Evening Walk

I think it's amazing how memories can be ignited so easily .....

A walk in the park tonight. I stood under a tree and watched for awhile, a group of fourteen friends playing Ultimate Frisbee. It looked so effortless ..... as if they could run and jump forever.

Wondered if I hung around long enough, if just maybe they might ask me to join them. My legs suddenly feeling up to it and all.

Then I remembered that I'm old enough to be their grandfather.

But I still yearned to join them!!!

It all reminded me in visual flashbacks of my teenage days. For a time, we had a sizable group of friends and friends of friends who would gather almost daily after school at a local park and get a softball game going. It seems now like it was a lengthy ritual but was probably only the spring of 1974, just before many of us headed off in different directions after graduating from high school.

I wonder tonight if the Juniors and Sophomores among our group kept the get togethers going the following spring?

(I still think of that time as bittersweet. So many friendships and potential friendships soon to be disrupted and even ending as people pursued the next phase of their life ..... College, work, etc. I've always thought of that as the most difficult transition in a life.)

We even attempted soccer once .... maybe twice ..... possibly just to change things up and probably because the initial version of the Portland Timbers had become quite popular. I doubt if we had a complete grasp on all the rules (Off-sides, throw-ins, handballs) or player positions, likely resembling a bunch of five year olds swarming around the ball but we did have a great time, kicking with our toes and executing headers with our faces.

(To Be Continued)

Untitled

While sincerely trying not to sound like a leering old man ..... Every summer there seems to be one person at work who causes me to wish that I was eighteen years old again. Someone who over time, I manage to make a small connection with while realizing that I need to keep some distance from and even intentionally trying to discourage any interest. Someone who if I was much closer to in age, attitudes and interests, maybe something could happen. But you have these moments where for just a few seconds all those barriers disappear. Then before you know it you're jolted back to reality by facts and the voices inside your head ..... and anyway it's soon time to rotate shifts or the person quits to go back to school and they tell you goodbye and that they enjoyed working for you and suddenly that daily connection is lost. And it's all a little bittersweet.

But your still there remembering how it felt to feel young again .... if only for a moment or two.

And sometimes I wonder if the person has issues in her relationship with her father and if I'm providing some stability, understanding and kindness that possibly is lacking in her world .... Not in any way assuming but just something I occasionally wonder about. I do try to be the same person every day and I do try to show that I'm fair and that I care.

Days

So it's been almost three months since I went to the doctor for a sore on my leg and eventually learned that I was severely anemic with a slow healing leg wound. It's been a difficult few months at work while working in weekly or bi-weekly doctor visits. I'm not sure if it's the numerous doctor visits or mostly just being 62 and getting no days off from work but there's good days and bad days and days with good starts and bad endings and vice versa and sometimes days with good middles but not so good beginnings and endings and other days broken down into good hours and bad hours and then sometimes it goes back and forth in ten minute increments ……

And is this what the rest of life is going to feel like? No more extended periods of feeling good? Just moments where you feel like you can run the basketball court mixed with moments where a cane or a walker would be helpful.

Kids

The next door neighbor sounding a little frustrated, slud on over and asked if I would like to buy his kid for cheap. Of course he was joking ….. I think.

I have these somewhere between occasional and frequent moments of regret where I wished I had children. At least one anyway.

I hear about a childhood friend battling illness whose daughter has put her life on hold to come stay with and care for her father in his time of need. I wish that I could experience that kind of love where a child would do anything for you.

And in classic one-thing-leads-to-another mode and though the lyrics tell a different story, I think of the title anyway of the old Tom Rush song, "Kids These Days."

SIDENOTE ….
"Slud" used above is not a typo. It's an old friend, Frank Grassman's term that's been stuck in my head for years now. A word I assume that was bantered about in farm country where he grew up outside of the metropolis known as Gervais Oregon. A substitution for the actual word "slid" used in ways such as the baserunner slud into third base.

