Oh This Summer

As a kid summer was the most awesome time of the year, followed very closely by fall and Christmas. As school got close to ending and freedom began looming closer any idea of classes or studying went flying out the window. Which, in reality that was always pretty close to happening.

                I had a blue, Schwinn Stingray, 5 speed, monkey bars, banana seat. It was my Easy Rider ride to freedom. “Honkey Tonk Women, (I finally saw the Stones last year, incredible!), Crimson and Clover, Grazing in the Grass, Come Together,” were blasting from the radio. DJ’s were stars, the sun set late, the grass was green and time seemed limitless.

                This summer, the summer of 2020 I have a few more years on me and a few more concerns. While it certainly isn’t as carefree as the summers of my youth, it’s still a good summer.

                This pandemic thing has us all twisted up and turned around in so many ways.  Not much seems normal, there are a lot of new phrases out there that I never care to hear again.  Social distancing, the new normal, shelter in place, flatten the curve and the dreaded, “We’re all in this together”. Right.  I have yet to have one company get in touch with me and tell me that due to the pandemic I don’t have to pay my bills. I’m hopeful though.

                Here’s what’s good, really good. We’re both working, me in another field. My wife and I have more time together. We used to get up, have coffee and watch TV news. Now we get up, have coffee and sit out back, watch the sunrise, jump in the pool, play with the dog. A refreshing start to the day instead of a boring routine.

                Here are other changes we’ve made. Reading more, listening to more music, (vinyl and cd), learning some great new recipes, BBQing more, doing our own 4^th of July fireworks, driving less, sleeping better, listening to old broadcasts of Prairie Home Companion, helping around the house more, turning off TV and radio news, turning off the TV,  working around the the yard more, renewing some old friendships, playing the guitar more – not necessarily better but more, and spending less money. There has been a general slowing down of life while increasing the quality of life.

                It’ ain’t all bad. Different, even trying at times. In the words of Groucho Marx, “Each morning I open my eyes and say to myself; I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today.”

                

Have a great day!

Lift Off!

Kona, the dog, ate my glasses a while ago, and that seems as good an explanation as any to the absence of writing. Coupled with the dreaded writers block, the current state of affairs which I’m not even going to comment on, and what the heck – general laziness.

There’s a lot of crazy going on in the world, and if you watch the news it is enough to make you wish you were on Space X’s Crew Dragon, heading up to the ISS for one to four months.

And that is where we are. Something that brings a smile back of right when it was needed. A manned US rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral Florida from the same launchpad once used by Apollo and Space Shuttle astronauts.

Growing up in the ‘60’s the space program was huge, it’s strides in a short period of time were fantastic, overcoming hurdles that at the time seemed nearly insurmountable.

We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.

An excerpt from President Kennedy’s speech in September 1962. Travel to the moon was a daring choice. Christmas Eve, 1968 only 6 years later Apollo 8 circled the moon. July 20, 1969 only 7 months later Apollo 11 landed on the moon.

We did it and the whole world was watching.

I don’t know if the whole world was watching Saturday, but I was. I hope you were too and that it bought a smile to your face as well.

Happy Beginning of Summer