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Mid-day Sunday, time for our FaceTime with Ali and Matilda. They call us from their living room in Paris. We are being broadcast on the big screen TV, up front and personal. Sam is off stage, technical support available as needed. We’re pretty big, Ali has told us. Matilda is up front and center, now almost 10 months of age, nestled in Ali’s lap. A big smile appears on her face, her left arm waving, then her right arm following. …..
I’m instructed to start writing here. Oh, and write about debacle. That’s it
Well, let’s see, I could write about the election, but I’m already tired of that.
I could write about the weather, there’s not much of a debacle there, but we are having a drought. We have well water, so without more rain, we would run out of water, the pipes could freeze, I could work myself into a frenzy of worry. That would be a debacle.
I…..
I can’t hear very well. It’s probably getting a little worse, it will never get better.
I can’t see very well. It’s been a long time, remembering asking Penny if the blackboard was blurry in Accounting class. I got glasses and have been wearing them ever since.
I don’t have hearing aids, they’re for old people. I may be older but I’m not old.
I really can’t hear a lot of words when I watch movies. I’ve heard that it’s…..
Would you recognize me now?
Here I sit, thinking back on the principled idealist of my youth.
Would you be proud of who we are?
Hard life lessons upended idealism.
Looking back, finding pieces of you.
Enjoying many of the same things, sports, travel, reading.
I still carry your sorrow, the touch of madness.
Things that matter most are different now, our soul is still the same.
Decades searching for the meaning of our mystical experience.
Questions answered,…..
After a 38-year corporate career, I’m beginning again. On a plane with Lorie to Paris to see our first grandchild, remembering being happily surprised last summer when Ali told us on our weekly Zoom call that she was pregnant. We had known something was different, Sam sitting next to her. He rarely participated in these calls.
We’ve only seen pictures so far. Ali and Sam wanted us to wait six weeks before coming, minimizing contact with the outside world, giving…..
I used to wear a hat all the time. Never went anywhere without one. The NY Mets cap was my favorite, always age appropriate. It’s the real deal, royal blue cloth with a blue button on top, a stitched orange NY emblem sewn in. Making appearances on the stickball field, aka church parking lot, and softball games, real softball fields – competing with my college roommate’s Yankees hat for top billing on the bunk bed post.
I wore it to…..
October 9, 2007. The Dow Jones reaches 14,164, an all-time high.
October 9, 2008. Midtown Manhattan
I’m sitting outside a restaurant with my daughter, “relaxing” in the warmth of a sunny afternoon, sharing an appetizer, drinks in hand. I’m in the city to facilitate a presentation my colleague Bob will make about the stock market. Ali’s a college sophomore and wants to spend a semester abroad in Israel. Not now. Surprise and disappointment line her face. Sorry, but the financial…..
The taxi drops us off at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Lorie, Drew and I out on the town taking in some sights. Drew panics.
Oh shit, I don’t have my keys!
Oh shit! Let’s run I say. We’ll see if he’s still here.
Oh shit. So we take off, Drew and I running, Lorie staying in place in case she sees him. We circle the building and find the cabbie at the exit, approach him out of breath. …..
Fall 1984
Business school, recruiting season, on campus interviews
Winter 1985
In office interviews, business lunch, did anyone say anything about your beard? Job offer
August 19, 1985
My first day on the job. Computer Consultant. Corporate America. Show up at the NYC office after taking the train. An empty office. Guess I didn’t get the memo. There’s an office party in the suburbs.
Scramble for directions, arrive in a suit, everyone’s casual, the only one with a…..
I was new in town, first trip to the beer store. Deep in the heart of Trump country. Just looking for a 12 pack for the weekend, settling on Yuengling. Seeing Paul there, a friendly face, a case of craft beer on the counter.
And then behind us in line was this weathered old man, more space than teeth in his grin, carting two cases of Rheingold. A blast from the past, the beer of choice for my fellow Mets…..