End Times?

Did I witness the rapture the other day? Driving to work and there was a guy on a motorcycle behind me with no obvious exit route from the path he was on .... he followed me onto the long entry way at work. I saw him turning behind me ..... cow pastures on both sides of the road. No intersecting roads ..... then a few seconds later I glanced in the mirror and he wasn't there. Where did he go? Either the rapture or in the five seconds between glances in the mirror he pulled off a quick U-turn and zoomed out of sight.

And if it was the rapture, well then I must work with a bunch of bad people because no one that I know of was missing from work.

Birds flying into my windshield and possible raptures? Then add yesterdays much appreciated rare August rain shower. These drives to and from work are becoming adventures.

Lyrics

To be filed under classic lyric lines .....

So I'm in the used record store in Beaverton and they're playing what sounds like some old traditional country music record from the 1960's or something (certainly pre-1980's) and I'm not paying much attention to it until suddenly heard clearly, like they were directed specifically at me were the lyrics: "I should have my head examined but she's done warped my brain." ..... Now I can't get those lyrics out of my head.

Funny how while nothing else remotely registered, I latched onto those words.

There must have been some classic tunes with memorable lines on this record by an unknown artist. It didn't seem like the kind of music that a typical hip, younger (or even older) record store employee would be playing unless it had some comedic value.

Steppin' Out

Things are changing around here. Expanding my horizons and all that. I've been stepping out for pancakes the past three mornings. On a quest to find the best pancakes in the area. I figured there's gotta be a better experience than the boxed ingredients that are mixed with water or the McDonald's offerings. I used to enjoy whipping them up from scratch when younger but don't find that option so enviable nowadays. What else would I do with the leftover eggs? Who's going to do the dishes?

A Real Life Hitchcock Moment

A (crazed?) bird flew head-on into my windshield the other day. I'm just driving along at about 45mph then suddenly, THUMP! It's not like that happens every day. Startled me a bit. In all my years of driving, I don't recall that ever happening. Then yesterday, another who appeared to be elevating too slowly. A miss but not by much!! It's kinda reminding me of one of my favorite Hitchcock movies. Was I an extra in the movie in a parallel universe?

Close Calls

A co-worker tells me about her close call while driving to work. Someone tried to switch lanes on I-5 lane but she was already there. Forced her off the road onto the shoulder, then over compensating to return to the road and nearly overturning. You just never know. You can never relax and assume that all is well because it can all change in a literal instant. Not even a short drive to work is without risk.

Then she tells me how the prior evening, her teenage daughter was almost struck by a lift truck at work. Conditions being what they are this time of year .... everyone being pushed for more production and people in jobs they don't usually do and sometimes with machines (like lift trucks) that they are not accustomed to handling, you have to be even more on high alert at work then on the highway. It's dangerous to be walking around and to change direction without first stopping and looking.

Yankees Notes

Yankees - red sox timeline with reactions (checking the score occasionally while at work) ....

4-2 Yankees in the third inning ..... Far out!! What I was hoping to see.
6-4 red sox .... Shit!! How did that happen?
8-4 red sox .... Damnit!! I was afraid that events lately were setting up for this type of outcome.
13-4 red sox .... Why the hell do I bother?!!! I don't need the aggravation.
15-7 ..... Final score. This is reminding me of the 1978 Boston Massacre, only in reverse. I'll just delete this one from the dvr.

It appears like all the great assembled bullpen arms that are to steady and compensate for a questionable starting rotation that rarely goes deep into games have suddenly worn down over the past week. And this was only game one of four. Not feeling optimistic for tomorrow.

Top of the first .... The first two Yankee batters got on base, the third hit a home run. It slid downhill from there.

Worst Yankee statistical line of the evening. Jonathan Holder in relief .... Faced seven batters, zero outs recorded, seven earned runs allowed.YIKES! Evening earned run average .... Infinity squared.