Loss

Certain tragic events this week have reminded me how precious the gift of family is...my thoughts, prayers and love go out to dear friends in their time of loss.

Golden Fool

I really want to get back to serious writing but practical matters remain for the shit I have already finished. Got to work on a c.v. for possible submissions...I also need to read more back issues of the Chicago Review. I'd kill to get a decent rejection letter from them.

Worked and was too damned busy to think but I guess it makes the day scream by. I didn't get screamed at too much so that's a good thing. Got exercise after work. Alex helped me run errands for Kim. We got new blinds for the kitchen since the folks moving in aren't nearly as close to 100 as our former neighbor. Dear, sweet Reno.

Who am I kidding, I barely talk to any of our neighbors. Can't stand the whole lot.

Does that make me a bad Christian? I think the teaching is "Love your neighbor as you love yourself."

Sounds about right to me.

Early then Late

Early golf @ Southpointe went well. Walked briskly and felt good. Par, Par, bogey, double-bogey and then I continued to golf but what happened...numerically...after that, I can't tell ya. All I can say is this.

Alex and I went to the OF but we failed in our mission to get Poppy's computer up and running. We did get it up and in my car for a trip to Snare Systems or some such thing. Hopefully I do not end up making a bad situation worse. We'll see.

Late golf @ Sycamore ($11 after 6pm for a decent public course). Read Xenophon's Anabasis as I marched up country...and down country...and really all over the fucking country looking for my damned golf ball.

Big City Nature Trail

Busy ass end of the week at hhe. These hearing aids won't break themselves I guess.

Golfed after work and more trouble there.

Family movie night started late on Friday. Rocky V....I know, I know. Alex is all about completing the series no matter what we have to suffer through to get there.

Saturday we took the train in and hoofed it to the Field Museum. We're members (thanks and much love to Al and Judi). We need to pay for certain exhibits but all the old, ruff-dried, ain't-never-been, crap-assed taxidermed jobs are free to us. Whoopie!

Who am I kidding? I loved the damned nature trail when I was a kid. Walked back along the lake and stopped for some live music in Millennium Park. Every time we go through the Pritzker Pavilion and see families, kids playing Frisbee and hear live music Kim always says, "See, nobody will ever really care how much over-budget this thing ran."

She's right. Great day. Mass at St. Peter's and then bought sandwiches to eat on the train back to Elburn. Scooted home and hugged Cookie...

...a lot.

Baseball, Descartes and Moments Immortal

Rene Descartes once said that perfect numbers, like perfect men are rare things. That old, dead French poindexter could probably appreciate what baseball fans saw today. The last time Mark Buehrle faced the minimum (27 batters) was 27 months ago. The only blemish on that day was a walk to some washed-up druggie who #56 picked off a few moments later. The umpire on that day, Eric Cooper, wore #56. Cooper umpired today's game vs. the Rays.

Maybe this isn't so magical after all, maybe Buehrle or the Chairman have something on this Cooper dude. Maybe he's related to Don Cooper? Who knows?...If Descartes knows he ain't saying nothin' since he's all dead and shit.

Today's line for the WhiteSOX... 5 runs, 6 hits, 0 errors.

During baseball's modern era (and, for baseball, the modern era begins in 19-fucking-hundred and double naught people) there have been 16 perfect games. There are baseball immortals who have thrown perfect games (Cy Young, Sandy Koufax, Catfish Hunter) and there have been guys like Mike Witt, a career .500 pitcher and Len Barker (a sub-five hundred pitcher who didn't even sniff a hundred wins). The one thing all the pitchers on the list have in common is, even if they were not Hall of Famers themselves, they wrote their names into "forever moments" of baseball history. And the lovers of baseball who witnessed these things in person, or like me...just listening on the radio will never forget them or the day that they achieved perfection in a sport dominated by failure.

Buehrle is certainly more accomplished than some of the 'who-the-fuck' guys on that list. I am not sure where or if he will ever rank with all-time baseball greats. He's young and he's already accomplished so much, although I could see him chuck it all in a few years to go hunting and fishing.

But that's what SOX fans love about #56. He is no 6'5" Adonis who can throw it through a brick wall. He looks like a guy who you'd see drinking a domestic beer in some random bar...possibly straight from a can.

I was teaching during Buehrle's last no-no (a Wed night class) but today my pal Shane and I followed the game on the radio while we worked. Shane is a pretty unflappable guy but after the last out was registered he put his soldering iron down, looked at me and said, "He fuckin' did it."

