. We are in the midst of a Covid downswing, however. Cases have been dropping slowly, but steadily the past few weeks. Whether or not this is a blip or finally the beginning of the end (whatever that means) nobody really knows. I've heard smart, knowledgeable health professionals argue both sides of the coin. I find the "beginning of the end" argument slightly more convincing (the rationale being that the Delta variant is going to run out of easy targets at some point), but only slightly. And of course there are psychological factors in play, so I'm not going to get my hopes up just yet.

Okay, that's all I have time for right now. Until next time...

Entry 578: It's the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel, Well, Not Fine, Per Se, But Not Super Depressed)

The world is pretty much shite right now, isn't it? Abortion bans, a clusterfuck in Afghanistan, fires and floods and climate change, and a global pandemic that's been hanging over our heads the past year-and-a-half like a body-ache-inducing raincloud and doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon. That we all live our lives without crawling under our bedcovers and never coming out is legitimately surprising.

Me, I take a philosophical approach to keep up my spirits. There has never been a point in human spacetime that has been anything close to ideal. By comparison, living in much of the world now, in 2021, is pretty much as good as it gets. And even if it weren't -- what are you going to do? You only get one life (probably), and it's going to be over relatively soon. How much of that you do want to spend in despair?

Also, I think chanced into good brain-wiring so I don't get depressed. That's a good way to keep your spirits up too--luck. I'm definitely not immune to negative feelings -- I get annoyed easily, I worry myself to sleep (or not to sleep, I should say) far too often, and I feel glum sometimes, of course -- but I don't have those omnipresent feelings of worthlessness and sadness that I hear sufferers of depression describe. Regardless of what the exterior factors are in my life, I'm usually happy -- or at least not unhappy. That's probably a better way to put it. I spend the vast majority of my life in neutral. But neutral is not bad. You can live a satisfying and meaningful life in neutral.

 Anyway, enough waxing philosophical. A few bullet points and then that's a post.

• I bought a bicycle today. I debated getting a really nice one, as I've been tinkering with the idea of getting more into cycling (it's a good old man activity), but I decided on a significantly less expensive option. For now, I mostly need something to tool around the neighborhood with the kids, and there is no reason to drop a couple thou on that.
  
  
• Lil' S1 got a new bike also, and I think Lil' S2 is next. He already has a bike, but it's Lil' S1's old bike, and it's kinda beat up, so I think S's parents are going to buy him a new one when they come to visit next week. The boys have gotten really into riding bikes. It's cool, but we don't live on the best street for it. Our house is on a hill, and traffic isn't heavy, but it's not nothing either. I get worried (I'm a worrier, remember) about them around cars. But at some point you have to let them go out and play on their own and hope for the best, right? I mean, it's ridiculous how overprotective parents are today (myself included) compared to what parents were like when I was a kid.
  
  
• I'm apparently going to have a small stake in a healthcare tech company very soon. A friend who's a doctor is working on a scheduling/routing service to homecare patients. He asked me to join to help them with the math behind improving efficiency. It's right up my alley, so I happily agreed. I don't have a big stake (between 5%-10%), but there's virtually no risk for me, and the time commitment is not very burdensome. I look at it like a lottery ticket. Maybe it will go nowhere, but maybe I'll be cashing in down the road. I do believe in the idea and the people involved, so that's good.
  
  
• My computer battery broke, and my old laptop (on which I'm typing this) is very buggy and clunky, so instead of Scrabble and crossword puzzles, I've been doing a lot more reading the past week. I finished up John McWhorter's Nine Nasty Words: English in the Gutter: Then, Now, and Forever. It took me a while to get into it -- I set it down for a month or so a quarter way into it -- but once I did I really liked it. Now I'm reading Carole Hooven's Testosterone: The Story of the Hormone that Dominates and Divides Us. It's phenomenal so far. The title might not scream "can't-put-it-down-page-turner" but that's what it is.

Until next time...

Entry 577: Learning the Ropes

The G & G family is back! Quarantine is over; nobody is currently sick; and we are ready to celebrate!

S and I took the day off work yesterday, and, along with the boys and S's sister Sw, we went to this ropes course that has zip-lining and stuff like that. Lil' S1 went there with his summer camp class a few times and really liked it, so we decided to go there for his birthday. It was super fun.

