News and Updates

1. Our old neighbor Adam put in a new back patio for us this week.  Adam is a carpenter, which means he actually knows what he’s doing as opposed to me trying to do this job.  We call him whenever we have a job that we want done right.  Kim could no doubt figure out how to do this job and would enjoy it, but it would take time and equipment that she does not have.  I could probably figure it out and I have more time than she does, but that still leaves the equipment problem and also the fact that there is no conceivable universe where this sort of thing strikes me as fun.  Home repair projects are rather like dentistry as far as I am concerned – good for me in the long run, but neither pleasant nor intrinsically rewarding.  So Adam comes over and now it’s nice.  Kim and I ate dinner out there this evening, just because we could.

2. School’s out!  For!  Summer!  The seniors have been off since last week, but today was Lauren’s last day of 9th grade.  She is officially a sophomore!  Congratulations, Lauren – I’m proud of you.

3. Only a few scant days until the World Cup begins!  There will be soccer all over, and I will do my best to ignore the fact that the world’s most viciously corrupt sporting body chose to award this celebration of joyous athleticism to the world’s most aggressively corrupt country, and just enjoy the games.  The US crashed and burned during the qualifiers so I have no idea whom I will cheer for this time around.  Perhaps Belgium, since that’s where Fran is from and now I have a connection there.  Of course, the Belgians eliminated the Americans during the last World Cup, so we’ll see.

4. I understand that the joint US/Canada/Mexico bid for the 2026 World Cup is in jeopardy because der Sturmtrumper is so viciously unpopular with the entire world that nobody wants to give anything to any group that includes the US.  These are the times.

5. I’m not sure why Anthony Bourdain’s death has hit me as hard as it has.  I never met the man, after all.  But I enjoyed his shows and his books, mostly because he seemed like someone who understood the humanity of what he was doing – who understood the broken bits because he’d been there and he’d survived and he wasn’t going to do the polite bullshit dance that so many people do.  He was going to say what he felt needed saying.  And he could do that while remaining a far more gracious guest in people’s homes and countries than most folks can imagine.  I’m not an adventurous eater and likely never will be, but I like to think that I learned a few lessons from him.  Fair winds and following seas, Mr. Bourdain.  The world is a poorer place for your absence.

6. Happy Pride Month from the most boringly straight man in America!  Someday there will be no need for a Pride Month because people will just be people, but today is not that day.  So do your part to piss off the intolerant and celebrate the wide spectrum that is humanity!

7. It has been nice here for the last few days – cool, grey, kind of rainy, the sort of summer weather I can get next to.  But soon it will be hot again, and that just is no fun at all.  Only five months until civilized weather!

8. Somehow I managed to chip a tooth on a ham sandwich this weekend, so now I have to go to the dentist to get that looked at.  Not that I didn’t have to make an appointment anyway, but still.  A ham sandwich.  It was actually a pretty good sandwich, too.  It will be like a home repair project, and thus does life come around full circle.

9. The amazing thing about having teenagers is that once school is over they pretty much disappear.  All of the teens in my house are no longer in my house – they are out and about with friends.  Was I that busy once?  I must have been.  Sometimes they hang out here with their various friends, and that’s nice.

10. My summer class starts in about a week.  I’m mostly ready for it, except that somewhere on my desk is my attendance book and I need to find it.  I know approximately where it is, but there is an accumulation of paper between me and it and I’m a bit worried that the excavations required to get through that accumulation and extract the book will border on the archeological.  It’s nice to have small problems in this day and age.