He certainly fucking did.

SOX and RAWK and GIN

Monday night - Great SOX game. Incredible vibe there. Seeing the park full on a Monday night is something I am not used to, to be sure. Combine 1/2 price Monday, with a crap-ass economy, the cubs on an east coast trip and a beauiful night in the best summer city in the world and you have all the ingrediants for a great night for baseball.

We parked way far away from CoMINSKY Field. Those who know, know that the further away you park, sketchier are the venders you see on the way to the game. Lot of low-rent cub bashing, including a t-shirt of the President giving Wrigley Field the finger. The vender barked out, "Obama says F the Cubs!"

The boy smacked his own forehead and shook his head, saying "D'oh!"

We saw an inside the park homer from Carl Crawford. When it banged off the wall and Crawford turned on the boosters the boy and I were acually saying "Go! Go!" I don't feel so bad because the day after the game, even Ozzie said it was an exciting play. Not too many inside-the-parkers are going to be hit in the South Side park. You have to play the ball pretty badly to do that.

SOX fans can't be too hard on Scottie. He was on base four times on Monday and really helped make the offense go, right from the first inning. It was like the first half of 05 all over again.

Got home uber late but still got up @ the regular time for work. Tuesday was sort of a drag at work...got some sad news. Met Dev in Elgin. I had enough voice left to finish two vocal overdubs. Devin threw down some great parts and just like the rest of this project...we were pretty much on the same page with a few welcome surprises.

Closed the Annex. Worked my ass off and stayed unnecessarily sober the past few days. The gin and tonics hit the spot, the spot being my head.

Sweet Mother McAuley Batman

10AM Mass. We sat with Mary H and it was wonderful to see her. She is such a rock star. All of the old Brooks 'n Littlejohn gang crowded around after the final song. Mary is a big reason why Kim & I go to Newman. She and K have provided so many wonderful opportunities for our family that I won't even try and list them here.

Sad news at church. It looks like Fr. H is moving on and we will miss him. But we accept these things. I thought Newman would never be the same when Fr. Steve left. I was f'in right, but it is wonderful for different reasons now. Readers of this blog may find several of Fr. H's sermons misappropriated by me across these e-pages. I really learned a lot from that man. He is loved by my family and will always be in our prayers.

Kim, Alex and I went to Woodman's and Trader Joe's after church. Family grocery shopping day! We rewarded ourselves with lunch @ Twins. Saw another one of Kim's former colleagues there and she was wearing a Mother McAuley shirt. She and Kim talked the Mount Greenwood until I felt my hair morph into a mullet.

Sweet.

Golfed with a guy in Sycamore who claimed that he used to work in player development for the LA Dodgers. I don't know if it's true but he was a helluva golfer, I mean he could flat out crush the fucking ball. I told him I was part of the player development personnel for the cubs.

I guess that's why they are developmentally delayed.

Oak-y Day

Full on journey into the weirdness yesterday. My P's, Kim and I went to Oak Lawn to the Italo-American showroom. Our purpose? To obtain new straps for both accordions in anticipation of my upcoming appearance @ Floats and Notes...live at Oak Crest Retirement Community. We also passed Bur Oak Cemetary on our way. Lot of unrelated things with the word "oak" in their names. I attatch no significace to this.

A splendid lunch was had by all.

From Field Museum to the Last Pinto League Game

July 6 - 17

Now even the catch-up posts are half-assed and piss poor. It’s been a busy summer. Trip to the Field Museum Tuesday the 7th and had a blast with the boy. He liked the Bellamy Pirate thing and the water exhibit but his favorite part was the old, rough-dried, ain’t never bin North American Nature Trail. He loved it and kept wanting to explore all the paths, examining the remains of our local wildlife preserved by some long dead, museum taxidermist.

Alex said, “Look Dad, gray fox!”

I recognized that fox from when I loved the nature trail as a kid and told the boy, “I think that fox has been here since the Nixon Administration.”

Alex asked, “Was he the president that was always tripping over things?”

I said, “That was Ford.”

Wed the 7th - thru Thursday Kim ad Alex stayed on the South Side and I did a ton of writing and golfing.

Friday the 10th was Lone Ranger and Scooby Doo Chill Out for family movie night.

Saturday the 11th, Kim and I couldn’t really celebrate our Golden Anniversary on the day because Alex had a make up game for the season opener (rained out after one inning on opening day, what a drag). The boy and I dug up a bunch of free mulch for Mrs. P at ur local, county mulch-dump (@ least that’s what I hope they call it)

Went to 4:30 Mass at Newman and we were so glad to see Fr Godwin back from Nigeria. His return was delayed because he was down with malaria. Kim, Alex and I all gave him big hugs.