I've been zip-linging before, once in Queenstown, New Zealand, but it was a bit different. When I did it in NZ, you zip-lined from station to station, and each station was a large platform that could fit dozens of people, and everybody would take their time between stations, unhook, look at the views and chat. It was very cool but not too physically demanding. The place we went yesterday was not like that. The stations were small, individual platforms, and you had to stay locked in to a cable at all times. There was also an obstacle course element to it that, depending on how intense you wanted your experience to be, could greatly vary in difficulty.

Sw wanted to do the easiest course possible, so she and S took Lil' S2 through the kiddie course, which left me with Lil' S1. The first course we did was not too hard, but it was still freaky at first. I mean, you climb way up in the trees, and at times there is nothing to prevent you from falling other than a carabiner clipped to a half-inch cable. I don't know how high we actually got, but once you get above 30 feet or so, it doesn't really matter -- it's all death high past that.

I'm a tiny bit scared of heights (I think most people are), but I acclimate to them pretty quickly, especially when I'm working on a task. I used to have to climb up scaffolding when I worked construction for a summer and initially I'd be freaked out, but then I'd start working and kinda forget about how high up I was. It was the same way yesterday. I was so focused on just moving my clips through the course that after a while, I didn't even really think about the heights.

Except when I did -- like on the final thing we did: a free fall from an automated belay. That was hella scary. The belay prevents you from falling too fast, but before you go, you're looking at this little contraption thinking, "Am I really going to trust this thing and jump from the top of this giant tree?" When Lil' S1 did it he said, "Here I go, I'm going to plunge to my death," and then he kinda scooted off from a sitting position. I did a 3-2-1 you-have-to-go don't-be-a-coward step-off. Neither of us died. The only bad part is that I held onto the line as I was falling, and when the belay kicked in, it yanked my already hurting shoulder. Also, it kept lowering me, even after I had already hit the ground, causing me to fall down. But that seemed to happening to everybody who used it.

Lil' S1 and I did a second course that was legit hard. S was going to do it with us, but she couldn't climb up the first part of it, so she did the one Lil' S1 and I did before.  (Sw and Lil' S2 got lunch.) This course was a total workout. I was dripping sweat by the end of it. (The fact that it was 93 degrees didn't help.) There was almost no zip-lining. It was almost entirely an obstacle course, like an episode of Fear Factor -- tons of climbing and reaching and pulling and balancing. Like I said, it was legit hard. Lil' S1 wasn't even supposed to do it -- it's 12 and up (he just turned 9). But he just went and got too far along before the course employee noticed. I overhead the employee -- who's like an 18-year-old kid -- talking to S about it as I started the course. Although, I wish he wouldn't have said anything, because then S is shouting at me to make make sure I take care of Lil' S1, and it's like, Uh... there's a massive cargo net between us that he just climbed and I'm still trying to figure out how to navigate, so I don't really know what you want me to do. 

He did great though.  It was really impressive, honestly. He's always been an excellent climber. It's funny, in some ways, he's so soft and sedentary, but then in something like this he's tough and active. I guess we just have to encourage him to do physical things he likes. He might be one of those guys who doesn't care much for organized sports but likes things like rock climbing and surfing. During our ill-fated trip to the Outer Banks, he got a body board and was kinda learning how to ride the waves. It was a similar thing to the ropes course in that he wasn't scared, even though the waves were tossing him around. (I was scared for him. I constantly had to prevent him from going out too far, and I made him take breaks so he didn't get too tired.)

I still might get one kid who's into sports sports, however. Lil' S2 has been asking me to do things like play volleyball (i.e., hit his stuffed whale back-and-forth over a blanket) and play catch with the football and sometimes he'll just dribble the basketball on his own for a few minutes. He starts soccer in few weeks, so we shall see how that goes.

Anyway, after the ropes course, we came home and ate District Taco and Baskin-Robbins ice cream cake. As desserts go, you really can't beat ice cream cake. I think it's my favorite. The cake said Lil' S1's name on it because it was originally planned for his birthday, but since Lil' S2 had his birthday when I was in quarantine, we made it for him too. And since it's my birthday in few days, and there is no point in getting another ice cream cake (we have plenty of leftovers), I guess it's for me as well.

It didn't work out exactly as planned, but it was a pretty good celebration, all things considered.

Until next time...