Sunday the 12th, we had Brandon C. watch the boy while Kim and I drove to see the abandoned new homes, west of Malta (I laughed, Kim felt sorry for the two or three bastards who actually thought that that would be the new frontier of DeKalb County’s “western expansion”)

Sucks to be them, but hey - they would probably think that it sucks to be me with my small house, never taking a chance to do all the wonderful things unrestrained financing had to offer over the past few years.

Kim and I ended up going to Villa Verona and finding how to push a dinner bill out here past $70..

- extra glasses of wine. But in our defense, we needed them. Eleven years of marriage isn’t easy…but, in our case, definitely worth it.

Monday the 13th I worked with Larry @ LnL editing a beginning for Virginia. We are closing in on beginning mixdowns. Why was it never this easy before? Oh, no one involved with the project was ever this sober before.

One thing is clear, now more than ever - sobriety hasn’t made me a better writer…but a more efficient finisher.

NOT THAT YOU SICK BASTARDS!

….ok, maybe a little of that.

Tuesday the 14th was a fun rock practice…Wed the 15th I started teaching my guitar students the old timey standard Blue Skies. Yes, that’s how it is going to be.

Also, We the 15th was the boy’s last game in the Pinto League and it was a wonderful year. We all made some nice friends and learned a lot about baseball.

Busy end of the week at work. We are losing some good people. Drag.

Last night, Friday the 17th we took family movie night on the road to see the new Transformers. Let me just say, less than meets the eye.

But the boy liked it…

More later

Shuttlecocks at Dawn

...catch up post July 4 and 5

Got up early and did a bunch of banking. Shopped at Woodman's and Trader Joe's. When I returned to the cave with the groceries I hunted and gathered Kim was baking good good stuff for the O'Garvity gathering while Alex and Finn did artwork in the living room. Packed up the Old Pyle and a pile of meat for the party. I can drink Old Style if the rain doesn't come back and we can drink outside. With my ass, Old Style is definitely not an inside beer...especially when combined with any meat.

Joe & MKS beat me to the party. When I got there they said they texted Karl a coupla times and he was hemming and hawing about when he would be arriving. I sent him this message, "Found the dog relaxers"

He responded: "I'll be right there."

The rest of the day is hazy although I am sure that I was awesome at badminton. There was only one injury. Devin nailed me in the mouth with a shuttlecock.

Then we played some badminton.

OH!

As darkness encroached the field of honor, Karl and I attempted some glow-in-the dark badminton. Being too poor or drunk to acquire phosphorus paint, we doused one of the birdies in lighter fluid and torched it. We did not achieve the desired effect, although someone may have been burned.

Mary Kay's Mini Me took the Kay, the Schu, and my ass home. I convinced her to take a slight detour.

Can anyone say Zombie Ride to Malta?!?!?

Chris and I made our 7:40am tee time. We had to stop in Bill's hood because I ditched the bar car the night before. Nice time with my pal and I'm glad the Buena Vista is progressive enough to allow drummers on the course.

Went to the 4pm Spanish Mass@ St. Mary's because I missed all the masses in my native tongue...Esperanto.

Grilled and I think we got Kim's BBQ pork cuts just right.

Hell yeah!

Kane County and Me Wed to Fri

Wed had guitar students from 4:30 to 6:30, picked up O’Diggy and drove to Elgin. Chris was there ahead of us. My hope is tonight was the last night of basic tracks for Kish and I think it is. The riff was originally part of another thing called The Irrelevant in the Room. The record just needs a way to get from Imported Wine and Soul Food to Harvest Here. The riff is gonna work. Devin took the song home as separate tracks on a DVD to add some stuff and fuck with his guitar parts. Ultimately this thing will either be its own song or come up as a cross-fade from the end of Imported Wine and Soul Food and fade out before Harvest Here.

Managed to get in 18 on Thursday before taking the boy to the Cougars’ game. We saw a guy get plunked in the head (he was ok) and later we got to see the manager for the Cougars get the heave ho. I told Alex, “Watch the manager shake his head while yelling at the ump. If his cap comes off, Blue is gonna eject him.”

The cap went flying and Blue ejected the Cougars’ manager. Ah baseball…so simple, so wonderful.

Friday Family movie night was MIB. Pretty neat.